City Hick: Pandemics, Broken Dryers and Back to the Land

April 12, 2020

First of all, the dryer went on the fritz. That’s a key piece of infrastructure in a pandemic — especially when you and your spouse are self-isolating with four young adults. So being the practical type, and quite frankly, with few other options, I bought a clothesline. But not one of those $19.99 specials from […]

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“Tír gan Teanga, Tír gan Anam”: Ireland and the Language of the Land

November 29, 2018

Irish revolutionary Pádraig Pearse said, “Tír gan Teanga, Tír gan Anam.” In English, “A country without a language is a country without a soul.” Irish, the native tongue of Ireland, continues in the present to be poignantly expressed in the mythology, poetry and language of the land. 18th and 19th century Irish immigrants to Ontario […]

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Longing for the Land: Greenwood. Rock. River. Field.

August 12, 2018

 I had the pleasure of visiting David and Louise Bazett-Jones in May of 2018. They run a small organic farm in Prince Edward County, and appear in this video with Natalia Shields, the photographer for Moorlands: An Ancestral Memoir of Loss and Belonging. We covered many topics relating to the project, including the Bazett-Jones’s […]

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Saving Grey Abbey Beach: Progress, At Last

June 2, 2018

I’m very happy to report that significant progress was made on the preservation of Grey Abbey Beach at the City’s Executive Committee on May 14, 2018. The beach, located directly to the east of Guildwood Park, was slated for destruction as part of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s Scarborough Waterfront Project. The Committee has […]

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Sinfonia Toronto — Toronto Hunt, with Jane Fairburn

May 22, 2018

I’m on the Board of Sinfonia Toronto, one of the city’s premier chamber orchestras. See: http://www.sinfoniatoronto.com/web/home.aspx A fundraiser for the orchestra is taking place at the Toronto Hunt on June 21, 2018 — I hope you’ll consider joining me. Please click on the link below to order tickets. Order tickets here

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Out on the Land: From Skibbereen to Killala

May 4, 2018

I’ve had the pleasure of being in Ireland the last little while, exploring the theme of cultural memory. I’m interested in how remembrance in the Irish and Ireland’s diaspora is tied to the land, and how it animates and informs identity and a mystical spirit of place. I thought I’d share a little of what […]

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Up the North: A Chat On the Way to Belfast

April 24, 2018

Here’s my latest missive on landscape, en route to Belfast.

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Longing for the Land: Meditations on Rural Ontario

February 25, 2018

All of us yearn for something. By this I mean a deep feeling of wistful desire, or longing, for myriad objects and aspirations as diverse as our own life experiences — a lost child, belonging, the inner peace that comes from solitude. Can landscape embody, or at least metaphorically represent these desires and mirror our internal journey? […]

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Reflections on the Shore: Deconstructing the TRCA’s Paved Paradise at East Point

January 20, 2017

Happy New Year, everyone. I thought I’d get 2017 rolling with some thoughts on the TRCA’s recent update to their Scarborough Waterfront Development Project (SWP). In case you haven’t yet learned, the TRCA is planning to roll out a whole multi-year make-work project at the Scarborough Bluffs lakefront, from Bluffer’s Park at the foot of […]

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The TRCA’s Scarborough Waterfront Development Project (June 28, 2016 meeting): My Comments

July 16, 2016

COMMENTARY: SCARBOROUGH WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT, PRELIMINARY PREFERRED EAST SEGMENT ALTERNATIVE, GREY ABBEY, EAST POINT PARK AND VICINITY TO: LIONEL WORRELL, PROJECT COORDINATOR – WATERFRONT, TORONTO AND REGION CONSERVATION AUTHORITY (TRCA) FROM: M. JANE FAIRBURN DATE: JULY 12, 2016 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The comments below are focused on the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s proposed destruction […]

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