You say it's your birthday...

Yesterday was my birthday...Also, as it turns out, Viggo Mortensen's. (Though Mr.Q didn't seem nearly as interested in that tidbit as I was!) Anyway, I had a perfectly lovely day. I slept in a bit (trying for late nights & lie-abed mornings, to ease the jet lag when I go home.) I met up with a friend whom I haven't seen in a couple of years - she's been abroad, and just moved to Montreal last week - perfect timing! We met at the Atwater Market, where I had a divine pastry, and a really good cup of coffee (in all honesty, the first good cup since I left Vancouver a week ago!)

From outside the market - Oh my gourds!



After a great visit - much talk about music, I'd forgotten that we shared that love! - she went off into her day, and I went to Ariadne Knits. Where I stupidly forgot to take any pictures...but the proprietress was most friendly, and I may have bought myself a few skeins of "souvenir" yarn. Ahem. I didn't stay and chat as long as I would have liked, as I was so hungry for lunch at that point that I was about to start eating the yarn, or the small children in the store. Neither of which would have been very palatable, I'm sure: the former due to the eventual furballs, and the latter due to the absence of ketchup.

So I went back to the market, on a whim, and got myself some kind of Mediterranean bread with lots of olive oil; a round of soft cheese; and a fresh, ginormous honey crisp apple. (And a tarte au sucre for later!) Then I took my treats down to the canal, and ate lunch on a bench overlooking the water, here:

Mural spotted on the way back to the Metro:

Then back to the hotel to drop off my yarn, give my feet a bit of a rest, and figure out what to do with the rest of my day. I finally decided to do a walk up Rue St. Denis in the Quartier Latin, reputed to be a cultural hub...and very cool it was! Definitely a very European feel to the city.

And one for Mr.Q!

Birthday dinner was a mango-chicken salad with a glass of kir. Then a walk up to Juliette & Chocolat, which is far too close to my hotel for comfort! I got a cup of chocolate to bring back to my room, and didn't realize till I got here that I should have accepted the spoon I was offered...So much drinking chocolate left at the bottom of the cup, I should have stirred it into the milk...oops! I guess I'll just have to get another cup while I'm here.

Anyway, it was a fabulous birthday. And two more days of Montreal adventures ahead of me! I think I'm falling in love..

Here be dragons!

Let's be honest. I have (barely) survival-level French. By which I mean, I can manage, with the aid of a lot of gesturing & sound effects (skills well-honed from years of teaching English!) I can do all the important things: not get (too) lost; order a coffee; find a bathroom. (Not necessarily in that order!) I can't have much of a conversation, beyond discussing whether a grapefruit is on, or possibly under, the table (or was that in your mother's shoes?). But I can find an exit or figure out a menu, and understand why the name of the candy store up the road (Sucre Bleu) is pretty funny.

So while I was planning this trip, and on the train up - even when I got to the hotel, then went out for dinner on Monday, I had this idea that "How very charmant! Everything is in French!"

Then I got up Tuesday morning, left my comfy hotel room, and realized: "Holy shit! Everything's in French!" So I called Mr.Q with a minor melt-down, certain that I wasn't going to get any breakfast...He steadied my nerves, and sent me out into the city to have an adventure. (And I did get breakfast: some lovely crepes, with mixed berries.)

And the French thing hasn't been a problem, because every time I try, whomever I'm talking to kind of gives me this little smile, shakes their head, and switches to English. The first person I tried to talk to in French was a very nice homeless guy, who barely spoke any English, but between us we managed, and it was quite a confidence boost. Until I ordered a coffee from a Chinese woman at a cafe, and she switched to English...oy!

I started out with a quick walk around Vieux Montreal - I'm going to have to go back, because it was all so overwhelming that I barely managed to take in a fraction of it. I went to the Pointe-a-Calliere Museum of Archaeology and saw some really old stuff.

(I also realized I'm not so good with museums, as I don't have a lot of patience to look at all the details and displays - I just like to look at the cool stuff.) It was cool - and old! Maybe not for someone in Italy, but being from Vancouver, it was practically ancient! The foundations (literally!) of the country and all that. As I said, cool!

A little more wandering, and I headed back to the hotel for a rest. Then off to the Botanical Gardens, where there was a lantern exhibit in the Chinese garden. (Also, an Insectarium with lots of cool (dead) beatles and butterflies...though disturbingly, some very large spiders as well! I'd been hoping, not being insects, they'd be excluded. Apparently French Canadians have different ideas of whath constitutes an insect!)

Below: some pics of places aroung Vieux Montreal (I have no idea of what - I just liked them!) The ones from a higher perspective were taken from the look-out at the top of the museum. The lanterns, obviously, were from the gardens - the exhibit was called "The Magic of Lanterns" and it really was magical!

Down by the station, early in the morning...

I love travelling by train. It's slow, and the trip to Montreal was quite long. (Not least due to the tourists on board...oy! I maintain, now and always, that there is a huge difference between a "traveller" and a "tourist" - and I have little patience for the latter!) Anyway - it was a great way to see more of this corner of the world, and the leaves were indeed beautiful. Some highlights...

