Saturday Photo: Belles dames Or Painted Ladies?
Somewhere in there are a couple of lovely butterflies. At first, when they appeared in mass about a week ago, I thought they were Monarchs, but it turns out they…
Mary Soderstrom
Saturday Photo: Rock of Ages, How Concrete Built the World as We Know It
This is the week that I start work in earnest on my next book, tentatively titled Rock of Ages: How Concrete Built the World as We Know It. Now that…
Saturday Photo: Le Jardin botanique, Montreal’s Jewel
A good friend is visiting from out of town and we did something we hadn’t done in a long time: visit Montreal’s Jardin botanique. What a delight! Our friend had…
Saturday Photo: Or What Happens When the Internet Lets You Down
No picture this weekend, to show my profound disappointment that we didn’t have internet for 24 hours this weekend. Amazed at how much we have come to fit regular views…
Saturday Photo: Bees….
My overgrown, mostly-indigenous garden of perennials has been hosting a bumper crop of bees this summer. Glad to see that, given the current worry about the fate of bees in…
Saturday Photo: Pear Harvest
It’s been a wet, rather cool summer but the two pear trees in our backyard have loved it. There are more pears than the squirrels can eat, and I harvested…
Saturday Photo: The Grand Antonio, and Electricity
One of the grandkids favourite stories is that of The Great Antonio, a Montreal strong man, by Elise Gravel. He pulled buses with his teeth and other feats of strength.…
Saturday Photo: Dry Falls and the Forces of the Earth
On our trip West in July, one of the most interesting places we stopped was at the Dry Falls State Park where the ancestral Columbia once ran. Or maybe it…
This Just In: Full Page, Back Cover Ad for Road through Tiime in the NYReview of Books!
It was a quiet evening yesterday until my husband shouted from upstairs that I had to take a look at the new New York Review of Books. So I scurried…
Saturday Photo: Fiat Lux at Grand Coulee Dam
Back from nearly two weeks in British Columbia and Washington State with kids and grandkids. Many excellent adventures, you can be sure… This photo was taken just as the sun…
Saturday Photo: The Western Edge of the Continent
Summer is vacation time, and I’m thinking of the trip we took to the West Coast a few years ago. This is photo taken on Vancouver Island, showing the abundance…
Saturday Photo: Fruit!
We’re not quite there yet (the photo was taken a couple of years ago) but it looks like we’ll have a bumper year for raspberries and pears–if the squirrels aren’t…
Saturday Photo: Bonne fête nationale, Happy St Jean Baptiste Day
So, I’m actually posting on Friday, not Saturday. That’s because it seems like the weekend already. Jeanne’s school was finished yesterday, so she and Elin spent the night, after a…
Saturday Photo: Another Invasive, and One Not So
The perfume of Russian olives fills the air these mornings. A bit like the scent of orange blossoms, it lingers all day. I love the trees hardiness, as well as…
Saturday Photo: The Beauty of Invasive
Maybe 20 years ago I bought a couple of columbine plants at a time when I wanted to switch to annuals in our small garden. They have thrived, and are…
Saturday Photo: Making up for Lost Time with Two Photos from the Gaspé
Just spent a great week on the Gaspé peninsula with Lee. It was part work, but mostly play and we had a wonderful time. The weather was cool and windy,…
Saturday Photo: Forget-me-nots in the Grass
I don’t believe in lawns, so the little one we have in our small backyard is strewn with many plants other than grass. Among them is mitosis or forget-me-nots which…
Saturday Photo: Green Rain after the Real Rain
The photo actually was taken a few years ago, but it looks like this outside today. The maple trees are dropping their little flowers (drupes, I think, is the proper…
Goodreads Giveaway Winners Announced!
The Goodreads Giveaway for Road through Time: The Story of Humanity on the Move ended on the weekend. Here are the winners: Kal Adler, Steven Telly and Muayad Aldarweesh. They…
Saturday Photo: Getting There….
This is the week the trees leaf out, and in spite of the rain they seem to be on schedule this year. Lovely to see the green…