Geese in the morning

Last Saturday in the morning I had a little moment of pure autumnal bliss. I woke up to the sound of geese flying. A skein of geese. I can recognise their cry anywhere. Well, it could have been ducks, but I think they were geese. Anyway, there's no sound more seasonal in September. It's not autumn without them. So it made my day, or at least my morning, and it got me in a great mood from the moment I got up. Oh how I love this time of year, even when it is too warm.

Des écureuils noirs à Montréal

 Voici une petite nouvelle animalière et montréalaise que je voulais partager et sur laquelle je voulais commenter. Enfin bref, j'ai lu il y a quelques jours cet article de la grosse Presse, sur les écureuils de Montréal. Il y en aurait maintenant des noirs. En fait, ce sont des écureuils gris, mais certains ont changé de couleur pour s'adapter à leur environnement. Ils ont donc maintenant un pelage noir. Noir, c'est quand même plus beau que gris. C'est plus élégant en tout cas. J'espère pouvoir en rencontrer lors de ma prochaine visite.

Autumn Person (in a nutshell)

 I hope you don't mind me blogging so much about autumn, but it is my favourite season and I found this meme a few days ago which I wanted to share. Because this is me, in a nutshell. I love reading like this, on a late September day. And I try to do it every day in the afternoon. Although the temperatures are too warm for September, when evening falls it does get considerably cooler. And the colours are changing. The cozy spot I choose is generally the bed. I keep the windows open and it's blissful.

Le Guide du Salon du livre

Je fais une plogue rapide pour ceux qui peuvent: vous trouverez sur  la page Facebook du Salon du Livre du Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean le "Guide du parfait festivalier." Avec plan du site (le site où se situe le Salon, pas le site web), plan du stationnement, horaire et tout le reste. Je voudrais y être, rien que pour l'atmosphère et pour les souvenirs que j'en ai et les nouveaux que j'aimerais créer. Le Salon du livre commence cette semaine, jeudi le premier octobre.

Automnal Train

I recently read this article from TimeOut Montreal, about scenic train journeys in Québec during autumn. And it makes me both proud of home and sad that I live so far away. Québec is the most beautiful place to be in autumn, it's where the season is at its most colourful and most beautiful. I have been in a train in Québec only once in my life, given that railway services are borderline inexistent, although I am aware of the existence of the Train de Charlevoix mentioned in TimeOut. I love train travel, for me it's the most comfortable, the most atmospheric, the most exciting means of transport, so I would love to take this journey at least once in my life. And taking this train in autumn would just be perfect. It would be mixing two of my favourite things, in the best place to enjoy the season.

Champignon orange

 Je partage une autre photo mycologique de ma cousine Amy l'artiste-photographe. Je crois que jusqu'ici, c'est ma préférée. Vous savez que je suis fasciné par les champignons. Dans l'assiette, pas tant. Enfin, la plupart du temps, je n'aime pas les champignons. Cela dit, même si je ne suis pas amateur, j'aime les champignons comme des éléments de l'automne. J'aime l'esthétique des champignons. Et ce champignon orange est sans doute le plus automnal, plus coloré que les autres et d'une couleur typiquement saisonnière. Je n'en trouve pas des comme ça ici.

"Beyond the Grave"

Today I'm blogging about An Evening of Murder again. As you may remember, it's a murder party series which was quite popular back in the late eighties/early nineties. We played Beyond the Grave on my brother PJ's birthday. To this day, it's one of my favourite. In it, you try to solve the murder of Lorraine Lockwood, who died five years ago of cyanide poisoning. Her daughter has convinced family and friends to come to a séance in order to solve the mystery of Lorraine's death. The last post on the Facebook page of the game series, exactly two years ago, they were advertising Beyond the Grave as a Halloween game. I think it's fitting, given the subject matter. my brother's birthday was in October, so the connection has always been all the more obvious to me.

Une souche et des champignons

Nous avons fait une promenade récemment, une promenade automnale comme j'aime les faire. Il ne faisait pas assez frais, mais nous sommes passés par un coin boisé avec une souche d'arbre mangée par des champignons. J'ai trouvé cette photo automnale, très début d'automne en tout cas (les feuilles sont encore trop vertes), alors je la partage. Le blogue prend les couleurs de la saison.

"It's that time of year..."

I found this meme online and I had to share it. This is of course very me. The books, the warm clothes, the blankets, the tea especially. And soon I will be buying pumpkins. Now if only the weather could be cooler, so I could wear said warm clothes all day...

La tarte aux pommes

Je partage une nouvelle photo de la tarte aux pommes de mes parents, rien que parce que c'est l'automne, c'est septembre, je fais donc dans le partage de photos saisonnières.

Halloween at the Vet

We went to the vet recently, because Domino needed a check-up. And I was happily surprised to see that they had already Halloweenised the place. They had a few decorations, but what was striking was the amount of toys and treats for cats and dogs that were pumpkin coloured or had Jack O'Lanterns or other seasonal classics, like bats and witches. There was nothing macabre, every little critter was fluffy, plush and smiling. All the same, more than a month before Halloween, it's a fairly rare sight around here. I was tempted to buy Domino these "Pumpkin Pals," cute smiling Jack O'Lanterns, but we had to get home, so in the end we left without buying anything. I might stop by or try to find the Pals elsewhere.

