Hot-air balloon parade over the Ottawa River

Perhaps the most charming part of our recent Labour Day Weekend getaway to Ottawa, Ontario, was our inadvertent participation in the 2009 Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival.

No matter where we were in the city at what time, the balloons eventually came into view: Friday night they drifted overhead as we ate ...
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Bathtub basil planter

I snapped this shot in an alleyway just north of Trinity Bellwoods Park during Toronto’s 2007 Alley Jaunt event. I was visiting Michael and the rest of the Wireless Toronto Art Squad and their installation of network “music” and poetry. On the Sunday afternoon, the two of us ...
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Forsythia blossoms, Broadview Avenue

To my mind, forsythia is the quintessence of spring. One of these flowering shrubs grew in the backyard of my first childhood home, and my mom would bring a branch into the house the moment the screaming-yellow flowers popped open. Seeing that spray of blossoms in the kitchen or on the dining-room table was a signal: It ...
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Abandoned suitcase, Broadview Avenue

[This little scrap of memory surfaced recently. It is the first I have that’s linked to my idea that I’m awkward with children and lack parenting instincts.]

Left Behind

As I so often do, I remember exactly what I was wearing: periwinkle blue corduroy knickers and a chenille sweater with broad periwinkle, cream, and navy stripes. My tights were ...
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“Sweet tooth” graffito, Riverside District

Jess over at O Solo Mama would like you to know the seven weirdest things about me. Because I tend to be rather long winded (see? I’m admitting my problem. It’s the first step towards recovery), I’m only going to give you five. But to put a little twist on this meme affair, ...
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Christmas tree at Berczy Park, Front Street, between Yonge and Church

The winter solstice arrived in fine style this year, holding up the skirts of her ice-encrusted gown and dancing through the city in the wake of howling gales and whirling columns of snow.

Her entrance signals an imminent holiday, and so many things are still undone with just these few days ...
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Red maple leaf, Bolton Avenue south of Dundas

Where are you now, red maple leaf? Where did October’s winds take you?

The winds that whipped up the clouds, sending them careening across the skies like a band of junkies frantically searching a maze of back alleys for a score.

The winds that buffeted a flock of black starlings until they landed in a ...
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“Breathe Your Dreams Alive” graffito, alley near Trinity Bellwoods Park

But what if your lungs feel just plain empty?

Goose parade

The denizens of the Love Nest hatched just in time for Mother’s Day.

After a disconcerting Wednesday morning, in which we all arrived at the office to find Mother Goose off her nest and pacing the parking lot with Father Goose, both of them honking in agitation, our collective sigh of relief was surely audible when we ...
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Magnolia blossom on Allen Avenue, South Riverdale

The violent paroxysms of Adrianna’s own choking propelled her out of the bottomless night. She had been dreaming of being suffocated by handfuls of thick, velvety white petals from the magnolia tree growing beside the front stoop that had somehow found their way into her throat. Now, as she fell back wheezing onto the ...
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