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solo backpacking

I am going on a solo hike: Backpacking in Algonquin

July 24, 2017July 24, 2017 / Oleksandra Budna / 17 Comments

Remember those childhood riddles about an animal that carries its home on its back? About a week ago the answer was me making my way along the Highlands Trail in Algonquin.  Not only because I was lugging my home, a.k.a. tent, on my back, but also because I was so slow.

backpack and walkign poles Continue reading →

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Acknowledgement

As a settler on Turtle Island, I am endlessly grateful for the opportunity to live, work, love, raise my family here and explore these beautiful lands. I acknowledge the Indigenous Peoples who have been living here since time immemorial and continue to be stewards of the lands and waters through which we travel. As a settler, I also commit to expanding my knowledge about the many histories and voices on Turtle Island, honouring the treaties that govern this land, and upholding my responsibilities to Indigenous Peoples, everyone who lives here now and the land itself.

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Oleksandra Budna

Oleksandra Budna

I am passionate about everything nature. I like exploring it, nurturing it, enjoying its bounty, embracing its magic, capturing its grandeur in photos, sharing its beauty with my family and friends, and, of course, doing everything I can to protect and preserve it.

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Other Stories

  • Dreams of Sleeping Giant – 150 Stories Collection
  • My balcony garden might be small, but it's a project of hope – The Globe and Mail
  • My Favourite Summer Memory – CBC Radio Here and Now
  • My First Didukh – The Globe and Mail
  • Reclaiming Nature Words: 6 Ways to Rewild Your Vocabulary – We Are Wildness
  • Seconds Before Sunrise – The Globe and Mail
  • Things to Do at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park – Parks Blogger Ontario

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Yesterday was what is known in Ukraine as Zeleni Svyata or Green Holidays. On this day, I always think of my grandparents and all the beautiful traditions associated with this holiday, like decorating the house with linden branches and herbs. On Saturday, together with my friends we made flower wreaths for cows so they walked back home from pasture all dressed up for the occasion. And Green Sunday is the day to gather medicinal herbs because they are imbued with special powers.
Our first canoe trip of the year. Algonquin welcomed us with calm waters, soothing whispering of the forest, puffy clouds and fiery sunsets, loons and mergansers, painted trilliums, new life springing from an old stump... for a few days the world made sense again offering something to hold on to amidst constant uncertainty and dread.
This year, as Easter collides with two months of war, at the intersection of death and a promise of rebirth, ever present dread for the land and people I love and awe of their unwavering spirit and bravery, horror at unimaginable sufferings inflicted by the Russian army and gratitude for all the support for Ukraine extended by people across the world, our Easter basket feels heavy. Heavy with pain and sadness. But it's also filled with hope. Hope inspired by the determination of Ukrainians to find joy and light even during the darkest times: by honouring Easter traditions, decorating their streets with pysanky (Easter eggs) for the holidays and some people baking hundreds of paskas (Easter bread) to ensure those who can't make their own, whether because their home has been destroyed, they were forced to leave it or are currently on the frontlines, can enjoy the taste of Easter too.
A few months ago, in what feels like a different lifetime, I remember being super excited when Blank Spaces magazine accepted my photos and a short piece about our neighbourhood brook. During COVID lockdowns, this narrow strip of water became my escape into nature, my bridge to the world, connection to my childhood and a similar brook that ran behind my grandparents' house in a small village in Ukraine. Now that the story is finally in print, in the fog of war in my home country, so distant and so painfully close, I'm struggling to find my way back to this nameless strip of ankle-deep water that has always been my place of peace...
Sunrise from my childhood home back in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, captured a few years ago.
Killarney always makes my heart sing no matter the season.
Bruce Peninsula is a beautiful place to visit any time of year and now there are yurts available in the winter at the Cyprus Lake campground for a comfortable stay.
Disappearing act: On our first morning at the Cyprus Lake campground, snow and wind worked together to completely erase the line between the land and the sky
More photos from our trip to Bruce Peninsula. It's incredible how winter manages to reshape familiar landscapes: Indian Head Cove, usually bustling with activity, now quiet, with nothing but waves breaking the silence; the famous Grotto decorated with icicle chandeliers; the natural arch hidden under mounds of snow.

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