"Widowland" by C.J. Carey (re-read)

North American cover 

Our upcoming book for May for the Nomo Book Club within the Childless Collective private online community will be "Queen High" by C.J. Carey (which goes by the title "Queen Wallis" in North America).  I've already read that book in October 2022 (reviewed here), but I knew I'd want to re-read it to refresh my memory before our discussion began -- particularly since I'll be the one leading it! (lol) 

But I also realized I wanted to try to squeeze in a re-read of her earlier book, "Widowland" (which we read together in November 2021 -- past review here). (Side note:  Our Zoom discussion of "Widowland" was held at the ungodly hour of 5 a.m. here in North America!  As much as I loved the book & was dying to discuss it with someone, I did NOT set my alarm!  lol I eventually talked up both books so much to dh that he wound up reading them both too -- and enjoying them!)   

I wasn't sure I would have time to re-read both -- but "Widowland" was (still) a speedy read, and I still have just under two weeks to go before the beginning of May, so...  ;)  

I've often described "Widowland" (and "Queen High/Queen Wallis") as "Fatherland" by Robert Harris crossed with Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale." (I've also heard comparisons to George Orwell's "1984" and Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle,"  although I haven't read those -- yet!)  I'm not especially interested in fantasy or science fiction, generally, but I've always found alternative history/speculative/dystopian fiction intriguing -- especially those with the premise that the Nazis won World War II -- and these two books fall squarely into that category.  

The central premise of "Widowland" (and "Queen High/Queen Wallis") is that Britain capitulated to Germany in 1940, formed an "alliance" with them and is now operating under a Nazi "Protectorate." Memories of "the Time Before" are fading (and are actively discouraged). Most able-bodied men have been sent to labour camps, and women have been classified according to age, heritage, reproductive status and physical characteristics -- which determines where they live, the rations they receive, the clothes they wear, the kind of work they do, etc. 

At the top of the pecking order are the most pure and beautiful young women -- the "Gelis" (named for the niece Hitler was obsessed with -- who committed suicide). Also highly ranked: the "Klaras" -- fertile mothers of at least four children. At the bottom of the ladder (just guess!!) are the "Friedas" -- childless widows over 50, who do menial labour, receive subsistence-level rations (no meat or eggs), and are relegated to live in the rundown, fenced-off slums known as "Widowlands." 

King George VI and his family disappeared shortly after the Alliance was formed, and King Edward VIII and his American divorcee wife (now Queen), Wallis Simpson, have returned from exile. After a long delay, their coronation will be held on May 2, 1953, and the Leader himself (i.e., Hitler) will be coming to Britain for the first time to attend. 

The Coronation -- and the Leader's visit -- are two weeks away, and tensions are running high. Subversive graffiti, in the form of quotations from now mostly forgotten female authors ("Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it and there will be an end to blind obedience" -- Mary Wollstonecraft;  “Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” -- Virginia Woolf), painted in large bright red letters, has been popping on libraries and other public buildings around the country. The prime suspects are the Friedas of the Widowlands:  they remember "the Time Before," they know the literature -- and they have little to fear, because they have so little to lose. 

Although the book is titled "Widowland," the central character is Rosalind "Rose" Ransom, a "Geli," who works at the Ministry of Culture, editing/rewriting classic works by the likes of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte to make their heroines more submissive and acceptable to the new regime. After hours, she's the reluctant mistress of her SS boss (who is married, with a wife and children back in Germany). She's 29 years old, and the clock is ticking before her lack of a husband and children will subject her to reclassification. 

With two weeks to go before the Leader arrives, Rose has been tasked with interviewing some of the residents of Widowland and identifying suspects. What she learns from these women changes her life -- and, possibly, the course of history. 

Two and a half years after I first read it, I'm more conscious of the book's flaws, as pointed out by other reviewers. And (and I realize I'm biased! ;)  ) I (still!) would have loved to see more of the Widowlands and Friedas than we do.  ;)  To me, they are the true heroines of this book!  

