For some reason pears do not like me. I’ve always been fond of these sweeter cousins of the apple, but they tend to keep their distance. What I mean is that I never seem to get them at the right time. They’re either really hard when I buy them or so ripe they have to […]

I’ve always enjoyed the smell of coffee. I haven’t always enjoyed the taste. That came more slowly. My dad was the only coffee drinker in my family. My mom, being a canuck, drank tea. The only nod my mom made toward the coffee drinkers of the world, which didn’t include any of us at the […]

In a writing class I’ve been taking, the instructor told us that there were only a limited number of stories out there. Writers rework them, reset them, recast them and reimagine them. But it’s essentially the same handful of plots that get retold over and over and over again. (Sounds a bit like this blog.) […]

For me, it all started with navel oranges. Unlike their overly juicy Valencia cousin, navels are eating fruits and the perfect seasonal snack. Although these citrus fruits only appear in the “chill” of a west coast winter, the bright peel and the sweet tart taste smack of the washed out sunlight more typical of a […]