My only acknowledgement of Hallowe’en: pumpkin soup…

Sunday night means open house for food and friendly natter at the apartment. Ulli provided both tonight, with a stonking pumpkin soup. We did, admittedly, forget about the seeds which we’d put in the oven to use later, but the soup was brilliant, and was the perfect way for me to experience my first ever Hallowe’en themed meal :)

Conversations subjects included (but were not limited to…) phone sex, Albertan sovereignty, the qualities of beer versus wine, the correct name for ‘Kinder Egg’ and phone bills from Bell Mobility. The bastards.

*j*

Is this the last chance…?

Daylight savings started today… or did it finish… I can never remember which way round it is… Anyway, I woke up this morning with an extra hour in the bank to use for my pleasure today. So after a caffeine free breakfast (it’s good to do it just once a week) I meandered east along avenue du Mont-Royal. The apartment is about five minutes east of the nearest metro, so I know the section of the street between here and the metro very well, passing along it at least twice every day. So it’s always a pleasure to turn left out of the front door instead of right.

I wandered… peering into cafés, looking over crowded notice boards in shop doorways, browsing around clothes stores, savouring the smells at the bagel place and bargain hunting at the Dolorama. As long as it isn’t dependent on retail, this is my favourite way to spend the weekend. The sky was a clear blue, cloudless and high above. The air is not yet cold - a very fresh 10 C at most; perfect for an urban weekend I returned home to eat and then got a call from Ryan and Jonathan imploring me to come up to the moutain where the air was even sweeter. I grabbed the camera and stepped out of the apartment just as a bus was passing. It carried me to the top, and to my favourite view of Montréal, from the pavillion that is at the same height above the island as the tops of the skyscrapers.

The fall colours were in full swing in the park, and the paths were heaving with people out in their dozens… it was as if everyone knew that today might be the last warm weekend that we’ll have with only leaves carpeting the ground. Everything was vibrant, fresh and autumnal. Winter’s approaching, but it’s not here yet, and that leaves the most wondrous intermission.

*j*

A sensuous Saturday

So, friends have been re-united… last night Ulli returned from her mammoth tour of the Gaspé peninsular, with stories, photographs and wistful reminiscences of small houses that look out to sea. Looks like she got back just in the nick of time, it sounds like the appeal of retreating to a remote shack to write eloquent novels and poetry seemed to be quite strong…

Meanwhile, back in the big smoke, we continue to lurch towards winter. The first snow fell in the south of the province earlier this week, just 30km from Montréal. However, we have yet to a flake here. When it does come, however, I suspect it will come with great force, and will sweep unsuspecting Englismen off their feet.

Opening this week is the excellent Sense and the City exhibition at the Centre Canadien d’Architecture. The exhibition explores how we experience the city through the senses, and offers some methods of recording sights, sounds, smells and textures of cities from around the world. As you leave the exhibition, everything takes on an immediately sharper clarity; the colours are brighter, the sounds are clearer, and the tastes are sharper. I recommend it highly. Go now, and you’ll also catch the best of the colours in the CCA garden (pictured above).

*j*

Snapshot: Caca, James, and the map

Caca and James consider the map of most artistic places in Montréal…

Cracking the creativity code by Kelly Nestruck, reproduced from the National Post (Toronto), October 28, 2005 (original article here)…

Montreal has five of the 10 most creative neighbourhoods in the country, according to a new report released yesterday by Hill Strategies Research. Based on data from Statistics Canada’s 2001 census, “Artists by Neighbourhood in Canada” details which Canadian postal codes contain the highest concentrations of working artists.

Montreal’s H2W is the artsiest neighbourhood in the country, with 605 artists out of 7,560 workers, or 8% of the workforce. (Overall, artists make up 0.8% of Canada’s workforce.) H2W, bordered on the north and south by Mont-Royal and Pins and the east and west by Parc and St-Denis, is the centre of the Plateau Mont-Royal district, whose streets were made famous in works by Mordecai Richler (St Urbain’s Horsemen) and Michel Tremblay (Sainte-Carmen de la Main). “It’s a wonderful and amazing neighbourhood,” says local resident Chris Hand, whose Zeke’s Gallery is one of 27 places that show art in the “Horse 2 Water” postal code. Among the creative folks Hand knows with a home address in H2W are Governor-General’s Award-winning poet Erin Moure, sculptor Israel Charney, jazz festival programmer Laurent Saulnier, and inflatable artist Ana Rewakowicz. The eastern and northern parts of the Plateau — H2J and H2T — have the second- and third-highest concentrations of artists in the country, 6.1% and 5.6% respectively. [James, aspiring cartoonist, and Ryan, aspiring film maker, both presently reside at the über-trendy postal code H2J 1X7...]

Elsewhere in central Montreal, both H2V (Outremont) and H2L (Montreal Papineau, below Rachel) tied for the seventh most creative neighbourhood in Canada; B.C., the province with the highest proportion of arts workers, has two postal codes tied for seventh, too: V8K on Saltspring Island and V6A in East Vancouver.

*j*