It’s corn season here in southern Alberta, where the long hours of sunshine ripen golden cobs to sweet perfection. As some of you know, I’ve been collecting soup recipes for a while on behalf of the...

I’ve been a very errant blogger of late because my head has been in the clouds of novel drafting. I’m just at the stage now of cleaning up my manuscript so I can see what I really have, and then I’ll...

A friend of mine in Saskatchewan—a neighbour I know from ranching days—is a farm wife who grows lentils. I asked her for her favourite recipe, then tweaked it a bit, and might use it as one of the...

I just got off the phone with my dear friend Christelle, whom I met twenty years ago in a small town in the Savoie department of the Rhône-Alpes and who now lives in the South of France with her...

I’ve found a great pedicurist who makes my feet look cute. So for a break from my everyday schedule of writing that plays havoc with my neck and shoulders, I thought I’d book a different treatment at...

I found a lovely looking recipe on Pinterest and modified it to my taste. I think I’m going to include it in my novel, having my main character brew it up. Check it out! First, I diced and browned in...

I think I’ve had it wrong. The word comfortable has always sparked mental pictures for me of down bedding or a steaming bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup. But a recent reading...

I’m a bit under the weather today. Not sick, exactly—just slight chills and dizziness and, mostly, a feeling of lethargy. If I worked for someone else, I couldn’t quite justify taking the day off. As...

I once made the mistake, when speaking to a French friend, of calling chocolate “junk food.” You’d have forgiven me at the time, I’m sure, as I was referring to the thick tablets of chocolate pasted...

I’m in the mode. My desktop (okay, kitchen table) is stacked high with computer, binder of plot notes, reference books, sheafs of paper, pens, cups of cold coffee.  I’ll likely wear my housecoat...

The elegance of this richly embroidered silk slipper, looking like a cute doll’s shoe at three-and-a-half inches in length, belies its hideous history. More than a century old, it was worn by a...

My fourth-grade teacher made a single, round mark on the board as he stood in front of the classroom. “A dot is the end point, like the hole in a garden hose,” he explained. “If you tip the dot...