Spring Wildflowers

Marie  and I spent a few days at the cabin this past week preparing for the visit of her brother Mario and his two children from Boston who will be arriving on the 27th. Spring in the Appalachians of eastern Quebec is unlike anywhere else and the climate, soil and elevation all contribute to a diversity of wild vegetation and flowers you don't see here in Montreal. These tiny beauties only bloom for a short period, from the time of the last melting snow to the leafing out of the maples that will eventually block out the sun and turn the woods into a shady and cool retreat. I took all these photos on our property on a showery, cloudy day but they still were a pleasure to the eye. Enjoy! gws

Phil & Fernanda's Bathroom Renovations Part 1

    Greetings from wet and soggy Montreal! For weeks now we have awaited eagerly for those first warm days that change the city almost overnight from a grey and ugly jumble of brick and concrete into the bright green boulevards and parks that suddenly burst into life with the colourful blossoms of trees and flowers that make this such a beautiful place. The sun did shine for a few days but we are back into the rainy cycle again and no reprieve I guess for all those people flooded out by the swollen Richelieu River and Lake Champlain, a flood  zone covering the area between Montreal's south shore down to the New York border. I managed to get out to our property this past week and, at 2100 feet above sea level, everything was dry and dusty, a far cry from those people south of us. Here in Montreal though we have a few minor water incursions to fix but the main project going on at the moment is the complete makeover of Phil and Fer's bathroom. They are doing all the work themselves, from the demolition to putting in all new plumbing and electrical, putting up new walls, installing new fixtures and lights, and taping and painting, My job, other than a few comments, some grunt work when needed and a little advise not always taken, will be putting in the ceramic tiles around the shower enclosure and floor. But in the meantime alot of hard work and sweat have gone into this first major project Phil and Fer have done together here in our duplex. The following pictures will give you some idea of the task they had to face in a bathroom from 1924!

 

Floors and walls following removal of tiles, plaster, toilet and bath


Framing of new shower enclosure, green driwall and backer board

Nothing in this f******* room is square!!!

The Boss at work

New shower pan

Ceiling and new exhaust fan

Fer taping





Till next time! gws

Happy Mother's Day from St-Chrysostôme, Quebec

   This lovely warm May day found Marie and I visiting the cemetary behind the Église St-Jean-Chrysostôme in St-Chrysostôme, Quebec where her Mother and Father are buried. It is a beautiful spot, about 30 minutes south of Montreal near the New York border, surrounded by the fertile farms, dairys, orchards and greenhouses that supply the big city to the north. It was a much needed break for both of us from the ongoing duplex renovations, work and the bustle of Montreal. It has been over seven years since Marie lost her parents and standing there in the freshly mowed lawn of the cemetary we both marvelled at the passing of time. On our return to home I called my Mum and was gladdened to hear how well she sounded, enjoying her special day with her daughters and new great-granddaughter Brenna. I love you Mum!

Where the heck is St-Chrysostôme?


Whether we wake or we sleep,
Whether we carol or weep,
The Sun with his Planets in chime,
Marketh the going of Time.
~Edward Fitzgerald
gws

Dame Evelyne Landry

All in all this has been an emotional week.  It all started with a call from my aunt Thérèse Bourgoin to inform me that my aunt Évelyne Landry-Bourgoin, my uncle Claude's wife, had passed away from bladder cancer.  This was shocking since she had only been diagnosed a month earlier.  My aunt and uncle had been such a support when my Mom and Dad passed away, that I thought it very important to go to my aunt's funeral.  My cousin Denyse arranged everything.  Since her father is very ill, she also had to ensure that he could participate to he funeral.  So on Tuesday morning I made my way to the bus station for a 12 hour drive from Montreal to Carleton-sur-mer, an idyllic sea-side community by the Baie des Chaleurs.  I must say that buses have evolved a great deal, with more leg room, plugs and wi-fi, which made the trip endurable.  The bus dropped me off at the Heron restaurant in Carleton-sur-mer at about 9:15pm where my cousin Denyse met me.  The last time we had seen each other was for our grandfather's funeral in 1974; we were 17.  It was very easy to recognize her as she looks very much like her mother.  She drove me, a couple of minutes away, to the B&B I was staying at: Gîte la Mer la Montagne.  For $57 per night I had a huge room with a queen bed, a double bed, a full bathroom, and a balcony overlooking the Baie des Chaleurs; this price also included a wonderful home-made hot and cold breakfast.  My hosts, Monsieur Roger Legault et Mme Alice Piquette, were wonderful, warm, entertaining, and very helpful - Alice drove me to the Church the morning of the funeral (they had also offered to pick me up and drop me off at the bus station). You can see it all at http://www.lamerlamontagne.com/index.htm.  

