Montreal

Who would have thought that French Canadians speak predominately French? Not us, apparently. Everybody we encountered spoke French and English, but French first. The majority of the signs were in French along with stores, menus, and pretty much everything else.

We’re slightly surprised we didn’t have more difficulty getting across the border considering our car license is from CA, and our driver’s license is from CT. They must have decided we’re harmless.

We had a great time. We stayed at a B&B in the Old City (I think) and walked everywhere, except for one trip on the metro. The room was a cute little thing that provided everything we needed in addition to a daily glass of port. The breakfast at this place alone was enough to justify staying there. French toast, eggs (Benedict for me) any way you like, fruit, Belgian waffles, cereal, yogurt. They brought you french toast and waffles THEN asked you what type of eggs you wanted to order for breakfast.

We got around for the day we were there (it takes 6 hours driving to get there, so two of the three days are driving centered). We started off at the Montreal Botanical Gardens which was not quite in full gear outside yet, but the greenhouse and insect exhibits were fantastic. From there we hopped over to Old Montreal, ate lunch and walked around for the afternoon taking it in. The next day on the way out we drove up to the top of Mont Royal for a view of the city.

Besides seeing a few sites, we ate. And then we ate again and again. There was soo much good food. I can now say I’ve had rabbit and it was good. Actually it was delicious. Here are the pictures. I went nuts in the greenhouses and at with the insects. Thank God digital cameras have replaced film.

Mmm. Rabbit.

Montreal hosted the Olympics back sometime before I was born. I caught Elizabeth posing.

These were about the only thing blooming outside the greenhouses at the botanical gardens. This place must be amazing in the summer months.

This goes on for a while…

The orchid house was awesome.

Yeah… it’s a lot of pictures. Imagine if I wasn’t trying to limit myself.

On to the bugs…

Yep. That thing is as big as my hand.

Not much happening outside.

Old Montreal

IT’S ALIVE!

Que the out of control mad scientist laughter.

In the muddy and dark world you see below…

this picture was taken today.

It’s a start.

Ode to CraigsList

We have been scouring Craigslist for a table and chairs for more than a month. Finally we found our new piece of furniture for a mere $30. Here are some photos of the backyard. It is shaping up nicely and New Haven is back to being green and beautiful. We are already enjoying our meals out there.

I have my last final tomorrow and my mind is already far from New Haven. How can I concentrate on “Primary Care Problems in Pediatrics” when I get married to Adam in about 2 weeks and then go to the Caribbean?

“Take a seat Adam”

“grub”

All Adam needs is a shot gun

Growth

New Haven is growing finally. The weather is warming, and flowers and trees are responding accordingly. The trees lining the edge of Wooster Square are currently in full bloom; the’re completely covered in white petals, a few in pink. I think the’re apple, but they could be plum, cherry, pear, or something of that nature.  

We found a relatively narrow side street off the square lined on both sides with these trees creating the effect of a natural latice-like overhang. I felt the whole scenario was a bit surreal, just because of how different it was too me.  There were handfuls of people out today gawking at the flowers and the white domed tunnel up and down the street. There were many people taking photographs of the event, including us. Here are a couple I took with my phone.

Hurray! Plants!

We decided to add a little bit of plant life to the corner nearest the house in the backyard. We’ll eventually get some lawn furniture to put back there once the tag sale kick in next month as the student population flees for the summer.

Before:

After:

Vermont

The New England Wildflower Society (N.E.W.F.S.) has a Plant Conservation volunteer program I will be participating in through the summer. It’s a way for me to get outside and participate no matter where I end up working. They do a lot of rare plant monitoring, invasive control, habitat management, and general botanical surveys. The latter is the most interesting to me at this moment in time, since I don’t know any of the common species, much less the rare species.

Anyways I went to Vermont early yesterday morning for the introductionary/training day for new volunteers. It was quite a pleasant drive, it’s a pretty state.