Myrtle MacPhee makes great mustard pickles. Her husband Allan is the king of flaky pie crust. They and their four kids are awesome neighbours here in Hartsville. We couldn’t ask for better, actually. I’m so proud that Jasper has this amazing double life; Ottawa and all its urban benefits, and back-to-basics PEI. Don’t get me wrong, though, I don’t mean to dis basics. Myrtle had us over for dinner this evening. She’d prepared an all-day beef roast, cooked at 250 in a deep covered pan for 8 hours. The meat was falling off the bone delicious, and even better soaked in thick gravy. Jasper was like a vacuum cleaner. He…

The last time the Liberals chose a leader, I was in PEI. I heard Bono say “The world needs more Canada” in my car in the Zeller’s parking lot. It was an electifying moment. The Lowest Price is the Law. But I had doubts. I’m no political genius, but I felt strongly that Paul Martin would not work out. Now I’m in PEI again, listening to Michael Ignatief’s leadership speech on CBC in the cabin. Jasper is snoring in the loft. And the window here at the desk is being licked by freezing rain. Iggy’s not the guy. I love reading the Walden Guest Book. For some reason, this place…

The Minister described me as a “conservation leader in Ontario” in his speech, and then turned in his seat and gestured toward me in the Member Gallery. Most MPPs clapped, if flatly, even Howard Hampton. It was kind of neat to be recognized on the floor of the legislature, and I guess I shoulda stood up. Would have been more memorable to blow kisses. Project Porchlight has arrived. Now I’m going to PEI to escape.

I’m going to the cabin on Friday. Between now and then I have to be in Toronto again. Third time in as many weeks. Thank God for Porter. I’m not much of a big city person, largely because I suffer from caring too much about what people think of me, AND am too cheap to spend good money on fancy clothes. I just sank $1100 into pipe insulation and skirting for the cabin so I could sink into an old claw foot tub on a snowcovered rehabilitated clearcut in PEI. Now that’s money well spent. And I don’t expect the downtown people to understand. The cabin is my rock. When…

My prune yogurt expires December 24. Christmas Spirit!

Anytime I go AWOL from Walden it’s a bad sign. This was pointed out to me by a friend; it’s something I should recognize about myself by now. Some facts: To be happy, I need to write. And I need to spend time in the woods. Writing. In just over a week, Jasper and I head east to spend a glorious week by the woodstove in the cabin. Our neighbour friends and their four kids are going to cut their Christmas tree from our land, and we’ll decorate it together. Tonight I’m going to call my 95-year old Gram to set up an early Christmas dinner with her. I’m leaving…

Two images of mid-November 2006: A single file line of shopping carts in Vancouver. A single attendant: “Please, one case of water per person. Thank you.” In Ohio, three sent to hospital after being trampled in a mad melee for limited release PS3.

OK, I’ll stop talking about it after tonight. Four days after my eye surgery, the opthalmologist pushes back on her rolly stool from her little specs thing shining into my shiny new eyes and says, “Scary.” “You just read the line we call ‘Impossible.'” Last week I couldn’t see the alarm clock without glasses. This week I have “25% better than normal human vision.” Borderline bionic! Not since I discovered Thoreau have I found an author that I think could influence my future career so much. And Thomas Homer-Dixon is alive. What grabbed me is this “A central characteristic of societies that successfully adapt is their ability to produce and…

Alana Range calls me a “quote machine.” She just left my Porchlight office after taping a web video segment for Capital News Online. This is how communications works these days. Alana found my old Accolade web site (last updated in 2003) and called me about web sites. The number she called is now the Porchlight line. We got to talking about Blogs. Ironically, she was preparing a story about them — about how blogging is changing (or not changing) politics. Since I love both writing and politics (except when the latter bites me hard in the ass), I gave my opinion. In a nutshell, I think the web and blogging…

Actually both can. A week ago tonight I couldn’t read a cereal box across a table, or see the alarm clock from bed. My eyes weren’t terrible, just bad. Now I can see. I love it! And it was so quick and so relatively painless, I wonder why I didn’t do it years ago. OK, so there were three days of keeping my eyes closed, and even Monday when I went back to work I didn’t think I could work all day. But then by about 10AM Monday the pain disappeared and I went for a run and it was like a miracle. A couple of times since I forgot…

I’m not sure I’ve spelled that correctly. And I don’t have time to check. In 45 minutes a surgeon is going to burn off a few microns of my corneas to affect how light comes to a point in the back of my eye. Right now (and since age 12) my genetic eye shape has light coming to a sharp point just short of my retina. I’m near sighted. In an hour, after just 1 minute of laser treatment per eye, the genetic flaw in my eyes will be fixed. I hope. They call it laser oblation. The last time I heard this it was being used on Suzy’s placenta…

I get a Christmas card every year from this American visionary‘s Mom. Steven Johnson keeps writing books that “stay ahead of the curve.” His last, “Everything Bad is Good for You” was published just last year. Forget the Montessori School. Get the XBox. Now he’s published another book. “The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic — and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World,” follows a doctor and a clergyman who teamed up in 1854 to figure out why cholera had ravaged their neighborhood. (Salon.com) This guy writes books super quick like. This is sobering news as I sit down to finish a compact fluorescent…

Sarah Harmer’s sweet. She has an angelic voice. And she can change a light bulb. Her show last night was great. I’ve had Oleander in my head all day. She can change my porch light anytime. The campaign is one year old today, not counting Kinmount, of course! We’ve hand delivered over 150,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs! Today was to be our volunteer recognition event. It rained. Hard. Still, 300 people passed by (picking up bulbs and treats and moving on before getting soaked, like us). And it was a blast. Sometimes adverse conditions make things better. Like working for a year against all kinds of obstacles to get something…

Project Porchlight is holding a volunteer appreciation event on Saturday. We’re going to have pumpkin carving, a band, 100 black-light CFL bulbs to give away, and two (2) mascots. We’ve got the Hydro Ottawa PowerWise Owl, and the Giant Tiger. When I told someone recently that the Giant Tiger mascot was coming, he actually said, “Yeah, I’ve seen that big yellow cat before; what’s the Giant Tiger mascot called?” These events are lots of fun, but we’ve never had more than one mascot before. How will the PowerWise Owl and the Giant Tiger get along? Will there be territorial fights? Some scratching? Growling? It’s possible. Above: Underdressed PowerWise Owl explains…