TheKeswickBlog

I've lived a lot of days so far, and there are not as many that I remember as I thought that I would, but I do remember July 13, 1985 and this is why.

Today, we’re taking a trip down memory lane: July 13th 1985. My mum, my grandparents and I embarked on a month-long trip to England, France and Scotland, departing Toronto on July 2nd and our first stop was London England. And on this day, July 13, 1985, thirty-eight (38!! WTH !!) years ago, I was sitting in our hotel room, in London simultaneously examining my quasi-melted Jelly shoes (left them…

Most days I can stay home or in my car and do most of the stuff that I need to do in order to keep life going. Sometimes I need to venture outside of those safe places and do real adulting. Today was one of those days.

Talisman: noun 1. an object, typically an inscribed ring or stone, that is thought to have magic powers and to bring good luck. Ever since I was a little girl, my mother would “arm” me with talismans; for bravery, for courage, for comfort, for safety. Our talismans could take any number of forms, a tiny doll slipped into my pocket, a piece of jewellery, a hair clasp, a really great lipstick, a…

Day six

Still going strong. Day six and I’m staring down the word decompose because of course I am. The more I hope for cupcakes and sprinkles, the more twisted the words get. Decompose is a pretty hard word for the universe to throw at me today. Every time I turn around, I almost trip over another half-eaten critter that our cat has hunted down and murdered. It does not make for a relaxing stroll around…

Day five. Random word combined with random thoughts, ancient history and whinging. My superpowers know no boundaries.

I wish I could say that I was surprised, but honestly? I wasn’t. This is the most violent collection of random words I could reasonably land on without tampering with the results (well, without tampering save for that one day that I ran the random test three times. *shrug* I have been giving more thought to my idea of using the words of the day to compose a short story, poem, or paragraph at the…

Day four - Random word of the day. The trend towards the dark and sinister continues, much like the Southern Ontario heatwave. One, I can manage with ice cream. The other one, not so much.

Day four of posting random words and day two of this oppressively hot and humid Ontario summer weather. I know that I shouldn’t complain, because I complain enough during the winter months when it’s bitterly cold and I can no longer feel my fingertips, but complaining is one of my go-to past times, so here we are. In keeping with the emerging darker theme of this week, today my trusty index…

Day three- a new record. Have now kept my word (to myself) for three days without failing. Pretty sure this means absolutely nothing of importance and will likely fall flat on my face on day four. Oh, the suspense.

Well, I’ve made it. Day three and unfortunately the random words have not improved significantly. I suppose a bridge could be a positive thing, or at least a neutral object, but when combined with the words of the previous two days, I’m not feeling terribly optimistic. I saw the word bridge on the dictionary’s page under my finger, and I immediately pictured myself driving off a bridge, a la…

Random Word – Day 2 – SLOVEN

A new lease on life, that’s what this must be! I have now been consistent enough to post two days in a row, and kept my word about what the post would contain. Day three is still touch and go, but I’ll take the win of posting today instead of wallowing in anticipatory self-hatred over failing to post on day three. Today’s word is Sloven. It occurs to me as I’m sitting here that I am now two for…

My inability to put enough words together to produce anything remotely amusing has finally forced me to resort to investigating the words we use, because this situation cannot possibly be MY fault. Right?

So, while I try to rekindle my relationship with words and entice them to fall into sentences that I feel are marginally literate and moderately humorous, I’ve decided to commit to posting one random word of the day that teaches us about the history of the word, not merely the meaning. Because some people love history and some people hate history, but all people use words and knowing more about…

What is your on most eclectic mixed tape?

One morning this week, I had the house to myself. This is a rare and much appreciated happening. For the past two years, I’ve listened to audiobooks using earphones while cleaning and cookiing so as to not disturb or distract others in the house who doing homework or work-work or are maybe just slightly less interested in my literary choices than I (although why they wouldn’t be riveted, I…

I never handle it well when a cashier takes an instant dislike to me. Saturday night was no exception. Does this happen to everyone or is it just me?

For the past couple of years (read: COVID-years), Saturdays have been home made pizza/panzo and movie night around here. After I make everyone his/her dinner, I head down to Newmarket to do “the big” grocery shop at 2-4 stores, while my youngest four smalls (all now bigger than me) eat dinner and watch a movie with daddy. This past Saturday night, I toured the first of two planned store stops,…

This is a true story involving blood loss (mine) and detailing why I am probably not qualified to parent a parrot, never mind an actual human child, let alone five of them.

This is a true story. There is not one word of a lie, no single misleading statement nor exaggeration included herein. I was going to start this post with “Honestly” but remembered that is a sure fire way to know that there’s a lie coming your way. Maybe not a pack of lies, but at least one, hidden away on a plate of full and half-truths. And really, honestly, I just would not do that. Ha! See…

Since not all of us have it all together, up on the blog today are two July updates and a long-awaited realization. Stay golden xo

Updates on the blog are few and far between these days. Life is busy. Anxiety runs high while coping mechanisms continue to fail me. But that’s another post for another day, or not. Today, we have two updates in one post: First update: While this mummy doesn’t drink, she can relate to just about every single other thing in Why Mummy’s Sloshed, the fourth book in Gill Sims’ hilarious diary-style…

After an unprovoked attack on our apple trees last year, this year I decided to be proactive and try to defend them against our local deer gang. This is how it's going.

Last year we were shocked to discover that our apple trees had been brutalized. Small branches snapped, broken off, vandalized. Needless to say, after the carnage, we ended up with a total of three apples, from five trees. At first we thought that it was drunk teenagers, but having been teenagers once ourselves, it seemed a very lame thing to do and one that would afford a teenager zero street…