Late Winter Dragon Hunt

| March 5, 2017

“Map-makers mark the unknown with a giant serpent and the words, “Here Be Dragons”. The unknown becomes the known in this exhibition – because the Dragons are now here… “Here Be Dragons explores the myth of dragons through culture, literature, folklore, religion, paleontology, history, science, and live animals. “Their allure is mythic, but they are […]

Dig This

| February 20, 2017

The week just passed saw my part of Nova Scotia receive heavy snowfalls with high winds up to 110 km/h on Monday and overnight well into Tuesday, and another heavy snowfall with 80 km/h gusts on Thursday. We were ploughed out from the first one just before 06:00 Wednesday morning, just in time for the […]

A Long Winter’s Night – Day 8: Winter as Weapon

| December 28, 2016

If you’ve heard of the Napoleonic Wars and World War II, you’ll have heard how anyone who invades Russia and doesn’t wrap up business before the snow falls is asking to have their ass handed to them. The Russians, we’re told, are the masters of Winter, but today we’re going to look at an engagement […]

A Long Winter’s Night 2016 – Day 7: Ice Capades

| December 27, 2016

“There’s an old joke about a Boy Scout who, one bright Saturday morning, puts on his uniform and declares to his Mother that he’s off to do good deeds all day long. When he returns a few hours later, with a black eye and looking like he just escaped from a dude ranch by being […]

A Long Winter’s Night 2016 – Day 5: A Toast to the Day

| December 25, 2016

As you might expect, the LFM Household is somewhat engaged today, but not so much as to stop me from reminding you of this snippet of wisdom from the lips of Major Sidney Freedman, sporadically appearing psychiatrist to the 4077th MASH. According to my late Mother, this was a popular toast for any time of […]

A Long Winter’s Night 2016 – Day 2: Commitment

| December 22, 2016

“As long as you have a safety net you act without commitment. You’ll go back to your old habits once you meet a little resistance. You need the samurai’s desperateness and his insanity. Burn the bridge. Nuke the foundation. Back yourself up against a wall. Have an opinion one way or the other, get off […]

A Long Winter’s Night 2016 – Day 1: Cacophony and the Road Back

| December 21, 2016

“Perception suffers a profound jolt when we are placed in states of quietude in darkness. Our hearing takes the lead then, and the signals from all the living and existing entities around us can be detected–not with our hearing only, but with a combination of the auditory and visual senses, in that order. In darkness […]

Wisdom from the Saga of Kejimkujik

| November 27, 2016

“A Warrior needs a Woman who is powerful, brave, smart, fierce, sensual, creative, and has excellent teeth with which to chew the hide for his moccasins. Most importantly, one who does not do this out of menial obligation but because, knowing she is the finest thing in his world, determines to ensure that everything else […]

Dark Sentiments Season 7 – Day 24: Good Night Sweet Prince

| October 24, 2016

“Of no surprise to my readers will be the disclosure that my brand of humour veers sharply toward the dark side. My dance card of funeral attendance over the years includes both my parents, four uncles and one aunt, an assortment of friends and the parents of others, and that’s just the humans. If memory […]

Dark Sentiments Season 7 – Day 22: All Deaths Matter

| October 22, 2016

The rangy, solitary Eastern Coyote of my youth was not the animal that bears the name today. Hunted, trapped, poisoned, and otherwise hounded out of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the 1970’s, there came an interval of Human forgetting while the Nature of the Coyote and Man’s conceit forged something new. For in time […]