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I have a daughter who loves to walk in the rain. Not in a raging thunderstorm, of course; that's just silly; but in one of those gentle English kind of sprinkles. Boy, is she happy this spring. Ask anyone around here and you will hear the same song. Everyone's singing in the rain these days.  Spring, the season we yearn for, the season when we come out of hibernation to enjoy warming temperatures and sunlight, has been a bit of a disappointment this year. Waking to another rainy morning we glance hopefully at The Weather Network's long-term forecast and are delighted to see promises of sunshine. Our hopes, however, are ultimately washed away with the dawn of each new gloomy morn.  It would be a good year, therefore, to try to discover the charm my daughter has found in a rain shower. And what would that be, you might well ask? There is something cleansing about the rain, she says. A stroll in misty or gentle raindrops makes her feel refreshed and renewed.  A heavi

I'm moving in on some vacation time — a few brief days away at a favourite destination. I'd lived a long time without seeing the beautiful French River even though it was only a few hours away. It wasn't until my daughter met her future husband that I became acquainted with it. He, an avid outdoorsman, had been camping, portaging and fishing there for years. To say he met his match in our girl is an understatement. A 5', blue-eyed, blonde, she might not have looked rugged, but she certainly loved the life. Swimming at dawn in icy water,  jumping into rapids, camping in the woods and doing what the bears most assuredly do there, was her idea of a perfect holiday. Add in the natural splendour of the picturesque French and the love affair wasn't just with her new beau. It was there that he proposed and there that they married.  Their weekend celebration was our first trip to the French and like them, we fell in love. So much so that like them we return every year

Way back when, when I was a young girl, I used to spend part of my summer vacation each year with my cousin. I was the town mouse, she the country one. I loved visiting the farm.  There seemed to be endless spaces to explore,  extra hours in a day and imaginative ways to use the former and spend the latter.  We added some burlap and binder twine to the side of an empty stall and voila — we had a horse. Climbing into the hayloft was a whole new world of adventure. Fishing in the stream with a string and stick, eating green apples in the orchard or simply lying in a field and looking at the clouds filled each day with imagination and freedom. Even chores were better in the country. For example, the promise of being able to use the chicken coop if we swept it out was very exciting news.  The fact that by the time we had finished there was no time to play and the next day the coop was full of chickens again didn't seem to faze us. And going to the garden to pick vegetables or b

After losing her lovely cat Hannah a few years ago, it took some time before our daughter could convince her new husband that they needed another feline friend. When she finally got the okay,  which happened with the promise that they would name the poor creature Stir-Fry, there was no question where she would go to find one. A visit to the shelter and a crazy little grey bundle of psychotic energy had a new home and plenty of love. Giving a homeless kitten the chance for a quality life has always been important to my girl. Having volunteered at the SPCA she understands the need. Her beloved Hannah, who even this dog lover admits was a pretty cool cat, came from a shelter, so there was no reason to think a shelter animal deserves any less consideration than one from a breeder or from a loving home. June is Adopt a Shelter Cat Month.  If you're thinking about getting a pet, keep in mind there are millions of kittens out there right now waiting to be adopted by a loving famil