Well that was unexpected

We went to my hometown this (long) weekend.

And, for the first time in a very long time, I loved it. Actually, I think I fell in love with it all over again.

The weather was great. I had this idea in the back of my head that it would still be so cold and almost wintery. But it was 33 (low 90s) and sunny, and this is what my dad's garden looked like.

Well that's only a small part of it, but it looked awesome. This will always be my ultimate gardening inspiration, and proof that long and hard winters don't mean a thing. If you know anything about gardening, please bear in mind that's in Zone 3a! Which is just a few notches above "North Pole". In comparison, we're in Zone 5b, which is the warmest in Quebec, and I've yet to see a garden so beautiful and innovative as this one in the Montreal area. Whenever we go in summer I always feel like I should definitely go a lot further.

The difference in season really wasn't as big as I thought it would be, too. Newsflash for me: global warming is not just happening here... Even the winters, which are admitedly quite bad, are apparently nothing like the way I remember them from 18 years ago.

I had my 20-year high school reunion, which took place there.

It's the (splendid) ruin of an old paper mill that used to drive the town economically. I hadn't been in years, and thought it was striking.

The reunion in itself was fantastic. Seeing all of these great people (several of whom I'm still in touch with but still) and reminiscing made me really happy. Made me realize again, how despite the remoteness of our town I was very lucky to have such a great and precious teenagehood (I was an indie kid, but we mingled with the metalheads a lot too). It was fun and heart-warming to chat with everyone and realize that they (we) have changed of course but at the same time not that much...

I decided on what to wear two days before (sorry, bad lighting in our new bedroom)

Basically, a $17 Forever 21 royal blue ruffled and pleated dress from a few years back (chosen mostly because I think it's flattering for my silhouette) with the Choos (eclectism, much).

(Right before heading out the door)...

We also had a great time with my dad and stepmom, as well as with my grandma... We went for a walk alongside the river where literally thousands of white goose were nesting, we took the kids to the park in the old port... We even ventured out a little to show the kids the "interior sea"...

Cape Cod? No... Lac St-Jean. And people were sunning and bathing! In May!

But it wasn't even just that. M, who had brought his bike and went for a (very hilly!) 50k ride was extremely impressed at both the landscape and the sheer number and seriousness of the riders there. Made us realize how much quality of life is important and mainstream for these people; due to a combination of closeness to wonderful nature and outdoorsy paradises, prioritizing a healthy lifestyle, and having much more free time than we have...

There was the people, too. We had forgotten how genuinely nice, friendly and relaxed they were. All weekend long, strangers kept striking up conversations with us (M even came back from his ride with a few new "friends"!) Here this happens now and then, but frankly, when it does you always have a split second of assessing whether the person is insane or not...

Of course there isn't a wide variety of jobs there, not to mention we just moved in our dream house, but we still caught ourselves dreaming a bit. Of a life less hurried, of a perhaps simpler existence, but probably one that makes a little more sense, too. Of spending more time as a family. Of 5-minute commutes, and being able to get everywhere in under 10. Of a home that would easily cost us half what we have now. A life far, far, from the horrible traffic that I loathe so much, and far, far from the awful, increasingly worse (as well as increasingly unsettling and scary) civil unrest we've been experiencing here as of late.