The cover of Rosemary's Baby

 I am already reading horror stories, because yes, although it's early, I am thinking about the countdown to Halloween and I am getting myself already slowly in the spirit of the season. Besides, there are some horror novels that fit summertime. Such is the case of Rosemary's Baby, which I finished reading two days ago. I watched the film before, numerous times, and I wanted to see the original work. It was a great read, but I digress. The cover caught Wolfie's attention. He asked me a few questions about it and was perceptive enough to guess it was "a Halloween book". I triedto give him a vague idea of what the plot was about, but really could not, so he gave me his own plot synopsis: "It's about a baby monster, and he's very naughty so he is kept in his pram and can't get out, because monsters are often naughty." Not that far from the truth, come to think of it. And that is our next Wolfism.

La récolte des tomates

 Ma belle-mère nous a donné des plantes en cadeau, de quoi faire un modeste potager. Un potager à la mesure de mes talents de jardinier. Parmi celles-ci, les tomates ont commencé à mûrir, assez pour qu'on en fasse la cueillette. Petit loup a insisté pour qu'on le fasse en famille et j'ai étéheureux de voir son enthousiasme à prendre soin du potager familial et de vouloir en récolter les fruits (ou les légumes, mais dans le cas des tomates ce sont bien entendu des fruits). Il reste encore des tomates vertes, alors on en aura pour quelques jours. Je compte aussi mettre les plants dans de plus gros pots, afin qu'ils puissent pousser. Et je vous tiendrai au courant des prochaines cueillettes dans une prochaine chronique potagère.

The milk option

We are preparing Wolfie's first year at school these days. Yes, time goes way too quickly and yes, I freak out when I think about it. But anyway, I learned recently that for lunch and snack, the school he will going to provides an optional glass of milk, for a small extra fee. Wolfie coul either drink milk or water. We are not certain what to decide. While I think milk is an abomination in tea, I love it by itself and I grew up on milk, both at home and at school. I know humans should not drink as much milk as we do, but I nevertheless associate it with a good source of calcium and proteins. Sure, milk is in essence barbaric, but isn't childhood a barbaric age and a time for wild  anarchy? Now Wolfie has never been a big milk drinker at home, generally he just have sips of mine, as a special moment he shares with daddy, but he seems quite keen to have a glass of milk at school, for some reason, to his parents' surprise. Maybe I am old-fashioned and traditionalist, but I am tempted to pay for the milk option.

Le drôle d'été

 Je relisais un billet de l'année dernière, en juillet 2020, où je mentionnais notamment que le mois de juillet était frais et que c'était un juillet atypique. Je ne sais pas si c'est une torpeur qui a pris le dessus depuis le début de la pandémie, mais nous avons encore une fois un juillet frais, où il fait rarement soleil longtemps et où je porte souvent un petit gilet pour demeurer comfortable. En fait, c'est tout l'été qui est atypique cette année. Je ne m'en plaindrai pas: je n'aime pas les étés trop chauds. Alors comme l'année dernière,je m'accomode assez bien de ce drôle d'été.

Accursed leaf blowers!

 Yesterday, 6:30AM or thereabout, my wife and got woken up by a darn leaf blower! It was not the first time. Some guy in the parking of the office behind our home does it every Tuesday or so. I wonder why: the offices have been mostly empty for the last year and a half, and so was the parking, and we in the middle of summer! I already hated them in autumn, when at least you could make a rationale for using them. Even though let's face it, why can't they use a good old rake? Leaf blowers must be the most useless thing ever invented by man: it's noisy, it's polluting, it's clunky and probably as heavy as it looks and you just move leaves from one spot to the next. Like I said, use a rake, or let the wind blow them, if you really must get ri of the leaves. It's just properly ridiculous. And I, for one, love leaves on the ground. It looks pretty and it's a natural fertiliser. Anyway, my wife emailed the town council and apparently the guy who did the job (at 6:30 in the morning!) was very nice and promised the councillor that he would be more considerate next time. If he was truly considerate, he'd switch career.

Bientôt la deuxième dose

Hier, j'ai réussi à fare devancer de quelques jours ma deuxième dose de vaccin. Tant mieux: je me sentirai plus en sécurité lorsque ça arrivera. Ce sera sans doute encore une fois AstraZeneca, mais ça ne me dérange pas du tout. La première fois, c'était passé comme du beurre dans la poêle et je n'avais eu qu'un petit frisson en fin d'après-midi et un léger engourdissement du bras, alors je crois que je serai encore fonctionnel à l'ouvrage, mais sinon j'irai mollo. L'avantage de travailler de la maison et d'avoir le centre de vaccination à quelques minutes de marche seulement.

