My Sis-in-Love Diana/Otterwise sent me a link to a site indexing street art… images which show up on Google Street View. (Click link above for site, click images below for their locations on that site.)

Ironically, Diana sent the link to me the day after I took my own photos of this, in Montreal (photo below by Google Street View):

And here is an image of one of my favorite art projects in Michigan… the Heidelberg Project in Detroit:

The Heidelberg Project is huge, not a single house but a neighborhood. Making art from junk discarded on the street has made this neighborhood a tourist destination with no violent crime in something like 25 years.

You may not love the aesthetic, but you’d be inhuman to dislike the impact it’s had… not only safety but pride of place.

Saying Goodbye/ Bon Voyage to Montreal

I’m on my last day in Montreal. I’m feeling pretty good about it. I’ve *LIVED* in the city, rather than being a tourist. I found groceries and markets on my own. I traveled by foot and by metro (subway).

This is how many folks live here. They have excellent public transit. My suite-mate rides her bike to work and back. It’s a very accessible city, even without a car, even out far from downtown (subway trains run until 1am). I had some lovely experiences.

The Africa Collection

I got much project work done… the Africa project now has a plan, an outline, a good start, and knitting charts/graphs for all 3 colorwork socks are made. The photos I took in Africa and temporarily lost, are found (on a backup drive… backups are my friends.

Photo of me feeding a Giraffe in Kenya:

One Major Surprise: a Change

I read my journals from the time I was on the Africa trip. Unfortunately, I found them full of dry facts rather than storytelling for the most part. Still, they jogged my memory.

I’ve been telling stories of the trip since I got back. Ironically most of those stories did not make it into my journals. I don’t know why, but those are the stories I want to include in the collection.

Thanks to some insight from Barbara Sher (writer of Wishcraft and Refuse to Choose), I’m going to get those stories a new way for me.

I’m going to find friends who want to hear the stories, and tell them verbally while I have a recorder going. THEN I will transcribe the verbal stories. I tried to write one and it wasn’t as dynamic as the actual story as I tell it.

There is so much to tell you, but it’s 3:30pm on my last day here. I can go to a yarn shop or a museum before it’s closing time. First step, go to subway station. Decide on train. Aaah, the tension of choosing between two good options!

Photo of the side of a building in Montreal, featuring Giraffe images: