The News

I think it's safe to say we've enjoyed more warm summer evenings this year than we have in a long time. I've noticed many people eating outside, walking late into the evening, even just sitting out. The weather is pleasant but so is the ...

I was out in my backyard a few evenings ago, thinking about those cold snowy nights when we dreamed of sitting out under the July moon. Minutes later, I was back inside, cursing the mosquitoes.  Few things will drive me indoors on a warm ...

A statue of Saint Swithin. - Kvitrud/ from Wikimedia Commons St. Swithin was a Saxon bishop of Winchester. He was born in the kingdom of Wessex and was famous for being very charitable and building churches. July 15 is an important day ...

If you’ve spotted lunar halo in the night sky, you can have some forecasting fun.  If you look closely, you might see a few stars inside the ring. Grandma believed that the number of stars inside the circle was the same as the number of ...

We’ve all heard the expression “a bird’s eye view.” Imagine how cool it would be to fly high toward an incoming storm. You’d be able to see cloud layers lowering as the system approached and you’d get an early ...

What am I? I turn while you turn; the rotations on my axis keep exact time with my revolutions around your globe; I accompany you as you circle the sun, always facing you, never turning my back on you. Some believe I can cast spells and bring good ...

When people ask me what it was like to grow up on a farm. I quickly answer, “It was an education.” It really was. Every time I turned around, there was a lesson to be learned. On the land we learned about soil erosion, crop rotation, ...

Cows and crops paid the bills on the farm, but over the years we dabbled with other interests. For a little while we raised a few pigs. For many years we had laying hens and, of course, a few colourful roosters. My favourite was the Rhode Island red. ...

Depending on how old you are, it might be ROY G. BIV or “right on your great big veranda.” Those are two fun ways that kids around the world are taught to remember the order of colours in the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, ...

Grandma was more of a dog person, but she appreciated the fact that cats were invaluable on the farm: they kept the mice population at bay and they were good little weather forecasters. The connection between cats and the weather goes back ...