Return to the Village Shopping Plaza

I often walk by the Village Shopping Plaza on Cote St-Luc Road, it has grown more and more derelict; next door is the now closed Robert Burns Pub. Here are photos taken about a week ago.

 

Farewell Vincelli's Garden Centre

Farewell Vincelli's Garden Centre, they're gonna build a 250 unit condo complex on this land. It's Vincelli's land so they can do what they want with it, but that doesn't mean I like it. In fact, we are inundated with condo development, every spare lot is getting its own condo... and, of course, municipal government likes condos, it's much needed tax revenue. I was at Vincelli's Garden Centre an hour ago and there isn't much left of the place. Farewell Vincelli's, an institution in this area for the last 75 or 100 years...

Flowering Trees in May 2021

Perhaps it has something to do with a fairly mild winter, but this is one of the best years for flowering trees.

 

Crows Return to the Bird Bath

Not much gives me as much happiness as seeing these birds, whether crows, grackles, sparrows, robins, cardinals, or others. They are all a delight and source of happiness. The curious thing is that they seem to know this is for them, a bird bath, and they come and have a splashy bath or a drink of water; they even line up and wait their turn to use the bird bath. The crows are large majestic birds but never cross a crow, they'll remember what you've done and make your life difficult. Here is a crow visitor from last April. 

On the Solitary Life

I wanted to be a part of something and I thought I was. I thought I was on the great journey of individuation, that I was a part of something connecting me with the great ideas and experiences shared by other people. But, in truth, I wasn't a part of anything. If you believe nothing then all of the old constructs of life, the scaffolding that supported your existence, have collapsed. Belief is, in retrospect, nothing real or lasting, it is a pretence or an illusion of belief—mostly it is a pretence. The doctors are wrong in their diagnoses, the Ivy League educated poets and intellectuals have fooled even themselves with their self-importance, the imams, priests, and gurus are deluded, politicians are obviously liars, social workers want to break up families,  teachers are selling preconceptions based on their idea of what they stand for, intellectuals are filled with book learning but no wisdom or practical knowledge; even shamans are fakes and out for money and fame. I hear Buddhists chanting in their temple and it seems delusionary, what fools! I want to tell them that their hypocrisy appals me. There is no satori, no heaven, no hell, no enlightenment, no god, no prophet, there is nothing and on this basis we begin again, we look for something that transcends the everyday; this is found in poetry, in the fine arts. I asked myself, what if nothing I believe is true? What if all of my beliefs and assumptions about life are wrong? The Emperor has no clothes! He's naked and everything he stood for is a lie and a cheat of belief. I did not decide to believe nothing, I accepted it with difficulty; it was a huge disappointment in life. But then, one day, the scaffolding of belief collapses, there is no free will, there is no certainty about anything except that the Emperor has no clothes. Believe what you want after this, but for now, believe nothing.

Driving by St. Joseph's Oratory

My friend, Audrey Keyes (Veeto), used to say that wherever her mother lived in Montreal she could see the Oratory. She could walk out of her home on Oxford Avenue, or her apartment on Sherbrooke Street West, or the Manoir Westmount where she lived her final years, or even her childhood home just half a block from the Manoir Westmount, on Landsdowne Avenue in Westmount, and in the distance was the looming presence of St. Joseph's Oratory. Or even from, and maybe especially from, her window on Five South of St. Mary's Hospital where Mrs. Keyes died, and see the huge dome of the Oratory. 

On Queen Mary Road at Cote de Neiges Road

The Oratory is closed due to pandemic restrictions; meanwhile, renovations are taking place 

St. Joseph's Oratory in the distance, taken on Terrebonne just outside the rear gates into Loyola College

 

Last snowfall of winter 2020

It is not unusual to have snow in April, as we did this year on April 21. It is even possible to have snow in May which is why garden planting day is May 24, Victoria Day, the last day for frost.