From the station in Poughkeepsie:

Albany (?):



Somewhere with pretty leaves:


Waiting at the border...


On the home stretch, back in the land of maple syrup and mooses:

And finally, Montreal! My hotel is nice - old, but clean, and very conveniently located. I went out in search of dinner, found this (for Mr.Q - there was a huge display for Godin guitars in the window!)

Finally settled on poutine, the one thing I knew I could order in French:

(My accent must be a lot worse than I thought, because although I tried...the burly Quebecois behind the counter immediately switched to English!)

Finally, back in the hotel, drinking mead from a plastic cup....

And now off to explore the city by daylight! I could get used to this travelling thing...

A hard hat is not enough protection against a flying pumpkin...

Sunday was much more leisurely, though just as awesome. We slept in a little bit before making our way back to the fair grounds. The crowd was thinner, and a little less intense. There was more time to wander, visit with people we ran into, watch the alpacas on parade...I would say the line-ups were better, too - until I found myself here:

The line for the chicken pot pie. It was well worth the wait! Fresh out of the oven - literally, so I had to wait awhile to eat it.

So while I was waiting, we wandered over to the field to watch the "punkin-chunkin" competition. Which was...an odd-but-awesome thing to behold. There were 5 high school & college teams, all in team colours...and hard hats:

They built these:

And had to try to hit a target about 150 feet away. Quite a feat, as the trebuchets were a bit unwieldy, and I cannot fathom how they managed to achieve any kind of accuracy. (But - they did!) Once the slings were loaded, an air horn would sound, and the pumpkins would fly:

What you can't see is that this particular pumpkin was painted gold, as were the hardhats of the team lobbing it. They hit their first 2 targets spot on, too. The carnage on the field was something to see! Though I think there were a few disappointed young spectators, as I overheard one young boy gleefully reporting to his brother that after the pumpkins, there would be sheep-tossing....

More time to wander meant more time to take in some of the non-fibre arts on display:

This one's for my Baby Sis:

Then, despite the warm weather (I actually got a bit of a sunburn!), we took some shots of new knitwear in action:

We imposed on a very kind knitter to take a picture of the two of us in our Rhinebeck sweaters...

I'd just like to point out that Anne spun the wool for this sweater from the Rhinebeck fleece she bought last year - how cool is that?

Finally, after some apple crisp (NOM!), it was time to go. Anne dropped me back at the hotel and headed home; I had the fun of trying to get everything into my suitcase. Before I packed, though, I got a pic of all my ill-gotten loot, all at once:

(I did not, in fact, roll around in it naked. Although I was sorely tempted...it's not all superwash, and there's some very sexy silk in that pile. I didn't think it would be good for the yarn.)

Rhinebeck weekend was over. I would totally do it again! But I had the next leg of my adventure to look forward to: a prophylactic against post-festival let-down. Next: the train!

The Rhinebeck 500

I'm puttering around, getting things sorted before I head to the train station, and then north to Montreal for the next leg of my adventure. I woke up early, which gives me a few minutes to finish up a post about Saturday: Day One of Rhinebeck Madness. (Fittingly, my first ever Rhinebeck post is also my 500th post! Woo!)

There is no possible way I could capture the essence of Rhinebeck in words. Also, as it was my first time, there was waaaayyy too much to absorb and process! Happily, I was surrounded by awesome people to help me get my bearings. Some folks I met at Sock Summit last year, like Girl Unravelled, who not only helped me get my sea legs, but also some Bugga! yarn...NOM! And Glenna C, who totally rocked her Rhinebeck sweater, finished at the very last minute. Annie, my hostess, was indulgent and enabling, and her very, very funny friends broke me. (By which I mean, had me laughing so hard I almost peed myself. Literally!) There were also lots of other fantastic people that I met...which is the true magic of Rhinebeck. So. Much. Fun! (Also, So. Much. Yarn!) (Oh! And maple cotton candy!)

But there's no way I could possibly tell all the stories, or even most of them! So here are some pics that I hope give an idea of what Saturday was like.


The antici.....pation....builds in the early-morning line-up:


Once we finally got in, one of the first people I ran into was a woman who had also knit Red Oak - as far as we can tell, we were #1 and #2 to knit the new pattern...and she's a Canuck, too! Cool! (This is possibly one of the least flattering pics of me ever, but we had just escaped the madness of the Sanguine Gryphon booth...

There was hot cider, and lamb stew, and excellent company:

Handknits and Ravellers galore, at the lunchtime Ravelry meet-up:

There were walkie-talkies:

Sheeps:

Alpacas:

Lllamas:

And after a break for dinner, there were back seats on the school bus, like one of the cool kids:

And the Ravelry party, with a bonfire and cupcakes and a photobooth, and some pretty nice pumpkin ale:

And then another bus ride back to the car, so we could drive back to the hotel & try to fall asleep...though we were so wired, it took awhile!