Hope for the Homeless

  This week I spotted chamomile growing in the alley near the homeless shelter. Always a little beauty to be found among the weeds and concrete. Chicken and penne were served for lunch. When they were depleted, a big stock pot of hearty vegetable soup was available, plus crackers. Big Ant and I cut up…

Pepper Mania!

It started innocently enough. Space was available in the garden for a few more plants. Surely, pepper plants wouldn’t take up much room. I went a little nuts at the garden centre. Yup, I bought Orange Blaze, Cute Stuff Red, Sweet Banana, Hungarian Wax and Jalapeno peppers. It was fun watching them develop into tiny…

Taking Charge!

The world is full of givers and takers. And the takers have no respect for boundaries. It was time to be responsible for my own happiness. I needed to weed out the negativity in my life. And, I knew just where to start. In the garden! But, I couldn’t do it alone. I enlisted my…

A Considerate Approach

Cheerful Brown-Eyed Susans greeted me as I walked through the alley to the homeless shelter. There’s always beauty in unexpected places. You just have to search for it. Not a lot of food on the menu today. However, in spite of there being only pasta, three types were available. Penne plus two pastas that looked…

Fragrance from Beyond

Ever find a scent can bring you back in time? Well, here’s a short, sweet tale for you. Years ago, my hubby, Guy mentioned how he collected flower seeds alongside his Mom as a boy. She would grow pink four o’clock flowers in their yard. When the fragrant blooms finished, a dark round seed could…

A Nurse’s Instinct

I couldn’t help myself. The nurse in me took over the other day. On my day off.  Nurses often invade other people’s personal space. From stripping a patient to get them into a Johnny shirt to performing procedures on them, it happens all the time. The encounter that day was just a minor invasion, mind…

Sunflowers in the Front Yard

When I was a young girl, my Dad told me we couldn’t plant sunflowers in the front yard. Well, I’m all grown up now. Rebel, rebel! There were a few shrubs on the corner of our front yard which had been irritating me. If I planted flowers nearby, they’d be eaten up by bugs attracted…

A Raincoat of Hope

If there’s beauty to be found in an alley with broken pavement near a shelter full of people with broken dreams, trust me to find it. Today, there was a strawberry yarrow plant growing wild. I’m not going to tell you how much I paid for a similar plant at a garden centre! It brightened…

A Profound Peace

“This is not going to end well.” That’s what I thought as the sudden, torrential downpour overcame us. My husband, Guy arrived home from work on Friday, asking if I felt like going for a road trip to London. He had recently dropped his surface tablet, a device similar to an iPad for those technologically…

A Heart of Gold

She’s done so much for others, struggled through more than a person should in life and still manages to keep on keeping on…Sarah-Lynn Ellis has volunteered at Street Help Homeless Centre in Windsor for years. She helps with cooking, serving, cleaning, handing out hygiene packages, washing dishes, sorting clothes, taking out the garbage and yup,…