CELL PHONES AND SAP BUCKETS tells stories of living in the Haliburton Highlands Ontario.
Not long ago, Neil Campbell and his best pal, The Brown Dog Jiggs, celebrated with champagne and liver treats when one of them was declared Ontario’s best weekly newspaper columnist.
These award-winning columns for the Minden Times (Minden Ontario) about their lives together in the Haliburton Highlands woods have been collected in a book called Cell Phones and Sap Buckets: Six Years on Sapsucker Ridge.
For a preview of the book, please click on:
www.crystalimagestudio.com/preview/cpsb.pdf
Neil Campbell, retired from a long career at The Globe and Mail, typed the stories, however Jiggs is the real star of the book. Jiggs takes Neil on long walks and gives him little glimpses of the secret lives led by the creatures who live all around them.
They watch a romance between two snapping turtles and the unfolding of a sibling rivalry in a heron nest that turns fatal. A hungry fawn sucks on Neil’s pantleg and a bear swats Jiggs.
Jiggs noses out clues while Neil savours the changing of the seasons. Along the way, he deals with the challenges of living off the hydro grid on 50 acres of upland hardwood forest in the Haliburton Highlands Ontario two miles from the nearest public road.
When Campbell’s not being walked by the dog, Neil makes maple syrup, cuts his own firewood and works to preserve the Haliburton Highlands landscape as a member of the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust.
Also in the book are 15 original drawings by Haliburton artist Charlie Teljeur.
Campbell’s 40 year as a professional journalist included Ontario stops with the Richmond Hill Liberal, Oakville Daily Journal-Record, Oakville Beaver and Owen Sound Sun-Times, along with the Edmonton Journal, The Canadian Press, and 26 years with The Globe and Mail.
To contact Neil Campbell at neilcampbell@xplornet.ca for information on how to order directly and for Author signature.
Copies of Cell Phones and Sap Bucketscan be purchased from the following outlets throught Ontario
Bancroft — Ashlie’s Books.
Belleville — Greenley’s Bookstore.
Carnarvon — That Place in Carnarvon.
Gelert — Wintergreen Maple Products.
Haliburton — Country Rose, Foodland, Haliburton County Echo, Maple Moon, Master’s Books, Studio Rose, Undercover Books.
Kinmount — Artisan’s Market Place, Gateway Variety.
Lakefield — Happenstance Books & Yarns.
Lindsay — Joyce’s Place.
Minden — Dollo’s Foodland, The Fast Lane, Home Hardware, Organic Times, Pharmasave, R.D. Lawrence Place, Whispers North.
Orillia — Manticore Books.
Owen Sound — Downtown Bookstore.
Peterborough — Chapters, Titles Bookstore.
Rosedale — Kawartha Lakes Trading Post.
West Guilford — Cottage Country Log Cabin Trading.
Wilberforce — Agnew’s General Store.
Or, contact Neil Campbell at neilcampbell@xplornet.ca for information on how to order direct.
