As I sit here to the sound and feel of jackhammers a few feet away, being reminded of having impacted wisdom teeth broken up and removed bit by bit, it is time to reflect on the summer that is almost gone and that I wrote nothing about.
After the amazing trip around the Mediterranean, I had to regroup, pay the bills, sort the photos and start thinking of selling this house and moving to smaller more manageable dwellings.
None of it was easy, but I did what I had to do, one day at a time and got the photos up on the travel side, even had some printed into an album, I finally finished paying the bills and…I started looking at townhouses and condos, cottages, duplexes and lofts. I fell in love twice, once with a penthouse condo with an amazing roof top terrace, but it was too small for my needs and the second time with a storybook property that I almost bought but didn’t because everyone around me felt it would be too much work and expense to maintain such an old house. In the mean time I have been prepping my own home for sale…but I feel like I am dressing someone for its own funeral. This is tearing me apart. I moved here as a bride, and proceeded to transform it, modifying, adding bit by bit to make it exactly to my liking. I have lived here 32 years; my three children grew up here. But now that I am alone in this big house, it is more work and more money than I can provide…yet if I won the lottery tomorrow there is no question in my mind that I would stay here. In the meantime I am having necessary major repair work done, hence the drilling…
BUT…. that does not mean that I did not take advantage of the city’s summer offerings! I did the Jazz fest, and the nights of Africa and the Just for Laughs fest.
As usual this was my favorite…with acrobats, some barefoot, some on stilts…
Street entertainers…
Sand sculptors…
The giant animated mascots, and the parades that managed to weave their way through the storms…
I also drove to Quebec City to sample some of its festivities. After all, it is celebrating its 400th anniversary. One of the attractions is called “The Image Mill”. It is a forty-minute visual and audio production projected against the grain silos in the Port of Québec. This huge concrete structure becomes the screen and the narrator that tells the tale of Québec City’s 400 years of history.
http://lacaserne.net/index2.php/other_projects
It was impossible to photograph, but definitely worth the trip!
One stop I was able to shoot is the Green roof created over the Civilization Museum. Someone had the clever idea to use the outside walls and the roof as display for unusual gardening experiments. It was both peaceful and stimulating.
And when you got to the top…you were reminded of where you are: in the old port, with its beautiful stone houses…
And again I got to sample the sunsets of le Portage, near Rivière du Loup.
Back in town I attended my first ever rock concert (I hope that’s what they are called…. I am quite the novice in popular music). I went to see Crosby, Stills and Nash. I had bought the tickets as a gift but since the recipient bailed I decided to keep them for myself. I was feeling awkward, being a distant fan but not that familair with their music… It was a bit of a shock when they got on stage, to see these white haired guys, but hey! So what? Most of the audience was in the same age group…
David Crosby looks the oldest (and he is by one year) with his long white hair and mustache his protruding belly and mostly because he does not move much. He did make a few humorous comments about Canadian politics.
Stephen Stills looks (and he is) the youngest because he still has brown hair. He was the most discrete of the three although he did take front stage for an amazing guitar jam that made him shine.
The star for me was Graham Nash a sexy 66 year old who still moves like a young man and plays the guitar as if he was making love.
It was a great show (unfortunately hard to photograph) and I DID know more tunes than I thought. They kept changing guitars, I wish I knew more about that and their various sounds…
I did not entertain a lot this summer but I did get to try a new recipe for red tuna tartare, with diced mangoes, ginger, sesame seeds served with a vinaigrette made of grape seed oil, wasabi, sesame oil, mirin, lime juice and tabasco…I served it in martini glasses…
With so much rain, flowers are blooming this summer and Sam the cat does not seem to mind….
