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

  • A Rainy Day

    of a decent spray bottle to replace some that had given up. We have to spray the mattresses every morning and people were getting frustrated at not having a proper tool. People meaning … me! I was directed the “ the Chinese “ I followed directions and came to what I think of as a…

  • Exploring the Camino Invierno

    I started out this morning to take a look at the trail I hope to start walking next week. I soon got out of the busy part of town and found myself on a trail walked by very few people so here are a few flowers to herald Spring. But the flower info says Spanish…

  • A Calm and quiet day

    Today began well and stayed that way, calm with a lovely walk up to the castle and even a bit if poking around in the weekly market. Well you can’t beat 1 euro for a very nice top. The vendor who was packing up ran after me to give me 10 cents of change! I…

  • Fiesta and …, calm

    Ok the bin of empty wine bottles was pretty full at the end of the evening! Salsa dancing was taught! The noise level was tremendous and much food consumed. Just when I took my courage in both hands and gently suggested bed time ( like the good granny that I am) a “ priest” in…

  • The Army carries its Cross

    People are preparing for Semana Santa and that means I have to get a few reservations in order. After much frustration I finally got help from the local tourist office. A charming young man called Ivan finally put me on the right track. The official web site for all the Caminos had the wrong email…

  • An anniversary

    Of the alberge. It is named after a saint I had never learned about-San Nicolas de Flu in Switzerland. It seems a lady in Ponferrada was married to a Swiss and when he died she had the Alberge built next to the church in his honour. Perhaps it is apt that under a rather severe…

  • Around town

    His pupil seems a bit fed up! The team has an artery hardening session! The chocolate was delicious but I confined myself to one of those deep fried delicacies. It’s very foggy and so a bit chilly but .. the washing must get done. For my dear friends worried that my clothes were stolen off…

  • Bringing order out of Chaos

    Sometimes! Last year we four hospitaleras/os made a schedule that gave 2 people an alternative short day. If your day was long on Monday, it was short on Tuesday…and so on. This allowed for exploring the town and surroundings. Now the priorities of one team is not exploring but rather sleeping in every second day.…

  • An Amazing Sight

    I’m sure someone will be able to correct me if I am wrong… I believe this translates to “marrows”. It took me a while to figure it out but I think it refers to the Roman gold mines that operated here during the period when they ran things here in Spain. Somehow they discovered that…

  • Surviving the First Day of Service

    It was an eventful day to day the least. I discovered that Anna, an Italian hospitalera of many years experience is to stay here for many days. I begin to understand the blessings of deafness because there can sometimes be a question of volume control in a situation where terrazzo floors meet heave wooden chairs…