Mary Soderstrom's Blog, page 45

Saturday Photo: After a Very Dark Week, Looking for the Light

Last Sunday we celebrated birthdays--Elin's, Lee's and mine--because it was one day we all could get together.  It was great fun, and I was very pleased that Lukas and Sophie had taken my suggestion and got me Leonard Cohen's new CD You Want It Darker.  

On Tuesday I listened to part of it in the car on my way to a book discussion club, before the results began coming in on the horrendous 2016 presidential election.  On Thursday, still shaken from the election returns, I listened to the rest coming back from another book discussion.  I also thought of the fabulous sunset we had had that afternoon--bands of clouds and reds and purples that rivaled the last of the fall's leaves.  What I didn't think, was that this could be viewed as an example of that Cohen line: "There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.  

And then the news came on Friday  that Cohen had died on Monday and had been buried on Thursday afternoon in Montreal.   I don't know what his politics were--probably fairly leftish--but I can't imagine that he would have been pleased with the Trump election.  Perhaps it was better that he died before the results were in.  But certainly, those with a mystical bent might see in the sunset on Thursday a glimpse of light that we all hope lies on the other side of the future.

The photo, taken this summer, is of the gates to the Shaar Hashomayim cemetery where Cohen was buried, a place a beauty and peace.  The sun is out this morning, so I'm looking for the light to guide my way.

Saturday Photo: Klimt Weather

Didn't have a camera with me, so you'll have to believe me: yesterday was a marvelous Klimt-coloured afternoon. Looking up de Maisonneuve toward the Quartier de Spéctacles, the trees on the median glowed yellow, gold and orange,below gray buildings and blue skies. Then in my neighborhood, the only leaves still on the trees were the same glittering mixture of colour, made even more lovely by a light breeze which made each leaf dance. Simply gorgeous.

Here's an idea of the colour, from an old photo that gives a bit of the effect.  And also one of the master's golden works.

Saturday Photo: Quoth the Raven, Nevermore!

Katrina and Mike, a young couple up the street, are extremely creative.  She has a high end couterière shop, making marvelous dresses.  He has a vegan restaurant that is supposed to be the best in town.  They're also parents to a sweet little sprite, Victoria, and they decorate their house for special occasions with great class.

This is what began this year's Halloween display: a pumpkin and a stuffed crow.  By the end of the week it looked like the pesky squirrels had discovered it, and had begun to gnaw at the pumpkin, but who cares?

Not I, certainly.  The combination of taxidermy and agriculture is simply delightful. 

Saturday Photo (Very Late): Fall Afternoon

This was taken about a week ago, before we had three days of hard ran. The leaves which had not turned colour, did so during the storm, and many of those who had are no carpeting the grass.

Fall is a lovely season. 

Saturday Photo: The Turning of the Leaves

This morning it's gray, but until today we've had a great run of marvelous weather.  Last weekend's rain pushed the leaves into glorious colour, and then the sun came out.

Yesterday I chatted with a couple of Argentine guys, out for a ride on Bixis.  The colours on the mountain, they said, were unbelieveable.

Yes, it's that time of year when the world seems to explode with reds, oranges, yellows and golds.  Simply spectacular!

Saturday Photo: Something Different, Only I Can See My Grandkids Loving This

Pretty terrific, don't you think!

Saturday Photo: Asters in Bloom

The front yard is full of asters right now. They're the last flowers to bloom, and this year, while there were a lot of buds, they didn't seem to be in any hurry to flower.

But the right combination of day length and rainfall arrived this week and now we have billows of flowers.

A reward for making it through the hot, muggy days to arrive at the other side....

Saturday Photo: Smoke in the West Usambara Mountains

The photo was taken 15 years ago when I was travelling in Africa--Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya. People were preparing for the planting season, burning the stubble left from the previous season. 

It was a little disquieting because the rains were weeks away, and the air was frequently filled with smoke. But people told me there was nothing to worry about.  Certainly there always seemed to be someone near the fire, and the fact that underbrush and leaves were raked away meant that there was little on the ground under trees to aburn should a fire begin to grow. 

Saturday Photo (Better Late Than Never): Road through Time

This is a little late because I've been doing such things as looking over the copy edit of my new book Road through Time: The Story of Humanity on the Move.  And just as I was finishing up, I received the cover.  Pretty nice, eh?

Here's the bumph from the University of Regina's Spring 2017 catalogue:

In this thoroughly researched and beautifully written history of roads as vectors of change, Mary Soderstrom documents how routes of migration and transport have transformed both humanity and our planet.
Accessible and entertaining, Road Through Time begins with the story of how anatomically modernhumans left Africa to populate the world. She then carries us along the Silk Road
in central Asia, and tells of roads built for war in Persia, the Andes, and the Roman Empire. She sails across the seas, and introduces the rst railways, all before plunking us down in the middle of a massive, modern freeway.
The book closes with a view from the
end of the road, literally and figuratively, asking, can we meet the challenges presented by a mode of travel dependent on hydrocarbons, or will we decline, like so many civilizations that have come before us? Sound interesting?  If I hadn't written the book, I'd want to read it, says she, smiling!  The catalogue gives the pub date as April 15, 2017, so I guess we'll have to wait a bit to do that!

Saturday Photo: From Haiti, with Love

Something like 45 years ago I took my first trip outside the North American continent when my sister and her husband invited me to go with them to Haiti.  He had some business to do, and she wanted company.

It was a life changing trip for me.  They were not ones for venturing outside the hotel compound until mid day, but I decided I couldn't let the opportunity go to waste.  So I got when the church bells chimed at 5 a.m. and went exploring.  My reasoning was the the people out and about at that time were solid citizens, so a gringo lady would be safe. 

I was.  The experience was very rewarding, since I got to talk to people going to work, school and market, and could observe them going about their daily lives.  Since then I've refined the method a little: I don't talk to men ordinarily but greet all women with a smile.  But during the many miles I've notched up since then, not once did I come back with anything but positive impressions of the basic kindness of people, even though their circumstance may be difficult.

This is a painting that I bought on that trip, one of the many, many primitive works being sold to tourists then.  Love the mixture of colour and somberness.  Haiti has been on my mind the last few weeks as I finish up my next book, about unidentical twins, that is States and states that have much in common yet are very different.  One of the pairs is that of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but more about that later.