The Big One-O

As you know if you read yesterday's post, it was our son's birthday recently. I wanted to get back to it, as Wolfie has reached the age of ten this year, which is, well, a new decade. It means we have been parents for ten years, of course, it also means our son is growing way too fast for my taste. A decade is always an important benchmark, at any age, but for a child, ten years old is maybe the stepping stone, the one that officially makes you a big kid instead of a little one. That's what I got from Wolfie anyway. For a parent, it might be an even bigger step, because it makes you realise that your child will not be a child forever and that he will eventually become an adult. It made me miss for a moment the first few months of being a parent, when everything was so hard, yet so simple. It also makes me feel melancholic. In any case, Wolfie is now ten years old.

Mycologie (mot du jour)

 C'est pas parce que ma cousine Amy m'a envoyé des photos de champignons que je cherche un prétexte pour bloguer sur le sujet (et partager ses photos), même si c'est un peu le cas. Enfin bref, la mycologie est l'étude des champignons et notre mot du jour. C'est un terme que je connais depuis le primaire. À l'école, on nous donnait des cours à n'en plus finir sur les champignons et il y avait une randonnée par année, durant les mois d'automne, où l'on allait les cueillir. J'adorais. J'ai toujours été fasciné par les champignons, lisez ce billet de 2010 pour les détails. Les sorties en automne me faisaient toujours plaisir, en plus de stimuler mon imagination.

Three Layers Birthday Cake

So it was Wolfie's birthday recently and he had a very special request for me: a three layers cake. But that wa snot all: he asked for blueberry flavoured icing between layers and a chocolate ganache on top, covered with Smarties and Maltesers (milk and white chocolate). As I never back from a cake baking challenge and I never refuse my son's birthday cake requests, well, I did it. Thankfully, it wasn't too wobbly. Very rich, gigantic, indulgent, but presentable and it stood up. All the same, my wife was somewhat horrified. "A heart attack on a plate," she said about it. Which deserves to be a great unknown line. I shall blog more about my son's birthday soon, but I thought I would show you his birthday cake.

Salon du livre (passeport et dernière chance)

Photo prise sur la page Facebook du Salon du Livre du Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean. Vous l'avez vue pas mal souvent sur le blogue ces temps-ci, je sais. Tout ça pour vous dire qu'aujourd'hui est la dernière journée de la prévente pour vous acheter un passeport pour le Salon.

Autumnal Chronicle

I thought it was time for a new autumnal post, this time a generic post about how autumn is so far. Because yes, it is autumn, because yes, the season starts with September. So here are my observations about autumn here:

• So far, it's not ideal, as it is a tad too warm. Yet, after the ridiculous and never ending heatwaves of summertime, it's still enjoyable. (More on this below.)
• Morning and evenings tend to be cool, so I can wear a light jacket or coat. It's lovely.
• While it's not cold enough yet to wear thick jumpers, at least I have been able to wear long sleeve shirts for the first time in months.
•  Trees have started showing some colours. Not much, but still.
•  There is often a nice, cool breeze that makes even warmer days tolerable.
•  For some mysterious reason, we can often smell bonfire when we step outside.
• The sun goes down earlier. Yeah, I know, it's supposed to, but it's more noticeable and every time the dimming light is just lovely.

So that's my pre-equinox autumn so far, how is yours? I will write more in the upcoming days.

Truites sur barbecue

 Mes parents ont fait des truites il y a peu de temps, que mon père a fait cuire sur barbecue. Comme quoi on ne fait pas que des burgers et des hot dogs sur barbecue. Je suis très friand de truites, c'est l'un de mes poissons préférés. J'en ai déjà cuisiné moi même, de différentes façons, mais jamais sur barbecue. J'en mange encore parfois, quand je vais au restaurant, mais je n'en fais plus. Si seulement j'avais de quoi faire un barbecue...

Halloween and a September Memory

I found this meme online, at the beginning of the month. I wanted to share it today before it gets too deep in the month. My wife would agree that this is very me. It also reminded me of an anecdote from my childhood. My brother PJ's birthday is in October. Because of this, we prepared his birthday during the month of September. When we went to the shop to buy decorations and accessories for his birthday party, we often took the opportunity to check and buy Halloween decorations too, as they had starting getting on sales. One Saturday after lunch, around mid-September, before going to the shops, my brothers and I first stopped to talk to my best friend, who lived on the same street as me. I was all enthusiastic about the afternoon's plans, so I told him we were going to go Halloween shopping. My friend looked at me disdainfully and said: "It's way too early for Halloween!" His father had the same disdainful reaction, using the exact same words. I changed the topic, but the conversation felt awkward and my friend remained cold and aloof, borderline rude at times. After a few minutes, we excused ourselves and went shopping. Years later, we ended up growing apart. It's nothing dramatic, it happens to a lot of childhood friends, they rarely all survive teenage and adulthood. But I always suspected that it had started that day. My friend had no interest whatsoever towards my favourite holiday. Fair enough, but he didn't have to be so dismissive about it.

Tarte aux pommes (parce que septembre)

Mon frère PJ a cuisiné une tarte aux pommes il y a peu de temps, "parce que septembre" (je le cite). Je partage la photo ici. La pomme, c'est le fruit de l'automne, c'est le temps des récoltes de pommes, donc c'est le temps de la tarte aux pommes. Je vais faire un aveu: je n'ai jamais été fan. Pour PJ, c'est je crois sa tarte préférée. Moi pas. Oh, je peux en manger! Mais ce n'est pas mon premier choix de dessert. Je ne sais pas trop pourquoi. Cela dit, j'essaie autant comme autant d'apprécier la tarte aux pommes un peu plus.

