“Christie’s Bluff was a towering island almost ten miles out from our side of the Bay. Its peak was a beacon for anyone who ventured onto the open water. It watched over us all year long… In return we never disregarded it. All whose plans required fair weather commenced their day with a nod to..
Month: August 2025
I’m thrilled to be part of Toronto’s Word on the Street Festival this September 27-8! Come say hello and check out Providence Point at the Tellwell Publishing booth in David Pecaut Square. Let’s celebrate Canadian storytelling together!
Reminiscing about earlier years on the Bay, Mrs. Birmingham tells Rob how his grandparents spent their evenings with his Auntie Lou and Uncle Harry. “What a crew those four made! Harry and Lou built their cottage just across from the Point… It had a nice lookout over the water, but the whole place was crammed..
Robbie and Uncle Harry were fishing a few hundred yards off the shoreline of Évariste Leduc’s farmstead. As they watched the patriarch’s elderly spouse working in the sizeable garden, Harry broke the silence: “Here’s a thought, Robbie. What if, in fact, we were living our lives almost the same as the folks in that house?…..
“As traditional as it might be, Thanksgiving was not the autumn highlight. For Granny and Grandpa, it paled in comparison with Harvest Festival, a kind of lower-key English Thanksgiving three weeks before its Canadian counterpart…. [but] it did have a drawback. Its September date frequently coincided with early frosts that shockingly nipped less hardy vegetables..
One spring day Robbie and his grandmother returned to the cottage from a ramble along the edge of the Wash… “We slipped quietly into the living room. The hearth gave off precisely the right warmth for an early May afternoon. A roll-your-own smouldered between my grandfather’s dozy fingers. On his lap I saw a spreadeagled..