Pinecone Construction

I took this picture back in 2024, during our holidays in the Isle of Wight, at Robin Hill. There was a whole section of the theme park looking like a building site. I thought it looked kind of funny, something as mundane as a construction company, turned into an attraction for children. For little boys at least: my son Wolfie used to love, and loves still, any construction vehicles. Also, I love pine cones. Pine cones are cool. And it makes for a great name for a construction company. I wish it really existed.

Dix ans ici (Jour du Déménagement)

Photo prise à Brighton. Cest l'Upside Down House et je la partage ici parce qu'elle illustre un peu le sujet du billet. Nous avons emménagé dans notre maison il y a dix ans cette année. En fait non, ce n'est pas tout à fait vrai. Pour être exact, nous sommes devenus propriétaires le 1er juillet 2016. Nous avons emménagé le lendemain. J'ai toujours trouvé ça amusant que le hasard fasse que nous devenions propriétaires ce qui au Québec est le Jour du Déménagement. Notre maison n'est bien entendu pas à l'envers, enfin pas comme la maison de Brighton. Dans un autre sens, oui, elle l'est. Ouch. Désolé, il fallait que je commette ce calembour.

The End of June

Today we are the last day of June. One month of summertime done and dusted, and it has been a trying month from yours truly. Because we had one of the worst heatwaves in history, for one, which really made me struggle. I used to like the month of June, a long, long time ago. Not so much now. Especially since as I got older, I started to seriously struggling with heat. And since June is now generally way hotter than it used to be... Well, it's going to be over soon. Thankfully, the heatwave is gone, for now. I'm bracing myself for the next one, whenever it may be. Until then, I can find some solace knowing that I survived the first month of summer. And you, how was your June? Did you enjoy it?

Barrière de lavande

 Je vais faire un aveu: je ne porte pas dans mon coeur certains de mes voisins. Surtout l'une de nos voisines, que j'appelle la vieille grebiche. Mais il faut lui donner ça: elle est meilleure jardinière que moi. Pas que ce soit très difficile. Le jardin qui borde le nôtre a une allée de lavande. Ma femme déteste l'odeur de la lavande, mais moi j'aime bien. Et je me dis que ça fait entre elle et nous une barrière naturelle plutôt jolie.

London, City of Espionage

This post is part of my City of Espionage series started earlier this year, about, well, cities associated with espionage and intelligence world in both fiction and the real world. This series is itself a part of a broader series of posts about spy thrillers. Today is about London. Of course, London is famous for being the residence and office base of the most famous fictitious secret agent in the world. But he is not the only secret agent that lives in London when he is not on a mission. Of course, London is the city where the headquarters of SIS/MI6 are. Also called Vauxhall Cross. Impressive piece of architecture, which unfortunately I haven't seen in real life just yet. It's in my bucket list. If I can ever take pictures of Vauxhall Cross (one never knows, with the intelligence community), I will share them here. In any case, just because of the MI6 Building, London deserves to be mentioned as a city of espionage. Obviously, it's also an essential centre for the intelligence community.

Larousse 2015

J'ai pris cette photo chez mes beaux-parents, lors de notre dernière visite. Ma belle-mère, qui est francophile et parfaitement bilingue, a donc un Larousse, édition 2015. Je sais que le Larousse n'est pas aussi bon que le Robert, mais je l'ai toujours aimé comme ouvrage de référence. Je me rappelle mon premier Larousse, édition 1990 je crois. La couverture a changé, mais elle a toujours le fameux pissenlit. Quand je vois des pissenlits, je pense d'ailleurs toujours au Larousse.

Dracula (a memory)

Well, the solstice is done and dusted, so days are slowly getting shorter, hopefully the heatwave should be over soon and this is thus time to... get ready for Halloween. I'm not kidding: I start preparing round this time of year. Yes, because this. But it is nothing new to me, I've always started getting on a spooky mind and preparing for Halloween months before. More than 35 years ago, if I'm not mistaken, in the summer of 1990, I first read Dracula by Bram Stoker. Before I watched any adaptation of the famous novel. I had been wanting to read classics of horror for a while and found a copy of Dracula in the local library. I blogged about it in details in a post from 2018. The memory came back to my mind recently. The novel was a revelation to me and it truly started my love of horror. I was interest in the macabre and scary stories before, but as a child my mother wouldn't let me read such things. As a teenager, she couldn't stop me.

Un vieux globe terrestre

Autre photo prise au Royal Pavilion à Brighton. Vous connaissez sans doute (peut-être) mon intérêt pour les globes terrestres et les Atlas. Surtout les globes terrestres. Surtout les vieux globes comme celui-ci, avec des couleurs plus vieilles et défraîchies, un peu fades, et sur un support de bois. On dirait que l'on voyage dans un monde ancien, dans une autre époque. J'aimerais avoir assez de place pour en avoir un comme ça ici. On peut rêver.

A Secret Passage?

 I took this picture in Brighton. To be more specific, at the Royal Pavilion. It looks like nothing, just a wall with wallpaper, but look closer and you will see that it hides a door. A secret door opening to a secret passage. Well, maybe it does. According to what I heard in the audio tour, the Pavilion has or had secret passages. From what I remember, to help staff move from one room to the other without being seen or heard while doing service. But it could be used in a more dramatic setting. Secret passages are a staple of old(er) mystery literature, either crime stories or spy thrillers. In a modern story, they come off as cheating, but I always liked them all the same.

"Du bon fromage pour du bon monde"

Photo prise sur la page Facebook de la Fromagerie Boivin lors de la Saint-Jean. C'était pour souligner la Fête, mais ce n'est pas pour revenir sur le 24 que je le partage ici. En fait, j'ai surtout aimé le message dessus, chaleureux et sans prétention. "Du bon fromage pour du bon monde." Oui, je fais une plogue pour ma région et pour un commerce de la région, je n'ai aucune gêne.

