When I was at school, the first writing assignment after the long summer holiday was usually about what I learned on vacation. While I never enjoyed that exercise—the dullness of distilling those magical eight weeks on a sole sheet of lined paper to a prescribed...
English Rose had a school holiday earlier this month so we spent a long weekend in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, forty-five minutes by car from where we live. Although we visit Ottawa every few months, it’s usually for medical appointments, brunch with family,...
When I think about summer (and especially during a long, cold Canadian winter), one of the first things to come to mind is the road trip. Growing up, summer road trips were a highlight of my year. With my parents and the family dog too, I crisscrossed Canada and...
Some people like driving, and getting behind the wheel of a car and heading for the open road is one of their happy places. I’m not one of those people! As a sedentary writer, one of the things I like best about my small-town life is that I live within walking...
When February slips into March and, irrespective of whether the new month comes in like a lion (as it has for my friends in the UK), or a lamb (here in the Rideau Valley), it’s the time of year when my thoughts always turn to my life in England. Although there...
