Vertical garden at Loyola Park

The "vertical garden" was opened in early June, it is a project of our local burrough; this is a garden for a small space, a vertical garden, a garden that grows upwards, and growing upwards it is expected to increase the amount of food possible to grow in this space. For weeks, maybe months, city workers laboured to make build the vertical garden located in the north-east corner of Loyola Park, and then it was done and it was announced. Photographs were taken. Food grown here will be donated to local food banks. These photos were taken on 11 June 2025. But now, a month later, the garden is still padlocked, so no one is walking in this vertical garden, and no one is picking vegetables grown there, it looks like nothing is growing there. With the amount of space they have to work with the city could have laid out some garden plots, there is probably a long list of people who would like the have their own garden. And what did this cost? I hear it cost around $190K, and you can buy a lot of turnips, tomatoes, and beans at the IGA a few blocks from here for $190K and not have to grow them yourself. 

Canadian Cottage Garden, 5 July 2025

 

Rev. Charles Chiniquy's grave at Mount Royal Cemetery

Rev. Charles Chiniquy was born in July 1809 at Kamouraska, Quebec; he was a Roman Catholic priest who renounced Catholicism at age fifty; his opposition to the Roman Catholic Church is described in several of his books, both autobiographical and theological; read his final confession of faith and opposition to the Roman church. Rev. Chiniquy's lawyer, in a civil lawsuit, was a future president of the United States, it was Abraham Lincoln. Chiniquy died in Montreal in January 1899, age 89, and he is buried at Mount Royal Cemetery,  Section D1, Number D2018.  

                                                         

More on Darrell Morrisey from Mount Royal Cemetery

We were sitting in our living room and someone commented on the Darrell Morrisey painting hanging above the love seat where I was sitting, and how much they liked it, it draws one in, it demands one's attention. Later that afternoon we drove to Mount Royal Cemetery and visited my parents' grave which is where, one day, I will be buried. I commented on how beautiful and peaceful I find this cemetery, it is like being in the country. We took a circuitous drive to the cemetery’s exit on Remembrance Road, we passed the Molson family mausoleum and stopped to discuss it, how the Molson family is prominent in Montreal's history. Then we continued and a minute later someone exclaimed "There is Chiniquy's grave!", it was the grave of Reverend Charles Chiniquy (1809-1899) who had fallen out with the powerful Roman Catholic Church in Quebec; an ancestor of one of our party had been a Presbyterian minister, originally from a family of Huguenots, and he moved to Illinois from Quebec City over a hundred years ago to work with Reverend Chiniquy. And then, as we looked at Revered Chiniquy's impressive monument, I looked back to where the car was parked and on the other side of the road I saw a headstone for the McLernon family and I remembered that a member of  Darrell Morrisey’s family had married a McLernon; I walked across the road to read the headstone and there I saw the name Phyllis Anne Morrisey, Phyllis was Darrell Morrisey’s niece; Darrell’s brother, Thomas Sydney Morrisey and his wife Beatrice Coristine Morrisey, had two children, Hugh Morrisey and Phyllis Anne Morrisey. Phyllis Anne Morrisey married Roy McLernon in 1942 and one of their children was named after Darrell. Phyllis was born in 1918 when Darrell was 21 years old, when Darrell died in 1930 Phyllis was only twelve years old. After her passing something happened to Darrell's paintings because there are very few of them extant, we don't really know what happened to them. Only a few years ago we learned that around 1940 Syd Morrisey left one of Darrell's paintings at the West End Gallery on Greene Avenue, Westmount, and this painting was re-discovered eighty years later. As well, around 1940, Syd phoned my mother to inquire about Morrissey family history and years later she mentioned this phone call to me, she was impressed by Colonel Morrisey. It is curious that although Darrell was probably the most forgotten member of the Beaver Hall group of artists, evidence of her life and art keeps appearing, even on a day like this.

    

Phyllis Anne Morrisey is Darrell Morrisey`s niece

                                

          

Canadian Cottage Garden on 30 June 2025

 

Canadian Cottage Garden, 30 June 2016

Compare these nine year old photographs with some recent photographs of my Canadian Cottage Garden found on this blog. Nine years later, a lot of changes...

                                   

Free book libraries

I like a destination when I go for a walk—I walk with purpose—a free book library is always an ideal destination. Once arrived, I can look at the books, usually take nothing, and continue on my way. I doubt people are reading as much as they used to, it seems most people walk slightly stooped over engrossed by whatever is on the screen of their smartphone; I have no idea what they find so fascinating—porn perhaps ? A text message? The latest news on some singer? World events? What? But it sure isn’t a novel or poetry they’re reading. It isn’t Dickens, it isn’t Shakespeare, it isn’t Allen Ginsberg, maybe it’s something spawned by AI, some creature crawled out of a swamp and created by a computer. Photos taken on 15 June 2025.

At Alexis Nihon Plaza on 26 June 2013