One day at a time
When I was in my hometown of Toronto in April, I looked for spring flowers on my daily walks.
Daffodils greeted me in front yards on McRoberts Avenue.
Purple beauties peeked through greenery on McRoberts Avenue.
Pink magnolia flowers bloomed on trees on McRoberts Avenue.
At Prospect Cemetery, white magnolia flowers adorned a tree. Fallen white magnolia flowers covered the green grass under the tree.
A lone beauty popped up from under the ground on Bowie Avenue.
A stuffed lion, a potted plant, and a note attached to a bouquet of flowers were among the tributes to the memory of the late Queen Elizabeth II that I saw when I visited the gardens named in her honour at Wascana Centre in Regina, Sask. for the first time after her death.
Admirers of the longest-reigning monarch in British history, who died on Sept. 8 at the age of 96, had left tributes, flowers mostly, at the statue of the Queen and Burmese, her favourite horse.
The note I spotted on Sept. 16 had a photograph of the Queen and read: “You will be missed so much! You have served us all, in your Commonwealth, with such grace, intelligence, competence, wit and inspiration for 70 amazing years.”
When I saw the Queen and Prince Philip
I was in my office in downtown Regina that day in May of 2005 getting ready to go home, and I heard on the radio that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, her husband, were preparing to leave their hotel for the next stop on their Saskatchewan trip.
Since the Hotel Saskatchewan was about a five-minute walk from my workplace, I headed over to get a glimpse of royalty.
I arrived at the hotel a minute or two before the Queen and Prince Philip came out the front door.
With my fellow onlookers, I stood outside and watched as they exited the building — first the Queen and then Prince Philip — and got in their vehicle.
Nobody on the sidewalk said a word until the vehicle drove away.
About Burmese
Burmese was born in Fort Walsh, Sask.
The RCMP, which trained her, gave the black mare to the Queen as a gift in 1969.
The Queen rode Burmese for all her public events and parades from 1969 to 1986.
During her visit to Saskatchewan in 2005, the Queen unveiled a bronze statue of herself riding Burmese.
Saskatchewan artist Susan Velder sculpted the statue, which stands in the Queen Elizabeth II Gardens at Wascana Centre, north of the provincial legislative building.
The blossoms are off the trees for another year, but while they adorned their hosts for a short time, they were magnificent.
As always, they made this Regina resident smile.
I looked forward to greeting the dazzling pink and white blooms every day.
Until next year then.
In the meantime, here is a look at some of this year’s beauties.
When I go for a walk around the lake in Regina’s Wascana Centre, delightful scenes always greet me.
The tree in the two photos below is one example.
On a Wednesday afternoon in mid-May, I was happy to see that her branches were adorned with white blossoms for another year.
I left my walking partners on the path we were following and ran to the flowering beauty to stand in front of her and take pictures.
Isn’t she lovely?
On the same afternoon, I saw the scene pictured below.
I never tire of looking at Saskatchewan’s legislative building and its copper dome from across Wascana Lake.
It’s always exciting to spot families of Canada geese, like the one that appears in the photo below.
That Wednesday, I crossed paths with Mother Goose, Father Goose and their adorable goslings on the north shore of Wascana Lake.
They were heading to the water.
I kept a safe distance while taking family pictures.
So did other picture takers.
We did not want to be hissed at by an angry goose protecting its young ones.
In the 2003 movie “Under the Tuscan Sun,” it is raining when Frances Mayes, played by Diane Lane, gets off the tour bus in front of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, more commonly known as the Duomo, in Florence, Italy.
That scene came to mind on a Saturday in December, when I went on a virtual walking tour of the city centre of Florence from my dining table with my laptop.
The tour started in front of the cathedral with the magnificent dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi.
It was raining in the capital of Tuscany.
Travelling virtually from the safety and comfort of home has been a bright spot of the coronavirus pandemic.
Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance and where the Medici family held power from the 15th to the 18th centuries, is top on my list of cities I long to visit in person one day.
For the art, the beautiful buildings and the history.
Until then, travelling for me is about online adventures.
There were five of us on the Zoom walk plus our tour guide, Chiara D’Alessandro of Florence Local Experts, and Valentina Longo and Federica Bustreo, Chiara’s fellow tour guides with Florence Local Experts.
Chiara held her iPhone in one hand, allowing the group to see what she was seeing, and an umbrella in the other.
In addition to the Duomo, Chiara showed us the Baptistery of San Giovanni and gave us a close-up look at the east doors, which face the cathedral façade.
Michelangelo called these doors, with their stunning gilt-bronze panels of Old Testament scenes created by Lorenzo Ghiberti in the 15th century, the “Gates of Paradise.”
The doors are replicas. The original doors are in the Opera del Duomo Museum behind the cathedral.
Chiara also showed us the medieval towers at Piazza Santa Elisabetta.
