Annie Carruthers

A late lunch at the River Café in London. When people talk about how “British food isn’t as bad as it used to be and in fact it is actually quite good” they talk about the River Café, which opened in 1987. I had charred calamari with diced chilis and the best pasta vongole of my life. Sublime!

We got the pods and we are not being mature about it.

Algonquin conceptual artist Nadia Myre at the NGC. Works explore identity, memory, history, and nationhood, through the lenses of traditional handicraft, industrial design, moulded clay, and interestingly, wallpaper and shorthand. Her remarkable beaded Indian Act is on display. A must see!

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Listen to the World, Volute 2 at the NGC. Made of cast aluminum and suspended by cables, the sculpture physically represents the puff of air released by a human voice when uttering the sentence “Listen to the World”. A beautiful weightless mysterious thing.

My dad loved spring blossoms and sunny days. ❤️

Dating back to the 1880s, the Macoun Ornamental Garden is an 8-acre collection of flowers. Minutes from downtown Ottawa, the gardens include one of the most important peony collections in the world, comprising over 500 varieties. It is in bloom right now, and the fragrance in the air is exquisite.

Last night: Le Poisson Bleu. Sea bream for two on spatzle and a pretty little rhubarb tart. Washed down with fizzy wine. Can you tell we liked it? A nice little neighborhood spot on Somerset.

When the Rubber Meets the Road. This poignant sculpture of a dead crow by Gerald Beaulieu, made of old tires, invites the viewer to consider the collision between human and natural worlds. We are only interlopers here. Think about the beautiful creatures with whom we share this space.

My mother’s peony bloomed today. When I moved into my house in 1997, my mother dug up this peony from her garden in Quebec City, packed it in a shopping bag, and carried it to me on the Voyageur bus. It blooms every year and it is the most beautiful thing in the world.

Allium. Onion’s beautiful sister.

Big Bird.

Resolution read #20. This was ok. A slow slow-moving fairytale-ish literary whodunnit. Set in a remote wind-whipped Polish village. Crazy-lady narrator. Suspected perps are deer and foxes that seem to be exacting their revenge upon local hunters.

Shout out to Luba, my psychic 2-woman book club.

2025 Curb Couch Calendar. Miss June is a pretty purple princess, drifting in on a lilac-scented breeze. Thanks to @toby_rosenbloom who stopped the car to capture this summer beauty!

Little elbows-up lunch. Asparagus and new potatoes from Ontario, olive oil and tuna from Italy, lemon from Mexico, and tarragon from my garden.

Working my way through the Rancho Gordo Bean Book. This is a delicious tomato-based fish stew with haddock, shrimp, and cannellini beans.

B for Bessie Bertram (my paternal great-grandmother) on the spoon!

Back home with Toot and Sweet.

A show at the MAC that looks at late modernist architecture and social engineering in Montreal in the 60s and 70s. Some great contextual pieces documenting the Place Ville Marie project. And the spooky Lynne Cohen photos of Place Bonaventure alone are worth the $10 entry fee.

Lunch in the Henry Birks Building with my sweetheart.

Sculptural beadwork by Anishinaabe artist Nico Williams at Fondation PHI in Old Montreal.

These photos show just a few of the works on display - a group of bingo cards rendered in tiny glass beads. They are copies of real newsprint sheets that were played in bingo halls on First Nation reserves.

Clowning For Almonds starring Lil Peppy Nut Nut. Back for a FOURTH season!!!

Resolution read #19. A couple’s possessions, each imprinted with memory and sentiment, are laid out and labeled, as though lots in an auction, telling of their relationship’s 4-year trajectory and ultimate end.

As person fascinated by the stories our things tell, I found this to be pure genius.

First great blue heron sighting. 💙

So the vet asked for Biwi’s phone number and I laughed but Biwi was like “what’s so funny?”

Smells good.

Specimen: Lucky four-leaf clover found by my mother, Eleanor Carruthers, in 1973.

My mother had a meter-square patch of grass on her front lawn that produced an abundance of four, five, and even six-leaf clovers. She kept up the harvest, and protected the patch faithfully until her death in 2012.

2025 Curb Couch Calendar. Miss May is a Russell, Ontario beauty. “Satin and lace and brown velvet and the faint odor of violets. That was all which was left to him of his love” (William Maxwell)

I nearly missed the tulips this year. Due to a knee injury I haven’t been getting out on my bike. I finally made it out today though, and am I ever glad!

Resolution read #18. Coming of age in the swinging London of the 1970s. This was pure joy. Sweet, funny, irreverent. Smart. Sentimental. Sexy. Perfect sparkling prose. ❤️❤️❤️

❤️❤️❤️

You can never hold back spring!

These beautiful double tulips are from Heart City Farm. At the Landsdowne Farmers Market every Sunday.