enjoy the quiet

behind the times/weather, as always. this past weekend we saw the first snow on the ground, but it was not the spectacular kind. more like small and slightly annoying, bordering on freezing rain, and with the resulting layer of ice on the street to show for it. i may be overly cautious these days about walking on icy streets, especially since i STILL own no crampons. so far my one pair of winter boots has been good for me in slippery conditions (i.e. a few days last winter), but i'm still torn about taking it out of storage...for reasons obvious to all who know me a bit: it's not winter yet! can't be using winter boots before the first proper snows, at least mid-december! blah.
i've compromised on the winter coat anyway, and used my 2nd thickest jacket (brought straight from romania, 10+ years ago, never worn in vancouver, of course) waaay sooner than last year. some mornings, when i've had to travel to schools and be out of the house by 6.30, temperatures were below zero, and i'm much more scared than usual about catching a cold.
even without this snow (which will be probably gone by tomorrow), the change of seasons has been pretty sharp. also enhanced by the fact that i've stopped working at the cafe, so i don't really have to get out of the house most days. i still try to be a good girl and go, at least to have a 30 minute walk, which means usually in the neighbourhood, so within the limits of jean talon and jarry/st hubert and st laurent.  

i like walking alone in the morning, when i get the most light. even so, it's been mostly pretty grey. i'll go to the marketplace, to look at seasonal goodies; or to plaza st hubert, to look mostly in Renaissance and other friperies (at baby clothes and books, lol); or to jarry for groceries. always with a reward stop at a local bakery/cafe, the bakery aspect being more important than the cafe in this case. (you think i'm missing all the baking at replika?? maybe - but also my craving for cream cakes continues to be outrageous and in need of regulation.)

the only point of these pictures is that i've tried to keep taking pictures, but there's nothing very spectacular in the landscape around me. i'll take a sunny day when i can get it, the cold sun in montreal is very bright and cheerful. (i'll also take any free spot at cafe perko - usually SO crowded the mornings! here's their instagram. luckily my other usual haunts are homey places: armonia grand cafe (a local quiet spot, for the decaf latte!), patisserie lajeunesse (portuguese bakery, coco bun or corn bread to go!) and pizza motta (market-side! strictly for the pastry counter!)

this is from a rare sunny afternoon walk i took with b. quite a long time ago, must be almost 2 weeks now. almost 4 pm. walks to the park are always preferable to grocery runs in the dark. that time we got frozen pretty fast (underdressing) so we entered a small salvadorean bakery/grocery store and i had a hot tamale!! (you see the connection between weather and food by now? i can try to come up with more examples just in case)

coming home from a morning substitution task, this is the reception i get from my husband and my cat! thanks, you guys!

eating at home: we've been on quite a pasta roll this week - only available braggy picture is of a 4-cheese (2 parmesans: riviera+reggiano, + blue cheese + provolone). unfortunately not pictured: mussel pasta (also the first time we steamed mussels, which was quite an event in itself) , and pasta in chicken curry , which was meant to show me how people in India cook pasta. lol, all these excesses happened after my glucose test. i still haven't gotten called back to redo it, but imagine if they did call me!

mandatory belly picture, at exactly 27 weeks. also one of the last times i tried to dress "cute", because the thick grey coat kind of makes dressing up impossible. i did get a new grey dress, but i'm conflicted on it - it has a puffy skirt, so half the time, especially in profile, i think it makes me look uncannily like an elephant. another thing i bought was a used, but very functional leather belt, because i somehow managed to break 2 (more ornamental, but lower-quality) other belts after 2 wears. live and learn.