5 June 2026 – I had a plan. This wasn’t it.

Plan was, a minimalist little post titled Tended & Wild, contrasting much-pampered Tended…

with plucky little Wild…

and noting that, much as I appreciate well-tended gardens, my heart is with the spindly alley plant smack up against a grubby window with wonky blinds.

That was the plan.

But then I zagged right, landed myself on Quebec Street, kept walking south, crossed East 19th, and came up against The Fence.

The Fence! The Fence of happy memories! The Fence I can never find on purpose! The Fence with its — admittedly now deteriorating — wildly exuberant artwork. Like this:

And this:

A block-long demonstration of this identity:

I toss Tended/Wild aside, and plan a little tribute to Quebec Street.

I keep walking Quebec (BC), right until it swerves west…

and morphs into East 24th Avenue.

When I turn back north, I decide to follow, not Quebec, but, let’s call it, Back of Quebec — the alley beyond Quebec Street.

And then I laugh. All this is the perfect tease for posts to come, next week and all month long.

Because.

Because tomorrow I will exchange Quebec (BC) for Quebec (QC)…

in a two-flight bounce from Pacific-coast Vancouver to mid-St. Lawrence Quebec City.

The next day, one more bounce will take me to the real Back of Quebec…

this red-tinted archipelago beyond mainland Quebec, poised in triangulation with PEI and Nova Scotia in the Atlantic Ocean — islands that, despite their location, are part of Quebec.

The Magdalen Islands.

Les Îles de la Madeleine. I’ll be staying on Île de la Grande Entrée, but exploring more widely. Then, next Friday, I’ll take the ferry from Cap-aux-Meules and follow the dotted line to Souris, PEI.

After that? After that, the adventure continues. I’ll keep you posted.