Averse de mai

Ce matin, il neigeait des pétales de cenelliers en fleurs.

La beauté peut aussi exister en ville mais il faut la saisr quand elle passe

Le retardataire

Notre printemps se manifeste enfin avec trois semaines de retard.  Tout avance très vite comme si la nature voulait reprendre le temps perdu.

Avant-hier ce buisson était nu

notre érable a vu ses bourgeons éclater 

 

Hier soir, les tulipes n'étaient que des boutons

Voulez-vous des têtes de violons, déjà un peu grosses.

Les jonquilles sont apparues ce matin

D'autres tulipes se préparent, celles du premier plan reçoivent moins de soleil

Les hémérocales promettent pour juillet.

Nous aurons même quelques fraises...si les oiseaux et les écureuils nous en laissent.

                       

Autre bienfait, nos concitoyens de la vallée du Richelieu et de la baie Missisquois, inondés grâce à la générosités du lac Champlain gorgé par les neiges des Appalaches de New York et des montagnes Vertes du Vermont, vont pouvoir se sécher les pieds.

Vive le soleil après un avril froid et pluvieux.

R.I.P. Ben Laden (Bon débarras)

Ben Laden, hier soir, a été retrouvé et tué par une unité des forces spéciales états-uniennes au Pakistan, tout près d’Islamabad et loin de la frontière Afghane.  Une fois l’euphorie passée, une question doit être posée : depuis combien de temps séjournait-il dans la banlieue d’Islamabad et comment le gouvernement Pakistanais  pouvait-il l’ignorer?

Être assis sur une clôture barbelée n’est pourtant pas confortable.  Or voilà la position du Pakistan depuis des lunes.  A-t-on besoin d’un allié aussi peu fiable?  Évidemment le Pakistan possède La Bombe!

The acrobat

Introducing the Hyperborean Ornithosquirellix. He worked so much that he fully deserves the sunflower seeds he is squirrelling away.

Deo gratias

Thank God that there are, as yet in our country(ies), no laws against thinking and speaking one’s mind.  Don’t know why but I woke up this morning reminiscing about some of my past postings here and elsewhere.  It dawned on me that in several countries I would already have been arrested and thrown in jail for insulting the leader or spreading negative things about the Nation.

Mind you I also could have accompanied some of you since, at times, I was merely supporting your own posts.  We would have committed the crime of “dissidence” (:»)

Forward to the Past

This morning the New York Times web edition featured an article comparing the present political situation in the U.S., the issues, the way  they are debated, the language used to that of the years immediately before 1861.  The names have changed but the characters, the religious right, the liberals and the conservatives in a word the same mix is there.  The author concluded that the U.S. and its parts are still fighting the Secession War.

The situation is not privy to the U.S., Canada is in the throes of a federal election.  Our conservatives are using very old tricks such as denigrating and demonizing the opposition and talkingthe religious right’s talk.  They even brought out the pork barrel.  Their star candidate in the Lasalle riding went so far as to claim that Conservative counties would get, as is natural, more money than the others.  The opposition is dismally disorganised and splintered.

Elsewhere on our planet the situation is no better.  Democracy is progressing back to quasi dictatorships in many countries where the leaders call elections but reject the results when not in their favour.   Other countries have been punished by world powers for not voting the way they should have according to superpowers.

In some parts, as in the Middle Ages, warring parties rape women, torture captives and burn villages.  Schools are blown up and literacy condemned.

Maybe I should start looking for a suitable cavern?

Sugarshack party

Every year we go to the sugar shack.  That is a firmly entrenched Québec tradition.  It goes back to the very beginning of the province when, in New France, the Fisrt Nations people taught the colonists about the virtues of maple trees.  Family and friends gather for a hearthy meal (well maybe not so good for the hearth because of the fat and much sugar, but once a year, so what?).  Some bring beer and wine, we do not nowadays because of the kids and tough new laws about drinking and driving.

You have here a good idea of the fare.

   

This is la Cabane de la Famille Éthier, we have been coming here every March since 1982.

     
The entrance to the maple bush whence the sap used for the syrup and other produce comes from, 39 litres of sap for one litre of syrup. Now tubes are inserted in the trees and gravity takes the sap to the boilers from about mid-March to the end of April depending on cold nights and warm days.

Ariane meets horsies under dad's wathchful eyes.

Sap is boiled in the vats behind the collectors and then the syrup is canned.  Four cans to a gallon 

(3.89 litres).

Mme Éthier cooks a mean omelette and it does not sag when cut.

No sugar party is complete without syrup on the snow and, below, grandma shows how it's eaten.  A bit sticky and very tricky with dental plates but we did not lose any.

We all hope to meet here again next year.  Until then watch the fat and sugar.