Saturday Photo: The Hinge of the Year Has Turned...

Sunrise over Parc Outremont.  Not today, because I haven't been out yet, but I'm sure it would have looked a lot like this because there is no snow around here. 

No, it's all rain, weird weather with leaves still on the grass after a fall which was colder than usual.  At least there was a dusting of snow on the ground over Christmas to be pretty.

But the days actually are getting longer, with sunrise coming perceptively earlier.  According to the data I found, the day is not that much longer than it was at the solstice, The sun is setting later though, because of a curious astronomical quirk, the earliest sunset actually occurs on December 10. The reason has something to do with a discrepancy between the way we measure time and the actual relation of the sun and the earth.  Too complicated to figure out this morning: I'll just be glad that on this gray day, the sun will be out a little later this afternoon. 

So I'll try to get going: after all the feasting over the last week, it's time to get back to work on finishing up the revisions to my next book, which is now called Fine Lines: The Love/Hate Relationship between Neighbo(u)ring States.

Saturday Photo: Sil, Lutfisk and Holiday Good Wishes in Troubled Times

First of all, here's the link to our holiday season blog, which has become something of a tradition.  Read it and know we're all hoping for the best as we all, collectively, lurch forward into a new year.

As for the photo, I'm sure I've used it before, but it seems appropriate this gray morning when the countdown to Christmas is intensifying. 

The sil is made and so are the cookies.  Thomas is coming over to paint a school bus he and Lee made out of wood over the last few weeks for Louis.  The others will be in and out over the next few days, which will be an island of happy excitement in a world where the sun seems to be obscured far too often. 

Saturday Photo: Waiting...

Is it going to snow?  Or will the snow all melt? There are many more important questions out there, but these two are high on my mind right now, as they seem to be on the minds of these creatures.

Saturday Photo: Hanging in There...Oak Leaves and Snow

Today's lesson is about persistence. 

It has always been my long suite.  The fact that my family is very long-lived helps because I've been pretty sure since I became aware of such things that, all things being equal and wars not too close to home, I'll live long enough to see projects to completion.  A big, early splash is always nice, but what gets you to your goals is dogged, continued effort.  Not necessarily constant, gut-wrenching struggle, but the knack of coming back again and again to pick away at challenges.

These oak leaves which I saw this week in Parc Outremont seem a kind of symbol--or maybe even a sign  In past years there must have been similar leaves clinging to branches well into the cold weather, but I don't remember noticing them.  Perhaps I'm just ripe for a reminder of the value of hanging in there.  Still have many projects to work on, and, I hope, enough time to accomplish them, or at least hand them off to people who will carry them foward.

Saturday Photo: Finally a Jade Plant Flower!!!

For several years I've been trying to get my large and beautiful jade plant (kindly given me by Bettina Bergo when she went on sabbatical) to bloom.  My mother, who was no gardener, frequently had them in flower when I was growing up in San Diego, and if she could, I figured I could too.

But it has turned out to be far harder than I thought.  For one thing, our house and yard are shaded by big maples during high summer.  For another, I didn't know what the cues were that the plant needed to bud.

Last fall and winter I did some research, including contacting nurseries in California, to see how it was done.  Cool temperatures, it seemed.  Lots of sun, others said.

So this summer I put the plant on the front balcony which is about the sunniest place we have.  The plant seemed to do well, but there was no sign of budding well into early fall.  Then we had our first freezing temperatures in mid-October, and I covered the plant with a sheet during the night before finally bringing it in. 

Lo and behold, within a couple of days, buds began to form at three nodes.  Since then I've been watching carefully as the plant as the buds slowly grew.  Last week they burst open into tiny flowerlets, that have no smell, aren't very showy, but nonetheless seem to be to be an accomplishment!

What would seem to have worked, then, is the combination of a sunny summer, followed by exposure to cold as the days grew shorter after the solstice.  So pleased!

The other photo is what the plant looked like last February.  It's grow some since...

Saturday Photo: Getting from There to Here and Vice Versa

Snow on the ground, for the moment at least. Snow clearance hasn't been terrific perhaps because the powers that be know rain is forecast for this weekend.

But between now and then people have to get places, and when there is no path plowed people will make their own.  Urbanists call them desire lines in other contexts.  I call them a metaphor for life.

Saturday Photo: Winter Is Here, Said Hamilton Duck

This what the windows looked like early this week, and this morning Lee had to move about 10 cm of very heavy wet snow.  It's warmer, but there is no doubt that winter has arrived well before its calendar date.

Reminds me of a book the kids liked when they were little.  Called Hamilton Duck, it featured a big white duck who found his pond ice covered one morning.  "Duck, who was wise, said 'Winter is here.'"  And it certainly is.

Saturday Photo: One Hundred Years Later....

The end of the War to End All Wars will be remembered tomorrow, Nov. 11, 2018.  One hundred years later we seem not to have learned much.

