This is the fifth year that I’ve been reading Margaret Atwood in November, in the month of her birthday (November 18) and in every other one of those years I’ve borrowed books from the library that I did not manage to read. This year, I selected only two books
Already it has turned too chilly to sit outdoors and read, unless the sun is shining, which it was not when I wanted to sit with Payback and Dancing Girls this week. But it’s still warm enough to be comfortable in a sweater to do the raking and burlapping (isn’t
As you might guess, many kilometres north now, I’ve found that the weather grows cold more quickly. It was a shock to change the bedding, to the December-Freeze set, at the end of September. To pull the scarves and toques from the closet (but not, quite, mittens and gloves).
This year's Massey Lecture text begins with passion and grandiose declarations. "I have had a lifelong obsession with blood, and I'm not the only one. As both substance and symbol, blood reveals us, divides us, and unites us. We care about blood, because it spills literally and figuratively into every
The final window opens with talk of ice wine, the paradox that "the hardest weather makes the nicest wine". And then I learn a botanical term, vernalization, which refers to "seeds that can only thrive in spring if they have been through the severity of winter". But how
