summer days

nothing! nothing new! except the weather is warmer and there really is a point now to walking in the park or through the neighbourhood: we see new flowers and leaves every week. spring is really short here, and this year it burned out faster than last year even: lilacs, about a week and they're wilted; our pear tree flowers, 4 days tops. irises, maybe 10 days? the small white flower bush next to our gate was done before i even realized that had been it. right now it's peonies and wild roses, daisies, jasmin.

end of may - no idea exactly how many weeks ago - i can't keep track properly these days. anyway, it was getting there with the warmth part, and then, of course, summer rain. i think that was the first heat wave of the summer (in may!!) and then it broke. these days we are alternating between heat and rain, there are 30C days followed by 11C days, who knows anymore. 

the baby girl is very tan, from walking outside a lot. (in this picture she was sunburned a bit.) funny, her tan is patchy, i.e. mostly on her forehead, nose and tops of her cheeks. anyway, we have fun putting sunscreen on (and hats! god help us!) and i'm trying to dress her up in as many dresses as possible (or "frocks", as her Avva would call them)

we tried to plant a row of flowers! note that absolutely nothing came out (this is 3 weeks later, they should have come out!). but also: we did not water them regularly at all. maybe twice, apart from the rain that fell on them naturally. at least we managed to hook up the hose, so, small step forward. also note that b. chose an extremely good time for gardening: right before/during a downpour. and it still looks like we have a fresh grave on the side of our yard.

this is right when dandelions started (the pear tree barely had some buds on it). you can always count on the neighbours to have some colorful clothes hanging on any given sunny day. also the other neighbours (square house in the back) have an elaborate tomato planting operation which they've been working on intermittently 

i can't believe this was less than a month ago...but it must be. 3 weeks probably, and the kid still wearing a jacket! it was probably around 17-18 degrees, which in the sun is still decent t-shirt weather. i tend to dress her too thick, i think - especially compared to other kids i see in the street

this is not a very uncommon sight around here - people have boats they take to lakes on a weekend/holiday etc, and not everyone has garages. it's funnier that the boat was there the whole winter, though covered in that cellophane. (this, on a block parallel to ours)

the best ruelle verte this side of st-michel. i keep thinking our neighbourhood needs more back alleys, but that will probably come with gentrification - pity i'll be too old by that time, te-hee. but they're starting! this year is already better than last. in the perimeter i walk with Rada there are about three green alley types, with potted plants and a mini-library and benches etc. this is the best, between henri-bourassa and somewhere above monselet, just on the st-michel corner. 

still in the green alley: it has entrance arches on both ends. 3 weeks ago i was...about 30 weeks pregnant. nothing much to see if you don't look from the side lol. but seriously, for hot weather i just love wearing this kind of "dresses" - i don't even know what they are, kurtas i guess - i got three of them from my in-laws and i am planning to live in them all through the summer.

for me (creepy person who goes around looking at houses in the neighbourhood) the best part of the green alley is that it has views to all the backyards alongside it. this is something you won't see in the Plateau a lot (higher fences? lol. or just less space for an actual yard) but here in the almost-suburb every self-respecting building comes with its private territory. and i just love seeing what people are doing with theirs - here a new wooden patio. although we're doing nothing with ours. 

more peeking into neighbours' bussines - the blue house actually has one of those "real" round pools too.

this picture was meant to show our white flower bush at the gate (again, wilted in...less than a week) but it also shows what tina's been up to theses days. when she's not busy running away from Rada.

just random picture in the evening, our yard from the other side, with my favourite neighbours' house (did i tell you about these neighbours? late 70s probably, always walk in the garden holding eachother's arms, and followed by their orange cat)

evolution on the dandelion front, and on the pear tree flowers' too. now the tree is full of leaves AND mini-pears. i remember last year being overjoyed, thinking surely we're going to have a lot of pears by the fall - not so. they will be consumed by some mysterious rot, and we're lucky if 4-5 make it to being eaten; by squirrels most probably.
new development this weekend though: we have some wild strawberries next to our benches/table. obviously carried by the wind - please wind, bring us more good stuff. we picked 6 one day, and 5 the next day :)

