I love this river.  Yesterday it was quite windy, a wind from the east battling the flow of the river and raising white-caps.  I saw a couple of ships which I always find thrilling – imagining being on board and slowly making my way down the river.  Of course there are highways linking Montreal and Quebec City but I prefer the old road that hugs the river.  In the old villages there are streets that run right down to the water’s edge where boats can be launched.  The houses are mixed in architecture, some modest modern homes and many traditional Quebec houses with their steeply pitched roofs.  The churches and adjacent buildings are often quite magnificent.  Today you will see two pictures:  one of the river and one of the Ste Anne basilica.  The secondary road is called la Route des Navigateurs.  The Pilots’ Route.   The River is shallow in some places and in spite of charts the pilot was an important figure.  The memory of travelling down the river when  I was a young girl is a vivid one for me.  When we immigrated to Canada we came by boat  ( prehistoric eh? ) and my wonder at the size of the river has remained with me.  I love the role the river played in history and I love sense of continuity, eternity perhaps.  The river flows on and on, day and night, whether we pay attention or not.  And that’s why I like to . . . . . Pay attention.  PS. My neighbour told me she heard kittens meowing in the hedge.