Heat in Isola

I know I'm blogging a lot about Ed McBain's 87th Precinct crime novel series these days, as I am reading the books in order of publication (as much as possible). But it struck me that one novel would be very fitting for this summer, either this heatwave or the next. I blogged about Heat back in July 2024, more specifically about a grossly lying cover on its French translation. I hate heatwaves, but they are more bearable when I read seasonal crime fiction. It makes me hate the heat more, ironically enough. But hey, it's not the only novel of McBain set in summertime. He seemed to consider sunshine as evil as I do (see this post). But hey, if you are looking for summertime crime fiction, you can't go wrong with Ed McBain.

Qui a vu le lièvre?

Je bloguais jeudi dernier sur le lièvre qui visitait mes parents et leurs voisins. Mon père l'avait baptisé Bozo. Je suis conscient que Bozo n'est peut-être plus de ce monde, mais s'il y a eu un lièvre dans les environs, il y a de fortes chances qu'il y en a d'autres. Je vais mettre mon père là-dessus. J'aime bien les animaux sauvages en milieu urbain.

Summerween is a thing

A few days ago, while she was doing a grocery shop online, my wife saw some Halloween articles on sale: Jack O'Lantern cushions or something. It must be a manifestation of Summerween. Yes I know the term, which is our word of the day. Do I think it's too early to think about Halloween? No. Do I do Summerween? Well, yes and no. I don't really put any Halloween decorations out, but some of my autumnal ornaments remain on display all year round. And I do long for Halloween all year, so I make a countdown to the countdown. I start reading horror stories in summertime (albeit maybe not that early) and watch horror related stuff. It helps me cope with the heat and the long days. Be that as it may, I'm glad I'm not the only one to be in a spooky mood already.

Pour un instant...

 Bon, c'est toujours la  la Saint-Jean, notre Fête nationale, alors je partage de la musique québécoise. Comme je suis toujours en deuil de Serge Fiori depuis l'an dernier, je repartage un grand classique d'Harmonium. Dans des temps plus difficiles, comme c'est le cas ces jours-ci, leur chanson la plus émouvante vaut la peine d'être écoutée. En espérant que ça vous donne un instant de joie, ou du moins de calme, pour votre 24.

A Poutine in London

It is Saint John the Baptist's Day, also known as the Nationale Day of Quebec. Even as an expat, I celebrate it every year. On the day itself and, since 2024, in London the Saturday before, at the the Garden Bar. As I mentioned last year, the DGLQ organises every year a special event there for all the Quebec expats living in the UK and their friends and families. It allows me to speak to my fellow Quebeckers (and in French), listen to Québec music and... eat poutine. Far from the best poutine I had, but a decent one, with real cheese curds. This year, they had nothing else on the menu, knowing nobody wanted anything but what we truly long for. By the way, one word about our most famous national dish: make no mistake, this is 100% a Québec invention. With its fairly new popularity, poutine has been often labeled a Canadian dish. Truth is, it has been snubbed by the rest of Canada for years until fairly recently. So I always get a bit miffed when someone claims it's a Canadian dish. Because it's truly Québécois, both in origins and spirit. It's simple, yet unapologetically excessive.

C'est notre tour...

C'est aujourd'hui la Fête nationale du Québec. L'an prochain, ça fera 20 ans que je la fête de l'Angleterre. J'essaie de transmettre à petit loup au moins un peu de québécitude. Petit à petit, année après année, ça fait son effet. Enfin bref, comme à chaque année sur ce blogue, je partage Gens du pays. C'est quand même un bel hymne national sans prétention.

Green Vehicles

 Wolfie and I have noticed it during the school run: there seems to be quite a lot of green cars rolling around these days. We saw a couple of jeeps and I guess green is a normal colour for a jeep, but also "ordinary" cars. And all sorts of green: Lincoln green, forest green, olive green, lime green. But mostly forest green, I think. My son and I love green, but my wife doesn't. Anyway, back in 2023, we had noticed a high number of orange vehicles, this year green seems to be in fashion, at least where we are.

Pendant ce temps, à Montréal...

 Nouvelle déprimante que je tenais à mentionner ici: il y a eu une fusillade à Côte-des-Neiges, faisant deux victimes, un civil et un agent du SPVM. Phoque. Je m'en suis rendu compte sur le tard hier, en allant sur les réseaux sociaux. Deux jours avant la St-Jean, en plus, ce qui fait encore plus mal. Je ne veux pas trop commenter sur le sujet, mais lisez la chronique de Patrick Lagacé, je pense pas mal dans ces eaux-là. J'ai mal à mon Montréal aujourd'hui.

Amber/Red Warning

We are going through a week in Hell: it is a heatwave. Not the first this summer, but by far the worst yet: the Met Office gave an amber warning of extreme heat from Monday until Tuesday, and a red warning from Wednesday until Thursday inclusively. It should go as high as 37 degrees. This is pure madness. I don't understand how people can be happy about this and thinking it's all just fine and they say it's lovely sunshine and so on. I think it's sheer masochism. So yeah, I keep hydrated, I stay in until evening comes, I just brace myself and cannot wait for summer to be over.

La veille de la St-Jean

 Demain c'est la Saint-Jean-Baptiste, la Fête nationale du Québec. Je vais essayer de la fêter du mieux possible, même si ce n'est pas un jour férié et que nous avons une canicule. Je me souviens de certaines veilles de la Saint-Jean où l'on célébrait autant sinon plus que le 24 juin. J'ai passé quelques Saint-Jean un peu lendemain de veille en tout cas. Mais bon, c'est demain le grand jour.