On the very first leg of our journey to Italy, as we settled ourselves into on the plane, three women took their seats in the row in front of us. They were all very attractive and stylish, and approximately ten to twelve years my senior. One of them turned around and informed us that they […]
Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Trick or Treat Edition
October 17, 2024 by 58 Comments
I never really understood Anne Shirley’s feelings on October until I moved here. It is so beautiful right now, I can barely stand it. The colours are gorgeous, and every day is a little bit different. I’m becoming slightly unhinged, talking about leaves to my family every day. I mean, I am stopping perfect strangers […]
Bear-ly An Update
September 30, 2024 by 58 Comments
After the neighbourhood started locking up their garbage in the spring, we hadn’t seen any signs of our resident bears until about a month ago. All of the ripening fruit around here was beckoning the bears with their fruity siren songs. Three weeks ago, my mother-in-law was sending me text after text, updating me on […]
Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Cheap Trick Edition
September 19, 2024 by 52 Comments
It’s sunset season! I know what you’re going to say: sunsets occur on the daily. This is true – sunrise, sunset – but since I retire so early I don’t generally see sunsets from May to August. Sunrises, I see those every day. But sunsets? No. I really do believe that The Best Things In […]
Nature, Nurture, Nerd
September 9, 2024 by 45 Comments
I am very accustomed to drawing a lot of attention on my daily walk, because I am accompanied by a living embodiment of a gigantic cartoon dog whose facial expression is exactly this for the duration: Every day people pass me and actually laugh at him, in a good-natured, look at that silly dog kind […]
Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Zucapocalypse Edition
August 29, 2024 by 58 Comments
August was a bit of a wild ride for me: I took an epic road trip to a family reunion, my husband and older son were gone for three weeks, the garden went completely rogue, my pretend sister came for a visit, I spent lots of one-on-one time with my younger son, and, just recently, […]
Waisting Away
August 26, 2024 by 60 Comments
Over a year ago, I noticed something that I had literally never noticed before, and that was that every single woman over a certain age that I knew, or even encountered in a casual way, sported a thickened waist and a soft tummy. I first noticed it in one of my classes, and that was […]