just house in the neighbourhood. it's hard to time pictures for when various flowers come out etc. but one thing i like is that the terrain is very slope-y: both the street, and the sides on which the houses are built. so often that's a great opportunity to do one of those gardens on levels, with a variety of plants - it looks very good

edge of parc des hirondelles. we had the first mini-picnic  of the year (= sandwich from an italian shop) here, also i sat on a bench and then i panicked for the rest of the outing that i'd sat on a bench

more examples of social distancing. from what i remember (honestly, it feels like years ago) montreal and, by extension, my neighbourhood, still had a sizeable number of  new corona cases each day.  parks weren't officially open (now they are, i.e. they took the warning signs off the swings and installations; still not a lot of children playing, maybe 2-3 at one sighting). 

the new office space

this is Mao, beloved cat of favourite neighbours, and beloved of Rada. we usually see him every day as we pass their house, unless it's too hot for him and he's gone somewhere to hide. 

she carries a bag with her on our walks! normally she has a small snack box and a water bottle inside. if i add a sweater, she will pass it to me because "it's too heavy". oh, now her grandma sent her an actual "lady's bag" (plastic with flower appliques, and i roll my eyes)

one of her jobs during our walks is to go pet all the flowers and say hi. i don't let her go into actual rows, or touch anything that's an elaborate arrangement. still, there's a lot of  stops for us along the way

starting morning walk, complete with sunhat, sunglasses and sunscreen. the sunglasses last on the nose for about 5-10 minutes. 

saying hi to the yellow bush

lots of dandelions in the field at the  north-east end of our perimeter (henri-bourassa - pie ix), 

again in the green alley, this time with new dress. i'm pretty sure here the dress is on backwards! i'll try to provide a pic of the front too, over this summer :)

the weekend when b. mowed the grass in the yard, and we tried to "save" as many dandelions as possible - for the day

kid in diapers pestering cat during the heat wave

adorable neighbour meeting with social distancing: this is the boy across the street (he'll be 3 this month, so 7 months older than Rada) - he loves her and  always calls across the street "bonjour Rada!" - this time he had to come over and meet her. she's more reserved, but doesn't dislike him either, i guess. 

final pic of baby in "heart dress". at this point i realize all these pictures must have been taken in may, so of course summer, but just the tip of it :). omg we have so many more dresses now! from her grandma and from recycling the indian dresses she's had for a while but were too small. i like dressing her up...but then some days (like today! new heat wave starting!) it's just diapers and a t-shirt, if anything. 

i want to keep updating this, but again i'm in a bit of a slump. i'm very ok physically (i think? minus heartburn and insomnia) but otherwise more stressed than usual. part of it is a story i might write about in a separate post/later, part of it is clearly the continuity of this pandemic thing. montreal seems to have relaxed all the measures, and for the past 2 weeks or so the numbers have looked good comparatively, so it looks like we're past the worst for now (obviously waiting on a second wave, but...). in my life, the effects are zero: still not going downtown or checking out the usual neighbourhoods because public transport; all my hospital/clinic visits are rushed things that happen in a straight line. all the walks are in the same limited area. not meeting anyone, although theoretically possible, mostly because everyone lives pretty far away. my friend a. drove over one weekend to bring some baby stuff (thanks again!), i think it was right the day before deconfinement, so we stood around in the yard for half an hour and that was that.
going to stores has become a bit easier since the weather is nice, but scarier because everything just looks like before quarantine. also, we've been going to the same 3 stores for 3 months and absolutely nowhere else.
word is that i have to send Rada to daycare, otherwise i lose her place - even if i'm a person at risk, blah. some of these decisions are a bit off, you know - it's not like i can afford to keep her in the house with a newborn until some other place opens up somewhere in a few months/years. anyway: i am given the generous option of exposing my kid to socialization again. so we'll see how that goes.
none of the logistics around delivery is very clear to me right now - on the plus side, it appears that b. will be still working from home in the immediate future, so he can be with Rada anytime if i need to rush to the hospital. but he can't visit me there with her. so it can work out if everything goes well and without complications...as soon as something out of usual happens - oh, i don't know. we'll see about that too.