Saturday Photo: Am I Blue? No, How Could You Be with This Kind of Display

 Garden escapes in the woods last Sunday!  Just gorgeous.

And there there's this couple:

Saturday Photo: Ahead of Time, But the Flowers Are Up

 The bees are buzzing around the scylla and other early plants in the front yard, about two weeks earlier than usual.

People are enjoying the weather (even though we're about to go back to an 8 p.m. curfew in Montreal tomorrow night) but it's rather scarey.  Sucha warm, dry, early spring is very unusual--but it's entirely possible that will become the norm. 

Climate change, of course, to add to our pandemic woes!  The temptation, which should be resisted is to enjoy what we can get when the gettings good.  Not a wise choice, I suppose.  This afternoon it will be back to work on a project that possibly may help show our way to a better future.

Saturday Photo: (Very) Urban Agriculture

 This year's crop from the ornamental orange tree. Have had up to 23 in the past, and this year it took months for these to ripen (they'd set on during the summer.) 

But I'm pleased to see them and will use them to cook a duck recipe for Easter supper. Sadly, it will be for the old guy and me only.  We do hope to take a walk in a park with the kids and grandkids though, which is better than last year when we weren't going anywhere in that first lockdown.

Saturday Photo: Chartres, Light at the End of the Tunnel

 This is about the time of year when we might start talking about what to do and where to go this summer.  Probably won't be doing that this year, again.  Which means that I am turning toward the past to satisfy my itchy feet.

This is one of  many photos I've taken on one of our several trips to the cathedral at Chartres.  It's just an hour by local train outside of Paris, through suburbs and farm land.  Lee loves Gothic architecture and Chartres is his favourite example, so no trip to France is complete without a day at Chartres.  

But given the current situation the photo seems particularly relevant.  We have been going through dark times, and perhaps there is a light at the end of the tunnel, just as the mid-day sun floods through the south windows of the cathedral on a spring day.  

Saturday Photo: Snowdrops, and Spring Is on Its Way...

Well, actually the snowdrops in front aren't as far along yet--this photo was taken a couple of years ago--but there definitely are little green shoots coming up.  In addition, we woke up last Sunday morning to the scent of skunk: another definite sign of spring.

Heaven knows we need all the good signs we can get!  The authorities keep telling us that the light is showing at the end of the tunnel.  I must admit, also, that we had our first Pfizer vaccine almost two weeks ago.  But given that Covid-19 variants which might escape the vaccine are swirling around, I guess we'll have to look to the those things which make us smile that have nothing to do with pandemics!
 

Saturday Photo: The Frozen St. Lawrence a Year Ago Before All Hell Broke Loose

 On March 9, 2021 we got our first Covid-19 vaccinations, which was very appropriate since on March 9, 2020 we had our last carefree escapade.  That was the day we took the train from Montreal to Quebec City: two night, three days, much good food, great walks and a visit to the Musée national de beaux arts du Québec.  We came home on Wednesday to find things turning upside down, and we haven't ventured out of Montreal since.

This is what the St. Lawrence looked like from the heights--beautiful and cold.  This year we had a winter full of snow and ice with little rain or freezing rain which meant that getting outside around here was great for walking and (for those younger than me) skating.  Thank goodness for that!

As the light appears at the end of the tunnel, I still find myself looking back to that lovely little trip, though.  It has sustained me....

Satuday Photo: Light at the End of the Tunnel

 The photo may not look like much, just a column of light falling on a bedroom wall, but it means that spring is almost here.

Every year about the first of March, the rising sun swings far enough north to shine briefly in our back bedroom.  Not for long, and then just a sliver, but it means that in a month there will be a much longer period when the sun peeks around the buildings outside and shines in the back of our house. 

Of course, this week has given us deep winter conditions, but it's nice to have a glimpse of what is coming.

Saturday Photo: Because We Need a Smile..

 It's up to you to choose which smile, of course!  Came across this smiley-hat wearing gargoyle this week.  It seems to embody the crazy back-and-forth emotions of this crazy time...

Saturday Photo: Waiting for a Bike Ride...

 Or maybe it's winter storage for bikes!

Days are getting longer, this winter of our discontent will be over sometime....

