White is a colour too
It's Spring next week in Canada.
Technically.
In Montreal, it still looks like this...
Sure, it's pretty. But as far as I can tell, there are 12 months and 4 seasons in the year, so my basic math says each season should get 3 months.
That December, January and February are winter is a given. I will even allow incursions into late November and early March. We are now mid-March, however, and it's going to do this for another 2 weeks. Oh and be -10'C on Saturday.
Needless to say, the snow gear is staying in rotation.
Given we knew this storm (the third in 3 weeks) was coming, yesterday I decided to go find the colour in Montreal, as a counter point to all that incoming white. It wasn't hard to find. I just had to look up.
It is everywhere... in the way of massive beautiful murals.
So I thought rather than just grumbling over the white stuff, this week I'd share a few of them.
Underpasses, overpasses, historic houses. Pretty much any blank wall is fair prey.
Some are political and informational, the walls providing massive platforms for groups to educate every passerby who looks up from their cell phone for longer than 5 seconds. Depictions of here-to-fore unheard of historical events, depictions of indigenous peoples, information on missing and murdered women, and those pre-dating the impending legalization of marijuana.
Some are extensions of the physical environment they exist in, continuing the street scene beyond the street itself...
Then there are abstractions...
While others make you stop and do a double take...
All of them show amazing skill and artistry.
My favourite is this one: rampaging tagger granny...
Whole buildings are wrapped in amazing, accessible, colourful art...
On a related note, Stephen Hawking died yesterday. He was 76 and noone could say he didn't live his life to the fullest. He had some very sage advice:
I need to remember to look up from the cell phone and the snow. Way up, well clear of the slushy, cold and wet sidewalks. To look beyond the apparently never ending winter. To look up to the stars. Even if all I see is a beautiful mural, it will likely improve my mood!
Also mood enhancing is my neighbour's cat, Benny, who has no fear of the snow. So he has been put to work delivering invitations to drinks.
BONUS: he is cuddlier than a text!
Ben oui... bien sûr, Monsieur Bennie! We'll be there at 7!