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Feeling proud to make another donation yesterday – until I heard a donor had just made his 210th! I’ve got to step up my game.

Prairies North a perfect present

How about a subscription to this great magazine? and a gorgeous calendar with images from throughout the province. Check out June (just sayin’) Check our website for details.

HOME again

The winter issue is here! Subscribers are getting their copies of the Winter issue in the mail. The digital version is up on our website now (www.saskatoon-home.ca). Or you can pick up a copy at one of our more than 100 rack locations starting next week. See a full list of pick up points on our website. Enjoy! For a great holiday gift, consider a subscription; check our website for details.

Pennsylvania podcast

I had a fun and far-reaching discussion yesterday with Kim Lengling in Pennsylvania for her podcast Let Fear Bounce. We talked about my novel Small Reckonings, re-released by Shadowpaw Press earlier this spring. She wanted to know about the in-progress sequel, and what goes into writing a novel with ties to the first book but has to stand on its own two feet for readers who are new to the story. She asked about how the original novel came to be; we talked writing and how we do it, how we get published, and the painful waiting game we endure to get there. She’s an author, too. We talked disability issues. We talked about elderly parents in long-term care. She’s a refreshing, open conversationalist; we laughed a lot, had a lot in common, and our time together went by in a flash. I’ll post the link when it’s live.

Talking writerly stuff

So much fun to finally meet Lori Hahnel from Calgary, a writer I’ve know for some time but we’d never met in person. Until she came to Saskatoon last week for a McNally Robinson author reading with another author, Astrid Blodgett, hosted by Kate O’Gorman. Lori’s new novel, Flicker, appears on the CBC’s list of books to read. Find her here. You’ll see more Saskatchewan writers in that list, too. Lori and I, along with Leona Theis, were shortlisted for the 2021 inaugural Glengarry Book Award. Following the McNally reading, Lori and I spent a couple of hours on Saturday at D’Lish in my neighbourhood and yakked like we’ve known each other for years. I find that about the writing community; we are all connected. In fact, Kate and I shared a podium for the John V. Hicks Award back in 2022. That’s us below, along with literary bigs dee Hobsbawn-Smith and Dave Margoshes.

Hallowed holiday

Our favourite night of the year. A few ghostly and ghoulish images from our house on Tuesday night. Earlier in the day, we spotted a customer who apparently had been waiting a loooong time for takeout at D’Lish, our neighbourhood cafe. About 200 + trick or treaters this year. Only two cried. And if an adorable 3-year-old cries at the sight of a dead bride, it’s never a good idea to lean down close and say, “You’re a pretty mermaid!” I know that now. Thanks to our neighbour Tanice, sporting a gorgeous Dia de los Muertos face (with toque?), for delivering “poison” for us to round out the evening after clean-up! Jim’s job was hauling pumpkins to our green bin the next morning

Load us up!

Happy to get our flu and covid boosters over at Merlis Belsher Place recently; no waiting and they’re still offering boosters until the end of the month. A nice bonus to go watch a little pick-up hockey after our vaccinations. Last week, I stopped in at our favourite pharmacy–Walker’s Pharmacy on Clarence–and offered up my arm for a shingles vaccine. Looking forward to a healthy winter season!

Editor for a decade

Seems to be a time for marking milestones. I’ve just finished editing the first page proofs for the winter issue of Saskatoon HOME magazine. Watch for that coming out near the end of November. I started as a contributing writer to the magazine in 2008, and in 2013 Amanda and Rob Soloudre appointed me as editor. Ten years ago. It is a fascinating job; I’ve met so many interesting people, learned so much about Saskatoon and what makes it such a great place to live. I so appreciate Amanda, Rob and my co-writers at HOME and at Prairies North. We had a staff gathering last summer at a home featured–”Victorian Revival: Lawrence House Legacy Lives On” by Julie Barnes–in the Winter 2022 issue. I started my writing career while still in high school when I gathered local stories for a weekly newspaper in northern Alberta. The tradition continues. If you have an idea you think would work well for either Saskatoon HOME or Prairies North, let us know. And a one-year HOME subscription is only $20 (a better deal for two years), a great idea for a holiday gift for family and friends.

Ed was a Street Cat

I recently wrote this thank you to Saskatoon Street Cats…

In 2008, we were on our way home from the University on a very cold February night. At leat -30. Rick worked at the College of Education and just between the College and the Diefenbaker Centre, we spotted a cat in the headlights. Picking up one paw after the other. We stopped and I hopped out. Maybe he was lost, got out of a warm house without the owner’s knowledge? The cat watched me approach, then ran off. He wasn’t skinny, but he sure was cold. No collar that I could see. One of the secretaries in the College, Audrey, volunteered with Street Cats so we called her. The cat was ‘known’ and had a route around campus where he’d go to get food. It had been two years since our other two cats had died (one was 18, the last almost 24). We felt we could give this cat a home if we could catch him. It took two weeks, but Street Cats managed it. In their records, his name was Uziah (they work their way through the alphabet to name each rescue). We named him Ed (for Education) with a middle name of Diefenbaker. Street Cats thought he was about 2 or so. It was the start of a very long relationship.

Ed or “Spaghetti” as in “It’s Big Eddie” (get it?) was soon a major fixture in our family. We found him a companion a month later. Another Street Cat named Gracie, a little manx just six months old that had been thrown (with her siblings) out of a car into a ditch on the highway. She’s an adorable little manx. In the picture below, she looks like she’s trying to tell us he’s not doing so well.

Ed and Gracie had a great life together. Ed, about 18, 19 or maybe close to 20 we’re guessing, finally stopped eating much a few weeks ago. But he still kept his personality, wanted pets by head butting, and loved to sit next to Rick on the arm of the couch. Even as he got weaker, he still liked to go outside in the back yard and drink out of his favourite blue bird bath. The day before he died, we carried him out to lay in the sun by the bird bath. We suspect he liked to look at his reflection and pretend he was Batman.

We buried him with his little Beanie Baby called “Baby.” He used to carry it around with a particular yowl. Usually in the middle of the night, thanks, Ed. He had a different yowl when he wanted us to get up in the morning, usually at 6. Thanks, Ed. Rick lit a beeswax candle and it was still burning the next morning.

Just wanted you to know Ed had a good life. We’re not sure what would have happened to him if Street Cats didn’t intervene way back in 2008.

Pretty places

Each of our distinct seasons in Saskatchewan has something beautiful about it, but I think autumn is my favourite. Or Spring. Summer is good. Winter, usually. Well, okay, I’m going with Fall. Maybe it’s the urgency felt to get out and breathe the fresh air when still a light jacket will do–and while there are still things to smell before the cold dulls that sense. We tried to get in a lot of hikes this fall, lucky for us all within a short drive from our house. Cranberry Flats where chickadees alight on your fingers or hat to snap up some sunflower seeds, Chief Whitecap Park where sandhill cranes stalk about the sandbar and fill the air with their odd alien squeaks and clicks, Peturrson’s Ravine with its pristine, quiet beauty. Even our own backyard is picture perfect. And always the living skies. Maybe there are some calendar-worthy photos in the bunch. I write this as the temp drops to -2 tonight and snow, lots of it, is on the way. Pretty, too, and it’s a dry cold.