2024-03-30 00:23
I found myself thinking of Easter a few moments ago, this Good Friday afternoon; and what came to mind is that it’s a holiday that people of many different cultural and religious t… Read More
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Finding Hope Ness | Discovering The Wonder That’s In A Moment Blog
findinghopeness.com
discovering the wonder that’s in a moment
2024-03-13 02:04
Last night on my way home I stopped by Singing Sands to give thanks. If you believe you are a Child of the Earth then you know you cannot hide from anything.You are one with your creator… Read More
2024-02-26 11:39
On my morning walk at sunrise I noticed a few well-placed clouds and the sun had combined to offer this momentary gentle, and to my eye, lovely image. And as I happened to have my camera… Read More
2024-02-11 22:27
As I began to look at the on-line news in the very ‘wee hours’ of this morning, The headline of a CBC Radio Canada article soon caught by eye: “Millions of people in Canada… Read More
2023-11-04 16:48
My shattered touchstone, the sun rising in the background: a different ‘way of being.’The Niagara Escarpment landscape here at Hope Ness and in the Hope Bay Forest Provincial Par… Read More
2023-10-06 08:47
The lead article in the Washington Post’s ‘Todays Worldview’ about the earth-shattering disaster under way in the world’s greatest democracy should be read and unders… Read More
2023-09-15 03:28
It may have been August 30 when I first saw the new ‘park boundary’ and ‘no hunting’ signs posted on both sides of Cathedral Drive north of my property at the end of… Read More
2023-07-27 01:27
In the spring of 2022, I finally put two and two together and decided the time had come to work up the ground in part of the old barnyard to see if that might be a better place to grow veget… Read More
2023-04-29 11:49
Buddy wonders why the peas aren’t up yet
“April is the cruelest month,” T.S. Eliott wrote in the first line of his epic poem, The Waste Land.
And so it has been, firs… Read More
2023-04-24 12:06
The recent Ontario Superior Court decision confirming the Saugeen First Nation’s rightful ownership of the north section of Sauble Beach is in itself an important milestone in Cana… Read More
2023-03-28 10:55
Kind-hearted RCMP officers welcome refugees to Canada at an irregular border crossing a few years agoFile this under ‘How soon we forget the lessons of shameful history,’ includi… Read More
2023-01-08 19:36
Not that long ago in a ‘What’s on your mind’ Facebook post I recalled how as a boy many years ago in Toronto I happily walked several blocks along Queen Street West eve… Read More
2022-12-18 17:07
How long is a moment? I think the assumption has been that it’s not very long at all, a brief and passing thing that comes and goes in little more than the blinking of an eye; and… Read More
2022-11-29 03:04
“…Dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
That last profoundly mysterious verse from R… Read More
2022-11-21 00:24
Two essential members of the family on a snow squall warning day
But this is mid-November! Even here in Ontario, Canada 90 centimeters of snow in two days in the fall of the year, and mor… Read More
2022-10-18 15:44
The historic Great Hall of Toronto’s Union Station“Keep your heart and mind open to the possibility of wonder: you never know what the next moment will bring.”
Recently… Read More
2022-09-28 01:25
It’s still there in my list of favorite movies; right up there with Carl Dreyer’s Day of Wrath and The Passion of Joan of Arc, Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Ingmar Bergman… Read More
2022-08-24 00:38
A row of transplanted ‘volunteer’ squash, hoping for a warm SeptemberAs many of my millions of readers will know, I live in anticipation of the next wonderful and often surprisin… Read More
2022-08-21 18:45
It’s been 40 years since I came here to help the late Wilma Butchart and her son Cliff bring in the hay from that beautiful back field that reached out to the depth of their old fa… Read More
2022-08-15 13:50
In these most troubling times, with among other things the world’s first and greatest modern democracy in grave peril, I look daily to my garden for relief and consolation, and hope. I… Read More
2022-06-07 18:25
Here, just south of the 45th Parallel (halfway to the North Pole) in the upper Great Lakes area of Ontario, Canada, the appearance of rows of little green sprouts of sweet corn in the first… Read More
2022-05-13 11:20
The view of Hope Bay, with Georgian Bay in the distance, from a Bruce Trail lookout.
