I can't get over this

"We're clocks, Abelard. Nothing more."

pg. 236

St Lawrence Market Find

Baking and making

I've been busy and despite the heat wave we had last week I have done a lot of baking. Since the last post I have:

- made butter from whipping cream (in my kitchenaid, easy stuff)
- baked sour cherry coffee cake
- preserved green beans
- baked zucchini bread
- baked a cherry pie
- roasted a whole chicken
- made a few batches of plum preserve

I tried to document all of this but decided to snack instead.

Guess what? It's hot.

My apartment is a sauna which didn't really stop me from baking a cherry pie the other night. This was not the smartest move but I felt pressured to take advantage of the sour cherries that are now in season and popping up at markets all along Roncesvalles. The pie is pretty good and well worth the oven being on at 425 degrees for 45 minutes. The heat is so nasty that I've given up on trying to be remotely fashionable or presentable in public and I will soon venture out onto the streets wearing cut offs and a t-shirt I purchased in high school that has the exclamation "CLOWNS!" printed on the front. It's not a classy day, not at all.

The aforementioned shirt in all it's glory. Go easy on me, we had just been camping for 3 days and the campground showers were infested with earwigs.

Happy Cat

I woke up yesterday to find that my cat had left a happy face in her food bowl.
Strange.

Gloria Stuart, I'm Sorry

During a game of Trivial Pursuit (the 90's Edition) a question came up in which the answer was the name of the actress who played the old lady in Titanic. My extremely classy answer was "that old bitch", which I blame solely on the wine and whiskey I had consumed that evening. Turns out that old bitch's name is Gloria Stuart and she just turned 100, pretty impressive stuff. It also appears that she was a total babe back in the day. So in an attempt to make up for calling this seemingly nice old lady an "old bitch" I thought I would throw up some pictures of her as a way of apologizing, or something. She was a babe and these pictures are great, end of story.

Aldo Rossi Polaroids

Let's talk about Aldo Rossi, an Italian architect born in 1931 and who died in 1997. These are a few of his polaroids that the CCA has in their collection that I got to work with for a few days. My job was basically to re-house these and make a nice little box for them all to be stored in (there are almost 200 in total).

Find more info about Rossi here:
http://www.cca.qc.ca/en/collection/541-aldo-rossi-archive

I found these on the Need and Supply Co. website.
Tacky, but I want them.

Butt.Lunch.

A picnic and a few bottles of wine after a short jaunt up to the cross on Mount Royal. I love that there is a "mountain" in the middle of this city, it's incredible.

Cheese, baguette, chocolate, cured meat and wine = muffin tops.

These things I do

Almost every time I speak to my Dad he asks me "What can you do with your degree once you're done school?" and then he makes a joke somewhere along the lines of my BFA allowed me to get a job where I ask "Do you want fries with that?" where my MA will get me a job where I can ask "DO you want cheese on that?"...supportive. It's like I have to constantly reassure him that my decision to take out a student loan, quit my job(s) and move to the states was not done in haste and that I can (most likely) get a job with a master's degree in photo preservation.

Being on my own a lot lately has made me think about a number of different things, one of which involves recognizing and understanding this sense of jealousy I have towards people who have found their true calling. For some of my friends this calling is art, music, food, law, urban planning or even turn of the century woodworking tools, I however feel as if I can't stay interested in something long enough to really invest my time, money and love. Then I got to thinking about the things I am truly interested in and realized that I am doing the right thing by being in this program (even if I can only get a job where I have to clean out a deep fryer every week) and that I kind of do have a calling, in some sense. I might not be saving lives or making headlines but if the work that I'm doing at my internship is any indication of what I can look forward to as far as a career then I am content.

How deep.

This week

Only a few more weeks left here in Montreal and I feel like I've seen a lot of the city. I was feeling under the weather today after a yoga class, a coffee and some shopping so I think I'm going to lie low tonight and stay in and read. I started working on a new project this week at my internship that has to do with cataloguing some Linneaus Tripe albums from the mid-19th Century (I'll post a few pictures in another post). I found myself a dress for a couple of weddings I'm going to this summer and I also bought some bright red nailpoish this week which is a colour I never thought I'd dig but it looks great.

Annie sent me a package which I recieved yesterday evening and it made my day. Check out the bracelet, I'm not sure how she did it but it really brightened up a kinda crappy day.

Also note the weird Japanese candy, I tried a few before photo documentation.

Tomorrow I think I'll go to a noon yoga class, hop on a bixi bike and try to find that cemetery I posted about last week. If the weather is nice I might end up reading in a park as well, tres exciting.

I still have a few things to do in this city which I hope to get around to next weekend:
- Old Montreal (especially to check out the pastry shop "Olive and Gourmand")
- a few art galleries such as DHC/ART, the musee des beaux arts and the contemporary art gallery
- climb the mountain and hang out at the cross
- check out little italy and maybe china town

I think with a bixi bike, a map and a credit card these can all be done by June 30th, fingers crossed. Here are some more pictures...

Late-night Bonaventure metro


Friday's walk home from work along a mount royal path


out of focus poutine