Romantic and daring adventures--new tour!

Yesterday, I drove back to Saskatoon from Swift Current and witnessed the aftermath of a brutal winter storm. The wicked wind that tormented us for a couple days has yielded at last to a dead calm and bitter, biting cold. The silence and stillness makes the passing wind into a phantom, an act of the imagination if not for the wispy, whipped-cream peaks of snow drifts that formed in its wake.

It is a wake. For the two small girls who froze to death in the snow. For the cars cushioned by those snow drifts in the ditch. It is deathly calm. My early morning drive is made treacherous by the CBC who warns that it’s not just cold, it’s dangerous out there. The cold is all they talk of.

Today called for drastic measures to offset the colorless cold. I sought out therapy in the form of a greenhouse, a room off the side of the Mendel Art Gallery that is filled with plants and flowers. I sat there and let my body soak up color and humidity. And I dreamed of distant beaches and tropical places and felt a keen, persuasive guilt for not loving the winter, for being soft.

When I’ve sufficiently fooled my winter-tortured soul into complacency, I return to the business at hand. I am planning a romantic and grand adventure, a fantasy of Tolkien proportions! A CANADIAN TOUR! My companion Sam Mitchell and I will head out over the prairie, the badlands, the rockies this February and alight on Vancouver Island. We’ll return back to the prairies before I continue on to Ontario, along the lakes, traversing great distances to rescue the band. We shall encounter great and eccentric characters, survive tests of the will, achieve brilliant successes, unearth treasures, and exorcise demons.

To partake in this magnificent adventure, see the tour page for dates!