As moving preparations continue, we find items in the house that that appear to be multiplying. Pennies: we don't even have pennies in Canada. It seems when they made the announcement to discontinue the copper coins, an army of them hid in every corner of our house, hoping to escape inevitable meltdown. Sorry guys, to…

C and I decided on the spur of the moment to advance our retirement plans and hightail it out of the rainforest. Where to? Not far. As Canadians we want to stay north of the 49th to keep our medical benefits and be close to our children. But I'm not looking at real estate anywhere until…

I was fortunate to take a course with world famous artist Jean Haines,whose loose, ethereal style melts subjects into nothingness. My style is so realistic or illustrative and I was looking forward to pushing the boundaries beyond my comfort zone. I did this painting of my first Scottie, MacTavish and sent a off picture to my…

In a time of need long ago, I found a wonderful book explaining death to children. It's called Lifetimes. It calmly explains that every living being has an expected life expectancy and that death is the natural end. I remember changing the age of the human lifetime to beyond the 72 years it mentions, so…

How often can you say that? Although only scheduled to be gone overnight, the pink garage has been dismantled. I can see the grass on the lawn for the first time since we left last August. Want to see what was inside? It's the Coupe de Thrill unpacked, their Burning Man art car off to…

Not in this house, especially one filled with creative types. And B's creativity levels far exceed one person's worth. Look closely, what's hiding in my yard? No, not another school bus, but a portable garage. In hot pink. He couldn't get the white, grey or cool camo variety, it's shocking pink.  Now why might he…

I have a soft spot for long, close to the ground dogs, having had close relationships in my life with a Basset Hound and my two Scotties, MacTavish and Gracee.  Blogless Marsha, our friend, Phyllis, and I recently had the pleasure of attending the Palm Springs Kennel Club Dog Show.  As for the giant canine…

…well maybe not all the rain, which wouldn't be a good thing. Taking a break from the Christmas sunshine in California stories, to report on our break from the rain in beautiful British Columbia. When we moved to Canada, 32 years ago, people asked us why we would choose to relocate to such a cold Canadian climate?…

I was thinking, why are we referring to our time away as a vacation? As in C's complaint observation that he spent his entire vacation down south replacing flooring. Vacation from what? We're retired. Every day is either Saturday or a vacation.  More lessons: Pavlova goes well with Rioja Who says you can't have pavlova…

Apologies for the absence, we were in California with the entire family and friends. While there we talked about a co-worker of my daughter's, who at the end of each day reflects on what was learned on that particular day. You can tell she worked in academia. A nice concept, though. And although I can't…