Saturday Photo: Happy Holidays

Best wishes for a great holiday season and a 2025 filled with good surprises.  Here's the link to my Christmas blog, in case you'd like to see more about us. https://soderstromyule.blogspot.com/

Saturday Photo: Christmas Flower, Vivid Colours for a Monotone World

Saturday Photo: Better Late Than Never

First snow much later than usual.  But lovely, all the same even though people seem to be doing a lot of slipping and sliding.  Takes a couple of days of driving in weather like this before the snow-driving skills kick in.

 

Saturday Photo: Word to the Wise....

 Went to the Technoparc this morning, hoping to see some birds. Only chickadees though, one of which landed on my walking stick. The ponds were frozen which reminded me of a book our kids liked a lot. In it, Hamilton Duck discovers that suddenly HIS pond is frozen. "Duck, who was wise, said Winter is here."

Saturday Photo: For My American Friends During This Thanksgiving Week...

Lots of talk from south of the border about deporting millions of illegal immigrants.  Not going to do a bit to bring prices down, or make life any easier for anyone. That's because so much of our food (here and in the US) is produced by folks from away, some with papers, some with none.

 

Saturday Photo: What I Feel Like These Days...

Life is not easy, the future is uncertain, it's rough out there....
 

Saturday Photo: Thinking of Getting a Hypoallergenic Cat...

 Visited a cattery (not at all a cat house) to see if members of the family react to Siberian cats with an eye to getting one.  The good news is that despite cuddling with six Siberian females, all concerned report no allergic symptoms.  Yay!

Saturday Photo: First Morning of Standard Time

 It was "Fall back" time today, so we woke up extra early and made it to the Technoparc before the sun was up.  Frost on everything, birds still asleep, but a lovely sunrise.

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...