Archie turned three the other day; butterflies are starting to flutter by; the days are warmer and the nights shorter. So we mark another seasonal cycle as the earth turns and the planet circles the sun. With all this carrying on about the changing of the seasons and the passage of time, the unspoken element …
Category: Cottage life
Life at Corner Cottage, Braidwood
The meaning of leaning
Yesterday, as I was out on a run with Archie, covering part of the same hilly dirt road we follow when stalking raptors, I had one of those disconnected meditative processes running seems to induce. It was on a long uphill gradient and into the teeth of a wind gusting out of the west at …
Sworn to run
Running has not featured much – if at all – on these pages, not because it’s unimportant, but precisely the opposite. In truth, the last few decades’ messing about with bicycles, weights, swimming and yoga have all stemmed from your correspondent's wish to be a better runner. As my old dad used to say, “if …
Things can only get bigger
It's been a good year for the biking -- so far, anyway. With the diminution of La Niña, which contrived to soak us over the span of two summers, we have finally had enough dryness to string together a decent series of rides. Your author's progress chart on Strava looks less like a close-up of …
(Nearly) everyday I write the blog
Easter came with heavy tidings for Corner Cottage. Nothing life-altering, I should say, but a smart blow to the goolies of certain dearly held hopes, that’s for sure. I think hope will recover; time heals all wounds and hope springs eternal. That sort of thing. The issue was that one of my very very fave …
Whip it good
Out here in the boondocks, all it takes is a couple of days' sunshine and we're assailed with massed lawnmowers, whippersnippers, and hedge trimmers roaring, revving and farting in glorious surround sound. Of course, the Corner Cottage versions of these tools are all electric -- if all of Braidwood went the same way, we'd reach …
A little learning
All this reminiscing about weird ways to make a living has your author recalling a sure-fire narrative to spin during job interviews. It's a secret so powerful, using it will guarantee you a fast track to the C-suite in the global planet-destroying multinational corporation of your choice -- so use it wisely. And this is …
Allez les cyclistes
One thing that wasn’t cancelled last year was that bike race in France. The one that shot to fame in the rest of the world (i.e. the US) when some guy from Texas started winning it with improbable ease and then turned out to have been cheating all along. The Tour de France is …
Hi resolution
You know, I’ve never really gone in for new year’s resolutions. Call me old-school, but there seems to be little point to making pronouncements about some kind of commitment that you’ll break within a week or two. Yes, you may be shamed into sticking to it a bit longer if you’ve told the world your …
It’s the pits
Let it not be said that this blog confines itself to a narrow, repetitive series of topics. Or if you must say it, don’t say it around me, because sometimes it’s quite difficult to come up with fresh material. Then again, returning to certain themes or motifs is the mark of a writer with conviction …
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