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!
Mary Soderstrom
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…
Saturday Photo: Cars…
Woke up about 2 a.m. to the sound of cars racing. This is Grand Prix weekend and the town is full of wannabes who are driving muscle cars too fast.…
Saturday Photo: Reading Lists….
Well, it really isn’t a photo, but a painting done by the Hungarian painter Mihály Munkácsy in the 1890s. Called “Paris Interior” in some places, it captures an era, as…
Saturday Photo: Not Just Maples and Oaks and etc.
Everything starts growing this time of year. Here is a photo of the brilliant new growth on a deciduous tree. Don’t know the name–I’m not good with those of plants–but…
Saturday Photo: Bumper Crop of Violets, the Other Side of Invasive
I love invasive plants. Or Darwinian gardening, if you prefer. In my book, an attractive plant that has expansive tendencies is wonderful, because it will push out less attractive plants…
Saturday Photo: To Ope’ Their Trunks the Trees Are Never Seen…
…How Then Do They Put on Their Robes of Green? “ Good question! I always think of that song we sang in my Southern California childhood this time of year…
Saturday Photo: Years of Contestation…
There’s been a lot in the press here about the fiftieth anniversary of the uprising in Paris. Certainly 1968 was a year of unrest, particularly among the young there and…
Before Its Time? Manifest Destiny, a Short Story
The story below appeared in my short story collection, Finding the Enemy, published in 1999 by Oberon Press. Given the news today of a caravan of refugees at the US/Mexico…