Playing Tourist in My Hometown

I feel fortunate as today it is a gloriously sunny day with a gentle breeze here, while the Eastern seaboard is bracing itself for a monster hurricane. I'm praying that everyone and their pets will be safe and that Irene will somewhat calm herself down before landing on shore.


Two week-ends ago, my family and I took off for Montreal to go to my niece's wedding. The wedding, which took place in the Notre-Dame Basilica in the old part of Montreal, was as lovely as can be, every detail perfect, the bride absolutely gorgeous in a mermaid dress, the bridesmaids in sexy purple and the groom and groomsmen in tuxes and Converse shoes. Yes, Converse shoes. Totally funky! I loved it. The priest even made mention of it in his talk to the bride and groom, saying that married life was an obstacle course and you needed to be prepared.


This is the same church where we said our vows 24 years ago, so it was particularly meaningful to us. My niece had been our flowergirl. We felt a bit old...

Notre Dame Basilica

We made an extra long week-end of it and decided to play tourists in Old Montreal on the Friday before the wedding day. 

The details on the older buildings are spectacular.

A mix of old and modern, typical of Montreal.

Don't you just love this garland?

And this Art Deco brass detail, patinaed to perfection?

Un charmant petit bistro...

Even the street signs have an old vibe.

Oozing with charm!

A lot of beautiful boutiques. We almost bought these cute fascinators for the wedding!

A whimsical bronze

Streets of cobblestones that have been standing the test of time!

Street performers add to the local colour.

Eye catching door colour!

If you ever think of visiting Montreal, here are a few ways you can get around:

A beautiful Vespa. Why not? Very European.

This is a bike renting system called Bixi. You can rent a bicycle very cheaply for 24 hours and return it to any of these handy stations that are set up throughout the city. Very popular.

Here is another mode of transportation in Old Montreal.  Although I'm not a proponent of caleches because you never know how well they take care of the horses (I'm always so concerned about animal welfare), I still thought it made for a beautiful picture.

You can take the "metro"(subway).

This very Art Nouveau metro entrance is an exact replica of the ones in Paris, donated by, who else, Paris!

Closeup detail of the metro entrance. Gorgeous!

And, of course, like us, you can simply walk and take it all in:

Hope you enjoyed this little tour of my beloved Old Montreal. 

Words to Live By

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world."

What a beautiful quote full of sincerity from Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), the Opposition party of the Canadian Government. Jack Layton passed away yesterday at the age of 61, after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Even though Canadians tend to be somewhat liberal to conservative and the NDP is more on the left, Jack Layton managed to carve a good slice of the votes at the last federal elections. He was well loved and well respected by all.

He wrote a beautiful letter to Canadians before passing away. The above quote is how he concluded his letter. I can't help but think that a dying man must be graced with a certain wisdom and clarity of mind that the rest of us just don't possess, in order to write such beautiful words. 

So today, as flags all over the country are flying at half-mast in his honour, let's take a moment to remember the words of a bright, passionate and determined man and try to live by them. Wouldn't they make a good mantra?

Little Time Wasters

I haven't been blogging much this summer. Firstly, I'm still trying to get the house organized after our move in April, secondly, well, I'm trying to enjoy summer, and thirdly...

These little guys are keeping me busy!

I volunteer once a week as a receptionist at our local Humane Society. I also foster pregnant Moms and their kittens. We have had several litters so far, but this is the first one at this house. And although I had decided to postpone taking any more litters in order to get the house organized, it is kitten season and the shelter was overrun, and so these little guys and their Mama arrived at our house June 16 at 10 days old. Mama is a young cat, barely 8 months old when she gave birth, so she was rather stressed out about the whole thing and not nursing very well. But once she got settled in at our house, she slowly caught on with the whole process and eventually became a very good mom. I keep them downstairs in the laundry room, which is spacious, fairly indestructible and kitten proof.

These moms are usually strays or abandoned cats. The shelter finds foster homes for them so that they can be more relaxed and so that the kittens can grow up in a home environment to get socialized.

 This litter has 5 kittens: 3 boys, 2 girls

See this little grey and white one hiding under the brown tabby? He's the cutest little runt. He's about one third the size of the others, but he's feisty and scrappy and always the first one at the feeding bowl. And he has the sweetest disposition! Love!

Here he is again!

This one is a little girl who looks like her Mama.

Here's the sweet little one looking at water for the first time. Doesn't know what to make of it!

First time eating. Love the feet right in the bowl! They are 5 weeks old at this stage. At about the same time they start eating solids, they start using the litter box. Before that Mama cleans everything. They master the litter box remarkably fast!

Taking a little rest, all curled up together. How cozy!

And there's Mama. Her name is Mabel. I haven't come up with names yet for the little ones! Mabel had a very irresponsible owner who let her roam outside before she was spayed and now it becomes our problem to deal with.

This little one is all grey except for the white tips of his 4 paws!

This is the other little girl.

So tired after playing!

I spend a lot of time feeding them, cleaning the litter boxes, the food dishes, the floor, etc. But really I spend the most time just watching their antics! They run, they jump, they pounce, they climb, they do flips and somersaults, they wrestle and generally just practice doing big cat things. So much time wasted watching them play!