25 Years of 9/11

In case you haven't noticed, today is the anniversary of 9/11.We tend to forget, what with what is happening in the US or because of the US at the moment, but there you are. Once upon a time, Islamofascism was the greatest threat Western civilisation seemed to have. Nowadays it is still a major threat, mind you, but Christian fundamentalism proved to be at least as dangerous. But I digress. For my memories and thoughts (rambling?) on the subject, read this post from 2008 and that post from 2009. This post from 2024 isn't too bad either. So yes, I commemorate it every year on Vraie Fiction.

Un champignon

Autre photo de champignon prise par ma cousine Amy l'artiste-photographe. Si ça ne vous met pas dans une ambiance automnale, je ne sais pas ce qui le fera. L'automne, c'est beau partout.

The Blue Flame

I have some good news for crime fiction aficionados like myself: The Blue Flame by George Pelecanos has finally been published. You may remember that I was impatient for its release. Pelecanos is now busy with scriptwriting for television, so we don't often see new books from him. It's as rare an occurence as it is welcomed. Now I will not read it yet, as I am in a spooky mind until November. However, the novel will be perfect to start #Noirvember. Otherwise, it features PI Derek Strange, a long-time regular of Pelecanos' universe, but who hadn't been seen in his most "recent" (who were no long recent) publications. It was about time.

Salon du livre (prévente et rappel)

Photo prise sur la page Facebook du Salon du Livre du Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean. Ce billet est un bref rappel: l'évènement aura lieu du 1er au 4 octobre et les passeports sont présentement en prévente, jusqu'au 14 septembre, alors vous avez encore quelques jours.

The Earl of Warwick's Revolver (Signature Weapon)

This post is part of my Signature Weapons series and is actually about a real signature weapon. So we went to Warwick Castle during our last holiday. And I saw the Earl of Warwick's revolver. Revolvers belong to westerns, most of the time, it's a rather old-fashioned firearm. We don't see them often in crime or spy fiction anymore. They mostly belong to vintage stories, old adventure novels, these sort of things. But hey, the Earl of Warwick once had a personal revolver. It's worth nothing and it's worth a blog post.

Un loup blanc

Photo prise par ma cousine Amy l'artiste-photographe lors de sa visite avec sa petite famille au Zoo de Falardeau. J'adore les loups et celui-ci est vraiment superbe.

Farewell to the local gift shop

There's some sad news I have been wanting to share: one of our local gift shops, an independent shop, has closed down recently. At first, I thought it was temporary, but no. It's completely shut down. I seldom went there, but I always enjoyed my time there and it was one of my go-to local shops when I wanted to buy birthday presents, especially for my wife, sometimes also for Wolfie. So this is really not good news. Especially since both their birthdays are fairly soon. Tragically, the gift shop it had been here for at least twenty years. It was open when we first move to this town. So yes, this one hits hard.

Un paon au château

 J'ai pris cette photo au Warwick Castle. Il y a des paons sur le terrain. Enfin, il y avait celui-ci. Pour une raison quelconque, dans ce pays et ailleurs, on y trouve des paons dans bien des châteaux et des résidences luxueuses. Je ne m'y fais pas: ce sont des oiseaux à l'apparence tellement exotique pour moi, avec un plumage coloré et élégant. J'imagine que c'est la raison pour laquelle on aime les faire résider dans les jardins des châteaux.

First Sign of Halloween

Last Sunday, we went to town. As we were walking on the high street, we saw the window of the local Cancer Research UK shop. And it made me very happy. See for yourself. It's full of pumpkins, leaves, it has a few small Jack O'Lanterns and, well, it's just a great display. The first proper sign of Halloween to come since the beginning of September. I love the attitude: whatever some people may say about autumn starting only with the equinox, the season truly starts with the month of September. And now is not too early for Halloween.

Un champignon dans les bois

Ma cousine Amy, l'artiste photographe, a pris des photos il y a quelques jours dans les bois. Elle m'a donné la permission de les partager. Je partage cette photo-ci, parce que c'est vraiment une photo parfaite et parfaitement automnale d'un champignon. Je le dis souvent, mais c'est parce que c'est vrai: les champignons sont un signe de l'automne. Alors j'aime en voir dans la nature, ça indique que ma saison préférée est en chemin, ou est arrivée. Bien entendu, je ne capture pas les champignons en images comme ma cousine le fait, raison de plus pour partager cette photo.

Sachertorte

 I took this picture somewhere in Salzburg last year, I can't remember where. It is the classic Sachertorte, a chocolate sponge cake with apricot jam in the middle, If I have this right. We ate all sorts of indulgent desserts during our holidays in Austria,and of course we had to try the Sachertorte. I think I never ate desserts as delicious as in Austria, even in the most ordinary places. Classic ones of course, but also plenty of new inventions and variations on classics. The Sachertorte wasn't even my favourite, but it was still up there among the best.

Les mardis aux Catacombes

Je blogue encore une fois sur les "Catacombes" du Cégep de Chicoutimi.QUi sont aussi celles du Centre socio-culturel, où se trouvait (et se trouve encore) l'École de musique. Enfant, j'avais des cours à l'école de musique le mardi soir, parfois aussi le jeudi. Alors je passais souvent le temps entre deux cours dans le restaurant des Catacombes, ou alors je marchais dans le corridors et je laissais aller mon imagination. J'ai souvent blogué sur l'endroit, je l'ai revu plus souvent une fois au cégep, mais dans tous les cas, ça m'est revenu en tête aujourd'hui, que je passais beaucoup de mes mardis soirs là.