Original U.K. edition cover 

But overall, I found this book just as riveting (and chilling) as I did the first time around. As I said in my original review, "It's derivative -- there have been other "what if Hitler won the war" novels & films -- but this dystopian premise, combined with feminism, childlessness and the subversive power of literature is a potent mixture and highly thought provoking."  I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I first read it (and I find myself recommending it to others at every opportunity!) -- I think that says something! 

Moreover, given the current political climate in many countries around the world -- books, libraries and freedom of the press under attack, voting rights being eroded, women's reproductive freedoms and other rights being rapidly rolled back (not to mention rampant pronatalism and misogyny) --  and a critical U.S. election just months away -- I found the book's messages even more relevant than I did when I originally read it. 

My original rating of 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5, stands.  

Text note: As I mentioned here, there are some differences between the original U.K. hardcover version (published by Quercus) and the North American edition (published in paperback and digital formats by Sourcebooks)  -- most notably at the very end. I first noticed this when the North American paperback version came out (I already had the original hardcover edition from the U.K.). 

I'm planning to go back to both books, once I've finished them, and do a closer comparison. (Hey, i used to do stuff like this for a living...!)  So far, I've mostly noticed changes in spelling (e.g., "favour" in the U.K. edition becomes "favor") and terminology (e.g., "Commissioner" becomes "minister"). 

This was Book #12 read to date in 2024 (and Book #3 finished in April), bringing me to 27% of my 2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 1 book behind schedule to meet my goal.  :(   You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2024 tagged as "2024 books." 

Odds & ends

• The Childless Collective Summit -- a rare opportunity for CNBCers to gather en masse -- was held in Charleston, South Carolina last weekend. I had #summitenvy as I scanned my social media feeds, looking for photos!  
• I was also a little envious when I heard that Australia's Senate is holding an inquiry into menopause and perimenopause. (We in North America really need to get with the program!!)  Sarah Roberts at The Empty Cradle has made a submission that expresses some of the unique concerns of aging childless women (adapted from a previous submission she and Judy Graham made to the Queensland Women's Strategy). Her submission is #121 at this link.  
• The Full Stop podcast is celebrating 5 years of monthly episodes on May 19th! Their May episode is being recorded THIS Sunday, April 21st!  
• Listeners are being invited to ask a question, or share a message via Speakpipe, to be answered by the hosts. Here's a link!  
• There will be a competition with prizes, too!  
• Jess was a guest on the Adoption Unfiltered podcast, talking with hosts Lori (adoptive parent), Sara (adoptee) & Kelsey (birth mom) about pronatalism, and her decision NOT to adopt and to remain childless. (She wrote about it here.)  The podcast is available on the Adoption Unfiltered website, YouTube and various podcast platforms. It's an amazing, in-depth and much-needed conversation, and well worth a watch/listen!  
• Mel recently flagged this lovely article from Oregon Humanities: "Fertile Ground:  Reflections on grief and gardening." 
• This is a great article from Next Avenue (a couple of years old) about "The Long-Term Realities of Being Childless."  
• Medium articles are sometime paywalled (boo, hiss), but if you can access "The Childless Woman Who Soared:  A modern fable and love story to a woman long demonised" by Nadia Huq, it's so lovely, and well worth a read!  Excerpt:  

...a child is not actually a goal, when you think about it.

A child is a map...

But for women without children there is no map.

And instead of a well-trodden highway, there are fields and forests and lakes and seas.

So what does she do?

Perhaps if she has chosen this life with a free and easy heart, she bounds into the landscape, excited by this unconquered territory.

But if not, perhaps she sits down and she cries. How will I ever find my way? She wonders. She has no tools. No handbook. Precious little confidence. She feels wholly unequipped for this life.

She feels sad, and no wonder, for all she has ever heard of this life is its’ many heartaches and regrets. For a time, she simply sits and cries.

But she has courage, and eventually, she rises....

