The Journal Pioneer

Few things are as much fun to watch as clouds. Some of my earliest childhood memories involve lying on the grass in front of the farmhouse with mom and my sister, Monique. We could spend hours looking for shapes in the passing clouds. It was such ...

Scientists don’t really know how, but it has become obvious that birds can sense changing barometric pressure. One theory is that birds may be able to detect that drop in pressure through their inner ear. It makes sense, really. We’re ...

Yesterday was the feast day of John the Baptist, or St. Jean-Baptiste.  How does this relate to the weather? I’ll get to that in a moment. On June 24, many people around the world celebrate. In France the origin of the holiday was the ...

One of my favourite weather rhymes is this: “The moon and the weather may change together, but a change in the moon can’t change the weather.” It’s true. Scientists all over the world will confirm it. For decades, our ...

Grandma was a farmer and was raised in a Roman Catholic home, so you can imagine that the saints often found their way into…  well, almost everything, including weather lore. Believe it or not, there is a patron saint of weather. His name ...

When I moved from the farm to Atlantic Canada I was excited about the seafood; I could eat fish three times a day! It doesn’t get much better or fresher than right here. We are blessed. One fish I was eager to get to know more about was the ...

Last week’s rain has done wonders for the grass and it would appear the dandelions too! When I see dandelions in the spring I immediately think of Grandma. My sister and I dreaded the first warm weekend in May: that’s when Grandma ...

So we've turned another calendar page. Do people still do that? I do and I have a favourite! Years ago, everybody handed out calendars: the local garage, the corner store, the hairdresser. My favourite was always the milk calendar from the milk ...

Whatever you do, don’t sleep in Tuesday morning! Imagine this: it’s May 1 and, regardless of the day of the week, Grandma made sure our alarms were set so we wouldn’t sleep in and miss the morning dew! That’s right the ...

I miss a lot of things about the farm: the quiet, the openness, the smells and the fact that things happened - as Grandma always said - “in due time.” Regardless of when we decided it was time to tap the maple trees, cut the hay or ...