Autumn this year isn’t exactly what the poet John Keats described as : “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,/Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun . . “. But it does, I think, provide a good metaphor for looking at the world in what one global affairs writer characterised as “the most dangerous period internationally since the end of the Cold War.”.… Read the rest
This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving, six weeks before our American neighbours have theirs. We also beat them to the idea by 43 years. The Pilgrims feast dates to 1621. Sir Martin Frobisher’s expedition to find the northwest passage held one in present day Nunavut in 1578, to give thanks for the safety of its fleet.… Read the rest
As a former broadcast journalist, what I’m about to confess amounts to heresy: at the moment I neither have, nor miss having, a TV set. That’s due in no small part to being where more intimate and gentle ways measure and put the world into perspective.… Read the rest
Autumn has arrived. For the next several weeks the inexorable change in the colours of the forest that envelopes us here challenges description. A fitting word would be “awesome”. Unfortunately, despite at least a dozen synonyms, it’s a rote response to everything from the truly awe-inspiring to the most prosaic, which strands it in a verbal wasteland.… Read the rest