Gifted Typist

Visit my Herald column here.
My ambitions for an idyllic English country garden were halted somewhat the day I beheaded the begonias.
It happened during the transplanting, plop, plop, plob and off they fell.
The grass around the flower bed was strew with the colourful petals of the fallen begonias.
RIP Begonias.
RIP idyllic English Country garden

Put away your flattening irons, people.
Say bye bye to shining, shimmering, sleek.
Think big, back combing and bee hive.
Think 80s hair bands, mousse, and heavy-hold spray.
Think Dolly Parton.
Think whatever you want. Big hair is back.
Angelina Jolie, Liz Hurley, Amy Winehouse. They’re all wearing it.
Even the hairdresser of this typist tells me that big hair is beginning [...]

What about the idea that those four women are actually depictions of four gay males?
I’ve been told by a gay friend that this show has a huge following in his “community” because it presents an accurate portrayal of the lives and psyches of gay males.
It’s well known that the writer of the series, Darren [...]

Go here to view this set in Flickr.
Early one sunny August morning, I turned off the highway to take a picture of a beautiful still lake. The lake was pretty, but it was in the field next to the lake that I stumbled upon gold.
There were hundreds of spiders’ webs*, their gossamer fibers sparkling with [...]

Go here for live column.
Women used to wax floors. Now they wax themselves.
I was thinking about this the other day as I was having my brows done.
“Waxing is a rip roarin’ good time,” I said to the esthetician. “You do the rippin’. I do the roaring.”
So she ripped. And I roared.
And that’s just brows. Think [...]

.
A cloudy day burst into flame at the very end as the sun dropped below of line of cloud, casting orange, red and pink hues across the underside of the cloud. These shots were taken in Warwickshire in the Cotswolds, a range of hills in Central England. This is where I spent Christmas.
The colours [...]

One of my favourite seasonal activities in sending and receiving Christmas cards.
I love finding an envelope in the mailbox that is not:
a. a bill
b. a pitch from a charity I’ve never heard of
c. a tax-funded newsletter from a politician who wants to let me know all the things she/he is doing in Ottawa.
I love seeing [...]

I met Pat in September when I started a weekly art class.
I was the newbie and Pat extended herself to me on the first day, offering a friendly smile and welcoming questions about how long I’d been painting and how I managed to find my way into the popular class.
By the second week, we’d established [...]

There is a provocative dance taking place outside my window. The tree that refused to turn colour or shed its leaves has decided that today is the day.
It started last night as leaves began to let go and float gently to the ground. When I woke up this morning, the tree was half naked and [...]

There is a maple tree outside my window. It is green and full of leaves.
On November 7th.
Those green leaves survived a storm the other night. There were gusts of up to 140 kph and many leaves on other trees were taken down by the storm. But not this one.
This green tree has also survived cold [...]

You were an inspiration for girl entrepreneurs everywhere.
You showed us that abstract things like ideas, vision, hard work, blind determination, risk and little luck could be turned into something very concrete and great.
And you showed us that the naysayers can be shut down if you just ignore them long enough.
Now your Body Shop is in [...]

I may have a dishwasher at the dacha, but for the past week I’ve had no mirror.
And this is sort of interesting. With no mirror, you don’t see what your hair looks like. You don’t notice the slow tan (that gets through the 30-block sun screen) building on your face. And make-up? Whassa?
It’s not that vanity has gone [...]

As someone close to me always says: “Food is life.”
.

I get Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and even Paris Hilton. I don’t particularly admire these celebrities or their antics but I get it.
They are 21st-century post-modern celebs feeding off media attention. Like plants in the jungle, they opportunistically exploit their environments to enhance their survival. It could be argued that LiLo and BriSpo possess [...]

Here are some images taken during a trip to majestic Prince Edward Island.
It is the land of Anne of Green Gables, but there is so much more to this island. The coastal scenery and the seafood beat the heck out of Anne, although I was loyal follower of the trouble-making red-head.
These shots were taken on [...]