Author: Mary Soderstrom

 One of the sadder things about winter here is the disappearance of flowers.  After the leaves have changed colour and fallen off the trees, the world is much drabber.  And if the snow has not fallen, there’s not even the splendour of sunlight on a white landscape with a blue

 Where Canada keeps its memories: Took a trip to Gatineau to lend a hand during the current teachers’ strike, but I also visited the Preservation facility of the Library and Archives of Canada. Couldn’t see inside, but very impressive outside. The aim is to shelter both hard copy and digital

A little outing Friday to the Musée des Abénakis in Odanak on the St-François river. Very interesting, and afterwards lunch at Café Masko.

 Snow this week, the second flurry of the year. My birthday is November 8, and last year was the first year since I arrived in Montreal decades ago that it hadn’t snowed before then. This year, as if to make up for its tardy appearance in 2022, we had snow

 Great fun at the Read Quebec Book Fair.  Got to show off my books and talk to some interesting follks. The event was held both Friday and Saturday in the gorgeous atrium of the J.W. McConnell building at Concordia University

The way it was in the forest on the north side of Mount Royal this week.  The warm weather in September seems to have delayed the trees’ gorgeous progression into autumn this year, but things are becoming lovely now.  I feel ambivalent about this, because the delay is due to

Well, you can’t see it, but this week a female cardinal visited our grape vine several mornings to feast on the wild grapes growing there. It was a bad year for pears in out little garden–only three after the squirrels got to them–but the grape vine, which is a volunteer

A shower of crabapples!  Went for a walk in Mount Royal Cemetery this morning to find that the squirrels and other critters have an abundance of goodies on the ground right now.  Looks like more than they can eat at the moment! 

 Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone. It’s raining here–and much needed–but this is the way I like to think of fall. It’s a good moment to stop and reflect on all one has…

I’ve been asked by a couple of websites that gives suggestions for reading to create a list or two.     Here’s the one  on BookList:  

 This has been an unusually fine year for certain flowers around here.  Early on there was clover everywhere, in every lawn, reminding everyone that plain grass is just that: pretty plain.  Now as the summer fades away with unusually warm temperatures, native asters have come into their glory.  I have

  And then there’s this highrise model. 

 This wasp nest suddenly appeared this week.  Wasn’t there on Monday, I’m sure, but it was looming like a malevalent piñata on Thursday.  Wasps are really amazing in the way they can build a very sturdy shelter in no time at all. But it’s gone.  After a call to the

You’re right: it’s bird’s nest.  Almost walked past it last week on the trail at the Parc des Rapides de Lachine last Sunday, but at the last minute it caught my eye.  I’ve no explanation of how it got there.  Certainly the breeding season is over in these parts, and

  Head’s up: The Atwater Library and Computer Centre’s book discussion group–led by yours truly– will be talking about Dimitri Nasrallah’s Hotline at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, September 13. The book in audio and ebook formats is available to library members from now until then. All you have to do is

 Here are three invasive plants duking it out at Montreal’s Technoparc.  The tall grass is Phragmites australis, which sets up shop at the edge of waterways  as does the purple loosestrife at the bottom of the photo.  In between is golden rod, which is a native plant and which is

 This is the sum total of my harvest this year-two small pears. It is a far cry from years when my two trees produced more than the squirrels could eat. But I’m not displeased because the trees were badly affected by fireblight last year, a nasty fungus disease that you

The rabbits at the Technoparc don’t seem very concerned about the humans walking around.  This one just stayed there for quite a while, looking at us while we looked at it. Despite Beatrice Potter and the Tale of Peter Rabbit, the beasties don’t seem to like gardens in my part

It’s been rainy and hot, but not so gloomy that the various sorts of sunflowers are not bursting into bloom. Lovely to see the yellow… 

Maybe 20 years go when I began transforming out little lawn into a wild garden, I bought three hosta plants.  They did extremely well, and I’ve transplanted them to several places on our lot and given many to neighbours.   The result is a host of hostas all around. This last