Quebec

The View Around Here

I’m a little pressed for time this morning, we’re working on the PDF version of Eat This. The Kindle version is ready to go. The book will also be available at Barnes & Noble and iTunes. We’re aiming for a Monday release. Damien and I are a DIY publishing shop. We do it all. And yes, we are available for hire.

As always I have way more photos from the week than I have the space to share or the time to tell the accompanying story. There’s always a story.

Summer is a busy time for my camera and on any given day I might take upwards of two hundred photos, especially since we are living somewhere new and there is so much to photograph and remember about this time. I edit and post process all those photos (I shoot everything in RAW format); deleting many, keywording the rest, posting some here and saving the rest for posterity and other publications (our product reviews, online articles and blog posts).

I’ve whittled down the photos from the past week’s camera activity (we have two cameras) to just under two hundred. I’ve done well.

Québec has a unique circus culture, for lack of a better description. Montréal is home to the largest circus school in North America, there’s a circus school on the Gaspe peninsula even, and there is a general “theatrical arts” feel to the culture here. I don’t quite know how to describe it. I don’t think the locals or provincial natives notice this much, but as an outsider I’m really aware of it. It’s cool.

I’ve mentioned before that I have missed the raspberries from my old garden. I may have spoken too soon. The wild raspberries are in season now and they are all over the woods where we live. We live at the base of a ski hill and the raspberries especially love the sunny slopes. The photo above is from the woods nearer our house (not a ski slope) but this afternoon or tomorrow I’m headed to the slopes to go picking.

There’s not enough raspberries, or rather I don’t have the time right now, to stock the freezer. Nor do I have a freezer to stock. We sold it before we left Maine. I’ll get another one this fall or winter for next summer’s bounty. This is not a gardening summer for me, it’s a moving and writing summer.

We added the raspberries to afternoon smoothies and to our Saturday morning baked apples. We used to only eat baked apples, topped with cashew cream sauce, in the cooler months (October through April). But the mornings are cool in the mountains (though the days get summer hot, which we love) and with all our moving this past year this food ritual has made the four different places we’ve lived feel like home. Baked apples all year round. No one is complaining.

Last Sunday we did an epic hike day with the kids and Monday they were totally wiped out. They spent a lot of time in this position, till about 8pm, when the futon mattress was place on the floor for wrestling.

At our last house in Maine we never owned a dryer. I wrote a post about that and it’s one of the most popular here at FIMBY. During the course of moving, we had access to a dryer at each of our houses. That was nice. We used it all the time in our little chalet last winter because there was no room to hang laundry.

We are once again without a dryer and it feels good. Sure I miss the ease of drying laundry, regardless the weather but we have the space again for racks - indoors and out. And the kids do all the hanging and folding (in style I might add) so it’s no more work for me. I just load and wash.

We don’t encourage the kids to change clothes all the time (a few spots on a shirt or pants are no big deal around here), we wash towels once a week and sheets far less often than that, and there is no cloth diapers anymore. So, we only do about four loads on an average week. Totally doable without a dryer.

There is a river where we live. I’ve already mentioned this, one or two times (smile). The water is crystal clear and aquamarine in the pools. Maybe next year we’ll have some kind of raft we can float on. For now we dip our toes (the younger two actually swim, head under), splash around, and just enjoy the cool valley air on the hot summer afternoons.

There is a trail along this river, Damien walks it a couple times a week for his morning exercise. He’s a very disciplined “exerciser”, I’m not. He takes the kids with him on these hour long walks. Céline lost her sweater along the trail early this week so I did the loop with her yesterday to look for it. We found it, and a lot of deer prints too. I had no idea how gorgeous this trail was, literally right outside our door.

After walking with Céline, I hopped in the car with the younger two and drove to town to pick up our farm panier. The pick up spot is at a municipal park, right on the bay. The kids swam in the ocean while I rested on the beach.

I had thought about sharing some more of those photos but I have gone past my photo limit already. Come back this weekend to see what farm pickup at ocean looks like.

A Walk to The River

They walked down to the river to play. To build sand castles and cities at the river's edge, where the water is shallow and slow. I let them go, with kisses and bug repellent.

It had been over an hour, at least, and I missed them. Their laughter and even their crazy antics. To be honest, I worried just a wee bit too. Always the tension of letting them go and holding them close.

I couldn't remember what time they left but it was soon time for supper.

I walked to the river to call them home. To see their creations. And just to be. Here.

This breathtakingly beautiful spot in our backyard - down the hill (through the woods) and across the infrequently traveled road. This place without predators, animal or human. Where the only thing "dangerous" are the bugs.

This is life where we call home. And here I thought there was no paradise on earth.

Leaving Montreal

We leave this beautiful city in two days.

I'm ready.

my Dad took this photo on his iPhone

My parents are visiting us these last few days. As "luck" would have it I'm also "under the weather". I can't say I'm full blown sick but my body is definitely fighting something and is telling me to rest, as much as possible. A tad scratchy throat, blowing my nose and more tired than usual. Bummer eh?

We're all feeling this way. Not my parents thankfully, but the five of us. The worst hit is Brienne, as the youngest she always gets the sickest whenever the family has a bug.

She's still building her immunity, at least that's my theory. Or perhaps she has a more compromised immune system than the rest of us. I have wondered about that possibility as she has the most bodily aches and pains of the whole crew also. Which isn't much to begin with but it's noticeable when everyone is otherwise very robust. But that is a discussion for another day.

Right now we're feeling a little worn out (it's been a fun month!) with less than two days left of our month in Montréal.

I think we'll be feeling energetic enough though by tomorrow to hit downtown, maybe even take in a bit of the Jazz Festival.

I want to enjoy these last moments to the maximum but I'm ready now to return to the woods, the rivers, the mountains and the Baie des Chaleur. I got an e-mail from the farm this week that our basket pick up starts next Thursday.

It's time to go home.

But oh how I will miss this vibrant, gorgeous, stone and brick building city. The walk-up apartments with spiraling staircases, front yard gardens overflowing. The bicyclists everywhere, taking over the streets. Festivals, every day a festival. And the simple pleasures of backyard pools and urban markets.

What I won't miss - traffic on the main highways, the expenses of city life (parking, metro tickets etc), road construction, bureaucracy (we are finishing our health insurance application and child tax credit applications here).

It's been a fabulous month. What started as a time of being homeless (in between chalet rentals) turned into a city experience for our family. I am so grateful for this fabulous time with my family.