5 Ways to Get Excited About Fall

Published in The Packet

Like Anne of Green Gables, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” This month is flying by in a blur of gorgeous foliage, costume making, and chilly back yard romps with the dog.

If you don’t find yourself gushing about the arrival of fall, here are five effortless ways to crush your ambivalence.

Bake pumpkin muffins. I promised these suggestions would be effortless, so if you don’t have at your disposal a great-great grandmother’s treasured recipe with fifteen ingredients in it, feel free to use my two-ingredient recipe. Mix a yellow cake mix with a can of pure pumpkin, plop it in a muffin tin, and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. If you’re feeling really fancy, add some chocolate chips. One bite of this moist, delicious, treat will have you reveling in pumpkin season.

If you don’t have half an hour to spend baking, spend a few seconds to light a pumpkin scented candle. The dim, romantic flickering of a flame and the smell of pumpkin pie provides a quick treat to the senses. The smell will remind you of scrumptious baked goods and Thanksgiving feasting. It might also stir up your libido. A few years ago The Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago discovered that the scent of pumpkin pie increases sexual desire in women and penile blood flow in men. Who knew fall was such a sexy season?

Take a walk with your camera. The crisp air will awaken your senses. Plus, there is something about looking at the world through a lens that encourages you to slow down and notice the minute details of fall that we ordinarily drive past without a second thought.  Delicate acorns, the veins within the showy leaves, early morning frost on dead tree branches, are visual poetry for you to discover.

It is hard to not associate the arrival of fall with returning to school. This fall, awaken the old school-age rhythms within you and go learn something new. Try attending a martial arts class, make something crafty, or pick up a musical instrument. With kids in school, many parents have more time in their schedules to check out classes for themselves that conveniently start new fall schedules.

My favorite thing to do in October is to enjoy a good mystery. Read a gothic thriller, have a Harry Potter movie marathon, or watch BBC’s Sherlock on Netflix. It doesn’t matter how you experience the mystery or who you experience it with, so long as you enjoy your mystery curled up under a blanket, preferably with a bowl of popcorn and a cup of hot chocolate.

Happy fall friends!

Fostering Love for Three Little Kittens

Published in The Packet

I’ve been hanging out with three eight-week-old kittens named Nate, Nikala and Niah. They were strays found in Norman’s Cove with their mother and rescued by the SPCA. We are their foster family.

I feel like I’m living in a Beatrix Potter story when I watch these kittens. They are grey, white and precious with distinct personalities and a penchant for trouble.  In just two days after arriving in our home, they’d managed to get trapped in the Tupperware cabinet, sneak into my daughter’s crib for a long nap, use the basketball net as their own personal Bowflex machine, knock over a shelf of DVDs, and fall into a bag of dog food. Most of the time the three cats form one cuddly grey mass of fur that sleeps contentedly on the couch.

Is there a sound in the world more satisfying than the purr of a happy, dozing cat?

It has been amazing watching these wild little stray babies grow fatter and more comfortable around people.

Nate is the most relaxed cat I’ve ever met. He made friends with my Golden Retriever right away. He watches television with my toddler while simultaneously serving as her pillow. He greets my husband at the door at the end of the workday. He has an endearing, unkempt appearance owing to his tufty fur poking out in every direction. Nate’s meow is so pathetic; you can’t help but spoil him.

His sisters’ were more standoffish when they arrived. They spent the first day under the entertainment stand, hissing at us whenever we drew near.

But in two days, Nikala became my buddy. She purrs when I’m near, and she shadows me from room to room. She is an elegant “aristocat,” who seems readily aware of how gorgeous she is. She preens in front of windows. She stretches like a yogi. She keeps her brother and sister in line.

Then there is little Niah, a feisty tiger-striped pipsqueak. On the hunt at all times, Niah stalks houseflies, her shadow, reflections, her siblings, the dog’s wagging tail, her own tail, and anything else that catches her eye. Niah enjoys the comforts of home. She will burrow into anything fluffy and warm, but don’t expect her to relax on your lap. This is a cat that appreciates her personal space, and is very respectful of yours. 

I’m hoping these darlings get adopted soon, even though they will be hard to part with. The SPCA is currently offering a buy one get one free special on all cats, because there are so many in need of homes. They are also searching for more foster families who can take in mother cats and their nursing babies, until they are old enough to be adopted.

For more information on adoption or fostering animals, contact the SPCA at (709) 466-3489.

Air Travel with Toddlers

Published in The Packet

I just flew back from England, and boy, are my arms tired! Okay, bad joke. Still, my arms are tired from wrangling my toddler on the plane for six hours.

I’ve flown alone with my daughter over the past year and a half at least sixteen times. The older she gets, the more challenging it becomes, but I’ve picked up some tips for traveling with a toddler that I thought I’d share in case you happen to find yourself in that unenviable situation.

First off, don’t try to plan your fight schedule around nap time. It’s not worth the extra effort, because inevitably the flight will be delayed, or your child will get sleepy in the airport and wake up just in time for the flight.

Be selective about the things you bring to entertain your child on the plane, and relax some of your parenting rules. I make an effort to limit screen time in our house, but when I travel, my I-Pad is stocked with movies and television shows from I-Tunes. If she spends every hour of the trip with her eyes glued to the screen, I consider it nothing short of a miracle.

