Got turned around in Old Montreal, and this is what I stumbled across. Sometimes getting lost is worth it. Not sure exactly where I saw this, but somewhere around the corner of St. Paul and St. Nicholas. Or could have been the corner of Le Moyne. Or not. Just walk around looking up. You can't miss it.
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I love when I learn something new on a walk. This was in a community garden on Notre Dame ouest, not far from the Place Saint Henri metro station. According to the sign, these plants are the three Iroquois sisters, corn, beans, and squash.
Seen a lot of birds on my walks. Your ho-hum robins and pigeons and crows mostly. Nothing to write home about. But today I heard a lot of unusual chirps and they turned out to be coming from a bunch of parrots sunning themselves in a yard that faced Pine Ave. near Parc.
We’re in the process of having our basement finished. The guys put in the insulation yesterday, which means I’ve been paying particular attention to insulation on my walks. Here’s a bizarre example on Saint Denis. How did the LP’s get imbedded there?
In Old Montreal. My crummy map steered me wrong. But I did see this cow, and for me, a day without a plaster of paris giant animal is like a day without sunshine. So all good.
Started off today on rue Marmier, near the Rosemont metro, a street so colossally ugly I couldn’t bear to subject you to a picture. But take my word for it, Marmier wipes the floor with the previous contenders in that particular competition, rue de la Police and rue Généreux, both hideous in their own special ways. Left Marmier to go down St. Denis, and in the underpass saw a ghost bike, a bike painted white in memory of a cyclist who died at that spot. This one was in memory of Mathilde Blais. Altogether too many of these bikes around town. Twisted around a bit and ended up on rue Laos, then down Henri Julien where there’s a huge stone wall, just full of fossils, proof that I’m not the only fossil on the streets of Montreal. Turned onto rue Carmel, and found behind that stone wall the spectacularly beautiful convent of the Soeurs Carmelites of Montreal, built in 1896. Just out front, caught sight of a van I’ve seen before in my travels, for the caterer ggtraiteur.com. I’ve always been intrigued by the ad on the back of their van, “corporate, private, marriages, divorces, office parties, coffee breaks.” Ron says when we get divorced we can get them to do the catering. Finished off with a bagel from Fairmount. You gotta love a place that launched the first bagels in space. This street (rue de Vaudreuil in Old Montreal) was supposed to be on my route today, but the gods of construction begged to differ. I’m not usually a flexible person (Ron will attest to that), but today I acquitted myself nicely, and took an alternative walk along St. Amable. The flowers? Fake, but still lovely. Also, in all my twisting and turning I ended up in a shop where I bought this little yellow bus to keep my ice cream truck company. Still in Old Montreal, I learned a few things from some plaques. The first is to commemorate Marie-Josephe-Angélique, a slave who was accused of arson in Montreal while attempting to escape bondage. She was judged, hung and then burned in Montreal in 1734, and her ashes scattered to the four winds. (My loose translation) Then, at Place d'Armes, this shiny baby commemorates the site of the first skyscraper in Canada.
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