As part of my recent visit to Ontario, my sister Lynn and I had our first opportunity to visit the London Plane Tree we had planted at the Royal Botanical Garden's Arboretum in Burlington in honor of our much loved Mom.

I'm pleased that I was able to go to see it and especially pleased that Lynn was there with me. She and I have gone through a lot together over the years and I'm glad to have been able to share this moment with her.

The tree is already quite large and, judging from the fully grown plane trees in the area, it will be massive by the time it's an adult. What is more impressive is the location: beautiful. It's near the forest that lines the water, between the Lilac Dell and the shrubbery walk. It has an open space to itself and a small bench nearby. When you stand looking at the tree, you can also catch glimpses of the water in the distance.

I'm happy to have a place that I can go (or at least think of) when I want to feel close to my Mom. I don't know how often I'll get back there but it's good to know that the tree will grow and people, birds and other wildlife will get the chance to enjoy it for years.

The only negative was the fact that we got a $35 parking ticket while we were visiting. We had passes for the Arboretum but the ticket office was closed so we just drove in. Oh well, we'll look at the fine as another contribution to the good work of the RBG.

On our way out, as we headed into the city across the high level bridge, one of the bald eagles that have taken up residence in the Arboretum soared over our car, giving us a lovely view as he passed. Again, I'm not the most spiritual person but it's hard not to notice the pattern: every time Lynn or I has an intense Mom moment an eagle or a heron (two of Mom's favourites) makes an appearance.

Tags: Janny Walma, Plane Tree, Royal Botanical Gardens, Arboretum, RBG, Burlington, Bald Eagle

Just back from a quick trip back to visit friends and family in Ontario. A really nice visit, not too frenetic, not too tiring.

While hanging out with my sister and brother-in-law, I actually found time to do some revision work on my Phillip Gold novel. It's coming along well. Most of what I did was cutting and pasting to reflect the new plot-order but it's progress. I really like the way it's turning out.

I also got the chance while in Toronto to see the original movie version (taken from Swedish TV) of Stieg Larsson's first thriller, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I was very impressed. The casting was perfect, with real-life (rather than Hollywood-perfect) people in the various roles, and I felt they got the two main characters spot on. The direction and editing were also excellent, with a lot of nice artistic touches that added to the excellently paced mystery.

What impressed me most, however, was how they dealt with the challenge of reducing a long, involved novel into a 150-minute film. Instead of dwelling on the sexual violence that permeates the book (and convinced me not to read the second novel in the series), they actually focused on Larsson's complex, rivetting mystery: the disappearance of Harriet Vanger. Great choice and it made for a fantastic film.

I actually believe that this is one of the few times that the movie is better than the book.

Meantime, I was continuing to read the fourth Rowling novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I am absolutely loving it. It was great to be among friends who really appreciate the Rowling novels too: I had several very enjoyable chats with Emily and Clare on Potter-related topics while in Hamilton, which always adds to my enjoyment of my visits.

So now I'm back in Freddie and back into real life. I hope to be able to find some time to focus on Phillip Gold over the next couple of days to keep the momentum going. And I'll have to think about looking up the second Swedish film adaptation of Larsson's book. Maybe I'll just watch the movie and not even read the book!

Tags: Harry Potter, Rowling, Goblet of Fire, Writing, Mystery, Phillip Gold, publishing, Stieg Larsson

Writing has taken a back seat to work in the garden and showing family around this amazing province.

On Saturday, a whole slew of us made the trip to see the Hopewell Rocks, located on the Bay of Fundy just south of Moncton. What an amazing place. With tides of up to 15 metres, you can actually walk on the ocean floor (at low tide, of course) and see what the eroding action of the waves can do to the land over the course of the centuries. We met up with my brother-in-law's aunt and cousin (who live in Moncton) while we were there so it was a really great visit. In the photos below, you can see the difference between the low tide and the water levels just an hour later as the water starts to move back in: in the first photo, people are walking around the rock; in the second, no people, just water.

On the way back to Fredericton, we stopped in at Alma, NB (Patti and I have been there before and there's a video of Marlee at Alma available on the "Video" page of this site) so that my brother-in-law could have a fresh seafood dinner before flying back to Ontario the following day. Alma is a lovely little town just outside Fundy National Park, with a thriving fishing and lobster industry to boot.

Since we had Marlee Marie with us, Patti and I got take out while the rest of the family went in for a sit down meal. They said their dinner was great and we had a really nice time too. Oren and Deborah, their three kids and some friends of their's stopped to talk as we ate our meal on park benches near the wharf. It turns out they are breeders of golden doodles and were interested in Marlee. I have yet to check out their website (www.risingstardoodles.com) but I'm anxious to see what they do. Their doodles are 3/4 poodle to take advantage of the many benefits of the breed so I'm interested to see the differences.

After eating, Patti and I wandered with Marlee down to the wharf and were amazed to find a small crowd staring down at a small beluga whale that had taken up residence in the harbour. We were pleased that the beluga stayed around long enough for the rest of the family to emerge and get a glimpse. And to think we paid $50 each to go on a whale watching expedition: who would have thought the whales would come to us!

