Category Archives: Uncategorized

As beautiful as a Group of Seven painting or a modern stained glass window. Does Nature inspire artists or do artists inspire Nature?

Each February for the past 14 years, for one weekend only, Cumberland Street in Toronto’s Yorkville Neighbourhood comes alive with awe-inspiring ice sculptures attracting thousands of people who jostle, politely but firmly, to have a moment to capture a selfie … Continue reading →

“Everything that is good, eventually comes to an end.” These are my mother’s words of lament over the recent closure of the Dundas Portuguese Bakery in one of the several Little Portugals scattered throughout Toronto. The area “já está irreconhecível,” she adds, to … Continue reading →

After the snowstorm ended, I bundled up in my warmest parka and Sorel snow boots, and went for the long walk from home to Rosetta McClain Gardens. The side streets had not been cleared yet, and I stepped deeply into … Continue reading →

Snow has fallen steadily in Toronto since yesterday, up to 22 centimeters or more overnight, and this morning, it’s chaos for drivers and commuters alike, so I see on TV news. Luckily, I can stay home and watch the winter … Continue reading →

I heard music and when I followed the chords I saw a minstrel serenading Lake Ontario from Harding Parkette, in Birch Cliff, Toronto. I did not want to intrude on this private communion between nature and the guitar player, but … Continue reading →

This January’s weather in Toronto has been mostly full of either dry, dull, grey, or rainy days, with rare cameo appearances by the sun, reminding me of the Azores and England at this time of the year. There have only … Continue reading →

Here it is again. Christmas time. A time of joy, a time of sorrow. It all depends on what Christmas means to you. Do you even celebrate it? Do you wish it never came? Or do you look forward to … Continue reading →

My 1970’s platform shoes   When I was seventeen, I fell in love for the first time.  Four decades later, the memory of that experience remains with me as an all-pervasive deep loss and persistent dull pain that keeps me … Continue reading →

The short film, Mar (2017), by the young Portuguese-Canadian filmmaker, William Vitória, is a brilliant and complex meditation on the meaning of love and the dark, monstrous primitive emotions we are all capable of acting upon. Mar opens with a … Continue reading →