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“By the power of Grayskull”
I failed grade 1. Now there’s a confession for you. Grade 1 French immersion to be exact, but nobody but me really cares about that distinction. When this comes up with my kids, who are smugly satisfied when reminded of my failure, partly because it justifies any past, current or future failure on their part,…
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Slideshow
We have a small screen in our house where pictures of our past selves slide by as reminders of the life behind us, and just how much we change and age and, in my case, grey. Most days I don’t really see and appreciate those pictures: climbing red sandstone rocks, eating Cows ice cream, holding…
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Wrong Turns and Radio
Yesterday I took a wrong turn, disobeying my GPS on a whim. I hoped it would take me in the general direction of home, but this was rural PEI, pavement leading into red dirt roads without so much as a sign, only the imprints of treads telling us somebody had been there before, somebody would…
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Setting Day
We arrive early, gathered along wharfs, idling cars with windows frosted around the edges, marching up the boardwalk, waiting along rocks and beaches and pretty much any place we find a vantage point to watch and photograph and film the boats. We refuse to bundle for the chill, holding onto hope that the warming sun…
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Vacation
The other day I drove past my daughter and son’s old childcare centre. It’s an unremarkable building, white with a black roof, built to its asymmetrical best through multiple additions spanning decades and whims of past owners. At twelve months old we left our kids there eight hours a day, in the care of almost…
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We will be Stronger
“When I get older I will be stronger They’ll call me freedom just like a wavin’ flag…” That’s my latest earworm, taken from K’naan’s 2010 anthem “Waving Flag.” If you’ve forgotten it, or never heard it, give it a listen. It’s a brilliant beating heart of a song, with a sobering dose of poverty and…
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Cake and Other Things
My first and only book, Dirty Bird, was published ten years ago. To write that feels savagely wrong, how could so much time have passed between its publication and now? It compels me to try to justify my last ten years. Or what I accomplished, given I write each day. I wake early, brew coffee,…
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Reading Town PEI, April 30 – May 8
So it’s Reading Town PEI week. Check out all the great events going on at Reading Town PEI. If you can’t make it to any of the events, or you live elsewhere, I challenge you over the next week to carve off some time to read. Whether you’re an every day reader or not, find…
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Masters Sunday
Masters Sunday is iconic at my house. It’s the sleepy music that reminds me of lazy Sunday drives through the back roads. The limited commercials. The docile coverage that echoes to a simpler time in our world. The pine straw. The azaleas. Every hole is named, yet I know them by their slopes and whether…
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Cox & Palmer Island Literary Awards
Why should you enter the Cox & Palmer Literary Awards? Firstly, and most importantly, your bucket list needs it! You don’t want to go to the grave regretting that book you never wrote. This is your first step to writing that book. So write a poem, story, children’s book or craft a piece of…