Saturday Photo: Hockey? Golf? Sports in 17th Century Holland from the AGO

One of the pleasures of our trip to Toronto recently was a day spent in the Art Gallery of Ontario.  The featured exhibition, Impressionism in the Age of Industry, is terrific, but we also were able to saunter through the other galleries. 

This painting. "Skaters on the Amstel" by Arent Arentsz which dates from the 1620s, was one that stopped me dead in my tracks.  Showing skaters on the frozen river it also portrays two well-dressed dudes playing "kolf" which looks a lot like golf mixed with hockey.  People have been looking for ways to amuse themselves forever, I guess.

Note on the weather: the local authorities just took down the boards for the outdoor hockey rinks in our neighborhood.  This year was a pretty good one for playing the game outside, and the rinks were in use until just a few days ago.

Saturday Toronto: Moose in Toronto

One of the regrets of my life is that I never was able to get a New Hampshire bumper sticker for my mother's wheel chair: "I brake for moose."  We were never in the right place at the right time, and then it was too late.

Carpe diem, I guess.  And perhaps it's in that spirit that we went to Toronto last week: it's slightly south of Montreal and the idea was that it might be warmer.  It was, and by the end of our stay on Friday there even were a few green blades of grass peeking out of the winter dross.  But one of the high points was this moose in front of the Lucky Charm Moose Village Market, quite splendidly decked out for, perhaps, a Chinese holiday (after all the New Year wasn't that long ago.)

There's Lee waiting for more patiently, out in front, before we sauntered down to the train station to come back.  Time well spent...

Saturday Photo: The Cover...

Not much to write this week, because I'm busy checking the edits on my new book.  Here's the cover (or its latest iteration.)

More later....

Saturday Photo: Craftsbury Common and Frenemies

Jessamyn West, the Vermont librarian, took this lovely photo of Craftsbury Common, in mid-state Vermont.  I love it for its peaceful beauty and the way it captures a vision of story-book New England.  Of course, the story is far more complicated than the photo suggests, as I consider in Frenemy Nations: Love and Hate between Neighbo(u)ring States which the University of Regina Press will publish in October.  Vermont and New Hampshire are two of the pairs of places that have much in common but which are in many ways very different, and Ms. West has kindly allowed us to use the photo in the book. 

Part of the reason for posting this photo today is because we're entering the count-down to publication: I'm supposed to get the copy edit this week, and hope to turn it around within a couple of days.  It will be interesting to see how people react to it.  Initial comment is quite positive, but then after 15 books (this is my 16th) I know that friends are unlikely to tell you anything negative unless you ask, and usually I don't ask...

Saturday Photo: March Sunbath....

The sun is rising earlier, setting later, and passing higher in the sky.  All that points to the end of winter, although the temperatures here remain now higher than a frosty -12 C. 

Next week most schools in Quebec will be closed for March Break, and I imagine there will be a lot of kids playing outside until they drop, literally, to spend a few moments looking up a the blue, blue sky.  Not the sunbath you might have in July, but pleasant nonetheless.