I chose to stay in the Days Inn by Wyndham Levis because it's almost "Wyndham Lewis" and they said they were pet-friendly but ended up charging me $50 for my dog to stay overnight and that is decidedly pet-hostile. #DaysInn

when choosing a rural place to live, it is worth calculating how close you are to the nearest Napa auto parts store

spent time with men in garages & wondering why novels of the 19c have no scenes set in carriage repair shops, hours of men talking about wheel size, imported spindles and what axles don't break and if a breed of horse eats less oats per mile and has anyone seen if Gary's wagon is behind his house?

It's so cold out the chainsaw stopped working so I put it by the warm woodstove to thaw, because I have to keep cutting firewood to feed the woodstove so that my chainsaw will thaw...

It's my woodstove's birthday and so I split some very dry birch into much smaller chunks so that it could greedily eat their yellow bones without having to gnaw away first at the entire rind. Happy birthday, Jotul!

I've got enough going on with wildfires, leaks, windstorms, keeping an uninsulated house warm, potable water, the last thing I need is a goddamn northern flicker drilling a hole in my eaves, that's why I'm shouting outside up at the corner of my house in the freezing rain

When kids are around me outside and I need to wipe my nose I will press one nostril closed and blow out the other. I first saw an old man do this when I was a kid, I still know his name, and I can't think of anything else he did, but I too wish to be remembered by the young.

have sent my son several cute animal videos and he's had to explain to me how they're all AI-generated, so now I'm reduced to forwarding him only Buster Keaton clips

Don't mind feeling stuck in a cold, windy, rainy house, but when the mousetraps begin to disappear...

currently repairing storm door that was ripped in half and thrown onto ground during latest windstorm -- caught myself thinking my storm door needs a protective door

is high-beam the new low-beam? #blindedbythelights

how the yellow leaf can blow in front of a tree, obliterating from view the trunk of that tree

That time of the year when I can't pee in the garden anymore because the deciduous trees are losing their leaves.

someone had lost their way, and I knew where they wanted to go, but I'm terrible at giving directions

can say now, having just thinned my turnips, that there is no discernible difference between "turnip greens" and "rapeseed" and will stop correcting people when they say they are eating turnip greens when in fact they are eating rapeseed -- my apologies for being tiresome.

I cut my fingernail badly in a kitchen mishap, and it's fascinating to see the nail grow back -- I have no idea what's happening down there in the nail bed, some autonomous force is in charge

current feeling

it's hard to believe those pallets of garden soil and stacks of windshield wiper fluid that are piled up outside the exit to the grocery store aren't freebies you throw in your cart on your way to the car

On my way to donate blood I noticed they are knocking down the Banting Institute, built in 1930. I once took a cutting from a vine that grew at a window, a window I imagined Frederick Banting once peered through.

"If you envy my life, work harder!"

we didn't host King Charles, but we did have two teenaged British rugby billets, and they left us with this loot, God save the sultana:

when someone dies earlier than expected it's a shock, but there comes a time when you have to admit that it'd be surprising if they were still alive at this age -- you release them from the tragedy of early death, but you still miss the years you could have had with them if they had remained alive

Last chance to see work by Andrew Scott, Michael Winter, Andrew Rucklidge, and Stirling Scott (this amazing deer) -- BIG PAWS NEVER SEEN group show at the West End Phoenix space, 3 Bartlett Ave, Toronto. Drop by today, Saturday, 3 May, 2-4 pm! We'll all be there.

counted nine guys around me with moustaches, started feeling old

I'm part of a group show of visual art this Thursday, May 1st (that's tomorrow) at the West End Phoenix HQ, 3 Bartlett Avenue, Toronto. There'll be lots of recent watercolours and collages and some paintings too, come say hello! 6-9 pm.

I do enjoy spending an afternoon in a Margaux Williamson interior #MoCA

kid lost his bike lock so now he's using mine, and my bike is so decrepit I can't rationalize buying a new lock (so expensive), so I've taken to tying the bike up with a length of rope -- so far it's been good practise for my knots.

remembering that time I tried on a second-hand coat in the Value Village and found, in a side pocket, an almost-full mickey of whisky, and realizing this was intentionally stashed there, someone was coming back for it.

kid begged me to buy him a loaf of white sliced bread, so I did -- first loaf like that I've had in many a year, but I just toasted up two slices and spread mayonnaise and cut up a tomato and sprinkled pepper & salt and wow that is a nice sandwich.

Every time I read a book of the collected letters between two writers, the book always ends the same way -- one of the writers dies and the letters stop.

I gave blood today and the nurse who pricked my finger said, "You're well-hydrated," and no one has ever said that to me before.

sometimes, to understand the mysterious inner life of my son, I go into his bedroom while he's at school and note what new things he's placed on a shelf or put on his desk.

as someone who spent every Victoria Day weekend of his east-coast 20s waking up hungover in a tent and unzipping the fly to a foot of overnight snow, I'm not surprised by a small flick in early April #Toronto

confronted with good-cop bad-cop but they are in the same person.

when you live in the city and hear the honk of migrating geese, it's like an advertisement for the rural: "hey, don't forget lakes and woods and moose and beaver dams, they're all out there..."

am germinating seedlings on my window sill and noticed the cords on the window blind have been touching the potting soil all winter and just this morning the pale leaves of a dicotyledon opened up and out sprouted a tiny set of louvres

a person, possible Susie, saw me reading this sign and beckoned me down a narrow laneway between 2 houses but I didn't know what chayotes were and now I feel like I may have missed out on some culinary wonder

If I lose something, I’ve stopped trying to find it. When I have searched and found a lost thing, I usually lose it again very quickly. Some things, I've come to realize, just want to be lost.

this is a David Milne painting of Toronto during a visit in 1947 called "Scaffolding". Could have been painted yesterday.

there's a lot going on on Geary

Was riding my bike down Queen Street when I saw this important booklet in the slush -- was outside a hotel, so I went in and sure enough the front desk said she's a guest. Maybe this American was trying to jettison her citizenship, to fall into the wide-open arms of Canada?

I took shovel to the snow covering herb garden and discovered thyme and sage still alive and green.

was putting something in the oven last night and didn't know if I should choose "bake" or "roast" on the dial -- it was sort of an in-between meal, and then I wondered what on earth goes on in there, what happens during the bake cycle that differs from the roast?

my son is about to head to Wales to play rugby over March break and, on the long list of items to bring, his coaches have recommended a "small umbrella". I've told him I want a photo of his team all using their small umbrellas in the Welsh rain.

I need a dummy ATM keypad installed on my desk so when I phone my bank and am asked what my PIN is, I can type it out and tell them

get a laugh out of seeing my teenager's fancy shaving razor gleaming on its immaculate dais while I re-use a cheap disposable found thrown below the sink amongst the toilet rolls

so many live rural webcams are pointed at a stretch of highway, when I'd really like to see a community, a brook running through town, the path of a lynx

as I lay on my pillow last night I felt this sifting in the back of my head of what sounded like tiny ceramic pellets pouring into the base of my spine; I thought ok this is an aneurism and prepared for death, but the sifting ended and now I'm guessing it's a similar condition to bending my knees

still not used to Paul McCartney not shaving

noticed a lot of Toronto resistance caved over the "$1.99 strawberries, product of USA" but not I -- I stand resolved and strawberryless!