The Big Ugly Casting

A month ago exactly, I blogged about The Big Ugly. A crime movie that was neither great nor inventive, but that I enjoyed a lot. One of the reasons why is that Malcolm McDowell and Ron Perlman play in it, and this casting was a stroke of genius. I also thought that it was quite interesting, as both have played in films that were direct or indirect works of Anthony Burgess. McDowell of course for A Clockwork Orange and Ron Perlman for Quest for Fire, which language was created by Burgess. So they in a way Burgessian actors. I think The Big Ugly is the only film they played opposite each other, in which case it's another reason to cherish it. In any case, whoever did the casting for this movie sure did his job well.

L'équipement de barbier

Comme vous le savez sans doute, depuis le début de la pandémie, je suis devenu le coiffeur officiel de la famille. J'ai d'abord été mon propre cobaye, en utilisant un clipper cheapo acheté sur Amazon, puis j'ai utiliséles ciseaux et coupé les cheveux de ma femme et de mon fils. Pour un amateur, ce n'est pas mal. Comme j'ai brisé leclipper le mois passéen l'échappant, j'ai racheté récemment un équipement complet un peu moins cheapo: ciseaux, clipper avec différents réglages (y compris un pour le rasage de la barbe), peigne et ciseaux, puis d'autres trucs. Des fois je me demande si j'ai raté ma vocation. En tout cas, je crois que j'ai dépensé des fortunes dans les salons de coiffure.

Overlook Hotel, July 4th Ball, 1921

Well, I forgot to celebrate a very important anniversary yesterday: as it was July the 4th (as the Americans say), it was... the 100th anniversary of the July 4th Ball 1921 of the Overlook Hotel. Thankfully this meme reminded me. I don't know what happened then, but we can agree that it must have been a very special ball. And I hope that yesterday all my American friends partied like it was 1921. On a side note, Halloween is only 118 days away, so I have started reading horror stories.

L'anxiété en deux diagrammes

Une amie de longue date a partagé ce dessin sur sa page Facebook et j'ai pensé la partager ici. Mon amie comme vous pouvez le deviner souffre souvent d'anxiété, ce qui m'attriste beaucoup et m'inquiète toujours un peu. Je ne suis pas cliniquement anxieux, mais il m'arrive parfois d'angoisser (moins depuis que j'ai changé de job il ya un an) et je me reconnais au moins un peu dans ce graphique (surtout en ce qui concerne l'insomnie). Comme ces deux dernières années ont été un terrain plutôt fertile à l'anxiété, je partage ici.

A red kite at sundown

Two days ago, the evening was falling and I heard the distinct cry of a red kite. There are many of them around here, they are our most famous avian neighbours in this part of England. I often see them flying but they are quite difficult to . Then I heard the distinct cry again and saw where it was coling from: the top of a nearby tree, where a red kite was perched. I am not good at taking pictures, but I took a few snapshots and I think they look quite nice and very atmospheric. There is just something about the shadow of a bird of prey at sundown. So I decided to share it today.

Spaghetti tunisien

En fin de semaine dernière, j'ai fait un spaghetti tunisien pour la famille. La première fois cette année. Je l'ai fait sans sauce harissa, ce qui m'a paru une hérésie, mais ma femme n'aime pas ça trop piquant et petit loup non plus. J'ai rajouté la sauce dans mon assiette, ça fait quasiment aussi bien. Le seul vrai ennui, c'est que je n'avais pas d'échalottes, mais on a fait sans et ce fut quand même assez bien. Et j'ai des réserves pour le dîner d'aujourd'hui.

The BBC is talking about the Habs

I seldom blog about sports, but those who also read my blog in French know that I have been blogging about hockey recently, more than ever blog about it before and that I ever blogged about other sports, all put together. So anyway, although they are now struggling and it looks that they will not win the Stanley Cup this year, the Montreal Canadiens have done very well this year, enough to get into the finals for the first time in 28 years. I have always been a Habs fan, although I havefor long stopped following hockey, so I am very happy about this (or rather I was until they ran short of whatever had made them successful this year). Their status as the NHL's new Cinderella team got some attention this side of the pond, where I saw yesterday a BBC article about them. I am always happy when things like that happen. Sadly, I think it won't be this year, but all the same, just in case, from this Montreal expat: Go Habs Go!

