Get out there!

Summer is almost over in my part of the country, so I’m taking the opportunity to play hooky whenever I can. There will always be time to mow the lawn or clean the house, but there are never enough fine days to get out and hike or kayak. As a Kansas-born girl,...

What the Heck is THAT?

One of the things I love best about nature is its capacity to surprise me. Even in the familiar greenbelt behind my house, I find new animals and plants and entities that I cannot even classify. One day while working as an editor at a high-tech firm, I decided to take...

Kayaking the Broken Group Islands

I just got back from a four-day kayak trip to the Broken Group, in Barkley Sound on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island. What a great place to kayak! Dozens of islands and hundreds of rocks, beautiful Pacific waters, sea lions, deer, porpoises and whales (okay,...

The Solace of Nature

These days, half my friends are unemployed and out of money; the rest are groaning about being overloaded at their dead-end jobs. I’m self-employed, have some money in the bank, and manage to land several hours of paid work each week, but not enough to make what any...

Who Am I Today?

In any given week, I play a lot of different roles. I am self-employed, and in this economy I have to work at two businesses to pay the bills. I am a contract writer and editor, working on projects that range from creative stage plays to online help systems for...