While big round bales are picturesque and practical, they fill a hay barn to the roof and leave little room for adventurous farm children to play. The old square bales could be made into forts and once a few passage ways were cleared we kids could set up the rope swing and entertain ourselves for … Continue reading The Hay Barn Rope Swing
I’ve been thinking of being last. Not planning on it, just ending up in that position. There’s a trail run coming up in Whistler and I had considered entering until I really thought about the speedy, tough field of runners who would likely enter. I told my friends that I was not ready to come … Continue reading Last
One of our favourite camping spots used to be on the shores of Downton Lake up at Goldbridge. “Our” spot is overgrown now but for many years we would mark the start of summer by setting up a tent on its milky green shores. There is always plenty of driftwood there to keep me entertained and … Continue reading Downton Lake
When I was teaching, I used to post reminders to myself around my desk. Some of these were very practical, such as acronyms I made up to remember my data entry password or computer login and others were more philosophical - meant to be used as springboards for lesson plans or guiding principles for educational … Continue reading Signs
This was the year it all came together just right. I knew what the marathon distance felt like, I’d run the course before and I had committed solidly to training. My running buddies and I had covered the distance and then some. I was forty and had three marathons under my belt. It seemed like … Continue reading The Year I Won at the Portland Marathon
The rocks loom over me and beckon. In the wintertime, it seems like a steep but quick scramble to get high enough to explore boulder outcrops that are somehow different from the surrounding slabs. They remind me of the hoodoos around Lillooet and Pavilion so I decide to climb up the base of Mount Pauline … Continue reading Adventures, misadventures and possible fairy sightings
On May 24th weekend, I picked the first huckleberries of the season while descending the stairs to town. I was supposed to be doing hill repeats but those glossy purple berries were too juicy to resist. Now, here it is the end of July and my hands are still stained from the berries I stopped … Continue reading Berry Picking
Sometimes my run along the Forest Service Road towards the Hurley is uneventful - traffic passes, dust blows up and my thoughts and the dog keep me entertained. This morning was different. Driving to my starting point, I met a doe and a fawn. They were nuzzling the pavement in the same salty spot that … Continue reading Adventure running
We were out searching for Barred Owl, our eyes trained on perches where we’d seen them before, ears straining for any squawking sounds. About fifteen metres up an old cottonwood tree, I spied a perfectly owl-sized hole and we stopped to check it out with our binoculars. The hole was spectacularly vacant and remained that … Continue reading The Owl Hole
Halfway down the valley, in the dark, something slithered onto the floor, irrevocably, undoubtedly, lost somewhere in the vehicle. Logically, I know things are not really lost, just misplaced, but if you don’t retrieve them immediately, they slip out of your consciousness and might as well have vanished. It is hard enough to recall the … Continue reading The Noise in the Car
The Wellness Almanac 