AI and Ghosts

January 27, 2023.Reading time 1 minute.

“What’s with the spooky images?” I’ve been experimenting with AI generated images. You tell the computer what you want it to create and it spits out a number of alternatives. Ric is looking over my shoulder. I shrug, not really knowing how to reply. At my age, with my mother contemplating death, many ghosts of […]

Dark and Light

July 3, 2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

“Her water broke!” The moment we’d all been waiting for, in fact; we’d had a betting pool going: who could guess the date and time of birth. No one had picked the first of July. By 4:00 they were headed to the hospital. By 6:00 my daughter-in-law had an epidural. At 11:30 I messaged for […]

A Home of Their Own

June 22, 2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

Five weeks ago, a family of five arrived on our doorstep, distraught and teary-eyed after having fled the war in Ukraine. The dad started working the next day, and the rest of us sorted out beds, groceries and necessary paperwork. Within a week, the kids started school and Mom applied for jobs. It didn’t take […]

Photo Play

April 1, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Introduced my granddaughter to one of the photo apps I’ve been using and gave her my phone. Within minutes she created the featured image, speeding through the app as if she’d been doing it forever. Not be outdone, I borrowed the photos she’d taken of herself and created this: Not quite an April Fool’s joke, […]

Where is Home?

February 28, 2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

I ask my three-year-old self to show me her home, and she points to the floor beneath the formica-topped table in the kitchen. There, caged within the chrome legs of table and chairs, she is out of the path of adult legs, whose movements are as unpredictable as their moods. I ask my four-year-old self […]

Learning What Matters

February 21, 2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

Parents brought children to the occupation in Ottawa. They set up camp on a main thoroughfare, in front of apartment buildings and retail shops, and obstructed the lives of others. They honked their big rig horns, left their diesel engines running day and night, and set up barbeques, and food tents, and bouncy castles, and […]

Things I Learned From Christmas

December 29, 2021.Reading time 1 minute.

Attire does not an occasion make (referring to the 5-year-old in pjs). Age doesn’t matter when in the presence of loved ones. Engagement is everything. Stories and memories never grow old. Love prefers to congregate in small spaces. Dogs share their affection equally. (Thanks to my husband for capturing these moments.)

Are you pregnant, or is that a mouse in your pocket?*

December 25, 2021.Reading time 2 minutes.

A heavy fog greeted us this Christmas morning, but nothing can dampen the mood. Ten negative COVID tests brought a group of us together to celebrate Christmas Eve. Not the whole family, but all the grandchildren, which made this Grandma’s heart sing. My son and his wife were delayed by work, so we let the […]

Wordless Wednesday

June 2, 2021.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Mom at 16 and 94

May 5, 2021.Reading time less than 1 minute.

For Nancy Merrill’s A Photo A Week Challenge: mothers.

Orange

I am orangefiery asa sunsetbright asan Autumnleaf –brilliant in the waninghours. (Art my own)

Tragedy (tanka)

Melancoly drags –one young lovelorn foot stuck inregret’s muddy path –ignores what is near, mistakeswhat if for what is. Tragic. (Tuesdays, I borrow from Twitter. Image my own)

Cheer For Spring

Cheer growth –beneath a heavy cloud coverCanada goose passesoverhead, while Iwander Wander –behind a veil of rainy greylens poised to capture life –swallows swoop andrise up Rise up –over rushing waters, branch high,blackbirds huddle, demand my attention –focus Focus –reveals newness: buds breaking through,colours promising thatchilly winds disperse,cheer growth Cheer growth –behind a veil of […]