Five Fast Facts for Friday: Adele
Adele debuted in 2008 and has become one of the world’s top singer-songwriters. There are many fascinating facts about Adele that you may not know: Adele often imitated the Spice Girls and loved to...
Have you finished reading Salamander Rescue? Here’s a new QUIZ!
Are you ready for a challenge? If you have finished reading my newest chapter book, Salamander Rescue, try this new quiz to see how much you remember. I’ve included questions about the characters, Waterton,...
In Search of Little Free Libraries
This weekend we went on a scavenger hunt of sorts, on the quest for Little Free Libraries in our neighbourhood. Trekking up and down streets we’ve never explored, we followed tips from neighbours, leading...
Have you met Taco-Charlie?
If you go to Lethbridge, you must visit Taco-Charlie at the Helen Schuler Nature Centre. During my book tour this month, my time in Lethbridge was limited and I had to make a choice:...
A Whirlwind Weekend
It really was a whirlwind weekend for my book tour through southern Alberta as I dodged tornado warnings and golf-ball sized hail! Parks Day 2016 in Waterton was bigger and better than 2014, when...
Amphibian or Reptile: Can you tell the difference?
Here’s a pop quiz – just like in school, when your teacher tests you before the lesson, just to see how much you already know (or don’t know). This is just like that. Take...
Wild ID – more than a mug shot
Long-toed salamanders are pretty distinctive. The vivid yellow stripe is a sure giveaway, as is the long toe on each back foot. But how did researchers in Waterton distinguish one long-toed salamander from the...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Landslides
Often, the deadliest landslides happen with little warning. I have driven through the Frank Slide in the Crowsnest Pass many times and always find it quite eerie to consider that some of the town’s...
BOOK LAUNCH for Salamander Rescue
I hope you will join me for the launch of Salamander Rescue on Tuesday, May 10, 7:00 – 8:30pm at Owl’s Nest Books in Calgary. I’ll talk a bit about Waterton’s salamanders, read some...
Today is Bear Day
“Why is Dad standing outside with the pole for the umbrella?” “What?” I turned the water off and shook my hands dry. There were no paper towels in the campground washrooms. As I turned...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Japan
I visited Japan in 1991 and found it was a country of paradoxes – the latest in high tech devices sold a block away from a centuries-old temple, and brides dressed in traditional red...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Anne Frank
Anne Frank’s story is well-known around the world. Here are five fast facts you may not know: In 2013, more than one million people visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. The play, The...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Manta Rays
When I’m swimming in the ocean, it’s always in the back of my mind that a ray could be underfoot. They’re flat, well-camouflaged and downright scary. Remember how Steve Irwin died? As I researched...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Flight
If you could become an animal, what would you choose? I would like to be a bird, able to soar over mountains and deserts. When I was researching facts for this book, I discovered many...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Gorillas
I could watch the gorillas at the zoo for hours. Did you know they are the largest of the apes and live only in the forests of Africa? Here are a few more facts about gorillas:...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Gemstones
Minerals that are beautiful, durable and rare are called gemstones. Here are a fewthings you might not know about gemstones: The Star of India is the world’s largest sapphire. It was discovered more than...
Looking for Winter in Waterton
Resolution #1 : Embrace Winter What better place to strengthen my resolve than Waterton Lakes National Park? Six-foot drifts and a weekend on snowshoes should do the trick. I had never visited Waterton in...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Hibernation
It’s winter, and I would dearly love to curl up with a blanket and hibernate. But…in true hibernation, an animal is close to death. Its heart and breathing almost stop. Here are five fast...
Revision – aka catching all the boo-boos
I’ve been up to my elbows in the muck of revision for a few weeks now. I started off looking at the forest, or the big picture. Have I built tension? Have the characters...
DDT and the Osprey
DDT has a nasty reputation. Probably the most commonly-known fact about DDT is that it caused prey bird populations to plummet in the 1960s and 70s. Birds that ingested DDT produced eggs that were...
Saving Salamanders
Last month, I swung a pulaski for the first time. Okay, not so much swung it, as hacked and chopped and dug with it as I helped repair the salamander fences and tunnels in...
Keeping Ospreys Safe
Birds nest in the strangest places – like the robin that built its nest in our canoe once, and the dove that decided to nest on my parents’ front door. Yup, right on the...
A Fun Photo Shoot
My second chapter book, Salamander Rescue, will be out next spring – yahoo! – and I thought I should update my author photo. Perhaps something with a little more character. A little more fun. A...
Airborne Predators
Ospreys are hunters, or, more accurately, fishers. They are birds of prey, after all. Other birds of prey, like eagles, hawks, falcons, and owls, hunt a variety of other critters, which helps keep an...
