The Portmanteau
This very short story (seven and a half minutes in its current form) was inspired by some historical research I began in 2020, after reading a memoir written by my grandfather’s grandmother (my great-great grandmother) - Mary Louisa Bolton Cummins.
Colour Memory
The grey season is upon us...
I think of the mouse-poet named Frederick in the children's book by the author and illustrator, Leo Lionni. While the other field mice are busy getting ready for winter, Frederick doesn't particularly want to help. Instead, he spends his time drinking in the bright colours of summer. When winter comes, Frederick conjures those brilliant days with this gift of language, nourishing his fellow mice just as much as the nuts and seeds they have put by.
An economy of relationships
Relationships grow out of shared experience. These relationships form a kind of economy, one that supports us and nourishes us and that is worth valuing as much as we value the cash economy of free-market capitalism.
Years ago when I lived in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, I was inspired to get involved in my community. Near my home, a river-front property known as the Quan Chow Lands was slated for development on what was essentially flood-plain. I and others joined up to see if there was another alternative to building seniors’ housing on this fertile patch of land, at one time the site of a successful vegetable farm. Though there was a lot of energy to save the land, the developers won the day and the project, Canterbury Place, went ahead. Ironically, the land flooded even as the foundations of the new houses were being laid.
