Someone recommended this novel (The Time In Between by María Dueñas) for me to read while I was in Spain, and I thought it wouldn’t be my thing but I’m really enjoying it! I got it from the library as an ebook on the Libby app, really putting my household’s 15 year old Kobo to work.

This week in Art I Am Obsessed With: this self-portrait by Suzanne Valadon. It looks so incredibly contemporary (I would literally wear that exact outfit on hot summer day) but it’s from 1923. Anyway, love a queen with flowy pants and a dangling cigarette!

And if that sounds cool, but you happen to live far away, and *somehow* haven't listened to the "And Also Some Women" podcast yet, well, I've got a link for you: broadview.org/podcasts/mar...

I’m speaking at this really fun, feminist event about the Virgin Mary on November 25th. If you’re in Toronto and this seems like it would be up your alley, I’d love to see you there! Kadie is an amazing and dynamic woman and I love her vision of revisiting biblical women through a modern lens.

Had an appointment for a covid vaccine at Loblaws yesterday, only to show up and be told that they’d run out. I said, “but I booked online, they texted to confirm, couldn’t they text to cancel?” The woman said she’d tried to call everyone, did I want to rebook? They’d have more supply in a few days.

So! What’s everyone doing tomorrow to observe the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald?

Hanging out with this cuddly 15 lb menace. His father is a large neighbourhood stray named Dirk Moosehead. His mother is a delicate sweetheart who’s named Sabine after one of the dolls in Eloise. Together they’ve created one of the most terrible cats of all time.

I’ve been trying to figure out if there’s a way to spin my trip into an article (or a series of articles). Not sure if there’s an angle that makes it all interesting beyond “North American lady goes to EUROPE”. The only thing I can think of is offering travel tips for parents with teens.

I think I’m a good traveller because when I’m on the road I (generally) have a low threshold for being delighted by novelty while at the same time having a high capacity for turning lemons into lemonade. If you need someone to tell you why a holiday disappointment is good, actually, I’m your man.

Will delete this in a hot second, but something I totally forgot about until this week is that when I did a 23 & Me test many years ago (before I realized that the whole enterprise was problematic - I didn’t properly think it through), I learned that I was allegedly part Spanish

The North American urge to marvel over the comfort, efficiency, and punctuality of European trains

A fun fact about the current King of Spain is that he attended an elite boarding school just outside of Peterborough, ON. Extra fun fact: Prince Andrew also went there.

A friend and I have a running joke that images of St Sebastian are always the gayest, sluttiest works in Catholic art history. Anyway, this 16th c. painting by Luis de Vargas isn’t beating the allegations. Love Sebastian’s crop top paired with the extreme low-rise skirt, plus the gladiator sandals.

Belated, because it would have given away our exact location at the time: the view from the deck of our accommodation in Seville. Sunrise and sunset, with the iconic Setas (mushroom-like wooden structure that you can climb) lit up in bright purple. Loved, loved, loved that city.

Today in emails from my grandmother: I told her that 14yo got a kick out of her swearing and jokingly flicking an elastic at him (while he defended himself with a Coke bottle), and this was her response (14yo was impressed that his 90yo great-grandmother knew how to use LOL appropriately)

14yo plans on dressing up for trick or treating but is eschewing wearing a costume to school. My baby, etc.

Happy Halloween from the Archdiocese of Toronto, who would like to remind you to pray to St. Michael the Archangel before going trick or treating

Uh not to brag but it’s not even 4:30 am and I’ve already achieved Queen Bee

A week ago I was enjoying 30 degree (Celsius) temps in Córdoba, and the day before we left it was 25 degrees in Málaga. Sunny every day. Today in Kingston it’s going to be a high of 8 degrees and raining. I suspect the real adjustment won’t be the time difference but the temperature.

Got home at 6 pm after an eight hour flight and three hour drive. In bed by 7 pm (midnight, Spain time). Had the best sleep of my life and woke up at 4 am (9 am Spain time) READY TO RUMBLE. I hate jet lag going east, but I love it coming back west.

Last day in Spain. Again, I didn’t do a great job of taking pictures. We went to the Alcazaba and the Castillo Gibralfaro in the morning. Then we had tapas and 14yo sang the “fine ham abounds” song from Kids in the Hall. Then to the Picasso museum, where I felt very seen by this painting.

Second-to-last day in Spain: 14yo admiring the view at breakfast in Nerja, and various scenes from the video game museum in Málaga (including a VR slide). Can’t believe tomorrow is our last day here (and the last day of my extended patio season)

Three more nights in Spain, and I’m getting excited to see my cats and sleep in my own bed. We’ve had such an amazing time and have done so much that, when we were talking about our favourite parts over dinner, we forgot a bunch of stuff. My God, the Mediterranean is beautiful.

