Nurse. Teacher. Crafter. Photographer. Canadian; I am a woman who wears many hats but what defines me the most, is being a New Zealander and a mother. — “Why on earth did you leave New Zealand?” This is often the first question I am asked after the inevitable clarification of where my accent is from — usually confused with being English or Australian; even after 25 years, I cannot shake it. I came to Montréal with my husband…

Food trucks have become popular here in Montréal; restaurants set up mobile businesses that can serve their delicacies at public and private events. It was blistering hot here this weekend, so I couldn’t help but crave an ice cream cone. My mind wandered back to when I was a kid and Mr. Whippy, the ice cream truck, used to do the neighbourhood rounds. You knew he was in the neighbourhood as the colourful van played a tune to herald its presence. That signalled us kids to hound mum or dad for some cash and run out onto the street to get a delicious whipped vanilla cone.

Book Shelfie: Freestyle — My precious — books; things. Hands off! After downsizing two years ago, I had the arduous task of sorting through several shelves of books. It was not easy to cull them; I’m not a hoarder, so the ones I already had were already somewhat precious, but they needed to be diminished in volume significantly. …

After a suggestion by Rui Alves when the Ukrainian-Russian situation first started, I added the Ukrainian flag as a symbol of solidarity to my Medium member name. Many other writers did too, but they have since removed it. I’ve also found it somewhat helpful, especially when tagged in stories — or not! I detected my name was missing from a publication list the other day because it didn’t jump out at me. The flag allows my name to stand out from the crowd.