You could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard the propane truck backing down the driveway… Read More
2022-04-27 19:10
The garden, May 2018
On a scale of one to ten this perplexing spring so far in Hope Ness and the rest of southern Ontario isn’t much to complain about when Putin’s bombs and m… Read More
2022-03-27 21:14
A scene from Ballad of a Soldier: a mother says goodbye.I suppose this may not be the best time to say anything good about Russia and the Russian people. But no sooner do I write that than I… Read More
2022-03-01 01:48
Donald Trump (DT), the well-known pathological liar and former President of the U.S.A. who tried but failed to overthrow its democracy has blamed President Joe Biden for Russian dictator Vla… Read More
2022-02-13 16:00
Readers of this blog may recall that I have often written proudly about Canada as a wonderful example to a troubled world of a country where a great diversity of people of many cultural back… Read More
2022-01-20 20:10
Sir Alan ‘Tommy’ Lascelles
Finding a good book, or books, to read is one way to survive these frigid January days of a Canadian winter. The one I recently purchased on-line ha… Read More
2022-01-10 19:42
Yes, indeed, the snow was coming down heavily when the propane truck showed up early this morning. And none too soon either: the tanks were getting low, and to be on the safe side, I had tur… Read More
2022-01-02 18:04
The garden at rest, January 2, 2022No sooner has the New Year arrived than thoughts about gardening come up like newly-sprouted seed… Read More
2021-12-29 19:36
I understand the risk in posting the link below, of it possibly being misunderstood by some south of the border who would wrongly claim for their own that great moment in American history. F… Read More
2021-12-25 19:58
Grey and misty this Christmas morning, as we walked to the touchstone down Cathedral Drive. In the woods over to the west, one of the family of ravens that lives there was calling persistent… Read More
2021-12-23 15:22
Rising more or less at first light, the beloved ritual of morning coffee and quiet reflection duly observed, the online morning news perused – the Tiananmen Pillar of Shame unceremonio… Read More
2021-12-14 20:39
Hope is the most precious …
I was going to say ‘commodity.’ But that primarily refers to a raw material or agricultural product that is ‘bought and sold.’ I… Read More
2021-12-11 16:29
The out-of-court settlement just reached by Bruce County and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) is the latest indication SON’s long-standing land claim is heading toward similar, land-tr… Read More
2021-12-04 00:08
“My God, he’s been here before!”
So said my father when he first set eyes on me, just brought home from the hospital, when I happened to open my eyes just as he looked d… Read More
2021-12-01 18:53
Potatoes and glyphosate were on my mind this morning as the dogs and I walked down Cathedral Drive to the touchstone.
That may come as no surprise in the worldwide community of Finding Ho… Read More
2021-11-23 19:05
So, it has happened: that inevitable Canadian morning that says in no uncertain terms, winter has arrived and for the next five months or more, and the season of necessity is in control our… Read More
2021-11-21 15:44
Morning walks down Cathedral Drive had become routine; something I had to give myself a little push to keep doing, because the dogs needed a walk, and so did I. And because the touchstone, t… Read More
2021-11-20 17:46
Civilization and the social stability it provides, allowing human beings to live their lives in peace and pursue their plans and dreams can never be taken for granted. Recent modern history… Read More
2021-11-04 18:53
A view of Lion’s Head Harbour. To see the lion’s head, look to the left and slightly above the lighthouse(A note first to my thousands, if not millions of global readers of this… Read More
2021-10-05 17:18
What a perfectly glorious autumn morning it was as we, the dogs and I, left the house for our after-breakfast walk down Cathedral Drive to the Touchstone:
The air was still, barely a… Read More
2021-09-14 18:11
Just when things were starting to look dark and dreary, I was called to go over to the raspberry batch and receive a rare treat and a blessing: late season raspberries in Hope Ness, Onta… Read More
2021-09-12 16:17
Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan
Yesterday, the people of the United States of America, and countless other people around the world, remembered the shocking horrors of the 9/1… Read More
2021-07-15 21:07
Ah, there’s nothing like listening to the last movement of Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony, the Pathetique, to remind me that the tragic sense of life has always been with me.
