Nature / Writing

Sunday September 25, 2011 Today was the annual Word on the Street (WOTS) National Book & Magazine Festival , which here in Toronto takes over Queen's Park.  Steve and I went out to enjoy some of our favourite things - literature, being outside, and food that isn't terribly good for us.  Here's what I came home with:   I'm pretty excited to now own both The Barracuda and The Armadillo , which are anthologies of teen writing that were created as part of the NOW HEAR THIS! literacy program.  But the truly serendipitous find was First In, Last Out - The RCAF, Women's Division and Nursing Sisters in World War Two, as this book is the perfect thing to help me research a play I've been working on. Plus, I even got it signed by the author! Oh, and on a less literary note, we also saw this bit of hilarity: I just hope no one gets confused about which porta-boxes are for withdrawals and which ones are for deposits...

Saturday September 24, 2011 This morning I took part in a Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup event, getting down n' dirty on the banks of the Mimico Creek (I'm not kidding about the dirty part - it poured rain for most of yesterday, so the mud was good and squelchy!) End result.  Go team ! Obviously I went into the event happy to be participating, but that was because I believe in the cause and was excited for the end result.  But I wasn't at it long before I realized I was actually enjoying the work itself. Snack food debris was plentiful, as were cigarette butts. First of all, I was out by the water on a downright glorious fall day.  Then there was the fact that picking up litter is one of those activities where you can see the impact you're having as you work, which is something I don't come by a lot as a writer.  Finally - and this part is a little weird, I admit - I liked that the cleanup involved clambering up and down muddy banks, digging out...