isobelmtl
Writing under a Montreal sky
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Category: Blogging 101
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Some cities strike me as being a good fit for human beings. Cordoba is one of these. It is easy and pleasant to walk about the old city, for so long the capital of Spain. It’s famous “patios” or courtyards constantly surprise with tempting glimpses into the colourful flower-filled lives of residents. How wonderful it…
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Everyone is complaining about how cold and cloudy it is this winter here. We are not. It is wonderful walking weather. Not too hot or dazzlingly sunny. Yesterday we went to the famous Playa de los Muertos…beach of the dead! It is a wonderful long stretch of tiny pebble beach well protected from the ravages…
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Snow, fir trees, Santa Clause, all these and other wintery things are what we usually think of as Christmas traditions. Music played or sung at this time of year is often carols or jolly ditties. How much earlier in the year can these be played at the mall, I wonder. So, it was a surprising and…
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Now summer is really over. It turns out fall is somehow better than summer – sunny, warm, and sometimes the wonderful fall wind springs up. Beautiful leaves are tugged off the trees. The grass is a magical green because of all the rain we had. The garden was mixed. Kale a great success, potatoes not bad,…
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This wonderful white gladiolus flower appeared suddenly this month. I had planted bulbs at the end of each vegetable row and they all came up, red-orange and beautiful. Then when all were completely finished blooming, this white one appeared. A mystery which seemed to be reflected in yesterday’s sky.
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There he is! I tried to post this yesterday but as often happens WordPress drove me crazy with uploading photos. He is a darling though, isn’t he. ( look down….on the side of the dark tree trunk…got it?)
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Ladies and gentlemen… here he is, fresh from Hollywood, just as raucous, cheeky and impudent as ever… your favorite and mine, Woody Woodpecker! It is very hot and sunny in Muskoka. Confused birch trees are gently dropping their small brown leaves in the still air. Not a breath of wind disturbs the bees as they…
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It was a dismal summer and in the country we lamented the absence of butterflies and bees, nodding our heads gravely and tutting over the decline of insect species. Now it is September and unseasonably sunny and warm in Montreal. Two days ago during a visit to a Home Depot garden center, the cone…
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Potatoes have sustained nations. Now, the ones I planted myself sustain me. In the late spring Joe tilled the ground and returned with his arms frozen into the pose of a Hells Angels biker. It is hard to till ground in Mid-Ontario. I hesitate to call it Northern Ontario because of the respect I have…
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Was it any more miraculous than the phases of the moon, than the shortening days of fall, than a sudden snowstorm? It was in some ways. Poor Galileo’s ghost hovered, slowly nodding his head and whispering, “I told you so.” As the hot late summer afternoon turned to twilight, excited kids ran down my…
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