Saturday
September 20, 2003

Open Letter

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Here are a few of my favorite online haunts:

REALTOR.ca
[This is the site I visit to fantasize about living in Toronto again, which is almost every single day during the winter]

Jonathan Cainer's Zodiac Forecasts
[This is where I visit in the morning, when I need a positive spin on things past, present and future.]

Living Local
[This is where I go to see what Canadians are up to, sometimes I even buy things from the businesses listed there.]

Environment Canada Weather
[This is the site I visit every morning, and before every road trip during the winter]

Hurricane Isabel came and went. All we got here was steady, heavy rain and moderate, steady winds. We needed the rain, and because it traveled to us all the way from the Atlantic, it will help to replenish our local water table.

Attila is quite busy these days, working all hours. At least the days are still long enough that there is a hint of light when he leaves in the morning and the remains of the daylight at dusk, when he arrives home. Soon it will be dark at both ends of his workday.

A recent trip to the weekly farmer’s market yielded an armful of field fresh basil, and one dozen head of garlic. This is a real farmer’s market, where the farmers sell their own produce. I prefer this to the faux "farmer’s markets" that dot urban areas, where the produce is purchased at the food terminal and resold to the public. At a real farmer’s market there are bushels and baskets full to brimming with produce picked within the last twenty-four hours. We know our money is making its way directly to those who toil on the land. We have had great success purchasing basil in large quantities at this market.

The basil we purchased was already sitting in a large plastic bag, roots and all. We added water to the bag as soon as we arrived home, and the basil remained field fresh until the next day. Attila and I proceeded with our annual Pesto preparations and managed to freeze enough for the coming winter. Pesto on cheese tortelinni is our favorite fast food.

Our bushel of peaches is gone, consumed daily in pancakes or fresh. I will miss them. However, the first tree-ripened apples have arrived on the doorstep and will help lighten my "end of the peach season" blues. We have been enjoying fresh cauliflower the last week or so, it is so good with a hint of butter and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Neighbour Magarac brought over a bag of fresh pears that he picked from the tree in his back yard. They are lovely, although the modern farmer would be forced to leave them to rot in the orchard. They have blemishes, and some are very small. However, they will taste just as good, if not better, than those we purchase in the grocery store. After leaving them to ripen for a few days, I will be busy making this year's Pear Chutney.

Canadian Writer Maggie Turner

A news story about Canada’s Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson, has me thinking and dreaming. I wrote an open letter to her, but it is very unlikely that she will ever read it; I am not expecting a reply. I feel better having written it, so at least there is that. I have to admit that the book, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" left quite an impressions on me, it opened my eyes to a world of possibilities.

Dear Adrienne Clarkson,

I want to be your friend. I am a very nice person; smart, well educated, hard working, and tolerant. I may also be very talented, but since I am not well connected, I know you will not have heard about me. I love my country and I do what I can, when I can, to make it a better place for all of us to live. Canada should be proud.

I want to belong to your special group, the one leaving for the "Northern Identity Tour", my dream trip. Please include me in your elite, because otherwise I could not afford the trip. I promise not to spend very much money, you will hardly know I am there. How much more would it really cost to take 60 people on the tour, instead of 59? Please Adrienne, consider my dream, it would mean a lot to me.

Your hopeful friend,
Maggie



Top of Page
RECIPES :: Cast

Worldly Distractions

Maggie & Attila
Heres looking at you.
Taken: First minute of the 21st Century



By the Easy Chair
Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide
by Eric Meyer


Trip of a Lifetime!
$1-million circumpolar tour... Clarkson's plan to take 59 of Canada's literary and political elite on a "northern identity" trip to Finland, Russia and Iceland..."



Weather
14:00 EDT
Temp: 18`C
Humidity: 52%

Barometric: 102.36 kPa

Sunrise 7:08 AM EDT
Sunset 7:27 PM EDT
 

Page by Page: A Woman's Journal
Photography
Poetry
by Maggie Turner

Canadian Maggie Turner writes and publishes poetry, photography, and a personal journal online. Her work reflects the current way of life in Canada, embracing Canada's past, present, and future in a unique portrayal of everyday life. Maggie's voice is one of the many that actively depict the rich diversity of Canadian culture.

Photography: "a term which comes from the Greek words photos (light) and graphos (drawing). A photograph is made with a camera by exposing film to light in order to create a negative. The negative is then used in the darkroom to print a photograph (positive) onto light-sensitive paper.
Source: University of Arizona Glossary

Poetry: "a form of speech or writing that harmonizes the music of its language with its subject. To read a great poem is to bring out the perfect marriage of its sound and thought in a silent or voiced performance. At least from the time of Aristotle's Poetics, drama was conceived of as a species of poetry."
Source: Creative Studios

Journal: " "Though a journal may be many things - a treasury, a storehouse, a jewelry box, a laboratory, a drafting board, a collector's cabinet, a snapshot album, a history, a travelogue..., a letter to oneself - it has some definable characteristics. It is a record, an entry-book, kept regularly, though not necessarily daily.... Some (entries) will be nearly illegible, written in the dark in the middle of the night.... Not only is it a record for oneself, but of oneself. Every memorable journal, any successful journal, is honest. Nothing sham, phony, false...." (Dorothy Lambert from Ken Macrorie's book, Writing to be Read )
A journal is a way to keep track of your thoughts about what you read... as well as what you did on any given day."
Source: Journal Writing

A Blog is an online journal created by server side software, often hosted by a commercial interest.

"The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger[4] on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May 1999.[5][6][7] Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_blogging


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