It was a former guest who helped me join the dots. For a couple of years now I have been thinking about the therapeutic value of what we offer at the ranch: high alpine hikes, rainforest walks, encounters with bears and other wild...
We should probably have done it years ago. We had only been here a few months - which makes it nearly 14 years ago now - when an Austrian family arrived in our yard. The father leaped out of his car, disgorged two noisy youngsters from the...
It was the cows what nearly did me in. I stood there staring intently at the imprint of a large fat hoof in the dirt. Definitely too big for a deer. Not quite right for an elk. But what else could it be? It didn't look good...
There are days when the Bear Gods frown upon us. The bears are always one step ahead of us, their favourite feeding zones are disappointingly deserted, and the guests and guides return from a day out bear-spotting empty-handed and just a little glum. And then there are...
It was more than twenty years ago and I was standing near an impromptu checkpoint in northern Albania as the country erupted in chaos and anarchy around me. A few yards away was Ant, a fellow journalist and veteran war reporter I was working with...
I'd never even heard of a snow-blower before I moved to Canada. A strange-looking beast, it has a large hungry mouth with a plethora of curved metal scoops inside, and a small chute that dispenses the white stuff high into the air and at an angle. The...
There's something about a wood fire. Perhaps it's the crackle and spit of the logs as they begin to take. The awesome fury of the main burn. The orange glow of the embers as the chemistry of the fire takes its course. Or maybe it's the pleasing...
It was one of those wilderness moments I live for. I felt my heart rate shoot up with exhilaration. And there was just the slightest tinge of fear that seems to come with all the best types of excitement. Ten yards ahead of me Katya, our 18-month-old...
I'd been looking forward to a weekend away for a while. I love my home in British Columbia and our valley is a place of overwhelming beauty, but the prospect of a couple of days in a small, hip mountain town in the US with a...
It may not look like much fun. A damp garden on a rain-splattered day. But for Kristin and I this morning was a time to do a little jig of excitement. The Weather Gods, even if they had not exactly smiled on us, were at least...