After doing this for a few years, you'd think I would be blasé about the whole thing, but not at all. Each time I get a new litter, I'm awed by the whole experience. And when the time comes to say good-bye, when they are 8 weeks old and ready to be adopted, I have mixed feelings: I won't miss all the hard work, but I am at this point attached to everyone of them and I blubber like a baby shed a tear or two on the way to the shelter and again when I say good-bye to them and Mama. (Mama then gets spayed and is also put up for adoption.) But I console myself with the fact that our shelter has very high standards of care, it is a no kill shelter and, because I'm there once a week, I may get to see them again before they each go to their forever home, and then get to hear their happy tail story about who adopted them, etc. And I also console myself thinking about how much joy they will bring to somebody else!

And this is the part where I do like Bob Barker and tell you to get your pets spayed and neutered!

Cool Dinner on a Hot Day

The weatherman announced that today was going to be a record day for heat. Right at this moment, with the humidity factor, it's like 116 Farenheit or 47 Celsius. Yikes! Today is definitely a good day for a cold dinner.

To stay hydrated, I am planning to whip up a pitcher of agua fresca, which is a cool Mexican drink of water, sugar, ice and fruit:

The starter course will be a bowl of gazpacho with perhaps a dollop of light sour cream. This vegetable cold soup is so tasty and refreshing, full of nutrients and very low in fat.

Photo credit: Andre Baranowsk

The main course will be this cold poached salmon with a cucumber dill sauce from cooks.com, served with a mixed green salad. This is one of my favourite ways to serve salmon!

To finish off, perhaps a fruit salad or some lemon sherbert, or, since this is such a virtuously low fat, low cal meal, a nice trip to DQ for a soft serve cone!

Photo credit: Dairy Queen

Stay cool my friends!

Some Birthday Wishes

This week-end, two great nations, two great friends who share the longest border in the world, celebrate their birthdays. We are lucky to be living in these two beautiful countries, where freedom prevails, where we have rights, where we can speak and speak up and be heard, where we have a chance to become anything we want and succeed at everything.

So, on this beautiful summer week-end, let's get together with family and friends, fire up the barbecues, whip up some strawberry shortcake and raise a toast to celebrate our two great countries!

Animations provided by MySpaceAnimations.com

Have a great long week-end, everyone!

The Enchanted Bench

You see this gorgeous Kilim bench below?

It was a wonderful giveaway from Tina of The Enchanted Home and Safavieh Home a little while back.

Well, guess what! This gorgeous, stunning thang is now IN MY HOUSE! That's right, I was the winner! I was in shock!

Tina and the folks over at Safavieh bent over backwards to get the bench shipped to me here in Canada and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. I am so grateful! 

The bench was delivered yesterday and it is stunning: the texture and neutral tones of the kilim fabric make this bench a very versatile piece and I love, love, love the unfinished turned legs on wheels. I don't know where it will end up in my house, I'm thinking perhaps the side entrance, which is kind of the mudroom. There's a little nook there where it fits in perfectly, but I would like to put a beadboard backing to add contrast and visual interest. When we finalize the look, I will certainly post some pictures.

Again, thank you Tina and Safaview Home! Make sure you visit Tina's gorgeous blog, and Safavieh's website to see their fantastic furniture selection (and yes, they ship to Canada!). You can also visit them on Facebook.

My Garden Tour Part II

Good morning! Blogger has updated its picture uploading feature and I like it a lot more! I was able to upload all the photos I wanted all at once. Progress!

So let me continue taking you on my garden tour, since I can't take you on a house tour, things are not organized up to my standards just yet. In any case, it's summer, it's too nice to be spending time in the house cleaning and organizing, don't you agree?

Here's a peaceful little oasis in our backyard. My husband wanted to leave this bench at the old house and I said, "What for?" Glad I didn't listen to him, it looks so nice here.

Now here is a strange container. Before the renos, the house had an old, useless, indoor barbecue that was probably not safe. We had the whole thing taken down to replace it with a bank of pantry cupboards. Now this indoor barbecue was topped with a copper vent. Imagine this empty, turned around and hanging from the ceiling. (Unfortunately, I can't find the before pic!) Not wanting to throw away a piece of copper, I asked the demolishing crew to put it aside. I was going to sell it to a metal scrapper, until I had a divine inspiration. Turn it into a planter! I like the fact that I can keep it as a piece of the house's history. It needs polishing to restore its shine and I am planning to put a curlicue wood decoration at the front to dress it up a bit.

Now this was the barbecue door! Again, I thought it was too pretty to scrap, so it is now in the garden. My friend thinks it looks hideous and keeps trying to get me to throw it out, but I don't want to and it's my house, so there, lol! 

Again, I like the fact that it's part of the house's history.

The heart shaped curlicues of the barbecue door are echoed in this half-moon garden gate. Beyond the gate is the golf course where the blue heron sometimes swoops in and where the goose family lives. Such peacefulness!

 More of those lovely columbines I so adore. This variety is called "Pink Swan". 

They remind me of little ballerinas.

 Honeysuckle growing near the gate. Love this pink-orangey-yellow!

We now move to the front, where this little red weigelia is in full bloom. It contrasts 

nicely against the blue salvia.

No idea what these purple flowers are, but love 'em!

Now we're back in the backyard, where I am in the midst of creating a rosebed. I'm a huge fan of roses, always loved them, always will. Isn't this colour wonderful?

And for the grand finale, a perfect pink rose with a little drop of dew.

I swear I didn't stage this, Mother Nature did!

Hope you enjoyed my little garden tour! I'll update it as it evolves throughout the summer.