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Jean Talon Market is Sierra’s favourite place to buy fresh vegetables. In the summer, it is a lot larger with many rows of outdoor vendors. At this time of the year, all of the vendors are located inside the building. 

I love photographing farmers’ markets. I think every trip I take, I have pictures of fruit, vegetables and/or flowers. I just love the different colours and the textures. So I wandered around with my camera phone and took these images. Actually all of my photos on this trip have come from my phone. It sure saves carrying around a lot of camera equipment.

I don’t expect to post any more photos from Montreal, as I don’t have any outings planned but I may surprise myself....

In case I don’t, thank you for following along with my photographic journey through Montreal. Stay safe! 

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The last images from the Montreal Botanical Gardens. 

The snow covered pond and the teepee were still in the First Nations Gardens. While we were there we saw a very active small black and white woodpecker. 

Like the Parc du Mont Royal, the gardens were open to cross country skiers. 

The buildings in the bottom two photos were part of the summer displays for annuals, perennials and crop gardens.  

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The next area was the First Nations Gardens. There were a lot of native Canadian plants, as well as some indigenous themed art.

It was a challenge to take this shot, as I didn’t want to fall on the icy path or trip on a tree root.

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The Japanese Gardens were a lot smaller than the Chinese Gardens. 

The Peace Bell from the city of Hiroshima was given to Montreal in 1986 when it declared itself a ‘nuclear weapon free city”. Each year on August 5th, as it is already August 6th in Japan, there is a peace ceremony and the bronze bell is sounded once for each year since 1945. As the bell does not have a clapper, it must be struck by a massive wooden hammer to make a noise. 

The stone lantern in the pond is like a lighthouse as it has one leg in the water and one leg on land.

Like many Japanese Gardens, this one had its share of bridges. 

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The top building is the Friendship Hall, which would have been the welcoming space in the heart of the garden. Traditional Chinese animals such as fish-tailed dragons and lions are on the roof. Sierra is visible in the windows' reflections. This wall of windows would have allowed the sun to always shine into the pavilion.

The “Stoneboat” building across the lotus pond from the Friendship Hall, gets its name from its similarity to Empress Cixi’s marble boat, built in the late Qing dynasty. The front “bow”, in the first vertical photo was designed as platform for observing these flowers. The original boat is on display at the Summer Palace in Beijing. 

The “Tower of Condensing Clouds” is at the highest point of the gardens, next to the Stone Mountain. The latter is the only part of the Chinese Gardens that was not brought over from China. The rocks were obtained from quarries in Quebec.

The bottom photo is of the Friendship Hall again but from the Stone Mountain side. It shows how the Montreal Tower dominates the view. 

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From the main entry through the red gate, visitors enter into a small courtyard that acts as a transition from the outside to the peaceful garden within. 

The three stones were brought from Tai Lake to represent three Chinese deities, symbolizing happiness (Fu), prosperity (Lu) and longevity (Shou). 

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These gardens are one of the largest classical gardens, (2.5 hectares), outside of China and are due to the friendship between the cities of Shanghai and Montreal. The structures were all built in China, then dismantled and shipped by sea to Montreal. It took a team of more than 50 craftsmen from China to reassemble it in 1990. 

The design is that of a private garden of a mandarin or Imperial court official from the Ming era (14th to 17th centuries) in southern China. 

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Just after the Gardeners’ Cottage, there was a split in the path and the unusual stone and tree were in the fork. To the left, which we took, was the entry into the Chinese Gardens. The stone pillar reminded us of the Stone Forest in Kunming, China. 

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The cottage is the “break room” for the gardeners.

The bottom photo shows one of the many greenhouses in the Botanical Gardens. 

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There are many walking paths throughout the gardens and we decided to go left, which took us to the Rose Garden area first. The Gardens are 75 hectares or 190 acres in size and were designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2008. They are considered to be one of the most important botanical gardens in the world due to the extent of their collections and facilities. 

The green lion, created in 1831 is one of four from the city of Lyon, France. It was placed at the entrance to the Rose Garden in the 19th century, as Lyon is known as the City of Roses and this garden was inspired by a rose garden in Lyon. 