She showed us Orsanmichele Church, originally a granary.
Piazza della Signoria, the city square where we find the “Fountain of Neptune” and a copy of Michelangelo’s “David.”
The gallery of statues in the Loggia dei Lanzi, where we see Perseus holding the head of Medusa.
Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall of Florence and the seat of power for more the seven centuries, and where the family of Cosimo I lived before they moved across the Arno River to Palazzo Pitti.
The Vasari Corridor, the elevated enclosed passageway built for the Medici to connect Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti.
The Ponte Vecchio, the medieval arch bridge over the Arno River noted for the shops built along it.
We listened to a violinist play outside the Uffizi.
At Pizza Santa Elisabetta, we saw people lined up at a food truck to buy lampredotto sandwiches, which are made from the fourth and final stomach of a cow.
The city centre walking tour of Florence was one of more than 10 virtual trips I have taken in the last two years.
Most of them with Florence Local Experts.
Chiara, Valentina and Federica started offering online tours and online classes in 2020, after Italy went into lockdown.
The December walking tour of Florence’s city center was my second virtual visit to this part of the city. I went on my first in April 2021.
With Florence Local Experts, I also savoured a stroll in the beautiful Boboli Gardens, gardens and open-air museum behind Palazzo Pitti that has sculptures, fountains and grottos.
I enjoyed a walk in the gorgeous park of Pratolino, a public park near Florence that once upon a time was an estate of the Medici family.
It has statues, including Giambologna’s Apennine giant, fountains and a chapel, and it offers stunning views of Florence.
There was also a tour – in pictures and video – of the magnificent Medici villa in Poggio a Caiano.
And a tour in pictures of the Uffizi’s collection, including Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus,” Leonardo da Vinci’s “Adoration of the Magi,” Michelangelo’s “Tondo Doni” and paintings by Raphael and Caravaggio.
On another virtual walk in Florence, my fellow travellers and I stopped at the open main door of Palazzo Medici Riccardi – built for Cosimo the Elder and sold later to the Riccardi family – and saw the Christmas tree in the courtyard.
We admired the beautiful façade of the palazzo that Francesco I bought for Bianca Cappello, the woman he loved who became his second wife after his first wife died.
We found ourselves in awe of the grand size of Palazzo Pitti, which Eleanora, the first wife of Cosimo I, bought from the Pitti family. Today, it is a museum.
We gazed at the unfinished façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the church which the Medici attended and paid to reconstruct and where Medici are buried.
When travelling is not possible, virtual travels are the next best thing.
My online adventures have been fun and informative.
They have introduced me to people I otherwise would not have met.
They have given me reasons to smile and have been a source of hope, escape and inspiration during challenging times.
Autumn in Saskatchewan’s capital never disappoints.
What I love about the season persists even as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
Fall’s colours.
Fall foliage.
Fallen leaves.
Walking on fallen leaves.
Crunchy leaves.
Listening through an open window to the rustling of leaves on a breezy day.
Sitting on my front steps watching fallen leaves dance in the street.
Raking leaves.
Jumping in a pile of leaves.
Fall decorations.
Houses dressed up for fall.
Thanksgiving.
Pumpkins.
Pumpkin spice lattes.
Mums.
Summer flowers still blooming.
Late-September sunsets.
October sunsets.
Bike rides.
Morning walks.
Afternoon walks.
Evening walks.
Cozy scarves.
Warm sweaters.
Good books.
Sunday was a beautiful late-September day to get out on my bike and savour fall’s colours along the Devonian Pathway.
The Devonian Pathway — referred to as the bike path by the locals — is a multi-use trail in Regina, Sask. that runs west of Albert Street to the northwest end of the city.
Spectacular scene after spectacular scene greeted me on my ride.
Picture perfect, magical.
On a recent Sunday morning, a woman pulled a wagon filled with colourful cut flowers along a garden pathway.
Nearby, three people stood in a garden plot and talked. Two women picked tomatoes in another garden plot.
A woman sat on a bench in an area with raised garden beds for gardeners with disabilities. She held a takeout coffee cup in one hand while reading the book that was on her lap.
Welcome to the Grow Regina community garden.
The garden, at McLeod Park in southwest Regina, Sask., is a treat for the senses.
I experienced Grow Regina’s delights up close for the first time earlier this month during a break from my bicycle ride.
After having ridden past the beautiful, lush space on other bike rides, I paused this time to stroll the garden pathways and savour the sight of the summer’s bounty of vegetables and flowers.
Rows of corn, tomatoes, Swiss chard, sunflowers and zinnias, among other items, did my eyes spy.
The community garden welcomes visitors, who are reminded in signs posted in the area that the plants and trees belong to the gardeners.
“Please LOOK, but DON’T TAKE!”
I was not the only visitor that morning.
Other visitors included the man sitting in the gazebo.
