Hello, friends. A couple of days ago, I saw a car driving very slowly around the car park of Portsmouth Olympic Harbour in Kingston. This isn't unusual. The harbour is always busy with runners, walkers, picnickers, coffee-drinkers, dog-walkers, cyclists, and all manner of casual idlers. The thing that caught my eye was the small dog trotting along beside the car. Yes, the dog's owner was "walking" … [Read more...]
A coffee and “two thin”
Hello, friends. At the grocery store recently, I was overwhelmed by the idea of how much energy goes into producing and packaging the food I eat. I bought a bunch of cilantro that was grown in California, with all the ground preparation, seeding, watering, weeding, and pest-deterring that farming entails. It was picked (hopefully by legal labour, not migrant children), washed, roots lopped off … [Read more...]
The Berners Street Hoax
Hello, friends. Many of you know that I love Judith Flanders's work. She writes marvellously detailed social histories and her special area interest is the Victorian period. I highly recommend both The Victorian House and Consuming Passions for anyone interested in Victorian daily life, and The Invention of Murder is irresistible for those, like me, who love mysteries and detective fiction. … [Read more...]
Winter, redux
First, there was birdsong. The light changed. There was even a big thaw. Today, we have... big fat snow flurries? Sigh. Ontario winters get me every time. The only reasonable thing to do at this point is make another massive curry (I can't recommend this one highly enough) and crack open a fat book. Nick started David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet last night, and I embarked … [Read more...]