In her best-selling first book, Home: Tales of a Heritage Farm (2005), Anny Scoones introduced readers to historic Glamorgan Farm. In Home and Away, Anny presents more stories about the joys and sorrows, excitements and mishaps and also takes readers farther afield, sharing with them her travels to other parts of Canada, to New York and to such places as Malaysia and Belarus. Her travel tales offer not only her keen observations on what she sees and experiences while away, but also her perspective from afar on the importance of having a place to return to that truly is home.

Anny has owned Glamorgan Farm since 2000. Located in North Saanich, B.C., it's one of the original farms and homesteads on Vancouver Island, established in 1870 by Richard John. She is restoring the historic structures and raising heritage breeds of livestock. The front meadows are gardened by an herb gardener and a group of mentally challenged adults who grow organic, heirloom varieties of flowers and produce.

Anny writes candidly and colourfully about real things, from visits with her family-she is the daughter of internationally acclaimed artists Molly Lamb Bobak and Bruno Bobak-to simple pleasures like arranging bowls of pears and hearing the owls in the woods at dusk. She writes about making bonfires, sitting with a dying horse, playing with a 700-pound sow and visiting the SPCA. Some of her tales are told with humour, some in sadness, but all tell the truth about living, observing and creating, whether at home or away.

Anny Scoones is the author of Home: Tales of a Heritage Farm (2005) and Home and Away: More Tales of a Heritage Farm (2006). She is serving her third term on North Saanich's Municipal Council and has a special interest in heritage and agriculture preservation, banning cosmetic pesticide use, and architectural design and planning. Glamorgan Farm is home to many rare, rescued and heritage livestock breeds, including the now-famous pigs Matilda, Mabel, Rose and Boris; Naked Neck chickens; and a Russian woolly horse, Valnah. Please visit www.glamorganfarm.ca.

Anny Scoones' profile page

Home and Away: More Tales of a Heritage Farm