Last year, at Christmas, I wrote a column about how our excessive consumption is destroying the planet. This year, I decided to soften my stance, and “lean in” to the whole festive thing (in as planet-loving way as is possible.) Kids and nutcrackers have proven a good assist. A friend recently accused me of having long harboured some…
The morning after the election and all the mornings since, this is one thing I long for most of all.
My town was flooding, the rain had finally relented, and we were all core-shaken and gut-checked by the US election results. The boy and I went outside to patrol our creek, and snuggled on my back, his body went suspiciously slack. I bent over like a Sherpa, piggybacking him home to nap. Awesome, I thought, I can write….
Dirt. Fresh Air. A truckload of love: Working out what it takes to grow a great kid
There were a lot of years at the Canada Day parade that Shannon Paul marched up front, holding the sign, as the rest of the Growing Great Children tribe walked behind her, wrangling their kids. She was the only one without any, so her hands were free – for the organizing. And supporting. And upholding….
Make dinner. Again. Do it with love. Still. Regret nothing.
I’ve been trying to cook more. You know, evolve beyond frozen pizza and cereal for dinner. A kid pushes you to better yourself, right? I hear it’s called “adulting.” And I’m digging it right now. It’s wet outside, grey – the kidlet and I are baking up a storm, making a huge mess of the…
A Winter State of Mind
It’s not that we don’t love winter. Or look forward to it. It’s just that I’d rather skip the foreplay of fall. Gear porn never really did it for me. I’ll take a little less of the saturating, spirit-slaying, sogginess of the shoulder season and cut to the frosty chase. So, when October arrived, we…
The first rule of Bike Club is tell everyone
“Being a perfectionist in retail, school or business is an asset, but man, try to apply it to parenting? It’s hard.” Bree Thorlakson has the take-no-prisoners energy of someone invincible and a little bit ball-busting. “I’ve always known what I wanted,” she admits. Being taken down by an infant was not part of her game…
The best piece of fireside advice I heard this year
My brother-in-law has an album’s worth of songs, ready to record, although he’s not quite sure how to take that next step. He’s written them all himself – complex, poetic pieces that awe me, make me think that songwriting is really the ultimate craft, fusing lyric and song together. He’s spent years working on them…
Mapping the Mysterious
“The Lillooet River is such a mystery,” says Veronica Woodruff. “It’s so murky. Even where it’s only ten centimeters deep in shallow spots in the middle, you can’t actually see the bottom.” An environmental technician and founding director of Stewardship Pemberton, Woodruff paddleboards the river all summer and lives right beside it. “It doesn’t have…
Loving Local Honey: How Sweet-hearted Foodies Can Save the Planet, One Jar At a Time
“Your average consumer is curious about colony collapse, or honey’s health benefits. But serious foodies are the only ones asking about fake honey.” ~ Bruce Boynton, CEO of the US National Honey Board. You just have to learn a little bit about honey to realize it’s a true culinary marvel, but it takes a foodie,…
Saving the Planet with Bee Love
Delores Los brings out a little mason jar of light golden honey. She dips in the stir stick, swirls it around and offers me a taste. Time stops. Seriously, stops. I’ve eaten flowers before. There’s no mouthful of petals that tastes like this. Bees, what wickedly wonderful alchemy do you do? “What is it?” I…
Lisa Richardson Bylines 