Sometimes the whole is different from the sum of its parts. In this case, the occupants of the first floor of this triplex from the end of the 19th century have turned their tiny front garden into a Zen-inspired oasis in the city.But step back a bit a…
Continue readingAuthor: Mary Soderstrom
Recreating Eden: Saturday Photo: From Zen to Wild Victorian on the Plateau
Sometimes the whole is different from the sum of its parts. In this case, the occupants of the first floor of this triplex from the end of the 19th century have turned their tiny front garden into a Zen-inspired oasis in the city.But step back a bit a…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Down with Twitters, Or the Fracturing of Time and Culture
These days I don’t seem to have enough time to do everything I want or need to do. Short cuts look quite attractive, in fact. But there is one that I wouldn’t recommend to any–the twitterization of culture.Last week we discussed Jane Eyre at one of …
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Business Interests and Transit Gurus Agree: Quebec Needs to Concentrate on Public Transit, Not New Autoroutes
The federation of Quebec chambers of commerce (FCCQ) and Transit, a new alliance of several dozen groups and experts advocating public transit, came out strongly on Monday in favour of concentrating on public transit in Quebec and infrastructure repa…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Making the City Green: Ecoquartier and the Neighbors on Rouen Plant their Ruelle Verte
Jack Ruttan made this great video of the planting day on the lane project next to his apartment. A great project that is only one of many, greening Montreal.
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Chimney Repairs, but No Chimney Sweeps
The three young men who came to rebuild our chimney look nothing like Dick Van Dyck and the chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins, but we were very glad to see them when they came this morning.When the roof was redone this summer after the fire, we discoverd …
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: The Wilds of the Plateau
Tiny front ylard gardens are a feature of Montreal’s densely settled neighborhoods. People spend a great deal of time and effort claiming the little bit of green they offer for themselves. But sometimes, the efforts are pure whimsy.The bathtub says…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Suburban Ponzi Scheme: Mayors North of Montreal Want More Development in Order to Provide Sevices
So you build houses in the far suburbs and don’t have proper infrastructure for them, so you ask to dezone agricultural land in order to build more to have the tax base to provides services? Doesn’t make any sense, but that’s what mayors of the second…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Wonder What’s Happening Here? A Great Explanation
A great explanation of Occupy Wall Street–should go viral.
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Recreating Eden 2011-10-13 14:46:00
A somewhat conservative American friend was musing the other day about why it has taken so long for protest too build about the way big corporations and the right wing are blocking nearly every remotely progressive measure in the US. My answer was t…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: The Orange Wave Rolls on, a Bit More Gently Than in May, But Nevertheless There
This is Democracy Festival month in Canada, and Canadians dissatisfacation with conservative policy continues to make it mark. The NDP won a smashing majority in Manitoba, it now holds the balance of power in Ontario, became the official opposiiont …
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Love on the Moores; New films from the Bronte Sisters
Can’t say that I remember ever finishing anything by the Brontes until now, but this fall I put Jane Eyre on the reading lists for two of my book groups. Part of my reason was so I could make a comparison with The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys which …
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Canadian Thanksgiving: Marvelous Weather, Lots of Food, Much to be Grateful for
I must say straight up that I’m not at all a believer, but I do think it is instructive and good for ones spirits to now and then take stock of what one has. This has not been an easy year for us, but our experiences have been so much better than tha…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: My Two Favourite Little Girls
If you think there’s a resemblance between these lovely little girls, you’re right. The black and white photo is of Elin at about 10 months, and the colour one is of Jeanne at a bit more than a year.
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Occupy Wall Street: The Left Advances, at Long Last?
Maybe the Tea Party is meeting its match, maybe the tide is turning toward a more enlightened way of looking at the mess we’re in. As Paul Krugman said today:”There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear, but we may, at long …
Continue readingRecreating Eden: A Novel to Read This Long Weekend as the Last Roses of Summer Bloom
The flowers of fall are much on my mind. Yesterday I went around taking pictures in gardens, including several of the last roses of summer which I will post soon. And my evening was filled with another sort of rose, Rosa Candida by the Icelandic novel…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: New Bridge across the St. Lawrence Must Have Public Transit As Well as Tolls
Federal, provincial and municipal authorities announced yesterday that one of the most heavily used links between the island of Montreal and the rest of the world, the Champlain Bridge, will be replaced by a toll bridge. The reaction was generally favo…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Le Devoir on How to Fill That Growing Hole in the Ozone Layer
This morning Le Devoir’s cartoonist took a swing aat both Stephen Harper’s disdain for the facts pointing to the effects of human activity on the atmosphere and his passion for the monarchy. So there is much bigger hole in the Ozone layer above the Ar…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Red Hair: A Drug on the Market or Sign of Fertility?
Vivaldi was a red head, so were Napoleon , Galileo, Eric the Red and Thomas Jefferson. A rather distinguished group, don’t you think? But apparently, the sperm from red heads is not moving at an international sperm bank, and they have announced they’…
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