Spring flowers are in full bloom, much to my surprise. It seemed that the forest floor was brown as ever, until I noticed the violets blooming beneath my feet. Pretty...

After the shortest winter ever, I find myself looking out to a landscape without snow. I’m torn between the sadness of losing the ice from the lake too soon, the...

March 20 — the first day of spring. Or is it? Spring seems to have come weeks ago, and there is no better place than the lake to see how...

 This is the warmest winter ever. I’ve become so used to temperatures hovering around the freezing point that it seems really cold on those few days when the temperature is...

January is a most wonderful month. Because of the light! Gone are the dark days of November and December. It is colder, yes. Minus 31-degrees C at my house Saturday...

The wind died in the middle of the afternoon. Within a few hours, the lake disappeared under a maze of ice crystals. We were on our way home in the...

Why is it so hard to find six-pointed snowflakes these days? Are six-pointed snowflakes difficult to generate on a computer? I am nearly illiterate on computers, but I suspect that...

Another rainy November morning. Inspiration to get out and about is hard to come by. It seems better to just stay inside, curled up by the fire. Far too many...

Here we are – deeply entrenched in the heart of autumn. The winds have blown from all directions in the past few weeks. What used to be a golden canopy...

Is there still wildlife in the bush around Sudbury? Of course there is. You won’t see any of the woodland caribou that roamed this area just more than 100 years...

My garlic grew taller than me this summer. Long, slender “flower” stalks rose to the sky, bearing clusters of tiny garlic clones at their tips. A couple of little purple...

I was out swimming with mask and snorkel, just cruising along looking at the bottom of the lake. I took a look up, and just 15 metres away I saw...

After 27 years of our guests telling me I should write a cookbook, I finally did, just in time to send out copies for Christmas last year. Preparing wonderful food...

Early June, quiet morning. The lake quiet, perfect reflections glisten in the clear morning air. The sun rises to the east in a pure blue sky. It lights the shore...

Some of you who read this column have asked time and again for me to write about gardening. I only wish I could write a gardening column. Even though I...

The ice wasn’t off the lake for more than a day or two before we packed our bags and were out for our first canoe trip of the year. We...

Who would think that just a week ago there was five inches of snow on the ground? It’s not the first time we’ve skied on April 20. A few days...

The old kitchen cookstove is a wonderful thing. And though I have written about it before, I think it deserves to be recognized one more time. This old cabin was...

The snow has come, the snow has gone, the snow has come again and life is good in the bush. The ski trails are in great shape, and my hope...

We set out to explore the neighbourhood one beautiful day last week. Sunny and warm, (that is, -6 C). What more could we ask for? We started out along the...