                                                               
At the church, the oldest Roman Catholic church in Gaspésie, he funeral was well organized by my cousin who, with the assistance of her husband, Yves Tardiff, ensured that everyone was welcomed and properly introduced to everyone else; she also ensured her father was given appropriate information to remember who everyone was.  The flowers were beautiful and framed the pedestal where my aunt's ashes were resting in a wonderful vessel that reflected all the light in a rainbow-like halo.  The music and the signers were  inspirational.  The big surprise came when my uncle insisted in saying a few words in remembrance of his wife.  Since he is not in good health, my cousin and her husband helped him to be podium where he started by reading from a prepared speech, which he obviously gave a lot of thought to, and then he continued on from the heart in remembering how they met and how they lived their life together in much love and respect.  Unfortunately, my cousin Paul, my uncle's youngest child, could not come because of illness.  I kept thinking of him as I am sure it must have been very difficult for him. One of Évelyne's sister, Lucette, was able to come, but her other sister, Madeleine is very ill and could not make the trip.  Lise, one Denyse's cousin on her mother's side was also there.  After the mass, the family was invited for a light lunch in the Sacristy, where we all renewed acquintances.  I actually met a couple of distant cousins which still live in Mont-Joli where my father was born and grew up.

After the funeral I walked back to the B&B, about 5 minutes, while Denyse brought her father back to his residence.  That evening Denyse, Lucette, Lise, Denyse's best friend and myself all enjoyed supper together at the Heron restaurant.  The restaurant has a wonderful view of the Baie des Chaleurs from the dining room area where we had the whole place to ourselves.

Then it was back to the B&B for the night.  After another wonderful breakfast, my cousin picked me up to deliver me safely to the bus station where we said our good byes and I embarked on another 12 hour trip for home.

I would highly recommend a visit to the Gaspésie, a very unique and culturally different part of Quebec and Canada.  The view and the people are amazing.  If you do, remember to stop by Carleton-sur-mer  http://www.carletonsurmer.com/ville/!

As I reflected I thought:  isn't it so sad that we have to wait for these events in our lives to make the effort to visit others which at one point mattered so much!

--Marie/gws

Muffy Bird

                         Hold fast to your dreams! Without them life is like a dog in a cage that cannot fly.....
                                                                     Happy May!  gws

Happy Birthday Big Sister!



Me and my big sister!

  My sister and I know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. She is that little bit of my childhood that can never be lost. I love you Lyn!  gws
 

Spring Renovations

    No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow and this past week, with an improvement in the weather, I decided it was time get on with some overdue renovations to the duplex., As Phil is presently updating his bathroom I took the opportunity to open up the old exhaust fan hole in our bathroom and reopen a hole in the roof to allow venting from both upstairs and downstairs. At the same time I had the roofers install new shingles on the cornice overlooking the front of the building. The old shingles were completely shot, shedding pieces constantly onto the balcony and filling up the gutter and the yard below. We now have to run the electrical and install the fans, a job which involves climbing up again on the roof to connect the flexible vent pipe.


 


Putting down the asphalt around the wooden vent frame

  
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Another view of our roof with skylight over bathroom

  

vent hole in my bathroom, one foot below roof



Phil`s bathroom roof, vent at left



New cornice above my balcony

   This past weekend I had the carpenter who did some dri-walling for me in the dining room come over to help me put in two new steel doors at the rear of the duplex, one leading out to my back balcony and the other going out to Phil's deck and backyard. As this old building is no longer square we had a few problems getting the doorframes level but after two days we succeeded and the change in the rear entranceway is amazing. Phil installed a Weiser powerbolt deadbolt and he and Fer love the added security and light which he now has in the stairwell. But pictures tell the story so without further ado....

 

Before - upstairs back door

 

Before - downstairs back door

After - downstairs back door!



After - upstairs back door!



