Happy Spring!

I'm not very good at doing this regularly ... but here are some "snapshots" of the past couple of weeks.

We did "Ukrainian" easter eggs again this year. I've gathered several friends who enjoy this activity and whose children I hope to infect with the love of this wonderful activity. However, as every other year before, the jars of dye are STILL on the counter ... and will be there until I decide to move them out of harm's way, but not before having done more eggs. (The sad truth is that I probably won't do any more ... but I do live in hope!)



A recipient of one of the only two eggs I produced this year was my brother, as his birthday was – this year – on Easter Sunday. Along with the egg went a card I've been saving for such an occasion.


























And, as spring springs up all around us, I had to take some photos of the daffodils. Last weekend was abnormally warm (followed by a cold snap – a rude awakening indeed) and it, along with some rain, has really accelerated the process.





More soon, as I immerse myself in the Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö series. My linguistically inclined mother has tried to figure out the pronunciation of these Swedish crime fiction writers' names, but I await confirmation from my Norwegian friend!

This and that

Moving right along, I've just started to read Alexander Masters' Stuart: A Life Backwards, which I picked up at the advice of an old friend last summer at a jumble sale at St. Mark's summer fete in Newnham. (Again, I was reminded how excellent access to secondhand books was in Cambridge ...) It's a rather bleak biography of a homeless person whose life ends tragically, but not until he'd been able to help facilitate both the release of the wrongfully arrested Cambridge Two in 1999 and the distribution of the "Big Issue" in the city. Another of the many lost souls ...



I've also started reading Jo Nesbø's Nemesis. Detective fiction is absolutely one of my favourite genres, and it's nice to revisit characters one's met in previous books. (Here, it is CRUCIAL to read the books in sequence, if – as I – one is not able to read them consecutively.) I read Nesbo's Redbreast about half a year (and many books) ago, so the synapses are having some difficulty re-establishing connections to the necessary memories of the plot and characters. But, that's part of the fun!




Otherwise, we're gearing up for Easter weekend and SPRING! For the family, this will involve Ukrainian easter egg decorating (with some friends and their children) and a visit to Toronto on Sunday (for both Easter dinner and my brother Bernard's 43rd birthday). Pictures will follow in due course, but for the time being, here are some of Jessie the dog (taken over the past weekend).



Guess who had to bathe her?

Current reading

Well, this blog seems to be taking off ... so I can share my thoughts on the two most recent books I'm (re) reading: Crow Lake by Mary Lawson and White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

I inherited Crow Lake from a friend, and while I generally am not a huge fan of Canadiana, I'm really enjoying this book. It's set alternately between northern Ontario and Toronto. Dating is tricky, because the scenes in northern Ontario suggest an earlier (say 1950s) time frame, when the reach of social services (regarding child welfare) wasn't yet so strict and/or far-reaching; while the scenes based in Toronto suggest a rather later period, probably late 70s. The plot is also a tad unrealistic, but – notwithstanding – its treatment of the emotionally withdrawn protagonist is very believable. There are aspects of asperger's syndrome and its affinity for a certain type of academic obsessiveness that I find very interesting, especially in the context of early childhood loss and a culture of emotional avoidance.

I read Zadie Smith's book back when we lived in England, so it's nice to revisit it here in very bland southern Ontario. One certainly does not find those types of characters here! In fact, I can't imagine that degree of social integration of cultural richness occurring anywhere else in the world than London. (Toronto and New York come close – but fail – for succumbing to that uniquely North American penchant for superficiality.) The principal difference this time reading the book is that I'm attempting to do so while using the elliptical machine 30 minutes twice weekly at the gym. This must be the most tedious way to spend one's time, but it is exercise – and this is something of which I'm woefully in need, especially out here where one simply cannot survive without a car. (I digress ... but: yesterday, I drove all over the region, up to St. Catharines and then down to Port Robinson and Welland in the morning, back up to St. Catharines mid-afternoon, down to Fonthill late afternoon, and then out to Niagara Falls in the evening.)

Other than at the gym (where, in itself, it can be a logistical challenge akin to exercise), reading is a luxury I save either for waiting rooms, etc. or after the kids are in bed. To work now, therefore, I must go.

Books, books, books

Books, glorious books ...

After a lot of dithering, I'm now considering that I shift the focus of this blog away from my dull life to the subject of book reviews!

I commented on a recent post by my Norwegian friend Mette about her recommendation of the book The Fiction Class by Susan Breen. In response, I recommended a recent book I'd really enjoyed by Margaret Drabble, The Red Queen. To which, our New Zealand friend, AnneMarie, responded, saying that she had begun Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Ah, the delights of sharing one's thoughts about books!

I haven't read Susan Breen's book, but I have read the entire Stieg Larsson trilogy. Remembering Mette's previous remark about feeling somewhat bereft after having read a good book, I too felt at a loss after finishing the Girl who Kicked up a Hornet's Nest, the final book in this so-called Millennium series.

The trilogy is admittedly quite gritty and for mature audiences only, but absolutely captivating! An excellent yarn, with thrilling twists and turns – and lovely insights into the mind of a hacker! Apparently at the time of his sudden death in 2005, Larsson left an incomplete fourth installment. Given controversy surrounding rights to his literary legacy, the book remains in limbo.

Now that I've begun ... it might be impossible to stop ...

Niagara in the Winter

After discovering (with some relief) that the forecast freezing rain didn't hit our neck of the woods, I was obliged to take my car into the mechanic. Even after 4 years, I don't know where to go or who's the most honest (if any); but the mother of one of J's friends suggested a new place. Ironically the reason I took the car in (a pronounced "clanking" sound on Sunday) is the cheapest problem – expenses will be incurred by repairing a myriad of problems: tyre-rod rebalancing, something with the suspension, a desperately needed oil change, re-alignment. ARRRGGGHHHH!

And all this before I've even had a chance to begin today's chore: writing an article on research success among undergraduates at UC. And this, before C's band practice after school, hurriedly made soup for dinner, rushing off to my painting class.

(A view over frozen Lake Gibson, above, and of M with Jessie, below, walking along the boardwalk on said Lake [JH photos])

Here we go ... again

Actually, this isn't my first blog, but it's the first one that focuses specifically on our lives in settled (probably long-term) circumstances, after first Toronto, Canada, and then Cambridge, England.