• I'm not sure if this is behind a paywall either, but Alison Motluk's post on her Substack "Hey Reprotech" is also worth a read and share (especially if you know someone who is thinking about freezing their eggs):  "Questions no one asked at the egg freezing webinar." (She recently sat in on a webinar about egg freezing, and she was struck "by how few questions were asked, and how so many seemed vague and unclear. I was also struck by how incomprehensible some of the answers were.")(Are we surprised?)  
• I was struck by a passage in a recent opinion piece by Shree Paradkar in the Toronto Star, about abortion rights and the recently resurrected law from 1864 (!) in Arizona. (Apologies if it's behind a paywall;  there wasn't a gift link.)  This passage in particular rang SO true to me:  

Mainstream pregnancy stories are often about grinning mommies and gurgling babies, often in heterosexual relationships, living in relative luxury, with a shopping component thrown in — what to get for the baby? Heavens forbid we ignore the capital to be squeezed out of every life experience.

If there is a deviation from such narrow representation, it is to express sadness and grief — about a woman’s inability to become pregnant or an inability to carry a fetus to term. Don’t get me wrong. Having babies can be a wonderful experience, and not having one can leave one with profound sense loss. But the archaic, gendered expectation of giving birth is so seeped in the pores of our society that women often internalize feelings of inadequacy even when the issue is outside their control. Someone not wanting to be pregnant is too outside the realm of this blinkered view.

• I read some great pieces about the recent eclipse. I loved how Lyz Lenz ended hers, in her Men Yell At Me Substack, "Chasing the dark."  Excerpt:  

This lasts for three minutes. Three beautiful moments. Time passes. The moon moves. The sun flashes. And then it’s over. We have to pack. We have to go so we can get home before too late. Because there is school tomorrow. And I have to work.

As we walk back to the car, my daughter says she can’t believe things have to go back to how they were. “This should have changed everything,” she says.

I know what she means. I’ve felt this before in moments of grief. The way your world changes with loss, but the stock market doesn’t stop, school buses still arrive. The world ended, but it didn’t. I wonder about all the small world-endings. All the apocalypses we see and walk by. How grief and miracles are the same. A brief rip into the light. We peer into it and then we are expected to return to the same. Together we’ve seen the light change. We’ve seen the sun disappear.  I know they’ll remember this one. Together we will remember the tear in space, how it felt so vast, how we held hands through every minute of it as it passed. 

I think about the last eclipse and I tell her I think everything is different. We just don’t know the shape of it yet.

#MicroblogMondays: Memorable musical moments

The Washington Post recently had an opinion piece from a guy advising  "Take it from me: See your music heroes before it’s too late." (Gift linked article.) 

(Near the end, he writes about skipping a Tom Petty concert in Toronto in 2017... Petty died just a few months later. I remember hearing an ad for that concert on the radio and saying to dh, "Maybe we should go?"  We'd never seen Petty, both of us loved his music -- dh especially -- and it was a 40th anniversary tour with the Heartbreakers. "Too expensive," said dh, especially since tickets had already been on sale for a while -- we figured we'd be stuck in the nosebleed section. And, of course, we both regretted it when we heard he was gone, not long afterwards.)  

At the very end of the article, there was an invitation to readers: "What moment from a live music performance will you remember for the rest of your life?" They published the responses last week. (Gift link.) 

Of course, that got me thinking:  what would mine be?  

Naturally, I couldn't narrow it down to just one ;)  -- but here are a few standout moments from my concert memories (which, admittedly, come mostly from the 1970s & 1980s -- we don't go to a lot of concerts these days...!). I've written about many of these in past posts on this blog:  

