Polish that Pen and Shine them Bells!

I'm cooking Spanish Lentils and with the wood stove on listening to long dark commentary. The morning has a chill on me and I'm not running about the book store like a nutter.

I booked my Ceremony in Toronto City Hall.

I've booked a bank appointment and I've looked into renewing my passport. I might have to apply for a new one, it seems. A name change means I need to apply for a new one. What fun!

In retrospect I should have waited until after I'd renewed my passport to book my flight to Scotland. It might mean I have to cancel. Then rebook of course. I want to spend as much time with Will as I can. It might also mean I have to spend a night in Toronto when I do my passport so it goes through quickly. I understand that the Post/mail is good, but I have some urgency to my plans if my return date is the 20th of January.

Paper work is my favourite! :D

Unrelated. I'm still collecting books to bring back with me. I had a wild list from before. Its very long and I don't think my bag can hold so much. Not unless I want to return naked.

Fun fact! I am less tired, at long last. I realized how emotionally draining my summer has been. The energy I put in this summer compared to the one before was a lot more. There were more emotional problems it seemed, and no reprieve from it. No matter the sleep, I could not recover.

I figured out now that reading is helping me recover in ways that the Long Dark wasn't. Forced upon  a narrative and making an easy emotional investment along with it being one of my favourite pass times seems to be lifting the evening exhaust. I'm becoming me again by doing old habits I'd given up or stopped because the outside influences were taking so much from me. Next time I'll know how to shut off better!,

Also I am looking forwards to winter!

Books and Polishing

Spent a portion of my evening polishing the halter. Encrusted in shit, I spent two to three hours rubbing and scrubbing with leather cleaner until it shone new. Only things left were a few scratches from being on my horse's face.

Also, and un related to horse tack polishing... I'm getting married.

Other than that I've been working at the book store and pondering. I've started reading again and starting to build the momentum towards two books at once. One book will be fiction and the other not. I've finished one whole book, which was something I never seemed to be able to do at the hostel. I was interrupted so much that it felt as though there was no point, so I would just go wolf hunting instead in the Long Dark. Yellow eyed bastards.

Please, let us have your moldy, smoke riddled books. That is the thing we want with our reading, tar smoke. 

Anyway the book was Scarlett Thomas's Our Tragic Universe, It was dense, let me tell you. Not for the light reader. It almost came of pretentious, and yet I enjoyed tthe author bouncing writing ideas off me. I recommend her End of Mr. Y for a Neil Gaimen esque fantasy, or the Tragic Universe for something more philosophical.

Books have weighed on me. There's something different about being surrounded by books. For someone like me who can hoard and collect, a book store is a good place to practice abstinence? I suppose that's the right word. I want to fill my shelves and get that beautiful pagey smell wafting under my noses when I least suspect it. They sooth me.

There is no book store in Fort William. There is. Its a new one. Blech. I like verity. Not a amazonian suggestion. I like looking at a hundred thousand spines and trying to decide which one will hold the pages that spark fresh ideas. The adventure. The various styles and qualities. I have a small history book collection in Canada, but its a good one, built by being meticulous about my history books (and literature for that mater).

I'm going to build a collection over yoder so I'll post the list of what I'm after bellow.
As a note, some of these are not always going to be achievable

- Peter the Great, by Robert Massier
- King Death (nf)
- Salem Possessed
- Guns, Germs and Steel
- Collapse
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holms.
- Horse in the City
- Wolf Moon, Charles De Lint
- The Hobbit
- Dragonbane + Dragonshadow
- Black Beauty
- The Kalevala
- Basket Case
- What is History?
- Call of the Wild/White Fang
- Wolf country (?)
- How the West was Won, Lou Cameron
- A History of Scotland

Post Cards from Europe

I've found some postcards I received a few years ago from a school friend travelling in Europe. During a bleak year in a mindbogglingly boring line of work, letters and postcards were an enormous source of fresh air for me. I wanted to share some of them with you and thank Matt for his cards!

I'd Love an Old Camera

Back on the Farm! And the Coos are oot!

Bye Bye Feet! Hello Books!

There is a joy of being buried in books. All kinds of books. Not just my fancy shmancy liturature. All kinds. One for everyone.

If you've not guessed, I'm back at the book store. I'm immersed in pages.

There are dreary passages of samey romance (Debbie and Fern, I am looking at you) and overwhelming amount of mystery. More than those, there are the collected memories of humanity, honed and sharpened until the produce something magical, something breath catching, something clever, or something for us to learn.

There is always space to learn. There is time to step away from the bite sized portions of information and remember a meal of words. A buffet of story which, when you fially fold your napikin, you feel a sense of achievement in yourself.

Mmmm. Books. No matter where you are in the world, I've never had an angry person come of the book store.

Yes I am back at the book store. I've started a stack too, so next week you'll see what I've got on my radar, what I'll be bringing back with me and what I will want to bring but can't because of foolish weight restrictions.

Ps. If anyone mentions a light weight kindle or anything related to it, I will start punching wildlife.

Week 1 In Canada: Animal Luck

We've been so busy since we landed that I've not had a chance to think of anything to write. There have been so many fresh tomato sandwiches, meeting people, working (farm life of course), and spotting wildlife.


Will and I nearly melted with the heat. The weather has been so dreich that 22 degrees Celsius was roasting. Got a bit of colour when we went canoeing the on Wednesday, which was staggering. No longer are we see through but rather off white. Shar cam with us, resulting in a hilarious exit from the boat. Coupled with her fear of a monstrous snake, which could be excused for being a worm, she kinda started slipping down into the water.

I've got me some photos, of her and das nature.

exit from the boat. Coupled with her fear of a monstrous snake, which could be excused for being a worm, she kinda started slipping down into the water.

I've got me some photos, of her and das nature.

2 Years Bonnie Scotland

After two years of living in Scotland I'm heading back home to Canada. 

Its been an overwhelming experience. Two years can be a long time, though it feels now as though its flown past me. 

When I purchased my ticket in February, 2013 for the  from underneath covers of my bed, with Star Wars VI playing in the background in attempt to lure myself out of a depression, I had little idea where it would led me. 

I knew I was on the right track when I got my visa in the post. That grim photo looking back at me was my lucky ticket to something fresh, invigorating and eye opening in ways I'm still understanding. Its not one of those trips to East Asia or a commune in a remote mountain top. I didn't take part in any meditation, fasts, or par take in an extreme alteration in lifestyle. I ate chips, haggis, climbed a mountain or two and drank more than a toddlers size in cider, perhaps the same in double whiskeys and coke (my drink of choice).

I grew internally, learning to deal with problems on my own, understand when I was being taken advantage of and loving my friends, near and far who were always good to me (and there are too many to name here). 

Moving to another country is something a landmark in my life, as much as University or paying off the debt that went with it, but I did this one with my gut. I've known for a long time the Uk was on my map of places that would change me, and I was not wrong. I'm so glad of my time in Scotland, nestled in the Highlands. Among mountains, my favorite heart stoppers/knee breakers, I felt freedom, and the need to be a stronger,better person, to learn more about others and be less afraid in the face of adversity. 

I recommend a visa to my other Canadian people. 

The nice people who came to din dins with me :)

The nice couple behind Kyle and John who made sloppy kiss noises and looked like this all night.

All this while watching my favourite brothers, Hank and John Green, who maybe one of the most inspiring persons I've ever seen on youtube. I must be a nerd fighter.

Special thanks to the following people for you're friendship: Will, Lisa, Madeleine, Marie, Derek, John, Guillermo, Diana, Javi, Pitu, and Rob.