Vincelli's Garden Centre on 19 May 2024

I walked along Westminster Avenue taking these photographs, adjacent to the old Vincelli's Garden Centre, and I remembered how much I enjoyed visiting here and buying plants in the spring, in May, Ecinachea and other flowers; usually I would purchase perennials, and most of these plants are still flourishing in our garden. One of these days we will return to this site and find bulldozers have cleared away the past, the structures where geraniums hung from rafters, and then a huge hole will be dug, for indoor parking. It will all be cleared away and building will begin, and then people will move in and the condos will be occupied. And all of this, gone forever.

"Song on a May Morning" by John Milton

 

18 May 2014

Now the bright morning star, day’s harbinger,
Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her
The flowery May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose.
Hail, bounteous May, that doth inspire
Mirth, and youth, and warm desire;
Woods and groves are of thy dressing,
Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing,
Thus we salute thee with our early song,
And welcome thee, and wish thee long.

The view from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 21 April 2024.

                                      

                                        

                                                

                               

                                     

A tiny garden

On the corner Nelson and Westminster, a tiny garden, always beautifully maintained and attractive to pedestrians; 9 May 2024.

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14 May 2011, driving home from work

The old Champlain Bridge

Cranes used during the construction of the super-hospital

See those cranes on the horizon? That was the first major construction in Montreal
for many years; what we call the "neverrendums", two referendums on Quebec 
separation from Canada, had killed investment in Quebec

Pictures of my grandmother’s home

On this day in 2009, it was 14 May 2009, I visited my grandmother's home at 2226 Girouard Avenue for the first time since 1969. My grandmother died in 1965, just a few days before my fifteenth birthday, she was one month short of her 90th birthday as my Auntie Ivy told my mother that morning when she phoned to tell her that my grandmother had died. For years, when driving passed the Girouard Avenue flat on my way to work, I would look up at her living room window remembering the many memories of my grandmother. It wasn't until 2009 that the flat was being sold and I had the opportunity to take these photographies. It was the last time I would visit my grandmother's home, where she had lived since the mid-1920s. 

Walking up the stairs to the flat

In the living room facing the Girouard Avenue

Entrance to the flat from the stairs.

In the living room.

The bathroom with the original
claw foot bathtub.

This was my Great Aunt Essie's bedroom,
she was my grandmother's sister.

The back porch facing the lane.

The kitchen.

This room off the kitchen, at the 
rear of the flat, was where my grandmother's
father slept after he moved to Girouard Avenue.

To the left was my Auntie Mable's bedroom,
to the right was the living room.

The living room, facing Girouard Avenue.

Entrance to the foyer from the living 
room; in this room, to the right was a maroon 
couch covered with a white sheet, the springs
touching the floor; to the left in this room
is where an upright piano stood.

The stairs and front door.

The upstairs is 2226 Girouard Avenue.