​ 
OK. I said I was finished. And I was. I did cover every single street on my map. But I got bored once my project wound up, so I bought myself a new map. One that covers WAY more territory than my old one.
 
For those of you who live in Montreal, you’ll understand when I say this map extends way up into the wilds of Laval and down into the South Shore, areas which, to a cloistered NDG person like myself, seem like the ends of the earth. I figure this expanded project should last me till I die, so I’m good for a while yet. My tombstone will say “she walked.” Or the equivalent in Hebrew.
 
I was walking along Jarry Blvd. the other day, and passed the gorgeous tuk-tuk pictured above. Will definitely try out the restaurant next time I’m in the hood.

​On avenue Van Horne, I came across an overgrown field near the corner of St. Urbain, that’s filled with funky metal sculptures. There’s no sign that I could find to say who created them. A mystery. But worth a stop.

​And in my never ending search for topknots, this residential example on Van Horne.

So I’m finished! Yes, completely. And it only took me since May, 2016. I have now walked the full length of every single street on my map. The last street I covered, you ask? That Oscar goes to the tiny stretch of rue Franchère below Mont-Royal that dead-ends into Parc Baldwin.
 
No offence meant to the residents of that block, but its total blahness is only slightly counteracted by the astronaut mural on the east side. Otherwise, as streets go, and trust me I’ve seen my fair share, it ain’t much.
 
I’ve taken my usual anniversary picture of my map-the last. It’s a good thing as the map is starting to come apart at the seams and won’t stand for much more folding and unfolding.

On St. André, a couple of showier specimens. 

And this gravity defying version.

​I dreaded this walk along a street I anticipated as being completely ghost-townish. My bad for prejudging it and leaving it undeservedly until almost the end of my project. The street dead-ends into Costco, so, as you can imagine, a steady stream of cars passed me, even if I didn’t see a single pedestrian, rare in my outings. It was just me and all the factories, many of them shuttered. But like many of my industrial walks, it had its own charms. I passed under the mega silos of the Red Roses flour mill. Just think how many cakes you could make with the contents of just one of those silos. I’d be fixed for life. At the beginning of the pandemic, to keep me baking, I sprang for a 20 kilo sack of flour and thought it was humungous, but it was nothing compared to these babies.

​Stumbled across a great new art installation on boulevard Robert-Bourassa just above Wellington. I just thought it was playful, with no deeper meaning, a way to cheer up a blah chunk of roadway. But one of my more thoughtful Facebook friends suggested that it looked like the signatories to the Great Peace of Montreal. Turns out he’s right. I did a bit of digging and found out that the figures in the installation are meant to reproduce the pictograms of the First Nations that signed the treaty of 1701. I always love a walk that teaches me something. The second photo (from the Canadian Encyclopedia) shows what the treaty actually looked like.

​In the Plateau of all places. On tiny rue Demers, a street so narrow you might easily pass it by without noticing, but that would be a mistake. It’s full of wonders. Beyond the windmill, there’s a funky punchbowl fountain and a wishing well. I can’t claim to be the first to appreciate this streetlet. Mounted on one of the garden walls is an article from La Presse in praise of it, and that was back in 2003.

​Undertook a walk today that I’ve been avoiding for the entirety of my project, up to the top of Vincent d’Indy which my fellow Montrealers know will give you nosebleeds from the height. To give you some idea of the altitude, it used to have a ski lift running alongside, whose rusty remains are still there.

After about two years forced hiatus from my walking project, thanks to Mr. Covid and incidentally getting hit by a truck and ending up in the ER on one of my walks, I’m back to criss-crossing the streets of Montreal.

I started off with an industrial walk, along St. Patrick, west of Atwater. I stumbled across what I thought was a playground combining old factory equipment with coloured tubes. Turns out I was way off. It’s a bike hitching post made with old industrial sewing machines from a former factory in the area. The colourful tubes are meant to represent the thread that used to run off of the machines.

​Almost across the street, saw the infamous pink house, way up at the top of the abandoned Canada Melting Plant silo. Was it Spider Man who clambered up to there to give it a paint job and spruce it up with flower boxes and curtains?

​I’ve seen a whack load of front-lawn statues in my travels around town, but this massive one really took me by surprise. And yes, it’s a real Botero, with a plaque and everything.

​And on a neighbouring street...

I was sure I'd seen the identical two sculptures in a park near Atwater Market, and suddenly they're popping up in Griffintown??!! Checked my archives (June 29, 2019) and I'm right. Why were they snitched from Atwater which was a better spot? Here they're hidden in an alleyway. 

