(Updated Nov 1st, 2021) I grew up in the countryside, where eating locally was as simple as going out to the garden to pick a tomato. I learned about edible wilds walking through the fields at Grandpa’s farm. Could this really have been 50 years ago? Nearly 40 years ago I was visiting my grandpa […]

One day several years ago, I was admiring the fresh fruit at our local farmers' market.  There were these odd looking cherries that caught my eye.  They weren’t the large dark sweet cherries I’d grown used to; they were small, and sort of translucent pale red.  And they weren’t firm, they were squishy. The farmer […]

Already the sun is rising late. After 7:30 where I live, and it is going fast. Thankfully the dawn arrives well before the sun pokes through the trees on the horizon. At least an hour before the sun rises, there is a paling of the eastern sky. A thin band of the faintest light gives […]

Mushrooms, mushrooms everywhere, but none are fit to eat. Or are they? A lot of us have a curious fascination with wild mushrooms. They seem to be fruiting everywhere this summer. The early August rainstorms finally saturated the ground, after the long, hot and dry months of June and July. Last summer was uncommonly dry […]

I first travelled through the Wolf Lake area more than 30 years ago. We travelled by canoe, paddling and portaging through clear lakes and cool forests. We travelled upstream along the Chiniguchi River, carrying our canoe and gear along a steep and narrow portage that has been in use for the past 6,000 years. The […]

Spring flowers are in full bloom, much to my surprise. It seemed that the forest floor was brown as ever, until I noticed the violets blooming beneath my feet. Pretty little clusters of purple flowers emerged from last year’s fallen leaves. The best part of spring has arrived! Wild violets come in shades of white, […]

After the shortest winter ever, I find myself looking out at a landscape without snow. I’m torn between the sadness of losing the ice from the lake too soon, the fear that there will be a freak snowstorm in May, the hope for a gentle transition into summer, and the desire for fresh greens from […]

Why is it so hard to find six-pointed snowflakes these days?  Are six-pointed snowflakes difficult to generate on a computer? I am nearly illiterate on computers, but I suspect that creating six rather than eight points should not pose a big problem. So why do so many decorative snowflakes have eight points? I can only […]

Here we are, barely a week into spring, snow still lies heavily in the forest, why in the world would I be writing about blackflies? It is because of bananas. Blackflies love bananas. Blackflies especially like to sip the blood of people who eat bananas. And it takes six weeks for all residue of bananas […]

Like it or not, winter has set in for the duration. I hope you do like it, since it will be here for at least another two months!  There are two great things to do in winter when you live in the forest.  One is to cozy up by the fire to read, and the […]

Want to know what is really great about the cold weather of winter? Ice Cream! For you softies who live in the city all year long, ice cream may not be what you think of when it is minus 25 outside. But here in the bush, life is tough. We can only have ice cream […]

This is a wonderful time of year to be in the bush. The last of the colours are dangling in the treetops. The morning frost seems to stay in the air all day long, giving it a clean, fresh feel. The only thing I'm a little sad about is the migration of the loons. Over […]

Wild mushrooms are late in coming this year, but they are making up for lost time by coming out in abundance. Could be the hot, dry summer we had that slowed them down. Now the cool, damp September just past has set everything right again. October promises to be a time of bountiful harvest. This […]

September arrives in a shower...and the showers continue through the month.  This year, it will still take a lot of showers to make up for the hot, dry summer. Meanwhile, the mushrooms rejoice, the maples begin to dress in red and yellow for the last dance of the year. I picked up my mushroom basket, […]

Early June, quiet morning. A gentle rain taps on the maple leaves outside my window Rain! How we need it! We’ve had a few days of rain in the past two weeks, but not nearly enough to wet the forest floor. Let it rain some more! Forest fires are springing up everywhere. A couple of […]

Black flies love bananas. Black flies especially like to sip the blood of people who eat bananas. Why should black flies love bananas? Clearly, this fruit is foreign to the northern Ontario landscape. Well ask yourself, why do you like bananas? Despite the fact that you have never in your life seen a wild banana […]