Saturday Photo: Pot Hole Season...

Actually the ones this year are worse.  The photo was taken a couple of years ago after some of the pot holes were filled.  This year, though, we've had rock 'n' roll weather, with days of hard freeze followed by thaws followed by more hard freezes.

This means that water enters into every crack in pavement and then expands when it turns to ice.  Yesterday afternoon I found myself driving much below the speed limit on main streets in order not to break an axle.  What a mess!

When I was at World of Concrete in January there was some talk about what concrete works best when there's much freeze-and-thaw.  But I don't think anybody had a prescription for countering our cycles, which are much more frequent than elsewhere.

Saturday Photo: Good Luck in Bad Luck or It Wasn't Raindrops Falling on My Head

Report from an optimist.

Last Saturday evening I was sitting in the living room when I began to hear drip! drip! drip!  A little investigation found water dripping from the ceiling in the dining room which was bulging downward. 

Quick work by my husband led piercing the sagging plaster, catching about two gallons of water in a big bucket, and, subsequently, pulling down a lot of wet lath and plaster. This is what things looked like on Monday morning.

What a mess, you might say.  One of the joys of home ownership, you might add.  We discovered a leak in the pipe leading from the reservoir of the toilet upstairs to the pipe leading to the sewer, which in turn led to an expensive visit from plumbers who replaced the pipe and the toilet, and discovered another leak in the bath tub drain.  All that is fixed now, only the holes remain.

The good thing about this is that it occurred when it did.  The night before we had a dinner party and at the same time the leak sprang forth on Saturday, on Friday we were just about to begin the cheese course.  The wine and the conversation  were flowing, we were having a lovely time.  So glad we didn't have to hustle everyone out so that water-rescue could begin!

Also since we were home and awake when the leak began, there was little if any collateral damage.  I shudder to think what would have happened to our books, hardwood floors (replaced seven years ago after our fire,) book and artwork if the water had flowed for a significant amount of time. 

Is there a lesson here? Maybe its that being optimistic doesn't stop life's glitches from happening, but it makes facing them a bit easier to deal with.

Saturday Photo: Oranges Inside, and Out

At some point I acquired an ornamental orange tree.  It was probably 20  or more years ago, and each year I put it outside for the summer and brought it in October, where it might--or might not--bear one tiny orange.

This year I must have done something right, because it had a lot of blossoms when I brought it in, which have transformed into perhaps three dozen oranges.  Quite wonderful, I think.  Later on when they start to fall, I'll get the grandkids to plant some of their seeds so they can have their own little tree.

This comes just after I read a very interesting social history of California, Trees in Paradise by Jared Farmer.  The book  tells the stories of four sorts of trees in the Golden State, the Sequoia, Eucalyptus, orange and palm. Farmer uses these as points of departure for a detailed, pretty rigorous account of California since 1850, and for reflections on how people have remade the landscape, for good (a bit) or for ill (mostly.)

I found the method particularly interesting because I'm currently struggling to organize the vast amount of material I've been collecting about concrete for my next book Rock of Ages: How Concrete Built the World as We Know It.    Right now I'm wondering: Why not use the four elements the Ancients recognized--earth, fire, water and air--to tell this story? 

To be continued...

Saturday Photo: Beauty, Fading But Beautiful

Looking for photos to illustrate a presentation I'm giving about concrete, I came across this one I took in Lisbon several years ago.  The stucco on these buildings with the elegant iron work is peeling, but the flowers are lovely and the open windows are inviting.

Beauty can be found in a lot of places, não é?

Saturday Photo: Concrete...

The material that can last for thousands of years, frequently is falling down these days.  This is the Turcot Interchange in Montreal that is being destroyed for all kinds of reasons....

I'm headed off Saturday o learn the latest about concrete at the World of Concrete trade show in Las Vegas.  More later.

Saturday Photo: Big Machines at World of Concrete

Spent a very interesting few days in Las Vegas learning about concrete and construction at the World of Concrete trade show.  Several thousand attendees and 1500 exhibitors, plus folks like me.  This is a shot of some of the stuff they couldn't get in the exhibit halls.  Most impressive!

The reason for the trip was to research my next non-fiction project, Rock of Ages: How Concrete Built the World As We Know It.  It was definitely worth it.

Saturday Photo: The Lantern Waste?

One of the delights of having children is revisiting books you've read as a child, or reading books that have been written since then.  The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis are a case in point.  I'm sure I read at least one of them when I was about 12, but then read the whole series to Lukas and Elin.  (Lee may have read some of them, too, I think.)

