I will be slowly rebuilding after losing all of my previous website. I have started with the older work and am working my way to the present.
Almost five years ago, my family and I took a leap of faith, packed up our lives and moved 4 hours away from comfort and stability. It was both an easy and a difficult decision to make. The easy part was the beautiful part of the country we were moving to, the life imagined of …

sĭm″bē-ō′sĭs noun Lichens have scientific names as though they are a species of organism, but actually a lichen is a fungus and an alga living in a symbiotic relationship (both are benefited by living together.) The fungus cannot photosynthesize so it cannot create food from solar energy, but the alga can photosynthesize. The alga needs …
It has taken five long years for the kids and I to get back out into the canoe and go camping. A major change in life (moving to Bancroft and building a house) had left us with little time for canoe trips. The last weekend in September was unusually warm and perfect for a fall …
The Bridge Community Church (Bancroft) Men’s Canoe Trip, 2019
We were warned that this trail was not for novice hikers. The beauty of this landscape is possibly only equalled by its ruggedness. I suppose that’s part of the reason why it is so spectacular – because of how rugged and remote it is. It had been 17 years since the first time I witnessed …

Who didn’t have a rock collection as a kid? Rocks were everywhere: on the driveway, at the beach, in the river, basically everywhere we played outside. We skipped stones on the lake, as toddlers put them in our mouths, we painted them to make a pet rock and eventually we started to collect them and …
I was asked to participate in a canoe trip this past Summer (2017) with a group of guys I mostly had never met before, in a place I had never been before and had no problem saying “yes!” The opportunity to experience something new in a familiar situation was all too enticing. The itinerary was …
“This is so the best day ever” my daughter exclaimed as she watched the popcorn kernels explode into their white, fluffy glory. The handle for the Jiffy Pop was much too short and I had to set it on the fire. I should have known better. She paid no attention to my apology for burning …
There is no such island in Killarney, but in my daughter’s mind we were on Mosquito Island for the duration of our shortest canoe trip to date. We drove up to the park for the weekend to host a film screening of Wilderness Trails at the park amphitheatre. Scott (co-creator of the film) and his …