Nothing exciting to report today from Spain. We took the train from Córdoba to Málaga, and then the bus from Málaga to Nerja. I’m drinking wine on a patio. 14yo had a really good croissant with Nutella for breakfast.

Córdoba day 2: the archeological museum of Córdoba (free, fascinating, and built on the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre), Casa de Sefarad (pictured: 14yo with a statue of Maimonides, who was born here), and a pair of linked museums about alchemy and medieval Islamic life in the city. I’m beat.

I didn’t do a very good job of taking pictures today, but here’s 14yo with a statue of Athena at the Casa de Pilatos in Seville, the interior of the Mosque-Cathedral in Córdoba, 14yo pulling a face at dinner, and my current view while I read before bed

Seville day 3 part 1: the museum of navigation, where we got to climb this many-storeyed viewing tower and I learned that Magellan’s expedition departed from here, Virgin of the Good Books Street, and this excellent tree I saw

Do your parents walk too slowly through palaces, monuments, and other places frequented by tourists? Do they stop to read every plaque while you’re trying to hustle them into the next room so you can see some cool stuff? You may be entitled to compensation.

Seville day two, morning: the place where we ate breakfast churros dipped in warm chocolate, and a few scenes from the gardens of the Real Alcázar (which bills itself as the oldest still-inhabited palace in Europe)

Saw a really good Spanish cat at the Real Alcázar today!

Seville has great vibes and I am in love with the fact that it’s 8:30 pm in late October and still 23 degrees outside.

Tomorrow we go to Seville, and then Córdoba on Thursday, though I’m not sure I can love anywhere as I’ve loved Granada. Staying in the Albaicín has been perfection (even if I do feel like I’ve walked up and down the same steep hill one thousand times over the past two days).

Went to the Inquisition museum and really enjoyed that the English caption for the iron maiden they had on display began by saying “This fabulous torture device”. (Am assuming it’s a transliteration/translation issue and should have called it fabled, but I liked their enthusiasm)

Sunrise view from my window in Granada (sound on if you want to hear the birds)

Spain seems to have a lot of aparthotels, and the one we’re staying at in Granada is great. I wish we had more of these in North America (even if my grandmother does think no one in their right mind would want a hotel room where they have to do their own dishes and forego room service)

How apropos: the courtyard of our accommodation in Granada has a pomegranate tree

Just went to check if 14yo’s phone was done charging and saw a text from me under the name Giver of Life. Apparently my mother is in his phone as Giver of Life to the Giver of Life.

Spain, day two: we all woke up late and took it easy today. My aunt and uncle took us out for drinks and tapas in the evening. They’re very funny people and (naturally) were a big hit with 14yo. My favourite tapas was patatas a lo pobre (poor man’s potatoes). The weather is heavenly. I love Spain.

I crashed at 8 pm last night, and it’s 3 am now. I’m having a belated nightcap. The semi-feral cat, Peanut, that hangs out on the terrace is keeping me company. I’m having a belated nightcap. We had the most wonderful day. 14yo says his great-grandmother is very funny and doesn’t look a day over 75

Sorry, i’m going to be insufferable for the next two weeks. Anyway, can’t believe how beautiful it is here, how we’ve basically stepped back into summertime, how good the food is, etc. We’re going to be talking about this trip for years and years.

Have discovered that in Spain, sometimes your conversational partner doesn’t speak English, and you don’t speak Spanish, but it’s possible you both speak a secret third thing (French) (Have also discovered that I can understand quite a lot in Spanish, even if I can’t say much in it)

The French Canadian experience of singing “Le clown Samuel” to your cat Sam at 2:30 am on a Friday. Il faisait toujours comme ça - miaou, miaou, miaou, miaou (Cauchemar!!)

14yo: [explaining why, if we lived in 13th c. Europe, I should let him go on the children’s crusade] Me: I think you would have to be, like, a practicing Catholic who goes to confession and stuff 14yo: no! I wouldn’t have to go to confession! The point of a crusade is that my sins would be forgiven!

This empty fruit box that I got from the soup kitchen where I volunteer has been a BIG hit around our house

Wasn’t expecting to cry while reading Patricia Routledge’s obituary but here we are. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/o...

On a totally unrelated note, here’s an Accidental Renaissance Painting of 14yo and our enormous cat Benedict

Did you see this article about Emma Hamilton last week? They think they’ve found her body www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Waiting for a musical about the other, OTHER Hamilton: Lady Emma, a savvy/slutty 18th century actress who married into nobility (she was 26, he was 60), then became thee Lord Nelson’s mistress. She came to a somewhat sticky end (poverty, laudanum, etc). A fascinating woman who deserved better.