• Bay City Rollers (lol), August 15, 1976, at the old Winnipeg Arena. My first concert! (I was 15.)  Floor seats were $5.50. Highlight:  Waiting at the garage entrance out back before the concert began and seeing the limousine with the band inside pass by us, with the band members waving. 
• Burton Cummings:  I've seen him several times over the years, but the moment that always stands out for me was seeing him for the first time (mid/late-1970s), early in his solo career, at the Winnipeg Concert Hall, trading wisecracks with his high school buddies in the front rows and playing "Shiny Stockings" for his mom (his biggest fan and cheerleader, and always in the hometown audience).  
• Cheap Trick, 1979, Winnipeg Convention Centre (also saw them at the Arena a year or two later). Standing in the crowd at the front of the stage and eye-flirting with Tom Petersen (the bass player), who (I swear!) sang "I Know What I Want and I Know I Can Get It" while looking straight at me. :) 
• Streetheart at the Playhouse in Winnipeg, spring 1979 (I think?). Their first album was blazing up the charts, and their lead singer, the late great Kenny Shields, had a lot of charisma.
• Van Halen (with David Lee Roth), April 1980, Winnipeg Arena. Watching Eddie Van Halen in his prime, wearing all white, climbing a mountain of speakers like steps to the top, where he played a sizzling guitar solo to a group of kids sitting in some lousy seats at the side of the stage. They were thrilled, and so was I!  
• Heart at Winnipeg Stadium, August 1981, doing an absolute killer version of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll."  (Also on the bill, among others: Ted Nugent (!), Blue Oyster Cult, and Loverboy.)  
• Journey, during their Escape tour, Winnipeg Arena, spring 1982. (With a friend AND my new boyfriend -- later dh!)  Watching Steve Perry holding a note while running from one side of the stage to another, not pausing to take a breath. AMAZING. 
• George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Winnipeg Playhouse, October 1982. Bought the tickets on a whim at the last minute. Wound up in the second last row of the balcony, but I am SO GLAD we went. The man was like the Energizer Bunny -- just never stopped moving. He played his guitar behind his back. He even did a Chuck Berry-style duck walk across the stage. There was a huge cheer that went up when he introduced Ian Stewart on the piano -- he played on all the early Rolling Stones albums.  :)  
• Bruce Springsteen: we've seen him twice in Toronto together (dh a few more times before he met me), and the concert we saw at the old Exhibition Stadium in 1985, with the E Street Band, was probably the better one overall. But we also saw him in 1992 (?) at the SkyDome with a different band. We had better seats for that one, and he played "Prove it All Night" and "Spirit in the Night," favourites of mine and dh's (respectively), neither of which we'd heard at that previous concert. That was a thrill! :)  
• Tony Bennett with my mom & sister at the Winnipeg Centennial Concert Hall in August 2012, at age 86 -- watching him set down his microphone and sing "Fly Me to the Moon," a capella, with that still-magnificent voice filling the hall.  
• Dragging dh to see The Rascals on their 2013 reunion tour at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, 40 years after they'd last played all together -- and watching dh's jaw drop when he realized how good they (still!) were (especially the drummer! -- who, sadly, passed away a few years ago). 
• Paul McCartney in Winnipeg in September 2018 with my sister -- a thrill from start to finish, but most memorably when he sang "Blackbird" with an acoustic guitar on a riser, with hundreds of cellphone lights glowing in the background. MAGIC. 
• Getting to see Elton John in Winnipeg with my sister on his farewell tour, October 2019. 

What would your most memorable concert moment(s) be? 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.  

"Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel

"Wolf Hall" the much-acclaimed novel by the late, great Hilary Mantel, has been in my TBR pile almost from the time it was published in 2009. I think I even opened it once, and then set it aside for something else (probably something lighter and less daunting...!).  

(Also, I PVRd the acclaimed 2015 BBC adaptation, with the wonderful Mark Rylance in the role of Thomas Cromwell, when it ran on PBS (instead of watching it when it was broadcast, because of course I hadn't read the book yet...!) -- but of course, I never got around to watching it...! And, unfortunately, my PVR library was deleted when we got a new modem last fall. Sigh... I may have to see if I can find it to watch elsewhere -- even if that means subscribing to another streaming service! even just temporarily -- especially since I hear a sequel is in the works and will be coming to PBS later this year...!)  

Then I heard about the year-long Cromwell Trilogy readalong hosted by Simon Haisell at "Footnotes and Tangents" (I think it was via Rona Maynard on social media??) -- starting with "Wolf Hall" on Jan. 1st, and following a weekly schedule. (He's also hosting a "chapter-a-day readalong" of "War & Peace" that also began Jan. 1st. Yes, I'm doing that one too!)  

