This is the Bibliothèque Mordecai-Richler, lodged in what was formerly The Church of the Ascension, an Anglican church that closed its doors something like 30 years ago. Using the church building as a library was a great thing to do, and the fact that the library now bears the name
Continue readingAuthor: Mary Soderstrom
Recreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Resilience, or Something to Remember When You’re Feeling Caged in
This was taken in a new park in my neighborhood. The plantings are all perennials, and most are native to the region. This has mean that they’d done very well during this hot, dry summer. So well, in fact, that some of them have sprouted off spring, including this little
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Happy Thanksgiving, Despite Everything
This Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. The statutory holiday is Monday but we’ve always celebrated whenever it’s convenient for friends and family to get together. At times we have had big potluck parties (we did the turkeys and several sides, while everyone else brought something to share), but I’m afraid that is
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: The Streams That Flow to the Fleuve
I’ve always wondered at the distinction made in modern French between fleuve and rivière. For a long time I thought that one was big and the other little, but that’s not it. What makes the difference is whether the watercourse flows into the sea. If it doesn’t, it’s a rivière
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Summer’s End But the Weather Continues Warm, Maybe Too Warm
Like kids in a class portrait at the end of the school year, these sunflowers stood tall a week ago when I walked by them, enjoying the amazing summer-like weather. This is the first weekend in fall, offiically, but it continues unusually warm. The temptation is to enjoy it, which
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: The Salish Sea from Space…
The Salish Sea–the Puget Sound, Strait of Juan da Fuca, Georgia Strait area– is one of the regions I look at carefully in my new book Against the Seas: Saving Civilizations from Rising Oceans. Getting closer to a contract, writing hard…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Mangroves, Another Tool in the Fight against Rising Seas
Glad to report that it looks like I’ll be signing a contract very soon for my next book Against the Seas: Saving Civilizations from Rising Seas. Details will follow, but in the meantime here is a photo of mangroves near Jakarta, Indonesia. The tree is one of the natural tools
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Salt Marsh: the Answer to Our Problems?
It looks like I’ll be getting a contract for Against the Seas: Saving Civilizatins from Rising Oceans rather soon, so I thought I’d share another photo from our trip to the Bas St-Laurent. This is the “sea” side of the batture at St. Alexandre de Kamouraska: at high tide it
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: School Starts, Summer Was Too Hot and Dry
This is not this year’s batch of kids going to school: you can see that there’s not a mask in the lot. But school started in Montreal this week, and will start in the rest of the province next week. Summer was unusually hot and sunny here–not as dry or
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: The Batture at Saint-André de Kamouraska
Note: this was such a good trip I’m posting it twice! Down in the Bas St-Laurent recently to see how people there cope with rising sea levels. This is the walkway on the top of a dike built to protect some very fertile fields–in other words, an aboiteau. Had
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Batture or a Walk on the Tamed Side
Spent a great few days in the Lower St. Laurent, including walks on the batture, the dikes constructed to keep back the tides and make the Kamouraska lowlands ready for planting. It was very hot, but that meant there were few people, and we had this great landscape mostly to
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Middens on Vancouver Island
The New Yorker had an interesting read this week about ways to save us from rising sea levels. The basic idea is the encouragement of artificial reefs that would be home to many sea creatures and also take the brunt of pounding waves. Oysters will grow on them, so it’s
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: To Bee or Not to Bee…
The bees are out, thank goodness. In this time of so many things not going right, it’s a pleasure to see them at work in the ‘hood. It helps that there are several bee hives hidden around, so in addition to the native bees we have some honey bees. It
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: In Memory of Everyone Who Died before Their Time
My sister Laurie died suddenly in July 2002. She was beautiful, as well as being smart and exceedingly concerned about justice. Here is the day Lee and I got married: a good memory. In this period of far too many premature deaths, I offer my condolences to those who loved,
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: The Rapids Where the Going Gets Tough, If Not Impossible
Spent a lovely few hours last Sunday at the Parc des rapides on the St. Lawrence. These rapids and the St. Mary’s rapid to the east effectively blocked sailing ships from going up the great river. The first canal around the rapids was built in the late 18th century, and
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Wayward Grass….
The view at the Technoparc last Sunday: grasses and clouds and birds. There was a time that we did a lo of bird-watching, but kids and dogs got in the way. Now that we have neither in the house, we’ve gone back to a little low key bird-watching, which has
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Unphoto: From Bloomberg Green on Wild Fire
By Linda Poon The worst day for human-caused fires in the U.S. is July 4. That’s a particular problem this year, as a historic heat wave and record drought have exacerbated the risk of wildfires. That’s why more than 150 fire scientists signed a letter this week urging people in
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Gate to Where?
Lots of changes in the world. Sad news about the past coming out. Pandemic easing here, but raging elsewhere. All of this, plus drought and heat waves come to mind as I wander my neighbourhood. This is part of the lovely installation off Van Horne boulevard where sculptor Glen LeMesurier
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Gypsy Moths….
This week I went for a walk in one of my favourite places, the Mount Royal Cemetery. This time of year it usually is full of flowers and fruit like crabapples setting on. But, to my great dismay, great swaths of the trees were completely denuded of leaves. The culprit
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Saturday Photo: Mangroves, the Key to Sea Rise Control?
Firsts installment of the photos some friends in Jakarta took for me, as I try to research what’s happening there for my new project, Against the Seas: Saving Civilizations from Risking Oceans. Mangroves have and could continue to save many shorelines from erosion. Just one of the things I’m learning
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