I am sure that in the summer it is stunning and very deserving of its awards. Today it was just a lovely winter scene. We did have to be careful though, as the roses were wrapped in white plastic to protect them from the cold. It meant that we had to be careful where we walked because it was hard to tell where they were under the snow. 

The female sculpture was originally holding a necklace but now she looks a bit like she is ready to do karate. I am sure that was not the artist’s original intention in 1971 when it was created. Alice Winant was a Holocaust survivor and learned to sculpt in the hospital after she was freed from Auschwitz and before coming to Canada in 1954. 

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The main entrance of the Montreal Botanical Gardens leads to the Reception Gardens, which in the summer have different annuals every year. This area opened to the public in 1937. The  Administration Building in the background was constructed in the late 1930s in an Art Deco style. It was massive and I think would make a great movie set for a dark asylum. The pathway leads to a series of fountains and waterfalls that must look spectacular in the summer and I suspect, lessen the severity of the building.  

Normally the gardens require an entrance fee but due to Covid and to the winter season, we were allowed to wander the grounds for free. The buildings and all of the interior gardens were closed. 

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Today we had our last major outing planned for this visit. We took the metro to the Montreal Botanical Gardens. Between the PIE-IX metro stop and the entrance to the gardens, we passed the Olympic Stadium. It was built in the mid-1970s for the 1976 Olympic Games. Now it is a multi-purpose stadium without a major tenant and is a bit of a white elephant. Its nickname is the Big O or the Big Owe, due to its astronomically high price tag and cost over-runs. 

Brian and I actually attended an Expos baseball game there in the 1980s. He caught a fly ball that was going straight for me! He also caught a ball at Brennan’s first ball game, watching the Toronto Blue Jays in the late 1990s. He didn’t think he could be lucky a third time and catch a ball at a game for Sierra. Thankfully, there wasn’t a west coast professional ball team to test his skill and luck.

The Montreal Tower is the world’s tallest inclined tower at 175m or 574ft. It was visible from all over the gardens. 

The viewing area from the main road had standing stones. I have no idea why. It isn’t exactly Stonehenge but Sierra graciously agreed to pose for me. 

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From the lake area, we took the lower level of Olmstead Trail, which took us all the way around to the other side of the mountain. Look carefully and you can see that half of the trail is completely cleared for walkers and runners. The other side has hard packed snow with tracks set for cross country skiing. 

Along the way we found a cleared bench and enjoyed our picnic lunch. It was fun to watch all the skiers and men on fat-tired bikes while we ate. The ones going uphill were certainly burning a lot of calories. I did feel a little guilty when we pulled out a couple of Christmas cookies but it didn’t stop me. ;-)

Once we reached Rachel Road West on the far side of the park, we were able to catch our bus in less than 2 minutes and it dropped us off within a block of Sierra’s apartment. It was perfect timing. What a great day! 

At least 18,000 steps were taken. 

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We got off the bus near Beaver Lake or Lac Du Castor in French. Part of the lake was cleared for skating and the other end had two large sledding areas. It was so beautiful. 

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Today was a beautiful sunny winter day, so Sierra and I decided to go to the park at Mont Royal. It is incredible how many outdoor activities are available for everyone - cross country skiing, skating, snowshoeing, tobogganing and walking. It is definitely a winter wonderland. 

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One last photo. We realized when we were back at the metro station that we hadn’t taken any photos of us together. So we did this selfie in front of a mosaic on the platform while we were waiting for the train. 

These were our third masks of the day. With all the walking and the cold, our masks got very wet and we had to keep changing them! 

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These murals were taken along Mont Royal Ave East. The top one has some iconic American images in it. I was impressed with my movie trivia skills when I recognized Michael Douglas in Falling Down. The Free Art or Art-Libre was on a second storey wall with a one storey building in front of it. There must have been some challenges in painting that one! The last two were in the same narrow alley. Unfortunately it was very difficult to get a decent photo of the “barrel of monkeys” type monkeys. The close ups look out of focus because of the texture of the building.