I can’t help it. This is just what I saw. For the last little while I have been lucky enough to live around the corner from an old park. It is lovely to take a stroll in on a Saturday afternoon and it has two cafés that will serve you a cold bier or a delicious hugo (one of several revelations we have enjoyed in the past two years). The Augarten is the park that Mozart walked in, relaxing and thinking up his next composition. It is disorienting to think of going for a walk in Mozart’s footsteps, but it’s…

I am in Portugal for a short visit with family, and the country has so much character. Ceramic tiles are everywhere, adding art and beauty to building exteriors and interiors.

In the springtime’s sun and its youthful strength. Here’s a shaded spot in which to carry out – My private Rite of Spring. Cautiously I carry my precious pots. Out from their winter corner. Blue and red glaze to adorn my front steps. Reversing their Autumnal journey. (They retire in the days before All-Hallows. To save damage from visiting cowgirls and batmen). Back then, green stalks stripped bare of edible leaves. First grubs then drab October mouldered the rest. February’s cruel breath dried all to a crackle. Now, last year’s herbs are haunting still. Parsley transformed, a pale fluttering phantom….

Last summer in the vertical heat of a noon sun. I walked – my doctor had told me to walk – the streets near our house. Under beating rays, sweat beads came easily, trickling my temples. Each corner familiar, same sights same pace, a ritual. I was never so happy as that summer (colon cancer notwithstanding). My gift: the days and weeks of time, alone, with friends, for me to fill with words and music. Withstanding colon cancer I walked the streets near our house. My slow pace delivered contemplation, new sights same place, a ritual. The vacant lot on…

It is not often that someone gets an opportunity to be present at a moment that will be remembered later as a piece of history, but that was how it felt to be in the control room of the NRU reactor on the evening of 2018 March 31st. As planned, the nuclear research reactor was shut down for the last time that evening, ending a period of more than 60 years throughout which NRU made substantial contributions to the quality of life of people all around the world. When NRU was constructed and first operated in 1957, there were about…

I was so happy that the TED organization released this video the day before our 60th anniversary celebrations for the NRU Research Reactor on 2017 November 3rd. It is easy to demonstrate that NRU is the most productive science facility in Canada. Half a billion patient treatments is a massive contribution to people around the world. I am proud to have worked there.