Falling for Fall

Well, summer certainly zipped past and we are in full swing fall!  I have always thought of summer as my favorite season, since I am extremely partial to beaches.  However, now that fall is here, I may have to do some rethinking.  The fall colours are So. Incredibly. Amazing!  Seriously, they are like nothing I have seen before moving here. The pictures, unfortunately, do not fully capture the beauty, but I will share them with you anyway. 

 

With Montréal in "red alert" Covid-19 status, we have been asked to stay close to home.  So, no more road trips "up North" to the Laurentians or sightseeing out to the Eastern Townships. However, as luck would have it, we recently had a full week of perfect autumn hiking weather. We took advantage of that and decided to explore some new (to us) parks here on "The Island." 

First, we headed to Parc Angrignon, about a 12 minute drive from our house.  This is a large 97-hectare* park, that was inspired by 19th century English gardens. There is a large 1.1 km-long lake, wide walking trails, picnic tables, and a playground. Apparently, there was a farm and a zoo here too, back in the day, but those are closed now.

The next park we went to was the Bois-de-Liesse Nature Park. This 158-hectare park features 13 km of hiking trails, 8 km of bike paths and is home to a diversified ecosystem. 

It is situated along the Rivière des Prairies (the "Back River" that, along with the St. Lawrence, makes Montréal an island). We enjoyed the warm temperatures and had a lovely hike. Two sledding hills are sufficient reason for me to want to head back here in the wintertime! (Hmm... guess I need to get a sled first!). 

We even came across some local wildlife, sunning on a log. Imagine that - right here in the heart of the city. LOL

The third park we scoped out was Centennial Park.  It has a nice 2.2 km loop that took us around an artificial lake.  There was a really nice vantage point at the top of a small hill. The colours of the leaves did not disappoint. 

 

I have to admit that these park excursions are also serving as scouting missions for potential snow shoeing and cross country skiing trails! 

We made an investment in winter sporting gear.  I think it will be critical to our mental health this season, due to Covid restrictions ..blah,blah,blah. 
 

If it is merely beautiful leaves I am looking for, I do not have to even get in a car and drive anywhere.  A short stroll in my neighbourhood will yield quite a bounty of colours.  You can even see that the asters are still blooming in this photo.  

Again, I have to state that these pictures do not really do justice to the real thing.  If any of y'all are seriously considering a trip to come visit us someday, think about coming in October.  It is worth it - I promise!  

We recently celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving.  Even though we could not have guests over this year, we had a delicious meal with turkey and gravy, jalapeno cranberry sauce, yummy broccoli and artichokes, cucumber/tomato salad and the most decadent sweet potatoes for dessert. I did not make my traditional pecan pie tarts, so I may just have to do that for the US Thanksgiving.  I suppose I am entitled to celebrate both, eh? 

 

Other than grocery shopping and nature hikes, I have been keeping fairly busy at home.  The usual Zoom meetings, YouTube workout videos, cooking, reading, mahjong online, etc.  Who knows...I may even pick up my knitting project that I started last winter!   

Off the regular path, David and I made a special trip to Marché Atwater.  

In addition to the big selection of weird looking gourds, this is the only place we have found that sells our favorite Valentina salsa picante, made in Mexico. We got three bottles, so that should last us for a few months. 

We also took one other trip out of town before the "red alert" was imposed.  We went to a town about a six hour drive to the northeast, called Tadoussac.  It is well-known as a most excellent spot for whale watching. Friends have been telling us about it for two years now, so we finally made the time to go.  We booked a cruise even though people said it was possible to see the whales from the shore.  I am glad we did because we saw so many whales: Fin whales, Minke whales and Belugas.  Their elusiveness is part of what makes spotting them such an enchanting moment.  

Instead of making an entire blog post of our trip, I will share a link below to a wonderful slide show that David put together that sums up all the highlights from our adventure.  Click on the link below, then click again on the "https://drive.google....." link.  

Tadoussac whale watching trip

Thanks for stopping in to read my blog update.  

Stay safe out there folks. 

Ça va bien aller! 

* hectare.  I have heard of a hectare, but I confess - I had to Google it to see what it really is.  Turns out - it is a metric unit of square measure, bigger than an acre... actually 1 hectare is equal to 2.47 acres.  So, there you have it!