Saturday Photo: Winter Biking, and Valentine's Day

Yesterday, February 12, was this year's Winter Bike to Work Day.  I'm not a cyclist (no way, hit by one age 5, finally learned how age 50, and now wouldn't even try.)  But since the pandemic began more and more people who are actually going into work, are using bikes, it seems.

Really, even in this climate!

Here's a photo I took this morning on my walk (of course, walking is what our two legs were made for!)  Obviously someone has things all set to go when the spirit moves her (or him.)  The other, skelatal bike raises more questions.  Left here certainly since before the snow got deep, and without its seat which suggests its owner wanted to make sure that it wasn't taken before it was wanted for use. 

But also, tomorrow being Valentine's Day, an idea popped up my devious mind: is this the way little bikes are made?  At the end of the winter will we find two or three kid's bikes chained to the post?  

À suivre... 

Saturday Photo: Funeral for a Dear Friend, a Fine Man

 

Today a few of us will be celebrating the life of Michel Lizée who died just shy of his 70th birthday after a long illness. As a tribute in the CUPE newsletter put it: "an exceptional activist who worked all his life to make workers aware of the importance of planning and financing their retirement."

 The tribute continues: "His achievements include the implementation of the innovative FTQ wage-funded pension plan for workers in community and women’s groups. In 2010, this plan won the prestigious Plan Sponsor Award from Benefits Canada in Toronto. He was also one of the major architects behind the implementation and development of the UQAM Community Service, which now dates back more than 30 years, whose objective is to support the work of unions and community groups in Quebec.

"An economist by training, UQAM hired Michel Lizée as a research officer back in 1972. Four years later, he joined the SEUQAM (CUPE 1294). He was initially a union representative in 1978 and sat on the Conseil régional FTQ Montréal métropolitain, on the Retirement Committee and was then elected president of the SEUQAM, an office he held from 1983 to 1988.

"A member of the Université du Québec (RRUQ) pension plan retirement committee for more than 30 years, Michel Lizée was one of the most high-profile experts on pension plans, which truly were a passion of his. It was important to him that all employees, whether unionized or not, enjoy a retirement befitting the term. "

Because of the Covid-19 state of emergency, the gathering will be small, but like the sun  on this wild flower, the light that he shone in this dark world illuminates us all. 

Saturday Photo: Time to Get Outside...

 Snow and cold temperatures must not keep us inside in this winter of our discontent.  Here are footsteps in the snow, showing that a lot of people are fed up with confinement, but have chosen to get out safely...

Saturday Photo: What To Do on a Snowy Sunday

 It's been a remarkably mild winter until last week.  Sunday we had a spectacular, wet snowfall, and peple enjoyed making all manner of snow creatures.

And then there was this solitary woman reading on a park bench Sunday afternoon.  Obviously it wasn't all that cold, but also obviously she wasn't going to waste such a beautiful winter day by staying indoors.

Good on her!

Saturday Photo: Let's Do Lunch at the Atwater Library

Construction goes on despite Covid-19, concrete and cement continue to be made--with all that implies for global warming and quality of life.

I'll be talking about that and about my new book Concrete: From Ancient Origins to a Problematic Future at 12:30 p.m. EST Thursday, January 28, 2021.  It'll be one of the Atwater Library and Computer Centre's lunchtime series--by Zoom, of course.

If you'd like to join us, contact the library's tech wizard at ralph@atwaterlibrary.ca for the Zoom link.  You also can get a 15 per cent discount on the book by ordering through the University of Regina's website and using the code CONCRETE15.

Saturday Photo: All's Good, and the State of the World

 All you need to know about Montreal in 2021:  this industrial building in Mile End has not been used for that for a long time, as you can see.

 Don't know when Sweeney Barrel Co/Ltd went out of business but I wager it was a long time ago, and ordinarily I have a lot of problem with graffiti.  This however seems to me to encapsulate Montreal and maybe the world at the beginning of 2021. That is: remnants of the past, filth of the present, and a reminder that somehow we've got to keep at it, if we are to get ourselves out of the current mess. That "all's good" is something to strive for.

