My daughter’s steep-sided backyard in California has a strangely shaped tree. It grows out of the hillside naturally but then bends forms an arch and follows the ground down the hill to the patio. This…

By Jim Poling Nov. 24 2016 I am strolling North Oakland California watching people drink coffee eat ice cream cones and chat about the weather. Any anxiety over the country having elected a president suffering…

Lessons from the back 40 By Jim Poling Published Nov. 17 2016 Blue jays are such contradictory creatures. I’m not thinking baseball’s Blue Jays who hit everything out of the park one day but can’t…

Red squirrels always have been well a bit squirrelly but this fall they are completely crazy. They are high in the hemlocks gorging seeds then leaping bough to bough and kuk-kuking incessantly. They are in…

For some seven years what was once the Beaver Theatre has stood shuttered and silent like a ghost along Minden’s Water Street. The boards that cover its entranceway have become such a normalized part of…

I took  a ride with The Girl on the Train but found the journey a bit too long. The Girl on the Train is the hugely successful thriller by British author Paula Hawkins. When it was released…

It was a week of good news and bad news. First came the good and surprising news that singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel prize for literature. Dylan’s songs changed popular culture. His lyrics…

Finally there is an escape route from the nightmare in the United States. How did we not think of it before? It has been in front of us for 10 months. The nightmare of course…

By Jim Poling Sr Published Oct 6 2016 I sit straight up in bed wide awake even before my eyes open. They don’t need to be open because it is 6 a.m. and pitch black.…

The good thing about Trump By Jim Poling Published Sept. 29 2016 T he rise of Trumpism with all its anger fear wild exaggerations and other hateful negatives is a good thing. Yes a good…

By Jim Poling Published Sept. 22 2016 Like a lot of folks there was a time when I never went to bed without watching CBC’s The National . Like a lot of people now I…

By Jim Poling Published Sept. 15 2016 Oh! What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. Sir Walter Scott had never heard of Ontario when he wrote that line for his play…

Summer its days fading quickly has been generous and kind this year. Sunshine aplenty but without the scorching heat predicted to become a regular feature of climate change. Gardens have done well despite slightly less…

Their work for the year almost done the  yellow jacket wasps now have time to explore human spaces and the leftovers they contain. There is much to explore. Fruit is ripening on the trees and…

Blink a couple of times and the fall hunting season will be here. So it’s time to start checking the hunting gear. It used to be enough to check just the shotguns rifles ammos knives…

One hundred and two years ago - at 1 p.m. on Sept. 1 to be exact - someone walked past the Cincinnati Zoo bird cage and saw Martha on the cage floor drumsticks up. Martha…

There are moments when you miss the ‘good old days.’ Well maybe just pieces of the ‘good old days.’ We live in times with so many important issues to talk about. So many challenges to…

By Jim Poling Published Aug. 4 2016 In Cooperstown New York it’s all baseball. All baseball all the time. All baseball everywhere. I’m part of the baseball mania here cheering for my grandson and his…

By Jim Poling Published July 28 2016 Just when you think the world has enough to worry about . . . . Now it seems our planet is running out of sand. Yes sand. Who…

Mr. Mercedes would wear a smile wide as a western horizon if he travelled Haliburton County roads this summer. So many potential victims to choose from. Joggers walkers cyclists. All poised to be smacked down…