Summer flowers

Playing around with the Canon.

Love the sharper images this lens provides.

All under the watchful gaze of The Budster.

Rainy days and back alleys

Scenes from a Fall Day

These were taken yesterday whilst Buddy and I were out and about, mostly in the city's back alleys which I love. Except in the winter. These are a mess in the winter when we get piles of snow and ruts of ice and the cars you see peeking out can't actually get out. And there's nowhere to put the snow you're shoveling. Other than that, the alleys are pretty swell.

Also, Not My Problem. I have indoor parking for the first time ever and I plan on never going back to scraping layers of ice off my car every time I want to go get a carton of milk. But I digress.

Alleys are pretty this time of year.

 

The Private Lane 15 sign intrigued me, and only made me a) want to trespass (which I did to take the photo) and, b) want to go on a quest to find Private Lane 1 through 14. And beyond.

A Spring Walk In The Rain

Forgive me for being absent. There's been a lot of travel this month and more to come. There are graduations and birthdays and moves to organize and so much more.

Today, despite the drizzly weather and strong wind, Buddy and I went for a long walk on the city streets.

This is what we saw.

Aren't the colours in this tulip divine?

Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, for the upcoming Chihuly exhibit

Fading flowers, still beautiful

I know the artist is name Chihuly but I keep wanting to say Chipotle.

The last of the tulips.

Some interesting brickwork on Bishop Street

Another cat paw brick! A double one, in an alley off Bishop

This is the view from the alley. I almost got squashed by a delivery truck backing up. Don't you love this window? Wasted on a narrow alley, methinks. But such is Montreal. All kinds of surprises in hidden corners, tucked away from view.

Love these buildings, the old juxtaposed with the new. This is Montreal.

More carved stone.

I want to live here. There's a teensy deck on the second floor, and a large deck on the roof.

I took this by accident, but I kind of like it.

Time for some flowers

Pioneer Woman is having another photography contest on her blog, and this time the theme is flowers. I pulled out some of my old flower shots mainly because they cheer me up this time of year. Just think, all these little beauties are right there, sleeping beneath the snow. Hard to imagine when I look out the window.

Mother's Day. It's all over but the shoutin'...

Well, the shoutin' and the photos.

Sure fresh flowers are bee-youtiful, but they quickly fade. But, I took some shots of the sweet little arrangement my girls picked up for me, and it's almost as good as having the real thing.

Almost.







And now, I'm off to check on the cottage where we're doing a few renos. Last weekend, we stopped to say hello to Farmer C. who looks after the place when we're not there.

Apparently, according to Farmer C., there have been timber wolves out and about. As in, right in his back yard in full view of his farmhouse. And coyotes, which we knew about. Then Farmer C. told us how he and two neighbours went out on the frozen lake this winter to rescue a deer. There were three deer trying to cross the lake to get to the island. Two of them made it, but one fell on the ice, which was so glassy and smooth, every attempt to right itself ended up in failure, its legs splayed leaving the poor deer (no pun intended) close to exhaustion. So the three men went and lassoed the deer, who was at the end of its rope (no pun intended) then they pulled the deer to a rough patch so it could get back on its feet (no pun intended.)

But, most exciting of all (well, the timber wolves are pretty exciting) he saw a moose right on our property! I really hope I get a glimpse of one this year.

Okay, this post was clearly all over the map.