While I want this blog to be about Inspiration Boreal and the life Gary and I lead in the woods, I also want to share our lives on a day-to-day basis. Here is a peek into what’s happening for us during the month of October.
My year has been an extremely difficult one. I should say, our year, as it has affected us both. Sickness hit me like a punch in the gut on December 10th and hasn’t ever quite let go. I have visited many doctors, had some treatments, been bedridden for months and have experienced a lot of sensations I would rather not have. Long story short, my digestion is a mess and my nervous system is completely haywire. While a lot of us enjoy a fairly balanced emotions with a properly functioning sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, my sympathetic nervous system (this is what tells you to run, there is danger) has been dominant probably since I was little. And with stress just getting worse in my life, it has snowballed causing many things to shut down in my body. By this time, I am experiencing stress in physical forms, like vibrations in my head, very low tolerance to rumbling sounds or certain pitches in noise like music, people talking, trucks going by, machinery running, etc, and dizziness. In fact, I have been dizzy every day for almost a year. Pretty rotten, eh? Yup, rotten. Worse than rotten.
I went to see a wonderfully caring doctor in Florida in May, and he helped straighten out a lot of the things in my body that had shut down due to stress. He also helped to get my sympathetic nervous system to start calming. But, it is not over yet. Our bodies don’t give instant results and healing is going to take some time. However, knowing the cause of my problems feels like half the problem is solved.
In the time I have been sick, I haven’t gone out too much. Being so dizzy very often leads to car sickness and once I get where I’m going, I just want to go lie down. So aside from walking around my country neighborhood, I haven't really gotten around. You can imagine this would have a bit of a toll on the morale after a while.
A couple of weeks ago, Gary got a brilliant idea. He wanted to take me to Montreal for a week. We could settle in the Mile End area, have everything within walking distance, and the change of scene and pace would do us both some good. Believe me, I love the country. I love the mountains, the peace, and stillness, the smell of the woods, the birds and animals. That is where I want to live. But, I did grow up in the suburbs of Laval, playing games in the street, shopping at the mall on the weekends, making trips into Montreal for late-night bubble tea sessions, and days of walking around Old Port or taking the metro and bus to explore other parts of the city. I love mucking around in the river behind our house and hiking the nearby mountains but some days, the city girl in me screams that all she wants to do is dress up, go shopping at a decent mall, sit in a tea shop and wander around a street full of people who aren’t on their way to milk cows. Sometimes I feel like I’m half city, half country. To some people, even after having lived and worked in the country off and on since I was sixteen, I’m still a city girl. Well, I definitely still have it in me!
A few days after Gary’s proposal we got a new idea. I was sitting on the floor, doing stretches and deep breathing to help me relax, while Gary sat in the rocking chair, looking for places to stay when he remarked casually that, staying a month really wasn’t that much more than staying a week. I processed this for a moment before asking if quitting his foraging so early would hurt the business. No, he had quit foraging last October and if he quit now he could focus on getting new products onto Inspiration Boreal as well as improving the website. Hmm…
After days of strenuous apartment searching, endless phone calls and some apartment visits, we had a place on the fourth floor of an apartment on Brebeuf Street for the whole month of October.
Sunday the 2nd of October found us on the way to the apartment. Gary had been there the day before to set up some beds and give the place a cleaning before I arrived (isn’t he wonderful?). We hadn’t planned to go that day necessarily, but I had felt pretty good that morning, so we decided to fly with it. I did some packing the day before in anticipation of our departure, so we grabbed what we thought we would need for the time being and were off within an hour or two of our last-minute decision to leave.
Wow, but it felt good to come back to Montreal! I hadn’t been in the city for almost a year and boy have I been missing it! Though I still felt the dizziness that had been hounding me all this year, I felt somehow strangely alive again, as though the city was breathing new life into me.
