MONTREAL

Well, I have been back on Canadian ground for nearly
2 weeks. I am in Montreal, staying in a shabby little
apartment close to where Celia lives. On Friday I go
back to stay with my sis until I leave for Vancouver
on Monday.
It's been a strange time. In-between. I knew I wanted
to have a transition, and to see Celia and my sister,
as well as any other family and friends who could
squeeze in a visit. I wanted more time to be. To BE.
To be here, to be unemployed, to be "idle and blessed"
as Mary Oliver says.
Here are some photos of things I have seen and done
while here.

My door is the one right in the centre of the picture, that blue one on a diagonal.
I'm in one of the older parts of the city - it's the Plateau, but it's not all that
trendy, and there are still Portuguese men arguing in the depanneur, and old
European women dressed all in black, and it's quiet and a little messy.

We've had a few gorgeous late autumn days, and this was one
of them. I walked partway up the mountain (ha! mountain!)
along with many other folks, runners, and parents with kids,
and dog-walkers....

One of Montreal's alleyways...this one is particularly clean
and empty. Sometimes they are filled with garbage trucks and
people trying to get past in their cars, honking, and children
riding bikes and people looking for good stuff in the garbage...

On Saturday my brother came down from Ottawa and
we went to the Musee de Beaux Arts. There are no
rules about cell phones or photos - except for some of
the paintings which have "No Photographs" beside
them. So, I took some of things that particularly
appealed to me.

This is the entrance to the old part of the Musee. The yellow and red piece on the steps
is glass, and I was trying to find out the name of the artist, but haven't been able to.
Up close, it looks like those long balloons that balloon artists make into animals.

I took some photos in the Warhol exhibit, and in other
exhibits which my brother and I visited, which I'll post
below, but didn't take any when I went back yesterday and
wandered through the van Gogh and Kandinsky exhibit. I
was too overwhelmed by all the people, and by the
awesome experience of being in the presence of these
beautiful and powerful pieces of art.

The Warhol exhibit was of his artwork in advertising posters
and magazine illustrations, not
his paintings - I wondered why I didn't see the famous
Campbell's soup cans, but this was why!