I was going to say “Part Deux” because I’m in French Canada, but that would have been cheesy.  Oh well.  I guess I’m doing it here now nevertheless.

Oh Canada.  Recently, I saw a list of things that the general public does not know about Canada, like the fact that you don’t have to be a Canadian citizen to be prime minister.  Added to that list was that Canada was a country without a culture.  I heard Mike Meyers boil down Canada’s essence to one thing or habit more accurately.  He recalled driving some place in Canada and someone had painted chevrons on the road and wrote somewhere “keep two chevrons back.”  Canadians, according to Mike Meyers, are a group of people in the world who are willing to accept chevrons as a unit of measurement.

Well, anyway, I just like telling that story and I have no idea if it explains Canadian culture or whatever it is.  I disagree though that Canada per se has no culture, more particularly food culture.  This is like saying that America has no food culture.  Food culture in Canada, like in America is a meld of the other cultures that have been here and is really regional.  People in South Carolina eat grits, while people in New England eat clam chowder.

The same thing seems to be the case in this part of Canada.  People eat local here and combine it with the remnants of the other cultures that have already been here, hence the poutine (gravy and French fries with cheese curds).  Oh and maple syrup on LITERALLY EVERYTHING.

Anyway, so at long last we get to the supermarket bonanza.  Actually, these photos are from a quite pleasant market I visited today.  First up, the biggest onions I’ve ever seen.  I’m not sure if this is particularly Canadian or Quebecoise, but these are some very large onions:

Next up, a savory crepe, which I used to be opposed to on principle, but lately I’ve been coming around to:

Next up, an extraordinary American/Canadian mashup.  INSANE.  I didn’t try this.  But I will:

Oh and the maple.  My god.  Do people in this region love their maple.  Maple everything.  Maple ice cream:

This beautiful display.  I don’t know what Pierrot Gourmand is, but its a pretty display:

Some fruit preserves.  One of many I saw today:

The aforementioned poutine.  Really, really, really good.  I mean extraordinary.  I would have thrown in a few drops of chili oil or sriracha or something, but overall, a high score on my non-scientific scale of food goodness:

Finally, a few typical scenic kind of shots that one finds in those magazine stories about local markets.  Some homemade marshmallows and a woman getting tea.  Just imagine you are there:

And nobody has to jump in a lake, to paraphrase the Billy Bob Thornton character from Primary Colors.

Thank you Mother Nature for actually getting the weather right.  Oh and the fact that I am in this European looking place where this snow is falling?  Just a plus.

This is me right now:

Oops, I posted a photo of myself up here.  I resolved never to do that.  Oh well.

Either way, let’s celebrate this, our snowy fate with some photos:

Every time I visit a new place, I like to do a store/supermarket bonanza from that place.  Unfortunately, the store I choose to do the bonanza here about in fair Canada told me that I couldn’t take any photos in there.  So, I decided to do a store/cafe bonanza.  Nobody stopped me from taking photos in the cafe and there was plenty to photograph in there.

But let’s start with the store.  Just wall to wall jam packed with all kinds of Canadian souvenirs.  Oops, that’s a cognate!!!!:

After I took the photo of the bears, the guy in the store told me to stop photographing.  There was also an old Northwest Territories polar bear license plate but I had already been told me stop photographing, so you’ll just have to use your imagination for that one.

Next up, the cafe, with its super cute decor:

Here’s a croissant I thought was made of bacon, but it just turned out to be creative use of red food coloring for the holidays:

Lastly, here’s Santa Claus with his unicorn, his snowman and his worm.  Like he usually travels, with his friend the unicorn, the snowman and his worm:

 

Rather than following the general trend of my life, which was to go south, I decided to go north, Quebec City to be exact.  BTW mother nature, thanks for the fabulous winter, with no snow and what appears to be a heat wave.

Oh whatever.  They’ve got snow and cold up here in the Canadian wilderness.  Quebec, you do winter correctly:

By Adrian or maybe Edith Head?  And then she makes her way over to Gary Cooper, or better yet (my favorite) Cary Grant?  Yeah, so that would take place in this room right here:

Yeah, I only had my little camera and I only have about five minutes to get the photos before someone came over and wondered whose stuff had been randomly deposited on the floor.  All in the interest of chasing that photography dragon, I guess.

Figure skating.  Does it get any lovelier than that?  I think not.  And it was taking place at the Christmas tree lighting:

I was going to write a long piece on the meaning of hometowns and how Boston has become my hometown, a place I don’t even think about anymore as being “bad” or “good.”  I just kind of live here and it is my home.

Well, anyway, that’s what I wanted to say, but I was planning on writing more on that in relation to the Christmas tree lighting tonight in Boston Common.

You know, who cares about my writing because Julian Edelman from the New England Patriots was at the event.  The man is ridiculously handsome and I happened to get a photo of him.  So who cares about my long scribe about the nature of hometowns.

Ladies and gents, Julian Edelman (and the Mayor Boston, blasé about him now after having photographed him so many times):

Yes, handsome wide receiver aside, the event is always a lot of fun.  Always.  Performers, Santa Claus, singing, “we love Nova Scotia” etc.  It always reminds me of why I love Boston.  You can go to this great event not get trampled by so many people.  Yeah, you get kind of frozen, but who cares.  JULIAN EDELMAN.

And lovely performers and performances:

The mayor is there with his kids, which I always think is sweet:

The fireworks:

And the best part was Santa Claus, who had apparently dipped into the egg nog quite heavily before the ceremony because he forgot half the words to most of the songs he had to sing.  But he’s jolly fellow who brings Christmas cheer so all was forgiven:

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!!

Giant LL Bean boot.  Only Rob Gronkowski and Big Papi singing Sweet Caroline on the hood of this vehicle would make it more New England:

Here I am on my way home from my day at the work house:

 

 

Sometimes Wrong Side of the Camera get DARK.  Really dark….  Special dark, like those mini chocolates nobody ever wanted to eat.

Ok, chocolates aside.  DARK: