MONTREAL + FAMILY

This year's Thanksgiving holiday I was lucky enough to get to spend time at Elizabeth and RB's new apartment in Montreal. It was my first time in Montreal and was made extra special because our brother was also able to make it down. Our thanksgiving dinner was spent at our second (?) cousin's Golf course near Kingston, Ontario and we will have some fun photos of that to share with you soon. Elizabeth and RB were great hosts, taking us on fun walking and driving tours of Montreal's highlights. (Thank-you!)

These photos are from us walking around the old Expo '67 grounds.

(Elizabeth showing us all how she can fit between the bars)

LITTLE GEMS

Mary's visiting Montreal from Vancouver right now and we took advantage of the grey, rainy weather yesterday to have a little sunshine party at home. First we trekked north to Jean Talon market in search of strawberries and peaches, then home again for lazy afternoon jam making and scary movie viewing. I use the term 'jam' loosely as our end product is much more a strawberry preserve, still, sweet, sunshiney and delicious. Ain't we domestic?

GIFTS WE GIVE OURSELVES

This past weekend was the Puces Pop festival, a large arts and crafts fair run concurrently with Pop Montreal. Raymond participated in the sale and ended up selling out of his brand new New Yorker print, it was insane. The place was packed from the moment the doors opened in the morning till the day's end at 6pm, holy claustrophobia.

There were a ton of people selling numerous treasures including this gift I bought myself, a little handcrafted oxidized silver and pyrite ring designed by Marie Khediguian under her label Markhed. As soon as I saw it I knew this piece was for me, it's the perfect blend of delicate and hard, upscale and hand-forged. Ever wanna buy me jewellery? make sure it's mean, make sure it's organic and make sure it's simple, simple, simple. What I especially love about this piece is that Marie lets the materials speak for themselves. She recognizes the strength in lack of frills or perfection, the details remain the nature of the metals/minerals themselves; as my friend Carmen stated, 'it's goooood'.

CELEBRATION

There was a beautiful fireworks display lighting up the Vancouver sky tonight and I simply could not understand why....until I remembered it was our Poppa's birthday. Happy Birthday Red, we love you and apparently all of Vancouver does too.

MY HOOD

R and I are lucky to live on a fantastic street in a truly interesting neighborhood in Montreal. Next door to us live a family whose 93-year-old patriarch was born in the house where his grown children still live. Our own building is cooperatively owned by a group of individuals who bought it 30 years ago after coveting it from their then-apartment across the street. Three of those original owners still live here and Robert, the owner of our apartment, maintains a studio in the old stables out back despite having recently moved to a house further north. This is an area rich with history, family and friendship. There is a unique intermingling of age, language, outlook and interests and many play an active role in this community.

Currently our alley is home to a magical photo exhibition, Laterna Magica, by artist (and neighbor) Loren Williams. Ms. Williams canvassed residents of two Plateau streets for photographs of the neighborhood from their own family archives. Some images are mounted on board and hung throughout the alleyway, others are displayed backlit in windows of current residents, best viewed after 7pm when the sun has gone down. Altogether it makes for a fascinating glimpse into our neighborhood over the course of many decades (and I'm sure a trip down memory lane for many).

For example, then:

and now:

One fence hosts a series of little doors which open to reveal knotholes:

Which on further inspection show former residents of the back gardens held within:

A series of historic postcards mounted on board show idyllic scenes of Parc La Fontaine, just one block away from our house:

An archive map from the turn of the century, can you find where we live?

The carriage house/stables behind our building as they stand today:

And a photograph of former inhabitants:

At night the backlit photos take on a somewhat eerie quality, reminding one of lives lived and ended in these very streets, these homes.

Totally fascinating.

HARVEST

After work yesterday I went down to the last day of the Main Street farmer's market. I tried to avoid buying too much, but as always that was impossible. Everything there was so perfect. The harvest season is such a great time of year. Being on the west coast it's a little different than on the prairies (it last longer here, for one) and there seems to be a greater variety of fresh produce and also a greater appreciation for all the amazing things we can grow right here in the Lower Mainland.

The bounty.