Béatrice Martin is a French Canadian singer and songwriter, who goes under the stage name of “Coeur de Pirate”.  All her songs are written by her.   One of my favorite songs is this one called “Place de la République”.   I love the music and the video of Paris.   If you don’t understand French it does not matter because the video tells the story.  Of course it is a love story, right there in Paris.   Voilà une trés belle chanson avec une belle histoire d’amour.  

Life is too ironic.  It takes sadness to know what happiness is, noise to appreciate silence, and absence to value presence.

Buddha

Whenever people come to visit they think they are stepping into a jungle.  Then I hear comments about how my plants are sitting on top of each other, and why don’t I remove the weeds and how come there are so many moss patches on the ground everywhere.  The fact is that I am pleased about these comments because I like to live in a jungle.  I don’t want a designer garden where everything is measured and calculated.  I like it wild and unruly, where you can play hide and seek and the bees and the birds and rabbits are having fun.   This year the plants have grown even higher and the weeds as well.  here are some pictures of my Urban Jungle.

Two apple trees and some bushes near the fence

 

my little Buddha garden

 

sitting under the apple tree

 

Tina hiding near the gate

 

The apple tree in bloom

 

A jungle growing near the wall……don’t even know what is growing in there

 

a romantic view from the house

 

my own little home made terrace

 

The Jungle inside the house

 

looking from the inside out

Last week I went for a drive to St. Therese, a northern suburb of Montreal, just across the bridge from Laval.  Since Montreal is a town of islands there are a number of bridges leading to the northern and southern suburbs.  St. Therese is basically a little town and the town center is called Vieux St. Thérèse, where everything still looks like many years ago.  There is also a big college there and you will see lots of students walking around.   Here are some of the pictures I took.

Collège Lionel-Groulx

 

a lovely little street with old houses

 

One of the older charming houses

 

a little creek running through one of the back streets

 

One of the many balconies you see everywhere

 

another typical street of Vieux St. Thérèse

 

The big church called Église Sainte-Thérèse d’Avila right in the middle of town

 

another of the older homes

 

one of the little shops

 

with plenty of cafés and restaurants to choose from