Evergreens are just that: trees which don’t lose their leaves in the fall, but keep them (or the needles which are a manifestation of leaves) all year round. This is not to say they don’t experience distinct periods of growth. This morning when we walked in Mount Royal Cemetery I
Continue readingAuthor: Mary Soderstrom
Recreating Eden: Friends from the Bay Area Arriving, and the Weather’s Great
So unless things change drastically I’m taking the day off.
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Pot Protests Spread in Montreal (No, Not That Kind)
Saturday May 19, there weren’t many poople out pounding on pots and pans in Montreal to protest emergency legislation limiting public demonstrations and many other things as the long student protest against tuition fee hikes continues. But by Wednesday, the peaceful demonstraitons of neighborhs of all ages had begun to
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Let’s Not Go the Way the US Dept: Debt and Students and Massive Demonstrations
The New York Times lead editorial today is extremely pertinent as regional cyberspace swirls with analysis and pictures from yesterday’s huge (and probably illegal) demonstration in Montreal. “Full Disclosure for Student Borrowers” is the title, and it follows up on a story earlier about the enormous debt load many young
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Lots of Political Action Today: Demonstration and Discussion
It’s raining but a big crowd is expected this afternoon for a demonstration to protest tuition fee hikes, and the provincial government’s draconian law on demonstrations, return to classes, and civil disobedience. I missed an earlier one in March (it was during the NDP leadership convention) so I’d probably go
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Robert Nelson, and the Journée des Patriotes
The Quebec flag is up in front of our place on this Journée des Patriotes. One of the little known things about the Rebellions of 1837-38 (the nearest thing Canada ever had to a revolution) is that a number of Anglophone Patriotes were leaders in the Lower Canadian version. William
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Satuday Photo: Zen and the Art of Spring Gardening
Actually I think the stone statute isn’t Japanese but is a kind of inukshuk, those Inuit signs of greeting. But the minalist balance of this spring garden is quite lovely, whatever the inspiration. The violets have taken over our front yard, and while the flowes are lovely, once the blooms
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Death of the Confidence Fairy Bis: NDP Hearing on the Budget
If it wasn’t enough that Europeans are registering their disatisfaction with the idea of cutting budgets as a way to economic recovery by voting out parties preach austerity, a headline in today’s New York Times suggests others are getting the message. Angela Merkel apparently now is saying that she’s not
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Making Music Together: Young Musicans against the Free Hike
Last night was the second concert of the Orchestre de la solidarité sociale, bringing together music students from nearly all of Montreal’s music faculties. Some of them have been on strike, some are not, but all wanted to support the student movement. Here’s a short bit from the beginning. It’s
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Sexing the Kiwi (With Apologies to New Zealanders)
Several years ago I bought two kiwi plants, a male and a female. One grew, the other didn’t, but I didn’t know which one survived. So the following year I bought another pair, and again, I had one which grew and one which didn’t. My guess was that the survivor
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Bleeding Heart in Bloom
Most years there is an explosion of growth here the first week in May. Bleeding heart, which dies back to nothing at all in early September, grows so fast that you can almost see it. The lovely arching branches and blooms are a miracle of spring. This year, because we
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Fallout from Protests and Smoke Bombs: Quietness?
This was book club week, and a strange thing happened. In all four groups, we had much less attendance than normal. The weather has been cold and damp, which might be a factor. but it certainly wasn’t because one boring book was on the agenda. No, in fact the choice
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Smoke in the Metro Means Fire under Agents Provcateurs, Me Thinks
This morning after Montreal’s Metro was closed during rush hours because of smoke bombs planted in several stations, I spent far too much time looking for references to “agents provocateurs” in the current student protests agains tuition hikes. Far too frequently, outside agitators linked to the forces of law and
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Oil Sounds Mean "Game over" for Climate
Oil sands exploitation means the end of hope for controlling climate change, according to James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In op-ed piece in today’s New York Times, he writes: “We should impose a gradually rising carbon fee, collected from fossil fuel companies, then distribute
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Cold Today: Gonna Take a Nap
After passing the winter without getting sick, I seem to have been wacked with something. So no post today.
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Speak Red! A Dramatic Reading of a Quebec Classic Poem Transformed for the Current Crisis
“Speak White” by Quebec poet Michèle Lalonde was written and first performed in 1968 during the great rising wave of Quebec nationalism. It refers to an epithet many Francophones heard for years (the first published reference goes back to 1899 whena Henri Bourassa was booed by English-speaking Members of Parliament
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Pele’s Hair and Pele’s Tears: The Hawaiian Goddess and Lava
I’m back to working on the short story collection. The current story is one that has quite a bit about volcanos, and as I speak, a small bottle of ash from Mount St. Helens is sitting on my desk. I’d love to have some Pele’s hair too, those strands of
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Because Purple Flowers Are Lovely
This isn’t a new photo. It’s one I took when I was in Portugal about this time of year. The jacaranda trees were in bloom: absolutely spectacular! I’m waiting impatiently for the lilacs to bloom this spring, but in the meantime this pix will have to do.
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