Le temps de relire Mafalda?

Photo prise par mon frère PJ, qui a acheté l'intégrale de Mafalda . je pose la question de façon réthorique, car je n'ai pas d'album ici et je crois qu'ils sont difficiles à trouver en Angleterre. Mais toujours est-il que je me sens d'humeur à lire du Mafalda. J'ai souvent blogué sur Mafalda et sur l'effet qu'elle a pour me calmer de ma mélancolie. J'imagine que je me sens d'humeur mélancolique ces jours-ci.

Our neighbours de hedgehogs

Two days ago, as night was falling and I was looking for Domino outside, I heard a sort of gnawingor snarling sound coming from a nearby piece of shrubbery. I walked where the sound was coming from and as I expected I saw hedgehogs. Now I can recognise them from the noise they make, I am that familiar with them. I took this picture. I wonder if they were the same visitors we had in our front garden back in May. I found these two pretty far away from our home, but I have no idea of large the area covered by hedgehogs can be. If theyare the same and if I see them again, I must start thinking about giving them names.

Les orchidées en fleur

J'ai blogué il y a une dizaine de jours sur des orchidées sauvages que mon père, son frère et ma cousine Amy la photogaphe ont vues quand ils ont marché sur le lot de mes oncles. Comme quoi il y a des orchidées sauvages dans les forêt du Québec. Amy avait pris des photos, même si les orchidées n'étaient pas en fleur. Elles ont fleuri depuis et ma cousine a été assez gentille pour prendre de nouvelles photos des orchidées rien que pour ce blogue. J'en partage donc une aujourd'hui. Ah oui, et petite note linguistique: en fleurest au singulier, parce qu'il s'agit de plusieurs fleurs de la même espèce.

Coffee and me

 As my readers know, I am not a coffee drinker. Not anymore anyway, or at least not outside extremely rare circumstances. I think the last time was back in 2009. I think it tastes vile and looks even worse. It has not always been the case, I used to drink it fairly regularly before or between classes, when I was at college and uni, then back in 2007, I went to an induction at my then job and one of the seniors there mentioned that he always hated coffee. I had a sip of mine at the break and just thought: "Wait a minute, I'm not enjoying this." I noticed the taste, the smell, in fact I could almost perceive the bad breath I would get afterwards. It was a sort of epiphany. So that was the end of it.

Question existentielle (371)

Nouvelle question existentielle. C'est un été assez frais jusqu'ici et donc endurable, mais j'ai toujours peur que la température augmente, ce qui m'a inspiré cette question existentielle:

-Qu'est-ce qui est pire, chaud et sec, ou chaud et humide?

Railway Watch

As I mentioned in this post, I often think about the National Railway Museum of York. Also spend a fair deal of time browsing through its online shop. And I saw this limited edition NRM Flying Scotsman Silver Plated Pocket Watch. Also available in gold. Both are at £145.00, both are amazingly low in stock. I willnot buy it, but I'd love, love, love to have one. Funnily enough, my brother Andrew received from my parents an old pocket watch like these when he was a child, although I hope my parents didn't buy anything that expensive. It was a silvery one, with the image of a steamed locomotive on it. We were very spoiled as children I guess. My bro even had his intial on his watch. Even though it was not meant to be a toy, we sort of used it as one, albeit a precious one to be treated with great care (wewere spoiled, but sometimes knew the value of things). The watch was a prop in our make believe, sometimes even a MacGuffin. It was then part of a treasure, or had a secret microfilm in it, or something of the sort. Be that as it may, I'd love to have a watch like this one.

Cinq ans de crémaillère

C'est aujourd'hui un jour très spécial: nous sommes le... Jour du Déménagement. Je n'ai jamais déménagé un 1er juillet au Québec, pas dans ma vie consciente en tout cas. Mais ironiquement, nous sommes devenus propriétaires de notre maison il y a cinq ans aujourd'hui. Alors j'ai vécu une fois dans ma vie un Jour du Déménagement, mais dans mon pays d'adoption. Je dis ça et nous avons vraiment emménagé le 2 juillet, mais bon. On n'avait pas vraiment fêté pour pendre la crémaillère alors, puisque petit loup s'en venait. Il y avait tellement de choses à régler. Nous n'avons pas vraiment célébré d'anniversaire de déménagement par la suite, contrairement à ce que l'on faisait dans notre ancien appart. Faudrait pourtant bien qu'on le fasse un peu, devenir propriétaire est quand même une étape importante dans la vie.