Lest you think my walking fizzled out in the winter, here’s a photo with some snow in the foreground to prove that I was still out there on my appointed rounds. I did walk a lot in the winter, but often it was too cold to take my gloves off to get out my phone for a picture. Someone should invent a glove that incorporates a camera, on the order of Google Glasses to accommodate people like me.
This week, with the death of Montreal son Leonard Cohen, I felt obliged to pay homage with everyone else at his home near the corner of Marie-Anne and St. Dominique. This is what I found there. Even five days on, lots of people still milling around his doorway and the Parc du Portugal across the street. The readjusted street sign choked me up. Marie-Anne has other, quieter attractions. Note this guard outside a private home. It has come to my attention that many homeowners like to station a representation of a person beside their front stoop for reasons that are not wholly clear to me. For protection maybe? Anyway, here's a sampling.
Watched Tracks the other night and Robyn Davidson’s trek struck me as similar to mine. She picked a block of territory and felt compelled to cover it, with only a paper map to guide her. OK, so she walked 2000 miles solo across the Australian desert with three pack-camels and a dog, but still I consider us soul sisters. Maybe someone will do a movie about me? Now I know where I should be buying my clothes, and both places are on Beaubien. If I’m in the mood for “pre-worn,” this Friperie caught my eye. But if I want new québécois designers, pas trop cher, it's Mansarde Bleue. Also accessories, jewellery, fun stuff. Where else can you buy avocado themed socks? Another bicycle creation I can't actually identify. My denial of winter is breaking down - flurries predicted for this Thursday, October 27. The city must believe the weather report. They're removing the potted trees for safe-keeping. Personal statement writ large. I wish more stores used old-timey signage like this.
It's nice to see that not everyone is so accepting of winter being just around the corner. A relief from early adopters of driveway igloos and cocomatting. Uber Muskoka chairs opposite the Journal de Montreal HQ. Iberville is one helluva long street. I gave up for the day at Ontario, to get on the Frontenac metro, and this guy greeted me at the entrance.
Edward Scissorhands visits Anwoth Crescent in Westmount. In lowly NDG where I live, if a sign and a hedge are in conflict, the hedge bites the dust. There’s no creative trimming to let everyone get along in peace and harmony.
I heard on the local news the other day that certain boroughs have forbidden sandwich boards on the sidewalks, and many merchants have been faced with hefty fines. I think it's a mistake. Look what we'd miss. I know pictures of the Oratory are nothing new, but Queen Mary is gifted with some knock-out architecture, including the Collège Notre Dame across the street.
Just when I thought downtown held no more secrets for me, doesn't it throw me a curve? I was trying to knock McGill College off my list, a street I've walked up and down a million times in my working life, but today, when I looked up at the glass-fronted skyscraper that is the BNP-Parisbas building, people were rappelling down from the roof. Colour me impressed. I thought walking far was an achievement. Since I was already looking upwards, a few building topknots caught my eye. I'm especially fond of the first one that looks like it's home to Rapunzel.
Four months into the project and I should take stock, but I kind of missed the boat. I should have weighed myself at the beginning and taken my measurements. I should have bought a fitbit or a pedometer. I should have bought a better map. The should-haves are racking up and all I have to show for myself is a panoramic view of my map marked with a purple sharpie. Talk about old-school. For all the above failings, I am in a position to give a roundup of my favourite streets so far:
1st place: rue de Gascon (of eggbeater statue fame) Runner Up: Old Orchard (in NDG) leafy, lovely homes, calm Miss Congeniality: Bloomfield (in Outremont) chi-chi residential, a park, a fountain and proximity to Fairmount Bagel. Second day of fall, a beautiful sunny day, and what did I see today on Pie IX boulevard but my first driveway igloo. How depressing is that? ( I forgot to take a picture but you all know what a driveway igloo looks like). And as if I needed any further confirmation that winter is just around the corner, I see that they’ve already attached the yellow height extenders to the fire hydrants to make them visible in snowdrifts, although the fire hydrant on the right seems to be having a bit of a pout about winter arriving so soon and has lowered its extender to half mast in protest. So today’s flight plan was, up Pie IX Blvd. from the Pie IX metro to Masson, left on Masson, left on Molson, then right on St. Joseph to the Laurier metro. Approx 8.5 km. Took me an hour and a half (counting 2 pit stops). Now that I’m shlepping out to areas of the city I don’t know at all, an hour on the metro and bus just to get me started on my walk, I appreciated the new digital gizmo on the busses that shows a readout of the next stop coming up and announces it in a sweet feminine voice. It’s been a long time coming. I saw a few of these fancy street signs on Masson. Wonder who you have to bribe to get one like it in your neighbourhood? Finally, planter? real bike? Can't decide.
