Libraries are lifesavers

by Thomas Smith Having fun isn’t hard, when you’ve got a library card. I love libraries. Ever since I was a kid, libraries have been a happy and welcoming space. Every time I enter, I…

A time for ad blockers

From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. It’s the curling bonspiel season and I’ve been watching a lot of the games on television. Exciting to watch, but too much time in front of the TV…

The bird warning us

From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. It’s been an odd winter and as it fades into spring it seems to be getting odder. One of this winter’s oddest things is the absence of birds.…

Whither goes the Frost Centre?

From Shaman's Rock by Jim Poling Sr. It was roughly one year ago that I wrote about the dark, worried feelings I had about the Frost Centre on St. Nora Lake just south of Dorset.…

Baby’s first Snowball

by Thomas Smith This weekend marked my first ever Dorset Snowball. I must say, I am thoroughly impressed. Mother Nature luckily cooperated for my first ever Snowball and provided said snow to make said balls.…

A Valentine’s Day pondering

by Thomas Smith I am a hopeless romantic. Some may call me a sucker that falls for clever marketing. Jewelry, chocolates, flowers, cards. Do I get one of everything, or will they want one of…

Ban dangerous hockey violence

From Shaman's Rock by Jim Poling Sr. The fighting in hockey debate is raging again, intensified by a recent ugly Pacific Junior Hockey League brawl. A player grabbed an opposing team’s goaltender in a guillotine…

See you soon

by Emily Stonehouse I’ve been keeping a secret.Well, as much of a secret as you can when you have a very public-facing job and are active on social media. So really, not much of a…

Will rainbows replace the snow?

From Shaman's Rock by Jim Poling Sr. If you think this winter and last were strange, you “ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”Our winters are going to get warmer and wetter, the wet becoming more rain as…

Good luck, millennials

By Emily Stonehouse Aging has been on my mind this week.  Perhaps it’s the upcoming Aging Together as Community conference slated for this coming weekend. Or maybe it’s the multiple events that happened the past…

Buffalo story offers hope

From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. We live in an increasingly crazy world that some believe is on a fast track to extinction. Perhaps, but despite humanity’s destructive tendencies you have to believe the…

The importance of snow

From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. Many folks are cheering the recent arrival of snow that has been missing for most of this unusual winter. Lack of snow in October, November and December has…

Cuts and bruises

By Emily Stonehouse “It is literally impossible to be a woman.”  And so begins the monologue delivered by America Ferrara in the movie Barbie, that graced theatres this past summer, and rattled hearts, bones, and…

Transparency

By Emily Stonehouse We’ve all seen them.  Those word searches, plastered on the screens of social media, running rampant this time of year with promises that the first three words you spot will be the…

Our roadside shame

From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. The exceptionally late arrival of winter’s snow has covered up Canada’s dirty little secret: We are not holier than other countries when it comes to garbage. Especially the…

Hearts and bones

By Emily Stonehouse You’re not really supposed to write about seasonal things in an editorial. It’s usually supposed to be some sort of stance. And in writing editorials, it turns out that I have no…

O Night Divine!

From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. (I have written and told this story many times. Christmas would not be Christmas without telling it again.) --- Fresh fallen snow protested beneath my gumboots breaking trail…

A Christmas boost

By Emily Stonehouse We’re in that time of year where we all need a little boost. Energy is low, prices are high, and infections are steadily climbing.  “‘Tis the season” we hear repeatedly. “It’s going…

Mysteries with a bonus

From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. We tend to think of global warming and climate change as some new development, It’s not. There have been warnings about it going back many decades. You find…

To tie or not to tie

From Shaman’s Rock By Jim Poling Sr. Society’s deep thinkers have varying theories on the three stages of life. Like childhood, adulthood, and old age. Or, learning, working, and teaching. I discovered a theory of…

Know better, do better

By Emily Stonehouse We’re all allowed to make mistakes. Allowed to not know everything that may traipse on toes and ruffle feathers along the way.  But the way we raise our kids is that once…