Tarte aux pommes

Petit billet de saison et gastronomique à la fois. C'est l'automne, c'est donc le temps des pommes, son fruit le plus emblématique. C'est par conséquent, aussi, le temps de la tarte aux pommes. Je vais faire un aveu: je ne suis pas un fan de la tarte aux pommes. Mais mes parents oui, fa que... Enfin bref, mes parents ont donc cuisiné une tarte aux pommes. Rien que parce que c'est ma saison préférée, j'en aurais pris une pointe. Ma femme a suggéré que si j'en mange, je la préfèrerais avec de la costarde anglaise ou de la crème glacée. Qu'en pensez-vous?

The Equinox At Last!

Today it's finally the autumnal equinox. Or, to be precise, it happened in the little hours of the morning. Read this BBC article for more details. It means that nobody, absolutely nobody, can claim that we are not in autumn now. Even if the weather is too warm, we are in autumn. For me, the season starts with the month, as you know. The first of September should be the benchmark for the beginning of autumn. It is the case, I think, for many people. It is in our psyche, so to speak. That said, the equinox is a special day for all autumn lovers and I always celebrate it on the blog.

Le trébuchet de Warwick

J'ai pris cette photo à Warwick Castle. C'est bien entendu un trébuchet, une machine de guerre médiévale qui est toujours très impressionnante à voir, même pour le médiéviste que je suis. Ou que j'ai été il y a maintenant très longtemps. Mais enfin bref, le trébuchet en question était défectueux, nous n'avons malheureusement pas pu le voir à l'action. Cela dit, ils ont quand même présenté la machine et expliqué comment elle marchait. Enfin, comment elle marcherait si elle n'était pas brisée. Pour la démonstration, ce sera pour une autre fois, dans un autre château peut-être.

The Golden Hour

 Okay, so it's the equinox tomorrow, it's too warm for September, but all the same, I want to say two things as a preamble to this post: 1)I have been enjoying this month tremendously so far and 2)I consider it to be autumn already, because yes, I may sound like a broken record, but autumn starts with the month. Anyway, so here is something I have been focusing on in my autumnal mindfulness: the golden hour, this period of daylights right before sunset. Autumnal evenings are the best evenings. The dimming, warm, soothing lights are simply the best this time of year. So I spend this time of the day/evening reading spooky stuff or just looking at the skies, getting in the atmosphere. Am I the only one having the same feeling this time of year regarding the time right before dusk? Do you enjoy the golden hour?

"Un 22 septembre..."

Bon, paraît que l'équinoxe c'est demain matin, dans les petites heures du matin en fait, mais je m'en fous. Je partage comme à chaque année Le vingt-deux septembre de Georges Brassens, parce que c'est officiellement l'automne pour tout le monde, bon.

The Dracula Game Anniversary

Today is a special day for the nostalgic man that I am: some thirty odd years ago, around this time, my brothers, my friends and I invented and played what I call to this day the Dracula Game. I sometimes blog about it. Long story short, on the last day of a teachers strike, while we were bored stiff, we met an acquaintance, friend of a friend, and we decided to spend time with him and fight boredom together. We discovered that, like us, he enjoyed make belief games. So we drew inspiration from J.H. Brennan's gamebook Dracula's Castle, which our new friend had, and we created a make belief game where we were vampire hunters trying to vanquish Count Dracula. We explored his castle and the surroundings, fighting various monsters among his minions, vampires of course, but also zombies, wolves, demons, ghouls, what have you. I was thinking about it recently and thinking about why I was so fond of it and remember it fondly to this day. First, because Halloween was already on my mind when we played it, so I was in a spooky mood. Also, this improvised make-belief game triggered our interest to many things: role-playing games and classical horror especially. I hadn't even read the original novel, but getting my hands on it became my new literary obsession. Finally, we made a new friend that day, a true kindred spirit, one that would remain friend with us for years and years. So we owed the Dracula Game quite a lot.

CF-18

Ma cousine Amy l'artiste-photographe a pris des photos d'un CF-18 volant dans le coin de Bagotville. Quand je prends en photo des avions en vol, ce qui m'arrive parfois, je le fais de peine et de misère. J'imagine que c'est un peu pourquoi je ne suis pas artiste-photographe. Quand même, c'est impressionnant.

"Paranormal Oxford"

So during our last visit to Oxford, I stumbled on this book, Paranormal Oxford. Now I don't know how good or terrible it is, but I just thought, what the heck, Halloween is coming, I need more spooky reads (okay, I don't need per se, but I do want more), so I better read this. It's not horror stories, nevertheless I find these kind of paranormal "documentary" books a great source of inspiration for horror stories, or simply to get you in a Halloween mood. So I bought it, to start this year or the next.

Mystérieux plat à Val-Jalbert

Mes parents sont allés l'an dernier au au village fantôme (je sais qu'on dit village historique, mais pour moi c'est un village fantôme, bon) de Val-Jalbert,où ils ont mangé au Restaurant du moulin. Si vous jetez un coup d'oeil sur le site, vous découvrirez qu'on ne lui donne pas son nom. Je n'y ai trouvé le menu nulle part non plus. Alors donc, il y a cette entrée, du moins je crois que c'est une entrée, je vois que c'est quelque chose de frit, mais je ne sais pas c'est quoi. Si quelqu'un le sait, qu'il m'éclaire dans les commentaires.