Almonte, Ontario: The Friendly Town

Here's some snapshots of the quaint Almonte, Ontario, Canada. That bag's claim is genius--nice, J.B Arts. As a woolen mill town it is rooted with textile history and presently flourishes with festivals and creativity galore!

Salvage décor boutique Tin Barn Market melts upcyclers into a puddle of joy. Also, note the Lending Library.

Baker Bob's next door is now back from their bakeation.

 Cheerfully Made: where it rains watermelon seeds

The clock tower

Mighty fine gingerbread

Heirloom Café

Victoria Mill

There's three antique stores and an antique mall just on Mill Street, the main drag in Almonte--such paradise!

The antique mall

Almonte Electric Plant

Menzie's House B&B

 Nifty shingling on Almonte Riverside Inn that coordinates with the roof of the Almonte Old Town Hall.

  A millstone engraved with a poem and turned into bench

Amazonian Almonte--the waterfall at the center of the town

 I'm a sucker for a good bunting, this prayer flag included. It looks lovely fluttering against the waterfall.

The words "textile" and "museum" are thrilling on their own--together they are too good to explain.

 If you follow that exciting arrow you will end up at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, housed in the Rosamond Woolen Company building, built 1867. Speaking of textiles, here's my Almonte collection.

I recommend a stroll through Almonte!

Montréal Architecture

 Some architectural snapshots from Montréal...

 This old CP telegraph building is now a glamourous condo.

Marché Bonsecours--hint hint--Le Musée du Costume et du Textile du Québec is in the basement! 

Parisian Wartime Postcard

 I found this 1940s postcard at an ephemera sale. The elegant building pictured is now known as Le Musée d'Orsay, which holds the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist art. Monet, Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh...joy of joys!! But wait--its history is equally fascinating. It was built around 1900 as La Gare d'Orsay, a train station. Then during WWII it was used as a post headquarters for sending packages to prisoners of war, as well as a place that welcomed those soldiers after Liberation. 

The writing scribbled on the back of this postcard says, "This building is at present the home of Canadian boys on leave in Paris. The ballroom is magnificent. River 'Seine'." Just incredible!

Toulouse-Lautrec Impressionist Painting

This is an acrylic painting I made of the garden at Le Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi, France. The castle is the home to over 1,000 works of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's art.