Saturday (or rather Friday) Photo: Fête nationale and Brexit

This is what our house looked like yesterday, with our Quebec flag unfurled. The grandkids were over and we put it up together.  They don't know the political import of it, but for me this is a sign that we belong here just as much as anybody else. 

Not all of us are Québécois de souche (although grandson Thomas Édouard has ancestors who arrived in the middle of the 17th century from France), but Lee and I chose to live here and the grandkids and their parents were born here or (in the case of Jeanne's father) also chose  Quebec.

This reflection comes as the British are trying to come to grips with what they did on Thursday.  People, it seems, didn't really believe that  Brexit would pass.  Can't understand how people could vote to leave without considering the implications.  But apparently that's what happened in many cases.

Now, there may be good arguments for leaving the European Union, but just because you're angry is not one....

Saturday Photo: Summertime and the Grass Is A-growin'

Summer won't arrive officially until sometime tomorrow, but that hasn't kept the grass and weeds from getting away from people. 

I'm always of two minds about overgrown, shaggy spaces. A weed, after all, is just a plant growing where you don't want it, right?  And my own approach to gardening is what I call Darwinan.  In other words, what grows, grows.  Sometimes the unplanned array of flowers is truly wonderful.

But then there are yards where people have opted for grass and yet who don't do anything about what grows there until it becomes a grass fire hazard.  With just a little thought they could have a low maintenance yard that is a delight for birds and butterflies and also is easy on the eyes  too.

Saturday Photo: Gate into Summer

The photo was taken a week or so ago, before the trees fully leafed out.  But I think it shows nicely where we are headed--toward summer.

Thanks goodness...

Saturday Photo: Chestnuts in Blossom, Paris under Water

The song says:  April in Paris, Chestnuts in Blossom.  That's true as far as it goes perhaps, although when I've been there in early May the chestnuts were always lovely.

They don't bloom until late May or early June here, and now I'm pleased to report that they are lovely right now. 

What I'm not so pleased about is the way the Paris is being submerged in flood waters.  Not so surprising, I suppose: the location was originally chosen because it was on easily-defended islands in the middle of the Seine.  But the recent photos I've seen have given me a little wrench because so many of them show places I've walked completely covered in water, like this pathway along the Seine. 

Saturday Photo: Flowers for Wedding?

It's called bridal veil, I think, and this week its flowers are cascading gracefully everywhere around here. 

Several of the trees on the street were cut down early this spring as a measure to slow the progress of emerald ash borer.  The jury is out over how effective that is, but one thing is certain: the plants which just got on underneath the trees no better than they should have grown immensely.

So this is a good year for bridal veil and honeysuckle.  What that means for weddings and etc. I don't know.  Any ideas?

Saturday Photo: Holiday, Just When We Need It

I've run this photo before. It's of the flag used by the Patriotes in 1837, when Canada had the nearest thing to a revolution that it ever had.

This weekend we're celebrating the Patriotes, while the rest of the country is celebrating Victoria Day.  Interestingly, she took the throne in 1837, although her attitude toward the rebels demanding a say in how they were governed was not at all positive.

I'd much rather celebrate wanting a vote that counted than a girl who stayed on the throne for decades.  But when the weather is warm, as it is right now, I suppose any excuse to enjoy the outdoors is all right.

Satuday Photo: After the Spring Rain

The roads aren't in great shape--the legacy of bad planning (probably) and a winter with a roller coaster of temperatures that turned the freeze and thaw cycle to new heights.

But Saturday morning after a heavy rain, the potholes in the lane were little lakes reflecting the progress of spring.  A few trees are nearly completely leafed out, but many are still in the early stages.  A long way to go before the growing season is really upon us, but there are many promises to be seen.

Saturday Photo: Yello to Match the Sun

First nice weekend this spring.  Really lovely.  Going to do a barbecue for Mother's Day (Lukas will be doing the actual barbecuing, of course.) 

Saturday Photo: Forsythia

Next up: forsythia.  The first week in May is the week when the trees leaf out here.  While the last week was pretty cold, with temperatures below freezing several mornings, the little leaflets seem to be plumping up nicely.  So with any luck by this time next weekend there will be the lacey tracery of leaf shadows falling on the ground.

In the meantime, the forsythia is beginning to come out.  Love the colour.  Yellow rules...

Saturday Photo: Resistance, Plus a Slide Show

Always is nice to see how the force that through the green fuse drives the flower (as Dylan Thomas put it) continues to work. Here's a photo I took, plus a slide show that is truly lovely.

Saturday Photo: Scylla Here and in Chicago

Took this a few years ago when I was in Chicago when the scylla was in bloom.  This year the firsts ones are shaking their little blue heads and spring begins.

Other signs of spring: people whizzing around on Bixis which went into service at midnight Friday, kids asking their parents for ice cream on a lovely Saturday afternoon, and me trying to remember what I thought I sould do in the garden this spring.  So much for keeping records: I may do a good job when I'm reporting/researching something, but I always forget that I mean to plan out the next year's garden when the memories of the last year's one are still vivid.

Saturday Photo: Orange is the New Black

Or something like that.  Didn't post on the weekend because of visits from grandkids and dinner guests (yes, dinner guests: the young'uns were surprised to learn that Grandma and Grampa actually have friends!) 

But there also was a good reason to wait--the NDP convention.  I didn't go, and I was not shy about saying that I thought the party--my party for so long--had gone terribly astray during the last election.  To let Justin Trudeau run to its left!  What a terrible abandoning of what the NDP has always been in Canada--the voice on the Left with the good ideas.

