Shannon Mckinnon

In a jam and a pickle too

The weekend was going to be busy. Peas were hanging fat and ready on the vine; another few days and their sweet promise that kept me kneeling in the cold winds of May marching those wrinkled seeds down their row would be all for naught.

Fire!

Everyone knows that when you check into a hotel the first thing you do is carefully examine the back of your door and note the closest fire exits.

Whatever happened to me?

“People used to have time to live and enjoy themselves, but there is not time anymore for anything but work, work, work. I was wishing I had lived altogether in those good old days when people had time for things they wanted to do.”

Apologies to Gus

In the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding the father is convinced that Windex fixes everything from psoriasis to poison ivy to bruises to the common zit. Whenever an ailment arises he says with great conviction, “Put some Windex on it.”

Shannon gets her groove, her bees and her horse back

In the first days of August our farm finds its groove.

Lacking the garden tour disposition

Every summer I look forward to the garden tours in our area.

Close encounters of the wild kind

I’ve had a very animal-filled day. With horses, sheep, chickens, dogs and a cat you could say every day is animal filled around here, but this day was more about wildlife than the domestic type.

A river runs through it

This morning I got up, made a cup of tea, leaned against the kitchen counter and took in the view of the river-fed lake below our cabin.

The mother of all rain cheques

Up here in the Peace Country we have had three drought years in a row. The fire pit we bought in 2009 has never had a fire in it.

Baad man in the neighbourhood

There’s a baad man on the loose in our neighbourhood. He’s been stopping his truck at the end of our driveway to baa at our sheep.

Happy Father’s Day Dad

With Father’s Day coming up it seems a fitting time to pay tribute to my dad.

Is that you Karl?

The snow has only disappeared for three weeks and already our yard has gone wild.

Good people aren’t hard to find

The cliché “if it bleeds it leads” is often used to describe the focus of the nightly news.

Beehiving myself

My bees arrived yesterday after a very long trip.

Finding the Zen in chicken poop

My hopes of being a beekeeper instead of a beehaver are over.

Spring pockets

Spring is coming slow here in northern B.C. with daytime highs of five or six and lows in the –7 C range.

I’m fine — never mind the blood

It stands to reason there must be people who are comfortable enough with attention and drama to tell the truth when they are hurt, but I have never met one.

Stove whisperer

You know it’s been a long winter when your spouse comes home, announces he has just bought several years worth of firewood at once and all you can think is he should have bought more.

An escalating phobia

Tyra Banks is terrified of dolphins, Orlando Bloom is scared of pigs, Oprah Winfrey has a phobia of gum, and Woody Allen … well, according to one source the iconic director is afraid of insects, sunshine, dogs, deer, bright colours, children, heights, small rooms, crowds and every place in the world except Manhattan.

No spring in my step … or my future

Well, March is here, it’s 35 below, the snow has been falling for more than 12 hours and I now realize that spring will never come.