Monday morning Gary headed back to Roxton Falls. He had promised a friend a while ago that he would help out with a concrete pouring job. Monday was probably the least eventful day I have had here so far. I washed walls, swept floors, and generally tried to give this place an atmosphere of hominess. We didn't bring that much of our stuff along because after all, we're only here for a month. The good thing is, it doesn't take a lot to make a house a home. It feels very cozy here. The views out of our great big windows are wonderful too! Mount Royal is just out our kitchen window and I have been enjoying watching the fall colours slowly creep up to meet the cross on the top of the mountain. At night, the cross is lit up as well as downtown Montreal which can be seen to the side of the mountain. I love looking out over it all.
A friend of ours who we seem fated to run into continually (Keenan by name) came over for a chat in the evening. Coincidentally he works and sleeps at a bakery literally nine doors down from our apartment. We hope we'll see more of him.
Tuesday, Gary was occupied at home so once again, I was alone. I slept in a little and then beat it to the shower.
It's been cold in here. The heat hasn't been on because there is work being done on the heating system. With the sun coming in, it really hasn't been too bad. In the afternoon it gets downright hot in here thanks to all those huge beautiful windows.
I had just stepped out of the tub when someone knocked on the door. Hmm... I'm not expecting anyone. After the preliminary knock, the person on the other side of the door decides he's done his part and unlocks and opens the door. Hello? We conversate through the bathroom door for a while before I finally ask him to give me a few minutes. The door bangs shut and the lock is once again snapped. I dash into some clothes and roll my hair up into a towel. Looks like I'm just in time because he's already at the door again. Cautiously, I open it and see the landlord. He rattles on about phone numbers etc and here are the people to see the apartment so can we come in now? Uhhhh... Sure, why not. It's not like I'm in the shower or anything. Ha ha. So I awkwardly perch on the edge of our makeshift couch while my visitors wander about and inspect closets and doge the clothes on the floor in the bedroom. My apartment of two days isn't really in show home condition at the moment. After many apologies on the part of the potential buyers, I am once again alone in the apartment.
My day is peppered with much less exciting scenarios like shopping on the street next to ours, working on my mushroom drawings, and making a little supper.
When Wednesday rolled around it felt like this was really when the Montreal experience began. I made pancakes for Gary and I in the morning and then we walked to a cafe around the corner from us to do a little work. For a few hours, we diligently plugged away at improving the website and working on filling mushroom drawing orders before calling it quits on work for the day.
In the afternoon we walked over to Cabaret L'enfer to see one of our chef friends Gary often delivers foraged goods to, Massimo Piedimonte*. It had been so long that it felt great to see his new restaurant and have a chat with him and the sous chef, Santiago. He invited us to be his guests for supper the next evening and we accepted with alacrity.
We wandered up Rachel street to one of our favorite tea shops, @ Matcha** which is run by a wonderful friend of ours, Nestor Read. Usually in the summer after we are done delivering the foraged goods on Fridays to restaurants in the area, we go there to relax and unwind while drinking tea and visiting. This is a highlight of our week.
Nestor has been so used to seeing just Gary all this year that he didn't even notice I was along until Gary asked if he saw who he had with him!
We drank tea, caught up, and also invited Nestor for thanksgiving dinner at our place on Monday night. Another lovely afternoon well spent.
On the way home, we had to stop and buy a chocolate croissant from the bakery on our street where Keenan works. Then we had to make sure we ate it out of the paper bag while walking to get the full experience, which meant walking past our apartment and then coming back again. I asked Gary if I was being silly but he said he didn't think so.
Thursday we again spent the morning working at the cafe around the corner until a group of three guys came in talking so loudly we decided to wrap it up and call it a morning. We weren't the only ones who decided it was too noisy. I noticed a couple other people also pack up and leave.
We tried to take it easy in the afternoon, walking to Parc La Fontaine where we both worked on drawings and watched a particularly bold squirrel almost raid a doughnut box while its owner's back was turned.