The photo is of the cenotaph in Outremont. It commemorates both World Wars.  Too, too sad that carnage goes on...

Saturday Photo: Rain and the Return to Standard Time

Been raining here for several days.  I suppose I should be pleased because that means plants will be starting the winter well-hydrated, which can be a problem after a dry summer like the one we had.

But Lee has been grumbling that he's already tired of winter.  Certainly having the sun rise so late makes it very difficult to get going in the morning.

But all that will change tomorrow, and also the sun is supposed to come out. 

Yay!  Got to keep one's spirits up in the face of what might happen on Nov. 6...

Saturday Photo: Fall Bikes and Fighting the Good Political Fight

This is the time of year that the leaves fall--yesterday it was a veritable blizzard of yellow leaves on our street--but also time when bikes begin to look a little sad since so many will end up in the basement/garage/back balcony soon. 

However, it frequently is the time for politics, and this year I seem to be up to my neck in campaigns.  First came the provincial election where I worked some (not as much as I should have probably) for the excellent Quebec Solidaire candidate Eve Torres, who came a quite respectable second in a riding that was gift to the Liberal Party. 

Now there is a bye-election in prospect in Outremont to fill the seat vacated when Thomas Mulcair resigned at the end of the summer. Last Sunday I did some calling for the NDP candidate Julia Sanchez, another fine woman entering politics for the first time.

And today and tomorrow, I'm going to be calling into three Congressional districts which Lee and spotted last summer, thanks to SwingLeft, a movement to take back the US House of Representatives and whose motto is "Don't Despair.  Mobilize."  They looked winnable, so we checked to make sure that we could give money as non-resident Americans (yeah, this  kind of thing is mainly why I keep my dual citizenship), and coughed up some cash.  Now it's time to put my mouth where my money is, to turn the adage on its head.  Got a headphone-mike thing for my computer so I can use the campaigns' phone bansk, and when it's 1 p.m. here and 10 a.m. on the Pacific Coast where the three campaigns are, I'll spend some time on the phone.

Konrad Yakabuski in the Globe and Mail this morning is pretty downbeat on what will happen Nov. 6, even if the Dems take back the House.  The headline is "Democrats no match for 'nationalist' Trump." But you've got to try anyway, it seems to me. 

BTW, my daughter and her partner don't quit bike riding in the winter.  I think they're more than a little nuts, but she's just bought some new winter biking duds so she can ride in style and comfort in winter weather.  Given the traffic conditions around here I can understand the appeal: what takes a half hour on a bike would take an hour on the bus.  But fixing that is another story. 

Saturday Photo: Burning Bush, or Antidote to a Burning World?

Our neighbors' burning bush trees are in full colour this week.  They are modest looking bushes for most of the year, but they turn a glorious red, come fall.

There have been moments these past few weeks when it has seemed to me that the world is on the brink of bursting into flames.  Not the nuclear war that haunted my dreams 40 or 50 years ago, but one where climate change, cupidity and stupidity seem to have brought out the worst in most leaders and many ordinary folk.

There is a connection between this lovely plant and the difficult state of the world: vegetation.  Plant, plant, plant: that would seem to be an answer to many problems from desertification to sweltering cities to rising CO2 levels.  Not the complete answer, to be sure, but a partial one.  And in this imperfect world, that's something.

Of course, it appears there's a caveat to be noted where burning bush trees are concerned.  In milder climates that ours, they can can become invasive, and in Massachusetts and New Hampshire they're actually banned.  Probably the lesson here is: we have to think about what we're doing and where we're going, even when we're pointed in the right direction.

Saturday Photo: Fall and Cataract Surgery

Fall is always a beautiful season here, with so many deciduous trees turning colour.  I'd always known that, but four years ago I learned just how gorgeous the trees are.  Until then, even with glasses, what I saw was basically a swirl of colour,  not individual leaves.  But, after much hesitation that ended when my optometrist asked if I was "still driving," I went in for a cataract examination.

As it turning out, my corrected vision wasn't that bad because of the way the cataracts were placed, but I was amazed at how much better I saw after the surgery.  Each and every leaf!  Landscapes as detailed as those painted by Canoletto! A very dirty kitchen floor!

Okay, I admit I wasn't too pleased at the last, and had to work several days to get the kitchen up to the standard I thought--pre-surgery--I was keeping.  Spots on linoleum, fingermarks and scratches in paint are much more evident to me now.  

But it's definitely worth that to be able to see the pointillist landscapes I see now, particularly as every leaf stands out.  Wonderful--Canaletto and Klimt and Seurat naturally!

Saturday Photo: Thanksgiving....

This is a photo I've used before, but I really like it since it shows the beautiful hesitation that Nature goes through here before closing down for the winter.

