more summer, murals, and various life forms

1. life form 'the cat'
so this is my recent cat guest, natalya's kitty, who was carried across the water by bus, then on the metro, to get to my place. traumatised and trembly the whole time. what did she do the first thing once she got in my room? she hid into the frame of my bed, and stayed there for a day and a half. (of which the first night i had no idea whether she was still in the house or had somehow (but how???) gotten away.) this is how nice of a hostess i am.

looking like she's facing at least agonizing torture, if not certain death.

obviously things are better now since i can laugh about it. at least from my perspective they are, i dunno about kitty. as long as she eats and uses the litter, i'm fine with it. on the other hand, she has to put up with my erratic sleeping schedule and listening to westeros podcasts.

and  has apparently taken to reading my spanish lessons

or, which is more often the case, catblocking my access to said spanish lessons. (one time she shut one of my skype video chats by stepping on the keyboard, so.)

2. otherwise, life goes on as usual. please follow me, if you will, on some more of my city walks.

one-of-a-kind day: the English 1A survivors, celebrating survival with icecream on st-denis

and new stores popping up on st denis, like mushrooms after the rain...wait

these are pics taken on probably different early afternoons, during my walks in the same spots, with the same direction: on rachel/st-denis, towards downtown. i had to take one of my old favourite boulangerie, "au co'pains d'abord". extra points for the bike symmetry.

and the ideal movie set summertime patio: @ "le festin de babette" 

and moving back up to my neighbourhood, a permanent source of small wonders:

more  street-side mini-gardens

more bikes (seriously, when am i going to get one????)

more of my attempts at capturing "what an actual street in villeray looks like, just, like, in general, you know"

behind jean-talon market

aaand a newly-discovered boutique of "creations quebecoises", behind the market as well. no pics from inside cause, as usual, i'm shy of asking permission, but one can seriously spend lots of time there...

now this is serious dedication to street-side gardening!

more from the same street corner, to show the various types of herbs. more displays (larger, but less photogenic! but amazing to see on the street, still!!!: corn plant rows, tomato rows, green pepper rows)

corner of garage sale, on a muggy weekend day, in our corner of the world

now with details

and this last bunch of pics spans the length of a walk i took from mont-royal, meandering a bit east by parc la fontaine, then up to mile end, on the eve of quebec's national day (when all the stores had humongous sales and i had no money to spend, so i walked, ok???)

exhibiting relaxation or smth

boulangerie (brebeuf/marie-anne!!) recommended to me by sonia z. back in 2009. i've lived in that neighbourhood for...years, and i've only been in twice. but i always say hi when i pass

ugly human-sized bird with stolen fry

on duluth, my "home away from home", street of maison de l'amitie. there was a mural festival recently, and on that occasion i think they've changed the mural on the "chez jose" building. it used to be a happy orange octopus...i still miss it...it will take a while to get readapted to these rooster creatures, or whatever they are.

still on duluth...maybe my favourite new mural

all this soccer brazil craziness is getting a bit out of hand, i feel...when on the eve of st jean baptiste one sees more brazil flags in the street than quebec flags...it's slightly puzzling

on st laurent, my favourite second-hand bookstore for books in english. although i still buy most of my stuff from  'renaissance' outlets

and right across the street from the bookstore, more brazil. ugh.

corrida next to parc de portugal...

i don't know what it says, but i hope for the sake of this gate that it's a deep, meaningful quote.

more favourite new mural. we are already in mile end!!

and just a view from a ruelle (with the obligatory "ceci n'est pas une latrine" note included)

two-colored chevrefeuil, very integrated in its landscape

and a muggy evening view of the st bernard flower shop. the idea was to include all its overflowing magnificence, even if the colors don't come out so well. 

furniture season approaching its peak...with involuntary selfie.

and this is the sad point where one of the straps of my sandal snapped, forcing me to go home ...i literally wore out a pair of shoes on this walk...a day's job well done.