Saturday Photo: Fall Bikes and Fighting the Good Political Fight
This is the time of year that the leaves fall–yesterday it was a veritable blizzard of yellow leaves on our street–but also time when bikes begin to look a little…
Mary Soderstrom
Saturday Photo: Burning Bush, or Antidote to a Burning World?
Our neighbors’ burning bush trees are in full colour this week. They are modest looking bushes for most of the year, but they turn a glorious red, come fall. There…
Saturday Photo: Fall and Cataract Surgery
Fall is always a beautiful season here, with so many deciduous trees turning colour. I’d always known that, but four years ago I learned just how gorgeous the trees are.…
Saturday Photo: Thanksgiving….
This is a photo I’ve used before, but I really like it since it shows the beautiful hesitation that Nature goes through here before closing down for the winter. It…
Saturday Photo: Harvest of Good Things
Chilis and garlic: great combination, não é? This week I spent an hour at the Marché Jean Talon, buying wonderful, harvest-fresh things. Basil, garlic, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, little pumpkins, and…
Saturday Photo: Canal in Kochi….
I have no idea if this canal still exists in Fort Kochi, Kerala State, on India’s southwest coast, but I hope it does despite the recent catastrophic monsoon that flooded…
Saturday Photo: The Bees Are At It, Thankfully
One of the advantages of the kind of Darwinian gardening I do is that bees like it. No pesticides or chemical fertilizer, just a lot of compost, some composted manure…
Saturday Photo: Tomato Time…
This is the best time of year for lovers of real, ripe tomatoes. What you get the rest of the year just does’t cut it!
Saturday Photo: Rideau Chapel and 40 Voice Motet
Highlight of a trip to Ottawa: a visit to the National Gallery of Canada to see the exhibit of Impressionist painters there until Sept. 9. Nice, but what really was…
Saturday Photo: Electric Cars, Only as Clean as Their Source of Energy
The folks a couple of blocks away have not one, but two electric cars. Each cost a pretty penny, I’m sure. But so did their house, which they’ve spent a…
Saturday Photo: Irrigation, or Another of the Things that Concrete Has Wrought
This was taken last summer near Chief Joseph Dam on the Columbia River. It shows dramatically the effect of irrigation on the dry lands of the region. Concrete made this…
Saturday Photo: La bicyclette rose…Enduring Whimsy
It had been a while since I walked down Lajoie (great name) during summer, but I did this week. What a delight to see that the folks who own the…
Saturday Photo: Little Suns….
Yellow flowers are about my favourites I think, and Rudbeckia are my favourites among them. This is when they start blooming in earnest, the sign that summer is at its…
Saturday Photo: Chicory on a Hot Summer Morning
The rain has finally begun to fall again a little, but for about three weeks we had very little, and only the hardiest of flowers were blooming in the fields.…
Saturday Photo: Rock of Ages: How Concrete Built the World As We Know It
This week I hope to finish up my new book, Rock of Ages: How Concrete Built the World as We Know. Well, maybe not finish, but at least have a…
Saturday Photo: Moshe Safdie’s 80th Birthday
Here’s the building that started the remarkable career of Moshe Safdie: Habitat 67. Apparently he turns 80 this weekend, while Habitat turned 50 last year. How time flies when you’re…
Saturday Photo: Breakfast on the Grass, or Why It’s Good to Talk about Heat-Related Deaths
It’s been hot around here and until the heat wave broke yesterday the parks were full of people early in the morning taking a break(fast) away from their hot digs.…
Saturday Photo: Morning Contemplation
Hot weather. Time to get out in the morning and then cool it inside… We were in the parks at 8:30 a.m. Often go walking at that hour, but the…
Saturday Photo: The Ducklings Are Back..
The ponds in our neighborhood parks are home some years to duck families. This is the first time I’ve seen one in this particular park which is one of the…
Saturday Photo: More Concrete….This Time in Peru
Moving toward the home stretch for my book Rock of Ages: How Concrete Built the World As We Know It. The University of Regina Press wants a draft by the…