Just went for a little field trip in the -5 (which feels like minus 9) arctic outflow warning and it wasn’t too bad.

But I was wearing ski-ing clothes in anticipation of the arctic encounter and my mind was full of warm thoughts about penguins and their supreme intellect.

There’s a bit of a wind out there alright.

This is a major cold weather event for us. Even tho’ by Edmonton standards it’s tropical.

Sweet baby Jesus….

“It was always women who were publishing Joyce…” Sylvia Beach (Self Portrait)

(“My bewk will never come out” Joyce to Sylvia)

486

486 people committed suicide in Ireland in 2010 and 2011. (possibly higher than this number)

RTE Frontline have sensibly done a programme/discussion to address what Ireland can do to tackle mental health problems.

Phyllis MacNamara so brave and articulate to tell her husband’s story. Very poignant her insights, especially on anxiety. I hope they listen to her. (“Nobody knew what to do, there isn’t any place in the system…”)

I had a beautiful walk last night and learnt that even those who wear snow boots take a tumble. A new addition to my tradition of falling over! Tho’ this tumble had the dignity to relate to a weather event. I was exiting the petrol station with my packet of chocolate buttons in hand ($5, they’re imported from Birmingham), it was snowing and all was peaceful and delightful til Whamble! down on my arse, the buttons took flight in an incredible arc into the air and flew two petrol pumps over.

Weirdly no one remotely noticed, so I was able to scramble up and over to them sans molto embarrassment. They were retrieved and with a bit of a batter to the kidney I took my snowboots onward.

I have to say the walk before the tumble was so beautiful and quiet it was worth falling over. I was stunned at how redundant cars are once everyone is asleep and had the whole road to myself, the snow was coming down, turning or rolling nearly in the light of the lamp posts and floating down to me. Perfection.  I had to keep stopping to admire it. You can see the photo of one such stoppage below.

On trying to find La Nuit

The companion volume, La nuit (Buchet-Chastel, 1961), is long out of print and has not been reissued or translated.

mainly I walk

“No,” Gilles said, “I walk, mainly I walk.”

All The King’s Horses par Michèle Bernstein

Traduction par John Kelsey. (Semiotext(e))

It sounds like snow.

There’s a sound with snow even before it begins.

Muffled.

*

Probably our most significant weather event of the season has passed me by unnoticed because I have been so consumed with my book and work. A sorry forecaster indeed.

The other day a woman gave me impending news of the weather and the cold drop. Unheard of! I am always ahead on the weather. Except I’m not. Now I am officially behind.

But I have managed to triumph in the area of cooking omelettes.  Thanks to Jamie Oliver’s how to cook an omelette section and amid a chorus of cynicism from the small male, who has finally, 3 successful omelettes later, conceded it’s a triumph.

Alas he’s requesting I cook omelettes at completely unGodly hours.

*

Distinguishing features: gloves

In this extract from Fruit Ranching in British Columbia  (1909) by J T Bealby in Chapter XVI entitled Canadian Life and Manners: gloves play a starring role in cultural differences. (There is hope for the cardigan and hoover yet)

“In the matter of dress there is not much difference observable between England and Canada. Many of the working men in Canada habitually wear gloves, in summer and winter alike. In winter gloves are necessary because of the cold, and in summer they are almost indispensable for certain kinds of work, because of the parching quality of the atmosphere, which soon causes the skin to crack. Overalls, covering a man from the chin to the toes, are generally worn, not only by working men, but also by all sorts and conditions of men, even by a merchant in his store or warehouse.”

A few paragraphs on the following weathery (1) fashion tips:

Protection for the ears is indispensable in sharp frost, especially if the wind is keen. It is good to wear very coarse, thick woollen stockings, known as German stockings, outside the trousers, and over them coarse rubber shoes, loosely laced, or else high boots, into which the bottoms of the trousers are tucked. School children wear knitted toques, which in shape are something like the old-fashioned night-cap of our grandfathers, only they are more pointed and more ornamental. In sharp weather these can be pulled down over the ears. It is good to see a party of young Canadians with their bob-sleighs, flexible fliers, and what not, gliding down a steep incline with the speed of the wind, filling the frosty air with their crisp shoutings and their merry laughter. Their happiness is irresistible; it sweetens the heart, it beautifies life.

Before we return to the hot topic of gloves:

“Now, the wearing of gloves must not for one moment be taken as a sign of effeminacy. Whatever faults may be alleged against the Canadian character, effeminacy is the very last that anybody who has had experience of it would dream of imputing to it.”

 Then things deteriorate into even more foreboding tones (2) that I’ll save you from.

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1. at mrsokana we take all things weather related very seriously. We do not mess about with the weather. You get noticed if you pay attention to the weather. You are respected for it. We are weather vain.

2. Mr B is pretty down on the telephone.