If anyone out there is reading this blog, boy are you lucky because today I caught a glimpse of a ghost street; it's Northcliffe in eastern NDG. It doesn’t appear on my map at all. Either they just slipped up and missed including it altogether, or this street is like Brigadoon and only shows itself once every 100 years, and I’m like Gene Kelly who happens to pass by at the right time and stumbles across it (though I’d rather be Cyd Charisse). Yesterday was the first time I ever dipped my toes into Rosemont in all the years I've lived here and I loved it! Lots of eye candy of all sorts. First, the livestock. Even bigger than lifesize - on rue Bélanger, in front of the butcher shop Centre de Viandes F. Iasenza. I did a bit of web research on the shop. I like their policy on client satisfaction: 1. Le client n'a pas toujours raison. 2. Le Centre de Viandes F. Iasenza n'a pas toujours raison. 3. Ensemble, nous trouverons une solution. How Canadian is that? (Translation: 1. The customer is not always right. 2. The butcher shop is not always right. 3. Together we'll find a solution.) Also loved the recycled water bottle decorations on this balcony. Finally, though no longer in Rosemont, but on my way to the Joliette metro to make my way home, I stumbled across this fabulous retro store on Hochelaga called Kitschà L'os. I couldn't leave without buying myself some new (old) measuring cups and spoons. I'm no bird gal- I can't decide if they're swans or geese. Any expert opinions? But for all that walking, and it sure felt like a helluva lot, I only did 9,362 steps-a huge disappointment.
while I was trying to knock rue Ontario off my list. First, I never realized that there was everything "sans frontières," not just médecins. I learned this factoid from the list of tenants in this commercial building. Second, I discovered a great store for all things map and globe. I say I discovered, but the extremely helpful woman who waited on me informed me the store has been there about 25 years. I'm like Columbus arriving in North America-late to the party.
Anyway, the store is called Aux Quatre Points Cardinaux. I loved their globe collection. I never knew globes come in so many varietals, like tulips; there are pillows, inflatables, night-light, pedestal, hangable, huge bar-globes that you crack open along the equator to reveal some bottles of Chivas. Definitely worth a trip. What makes a rue a rue? Rue de la Police, a tiny little street that runs between Guy and Pierce has no street fronts with addresses on it. Why does it merit a name? Shouldn’t it by rights be an alley? I don’t think I’ll be insulting anyone by saying that it qualifies as the ugliest street I’ve travelled so far since no one really lives on it. The Commission de toponymie, the provincial government organization responsible for managing Quebec place names has a whole paragraph on the origin of the name. It takes longer to read the description than to walk the whole length of the street. The only redeeming feature is this mural.
On Monkland, an never-ending source of curiosities, this sign came up during the street festival. Ron thinks I should go for it. Everyone needs a nude portrait of themselves.
Saw this sign on Beaconsfield Boulevard in NDG. It says that the street has been identified to participate in a pilot project to combat linden tree mites. The photo below shows the cure. Now I don’t exactly know what tying a yellow plastic shmatte around a tree trunk does to kill the little critters, but who am I to question the experts? All I know is that all of this causes me to rethink my favourite type of herbal tea, which is linden, natch. Maybe if I were to open up my tea bag, it would be full of bug wings and mandibles, not linden flowers, as advertised.
I used to have trouble with my posture, until someone watched me walk and asked me "looking for pennies?" So ever since I have stood up straight and tall and I look up, which is how I came to see these. Umbrellas in the sky on St. Denis near Emory. The annual pink balls above rue Ste. Catherine est in the Gay Village. Jardins Gamelin near Maisonneuve est.
Could someone enlighten me? What is this beam for in the middle in a row of houses? And the round structure beneath? It looks like Lucy and Ethel should be in it stomping grapes.
My first sighting of yarn bombing around town since I started my project. On Pierce Street downtown. I'm a big fan of the hobby? sport? crime? Whatever. This is a modest effort, but I hope to find more.
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