It seems you don’t have to travel far to find winter again.

Why do families have to be so complicated?

Books read or listened to in March 2026. A trashy thriller, true crime with a focus on the contemporary journalism and Irish Murdoch and Shirley Hazzard from @backlisted.bsky.social episodes.

Tuesday night movie. I was not really expecting the fever dream intensity as the movie drew to a close. I think I need to watch it again.

It seems I have won an “award”… provided that I make a payment to get included in the list of winners. It is apparently “a great way of commemorating [my] award success at a competitive price”.

Sunday reading and Sunday listening. The book is preparation for the next posh bingo episode of @backlisted.bsky.social and the music is from @iammilliam.bsky.social’s latest Inventory (for lack of a better way to describe an album that doesn’t exist).

An actual sign of spring.

Good evening.

Greetings from Saskatoon.

Sigh. About to land in Saskatoon instead of Calgary thanks to a blizzard. Air travel is so much fun.

Trying to understand why when my flight’s departure is delayed by one hour, its arrival is delayed by 90 minutes.✈️

Sunday reading and Sunday listening.

Saturday afternoon opera, Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars as performed by Toronto’s Opera in Concert. As a board member I could not be happier seeing a wonderful performance that has more than sold out.

Good morning. A very different morning for Auditory than there was for Inventory, but at least listening to @iammilliam.bsky.social will improve things.

Good morning. A desert sunrise and a new Inventory from @iammilliam.bsky.social are a great start to the day.

Good morning.

Sunday reading and Sunday listening. Continuing with @backlisted.bsky.social and music from @andrewmale.bsky.social that has become one of my go-tos for music to listen to while reading on a plane.

Um, who was on the bus that just got a two police car, lights on, sirens on, fast escort through downtown Toronto?

Winter does just not want to end. Inserting whatever greeting is appropriate for late on a snowy Friday afternoon in March.

Unexpected Tuesday night movie. I enjoyed it, particularly Ethan Hawke’s performance. It felt more like a play than a movie. The digital shortening was a bit disconcerting.

Sunday afternoon bird watching walk.

Sunday reading x 2 and Sunday listening. I am making progress on the Iris Murdoch, but I seem to need something else on the go to balance it, so I have added an older @backlisted.bsky.social title. The ebook does not properly show the cover.

Saturday night movie. I have now seen all ten best picture nominees. A bit to my surprise, this has proven to be my favourite. I am still sorting out the rest of the ranking.

A new, to me, application of the concept of terroir. Maple syrup bottled and sold like single malt.

It looks like our weather insanity continues. Back to deep sub-zero temperatures tonight, but 31 degrees warmer (Celsius) by next weekend.

Sunday reading x 2 and Sunday listening. The books are extremes. This may be a wider gap between a @backlisted.bsky.social read and another book than my Brad Thor/Anita Brookner combo of a few years ago. The music is from @iammilliam.bsky.social’s most recent Inventory/Auditory.

Books read or listened to February 2026. Good historical fiction, a memoir of an unusual childhood, a cozy/comic mystery and a Booker Prize winner I am still trying to understand. The mystery from @ferguscraig.bsky.social was a fun break from the rest.

In a (loud) restaurant for breakfast. The next table are doing a full volume speaker phone video call.

Having finished Something to Answer For ahead of the @backlisted.bsky.social Patreon Booker Prize book club next month and not yet ready for the back half of The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, my reading has gone in a radically different direction.

Sunday reading x 2, Sunday listening and current audiobook. Why read just one difficult @backlisted.bsky.social book when you could be reading two. I am not sure the PH Newby is providing a break from the Iris Murdoch.

Santa has had enough. He wants the snow to stop and the ground to melt so that he can finally go back inside.

operacanada.ca/voicebox-ope... It is great to see the hard work of the cast and the rest of the team at Opera in Concert recognized like this. We are doing Kurt Weil’s Lost in the Stars on March 21, if you happen to be in Toronto, it shouldn’t be missed.

In comes the fog.

Sunday reading and Sunday listening. The music is from an @iammilliam.bsky.social post. I will admit, I am struggling with the book. I will need to listen to the @backlisted.bsky.social episode again.

Saturday night movie viewing. Eight best picture nominees watched, two to go.

Spent a wonderful afternoon at Opera in Concert’s production of Bellini’s La Sonnambula. The concert presentation helps get past the absurdity (even by opera standards) of the plot. Tenor Jeremy Scinocca is singer to watch for.

There is a new car in the parking lot.

What a remarkable run. The effort this has taken has to be commended. The quality has actually improved over time, which is remarkable over ten years and that many books. I look forward to whatever follows on Patreon (and having heard the next episode on Patreon - what a way to end this era!)

Sunday reading and Sunday listening. The music is from an @andrewmale.bsky.social post. The book covers the secondary cover as the app blocks the actual cover as inappropriate.

At the theatre on a very cold night for Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke, but there is a Hot Chocolate Bar.

Friday night movie. This makes 7 of the 10 best picture nominees watched. Three more to go.

Good afternoon.

A belated good morning.

Overheard early morning by the pool between two employees while waiting for a conference to start somewhere that should be warm, but is instead hovering just above freezing. Employee #1 to Employee #2 “ Where did you get those gloves? Employee #2. “They aren’t gloves, they’re socks”.

Good morning.

Lake Erie from the air today.

Sunday reading and Sunday listening. It looks a lot like last week.

As depressing as this story is, I have now determined that you can apparently buy novelizations of some of the more popular ones. The death of film and literature all in one.

Books read and listened to January 2026. Long Island was a delight. The Halt During The Chase is another book that I would never have read but for my introduction to Rosemary Tonks by @backlisted.bsky.social. The unsaid links between the past and present in Traitor King are fascinating.

Odd, natural snow formations with some light and shadow.