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.

Category: Uncategorized

  • beauty overshadowed

      Sometimes I feel that beauty has gone out of fashion.  All around us beauty sits waiting to be discovered, to be noticed, to be appreciated.  We are busy getting annoyed at some political wrangle, getting frightened over threats beyond our control, getting apathetic because we are overwhelmed.  Beauty sits waiting for a glance and…

  • Woody posing

    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?)

  • Woody Woodpecker

      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…

  • Absent and Present

            On July 1st I started a leave of absence from my volunteer work as a docent at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.  It’s been a full month since I walked into the Museum, checked out who is taking tickets today, looked around to see if any of my particular friends are…

  • Our potatoes

    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…

  • After the Eclipse

      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…

  • A Cord of Wood

          Yesterday they delivered the wood and we stacked it in the woodshed. Yesterday was Sunday but today is turning out to be the day of rest.  Some may be wondering what a cord of wood is and how it got that name.  I wondered too.  Turns out the cord was the string wound…

  • Absent and Present

      It has been one month since I took a year’s  leave of absence from giving tours as a volunteer guide at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.  Do I miss it?  Do I miss walking into the Museum and feeling in a way that it is “mine”?  Do I miss looking for my friends…

  • A Pair of Red Repairs

    The letters we receive are far between and few. From cousins old and cranky or high school friends we knew. The mail boxes grew shabby. One even lost its lid to gale-force winds, a wild raccoon, perhaps a smart-ass kid. The hardware store had boxes, the cheap and nasty kind. Or fancy and luxurious, Oh,…

  • Ending is Better than Mending

    or is it? In George Orwell’s dystopian novel the slogan that heads today’s blog is a fundamental tenant of society.  It is an absolute ” value” of consumer society to create in the masses (and make no mistake, you and I are part of that class) an unquenchable desire for new objects. This desire is…