Author: Andrea Cordonier
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Bouquet
An early morning bouquet for Bellissima’s room: peonies, third wave of lilacs, rosa rugosas, prolific lemon balm, rotund chive blooms, Siberian iris, Nepeta and all. Seems early for some of these lovelies, a treat for Miss Bella, the bees, and me. Read more
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Leading Me Down the Garden Path
The path to the potager seems shorter in person. But I can attest to its length by the volume of plants required to fill the flagstone and the hours spent on my knees, unnaturally bent. The flagstone was a sunk cost – I already had it – but between the cost of the filler plants and… Read more
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The View From Here
Waiting for the thunderstorm, which didn’t much materialize. But it did leave us with some gorgeous light and a rainbow. Read more
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Feral
These days I wake up at cat o’clock. Puss meows to escape, the birds twitter and fuss, a din moments before first light appears on the horizon. Little cat’s seasonal wildness begins mid-April or so, while mine lies dormant for another month. By mid-May we are in cahoots while the house sleeps on. There are… Read more
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A Mini Happy Day in the Life of Kiev
Lovely, lovely short film from production group ThreeShot, filled with sunshine and candy-coloured buildings. Kiev looks so yummy I mistook it for claymation. Read more
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King Lear, Dementia, Filial Piety and the Profound Vulnerability of Aging
The 30-second summary of Shakespeare‘s King Lear is this: An elderly and increasingly demented King seeks to divide his kingdom in three, according to the degree of publicly pious devotion declared by his three daughters. The two eldest favour him with flattery but the youngest, his favourite, refuses to participate in the tawdry spectacle. He banishes her… Read more
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Nocturnal Exhibitions
God bless the magic of Twitter. I love to be surprised by what I find and how I find it. Everyday is like following Alice down the rabbit hole. I randomly discovered multidisciplinary artist and musician Lisa Lipton through LOROPR, which called out her upcoming performance art spectacle Window Ballet 2: Electric Boogaloo. The performance piece riffs… Read more
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Official Opening of the Burritt’s Rapids Summer Social Season
The stars aligned yesterday for a community idea I’ve wanted to try out for awhile: the spontaneous Front Yard Happy Hour. We live in a village which sports a tiny public library, a Community Hall, a small public beach, but no economic activity. The closing of the lovely old General Store, with its beloved seasonal… Read more
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All Manners of Eating With Children
I wish I had never raised the subject. We’re taking the family away for the summer to France and Italy, which have heavily ritualized food-based cultures. Husband was born and raised in Northern Italy and I have been a regular visitor to western Europe over the years, so we’re not unfamiliar with the cultural expectations… Read more