At the time, I mused that "I need another book club/readalong (let alone TWO!) like a hole in the head" -- but I was intrigued, and the year-long, leisurely schedules (for both readalongs) sounded manageable. So, I did it -- I joined both.  It's taken a bit of juggling, but I'm very glad that I did.  :)  We're scheduled to finish this book before the end of the month, but I was on a roll (and wanted to move on to another book for another book club!), so I read ahead a little and finished it this weekend.  ;)    

Based in historical fact, "Wolf Hall' is the story of Thomas Cromwell, the son of an abusive blacksmith from Putney, who rises from obscurity to become the trusted advisor to the powerful Cardinal Wolsey -- and, ultimately, to King Henry VIII himself, as he seeks a divorce from Queen Katherine of Aragon -- who has failed to give him the male heir he so desperately craves -- so that he can marry the bewitching (younger, and presumably more fertile) Anne Boleyn.   

It probably helps to know at least a little bit about the British history and monarchy of this period. Happily, I've seen & read umpteen TV shows and books about Henry VIII and his six (!) wives -- so I was at least vaguely familiar with the bare bones of the story, if not intimately familiar with Cromwell himself.  Mantel fills in the details for us (as she has researched and imagined & interpreted them, anyway), all filtered through the eyes and thoughts of Cromwell.  

This is a LONG book (almost 700 pages in paper format) -- and the story unfolds in a leisurely, non-linear fashion, going back and forth (and back again) in time. The writing is very dense. There's just SO much to chew on -- so much going on, multiple layers of meaning to ponder, so many characters to keep track of -- including multiple Thomases to keep straight (besides Cromwell, there's Wolsey, More, Boleyn, Howard, Bilney, Wyatt, Cranmer, etc. etc....!)!  And SO.MUCH. plotting and scheming and political maneuvering!! 

(Also, Mantel rarely refers to Cromwell as "Cromwell," using "he" throughout the book, which takes some getting used to. Of course there are lots of other "he's" around, just to confuse matters...!  It's sometimes hard to figure out just who "he" is referring to -- but as several reviewers have noted, you're probably safe, most of the time, if you just assume that "he" refers to Cromwell.) 

Nevertheless, it's all beautifully written and hugely absorbing. Cromwell, as written by Mantel, is a fascinating character.  And, happily, those of us following the readalong have the advantage of weekly discussion posts, chats, a cast of characters and other supplementary material, to provide context and help us better understand what we're reading. These have all contributed enormously to my enjoyment and appreciation of the book. I'm not sure what books Simon is planning to cover in 2025, but I highly recommend the experience!   

A solid 4 stars on Goodreads (possibly even 4.5). (Slow read group experience:  a definite 5!)   

ALI note: As you might expect, for a book that revolves so heavily around producing, not just an heir to the throne but a MALE heir, there is a lot in this book about fertility and pregnancy and childbirth -- and loss and childlessness -- but it's all very well done and rings very true.  Mantel herself was childless not by choice, after a hysterectomy caused by severe endometriosis. 

Next on the agenda:  Book #2 in Mantel's Cromwell Trilogy, "Bring Up the Bodies," beginning during the week of April 29th, to be followed later in the year by Book #3, "The Mirror and the Light."  Join us at Footnotes & Tangents, Cromwell Trilogy! 

This was Book #11 read to date in 2024 (and Book #2 finished in April), bringing me to 24% of my 2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 1 book behind schedule to meet my goal.  :(   You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2024 tagged as "2024 books." 

"The Improbability of Love" by Hannah Rothschild

"The Improbability of Love" by Hannah Rothschild (who is, apparently, one of THE Rothschilds), is the April pick for the Nomo Book Club within the Childless Collective private online community. 

The heroine is Annie McDee, a 31-year-old chef who lives in a small flat in London, recovering from a broken heart after splitting up with her longtime partner. (Warning:  Do NOT try reading this book on an empty stomach! ;)  ) She buys a painting in a junk store for $75 (that she can't really afford) as a gift for a new love interest  -- who ghosts her before she can give it to him. She decides to return it, only to find the store -- and the man who sold it to her -- went up in flames in a suspicious fire, just hours after she left. 

At a London art gallery, trying to learn more about her painting, Annie meets Jesse, a tour guide and artist himself.  As they investigate the mysterious painting's origins together, they are drawn into the murky, cut-throat world of art collectors, dealers and thieves -- many of whom would love to get their hands on the painting, for various reasons. Unbeknown to Annie, this includes the father of her current employer -- an elderly Holocaust survivor and ultra-wealthy art dealer, who rules both his family and his company with an iron fist. 