Saturday Photo: Life Continues (if you're lucky,) Welcome 2021

 The photo was taken 10 years ago, during the holiday season we were out of our house because of fire next door. We survived that with little permanent damage, thank you very much, but repair of the smoke damage took eight months. That Christmas was the first one we were grandparents, and I wanted to celebrate.  In the end, we had a good time, but it was a bit of a scramble to make the apartment where we squatted (rather elegantly, also thank you very much) look festive.

This is another new year's message at the end of year that was much worse.  Not that we were touched directly except for the various lockdowns, but it's been a sad experience for far too many people.  Let us hope that the joy of colours and enough to eat and hugs (even virtual ones) make 2021 a better year than 2020.

Saturday Photo: Christmas in the Cemetery, and Health Care

We went for a walk with the gang yesterday, doing the right thing for this Covid-19 Christmas.  No hugs, no inside gatherings, but at least we were together for a little while.

Didn't get to Mount Royal cemetery as planned, though, for complicated reasons that don't belong in this blog, but I had hoped to show the kids and grandkids these markers that I just noticed for the first times last week. They are for Billy Christmas and his wife.  He was an athlete at the turn of the 20th Century, and his beloved wife (apparently she convinced him to give up contact sports when they married) died early of breast cancer.  They also lost a daughter to a brain tumour when she was 15. According to the citation proclaiming him a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, in the 1930s he was an early champion of hospitalization insurance for ordinary folk. 

I only discovered that latter fact today when I stated looking into who he was.  Nice to give him credit for that fight, as well as his prowess on the playing field.  We didn't get universal hospitalization insurance all over Canada for another 30 years, but it finally came.  Now why can't our friends to the South get their act together do something similar.

Saturday Photo: Lights for This Year...

There have been years when I've railed against people who put up Christmas lights--waste of electricity, bad taste, just generally not cool.  Besides it's hard to hook them up to a plug inside: the one time Lee and the kids brought some home we decided they were too much trouble to bother with.

But this year I decided we needed a little light, so I found some battery-powered ones and wrapped them around a wreath.  They look very cheerful, and seem just what the doctors ordered in this Plague Year.  They complement the paintings on the front door, too, which are rainbows that the grandkids did back at the start of this dismal  period when kids around here appropriated rainbows as a symbol of the hope that everything will be all right.

So far for us, things really have been all right, touch wood.  Do hope you and yours are also doing well.  If you'd like more details about what we've been up to, check out our end of year blog here.

Saturday Photo: What I Can't Find This Year...

This is going to be a Christmas not like any other I've experienced, but we're healthy and we have more than enough to eat, so I shouldn't complain.

But I will, anyway.  The photo is of the salt herring I bought just 10 years ago when we were camped out in a rental apartment after a fire that put us out of our house for 8 months.  (Didn't lose much, weren't hurt, shouldn't really complain about that either.)  What I was preparing to do when I shot the photo was filet the fish and put them to pickle in order to make Swedish sil according to my mother-in-law's recipe.  It was a holiday tradition, and by last year even two of the three grandkids had come around to liking it.

In recent years I've had trouble finding salt herring in Montreal: for the last two years I bought a pail from a local wholesaler who this year has been been having issues with sanitary practices, so I haven't even tried to buy from them.  Two weeks ago we checked out various kinds of commercial pickled herring--including a Swedish import--but even after spending a week in the pickling solution, the taste and the texture of the fish were clearly not up to standard.  

So what I think I'll do is just pickle onions in the pickling solution and pretend that everything is just what it should be.

And that, on reflection, is what I guess we all will do this year.
 

Saturday Photo:No Snow, Temperature Up and Down, Bushes Confused

Took this a few days ago after a short spell of warm weather--up as high as 15 C.  This is not to say we've been spared cold weather so far because there's been two snow falls and a month of September that was quite chilly.

There is no doubt that winter is coming or is here, yet this bush seems to think that the cold nights are really just bad dreams, and so is getting ready to leaf out.  Its hopes (if it's proper to speak of plants having hopes) are certain to be dashed soon.

Our hopes for small gatherings at the end of December--promised by the premier of the province if we were good--were dashed this week as hospitalizations, deaths and Covid 19 cases continue to rise. Looks like it will be a Zoom Christmas...