"It will not go out of my mind that if we pass this post and lantern either we shall find strange adventures or else some great change in our fortunes," says one of the character in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  And the spell that has fallen on Narnia is one that means winter forever but Christmas, never.

This scene in a Parc Beaubien reminded me of the stories this week.  The lamp post, the little house, the snow: all were evocative of the best things in the books, so I decided to share it this week.

But as I thought more and more about Lewis and Narnia, I realized that the series, while captivating, has many doubtful elements.  The Witch, for example, could be seen as just a very strong woman: why portray her so negatively?  Later in the series, a horde of brown, mounted adventurers from the South are the enemies for The Horse and His Boy: Arabs, Muslims, foreshadowing of  ISIS?  And there is Aislin who, Lewis said himself, is a Christ-like figure. 

I suppose an enlightened parent could use the reading of these parts as teachable moments.  I didn't, and I wonder if I should have even though the kids, by any measure are All Right. 

Saturday Photo: Picnic Anyone?

The winter grinds on.  We were spared the Snow Bomb, but the temperatures have plunged again, and what snow fell in the last couple of days was whipped around yesterday.  It even came in under the front door, the first time that we can remember, although we've lived in this house more than 40 years.

All this to say that we must remember we're talking about "climate change," not "global warming."  Extreme weather in other words.  Don't know how we're going to get out of this one.

But I expect that some time--may in July--these picnic tables will be in use by people complaining about the heat.

Saturday Photo: Waiting for 2018, But Not for Barbecue Season

The year isn't over but some people can't wait until the weather is better.  At the moment it's minus 24 C (about minus 13  F) and has been like that for days.  Supposed to continue for another week, too. 

But obviously these folks want to get a jump on summer...or maybe they just didn't get around to putting things away. 

Must point out though that it's possible to barbecue in this weather.  Lukas did it on Christmas Eve, turning out Swedish potato sausage cooked perfectly.

Saturday Photo: Merry Christmas and All That

I've posted this photo before I think, but it seems particularly appropriate as the year turns on its solstice hinge.

Supposedly there will be a few more seconds of daylight today than there was yesterday.  Good thing to know, even though we're not likely to seem much sun, given snow in the weather forecast.

But when the sun does come out, it will shine on sheets of white, multiplying its light.  And light is something that is sorely need, in both the literal and the figurative sense.

This is a winter of discontent, perhaps the worst in a long time.  Hard to keep the faith but we have to, or else the loathsome ones will win....

That said, let me wish everyone some pleasure over the next few days, as the year ends and a good part of the world celebrates--well, what does it celebrate, actually?  Our Jeanne says it is love, and I'll go along with that.

For more thoughts about 2017 and wishes for 2018, here's the link to my holiday blog.  Blessings on us everyone, as Tiny Tim said.

Saturday Photo: Christmas Cactus as the Holidays Approach

I have two Christmas cactuses that have bloomed for at least 15 years, sometimes twice a winter in fact.  But I've never had such an abundance of blooms as this year, on the one that flowers in December.  (The other one blooms in November and maybe in March.)

Don't know what I did right this year, but it is a pleasure to see the flame-like flowers covering the plant.  An early holiday decoration.

Saturday Photo: Sil, a Tradition

Must confess that the photo dates from a few years ago, but in the refrigerator right now are 24 salt herring, waiting for me to get my act together and make marinated herring, or sil.

This is one tradition that comes from Lee's family that I really like.  Takes about 10  days after you start the marinating process before the sill is (or is it are?) ready to eat. But the result is definitely worth waiting for.

In recent years I've had trouble finding salt herring around here.  Last year I persuaded a wholesaler to sell me some: quite a production as the company is run by a pair of Hassidic Jewish brothers who were amused by my plea that I needed salt herring for Christmas as was their staff that included a couple of very French Canadian office workers and several Muslim men who looked after the fish.  This year I tried to find a place closer to home, and did, finally.  The fish seem a little smaller than last year, but at least I didn't have to do as much running around...

So, while there's no snow on the ground, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, at least in my refrigerator...

Saturday Photo: Sunrise, November 30, 2017

Well, actually the sun had been up officially for a good half an hour, but when I was out Thursday morning, it was just peeking around Mount Royal.  The leaves are finally off the trees, but there is no snow on the ground.  Just sere grass and light glancing across the little frost that collected over night.

