"The Little Match Girl" is one of those Hans Christian Andersen stories that wrench the heart: the poor little match seller outside a grand residence dies of cold after slowly…
One of the few things I've been able to read lately--too much physical labour, it seems, makes you fall asleep at 9:30 p.m.--was Claire Messud's novel The Emperor's Children from…
The clothes, rugs, linens and the like come back on Thursday. Monday it's the furniture, Wednesday the boxes (including 5,000 books.) Maybe it will all be over soon!BTW, the plumbers…
This was taken as the moon rose on Thursday night, Bastille Day or the Fête nationale française. The moon was not quite full, but the evening was lovely after a…
One of the joys of a garden full of perennials is that the plants and the flowers come back, even in yars of neglect. I took these yesterday, when the…
As I write this, at shortly after 7 a.m., some hardy souls are gathering on a pier in Montreal's Old Port, getting ready for the Grand Splash. For the seventh…
Well, actually the plumbers yesterday came to put the radiators back in place. They'd been removed so the new hardwood floors could be installed. It only took two guys to…
The last couple of weeks on the Plateau, as the house near readiness. It is very hot, and the apartment is hotter, but at least we can get up on…
Google this morning brings us an image of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow (right). Seems it was consecrated on July 12, 1561, or 550 years ago today.It's quite an impressive…
One of the strange things about the US (and to a lesser extent Canada) is the way this supposeodly classless society dumps on people who would be considered on the…
As the pace quickens in our struggle to get back inot our house, I find myself slipping off mentally into quieter times. This photo is from our trip to France…
Running errands, washing kitchen cabinets, putting out more fires (figuratively speaking) as the countdown on the house continues, so no post today.
My big news is a nice grant from the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec to support work on a new short story collection. It'll be called Desire Lines:…
When Montreal seemed to tank after the various crises about French nationalism, some interesting things started to happen, in part because rents were low enough to encourage edgy young people…
In my Southern California childhood, the Fourth of July was a big holiday, right up there with Thanksgiving, not far behind Christimas. We were taught that it celebrated the birth…
As we head over to the house early these mornings to see what's happening, we've been going past the community garden at the corner of Henri-Julien and Maguire even before…
In the Rest of Canada, this is the major national holiday, and while there will be some festivities in Quebec, the big thing in Montreal is moving. Most leases run…
Time Magazine is bemoaning the demise of the bagel this week, as one of New York's big bagel bakeries, H&H, goes out of business.The story by Joshua Ozersky begins: "There…
The Jean Talon Market is full of strawberries right now--and I even saw some in a supermarket. The strawberry season is not long here: about a month, except for a…
