pas ce soir, Josephine

it's been a long time since i was last in Montreal

about 27 years if we're counting

i had fond memories

and looked forward to revisiting a few of them

while researching a few other possibilities

and gathering some windfalls

in places i had walked as a child

i had also planned to donate a work

to a Museum here

glowingly billed [on their website]

it took a while to find it

a while being a 5 hour trek aux pieds

made memorable by rude bicyclists

indicating they would cheerfully have hurled us off the Jacques Cartier Bridge

despite that we were being well-behaved and walking on the side reserved for pedestrians

[where les bicyclettes were completely interdit]

clearly things do get flung from the bridge

from time to time

we saw a perambulator in fragments far below

the sort of pieces and splatter pattern that are produced when something

gets on the wrong side of gravity

in conjunction with a very hard surface

we hope the occupant had wings

or a parachute

or had simply outgrown and discarded the chariot

but i digress

here is the museum

charming, n'est ce pas?

[those are little bird houselets hanging on the posts at front]

but perhaps not the place to deposit a frock.

shall give it to the Precious instead

so she can make something of it

and wear it

rather than having it stored in that attic

waiting for visitors who never come

because they are lost on an island in the St Lawrence

or being hurled from a bridge by a passing cyclist

and slipping off topic for a moment

how do we think the inhabitants of

numero 155 Riverside drive [above] felt

when the powers-that-be

ran a freeway interchange

as well as a couple of overhead railway tracks

[couldn't get them all into the picture]

within spitting distance of their once charming cottage

a highlight of the walk was the Habitat building

designed by Moshe Safdie

and being serenaded by some wee black birdies

that had scarlet tufts on their shoulders

contents of the bundle to be revealed later