There are many cities farther north than Montreal--London and Paris to name only two.  I don't know how I'd last in them: short days get to me.  Right now I'm hoping for snow soon, since what light there is on winter days is magnified when there's snow on the ground.

Saturday Photo: Start of Construction

The photo was taken about a year ago when construction began in earnest for the new Université de Montréal satellite campus.  What I wanted to show was the concrete delivery in the background, because I was beginning to think about Rock of Ages: How Concrete Built the World as We Know It.

Happy to say that the writing has begun now: have a plan and about 20 pages written.  Will take a while longer, but it's nice to think that I'm on my way.

Saturday Photo: November Skies, Meteors and Visual Pollution

There's been some talk about the possibility of a good meteor show from the Leonids tonight: here's the link to The New York Times story about meteors showers in general, with specific reference to the flurry of meteors that we might see during the period when the earth passes through the region of the solar system full of cosmic junk.

But it's become impossible to see much of anything in the night sky in our neighborhood as residents put up more and more outside lights. I remember seeing Orion on winter nights as I put the car away in the garage, but this week, while I thought I saw the brightest star in the constellation, I had to guess at the rest.  Thomas told me that he and his Dad had seen a planet last weekend--Venus, to hear him tell--but it's very hard for a little guy these days to wonder at the starry sky if he lives in a city.

The wintry wonder of skies like the one shown above are some consolation, I suppose.  With the leaves off the trees, the parade of clouds across the sky is more apparent.  But even scenes like this are menaced.  Earlier this week we had three days of air pollution alerts, occurrences that had become much less frequent when regulations against burning trash and fire places came into effect.  But the climate is changing, as we all know, and other factors have come into play....

Saturday Photo: Concrete, the Material That Builds Our World

This week I really got rolling on the newest project, a new book to be called Rock of Ages: How Concrete Built the World As We Know It. Making plans to attend a big convention of concrete types, looking at the photos I've taken over the years, reading a lot of notes, and trying to start writing.

This is one of the more humble uses of concrete, improving somebody's parking space.  There are a millions more, and I'm trying to bring some order into my presentation.  Should be an interesting challenge!

Saturday Photo: Full Moon, Clear Skies

The forecast is for rain but the full moon is hanging around just now.  Nice to see....

Saturday Photo: Pumpkins...and Pumpkin Pi

Just returned from scouting pumpkins.  Thomas and Louis (5 and 17 months) are coming over today and we're going to make a pumpkin, or maybe two.

We currently have two tiny ones and two small ones, chosen by Jeanne when she was here earlier in the week.  She left with three small ones for herself and her parents.  She also chose the ones we have: I was surprised that she wanted the smaller ones, but she was the one who got to decide.

Not sure what Thom will think though, hence the scouting trip.  Funnily, there seem to be very few medium sized ones around--a few tiny ones and several enormous ones in the stores. 

Well, we'll see what the boys decide.  And afterwards we'll have the prospect of several pumpkin pies, which are favourites around here. As is this terrific jack o'lantern carved a few years ago by some talented folk.

Saturday Photo: Hibiscus in October II, Inside

The plants were brought in, there was a little frost Tuesday morning, but the temperatures shot up considerably at the end of the week.  Because of this--or despite it, take you pick--one of the hibiscus celebrated by sending forth another flower.

Should be interesting to see if the plant continues to be so colourful.  At the moment, we're just enjoying have the green inside, as the trees finally begin to turn colour. 

Climate change is really weird.  We haven't had to turn the furnace on yet this fall, and didn't run the air conditioner very much either this summer.  Maybe this Montreal is becoming a more temperate climate?

Saturday Photo: Hibiscus in October

For years I've had two hibiscus bushes that have bloomed perhaps a half dozen times when the conditions were just right.  I put them outside in the summer, but even then blooms are rare. This year, however, things are different.  They've spent four months in their usual vacation place, in our shady little patch of front garden, and in the past few weeks they've been blooming.  At the moment, they have three flowers (I couldn't get them all in the photo) with a few more buds still to go.

Two things may account for this.  First, I did put some composted manure on them in early August, because their roots had begun to show, but I've done that before with no real results. 

The second factor is more important I think: for the first time ever I've kept them outside well in October, and the light coming through the overhanging tree branches is lower and  more intense. 

Is this one of the upsides of global warming?  Will we have other falls where the temperatures match or exceed those of July and August?  No idea, of course, although the prospect of climate change gives me chills.  What I will do is bring the plants in next week, before the frost which is forecast for Monday night.  In the meantime I'll enjoy the blossosm.