Idaho Peak

July 7.
A Tuesday morning outing, up to Idaho Peak with our ten friends, plus Chris and Tia.  No snow on the road (except a small patch at one switch-back) and none on the ridge.  Only one patch of slide lilies, spotted from the car on the way down.  'Late' flowers well in bloom.   Glorious as always to be up there - at least once in the summer!

the gang - or 'gaggle' as Doco called us

the assorted straggle - all chugged to the top for a picnic lunch

Silverton, New Denver, and Rosebery, with smoke in the air

Arnica

Stonecrop

Anemone 'tousle-tops' and lupine

Paintbrush and lupine

I was quite pleased with my little camera's flowers.

Happy Birthday Doco!

A birthday swim for the birthday fellow in his birthday suit (plus Keens)

There and back again - a test of Rayan and Viktors new steps, replacing our hazardous slither down the old ranch road below the highway.

Doco and his birthday-swim companion (can't do selfies)

nice steps for sitting on

Hotel Bonaventure

This huge brown blob in the middle of Montreal looks none too inviting.  The sign on a simple door says 'Hotel Bonaventure'.  What a surprise when you go in and directly up to the 17th floor to the hotel lobby.  Sixteen floors of office building below and two floors of hotel and conference rooms on top.  Designed by Ray Affleck for Montreal's Expo'67, it has the flavour of people-friendly space like the more famous Habitat.  No elevators necessary once on the 17th floor.  Lobby and restaurants in the centre.  (Oh, and an outdoor pool, used every night by me - once under a full moon, the other twice under clouds and sprinkles.)

Gardens surround the centre.  Then, across enclosed bridges to three levels of rooms along the four sides.  Very simple, practical, lovely, and quiet.  What comfort!  The meeting rooms are an escalator ride down from the lobby.  Starbucks is in the cavernous Place Bonaventure far below ground.

our window on the bottom

ducklings in the rooftop garden, near our window...

… but this morning I'm up before they are

……………………………………………………………………………………………
Then, for our last morning's entertainment - "Princess Cleotasha (and friends) au bord du Nil"

"Remembering F. Clarke Fraser"

8am, June 29th, 2015.  Hotel Bonaventure, Montreal.

With the five speakers (left to right) - Patrick McLeod (Victoria), Diana Juriloff (UBC), Rick Finnell (Austin, TX), Jacquetta Trasler (McGill), and Michel Vekemans (Paris) - we had a really good hour-long tribute to our graduate supervisor at McGill, F. Clarke Fraser.

Here are the five, after their talks.  Diana and Michel were two of Clarke's last PhD students.  At age 94, Clarke was still sharp, still interested in what we were doing on the genetics of cleft lip and neural tube defects, and still able to come up with the key questions.

Diana, while reminding us all that it was only 5am Vancouver time and that she is NOT a morning person, gave a splendid talk.  "Oral Clefts" (cleft palate, cleft lip, and the multifactorial model) - Clarke's work and its impact, and our own work, including her current analysis of the role of methylation in the maternal effect on cleft lip risk.  I was so glad to be there.

Daphne Trasler (third from left), who did the early developmental work on cleft lip in the mouse and was a career-long close McGill colleague and friend of Clarke's, joined us for a 2-hour tea-visit ...

... from the left: Jacquetta Trasler (Daphne's genetics-prof daughter), Daphne, Rick, me, Susanna Finnell, Carolyn Kapron, Diana

Rodin

At the 'Musee des Beaux-Artes de Montreal'.

Skipping out of the meeting on Sunday, Diana and I headed for Rodin.  A good walk on a pleasant breezy afternoon, from our hotel up to Sherbrooke Street, with a stop for lunch at 'Vego', a vegetarian buffet that Flor introduced us to at the 2011 Human Genetics conference.  Many meals this trip!

The Museum was a bit of a puzzle.  I guess I haven't been for several years.  The old museum says RODIN, but we couldn't find a way in.  Then we turned around and spotted the new museum - also RODIN - across Sherbrooke Street.

the old ...

… and the new

The Rodin exhibit is huge (171 pieces) and so are many of the sculptures.  I much preferred the big ones, especially the 'patinated' plaster versions like "the Thinker" and "Eve", ready for bronze casting.  Not sure I have the processes entirely sorted - needed a clear stepwise demonstration.

the Thinker (in patinated plaster)

Eve (in patinated plaster)

Adam (in bronze) - controversially pointing to earth rather than to heaven

All interesting, but both of us had had enough of classical bodies and wished for some normal variation.

at rue Fabre

A few moments in late June.  Since age 14, I have loved these curving-stepped Montreal scapes, and never dreamt of being at home in one!

The apartment building itself, featuring the long turquoise snouts of two of its inhabitants ...

… and the annual duties of a Montreal landlord ...

… not to mention the backyard 'duties' of a Montreal (visiting) grand-mere.  "Twister"!

A leisurely breakfast of waffles in the back garden ...

… and planning the future (or at least the next few days)

A bit of scurry (Meo 'helping'), and the family is off for a week with Jane Anna Chapman and family on the island of Vinal Haven in Maine - guitar, bicycles and all.  I am the last out, en route next to the Hotel Bonaventure and the Clarke Fraser symposium.

Meo's BIXI ride

I have been dying to do this for ages and today I had my first-ever BIXI-bicycle ride.  Actually four rides.  It works like this.  You pay $5 and can take as many rides as you like in 24 hours, as long as each ride is less than half an hour.  First, find a bike (a challenge 'uptown' at 11 am on Thursday - all the bikes have been ridden 'downtown', to work).  No bikes left at stand#1.  At stand#2, the last bike was just disappearing.  Aargh.  Rachel's iPhone BIXI-app showed 0 bikes at stand#3, but as we got there (Parc-Laurier), the BIXI truck had just brought 12 bikes back uptown - and I only needed one.

Bike found, we rode off to the 'Bibliotheque Marc-Garneau' - a new glass-and-living-green-wall library that Lily loves, just a bit north of the train tracks.  Really good bicycle paths and I lumbered along behind the three.  Only one hill.  Maybe 20 minutes.  We parked the BIXI, then found that the library was closed till 1pm.  All fine.  Still lots of BIXIs to choose from.  We would continue on to the Jean Talon Market (15 minutes) and return for books and a good read between BIXI rides on our way back.

 
Strawberries here too - biologique, straight from the farm.  Just about as good as Doco's.  Rachel had brought their bicycle 'chariot' to carry berries home for winter.   Now chopped and frozen.

made it!

a sustaining berry drink

a BIT bigger than the Oak Street Farmers' Market

So, now that I've done it once ...