Summertime, and the living's easy. Or so it would seem. . .

Why does the custom of making linseed oil usually involve a dash of onion, and why must white wine go with fish, not meat? Could the answers help explain why the lovely little bird known as a red-eyed vireo almost always steals a piece of the nest of a paper wasp in order to decorate its own?

For answers to these and other pressing questions of public policy, see my review of Bernd Heinrich's latest, Summer World: A Season of Bounty, in the Globe and Mail.

Meanwhile, here's my lad Conall and myself a couple of weeks back, after a morning's fishing off Sheringham Point, on the occasion of his 15th birthday (the boy's a giant, the picture of Cuchullain himself):

And here's a wee imp from the Afghan community picnic at my old stomping grounds, on the Fraser River in Burnaby:














Summer is upon us. Enjoy it while it lasts.