Around 6:45 we left the house and walked over to the restaurant. Unfortunately, it didn't go too well. We warned Massimo that we might have to leave if I felt too sick and after about twenty minutes or so I had taken about all I could. Between the loud music, people talking, movement, light, a slight vibration in the floor, all the deep breathing in the world couldn't counter the fact that I started to feel like I was about to pass out. I went outside and Gary followed me.
We sat on the steps of a nearby apartment building, cars passing, people walking, life continuing to move around us. I felt so embarrassed and ashamed that I just couldn't hold it together. I am a very strong-willed person and most of the time I can push through my sickness or pain. But I guess this time we just set ourselves up for failure, knowing that evening is my most difficult time. I felt pretty bad too to have gotten an exclusive invitation and then having to just leave. But such is life. Stuff doesn't always go our way, and that's ok.
After Thursday night's episode, we had to take it easy on Friday.
In the morning Gary went to get a test modem to hook up some wi-fi here. I had a hankering for a grilled cheese sandwich so we found a close cafe and sampled some of their wonderful food for lunch. If you like food, trust me Montreal is the place for you. You could spend a lifetime just eating. There are hundreds of restaurants, grocery stores, cafes, and bakeries within easy walking distance from where we live now. Just another reason we picked this spot!
Saturday morning, it was freezing cold in our house! The heat is still not running yet and the colder weather had hit. We bore it for as long as we could before bundling up and heading to Nestor's.
My sister and brother-in-law, Julia and Kelsey texted and said they were in the area for the long weekend (for all of you who aren't Canadian, it was Thanksgiving weekend). And who should we meet on Bixi Bikes*** but them?
After a quick chat on the very crowded sidewalk, we went our separate ways. It was a lot warmer in @ Matcha than in our apartment. As usual, Nestor introduced us to some people there who were friends of his. He has a knack for making friends with people and bringing those friends together. I have met many nice people there thanks to him.
We chatted, and drank tea and I made really good headway on a mushroom I have been working on for a while.
We met Julia and Kelsey in front of our apartment and then the guys went to pick up some supper while Julia and I gabbled like sisters do. We usually have a lot to say to each other.
The morning of Sunday the 9th was pretty quiet. We listened to a church service over the phone and by mid-afternoon, we were on our way to meet Julia and Kelsey again. It was kind of a food day. We drank bubble tea at a new place we hadn't ever tried (there is so much bubble tea around here) stopped at a bakery with an impressive chandelier and four different kinds of very interesting cakes I had never tried. Kind of a cool cream filling rolled in meringue crumble. Not at all what I expected when I bit into the one Gary and I shared! We walked up past Nestor's, waved and then continued into mile end where we finally settled on Slice and Soda pizza for supper. Talk about a slice. it must have been seven inches wide at the top. I guess I was making an, oh my goodness I have never seen such a giant slice of pizza in my life face when I was getting ready for the first bite because I made a passerby on the sidewalk laugh.
By the time we got home my legs and feet were getting pretty sore. And no wonder! We walked almost seven and a half kilometers.
This concludes the first week in the life of our Montreal experience. Want to know what's happening this week? Keep your eyes open for the next post.
*Interested in the food world? Learn more about Massimo Piedimonte, his restaurant, and his story by looking up Cabaret L'enfer or searching Massimo Piedimonte on the web.
**Planning a trip to Montreal? Check out @ Matcha on Google Maps. It has a very high rating for a reason.
***Bixi Bikes were introduced into the city in about the last ten or fifteen years or so and have become increasingly popular. There are self-serve Bixi "stands" all over Montreal where you can unlock a bike by paying. When you are done with the bike, simply roll it back into a Bixi bike stand to halt charges, and off you go. So many people ride bikes in Montreal, and I'd say almost half of them ride Bixis. You don't have to worry about locking up your bike so it doesn't get stolen, Bixi stands are everywhere, and a monthly pass is only $18.00. What's not to like?
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