That… Read More
2021-05-28 02:50
The decisions to start referring to the Bruce Peninsula as the Saugeen Peninsula, and to soon begin formal public consultations possibly leading to a name change for the Bruce Peninsula… Read More
2021-05-19 22:40
The Grotto, one of the most popular destinations at the Bruce Peninsula National ParkCalling it a “small, but important change,” Parks Canada has changed… Read More
2021-05-05 22:10
Aussie contemplates his next move.It’s taken me a long time, way too long, considering how little time we have to live on this precious little jewel of a planet, to fully appreciate th… Read More
2021-04-29 13:44
Distant thunder rumbling,
Approaching, ominous and foreboding,
Rain falling, wave after wave.
On such a morning
Some would call this
Not a good day.
But others, myself incl… Read More
2021-04-18 16:06
Rows of garlic, their protective, winter blanket of straw removed, will easily survive cool spring days
With the growing popularity of home gardening there must be a lot of people on a st… Read More
2021-04-11 15:31
My recent discovery of the creative, literary works of late 19th Century, American author Kate Chopin, most notably her novel, The Awakening, has been a deeply moving and continuously though… Read More
2021-03-25 15:26
(Author’s note: This is a chapter from a work in progress, about an very old man who undertakes an extraordinary journey home to the pioneer farm where he was born, and lived, until a… Read More
2021-03-20 20:15
Speaking plainly of this brilliant morning,
The sun rising in a clear sky,
The lingering snow yearning,
I fancy, for its melting touch,
We walk Cathedral Drive to the rock
Whe… Read More
2021-03-09 15:01
There was a profound stillness in the air this sunrise, mid-March morning as we walked to my prayerful touchstone beside Cathedral Drive, the dogs and I, doing what we do every morning of ev… Read More
2021-02-24 20:30
As the headline suggests, I soon had a welcoming, friendly, attitude toward the mating pair of ravens who found a home in my 125-year-old bank barn a couple of years ago.
The barn was… Read More
2021-02-21 17:21
(Note: this is a guest post from Tibor Csincsa, of Holland Centre, Grey County, Ontario, Canada. Tibor is a long-time beekeeper who has travelled the world teaching beekeeping, giving worksh… Read More
2021-02-07 22:56
Though it’s late in coming, there’s nothing like the onset of something that resembles a good, old-fashioned Canada winter to test the myths and realities of growing old.
