When I do school visits, I always ask that question since being nosy is a prerequisite for being a writer. It’s interesting that younger kids will all put up their hands; grades 4 and up not so much. It’s pretty much impossible for me to go anywhere without doing A LOT of speculating; I had lots to think about when I encountered this on my morning walk. And, yes – I did check to make sure there wasn’t someone in the brook just beyond the chair.

I’ve always been sort of obsessed with old houses, especially the ones on the brink of collapse, like this one on the road to our cottage in rural Lunenburg County. In the 1970s, my dad salvaged a house that was built in the 1860s, and we spent summers there for several years while he worked away on it. Sadly, it was recently torn down, the gravel beneath it is apparently more valuable than the house:(  I still hope I’ll get to rescue an old house myself, one of these days …

And finally, this horse, who lives in somebody’s yard; we’ve named him Mr. Nielsen which I always thought was the name of Pippi’s horse – in fact, that was her monkey’s name. Her horse was named “Horse,” which somehow doesn’t seem right. So, anybody else admit to being nosy? Pretty sure it’s a given for writers, but there sure are a lot of things to wonder about in the world.