RKS 2026 Nova Scotian Wines: The 2022 Old Bill

Few wines from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia grace the shelves of Ontario’s liquor monopoly, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. All the brouhaha in Canada about promoting and buying Canadian products?

The producer Luckett Vineyards is in the Gaspereau Valley of Nova Scotia

It is blend of Pinot Noir, Castel and Lucie Kuhlmann (all grown in Nova Scotia) aged in Hungarian, French and American oak for 15 months.

Lucie Kuhlmann is an early ripening grape mainly grown in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and is a crossed sibling or Marechal Foch. Castel is a French-American hybrid crossing Cinsault and Vitis Rupestris.

Aroma: Rich and heady black currant, blackberry and blueberry. A tad of burnt rubber.

Palate: Very close to what you smell what you taste. Noticeable tannins with restrained acidity. Short grapey finish.

Personality: So what if I am not Vitis Vinifera aside from my Pinot Noir but Canadians are not snobs and they support Canadian wineries right?

Food Match: Broiled Lac Brome duck topped with a blueberry-Port reduction sauce. Singaporean spiced crab.

Cellarbility: Drink now but will hold until end of 2028.

Price: $33 CDN.

RKS 2026 Nova Scotian Wines Rating: 89/100

(Luckett Vineyards 2022 The Old Bill, Wines of Nova Scotia, Luckett Farms Ltd, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, 750 mL, 13%).

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: RECOVERING FROM THE PROCEDURE AND HEADING TOWARD PUPPY BLUES?

RECOVERING FROM THE PROCEDURE AND HEADING TOWARD PUPPY BLUES?

I felt like a slow-motion character upon returning home. I wanted to play, run about and tussle but my wants were not transformed into physicality. It was not that I wanted to sleep mind you. I really couldn’t finish what I started and lost interest and the ability to focus.

There was no pain rather stiffness.

I had no interest in my kibble but simply couldn’t refuse a toasted bagel chunk with a piece of banana and peanut butter. How could anyone!

That bloody cone around my neck. I keep careening into objects. I must be hand fed and a water bowl must be lifted up to just outside the cone. Try sleeping with a cone on your head. The frustration is enough to transform you into “Conehead the Barbarian”. Can I last for 10 days with this contraption? I had a couple of pieces of gnocchi tonight for a treat and a big chunk was caught on my beard and the cone. I try to smell the ground but my cone bangs into it. It scoops up snow.

Rules rules rules.

No getting my underbelly wet to avoid infections. This means my walks in this never-ending slushy weather are not possible and even if it was dry outside I must take it easy for 10 days and that means short walks. My potty training has suffered as a result.

Due to the lack of my 8,000 human steps daily on walks and not being able to zoom about in the backyard snow how do I utilize all this puppy energy? Zooming around like a maniac inside which I am not supposed to do. I can’t stand being an idle pup.

We will get through this, and I still don’t understand what losing my manhood means and why it has made me and Bob so frustrated.

It will be difficult to avoid the Puppy Blues especially as this winter never seems to end. Bob has said many times just wait until spring, summer and fall! I have only really known winter but the wetness, cold, snow, freezing rain and darkness is beginning to bother me.

RKS Poetry Anthology: “Just the death of a dog”

Just the death of a dog

Just a dog you say?

Just a dog

15 years by your side

Morning, afternoon and evening walks all over town

The click clack of nails on the floor rushing to greet you

The bark at the door protecting you from threats

Warm greetings of wagging tail and kisses upon your return home

An eternal friend and protector no matter in what direction the wind blows

Cuddles under the sheets and the winter wind howls outside

Your alarmed rescue from a loud sneeze

Gratitude and nuzzling

Sensing your pain

Unfailing loyalty and

Memories memories memories

Your morning chunk of a toasted and buttered Montreal bagel a ritual (sesame seed preferred)

A last kiss on your now cold head

Must not be threatened by that final needle!

As he orders from The Land Beyond

“Just” a dog you say?

Robert K. Stephen

RKS Literature: Bad or simply strange people?

“We often complain how difficult or impossible it is to get on with certain people. That may of course be true. But many such people are not bad but only strange, and if you got to know them well with all their ins and outs and learnt how to deal with them properly, neither too wilfully nor too indulgently, then many of them might easily be brought to their senses.”

Johann Peter Hebel (1760-1826), “Dinner Outside”.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: LOST MY MANHOOD: SO GLAD TO BE AT HOME!

LOST MY MANHOOD: SO GLAD TO BE AT HOME!

Bob was up at 06:00 which is unusual. I ordinarily tell him, in my way, up and at em because it is time to perform my ablutions. Even stranger he had a bowl with a spoon coated in peanut butter ready for me to lick clean with some round crunchy thing in it that was somewhat bitter.

We went for our morning walk and Bob was extra pleased I did a double ablution. No breakfast for me! THIS IS GETTING STRANGER! Then in the car being held by Bob’s son A. WHERE ON EARTH ARE WE GOING?

My question was soon answered as we walked into the animal hospital. I AM BECOMING VERY NERVOUS! I jumped up on Bob’s lap for protection. Then a lady came and said let’s go Rory. OH NO!

She shaved a spot on my leg and then a pin prick which made me squeal and I remember waking up in a crate feeling SO COLD! Blankets were put on me and I felt warm and very sleepy. The lady then returned later and said , “Let’s Go Rory.” We opened the door and there was Bob and A waiting for me both giving me big hugs. I felt so happy and grateful. It hurt to walk and A carried me to the car and off we went home in a big snowstorm. Fay was at the door to greet me with sweet talk (she is so good with) and a gentle hug. I think I know what “home” means.

IT HAS BEEN A DAY OF CONFUSION, FEAR, GRATITUDE AND LOTS OF LOVE!

RKS 2024 Canadian Oscar Nominated Documentary Short: “perfectly a strangeness”

“perfectly a strangeness” a documentary short from Montreal based filmmaker Alison McAlpine has been nominated for Best Documentary Short at the upcoming 98th Oscars.

Three donkeys slowly clip clop their way up a Chilean mountainside to visit an observatory. For what reason we know not and there is no dialogue to assist in discovering that reason. They bray, roll in the dirt observe the observatory and head back down the mountain.

Carte blanche for your interpretation viewers. Beautiful cinematography of both the mountainside, donkeys and the exterior and interior of the observatory.

I like to think of this short as a cross between the Polish Italian film “Eo” where a donkey undertakes a journey of discovery of the human condition ending his fascinating trek at a slaughterhouse to be made into sausages and “2001 A Space Odyssey” with the donkey’s as astronaut Dave and the observatory the mysterious box.

The short is indeed strange but perfectly so.

Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG8rOAi6Q2g

You can watch this short on CRAVE.

RKS 2024 Canadian Documentary Rating 91/100.