It is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, and tomorrow we'll have about 30 adults and 10 children (give or take a few) for a community supper.  We provide turkeys, mashed potatoes and a few other basic things, and everyone else is invited to bring something they'd like to share with friends and family. 

This year the youngest will be a bit older than 2 years, and the oldest are going to turn 90 this fall and winter.  Not all are related to us, the majority belong to the extended family of friends that we've developed over the years here.  We expect to have a good time, and eat and drink very well!

I am far from being a person of faith--any faith, particularly in these dark days when some folks to who claim to be religious are doing such terrible things--but I think it is a good thing to stop at least once a year and realize how much we have.  Not to give thanks, exactly, but to realize that those of us who are so lucky have a duty to be generous, and to try to make the world a better place for everyone.

Hope your weekend is wonderful.  Now, I've got to start cooking....

Saturday Photo: Harvest of Good Things

Chilis and garlic: great combination, não é?  This week I spent an hour at the Marché Jean Talon, buying wonderful, harvest-fresh things.  Basil, garlic, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, little pumpkins, and much more...

Once upon a time I froze and canned.  Last year I made green tomato relish in quantity--more, in fact, than we could eat.  So this year my purchases are aimed in just enough to keep us happy over the next little bit, without any waste.

That means for tonight pesto and pasta: the basil is beautiful!

Saturday Photo: Canal in Kochi....

I have no idea if this canal still exists in Fort Kochi, Kerala State, on India's southwest coast, but I hope it does despite the recent catastrophic monsoon that flooded the area this summer.  But I like the photo because it combines two of the projects I've been working on.

The first is my book about the wonders, menace and history of concrete, Rock of Ages: How Concrete Built the World As We Know It.  The second is Frenemies:Why Some Places That Should Be Alike Aren't Alike.  Kerala  and Tamil Nadu, the state immediately to the east, are two of the pairs I consider in that book. 

Until last week, the plan was to publish the concrete book in 2019, and the one about unidentical twins some time later.  But the world is moving fast, and now it looks like Frenemies will be out sometime next year.

So at the moment  I'm pedaling fast to make the necessary changes, since the manuscript actually was finished about a year ago.  The memories of my time in Kerala are just that, mental souvenirs of a very interesting trip....

And now to get back to work.

Saturday Photo: The Bees Are At It, Thankfully

 One of the advantages of the kind of Darwinian gardening I do is that bees like it.  No pesticides or chemical fertilizer, just a lot of compost, some composted manure and a little bone meal.  The result is interesting--I'll share a photo next week--but the really important things is that bees love it.

All summer long they've been floating around.  Some of them must belong to hives like the one pictured here which sits in the Champs des possibles, vacant land along the railroad track through Montreal which has become a nature park.  There's only hive a couple of blocks away on the second story balcony of a classy house facing Parc Outremont.  Perhaps there are ones closer too that are hidden from casual view. 

Whatever, I'm glad to help out the busy pollenizers by providing environmental flowers....

Saturday Photo: Tomato Time...

This is the best time of year for  lovers of real, ripe tomatoes.  What you get the rest of the year just does't cut it!

Saturday Photo: Rideau Chapel and 40 Voice Motet

Highlight of a trip to Ottawa: a visit to the National Gallery of Canada to see the exhibit of Impressionist painters there until Sept. 9.  Nice, but what really was great was an installation in the Rideau Chapel  of a 40 Voice Motet by Joyce Cardiff based on music by Thomas Tallis.  Really amazing!  Go see/ hear it!

Saturday Photo: Electric Cars, Only as Clean as Their Source of Energy

The folks a couple of blocks away have not one, but two electric cars.  Each cost a pretty penny, I'm sure.  But so did their house, which they've spent a lot of money on refurbishing.

I must say that I'm of two minds about giving subsidies to those who can afford these cars.  At the moment in Quebec you can get  a rebate of up to $8000 on the purchase of a new one, and $600 toward installing a recharging station at your home.  In Ontario, the new PC government is doing away with that province's subsidies which were considerably higher than Quebec's. 

Unless the electricity to charge these vehicles comes from a "green" renewable source, like solar, wind or hydroelectric, there is very little environmental good coming from them since emissions from traditional generating plants are extremely CO2 intense.  Furthermore, just adding more cars to the roads will not solve the other problems of our urban centers.  Better, probably, to put money into public transportation, including inter-city buses and trains. 

Saturday Photo: Irrigation, or Another of the Things that Concrete Has Wrought

This was taken last summer near Chief Joseph Dam on the Columbia River.  It shows dramatically the effect of irrigation on the dry lands of the region. 

Concrete made this possible.  It has also contributed mightily to the problems of climate change that we are seeing this summer. 

I've been thinking a lot about this as I reflect on what concrete has wrought for my book Rock of Ages: How Concrete Built the World As We Know It. Lots of good things...but also some very questionable ones.  More about that later.