I have always wondered about the origin of these stairs – they are located in an alley behind St. Catherine Street near Metcalfe Avenue.

Cooling off on a shaded sidewalk before we take more pictures.

A sidewalk date marker on St. Catherine Street near Greene Avenue.

Contractors that installed the city’s sidewalks used to embed a marker with their name and date when the work was performed.

At one point in time, the City used to “rent” ducks to inhabit the lagoon over the summer months.

This was a favourite feeding location for parents and their children.

Unfortunately, vandalism that resulted in the deaths of several ducklings caused the City (quite rightly) to stop providing these birds.

A bough from a former Willow tree (genus Salix) near the lagoon at Westmount Park. This particular bough grew horizontally across the lagoon and was a favourite climbing spot for generations of children.

The tree grew victim to vandalism and disease.

Medicinal uses of Salix from Wikipedia:

“The leaves and bark of the willow tree have been mentioned in ancient texts from Assyria, Sumer and Egypt as a remedy for aches and fever, and in Ancient Greece the physician Hippocrates wrote about its medicinal properties in the fifth century BC. Native Americans across the Americas relied on it as a staple of their medical treatments.

It provides temporary pain relief. Salicin is metabolized into salicylic acid in the human body, and is a precursor of aspirin.

In 1763, its medicinal properties were observed by the Reverend Edward Stone in England. He notified the Royal Society, which published his findings.

The active extract of the bark, called salicin, was isolated to its crystalline form in 1828 by Henri Leroux, a French pharmacist, and Raffaele Piria, an Italian chemist, who then succeeded in separating out the compound in its pure state.

In 1897, Felix Hoffmann created a synthetically altered version of salicin (in his case derived from the Spiraea plant), which caused less digestive upset than pure salicylic acid. The new drug, formally acetylsalicylic acid, was named Aspirin by Hoffmann’s employer Bayer AG. This gave rise to the hugely important class of drugs known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).”

Early evening in Westmount Park.

Detail over a front door on Kensington Ave.

Floral design – Westmount City Hall.

Westmount Lawn Bowling Club.

Heather Curling Rink (1897)

From: http://www.westmount.org/page.cfm?Section_ID=2&Menu_Item_ID=8&Menu_Item_Sub=16

“Heather Curling Club (1887) on the west side of Kensington above Sherbrooke; relocated to 239 Kensington in 1905.”