Satuday Photo: Some Strange Creatures at the Lachine Rapids

It looks like some folks had a grand time preparing for Halloween at le Parc des Rapides de Lachine.  About a dozen carefully carved pumpkins were dotted around the park the weekend before the holiday, some of them in pretty hard-to-reach places.  Kudos for originality. 

 

Saturday Photo: Thanksgiving Greetings

Heat on, considering getting out winter coat. A chilly Thanksgiving day. Not at all religious but very grateful for all I and my dear ones have. Everyone should be so lucky!

Saturday Photo: The Sun Is Shining in the Trees...

 It's taken awhile this fall for the trees to turn colour.  Another sign of climate change?  Perhaps.

But the sun has begun to shine through the changing leave, giving back some of the light that that the leaves stored  during the warm season.

Oh, you say, it doesn't work that way.  It's just that the trees have stopped making chlorophyl and the underlying pigments in the leaves are now visible.

Maybe, but you can't deny that trees in their marvelous way have taken the energy from light and used it to make all those leaves, once so brilliantly green and now flashing gold and crimson. 

Saturday Photo: When Stars Fell on....

 This is the time of year when the stars are out...in the front yard.  I mean, asters are in bloom everywhere, rivaling the heavenly show.  Quite lovely.

Saturday Photo: Resilience, Or Solid as a Rock?

 Yes, that's a weed growing out of this rock. For some time I've been taking photos of the resilience of life--the way plants find niches to grow in the cracks in pavements, and shoots burst forth from stumps of trees.  This is the first time I've seen a very solid rock where a plant has found a place to spread its roots in the absence of any notable cracks.  And it's got a very nice colony of moss...

This is the way the world goes, one little eroding, infiltrating, invasive bit after another until it's all dust...

Saturday Photo: Sixty Years of Fun

We were good buddies, until he bought the car and asked me out for a real date.  After that, things developed and sixty years ago this coming Thursday, August 29, we got married.  

It's been a lot of fun, from the very beginning.  Word to the wise: choose somebody you really like to be your life partner.

Saturday Photo: Nothing at All..

 Time to take a break.  Dog days, August doldrums, other things to do....

Saturday Photo: Morning Rituals

 

In the morning everyone needs to freshen up a bit.  Glad to see that the ducks are back in our neighborhoood. 

 

Saturday Photo, a little late: A Rose by Any Other Name...

 ...would smell as sweet, so said the Bard.

But what happens when people don't agree on how you spell your name?

On my birth certificate, my name is Mary McGowan, daughter of Donald K. McGowan and Ella Fraser McGowan.  My uncle Paul, though, spelled the family name MacGown, and my grandfather, David, McGowan.  But Dave's father, Lachlan, spelled in McGown in the inscriptions inside book of his that I've inherited.  

Apparently so did one of Lachlan's cousins or uncles, Thomas McGown who settled near Parry Sound and made a fortune--or so it seems--in gold mining.  Coming back from a camping trip on Lake Superior, some friends saw this sign near Parry Sound.  

And these are all literate, even  well-read folks!  Not surprising that sometimes names get messed around-with!

Saturday Photo: The Woman of the Hour

How the world has turned around in the last week! Or at least the prospects for a good outcome to the US presidential race!

I am two weeks to the day older than Joe Biden, and while I respect him and many of the things he has done, I could not see how he could have the energy to lead the nation for the next four years.  So glad he was a mensch and has stepped aside.

So Kamala, you go, girl! We're with you!
 

Saturday Photo: Making a Joyful Noise....

Titled "The McGarrigle Sisters," this sculpture by Glen LeMesurier is one of many in the northern sector of Mile End that combines cast-off materials to make art.

Makes me feel good when I see it.

 

Saturday Photo: June Is Busting out All Over...

It's la Fête nationale in Québec, whose flower is the fleur de lys.  Great timing, as iris have been in bloom for about a week, making a great show this year.

June is a great month for flowers...

Saturday Photo: More Great Lawns...

The grass in our small backyard is getting pretty long, but I'm putting off cutting it until the forget-me-nots have gone to seed.  Then I'll shake the seed over a bare patch in one of the planter boxes and finally cut the grass.

Would much rather have flowers than grass.  So much prettier...
 

Saturday Photo: Canada's Memory...

 Saturday the new Preservation Storage Facility of the Library and Archives Canada was open to the public for the first time.  

There were crowds waiting to get in when the doors opened.  They got a glimpse of what it takes to keep Canada's memories intact...

Saturday Photo:The Best Lawn Is Flowers

 Why plant grass when you can have this instead?

So glad to see that other people are letting nature take its course.

Saturday Photo: Bleeding Heart for Bleeding Hearts

The other name for this in English is Dutchman's britches, or so my grandmother told me.  In French it's sometimes also called the equivalent, coeur saignant, but using its botanical name, dicentra, is pretty nice too.

I love the way it emergences from the ground as soon as the weather warms up, and wihtin a week is knee high and in bloom. 

Saturday Photo: Guerilla Gardening?

 Came upon these daffodils when out walking near the Champs des possibles, a park that is being left to re-wild in the Mile End district, not far from the CN train line. 

The arrondissement planted a lot of bulbs last fall in curb extensions and they're looking great these days.  But here it looks like somebody just dumped some bulbs...or did they?  Usually if you don't bury them  critters like squirrels will eat them.

Whatever, these have survived and are looking splendid when things are only part way to greening up.

Saturday Photo: Ready to Set up Housekeeping

 For several years there have been  Mallard duck couple nesting in the Mount Royal cemetery.  This morning I was glad to see them there again.  They probably aren't the same couple--ducks don't have very long lives, and the American Bird Conservancy says they only stay together a season--but it is good to see that the little stream is still inviting, and that soon there probably will be a clutch of eggs laid.

The male

Saturday Photo: April is the Cruelest Month

 

A few snowflakes this morning, but the ponds at the Technoparc were clear and the geese were cruising. Still, spring seems a long way off,,,

Saturday Photo: Another Kind of Sunshine

We had a total eclipse here this week--quite a show.

And today I have sunshine in the form of sunflowers in my kitchen.  So nice to see these reflections of the Sun inside...

Very cheerful in this world full of far more somber things.