isobelmtl

Writing under a Montreal sky

Recent Blog Posts

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

  • Sad sight, scary sight

    Joe and I have been following the progress of a pair of Eastern Bluebirds. For the second time a pair made a nest in a box he made from old junk salvaged from the dump. We gathered from the internet, universal source of all wisdom, that these birds can live up to ten years and…

  • Elections in the Country

    Wandering beside the silty creek I noticed a curious frog who approached the bank to stare up at me with a fixed gaze. I sat down on a broad smooth rock. He swam even closer. “Are you a prince?”I whispered whimsically He immediately croaked and jumped into the deeper water with a splash. He had…

  • Did someone say mouse?

      No, we don’t like those! Getting rid of one curious field mouse involved baiting and placing these……overkill you say? The cupboard door came off and the whole mysterious process of fixing the well pump was suspended while we ensured that the little creature was disposed of. It is disconcerting when these things go off…particularly the…

  • Did someone say mouse?

    In the middle of a mysterious manipulation with the well pump the alarm was raised. Two mice had sneaked in and were skittering around in the house. Who knew we had so many mouse, not to mention rat traps? Well, it is the country, I suppose. There is even a sinister sort of box trap…

  • Cardinal in the lilacs

          I know you can’t see him. She appeared too, a moment later sitting right in the middle of the gate for just that moment before I got the iPad ready. You’ll have to take my word for it. The other picture  is just to show off my pink lilac bush. I took the…

  • Enlightened

      Sometimes it seems to me that Spring blossoms give off light. This little Saskatoon berry bush in the city lane outside my garden gate is glowing in the light of evening. The winter was harsh and the tulips late and sparse but this is a consolation

  • Real Perfection

       Spring has been a very long time coming in this town. All of April was cold, cloudy, snowy, rainy, generally miserable. We’re well into May and it’s not much better yet. We had torrential rain today followed by one of those exasperating beautiful and weird sunsets that consist of a brilliant strip of sky…

  • Good Friday

       At last night’s Good Friday service we sang for a long time. Orthodox Christians sing what are called the Lamentations of the Virgin and also the Cannon which show the many Old Testament references to Christ’s burial in the tomb. ( think Jonah in the whale). I must say my faith is very clouded…

  • At Last

    Hello pale blossom. Hello damp cool green beauty so frail, so delicate forcing your frail delicate way up through dark dense earth. Hello faint hope, hello rebirth hello vanquisher of winter, pale bell that heralds all the rest. Golden trumpets and scarlet or dark frilled tulips and later roses, lilies , dahlias and exuberant vines.…

  • Sights for St. Valentine’s Day

    These are white goats, not sheep. The rams had long grey horns, not tightly curled but twisted close to the head and then jutting out. We saw them just outside a rather touristy sea-side town. The shepherd looked like a professor of philosophy with his grey beard and stick. He nodded gravely when we asked…