Lise's Ramblings

Last year, I signed up for the 50bookpledge . I wasn't just setting a goal, I wanted to track what I read during 2017. The site provides visual shelves showing the titles: I want to read I'm currently reading I've read If I had remembered to log every book, I'm sure that my total would've exceeded the 32 titles listed on my 2017 bookshelf. At a glance, it looks like I missed last year's goal, although I earned several badges along the way. Oh, how the Girl Guide in me enjoyed those carrots. I look back on 2017 without regrets. I consider myself fortunate to have squirrelled away time to read more than 32 books, including ones by new-to-me authors. This year, I not only resolve to read 50 books, but I'll also remember to enter more of the titles online, so that I may share what I'm reading as the months unfold. Plus, my year-end shelf will better reflect my books of 2018. So far, I'm on track. I've finished one book (Johansen'

My freelance business, Plum Copy , has flourished since 2013. While I'm grateful to my clients and everyone who has encouraged me along the way, I've neglected my extracurricular writing. So, I'm rebooting my blog for 2018, this time with a bookish focus. Given that I consider myself an Island girl at heart, if not by birth, it's fitting to kickstart my first entry with a quote from an author who introduced readers worldwide to Prince Edward Island. Here's to the year ahead and all 365 days with no mistakes in them yet.  And cheers to the takeaways we'll learn from the mistakes we'll inevitably make. 

Thousands of Canadian students heeded the 2013  Doodle 4 Google   invitation to draw an invention they would like to see created.  Up for grabs: scholarship money, a trip to Toronto, public viewing of the doodle online and in the Royal Ontario museum, a swag bag, plus a chance at fame. The ultimate finalist's doodle will appear as Google's home page for a day.  Reality Reading - invention drawn by an Atlantic Canadian student Now, you're invited to choose the national finalists from among the creative kindergarten to grade-12 students  who participated in the contest .  You can easily vote in the time it takes you to brew your morning coffee.   Simply select your favourite entry from each of  five groups (Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies, BC and the North). That means you pick five Google Doodle regional finalists. A jury and guest judges, including Chris Hadfield, already shortlisted thousands of entries down to a top-25 list.    I was blown away by

In five-cent increments, the twitterverse buzzed with tweets that will make millions of dollars flow to support mental health.  From a social-media metrics perspective, the #BellLetsTalk (French version #BellCause) garnered impressive reach, which rivalled #SOTU for President Obama's State of the Union address. Even by adding the long form (#stateoftheunion), as of this morning there was only a five-million gap between the BellLetsTalk hashtag and the State of the Union hashtags. Impressive. How did it happen? Collective thanks to major leaguers, mobile technology, multitudes of do-gooders and an annual marketing campaign for all the activity on January 28, 2014.  Entertainers like William Shatner, Jann Arden and Ellen Degeneres encouraged their fans to retweet the #BellLetsTalk messages about mental health. Thousands upon thousands of followers responded. Millions in all. Who else helped the cause? Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. Olympian Clara Hughes. NHL franchis

When the Swedish Academy announced Alice Munro earned the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature, stores scrambled to add her books to prominent online and in-store displays. As you can see from my bookshelf, I am among the legions of fans of Munro’s remarkable stories.      CBC will dedicate this week’s Sunday Edition to Canada’s short-story maven.  Congratulations, Alice, a deserved win.

The Veendam: 2013's first cruise ship in our port As an avid birder, I welcome the sight of returning warblers, hummingbirds, terns and plovers. At this time of year, they charm me more than usual.  Soon they’ll flock to our woods and shores in greater numbers, but for now I count every migratory songbird or endangered shorebird I spot.  Gardens have harbingers of warmer days too. Well before anything else grows outdoors, those crocuses, daffodils and hyacinths paint our yards with colour. Last year, I blogged about spring peepers , amphibians that are shorter than your pinkie finger. These frogs overcompensate for their diminutive size with a trill chorus to mark the season. I know to take out my spring jackets when I hear the male peepers.     Our longer stretches of sunshine and spring weather also mean retro cars escape from winter storage, cruise ships return to our ports, crab and lobster boats set out to sea, and farmers return to their fields.