Friday, February 26th, 2021

The Island in Winter

 

We walk to the island. The children take turns pulling.

 

 

Akiva does not need to drink much water in winter: he eats the snowballs from his fleece mittens. When I notice his once-white chewing gum has become pink, I realize he has side-stepped the food-chain of microplastics consumption assumed in oceanic plastics pollution studies and gone directly to the source. I wonder how many thousands of plastic microfibers he has consumed on this walk. I feel helpless.

 

 

At the island, the tire swing, high above the river in summer, hangs low above the snow.

Iris steps onβ€”

 

 

β€”swing!

 

 

Akiva, shorter rounder and nearly as heavy, is more timid on the swing.

Iris pushes him gently.

 

 

He smiles bravely.

 

Friday, February 19th, 2021

Johnville Bog, Winter

In winter, the boggy back trails of the Johnville Bog & Forest Park freeze over.

The park management opens them up for foot traffic.

 

 

 

 

Β Β 

Far off the well-beaten track of boardwalks and open bog lands, the boreal forest is full of hops.*

 

 

Β 

 

 

We examine some rabbit poo. They seem to have been eating mostly bark and needles.

Looking around, I have no idea what else rabbits could possibly eat.

 

 

 

 

 

*Rabbit tracks

 

Thursday, February 18th, 2021

Flurry

Today’s snowflakeβ€”

 

Monday, February 15th, 2021

Snowflake

Akiva and I have been having fun playing with geometric wooden pattern blocks together.

He says we need more.

 

Saturday, February 13th, 2021

Le marais dans la neige

 

Last year’s walk across the ice at the Ile du Marais was delightfully memorable, so we invited Martin to come with us this year. Perhaps because it is earlier in the year, there is more snow and many more people. There are also trucks, vans and ATVs driving on the ice. Fishing houses crowd the lake. When we walk around to the back side of the biggest island where the fishing is poor, there are many fewer people. A couple of ATV drivers, beers in hand, stink up the air and ruin the quiet as they speed randomly through the protected area of the marsh. The ice between the marsh plants becomes unpredictable. Past the area where ATVs can drive, tiny footprints trace paths between the vegetation. For a few minutes, there is silence.

 

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2021

The Chained Tree

We went for a walk in the snowy woods.

 

 

 

 

We found a chained tree.

 

 

Saturday, January 16th, 2021

“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could…”

There was an argument. I bricked up the doorway and told them they would need to solve their own problems. Immediately, the problem was solved, but the bricks remained. Now when they argue inside, I say, “I can take down the wall or you can solve the problem yourself.” For now, they like the wall.

 

 

 

I enjoy my key-hole view of a place reserved exclusively for children.

 

 

 

 

 

“I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up.

Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones.

For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!”

β€” Edgar Allen Poe, The Cask of Amantillado

Tuesday, January 5th, 2021

Mandatory Quarantine

This our third quarantine since the US-Canada border closed nearly a year ago.

 

Saturday, January 2nd, 2021

Bunny in the house

When it is cold and lonely out, Tucker comes inside the house for snuggles.

 

 

When he gets too hot in his winter coat, he hops back outside.

Saturday, December 26th, 2020

Girls & Boys

Mom (a.k.a. Gramma) found some hair rollers in among her things. They’re probably from the 1950s or 60s. I remember she used them once in the 1980s. I don’t believe that she has used them since, so I suggested that she did not need to keep them anymore if she wanted to increase the quantity of space in her house. To prove me wrong, she put rollers in her hair and in Iris’s hair.

 

 

 

Here they laze on the bed

reading glossy magazines about one of my mother’s many, many hobbies: construction and renovation.

 

 

 

My mother is snacking on matzoh. Bert famously told Ernie not to eat cookies in bed. He told Ernie not to eat cookies in bed because then he would get crumbs in the sheets and then the crumbs would get in his pyjamas and then he would itch and then he wouldn’t be able to sleep. To circumvent this issue, Ernie went to Bert’s bed to eat his cookies. Earnie was quite creative! My mother is also creative. To avoid crumbs in her bed, she puts plenty of butter on her matzoh.

 

 

 

I take over 100 photos before Mom tells me that I likely have enough.

 

 

 

I don’t agree with her.

 

 

 

I think I should take more.

 

 

 

Isn’t that silly?

 

 

 

Eventually, they go to the vintage 1950s time-capsule bathroom

to take the vintage 1960s rollers out of their hair. Mom looks dashing with her curlers out!

 

 

 

She isn’t smiling at herself in the mirrorβ€”

 

 

 

She is smiling at Iris’s smile.

 

 

 

The rollers went back in the drawer, but Mom’s not going to use those rollers again.Some day when Iris is tall and lovely, we’ll be going through her grandmother’s stuff deciding where to donate it all. We’ll find the rollers. I’ll remind her of the last time her grandmother used them. She’ll remember, of course, because she’s seen some photos, but what she won’t know is that, unlike most photoshoots where I’m able to get rid of up to 90% of the photos, I had a really hard time getting rid of any of these photos.

 

 

♦  ♦  ♦

 

 

Akiva, meanwhile, is in his uncle Dan’s room.

 

 

 

His absolute favorite thing to do while visiting, when he isn’t zipping slot-cars around a track,

is to go through Dan’s old Matchbox cars.

 

 

 

Now and again Akiva checks to make sure that Dan adds enough cars to his drawings

or to see if he is looking up photos of old-fashioned cars on the computer.

 

 

 

Now and again Dan checks to make sure

that there is still a little boy happily playing with cars in his room.