Journal de Jules Renard February 28, 1895 “I think that if I had to choose a profession all over again, I would not be a writer. I would be a peasant. A peasant doesn’t need to please anyone but the land. The land does not flatter in return. Writers grow hunchbacked over paper, hungrily awaiting… Continue reading This mediocre adventure
Tag: Canada
Seeing red
Part Three of Peace of Mind / Part Two of The Road to Rorschach Sunday 6 April 2025 Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Schweiz Above: St. Leonhard’s Chapel, Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Schweiz I returned yesterday evening from a five-day mini-vacation in Bologna, Italy. Memory, at least mine, is much like a pot of tea. It needs time… Continue reading Seeing red
Canada Slim and the Author’s Apartment 1: Learning
Landschlacht, Switzerland, Thursday 13 June 2019 In everyone’s life there are marker moments that separate who you were from who you are, as significant to the individual as BC and AD are to the Western calendar. I have had my share of such moments in my own life. Some are as obvious as scar tissue… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Author’s Apartment 1: Learning
Canada Slim and Our Lady of St. Petersburg
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 23 September 2017 It has been a hard year for my heart in my dual roles of teacher and barista. In the former role, I have been disappointed that my preferred profession of choice, teaching, has sadly not been as busy lately as I might have hoped. In the latter, I have been saddened by the… Continue reading Canada Slim and Our Lady of St. Petersburg
How to Train a Dragon: Canadians in China
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 23 March 2017 The further away a country is, the harder it is to know and understand that country. China is such a country. So it is with caution that I express my opinion of the events that have so far transpired with China and its relations with the rest of the world.… Continue reading How to Train a Dragon: Canadians in China
The fashionable dead
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 3 January 2017 The scene outside my window seems worlds apart and away for the world I am about to describe…for the streets here in this wee Swiss hamlet by the Lake of Constance are covered in snow both magical and mysterious. You could spend days explaining to me the science behind snowfall… Continue reading The fashionable dead
Take me back to Constantinople
Romanshorn, Switzerland, 2 January 2017 Slow start to the day and to the week finds us, the wife and I, having a late breakfast, then walking along the shores of the Lake of Constance. Here at least it has been a green Christmas season. In fact, yesterday´s Sonntag Zeitung remarks that Switzerland had never seen a… Continue reading Take me back to Constantinople
Canada Slim and Last Year´s Man
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 19 December 2016 Now, Belgians love a good celebration, but a big night in the Belgian boozers often leads to mornings of regret and grim reflection. Being the chaste daughter of an English curate, nights in a bar were probably not part of Charlotte Bronte´s story, but her unrequited love for a married… Continue reading Canada Slim and Last Year´s Man
Oil and Blood in the Heartland 2: Home and Native Land
Brantford, Ontario, Canada, Summer 1992 I embarrassed myself. West of Hamilton and surrounded for the most part by farmland, Brantford is known for several things: It lays claim to the invention of the telephone, the birthplace of “The Great One” hockey player Wayne Gretzky, entertainer Phil Hartman, Group of Seven painter Lawren Harris, and a… Continue reading Oil and Blood in the Heartland 2: Home and Native Land
Canadian home sickness and the Excited States of America
As a Canadian resident in Switzerland there are many things I miss about life in Canada: I miss old friends and family. I miss the magnificent splendour of my home and native land. And I miss small things too: Food like Habitant pea soup, poutine, tourtiere, Canadian breakfast, perogies, microwave dinners, beavertails… Comedians like Lorne… Continue reading Canadian home sickness and the Excited States of America