Monday, November 25, 2024

T Stands for Jardins de Matis

    Hi everyone. It's time for T again over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog. It's already the last T day of November,  and for us in the US we only have a few days until Thanksgiving, which doesn't seem possible.

     For today's post I am back in Quebec, It's the last day of our time in Canada, and that evening we'd pass over the international border back into the US, coming home through Vermont. (That will be next week's post.)

    Today's post is about a garden  and a historic home we visited called Jardins de Matis, otherwise known as Reford Gardens.  This property was the summer home of Elsie Reford, one of the last of a generation of wealthy "British" Anglophones in Quebec.  


     Elsie was quite the woman. She served in World War one, loved to go salmon fishing and hunting, enjoyed a good hike, traveled extensively and was certainly not very domestic. However, when she got into her 50's and had to give up some of her activities, she decided to put in a garden  at her summer home. She wanted the home and grounds to stay in the family , but due to all the changes in the world, her grandson couldn't afford to keep it up. The estate was passed to the Province of Quebec, where it is now a public garden.

      In the house (that had been the Reford's summer home) was a great exhibit about Elsie Reford, as well as a small art exhibit on the first floor. Before I show you some lovely late autumn blooms, let me share this next photo that goes to show you what type of woman Elsie actually was.


     Even if Elsie wouldn't want to be remembered for the gardens, I really enjoyed them. They were really lovely to walk around on this end of September day, and here are some photos of them. 















Here's a  view of the summer house from one side of the garden.













     After we left the gardens we had a few hours of driving to get to northern Vermont where we'd spent our last night away. Just so that we didn't arrive too late, we decided to grab some fast food for dinner. We saw several A&W's along the way, and we stopped at one to get a burger to go. I only ever remember seeing one A&W as a kid in my general area and I don’t believe I’ve ever eaten at one, so it was also fun to try something different. And for a fast food burger, it wasn't bad.
  
     Here's my drink that I had with my burger. It wasn't a root beer because I'm not a root beer fan, but it was a Diet Coke.


     That's all for me today. I hope those of you in the US have a wonderful Thanksgiving  and that everyone has a super T day and week ahead.








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