Editor’s Note: We’re reaching into Michelle’s Smith’s archives for posts as useful now as when they were first published. This was last republished on 30 September 2020.   What to do this week I think we had better talk about planting garlic. It’s getting to be that time. I know itRead More

Board blessings A reader sent along an interesting piece of correspondence received from the Sydney Downtown Development Association (SDDA) just prior to the provincial election. Signed by board chair Jennifer Griffin, it concerns the executive director of the association, Michelle Wilson, and her foray into provincial politics. Griffin writes: DueRead More

There was a wonderfully wonky — yet important — item on the agenda of last night’s CBRM council meeting, and I am not talking about the CBRM declaring Paul’s Pizza Burgers the official food of the municipality for 2021. I am talking about an item that pleased me personally first,Read More

Last week, I wrote CBRM Communications & Information Officer Christina Lamey asking to see details of the CBRM’s bid for the 2023 Brier. As you may recall, council discussed the bid in camera during its regular monthly meeting on August 24, but Mayor Amanda McDougall, as she kicked all media,Read More

During this week’s federal leaders’ debates, all participants verified they had worked together in a non-partisan way to battle COVID-19. COVID and its variants do not discriminate — everyone is vulnerable to some degree. And Canadians, because we were all at risk, pulled together in a way that mirrored whatRead More

Editor’s Note: We’re reaching into Michelle Smith’s archives for still-timely gardening tips like these — first published on 19 September 2018.   What to do this week This week I want to talk about the best ways to store your veggies once you pick them, both long term and shortRead More

Shore Road Sessions I wrote last year about The Shore Road Sessions, Shauna Walters’ summer series of mini-concerts in her Whitney Pier backyard. The sessions returned this year with a whole new lineup of performers, and I was lucky enough to catch the final show on Tuesday night. I amRead More

Having been publishing bi-weekly — or, as I like to think of it, working at half-speed — all summer, I’ve been building up a store of opinions on a variety of subjects. In fact, my “two-cents’ worth” on such disparate issues as Annette Verschuren’s induction into the Business & PhilanthropyRead More

I am certainly not a world traveler, more a visitor, but I’ve been lucky enough to see a few great cities in North America and Europe over the years and am grateful for it. I am often intrigued by what a novelist has had to say about a city whereRead More

Souls pass through torrent and the whole situation is intolerable. David Jones, In Parenthesis   The Welsh author David Jones (1895-1974) titled his experimental Great War memoir In Parenthesis for three reasons: “because I have written it in a kind of space between – I don’t know between quite what;”Read More