english

I’m finishing a window where there was previously a door. I didn’t put in the window myself, and also didn’t lay the bricks outside, but repaired the wall and put in the baseboard and the window frame. I hadn’t done these things before (don’t tell the client) but it worked out pretty well. It only needs to be painted.

One of the nice features in our kitchen is a hole in the counter top. Underneath the hole is a container in a drawer and in the winter it acts like a small garbage bin. In the summer however, we only throw in our kitchen scraps, because those can be composted in our garden. Next winter we might get a worm composter so we can compost our fruit and vegetable waste in the winter too. As it is, it’s just too cold in the winter and the bacteria that do the composting are enjoying their hibernation.

We’re at the highest point of Saint HelËne, the island in the St. Lawrence river at the height of Montréal. But instead of enjoying the view, Alison is just looking for groundhogs.

While walking in the park I saw something that looked like a molehill. And upon closer inspection it even moved. But the animal was brown and much bigger than a mole, more like a cat. I made this picture and when I tried to get closer it disappeared into the hole next to the heap of earth. Poupoune didn’t even notice it. After I asked Alison this proved to be my first Groundhog Day. A historical moment indeed. We don’t have these animals in Europe so I hadn’t seen one before. So I can scratch groundhog from my list of Canadian animals still to see. That list looks like this:

• racoon (“wash bear”)
• moose
• eagle
• brown bear
• kodiak bear
• grizzly bear
• polar bear
• polar fox
• polar hare
• snow owl
• seal
• penguin
• wolf
• wolverine
• cod
• salmon
• rainbow trout
• marmot
• and many more, that I don’t even know exist

I’ll keep you posted, hopefully with pictures.

I finally had it done yesterday. Alison doesn’t like it, but I think it turned out rather nice. It hurted more than I expected (I’m such a sissy) but now it is bearable and it just feels strange when I touch it.

Pepe testdrives one of the columns I’m making for a client. They are made for supporting the fence of outdoor stairs and a balcony but wouldn’t look bad in one’s living room.

His verdict: To high to jump onto (and jump from).

I made a little clothes line so Alison can hang her boots and they don’t block the entry way.

Lots of effort is made to make sure you don’t park here. It’s the curb opposite a fire station, and the fire trucks apparently can’t make the turn if people park there cars here.

I have a new bike!

Alison gave it to me as a belated birthday present and yesterday I could pick it up. And on my first day of cycling I already had my first flat. The hole was easily fixed so it wasn’t too much of a deal. But I’ve never had a flat on my old bike, and I cycled a lot on it.

I needed a new bike because the old bike was actually a children’s bike and had very short cranks (the metal bars where the pedals are attached to). These short cranks caused my knees to hurt and so I didn’t bike very much anymore. I bought that bike the day after the day I arrived in Montréal, before I even had decided that I was going to move here. So I just went for a cheap second hand bike and didn’t even notice the short cranks. I actually only noticed them when my bicycle repairman told me, after I had spend $80 on a new chain and new gears…

The new bike is, apart from the flat, really nice and rides very smooth. It has too many gears, suspension on the front to tackle the big holes in the roads and a rack so I can take some luggage. I hope it doesn’t get stolen. I have a couple of locks on it, but although the situation isn’t as bad as in the Netherlands, bicycle theft is a growing problem in Montréal.

Yay! My MonkeyFilter T-shirt arrived.