That the stunning repudiation of Thomas Mulcair appeared to be a surprise to those close to him shows just how little they'd been listening to the rank and file, or for that matter the electorate.  It's not having lost an election that's a problem. It's having lost an election by running on Centrist ideas.  And it's not that Mulcair and company weren't warned.

Full disclosure is necessary on that point: I was president of Mulcair's riding association from 2011 to 2013, so I knew to whom to send emails when Lee (an economist) wanted to point out the fallacy of running on a no-debt platform at a time when the economy needs stimulus and interest rates are very low.  Similarly, for years I've tried to get Mulcair to take a more pro-active stand on protecting the Canada Health Act and our single-payer system.  There were others in the party who also blew whistles but weren't listened to.

So we shall see what we shall see.  In the meantime here's bit of orange I clicked back when the world seemed to be going Orange in 2010-2011....

Saturday Photo: Bougainvillea, or a Plant from Away

It's not often that my bougainvillea blooms, but this year it has.  Not sure why.  Certainly it's not because it's received a great deal of sun.  The gray, rainy weather has apparently not dissuaded it, though.

The plant is a native of South America, and it's blooming is appropriate because I'm up to my neck in books about Brazil and Spanish South America for my next non-fiction project, a book to be called Unidentical Twins.   

But it also reminds me of my mother.  Bougainvillea was one of the few plants she could grow.  She always had a massive bush on the east side of the house in San Diego, which I remember with great pleasure. 

Saturday Photo: The Rites of Spring and Our Place in the Universe

This was taken last year--obviously an Easter egg tree this year would be standing in a pile of snow since we had a nice late winter storm Thursday and Friday.  But it's time to celebrate the coming--or the promise--of the verdant season.  (For other signs, check this out.)

This last week has been aces for such celebrations:  the Equinox on Sunday/Monday;  Norooz, the Persian new year festival on Tuesday; Purim, the raucous Jewish holiday on Wednesday/Thursday; Holi, the Indian one marking the victory of "good" over "bad" on Thursday; and now Easter for Western Christians tomorrow.

The equinox is a good time to pause and reflect on how much our world--full of IT and noise--is actually based on our fundamentally subordinate place in the universe.  No matter what we do, there is no way we can change the fact that we are on a planet that orbits its sun over a period that is somewhat related to, not not quite in sync with its moon's orbit around it or with its own rotation around its axis. 

We saw a demonstration of that at the end of February when we all had to make an adjustment as that month was given another day as it does every four years.  If that adjustment weren't made the seasons would soon be out of phase with the months. Another demonstration shows up in the way that  Greek Orthodox Easter comes a month from now.   It always comes after Passover, and Passover won't be for a month because the Jewish calendar this year has an extra month in order keep it more or less in phase, too.  That's what happens when a planet's orbit around the sun isn't quite in sync with its moon's orbit around it, or some such thing.

Makes you feel small, perhaps.  Or maybe just like going in the kitchen and starting to cook for the festivities that will make us feel better about it all....

Saturday Photo: First up, Snow Drops...

This is not the first time I've posted this photo, but it's right in sync, as the snow drops came up this week.  Had a few days with sun and temperatures above freezing, so they burst out.  This morning the cold made them curl back up, but the promise is there....

Saturday Photo: The Incredible Shrinking Snow People

The snow is melting fast.  This means that the snow fort made by the Hassidic boys up the street is just about gone, and all the snowmen fashioned by eager hands lately are on their way out.

Went out without a hat yesterday, the kids didn't wear boots in this afternoon, and the parks were full of people sitting in the sun on benches that have emerged from snow banks.

The equinox is a week away, and the time changes tonight so I guess we're just about ready for a change in season.

Saturday Photo: Literal Blast from the Past...

That's me and our dog Trout Fishing in Canada on March 4 or 5, 1971 following the biggest (or second biggest, depends on who's talking) snowstorm in Montreal's history.

We were living downtown then, and things had ground to an absolute halt. Kinda fun, though, and Trout thought it was marvelous.  Another thing notable about the photo is how thin both of us are.  She became very portly toward the end of her rather long life (she died at 13) and I, well, I've put on some pounds too.

Still like hats with brims, though, as well as walking in the snow.

As for Trout's name, as those of you who were around in the '60s and '70s may have guessed, she was named after Richard Brautigan's Trout Fishing in America which both Lee and I liked a lot at the time.  Funny, though, when a friend of Elin's lent us another of Brautigan's books recently, we were left cold.  Could be because there's a reference to some 'elderly folks' who are in their 50s...

Saturday Photo: The Sun Rises Earlier and Earlier..

There hasn't been a lot of sun lately, which is not the usual scenario for February.  I've always liked the month because usually we get a lot of cold, clear weather.  This next week, too, is usually the one when the sun starts shining in our back bedroom, as it begins to swing higher in the sky.

This morning the sun shone briefly before it took its sentinel position behind the clouds.  But at least it rose much earlier than it had two months ago when we were just recovering from Christmas.  The back of winter should be broken, we can look forward to more sunshine, I hope at least.

Saturday Photo: Ice Is Nice

It was this cold earlier this week--down near where Farhnheit and Celsius meet if you factor in the wind chill.  For one of the first times this winter we had nice ice on the windows: it has to be really cold before frost forms on the inside of the storm windows.

But of course, like everything this crazy winter, it didn't last.  About four inches of snow last night, and then rain today, so we're walking in puddles at the moment. 

Climate change, right?

Saturday Photo: Natural Hearts

So what if Valentine's Day is tomorrow, I dug up this picture which fits perfectly today, I think.  Tomorrow the kids and I will make a heart-shaped cake, today my Sweetie bought me flowers, outside it's wonderfully cold and sunny.

Hope you have a lovely day....