Fête du Travail and other things

Our branch (congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) here had a party for Labor Day which was a great mystery to me. It was something about corn, which is already confusing because it's called "Indian wheat" here. (I learned corn as maïs…but apparently it's sometimes blé d'Inde too.) The party was called "épluchette de blé d'Inde" and the missionaries told us it's a great favorite here, something always done in Autumn, but no one exactly knew why. Épluchette means "peeling" so I deduced it must be something like a "Corn Husking Party."

It actually made sense to me when I thought about wards I've been in and how they've had their Fall party traditions too…the "Chili Cook-off" for example. Some people just LOVE the ward chili cook-off! And here, what they love is the épluchette de blé d'Inde.

(I'm not casting scorn upon loving these things, by the way. I like them too! Fall parties are great! I just think it's funny that there are pockets of people among whom a tradition is done every year, and "it wouldn't be Fall without it," while in other places it's totally unknown and weird!)

Anyway, the "corn husking" (there was in fact corn to eat, and I did in fact help husk it, but it wasn't really what the whole activity was about or anything) was great. It was fun to see the people in our branch outside of church and get to really talk to them more, and to see that indeed the church is the same everywhere. It felt so different and foreign when we first got here, but then I started to see how many things were the same. The bishopric, for example, looking slightly out of place in their "casual" clothes, diligently cooking something up on makeshift stoves or griddles which took longer than expected to set up because someone had to hunt down extension cords. Or the men wheeling carts of folding chairs out from the gym and crashing them into the top of the double doors because someone put the chairs hanging on the wrong rung last time they were put away. Women running to hunt for mismatched hot pads in the kitchen because a bunch of people are putting their hot casserole dishes on the plastic tables. Kids coming up to help roll the round tables out of the church and getting their toes rolled over in the process. It was all so familiar, I felt very at home even though all the conversations around me were still in French! The church is like its own language.

People standing around chatting while other diligent souls are organizing the food

Cute hair

Cute faces

The branch had gotten a couple inflatable slides for the kids to play on, which made me feel even more at home because I've been in charge of that same thing for our ward before. I was pleased not to have to be the one worrying about them blowing over in excessive wind, or if some kid was going to poke a hole in one with a fork.

Another familiar sight—a bunch of men loading something up onto a trailer after the activity is over

Our branch covers SO much area. Look at it! It's outlined in blue on this map (the orange dots are places members live). To drive from the bottom to the top of the boundaries would take over nine hours! Some of our people have their own little "group" that takes the sacrament together and then joins our meetings on Zoom. I love the faith and goodness of the people we're meeting here!

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And now a truly random assortment of pictures to finish out this post:

Gus ready for church

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Junie and Gus off to get ice cream or something…I just happened to see them walking along on Rue St. Jean when I was coming back from somewhere.

Daisy and Clementine off on some adventure

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Ice cream with Daisy

And one of my "Book Lunches" with Daisy (my favorite part of teaching High School kids)

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Came home one day to find this lovely and instructive scene on the front door, drawn by Ziggy…a depiction of "hevin" and hell and what one can expect to encounter in each. I wonder what the neighbors thought of this???

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Watching President Nelson's 100th birthday celebration

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Clementine posing by flowers, as she always does

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Some good lunches

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Graffiti (it keeps getting added to, rather incoherently if you ask me)

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Pink pajamas

Navy blue dresses

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Just the outside wall of the dining room. I like it.

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Various pretty skies and light

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Fire station by our house, with a little boy inside looking at the fire trucks. Another Quebecois Ziggy! …Oh, did I ever show you the first Quebecois Ziggy? Sam and I were out a walk one night and heard the most ear-piercing siren noises coming from the back of a church. "That sounds just like Ziggy," Sam said. We walked around the corner and saw…

…this little guy riding around on his trike. He appeared to be waiting outside this church during a wedding, judging by the bridesmaid-looking girl that was chasing after him and looking harried. Ha!

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I like the building this restaurant is in

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Junie did her hair in tiny braids and it was SO huge and fluffy when she took the braids out! She felt (when I petted her hair) like a woolly sheep.

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Rainbow circle!

Fighter jets coming out of their hangars (I don't think Clementine built these; she is just trying to sneakily play with them while her brothers are out of the room)

Clementine showing me how she can go in and out of the door to her "house"

Clementine's doll Evie, wearing the birthday dress Daisy made for. Evie is in the lap of luxury, what with that dress and her very own house with a bed and chair and table!

Evie's dinner (one berry)

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Gus gazing out the window

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Kids reading before bed

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Ice cream

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Peekers

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Pretty clouds

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Sleepy and curly

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Tiny doll in cradle from Grandma Nelson

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Sunset at Saint-Jean-Baptiste

Saint-Jean-Baptiste from behind

We love the playground by this church, and it looks so pretty in the evenings!

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Dinner with the missionaries

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Little fireworks at a stadium down the hill

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Sam on a walk with the kids (looking up directions to something)

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Duck Confit Poutine Sam tried somewhere (it was SO good)

Fish and chips and lobster bisque at the same place, also really good

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Daisy is 15 now, so we let her get some driving practice in the church parking lot! I don't think we'll unleash her on the streets of Quebec quite yet, but she did a pretty good job!

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Rainy street

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Goldie's pretty hair

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A big stack of crêpes

Goldie neatly organizing the strawberries and their stems

Husky's tiny crepe

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Walk to investigate a fire truck on our street

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Little friends

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A morning walk in the lower town

The stairs back up to our house…and there's quite a bit of hill left after that!

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This walk is up along the Plains of Abraham. There's a pretty path down through the forest if you don't go toward the Château.

There is a very steep but beautiful staircase down toward the river. It's like being in a treehouse!

Back up the hill, looking down at another cruise ship

And some nice rooftop gardens

And a look up through the Artillery Park and along the city walls as we walk back along Rue Richlieu (Rue McMahon really, but it turns into Rue Richelieu) toward home!

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On a harrowing note…Clementine went outside onto my balcony with Evie (her doll) to play, and a few minutes later I went out and saw Clementine looking worried and guilty. "I didn't drop Evie," she said, and I immediately knew she had. We looked everywhere and finally (by hoisting Teddy up onto a wall and having him lean very precariously over) saw that Evie had fallen all the way three stories down into the neighbors' bushes! I was very worried about how we would get her. There was no way to climb over the wall. And mostly I just couldn't stop thinking about what if it had been Clementine that fell all that way!

Finally I just took Clementine and went over to the neighbors'. The lady happened to be parking in her courtyard so I flagged her down and tried to explain haltingly in French what had happened… "My daughter's doll…she dropped her…so sorry…in your jardin…" Somehow she understood and we went back there to hunt for Evie together. Clementine smiled so radiantly when she got her back! And I gave her a stern warning that she must never, never, never drop Evie again! (My heart can't take it!)

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I have always liked this house on our street with the window boxes. It's a little bed and breakfast—we see people going in and out with suitcases. I recently learned that it is over 200 years old and  used to be a women's refuge:

Built around 1790 with the sedimentary stones of the region (schist), this beautiful house is also a historical place, having housed the beginnings of the congregation of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. On January 11, 1850, Mrs. Roy (later to become Sister Marie Fitzbach) and her companion, Mary Keogh, opened the Asile de Ste-Madeleine at 67, rue Richelieu, a refuge for women leaving prison and with the objective of equipping them with the knowledge allowing them to be a fulfilled wife. 

I wish I knew more of the history of our house here! I keep meaning to ask the owner if he knows about it.