On Berri near St. Antoine. Are they proud of their achievement or what? Winners of the Oscar for best visual effects for First Man. You never know what's brewing in the anonymous buildings you're passing.

This green cutie was on St. Catharine street. It glows in the dark.For the previous pigs encountered in my travels, see post from 6/19/2019.

​Normally, I don’t like it when my walks coincide with garbage collection days. If anyone were to undertake a project like this, although why would you if you had any sense, I’d advise you to find out the garbage collection days on your intended route, and avoid them. But sometimes, garbage days can be fun, with discarded penguins and giraffes to keep you company. 

​No, not in Vegas. She was near the Angus Yards of all places, in a garden plot - her head plunked on a scarecrow. The diva-tête must be working. There wasn’t a single bird pecking at the veggies she was guarding. And this was before she lost all the weight and turned into a crone.

Tickled by this sign a bit further on at a giant construction project- “en collaboration avec - à bas le capitalisme.” I thought it was for real at first, but the “down with capitalism” part peels off. 

Stopped for a snack at Station W, which incorporates the old Angus Yard industrial elements in its design. Lots of grilled cheese offerings, and Davey says their smoothies are excellent, but I haven’t tried one myself. 

The winner so far in my abandoned clothing competition. Never seen so many people-less shoes on a sidewalk all at once – and so neatly placed. There was no one anywhere around. Don’t know what the deal is.  

But it’s only a matter of time. More imaginative people than I am repurpose their deteriorating furniture and household fittings to use as planters in their gardens. So far I’ve come across a piano, a bedstead, and a bathtub. 

​While we’re on the subject of repurposing, here are some cast-off metro cars, now parked on Peel near Wellington, that have been transformed into a café. Service stinko, but what the hell. In theory, a good idea.
 

​That’s how I've classified my walk from today. Got off the metro at Mount Royal and went up St.Hubert where I stumbled across this lovely vintage kimono store on the corner of rue de Bienville. I didn’t buy anything to wear, but did succumb to a wooden kokeshi doll. This walking project has cost me a lot of bucks so far. 

​Further up St. Hubert, a few blocks above Mount Royal, passed the best ruelle verte I’ve seen so far. In the Ruelle verte program, neighbourhoods jazz up their back alleyways, of which Montreal has plenty, mostly ugly, with plantings, murals, what have you, to make them more liveable playable spaces.  

This Facebook page shows some interesting ones from previous years in Rosemont. https://www.facebook.com/pg/arrondissementRPP/photos/?tab=album&album_id=899800406763879
​

Then up to Laurier and the park where Queen Isabella is landscaped all nice and posh.

Had a terrific walk in Pointe Saint Charles today in perfect weather. Took a pit stop in the lovely public library on Hibernia. Formerly a fire station, built in 1891. The park just beside it has everything you might want, a misting station, kitchen gardens, and a bicycle repair station. All the essentials of life. 

Then down towards the Maison St. Gabriel - built in New France-y times. I felt like Claire in Outlander which I am currently watching. One minute I’m in Montreal, 2019, and the next in Montreal 1660. No hunky Jamie to greet me on the other side, though. Too bad. Saw a lovely, lush garden just outside the museum. It consisting entirely of kale. At least I think it was kale. 

After that, down rue Sebastopol and up the raised path that gives a spectacular view of industrial Montreal.

​Saw this little thatched hut along the way. A first for me. Not a roofing style we normally see around here. 

​For lots of this segment of the walk, around Dublin and Hall, it was just me and the construction vehicles, but I was determined to get this chunk of streets done, even if there were tons of trottoir barré signs all over the place. One of the workmen asked me if I was OK. He probably thought I’d lost it. Why else would I be walking up and down streets that were majorly torn up and looked like a monster truck rally? 

​Ended the walk at the stunning mural on rue Knox. It’s 80 metres long. (I read that-I didn’t get out my tape measure. I’m not that devoted to my project.) My favourite segment of it is the newspaper headline, “Mother Nature Wins, Capitalism Crumbles, It’s Anarchy.”

​Actually, the walk had a little post-script. I stopped in at a café I had spotted earlier in the morning for a little post-walk nosh. It’s Café Clarke on rue Centre, a four minute walk from the Charlevoix metro (That I did measure). Amazing Italian pastries baked on site which I can vouch for. The pizzas and Calzones looked great but I’m saving them for next time I’m in the ‘hood. 

And uses spray cheese as his medium. Who ever knew there was such a thing in the realm of dairy? The artwork is part of a program called Velo Art. 

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.