isobelmtl

Writing under a Montreal sky

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about

Isobel Cunningham has published short fiction and poetry. Her book, Northern Compass is available on Amazon. She was born in Wales but Montreal is her adopted home. She speaks French, Modern Greek ( it’s a fun story) and a little Spanish…oh, English too, of course. She welcomes comments on her blog and looks forward to chatting with you over cyber-space.

Author: isobel cunningham

  • My Sunflower

    I didn’t even know they did that! The Montreal summer has been alternately cool, rainy, stifling, brilliantly sunny and now, at last as the August moon conquers the sun, the days are sunny, warm and decorated with demure white clouds. Finally, of the several sunflower seeds I planted in pots on my balcony one has…

  • Doing our Thing

    Ducks, cats, writers Keep on submitting. Don’t misunderstand. The rejections were bland enough, kind enough, respectful enough. My mistake was hoarding them in the little dark closet in the back of my mind. “ There I have a chance. They’re smaller presses so I have a better chance.” Both rejections arrived on the same day.…

  • An eventful day

    A hummingbird just visited me. He visited my flowers really but it still felt like a cheery reminder of how many wonderful things can happen to me. No, they don’t just “ happen”. Most of them … I make happen. If I hadn’t planted and watered the flowers, the hummingbird would not have shown up.…

  • They let me out…..in the yard

    I’m still in Covid jail but whether they let me or not, I walk in the huge park next to my house. I cannot stay in the house. That’s why winter is so hard for me. Don’t worry, I follow the rules – I go alone. I never speak to anyone – well, there was…

  • COVID Jail

    I finally succumbed to Covid. For a couple of days I complained about a stuffed up nose. I felt uncharacteristically tired as I trailed across the hellishly hot parking lot of our local shopping centre. Was it some extreme hay fever brought on by the lush foliage of summer? Was I shamefully out of shape,…

  • The Northern Rain Forest

    Elizabeth says if you wait for the sun around here, you’ll never go out. Yes, the rain forest isn’t just the Amazon. It’s the cool green giant trees reaching up, falling, rotting, feeding other life. The mosses and lichens play out their seasons as the cool soft rain and the sea winds keep everything slow…

  • On Hornby Island

    Today we took two ferries to get to Hornby Island. There are many small islands off Vancouver Island and we went to explore Tribune Bay and the forest and bluffs nearby. The ferries are small – one is a cable ferry that is pulled across the channel to Denham Island. We tried to do this…

  • Where Eagles Fly

    We had a wonderful day today walking in fern and tall tree forests down to the shore where we sighted eight bald eagles. How lovely it was in the cool woods walking down a steep trail to the rocky shore. Out on the channel between the Island and the mainland huge container ships passed each…

  • My Soulmate

    She stands at the gate of my daughter’s property on Vancouver Island. She is old and the “tree guy” says she’s on her way out. The white branch fell off during a winter storm. She has lots of places where bark isn’t growing and the white inner core of her boughs can be seen. But…

  • Pacific North West

    Not often I glimpse a view of the Rockies when out for my walk. My daughter’s home on Vancouver Island offers this treat. I walk down beside the swift-flowing Oyster river until it joins the Straight of Georgia. It was quite muddy in spots as it rained heavily in the night but the high winds…