Sep 2, 2014AnnouncementsI’m giving away 5 free copies of The Serpentine Garden Path at Goodreads on October 1st. Check it out at Goodreads. All you have to do is...
Dec 9, 2013Successful LaunchI wanted to say thank you to all the people who showed up at my launch at First Metropolitan United on Friday. It was great to have so...
Sep 24, 2013Edmonton launchesMy visits to Edmonton are more about descendants than ancestors: my three children and now three grandchildren live here. So my time is...
Dec 3, 2012Choose Joy Before SurvivalI’ve been making the wrong choices ever since I was a child. I distinctly remember at the age of about six, when given the choice of...
Nov 23, 2012Back from the DeadThat title of this blog is facetious but there is some truth to it. I have just been on a one-week vacation to Maui. It was another...
Aug 9, 2012My first book on Amazon.comI’m excited to announce that you can now buy a hard copy of my book The Serpentine Garden Path from Amazon.com This is a prequel to A...
May 28, 2012The Difficulty of TitlesAs you know, my novel A Garden in the Wilderness was published by Borealis Press recently. It did not always have that title. I...
Feb 29, 2012The Serpentine Path now available!I am pleased to announce that my book The Serpentine Path has now been e-published and is available at Smashwords. The Serpentine Path is...
Jul 22, 2010The Importance of MemoirWhat treasures do you keep hidden in your memory that future generations would love to uncover? In my blog, I have already told how I...
Apr 26, 2010Pigging out in the Eighteenth CenturyMeat was the staple of eighteenth century meals– meat, meat and more meat. Although the poor might have only two types of meat at a meal,...
Apr 19, 2010Scottish Wedding TraditionsScottish wedding traditions are pretty bizarre. If you’re planning a wedding and have some Scottish ancestry (or even if you don’t) you...
Apr 13, 2010In the Shadow of RevolutionThe great events of our time colour who we are and shape us in ways to do not recognize. The American Revolution was in full swing when...
Apr 5, 2010Tartan DayTomorrow is Tartan Day, and I want to honour that “holiday” by talking about my Scottish protagonist John Dean and explaining why the...
Mar 31, 2010Elopement as Theft of PropertyUnsuitable love matches must have been a problem in England in the 18th century because a law was passed in 1753 making marriage without...
Mar 23, 2010The Masquerade at Vauxhall GardenThe masquerade needs to experience a revival as a form of popular entertainment. I can’t think of anything more fun than dressing up in...
Mar 16, 2010Gardening in the 18th CenturyI did a lot of research for The Pleasure Gardeners Companion. There are two really important books that I am greatly indebted to. One is...
Mar 9, 2010Susan Kirke Dean: RevolutionaryYesterday was International Women’s Day. It reminded me how far we’ve come as women in the west even since I was a girl. But we should...
Mar 5, 2010The Pleasure Gardener’s CompanionI was doing some genealogical research, you know, dry dates of marriages and deaths, when I came across a juicy story. I have been...