I also try to keep my daughter from eating a lot of processed food at home, but when we fly it’s a junk-food paradise in my purse. I try to avoid things that are messy or sticky, but a can of cheese puffs and a bag of M&Ms do wonders to keep a kid quiet. I’ve also heard that candy necklaces and bracelets are great for plane travel because it takes forever to bite the candies off, and kids feel like they got a little present. I take advantage of the fact that you can bring extra water when traveling with a baby, and bring extra bottles for her and myself. I avoid bringing sippy cups with straws, because the pressure on the plane causes them to spit water everywhere.

I’ve learned that matchbox cars and packs of crayons are a disaster on a plane because once they fall off the seat they are gone forever. Stickers are your best friends. Colored round office stickers and puffy cat stickers from The Dollar Store are endlessly amusing for a toddler, and they don’t weigh down your bag or roll away.

If you are lucky to have a little girl and the weather is warm, have them wear sandals and a dress to minimize the amount of clothes removed during a diaper change. If you are traveling with a toddler boy, try a onesie.

 I always change my baby midway through the flight. It gives you a chance to stretch your legs, it gives the baby something new to look at, and it gives those sitting around you a small break from your be-stickered little darling. Plus, you feel like a superhero when you’ve managed to get the diaper changed in that tiny closet of a bathroom. Bring plastic bags to put soiled or wet clothes in, and to put diapers in before throwing them away.

Odds are, your toddler will get frustrated at being stuck on your lap for hours on end and will let everyone on the plane know it. There is nothing you can really do, except hope that those around you have been in a similar situation before and can sympathize. Karma will take care of those folks who show you their irritation- usually single, childless passengers who will one day have a kid who is just as charming on airplanes as your kid is. Remind yourself that the flight won’t last forever. I’ve become very good at disassociating myself from my baby’s wailing. It takes some practice, but eventually you’ll find yourself acting like the crying you hear is coming from some other child. I’ve also heard of parents buying packs of earplugs for those around them, and passing them out at the beginning of the flight.

We’re flying again in September. If you have any additional ideas for surviving air travel with a toddler, please send them my way.

Bon voyage!

52:49

Newfoundland is 

lots of couch time. 

It's not healthy, but our favorite past time is television. We finished the most recent season of Arrested Development and have started rewatching the old episodes. We're also watching Newsroom in the hopes of finding something smart to fill the void left by the season finale of Mad Men. Now that I have HBO, I can find out what the fuss is over Girls. 

I know I should be outside doing something instead of devoting all these hours to our big black box. Or at least exercising while watching this stuff. But at the end of a long day, is anything more satisfying than cuddling next to someone on the couch, leaving your world for a little while, and entering another world together.

Gardening in Newfoundland

Published in The Packet

Gardening in Newfoundland has me completely stumped.

I’ve admitted in past columns to making decisions for our yard based on whatever our next-door neighbours are doing to theirs. If they rake their lawn, we know we probably should go buy a rake. It’s not the most scientific method of lawn care, but it seems to work.

I’m most confused by when to plant things. Everyone I talk to tells me not to plant anything until after Father’s Day, because that’s when you know we’re safe from sudden frosts.

Last year, I heeded this advice and waited until the Monday after Father’s Day to do my gardening, only to discover that all the plants in Clarenville had been picked over. I brought some scraggly looking Petunias home with me from Walmart, and hoped they’d perk up with time and water. They didn’t.

I had this ridiculous paranoia that everyone told me to wait to buy my flowers, so they could get to the good flowers first, and that gardening was a more cutthroat affair than I had realized. 

Then I realized I was being melodramatic and egotistical (as usual) and surely the entire town hadn’t banded together with the shared goal of making my garden looked terrible. That would be crazy! Right? Right??

I am new to gardening. My parents like to garden, but they live in warm, wet Florida. Almost any plant down there can grow almost anywhere. I’m serious. My husband once had mushrooms grow through his bathroom tiles. I attribute my parents’ success with plants to a lucky climate, and can’t rely on them for Newfoundland gardening advice.

I have to rely on books, the Internet, and chats with locals in the Sobey’s checkout line to answer my questions.

When do I plant perennials? What about vegetables? What’s the deal with all this grass liming?

The thing is, there really isn’t that much information out there. Maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places. I find that I frequently miss out on troves of valuable information, because I’m not sure where to find it. People in Clarenville know what is going on based on word of mouth, but not much else.

This makes it very hard for anyone who isn’t a local to feel included. For example, I am “friends” with the Town of Clarenville on Facebook. Clearly we’re not besties, because despite searching their page from top to bottom, last year, I couldn’t figure out where to go to celebrate Clarenville Day and what time the event started.

I wanted to celebrate you, Clarenville, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that!

Let me get back to gardening. I recently asked my neighbour to give a gardening seminar to me and other newcomers to the island, who are trying to figure out when to put on out gardening gloves. I think she thought I was kidding.

I wish I could rely on the gardening inventory at local stores. It’s like Kent, Walmart and Canadian Tire are giving me permission to fill my window boxes and back yard with the colorful blooms I’ve been craving for months. Every time I go out, I feel the urge to fill my trunk with the beautiful plants in stores right now.

Maybe I’ll buy all the best trays of flowers, and keep them indoors until it’s safe for them outside at night. I picture myself laughing maniacally, surrounded by my bounty of peonies, and screeching, “NOW WHOSE GARDEN IS THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL?” as lightning flashes and thunder roars.

Or maybe I’ll just wait until Father’s Day.