Saturday Photo: Lights for This Year…
There have been years when I’ve railed against people who put up Christmas lights–waste of electricity, bad taste, just generally not cool. Besides it’s hard to hook them up to…
Mary Soderstrom
Saturday Photo: What I Can’t Find This Year…
This is going to be a Christmas not like any other I’ve experienced, but we’re healthy and we have more than enough to eat, so I shouldn’t complain. But I…
Saturday Photo:No Snow, Temperature Up and Down, Bushes Confused
Took this a few days ago after a short spell of warm weather–up as high as 15 C. This is not to say we’ve been spared cold weather so far…
Saturday Photo: Light at the End of the Tunnel?
The days are getting shorter and shorter–only three weeks to the Solstice, more or less, and the sun around here is rising about 7 a.m. Dark days, indeed. The prospect…
Saturday Photo: What to Do on a Dark Winter Day
Elena Ferrante’s top 40 books by female authors What to do these long, dark days when you may be in semi-lockdown: Elena Ferrante’s top 40 novels by women (from The…
Saturday Photo: Concrete and the End of the Road…
The Globe and Mail this weekend is featuring a number of articles about cities. Among them is one about the role that concrete has played in building them, and the…
Saturday Photo: Bicycles and Winter…
It snowed on Tuesday, and is shirt-sleeve weather today. Good day to go for a bike ride–or if you’re like me, a walk. Bixi, Montreal’s bike share service, goes for…
Saturday Photo: A Little Change-up, a Change in the Kitchen and Bathroom Chez Nous
After a couple of years of chat, and 11 months of planning etc. our renovations are complete. New floors, countertops, more cabinets and paint in the kitchen. New walk in…
Saturday Photo: Trees in the Golden Forest…
No message today because I’m calling for the election. But if you have a chance to get out, do. The light and the trees are wonderful. October’s bright blue weather,…
Saturday Photo: Grape Leaves, Or the Fruit of Sunlight
There isn’t a whole lot of sunlight in our backyard because the maple tree two doors to the south shades everything most of the day. But that hasn’t stopped a…
Saturday Photo: Never Hurts to Stop and Take Stock, Or Happy Thanksgiving
I’m far from being a religious person, but I think it’s important to occasionally stop and consider what we have in this life. That’s particularly true in this Plague Year,…
Saturday Photo: The Book Launch Will Be BYOB, Unfortunately
Usually when I have a new book come out we have a little launch party at an independent book store. Last year just about now we were preparing for one…
Saturday Photo: Golden Rod, One Thing That Shines in These Dark Times
The golden rod has been blooming around here for several weeks. In fact, in some places it’s actually well past its prime, and is looking a little faded. But this…
Thin Air Festival Featuring Concrete, Believe It or Not
It may sound like an oxymoron, but concrete in North America frequently contains up to 6 per cent air. Why, is something I talk about in Concrete: From Ancient Origins…
Saturday Photo: Cosmos, the Flower That Keeps on Giving…
If you wait long enough, that is. Cosmos are wonderful flowers that reseed themselves and change sunny places to corners of cosmic delight. I’ve never had much luck with them…
Saturday Photo: Good Crop of Umbrellas This Summer
Well, it rained a lot here in August, so obviously these folks were on the case. The umbrella stayed there for a couple of weeks, during the worst of the…
Saturday Photo: Reclaiming the City…
One of the up-sides of this Plague Year is the way people and cities are rethinking public spaces. Around here a number of neighborhoods have widened sidewalks by allowing terraces…
Saturday Photo: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The work is far from done, alas! Fifty-seven years ago I was there, having hitched a ride with a friend with parishioners from a church in Indianapolis. We had been…
Saturday Photo: Goldenrod and Badminton, the Resilience of the Former, the Lure of the Latter
Here you have the remains of a badminton court on which a generation or two of nuns played on summer afternoons. Part of the convent’s grounds was sold to a…
Saturday Photo: Black Lives Matter in Outremont
The part of Montreal where we live was designed more than 100 years ago as a garden suburb, sort of. Today it is home to a mixed population that includes…