Yesterday, Longueuil enjoyed a very nice 30 degrees Celsius. Voltaire and his "Quelques arpents de neige" vision of our country would have been totally confused. As any meteorologist will tell you, such weather generates instability and clouds form. So yesterday afternoon, with my wife, we brought out the lawn chairs and sat in the shaded back of the house with good books and a beer.
I took to watching the clouds. In my childhood I could spend hours watching the clouds. A partly cloudy sky is like being in a cinema; everything moves and the scenery is forever changing. You travel without moving. So I went, all the time lounging and sipping my beer, from lac des Sables in Ste-Agathe to Québec City. A clearing in the clouds was shaped like the Laurentian lake and a long divide had the shape of the St-Laurent river flowing from lac St-Pierre down to Québec where it narrows and just after it bends toward the north east and widens all the way down to it's estuary. Kebec in Huron means "where the river narrows". Champlain heard it and kept the word to designate his establishment.
It was pure bliss despite the noise of the boulevard passing in front of our home. You see I have been graced with the gift of cutting off noises around me. At times people have to touch me to bring me back. In large groups or noisy surroundings it is a blessing.
