Overpass Art in Quebec City

Quebec City really knows how to paint their overpass support pillars!

These really livened up the walk between the bus/train station and our hostel.

Poutine in Quebec City

Delicious poutine at Chez Ashton in Quebec City.  I admit, I thought the combination of French fries, cheese curd, and brown gravy sounded funny, but it was really good.  Good job, people of Quebec. 

Chez Ashton's French fries were so good, however, that I might rather just have them alone...since the gravy undid some of fantastic crispiness of the fries. 

A Spectacular Bus Ride in Quebec

This was what delighted me for miles between Montreal and Quebec City on October 7.  

If I got pictures as good as these by shooting on a gray day through a moving bus window, you can imagine what it looked like in person.  We oohed and ahhed and said, "That's beautiful" a thousand times (I may be exaggerating slightly) while all the locals around us ignored the glory around them.  Then, finally, the leaves or our excitement broke through and they too started taking pictures. 

  

Montreal, Quebec

Some photos from my trip to Montreal in early October.  The leaves were just turning.  So beautiful--and interesting to see the patterns of how they changed.

The metro:

One tree turning:

More leaves!

Cool decorative gourds.  Gourds and pumpkins were all over on my trip, from Montreal to Quebec City, to Sydney, Nova Scotia, to New York City:

Waterside park with various amusements.  The rope course looked super fun.

Les chuchoteuses (The gossipers) tucked in a little corner.  A young boy was getting a kick out of his mom pretending to gossip with them.

Just another European-looking street in Old Montreal:

We only had a short time in Montreal, but I would go back again.   

For budget travelers, there are various hostels with quite good rates.   

Fall Foliage in Quebec

Just a few leaves from my recent trip to Quebec.
Picture taken October 10.  Ah...seasons!

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

I love this book and have always loved the old Disney movie with Megan Follows.  I think that some of Anne's sentiments shaped my world view.  Like the thought about how if she really wanted to pray, she'd go out in a big field and look up at the sky and just feel a prayer.  And her habit of naming natural places.  In my hikes in the hills above Vsetin, I've names the parts of my two favorite trails, things like "The Meadow at the Top of the World," "Giants in the Mist," "The Sacred Grove," "Deer Crossing," "Escher's Woods," and, of course, "Green Gables."  I totally agree with Anne that there's more "scope for the imagination" in nature. 

I love the character of Anne:  the funny and over-dramatic things she says, the scrapes she gets in, her unique way of looking at things.  I was in love with Gilbert when I was younger.  I love Marilla and Mathew and Diana.  I quote Anne regularly.  It's a great book.

Reading now, being used to the style of today's novels, some of it does feel a little clunky—the long (though pretty and character-driven) descriptions of nature, people talking to themselves in a way that feels awkward, since it's the style now to use internal thoughts instead of internal dialogue, the slightly rushed feel toward the end, etc.

Despite the old-fashioned style, it's withstood the test of him.  I love it.

And it's such a beautiful thing to have a warm, mostly happy, non-violent, loving book. 

In all honesty, if I were reading it for the first time today, I might only give it a 4.5 because of the above-mentioned characteristics.  But it's too much a part of my life and childhood to not love it with all my heart.