Let&rs&helli…Read More
2021-01-26 22:10
The surge in growth of home gardening and small-scale commercial gardening catering to a local market that began last year is continuing at an “unprecedented” rate for the 202… Read More
2021-01-17 19:38
I was surprised recently to find a copy of the Epoch Times newspaper in my mailbox here in my secluded, little corner of the world on the Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada. Why me? I&rsquo……Read More
2021-01-03 15:04
“Keep your hands on that plow, hold on.” — The refrain from an old American gospel/folk song
The wonderful thing about the annual celebration of the arrival of a New Ye… Read More
2020-12-28 15:39
In the garden with granddaughter JordenNot that long ago a people now often referred to in Canada as ‘First Nation’ used to walk freely for ages on the 5.9 acres (2.4 hectares) o… Read More
2020-12-09 22:29
Sauble Beach is a major summer tourist destination in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. It stretches for 11 kilometres along the Lake Huron’s eastern shoreline south o… Read More
2020-12-01 17:43
They keep coming, day after day, those calls from scammers and spoofers looking to steal our money, identity, or otherwise cause you and I and millions of other Canadians anxiety, hardship… Read More
2020-11-17 21:47
Twenty years ago, when I was still a staff reporter at the local, daily newspaper, I interviewed a professor of agriculture at the University of Guelph. At the end of the interview about… Read More
2020-10-27 20:29
My garlic bedded down under a blanket of straw mulch for the winterAll garden crops are hopeful: you prepare the soil carefully, make sure the temperature is warm enough for germination… Read More
2020-10-15 23:27
(Not much has changed since I first published this two years ago in a lot of ways. Old age continues to creep up on me, but I give myself a push and go outside to plant some garlic, or othe… Read More
2020-09-10 15:12
I saw it again this morning as the dogs and I came back from our after-breakfast walk. Had it been watching us from above, I wonder only now? We had just turned down into our long driveway a… Read More
2020-08-13 01:09
Speak to me of Love,
And I will tell you a story that never ends.
Speak to me of Love,
And I will tell you how it doesn’t matter,
How much you say she has aged,
And her beauty faded… Read More
2020-07-02 23:14
Rows of flowering potato plants, July 1, 2020. Those are staked tomato plants in the foreground.
The humble potato has its moment of floral glory.
Two types of well-sprouted tubers I planted… Read More
2020-06-13 14:30
A well-mulched, healthy garlic crop in Hope Ness after a difficult winter and cold spring. A good crop in Ontario, Canada for challenging times. Two rows of peas on the left are coming along… Read More
2020-05-07 15:52
There’s snow peas in there somewhere, under the snow.
What’s with the weather?
Here in southern Ontario, Canada, in The Great Lakes region of North America, as we approach mid-Ma… Read More
2020-04-22 18:59
I’m Canadian, eh. And a modest market gardener, living and working in a sparsely populated rural area. So, I guess I’m more culturally obsessed with the weather than a lot of pe… Read More
2020-03-28 17:06
Far be it from me to traffic in dangerously unrealistic comments and other false hopes about the current Coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis. But for what it’s worth, regarding the lifting… Read More
2020-03-09 15:28
An image from The Virgin Spring
Another old friend has died; and I daresay the friend of many others my age whose lives were enriched, and affected thoughtfully and spiritually by watching t… Read More
2020-02-06 03:43
A concept image of Ontario Power Generation’s DGR for the permanent storage of low and intermediate-radioactive waste at the Bruce Nuclear Site
What are they doing now at Ontario Power… Read More
2020-02-04 02:28
I was browsing through my copy of the periodical Bruce Peninsula Press recently when a brief item from the Municipality of the Northern Bruce Peninsula, December 9, 2019, council meeting ca… Read More
2020-01-17 21:11
At 5:20 pm on December 13, 2019 a large area on the Bruce Peninsula was shaken by what was initially reported as a small earthquake by Natural Resources Canada, which monitors seismic activi… Read More
2019-12-24 16:25
At the end of Cathedral Drive about the same time the Earth moved
The “blast’ that took place in the Hope Bay area north of Wiarton on Friday, December 13 is now solely in the ha… Read More
2019-12-18 16:44
The tremor from a blast north of Wiarton was felt as far as Lion’s Head
Officials of two Ontario ministries that oversee operations of pits and quarries in Ontario are investigating an… Read More
2019-12-14 21:45
In the 40 years since I first came to live in Hope Ness I’ve seen, heard, and felt a lot of memorable natural occurrences: a few specially intense, zero-visibility blizzards; the sky t… Read More
2019-12-12 16:30
Planting potatoes with granddaughter Mirabella (beautiful miracle), May 2, 2016. Photo by daughter, Lila Marie. And a good one it is.