The Twins' Parade at the Comedy Festival

We used to go to the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival on rue St-Denis (https://www.hahaha.com/en). During the day there were activities, a twins' parade for instance, and twins from all over the province and elsewhere would celebrate their "twinness". It was lots of fun and reminds me of twins I've seen; for instance, two old men, identical twins, who lived on Girouard Avenue and dressed alike, they even had the same white beards. I think the best show I saw at the Comedy Festival was hosted by Dame Edna (John Barry Humphries) in 2005; Dame Edna was brilliant as were the comics she introduced. There was also Whoopie Goldberg (in 2009), and others. For years they rebroadcast these performances on TV; sometimes, to great surprise, you'd see someone you knew in the audience. After the show at Théâtre St-Denis we'd go to an Italian restaurant on the same street, seating was on the second floor and it would be packed with tourists and Montrealers; doors to a balcony, where some people were eating, were left open and you'd see the heads of giant mannequins passing by from the second floor. Outside it was full of people, wall to wall people, everybody eating, talking, laughing, enjoying a summer evening, or watching someone who was painted grey and appeared to be a statue that came to life; these performances, and others, were amazing. The good news is that, all going well, the Comedy Festival returns this summer!

This will be demolished for more condos

I'm not saying that this building (it's the Village Shopping Plaza located on the corner of Robert Burns and Cote St-Luc Road), and another in front of it, are now or ever were attractive but there was a restaurant here and other businesses, plus offices on the upper floors (not visible here). People worked here, socialized here, bought stuff and sold stuff, had clothes made here, had their hair done here, bought food here, had a daycare here, sold antiques here, had a life here. You can't keep every building; out with the old and in with the new. But had this building been maintained it would still be a viable part of our community. But the land is worth more than what the present building was bringing in. There is also an empty lot for sale across the street (Westover and Robert Burns) from the Terrasse Robert Burns Restaurant that is also for sale. The empty lot, like this building, has a Hydro Electric pylon running across it. Great view from your living room window. 

On one level we are condo-saturated; on another level we are building condos for foreigners to buy and in some cases not to inhabit but to sit empty. Some of these condos will be Airbnb, party time places for tourists but not a way to build our community.  

What a dump.

This is all falling apart.

Buildings on the left and right will be demolished; that's a condo across the street.

Where Trenholme Park meets de Maisonneuve

De Maisonneuve Blvd West, between Girouard Avenue and West Broadway Avenue, used to be called Western; up to the early-1950s it was a dirt road. It was country-like back then and people would go for walks along Western. From 1950 to 1954 we lived at 2226 Girouard with my grandmother and Auntie Mable, and my grandmother's sister, my Great Aunt Essie. That's seven people in a fairly large flat, but it's still a lot of people. My mother's parents lived at 2217 Hampton Avenue which is a short walk along Western from Girouard. Today, de Maisonneuve is a through street, you take it to avoid traffic on Sherbrooke West; only the stop signs slow people down. There is a bike path and the train tracks running beside de Maisonneuve are used by commuter trains going from downtown Montreal out to the West Island and beyond. The CPR long ago gave up passenger service to other cities on these tracks. 

    Here are some photographs, taken yesterday morning, of de Maisonneuve Blvd at the bottom of Trenholme Park. Trenholme was mayor of NDG when it was a separate municipality from Montreal, now it is part of the NDG-CDN Borough which, by the way, has a larger population than the province of Prince Edward Island but none of the advantages of being a province. k 

    BTW, the streets on either side of Trenholme Park are Park Row East and Park Row West; Sherbrooke Street West on the north and Blvd de Maisonneuve on the south.

Looking south to de Maisonneuve Blvd

Looking north to Sherbrooke Street West

Some of these maple trees must be seventy to eighty years or older

de Maisonneuve Blvd West

The modern 1960s building above is a part of the park; there used to be a skating rink below the building which is where I lost teeth playing hockey...