Tangential Thoughts at The Winter Solstice

Today is the winter solstice in our part of the world. I'd almost forgotten until we were cleaning up after a very late lunch / very early dinner. I looked up and noticed how pink the sky was. (According to my third grade teacher, I think I was supposed to say, how pink was the …

THANKFULNESS

I recently saw a joke on Facebook that went along these lines, that cute toddler offering you a biscuit is not an adorable child. It's stomach flu. Despite the absence of biscuit-bearing toddlers - cute, adorable, or any other flavour - I managed to get a gastric virus recently. I was one very sick puppy, …

Of Chimney Sweeps and Other Urchins

Derrick Knight's recent post on child labour and chimney sweeps prompted me to re-read my copy of Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies. I must have been around eleven when I last read this book. We didn't have television, and I didn't have a sibling near my age, so I was a voracious reader. Books were precious to me. …