The story picked up for me midway through the book, when Annie's boss, the old man's daughter, Rebecca, discovers her late brother's hidden notebook, setting off a chain of unexpected events... 

I don't want to give too many spoilers away, but here's one:  "The Improbability of Love" is not only the title of the book, it's the name of the painting itself. (I had to check:  the artist is real;  the painting is not.)   The painting is actually a character in the book who narrates some chapters (!), where we gradually learn more about its history, who painted it and who its previous owners were. (Over time, the painting was often given as a token of love to wives, lovers and beloved mistresses.)  When I started reading the first chapter where this happens, I was hearing a certain voice in my head, and I couldn't figure out where this was coming from?  Then I realized...! I was thinking of an episode of The Simpsons (lol!) -- "Moe Goes From Rags to Riches" -- where Jeremy Irons provides the voice of an ancient tapestry that winds up as a rag at Moe's bar, and then gets adopted by Santa's Little Helper -- i.e., the dog, lol.  

As I read, I was also reminded of a couple of other art-related books I've read in the past -- "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt, for one, as well as certain scenes in "Killers of a Certain Age" by Deanna Raybourn. 

Overall, I wound up enjoying this book more than I thought I would.  It's a little long, and the multiple characters are hard to keep track of (albeit colourfully rendered).  It took a while to pick up some momentum -- but I absolutely tore through the last third of the book. 

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. 

ALI alert:  Annie reflects on her longing for a child versus her partner's complete lack of interest in fatherhood... and her grief when she learns he's had a child with his new partner (and has now become a doting father, of course...!) Sound familiar?  

This was Book #10 read to date in 2024 (and Book #1 finished in April), bringing me to 22% of my 2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind schedule to meet my goal.  :(   You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2024 tagged as "2024 books." 

Post-eclipse update!

Update to this morning's pre-eclipse post!  As feared, much of southern Ontario was blanketed in clouds today -- just in time for the eclipse -- after a glorious weekend of blue skies and sunshine (of course...!). I guess it did clear slightly and briefly at Niagara Falls -- one of the prime viewing spots for this event -- where CBC News Network was hosting a live broadcast, with links to reporters in other parts of the country.   

We watched the light changing outside our condo windows, gradually getting duskier and duskier. We were expected to reach peak eclipse -- 99.13% -- at around 3:18 or 3:19. I slipped on some shoes and a jacket, grabbed my phone/camera, and headed out onto our balcony around 3:15 PM, and took a video and a few photos (something I wish we'd thought to do when I saw a total eclipse back in 1979 -- but we didn't have handy cellphones with cameras back then -- cameras generally weren't that great, unless you could afford an expensive 35 mm model, and people just didn't think to take photos of every little thing back then in the same way they do now... plus, film, flash bulbs and photo developing were expensive, kids!  lol).  I noticed the temperature had dropped significantly since we'd been out a few hours earlier -- it was pretty chilly out there!   

It wasn't ideal conditions, and it wasn't a total eclipse. But it was still pretty cool to observe!  :)  

Taken from our balcony around 3:20 PM this afternoon
(peak eclipse at 99.13% totality). 
It was actually a little darker than this photo shows. 
If you look closely, you can see the street lights are on, 
as well as the solar lamps in the parkette area behind our building. 

(Annnnndddd two hours later -- blue skies and sunshine. Go figure...!)  

#MicroblogMonday: Eclipse!

So in case you haven't heard, there's an eclipse happening later this afternoon that will be visible, in total or in part, across a broad swath of North America. It's being billed as a once-in-a-lifetime event.  

Already been there, done that. ;)  I got to see & experience a total eclipse back in February 1979.  I was 18 and in my final year of high school, and my family was living in a town west of Winnipeg, one of the prime viewing areas in the world for the big event. 

(Someone posted a thread on my graduating class's Facebook group last week, asking where we were then and what we remembered about it, and where we'd be and what we'd be doing today. One classmate remembers our English teacher including the eclipse in his speech at our graduation ceremony that June:  he said, "Only this group would conspire to arrange something like a total eclipse to get a day off school." lol!!) 