When one reaches the pre-boomer age I’m at now, it… Read More
2019-11-13 21:39
The official municipal flag of the city of Lethbridge, Alberta, a version of the flag American whiskey traders flew over Fort Whoop-up before 1874
Winter has come relatively early here at Ho… Read More
2019-10-26 21:43
Hope Ness, late October, 2019. The heart cries out with joy at the sight of such a tree.
A hard frost covered ground-level Hope Ness this morning as the dogs and I went for our early-morning… Read More
2019-09-09 23:24
“The man who invented time was a fool.” Dan, circa 1961, the village cafe, Toronto
Waiting
A few dark grapes, some cheese, a bit of bread;
An ear, or more, of just-picked sweet c… Read More
2019-08-21 14:19
The origins of that now very relevant and ironic old saying are not clear, though it’s known in English as “the Chinese curse.” However, no actual Chinese source has… Read More
2019-06-14 13:30
Indulge me, dear Reader (cap deliberate), for I am about to complain for the umpteenth time about climate change, and specifically its disruptive effect on that engine of weather in these pa… Read More
2019-06-13 12:12
It’s been a couple of years since I first published this. Posts have a relatively short shelf-life, so to speak. They get some little attention, or more, for a while; then they lapse i… Read More
2019-06-10 15:11
This old apple tree has seen better days, but none better than this, if one takes into consideration its defiant struggle to stay alive, and much, much more. I call it heroic, glorious, the… Read More
2019-04-17 01:26
Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral before the fire
The burning of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, Monday night in Paris, is indeed much more than the nearly complete destruction of an important bu… Read More
2019-04-15 14:47
For a lot of years I’ve been growing vegetables at several locations on the peninsula between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay in southern Ontario, Canada. I’ve grown accustomed to b… Read More
2019-02-12 20:53
I look out my window and watch the winter storm blow in and get steadily worse. I don’t have to go on-line to check if the roads are closed: that’s obvious enough. The line of th… Read More
2019-01-30 17:36
I hear spring flowers and blossoms are starting to bloom in Victoria, on Canada’s Pacific Ocean, west coast. But everywhere else in this country, known for its long, cold, snowy winte… Read More
2019-01-10 18:22
A stoat, or ermine, caught in my live trap, soon to be released back into nature
I got quite a surprise when I checked the live-trap this morning in the basement cold room where I store prod… Read More
2019-01-02 01:12
January 1, 2019, Hope Ness, Canada. The sun trying to break through the clouds before sunset
I am dismayed by the current, troubled relations between Canada and the People’s Republic o… Read More
2018-12-16 00:49
After Sunset, 5:00 pm, in Hope Ness, Canada, December 15, 2018
Sunset comes early in Hope Ness, Canada a week away from the winter solstice. If I don’t feed and walk the dogs before su… Read More
2018-12-03 17:42
Buddy woke me up early this morning with barking that tells me he’s picked up on something around or near the farm. My thoughts were of critters from the woods come to feast on the co… Read More
2018-10-27 23:27
Another cloudy day in late October with the front field to cultivate before it starts to rain, as forecast. I’m out beside Mr. Massey Too, checking his fluid levels before connecting… Read More
2018-10-11 00:17
With the sun now fallen below the equator, the mornings have come later with seeming haste over the past several weeks, as if anxious to move the season along toward winter.
It will come so… Read More
2018-09-15 19:24
How well I remember my first sweet corn experience. I was a young boy of the inner city, invited out on a picnic by a country friend and his family. Two fresh-picked, unhusked cobs of sweet… Read More
2018-08-28 00:46
Thanks to my son-in-law Scott for catching this classic, picking-corn-for-dinner moment at Cathedral Drive Farm, Hope Ness this past Sunday. Rembrandt would have known too what to do.
That&r&hell…Read More
2018-08-26 02:09
Jorden and great grandpa in the beans
The second-floor window of my office in this old farm house at the end of a no-exit road overlooks a vegetable garden that’s proved to be way too… Read More
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