Mary Soderstrom's Blog, page 29

Saturday Photo: The Definition of Tenancity...

Snow on the ground, but not all the leaves off the trees.  Is that perseverance, tenacity or stupidity?

Don't but it does provide some relief from a nearly monchrome palette.

Saturday Photo: Just to Remember on a Day When Snow Falls Gently

This was what it was like last summer in Mount Royal Cemetery.  Blue sky and green grass.  It will come again, I have every hope.

Until then, keep warm.

Saturday Photo: The Book on Display...

Had a wonderful launch of Frenemy Nations: Love and Hate between Neighbo(u)ring States last Tuesday.  Great crowd, good conversation and quite a few books sold.

Don't quite know what this means, but the University of Regina website says the book is out of stock, but it's available on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com, plus on-line and in Chapters-Indigo stores.  Your favourite indie store would be glad to order it too, I'm sure!

Saturday Photo: Eviction Notice for Ducks?

Not sure which way the causality ran, but the family (or families, not sure if there were two) of 11 ducks which spent the summer in neighborhood parks have flown off to warmer climes, and the water in the ponds where they hung out has been emptied.

The lower photo shows what the pond looked like on Canadian Thanksgiving Day two weeks ago.  The trees were still pretty green, and the human mother and son duo were sharing something to eat with the ducks.  You'll notice that a few gulls have decided to join the party.

Seasons change, and frequently the other changes that accompany that natural process is hurried along by humans.  Would like to think that the ducks are now paddling around some pond where the first freeze is a month or more away instead of next week. 

Saturday Photo: When You're Forced to Take a Step Forward for the Planet

The cold weather is coming to this neck of the woods, climate change or not.  Everyone knows you can't live here without having heating, and until now we've relied on a hot-water-heating fuel-oil furnace that probably dates from the conversion from coal in the 1950s.  The rads all seem to be working fine, but the first time we turned on the heat two weeks ago, the boiler cracked and the system drained all the water.What a mess!  How lucky we were that it hasn't been too cold because we have had no heat since then!  Also good that a few years ago when we had to replace the oil tank we looked into switching over to electricity so we had some idea of what to look for.  We didn't make the switch then, it didn't seem to be the moment.
But the moment surely arrived this fall.  It took two weeks but last Thursday a new electric furnace was installed.  You can see the apparatus next to the remnants of the old boiler in the photo.
Now, in some areas electricity may not be the most ecologically sound choice for heating, but in Quebec where all our electricity is produced from hydro dams or wind farms, it seems to be.  The fact that the new furnace may be more efficient is also a plus.  Consequently we are feeling a little smug as well as snug, now that the work is done.  
One, unthought-about advantage: we now have about 20 per cent more space in the basement to store stuff since the footprint of the new furnace isn't a footprint at all, but just a box on the wall.  Must go mop the floor now to get up the last of the soot liberated when the workmen cut the old furnace apart to get it out.  Then to move my garden stuff into the space, while Lee will take over that corner for his ever-growing woodworking projects! 
Keep warm!

Saturday Photo: Glass Houses, and On Line Harrassment

A strange thing happened this week: an anonymous person tried to comment on this blog, writing  "Dear Mary; Find a room in the glass house that you like to live in and go hang yourself." 

I erased it immediately, which I later discovered was the wrong thing to do because I now can't report easily: should have marked as spam and then proceeded to report it.

So, here's a glass house I like, the Haupt Conservatory in the Bronx Botanical Garden.  It's a shame that anonymous persons give places like this a bad name. 

Saturday Photo: No, This Time It's a Video of my Walrus Talk...

"Across the River, The Height of the Land: Physical and Political Boundaries"  That's the title of the Walrus Talk I gave Sept. 23 in Gatineau.  It was great fun to take part in the evening when seven people talked for seven minutes on the general topic "Boundaries."  I was the one who took the assignment most literally, but all participants had interesting things to say.

My reflections grew out of Frenemy Nations: Love and Hate between Neighbo(u)ring States, which will be officially published October 26.  Looking forward to that too...

Saturday Photo: Asters, the Stars of Fall

 Two sort of asters have sprung into bloom in the last couple of weeks.  The first are the ones to the right which I've been encouraging in our little garden.  They are, I think, called New York asters, but I'm sure I read earlier that they were taken back to France by Samuel de Champlain.  The others, below, bloom a little later and are called New York asters.


My flower books mention that the lovely flowers are found in many forms, which indicates an interesting, varied genetic heritage.  Certainly they do seem to adapt to many habitats.  The way they bloom also is interesting: the ones above first, the ones below just about the time the flowers of the first begin to fade.  This means that bees and other pollinators can go from one to the other in the end-of-summer buffet without a day's lapse of good things.

Evolution is a wonderful thing! So is the way that names change.  In looking a little further, I find that North American asters are now classified as Symphyotrichum, based on genetic analysis.  But as a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, so an aster will still be the star of a the fall garden.

Saturday Photo: Lesson from Spiders

Don't know much about spiders but I think this time of year they are very busy, spinning webs, capturing prey, and setting up a cozy home for the next generation.

Of course, whoever spun this wonderful web may have a bit of problem with the last part of that charge.  Certainly as soon as the car starts, the web will be blown away.  But it's an example of the perseverance that we all need to make it through this life.  And that's something to remember as the kids demonstrate for action on climate change.

Memo to self: check out the stories of Charlotte and Robert the Bruce for more lessons from spiders.

Saturday Photo: Good Summer for Bees

The weather is a little wet and cool right now, but one of the advantages of our hot and dry summer is the abundance of flowers and of bees who have feasted on them.

Nobody on my street uses pesticides that I'm aware of: either people don't care much about their little gardens, or they're eco-types who want to do things organically.  This means that every blossom is bee-friendly, and it's clear that they have been enjoying themselves greatly.

This of course is one of the ironies of modern life.  To some extent cities are friendlier to beneficial insects than the countryside.    In Montreal there also has been an increase in beekeeping, so much so that some voices have been raised to call for a cutback. In part this is because there seems to be too much competition between honey bees and native bees.

Don't know what kind of bee is visiting the hydrangea in the photo, but I find it very encouraging to see so many pollen-loving critters, no matter what kind they are.