Category Archives: Animals Florida welcomes you to the state with fresh orange juice and glossy brochures, and then subjects you to mile-upon-mile of billboards advertising everything from alligator airboats to the power of prayer. Endless highways and turnpikes are bounded by garish plastic storefronts advertising all manners of food, tacky souvenirs, alcohol, and entertainment. I found it vaguely […]  It seems like half the North Americans I have ever met have at least a drop or two Irish in them! Not surprising, I suppose, in view of the continued growth of the Irish diaspora. Three million people outside Ireland (a country of less than 5 million internal residents) have legal claim to citizenship, and between 80 and 100 million more have […]  There is something special about whales. Granted, except for trips to the Vancouver Aquarium many, many, years ago, I’ve only ever seen bits of whales – a dorsal or a tail or a flipper – as most of their huge bodies stay submerged. I’m still waiting to see a whale breach; I’ve seen some magnificent photos, but when […]  Clear waters are laughing, they sing to the skies The Rockies are living, they never will die – John Denver, Rocky Mountain Suite As John Denver knew, there is something truly magic about the Rocky Mountains. I can’t help humming or singing whenever I think of them – and Denver’s song “Rocky Mountain Suite (Cold […]  We drove across North Dakota on our road trip this summer: about 350 miles – almost all of them dead straight – through black dirt and green hills, and under a dark, looming sky. It made me think about our visit to neighbouring South Dakota last year. Granted, the landscape further south was different: hotter, drier, with […] |
|
