After a week of cold rain, the weekend was glorious here. Summer seems to have finally arrived; the leaves are fully open and the trees once again form a canopy over the streets and sidewalks. None of this stopped some Montrealers from still wearing parkas and heavy scarves - but I've seen people at the jazz festival in July wearing parkas. Maybe it's an insecurity thing? Weather trauma?
Anyway, on Sunday, St. Catherine street was swarming with tourists and scantily-dressed teenagers prowling the shops where sandals and shiny handbags and the season's candy-colored lingerie were displayed enticingly in the windows. Two very good musicians played sax and oboe duets on one street corner and I wondered if they were on-strike Montreal Symphony players slumming it, or just having fun. The gardens on the cathedral grounds had been recently planted with fuschia impatiens and acid-green hostas, and amid the plantings a homeless man leaned against one corner of the stone building, fast sleep in the sun.
We took our supper of leftovers to the park and lazed around on the grass by the lake, watching a group of boys doing tricks on their mountain bikes and three malamuts chasing a tennis ball into the water, with a pair of ducks staying nonchalantly just out of reach. A young mother played with her baby next to us; behind us a guy with a black lab read a book; in front of us two lovers smoked, drank some wine, ate a loaf of French bread and cheese, and nuzzled on a blanket, while an endless slow parade of strolling Montrealers walked along the lakeside path: older couples; an Asian grandfather with two grandchildren; a Moroccan family with an exuberant little girl in hot pink tights, a white skirt, and a headful of luxuriantly curly long hair.
After the sun set, the couple with the two malamuts borrowed a pen form the guy with the black lab, and exchanged addresses with the owner of the third dog: "maybe a home for some of our puppies", the woman told us. S he and her boyfriend stood up, and wrapped themselves in their brightly-striped serape-style blanket, heads and upper bodies completely covered. The white malamut looked on, at first confused, and then howled. The couple emerged from their tented embrace, laughed, tousled the dog's thick fur, and set off for home.
Sounds like the perfect day in the park!
Posted by: maria | May 30, 2005 at 09:42 PM