Saturday Photo: And Another Thing You Shouldn't Mess With--A Wasp Nest

This is the time of year when wasps suddenly appear around here.  It's often hard to eat outside because they come around looking for a snack.  Preparing for winter, it seems.   Usually, though, you can move your picnic a short distance or otherwise outwit them.

But sometimes they decide to set up housekeeping around your house.  What they make is quite wonderful when you think about it: a sort of piñata made of wood pulp that inspired the Chinese a couple of thousand years ago to make paper from wood pulp.

 However, as long as the wasps are actively residing in the nest you don't want to have anything to do with it.  This one was up the street a year or so ago, and the people who lived there got the city to come and take it down.  Didn't see it, but I imagine it was quite an operation. 

 There's a lesson there, too: don't go after something that might be dangerous unless you've got a good end game.  That's advice that some folks in power should heed, I think.  

Saturday Photo: And 62 Years Later We're Still Together

This photo was taken at a party my mother insisted we have to celebrate our engagement.  It was part of a trade-off: party at Christmas with all their friends, wedding Aug. 29, 1964 with only close friends and family.  

The engagement party was okay, but the wedding was really great fun--everybody went swimming after the ceremony.  And the time ever since has been great!
 

Saturday Photo: Dog Days in Mile End

Well, according to Wikipedia the Dog Days of Summer run from July 19 to Aug.11, so this beast sitting on a car in Montreal's Mile End neighborhood last weekwas a little past due date.

Neverthless, it stopped many pedestrians who, like me, were taken by the creature who seemed to be sitting without being attached to the roof of the car.  The book in its paws has something to do with dogs: is it a guide to hunting them?

Whatever, the temperatures have started to fall in the evenings around here, while the worst heat seems passed.  We were spared the terrible hot spells other regions have suffered recently, but reasonable folks can't deny that summer is a lot hotter than it used to be.

Maybe the thing to do is to sic the beast shown here on climate deniers... 
 

Saturday Photo: Cosmos, the Star Flower of the Perseids

This week the self-seeding cosmos have begun to bloom.  Of course, there are places which have had them for weeks, but they were all started inside and some, like the ones I bought in June, are beginning to look a little ragged.  But cosmos re-seed themselves, and they're easy to grow from seed in a sunny corner.  They just take their own sweet time to flower.

And now is the time.  They are all over the place here, and looking great.  It's a delightful coincidence that their arrival coincides most years with the August shower of meteorites, the Perseids.  Shooting stars in the heavens, dancing flowers on earth.... 

 

Saturday Photo: Eight-thirty, Aug. 6, Parc Outremont

 Summer twilight: magic time.

Although I must add that the kitchen is full of fruit flies from the nectarines I left on the counter.  The advantages and disadvantages of the season. 

Saturday Photo: Walter Cronkite on Libraries; We Will Not Be Shushed

Well, actually I haven't been in a library recently where anyone has been shushed.  One of the wonderful things about libraries these days is that, while there may be quiet corners to read or study, there also always are places for activities that may make some joyful noises.

The "shushing" isn't coming from inside the libraries but from outside--from governments who want to cut budgets and from folks who want to ban books. 

We've got to resist both kinds...
 

Saturday Photo: Falling Water

This is not the first time that I've posted this photo, but I like it a lot on summer days.  The fountain is a nearby park, and seeing and hearing it is enough to feel 10 degrees cooler.

This year the fountains in the western part of Montreal island aren't running as an effort to slow down water consumption.  Major repairs are being done to a part of the system that serves about 100,000 customers, so to set an example, fountains have been shut off.

The splash pads are still operating, though--thank goodness for them on hot days.