For a few years, while my family lived on the other side of the country, we rented our home to a destitute family for a pittance. Dad knew they didn't have much money, so charged them a mere dollar a month to live in our house. He figured the place would be in better shape with someone in it, plus he'd be doing these people a favour ( Read more... )

My sweet little chinchilla was euthanized yesterday after her health continued to deteriorate over the past couple of years. She was about 15 years old. I miss her very much.


( Read more... )

I'm on a raven kick. ( Here's my third piece, done in soft pastels. )

( Read more... )

When I was about six or so, I remember hearing my cat Siam making a ruckus in the porch. I went to see what was going on, and to my horror, I saw her chasing a bat. The bat flitted in desperation from one end of the porch to the other, and I screamed at the cat to stop. I flung myself on top of Siam, trying to hold her down, and the bat ( Read more... )

Elder Squirrel Demon Summoning Circle is an environmental installation artwork piece which I placed on my back deck. A multimedia piece, it incorporates a demonic squirrel head, chalk, roses, herbs, peanuts, salt, and pinecones ( Read more... )

Lewis Carroll (née Charles Dodgson) follows in similar tradition to naturalists of his time. The whimsical pigeon scene is not only entertaining, but, much like the works of Edward Lear, Charles Darwin, and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, educational. The two major elements of the pigeon scene are Alice's long neck and the pigeon itself ( Read more... )

When I was in grade six, I was very briefly one of the popular kids. It's easy when there are only five people in your whole grade. I lived in a tiny community, and there wasn't a lot of opportunity to be choosy about one's friends. And so I became friends with Adrienne, who was a nasty, manipulative girl (she once told me she was friends with ( Read more... )

Gentle hunter
his tail plays on the ground
while he crushes the skull.
Beautiful death
who puts on a spotted robe
when he goes to his victim.
Playful killer
whose loving embrace
splits the antelope’s heart.

Anonymous - translated from Yoruba by Ulli Beier

I remember my collie dog, Buoy, desperate to jump into the back of the truck any time we went for a drive. Whenever he rode in the back, he'd bark joyously and with metronomic regularity. He barked the entire way across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia. A few years later, he barked from British Columbia to New Brunswick. His voice ( Read more... )