Yesterday I cried about Nova Scotia. Or rather, I cried about the very real prospect that this summer, like last summer, we won’t be allowed in to Nova Scotia. At this time of year, I would usually be humming a happy song while I plan the move to our cottage up there—which is not just … Read More
Despite being allergic to almost everything natural, I need trees and grass around me. Cities tend to overstimulate me. I get exhausted by the traffic, the noise, and the multitudes of people. Once, when I got going the wrong way on Storrow Drive in Boston and couldn’t find a place to turn off, I pulled … Read More
What most people call Spring, I experience as Pollen Season. This month, all the plants and trees are soaking up the sunshine and rain and growing inches each day. They’re also putting out unbelievable amounts of yellow, dusty stuff that makes me sneeze like crazy. Thank goodness for antihistamines. Without them, I’d spend the whole … Read More
“This was the time in her life,” Ondaatje writes of a young nurse in The English Patient, “that she fell upon books as the only door out of her cell. They became half her world.” That young nurse, Hanna, is deeply traumatized by her experiences as a WWII nurse in Italy. In a bombed-out villa … Read More