Another man walked the garden’s pathways alone.
A man and a woman walked hand in hand while looking at the garden plots.
I spoke to gardeners who were there to check on their plots, to water and to gather the fruits of their labour.
“Bring a coffee next time and have a seat,” one gardener said as he pointed to the gazebo.
Another gardener gave me carrots to take home.
“They taste nothing like the ones from the store,” said Connie, who lived on a farm, where she grew potatoes, among other produce, before moving to Regina.
The condominium dweller loves being outside, she said.
My 89-year-old father, who lives in Toronto, Ont., is the gardener in the family, I told Connie.
For the second year in a row, I missed out on the delicious tomatoes Dad’s garden produces because the COVID-19 pandemic prevented me from travelling to my hometown.
The Grow Regina community garden, one of several community gardens in the Saskatchewan capital, is an ideal spot to de-stress from daily responsibilities and pressures and to forget about the difficulties, disappointments and frustrations caused by COVID-19.
Spending time there helped lift my spirits and improve my mood, and it gave me reasons to smile.
When Jordana Buchan was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer in March 2012 at the age of 39, she thought her life was over.
There was nothing hopeful in the material she was reading about what is also called metastatic breast cancer, cancer that has spread.
In Buchan’s case, cancer had spread to her spine.
There was no cure. Only treatment.
Her life was far from over, though.
Buchan lived with metastatic breast cancer for more than nine years while raising two children with her husband, working, fundraising and volunteering.
During that time, she met, inspired and offered hope to others living with cancer.
Buchan died on July 12. She was 49.
I was saddened to learn about her death when I came across her obituary in my local newspaper.
The mind recalled that time in late summer of 2014 when, working in marketing and communications at a cancer non-profit, I interviewed Buchan.
The Regina woman, who turned to the organization for support after she found out about her diagnosis, had agreed to share her story in the Christmas/end-of-year fundraising campaign.
We spoke on the telephone, at Buchan’s request.
I remember thinking she was brave.
I admired her openness, her honesty and her positivity as she faced a terminal illness.
Buchan talked about how her thoughts and feelings about her diagnosis improved thanks to the telephone conversations she had with a volunteer from the non-profit — a woman who, like Buchan, was living with Stage 4 breast cancer.
The volunteer was active, doing the things she wanted to do with her life, Buchan said. She was a beacon of hope.
For Buchan, sharing her worries, fears and concerns with someone who had been through a similar experience meant the difference between taking control of the situation or experiencing the downward spiral of depression.
When Buchan and I spoke, almost two and a half years after she was diagnosed with cancer, the wife to Scott and mother to Dryden and Joree said her life was back on track.
She became, like the cancer patient who was there for her, a beacon of hope for others living with cancer.
Buchan, for example, took part in the CIBC Run for the Cure in Regina, which raises funds for breast cancer research.
A post on the event’s Facebook page pays tribute to Buchan and her selfless, tireless efforts to support fellow cancer patients, raise awareness of metastatic breast cancer and money for research.
“Jordana Buchan embodied what it meant to live with hope,” part of the message reads.
“She captained Regina’s top fundraising team, she joined the committee to help make Run better, she shared her story with people, she was a shoulder to lean on for other patients, and she provided so much hope. She was a pillar of our community.”
Buchan was born on June 7, 1972, to Doug and Jean (Wallace) Ball.
She grew up in Regina, Sask., where she attended Gladys McDonald Elementary School and Thom Collegiate.
She received a bachelor of arts from the University of Regina and studied at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ont.
Buchan worked at the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Diabetes Association and the Regina Public Library.
She married Scott, her best friend, in July 2005.
A celebration of life was held on July 17.
Interment took place two days later at Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery.
It’s the time of year when I can’t resist peeking through the gaps in the fence at one of my favourite Regina backyards to relish the stunning garden view.
I especially love the field of red poppies.
The front yard of the corner house on Currie Bay — in the Saskatchewan city’s Albert Park neighbourhood — also delights the eyes.
Red poppies and orange lilies adorn the beautiful space.
Orange lilies also bloom at the side of the house.
I started savouring the backyard on my pandemic walks in Albert Park — where I live — last spring.
Until then, I had not looked to see what was behind the fence.
The pops of red I noticed from the sidewalk drew me in as I walked by one day.
I saw so many reasons to smile in that backyard.
Numerous walks later, I saw the woman I assume lives in the house on her knees checking on the flowers and vegetables.
She was as I had imagined.
She was an older woman.
She wore a wide-brimmed hat, a long-sleeved shirt and pants.
Candy, the dog my husband and I adopted from the Regina Humane Society in April, joins me on my walks now, but she does not share my enthusiasm for peeking through the gaps in the fence every time we go by.
Perhaps she would if the backyard included a potential furry, four-legged friend.
Relishing the View 