So I land in San Francisco to be confronted with the region's first rain in months. And there's lots of it; a dense semi-static matrix of little rain drops that hang in the air and wait for you to walk into them, which turns into a torrential downpour while on the coach to Santa Rosa. When we approach Golden Gate Bridge, I can only glimpse the beginning of it as the rest vanishes into fog. Not quite the welcome one hopes for. But then Aly picks me up off the bu...

I am glad that I re-experienced a québécois winter after over ten years of absence. I am even happier that I am leaving it. My friend from Northern California told me to bring something warm, it's been chilly over there, she says. I am willing to bet it is not -18˚C (plus wind factor). I think I'll manage. Today was my last day in Québec. What lovely activities did I get up to? I'll tell you. After I agreed to help him take some stuff over to his house, my...

It has been a while hasn't it? Happy New Year and all that. My resolution: no more two-month lapses between updates. (If you are yet to pick one, why not sign up at codeyear.com and get all down and technical? Don't worry, I have no idea why I am plugging it either.) The last six weeks or so have been short on adventure, taking things easy whilst staying with family in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu. Seeing my grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins and little cousins (little ...

First day of snow, last day of work, whilst finishing to put up the snow fences. There's some kind of poetic symmetry there, if that even exists, I think I may have just made that up. Except that I've then been asked to work one more day. If this was a book, well it might be described as a slow-starter but, also, it would not have that extra day. Speaking of writing, last weekend I went to dinner (mmm, fondu) and had the pleasure of working on an epic comic ...

One good thing about these few weeks of farm work is that I get to play at being a real man. Being an academic sitting, reading, thinking and writing (no so much the latter two) is all well and good, but at some point you've just got to grab a saw with a noisy motor and cut some heads. Of raspberry plants. Then spend the week wincing every time you grab, catch or pull something because you hurt your elbow due to poor technique with the heavy saw. Farm work is ...