On the home front, I've jumped headfirst into the tree-clearing operation. After our friend Rob and I battled the front-lawn cedars into submission, my nieces and nephew have joined me in the war against the trees in the back yard. With Alex climbing and cutting, Katie clipping away and Matthew showing off his muscle on the big trees, we're gotten most of the clearing done.

The most challenging were a pair of mostly dead hawthorn trees, buried behind a stand of other stuff. Their branches had intertwined with every other tree in the area and their sharp little thorns like to grip and scratch anything that comes near. I'm covered from head to toe with scratches and I'm not yet finished with them. I did, however, get about a third of the cedar branches cleaned and bagged, so that's a real plus.

Writing? Hmm. Well, Alex did do some more work on The Final Curtain. That's good.

Tags: New Brunswick, Hopewell, Fundy, Alma, Rising Star Doodles, Beluga

A brief entry this morning to announce that I've posted two new videos on the "Video" page of this website: Marlee playing at East Point, PEI and Marlee playing at Basin Head, PEI. They may not sound that exciting but they're both kind of fun. And they're short too.

On the writing front, my friend Ross asked me to send him my draft cover letter and the first 25 pages of the novel to review for me. I'm happy to oblige as Ross is a good guy, an excellent writer and a helpful editor/reviewer. What I didn't realise, however, is that I had lost track of which computer file was the latest version of The Silent Goodbye. This is a huge problem when a writer does numerous revisions, sometimes on several computers (as I do). So I ended up formatting and sending one version of the opening to Ross, then realising it was missing a couple of fairly significant revisions. So I had to search around to find the latest one; it turned out to be on another computer altogether.

Lesson learned: be very careful about how you save files. Keep all drafts on one computer but make sure to move older drafts into a separate folder called "Drafts", while keeping the latest version separate. I am trying to name the files according to the date they were last revised, which is good, unless you have files on two or three computers!

Oh well. I figured it out and sent the right file finally. It just took a while and involved more tension than necessary.

Tags: PEI, Prince Edward Island, East Point, Basin Head, Novels, Writing, Mystery, Phillip Gold

We have just returned from a fantastic four-day trip to Prince Edward Island (PEI). From our home in Fredericton, PEI is about a four-hour drive away, making it easily accessible via the amazing Confederation Bridge (about 14 km long over the Northumberland Straight. Amazing!).

We went to the northeast part of the Island, landing at a small B&B/Country Cabin place called Howarth House in the tiny village of Priest Pond. From there, we had easy drives to such wonderful places as East Point, Basin Head, Georgetown, Souris, St. Peter's and many more. We were told that the western and central parts of the Island were more popular with tourists but we're not that interested in high-traffic areas and the Eastern portion of PEI gave us exactly what we wanted.

On the first evening, our hosts Murray and Kerry escorted us, and another couple (along with their sweet girls), through private property to a beach on the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. We learned that the beaches on the north side of PEI are red from the sandstone and the beaches on the south side of the island, along the Northhumberland Straight, have white sand. We also learned about sea glass from Murray and Kerry during our evening stroll along this beach. Mother Nature joined the fun by providing us not just spectacular cloud and sun combinations but also a series of beautiful rainbows to the east.

Friday morning, Patti, Marlee and I drove up to East Point, the place where the Straight and the Gulf meet at the easternmost tip of the Island. The lighthouse there is being restored but nothing prepared us for the spectacular red beach we found by walking along the north coast from the tip, then descending to the water. We walked for several kilometres on that beach and never saw another soul. An amazing experience, to be sure.

Friday evening, we visited the beach at Basin Head (complete with the singing sand, that actually makes a squeaking sound when you walk on it) where I threw Marlee's favourite orange balls onto a sandbar about twenty feet from the shore, forcing her to splash through the water, then onto the sandbar to fetch the ball, then back again through the water. Great fun. The next morning, we went to Red Point, another nice place but that day marred by what looked to be the torso of a tuna (a massive fish; it just seems small when they put it in the tins) washed up on the beach. Both beaches are on the south shore and offer white sand but still no crowds. Incredible.

Towns like Cardigan, St. Peter's and Georgetown offered interesting places to walk and shop. We especially enjoyed chatting with the owner of the Eclectic Mariner in St. Peter, a transplanted Torontonian who welcomed Marlee into her shop with open arms and many treats.

The focus of our visit was a Village Feast in Souris, overseen by Chef Michael Smith of Food-Network fame. More than a thousand Islanders and several of us from away came together to enjoy a steak dinner in the great outdoors, listen to local musical acts and bid on prize packs, all in support of Farmers Helping Farmers, an organisation that helps provide food for poor people in Kenya.

So we're home and tired but happy to have gone. I've got about ten too many black-fly bites, to be honest, and didn't get as much reading done as I wanted to (finishing only Dick Francis' Canadian adventure, The Edge). I guess you can't have everything!

Tags: PEI, Souris, East Point, Basin Head, Dick Francis, Confederation Bridge, Michael Smith, Howarth House