Bonjour Montréal

I've spent the last few days in the Montreal area, where I spent a great deal of my adult life and where my son was born. First impressions are that Quebec City is doing far better than Montreal, but that might just be because you have to go through poorer areas of town to get through the better parts and downtown.

I did stop in a few places like Mont St Hilaire which is as beautiful as ever...

 

Also visited my old Regiment on St Catherine street, where I started my military career as a Private. Ok, why the picture disappeared from my camera, I don't know!

Here is the first house I ever bought, situated a little west of the city.

Since my buddy Arlene also loves scrapbooking, we took a detour home and stopped in a cute little scrapbook store in LaPrairie called Passion Collimagination where I met Miss LeeLou whose blog is in French, but whose talent is international:

Thanks and Bye Quebec City

I'd like to thank my brother and his wife for a wonderful visit!  Going home, is always a little difficult amongst a whole lot of loving and smiling and I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am for all my brother Richard does to be a base for us all! I don't think I've told him how much that means to me and I should have!

Despite not being in the best of shape, he took me around town, even to visit my dearly departed parents, grandparents and brother, which wasn't easy for any of us! He took me to tour the part of the Ile d'Orleans where I spent a few summers and learned to swim, and when my iPad died, he, my sis-in-law and nephew all accompanied me to the Quebec Apple Store where they set me up with a new one in no time at all!

To my nephew, I am glad that I got to spend so much time with you and your beautiful girlfriend and I do hope that you will take my offer to come and visit me seriously! To my niece, I would have loved to spend more time with you, but between your being away until the day before I got there and all the catching up you needed to do when you got back it wasn't possible, so here is hoping that we have more time, next time!

Lastly, to my friend Carole, thanks for everything, for the visits to the shops and for showing me how to color with copics!  You are a wonderful teacher and I was lucky to have you spend time showing me how! I'm pretty elated with the result, my Dressed Up Marci in grays really came out well for a first ever try using copics! I'm not sure why the picture shows her in beige, when the actual is in qhite and grays, but you still get the idea of all the shading and blending that Carole patiently showed me how to do! Carole, our friendship is just a few months old but I already know will last always!