Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Peaceful after work time

After work today I took a ramble around the old city. The summer festival just finished, but that hasn't depleted the crowds much. In a park beside Chateau Frontenac, they had set up an outdoor silver-catered buffet among the trees, with dancers dressed up as blue glittery pixies entertaining the guests. No kidding. Pixies. Complete with blue glittery spandex, wings, pointy ears and purple wigs. Most of them were doing dance-y posing, and one tall pixie on stilts was greeting guests "to our magical forest" and doing magic tricks, much to their middle-aged amusement (as opposed to childlike delight). It was weird, because this was a private catered function in a public park. They had hired security to keep passers-by out. So I was unsure as to how upset I should be about that, but mostly I was fascinated at the old-fashioned decadence of hiring actors to amuse the guests! It was like some kind of renaissance court-jester stuff!

From there, I followed a footpath up the cape to a field high up by the Citadel. And from there the whole Saint Lawrence spread out below me. There were maybe 30 white sailboats dotting the shipping lanes, and you could hear the faint drums from the band on a cruise ship reaching up. It was grassy and sunny and deserted and so peaceful. I could hear a flag flapping in the wind above me! Think of that. Not the flag, just the sound. This isn't nationalist imagery, it's a peaceful afternoon. Mmmm.
By the way, I took the picture of the clover blossom last week, not today. But it gives you the idea. I didn't have a camera with me today, which is bad for my blog, but good for my peace of mind. I tend to savour the scenery differently when I'm not trying to fit it all into a frame.

4 comments:

laura said...

I like this entry a lot. It was pretty. And it got this (vaguely annoying) song lyric in my head:
"Today I finally overcaaame trying to fit the world inside a picture fraaame".... It's by John Mayer.

Matthew V said...

Thanks. I like how I correctly managed to pluralize "passer-by".
...I'm not kidding. I got an actual nerdy pleasure out of it.

Jess said...

Hey i saw you there. I was the purple and pick pixie. I tried to wave and tell you hello but the security guard told me to get back to work. Next time i'll get you an invitation. Or you should just come dressed as a pixie because then you could get in free. Your choice. Let me know.

khris said...

hey matthew!!
loved it! i'll be back more often to check upon you....

if you have the patience to read in portuguese, you can give me a click as well ;)


take care
xoxox