Walking along Westmount’s commercial district on New Year’s Day – all the stores were closed. We joined other walkers spending their afternoon looking at window displays.
Westmount
Category Archives: Quebec
Westmount’s Lanes
Reminders of a simpler time – Westmount’s network of unnamed lanes
Westmount – Christmas Season
Houses, along our street, decorated for the holiday season.
Westmount Park
Westmount Park – currently a winter wonderland! Surprisingly, it was quite warm this evening. In the winter, dogs utilize their outer layer of fur that traps body heat like a blanket – if you look closely, the hairs are nearly vertical.
Westmount Park – First Snow
The season’s first snow fall – it’s always quite beautiful. Those that had to rely on a car for transportation this morning might not agree.
Westmount Public Library
A Sunday afternoon – well spent- in Westmount’s “library in the park”.
Melville Avenue
The rain (finally) stopped before an evening walk. Melville Avenue has an interesting array of grey-stone triplexes built in the late 1800s.
Westmount Park
Our evening walk through Westmount Park during a snowy Thursday evening.
The frozen lagoon traces the path of the former Glen Stream that used to flow from “Westmount Mountain”.
The stream’s path was north to south – the same direction as most (former) waterways that flowed through the island of Montreal. (Today they still flow in a series of underground in conduits).
During the usage of the French seigneurial system (established in the 1600s) farm land (“rangs”) was distributed to farmers on a north-south basis allowing each to have access to a source of water.
That is why most of Montreal’s residential streets run north to south and those that are commercial in nature run east to west – a living reminder of our former agricultural heritage.
Melville Avenue
Melville Avenue – no relation to the Moby Dick author – on a blustery cold Wednesday evening.
The street’s original name was Elgin; named after James Bruce Elgin, 8th Earl and Governor General of Canada from 1847-54. The street’s name was changed when the Melville Presbyterian Church was erected adjacent a former bread factory.
Today, it is a place of worship for the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Westmount – First Snow
The first snow of the season. Its reflection illuminated the park during the evening.
This was coupled with the sounds of people scraping ice off their cars parked on nearby streets. This is our first winter (in decades) without a car – and I don’t miss owning one!
Westmount Overlooked 