People came from all over the world to southern Manitoba (and this was in FEBRUARY!!  lol), and were lined up along the main street of town and all along the Trans-Canada Highway west of the city to watch.  There was no Internet back then, of course, or even 24-hour cable news networks like CNN, but there was still a lot of advance hype, and special live broadcasts on TV that day.  We all got the day off school -- presumably the school board did not want to be responsible for whatever we did or saw on that day. We did not have the special protective glasses to safely watch the progress of the moon across the sun-- they were available, but not as readily as they are today (no online shopping!) -- but we could see it getting darker outside, to the point that the street lights came on! -- and when the TV announcer told us we were now in totality and it was safe to go outside and have a brief look with the naked eye, my sister & I did so, heading out to the sidewalk in front of our house. (I couldn't remember my mom being out there with us, so I asked her about it when I spoke to her yesterday. She said she came out onto the front step, turned around and went back inside! lol.)  It was chilly (it was February!) and kind of eerie -- and it WAS pretty cool! 

There was also a partial eclipse here back in August 2017, a little over a year after we moved into this condo. I think we only reached about 70-75% of totality then. It didn't get completely dark, but it did get increasingly and strangely dim and shadowy outside for a while. I took a few photos from our balcony then. (See one below.)  

This time around, we're JUST outside the path of totality -- I found a site that calculates we'll reach 99.13% where we are -- so it will not get completely dark this time either. (Close, but no cigar.) But I'm expecting it will still be darker than it was in 2017.  Niagara Falls, about 1.5-2 hours away, population just under 100,00 (and busy enough on an average summer day), will be a prime viewing area, and is expecting up to ONE MILLION PEOPLE. Officials have already declared a state of emergency, and are warning visitors there WILL be traffic chaos, and to bring plenty of food, water and necessary medications.  (There aren't a lot of main roads going in and out of the area -- look it up on a map -- it's hemmed into a small wedge of land between lakes Ontario & Erie, along the Niagara River and the U.S. border). 

No thanks. I'll be happy to view the effects of near-totality from my condo balcony. (We don't have the proper eyewear this time around either -- and in any case, I have enough issues with my vision as it is, so I'm not going to risk it!)  

How about you? Will the eclipse be visible, in total or in part, where you live? Are you planning to watch or mark the occasion in some way?  (If it's already over by the time you read this, what did you do today?)  Have you seen one before? 

*** *** *** 

Related tangent:  All the eclipse talk stirred up a hazy memory for me, of reading a Bobbsey Twins book that had belonged to my mom & uncle when they were kids in the 1940s/50s (and then to me & my sister), which a band of gypsies (!) who were convinced they were going to lose their sight if they do something the bad guys wanted them to do... not knowing that a total eclipse was on the way.  

I had to do some Googling and digging around, but I finally found a discussion that helped me identify the right book!  -- "The Bobbsey Twins on the Pony Trail" (1944).  "In it, a group of gypsies are being cheated out of their land. A speculator claims he will remove their vision if they don't sell. He knows about the upcoming total eclipse in the area where the story was set. Mr. Bobbsey helps to prevent the injustice."

The Bobbsey Twins were a staple of my early childhood reading. I haven't read any of those books in years & years, but some of the stuff in the older volumes that belonged to my mom & uncle would never past muster these days. Another example (ALI alert!): in "The Bobbsey Twins and Baby May," first published in 1924 (!),  a baby girl is mysteriously left on the Bobbsey family's doorstep (!).  (No wonder people have so many misconceptions about adoption, right?)  I don't think I ever read the revised version published in 1968, but from what I understand, the story was completely rewritten except for the title, and Baby May became... a baby elephant, lol.

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.  

The eerie half-lit sky outside during the solar eclipse of August 2017,
which reached around 70-75% max hereabouts.
(The crane, partly visible, left, is from another condo building nearby, then under construction.
Also under construction then: the townhouses behind us, partly visible, right.) 
Our balcony doesn't get the direct afternoon sun
(and we didn't have the proper eyewear to view the eclipse directly anyway)
but I took a few photos from the balcony to record the effects. 
I'll probably do the same this afternoon!