The National War Memorial

Barricaded and fenced. Accessibility denied. The National War Memorial in downtown Ottawa has been cordoned off from the public since April for ‘major restoration’. The work will be completed in time for the Remembrance Day ceremony on November 11th. I was...

Throwing rocks at Sarah

Our novel, Finding Home follows: 1) Sarah, an English orphan as she makes her way to Canada in 1870 to find her family, and 2) Richard, the privileged son of a sawmill owner who is trying to find his place in the world and regain his father’s respect. When the...

Who’d a thunk it?

I retired from my career as an educator in 2003. At the time I kept all my literacy resources, thinking that I would like to volunteer to help people improve their reading skills. That didn’t happen. But guess what? More than a dozen years later, I’m still...

Coincidence?

There was no room in the first session I attended at Drum Camp last Thursday afternoon, so I sat on a bench on the deck and played along, watching the leader through the open window. Two other women joined me. “Hi, I’m Laurie.” I held up my name tag....

My newest literacy endeavour

Guess who’s learning Arabic? Since our Syrian refugee family arrived in Canada at the end of February, it’s been frustrating to have to communicate through an interpreter, so a few weeks ago, three of us hired an Arabic speaker to teach us. Although...