Just a matter of putting on some trim, in and out, and we are ready for summer bbq-ing! Next projects are to finish the bathrooms, repoint the brick in the front and do some minor brick work in the back. But right now the garden is calling me and I have some flowers to plant!... Merci pour votre visite - à bientôt!  gws

Sweet!

   For those who didn't realize it Canada makes more than 80 percent of the world's maple syrup, the vast majority (75%) of this coming from here in Quebec! Don`t tell that to anyone from Ontario or Vermont - for sure they have their own maple syrup industry but it is tiny compared to what is produced here in La Belle Province. Everywhere you look you can see forests of maple trees - like in our own backyard on the mountain - which usually have the high sugar content necessary for maple syrup. The varities you will most likely see here are the sugar maple which is the most commonly tapped species, then the black maple, the red maple and the silver maple. And now that the spring thaw has arrived all the maple syrup producers are going full out tapping their trees. As the sap is only sweet enough to make maple syrup a few weeks a year you can imagine the run on the sugar shacks scattered all over the province! The sap needs frosty nights and warm sunny days in order to flow so production that started in March is now in full swing. The past few weeks have been perfect and yesterday was a gem of a day, chilly overnight that turned into a warm sunny day.
    So, to take advantage of this beautiful weekend, Marie and I, and Phil and Fer bundled into his car Saturday and headed out to Mont Saint-Gregoire, about 45 minutes east of Montreal to partake in a very Canadian tradition - the annual visit to the "cabane à sucre" (sugar shack)! Fernanda had never seen a real maple syrup operation before and I thought it would be the ideal thing for her to do.

Our table, just before we attacked it!

    We had made reservations at the beautiful log reception hall and stuffed ourselves on thick pea soup, homemade baked beans, meat pies (tourtieres), maple-cured ham, oreilles de crisse (fried strips of salt pork fat), omelettes, fresh rolls, cider, milk, sausages, eggs, salad, beets, homemade pickles, tomato, fried potatoes, pancakes and maple sugar pie. The more we ate the more the goodies kept coming! Barely able to move we walked very slowly over to the sap house where the maple syrup was being boiled down and somehow found the room for some some maple taffy on snow! In one of the sap houses they pour hot, super-concentrated syrup on a bed of fresh snow and as it cools you scoop it up with wooden sticks. Yummmm! Afterwards we did a wagon tour of the surrounding woods and apple orchard, stopping to pick up some more treats and a bottle of ice cider.

Marie hogging the bottle of maple syrup!

   I think Fernanda was very happy she came and discovered another bit of Candiana she can tell her friends and family about in Mexico. We had brought Phil to a sugar shack in Ontario when he was much younger but the big attraction to him now is, of course, the food! If he decides to explore that part of the region just east of the city there are numerous local artisans all within an hour or so on what is called the Circuit du Goût - boulangeries, farms, chocolateries, wineries and cideries. And this time of the year you don't need to go too far to find a sugar shack.

Le Shack



Fernanda on Rue Cesar!



Inside the sap house rolling taffy

Phil and Fer inside the sap house

                              

Fresh apples

The owners of this outfit were still tapping the trees in the traditional way - hanging tin buckets on the maples trees, the clear white liquid dripping and slowly filling up the bucket. There is at least one bucket and sometimes more on every tree as it takes about 40 litres to produce one litre of the delicious syrup. We got there before the crowds thankfully and, as there is no ritual in Quebec quite so genuine and endemic as the sugar shack experience, it was wise to come early! gws 

Tom and Nixon

          
     Last week Marie and I welcomed two new members of the family home, Nixon the Agate canary and Tom the English budgie. Nixon is a wonderful singer, from a long line of great singers, his songs full of bass and flute notes, with occasional bell and bubbling water sounds filling the house as he welcomes the rising sun. Tom is the quiet taciturn type who says little but likes to sit on your shoulder and occasionally grumble about nothing in particular. Perhaps he got that from me....They live in separate cages, and even though Tom has the run of the place, he has already bonded with Nixon and can be usually found sitting on Nixon's cage as close as he can to his new buddy. The house is always filled with song now from 7am till sundown and, although it doesn't look or feel like spring outside, winter has finally been put to rest from within.  gws

It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds

.

Sing away, ay, sing away, Merry little bird

You have to believe in happiness,

Or happiness never comes ...
Ah, that's the reason a bird can sing -
On his darkest day he believes in Spring.