Canada Waits For Christmas – December 2nd

This is Day 2 of my Advent calendar celebrating Canadian art and culture. Canadian or not, thanks for dropping by! – Lori

This morning, the lower left corner of my PC’s monitor says -28 degrees Celsius and, again today, the school buses aren’t running. I was going to go volunteer to read with the younger kids today, but I think the weather has made me chicken out… There are students at the school even though the buses aren’t operating. Parents drive their children to school on these frigid days.

Here’s a melancholy song from the Ontario-based band Blue Rodeo — one of my favourites. Blue Rodeo’s music is quintessentially Canadian and this video captures the comforting drear of a winter’s evening.

“I stand transfixed before this streetlight
Watching the snow fall on this cold December night”

This is a comfortingly dreary photo that I took last winter while out walking north of the village. I love this filter that makes the picture look a bit like a sketch or painting. Winter walking is great but to enjoy it, you have to dress for it!

A winter village scene, oil on panel, called Hiver, Baie St-Paul by Marc-Aurèle Fortin (1888-1970). By the time he died at the age of 82, Fortin produced an estimated 8000 to 10 000 works. Many of these were lost over the years to fire or crooked dealers.

A Canadian is somebody who knows how to make love in a canoe.

pierre berton