Sunday, May 29, 2016

A Day Fit For A Queen

Victoria Day was last Monday, a holiday in much of Canada, and I spent the day on a walkabout. I came up to Parliament Hill looking for something that in fact wasn't happening, and instead photographed the lilacs; the first two shots offer glimpses of the spires of Notre Dame and the roof of the Chateau Laurier.


I headed over to Major's Hill Park and framed Parliament Hill and the Ottawa River with lilacs.


And to keep this all in with the Tulip Festival theme, I photographed this view of the National Gallery and Notre Dame, with tulip beds in the park at the right.


The final shot is from the evening before, taken on the Bank Street Bridge, taken around quarter to nine in the evening. This was a good spot for seeing the fireworks lit off from Lansdowne Park. I filmed it, and you can watch the fireworks here. It's a seventeen minute long video, so you might want to jump ahead to the last couple of minutes. And I speak in the last seconds of the clip, but there's no way I sound like that.

35 comments:

  1. I really love lilacs, they are beautiful and smell wonderful. Lovely series, William.

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  2. Those lilacs are just beautiful.

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  3. Lovely pictures. I like the third one the best.

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  4. Some beautiful photos here, William. I especially enjoyed the ones of Notre Dame and the National Gallery and the one taken from the Bank Street Bridge. As I've said before, your city is magnificent!

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  5. Those are beautiful lilacs and I liked the way you composed your shots. Very nice William!

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  6. Love the photos William but the fireworks are spectacular, oh la that finale was fabulous! How funny that we never think we sound like we do on recordings :)

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  7. Belíssimas!
    Teus clicks são espetaculares!
    Adoro contemplar estas paisagens soberbas!
    Um ótimo domingo
    Um abraço

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  8. Nice theme today to put buildings together with lilacs. So there are lots of lilacs to add beauty to Ottawa

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  9. Great photos, William. The flowers are so pretty!

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  10. Beautiful lilacs! But I like the last photo best.

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  11. Wonderful shots with beautiful colors and nice views.

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  12. I do love lilacs and I miss seeing them. They don't grow in my part of Arizona but, I do see them every now and then in northern Arizona. When I was growing up in Illinois, we had a lilac bush in our yard so we saw them every year.

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  13. Beautiful photos. Your walkabout was interesting.

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  14. Photo #3 is the view for me. I could live there!

    Janis
    GDP

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  15. @Linda: thanks!

    @Tomas: thank you.

    @Debs: they appeal to me.

    @Mo: thank you.

    @Marianne: it seems that one's popular.

    @Lowell: thank you!

    @Bill: lilacs do appeal to me.

    @Grace: that's the first time I've filmed fireworks. I don't know if I'll do the same for Canada Day yet.

    @Gracita: thanks!

    @Red: it's been a good year thus far for lilacs.

    @Marleen: thank you.

    @Norma: thanks!

    @Jan: thank you.

    @Sharon: I seem to notice them more here. I can't recall seeing them much growing up, but then we were out in the country, and if you didn't personally grow them, you might not notice them.

    @Sharon: thanks!

    @Janis: unfortunately I don't think anyone's allowed to live in Parliament!

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  16. Purple/lavender and grey stone work well together.

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  17. I love the shots with the lilacs framing the buildings!

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  18. Nice photos William!
    You sounded just fine, but I know what you mean. I feel the same way about my recorded voice. That was a great finale to the show.

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  19. My favorite flower! No one ever sounds like "their own" voice when they hear a recording.

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  20. I love, love, love lilacs. Love them.

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  21. Lilacs! I almost forget about them. How glorious. Those and peonies are Canadian treats that we don't have in the south.

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  22. So pretty.We have some drought tolerant varieties of lilacs but it's not the same.

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  23. How lovely! I can almost smell the lilacs! That last shot is a stunner.

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  24. I bet they smell delicious... gorgeous ( ;

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  25. @Revrunner: they do, yes.

    @RedPat: I do as well.

    @Pat: I'm still thinking of doing the same with the Canada Day fireworks. They tend to be bigger. Depends on if my hands can hold up for twenty minutes!

    @Mari: unfortunately we don't sound like we ought to.

    @Furry Gnome: I love lilacs too. The smell's terrific.

    @Whisk: many people do.

    @Joan: we get lilacs in abundance here.

    @Eve: I imagine not. I like these light lavender ones. We also get other kinds, including white lilacs.

    @Linda: thank you!

    @Beth: they do.

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  26. To the spammers who keep trying to get comments on this page in the last few weeks: it is all for nothing. Those comments automatically get shifted to the spam comments where they belong. You will never get comments posted here. On the off chance that one does publish, that comment will be promptly deleted. I do not want your crap cluttering up my comment board, so you achieve nothing by trying to comment at my blogs.

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    You will only do this world any good by no longer being in it. Consider suicide.

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  28. To the anonymous fucking spammers who keep trying to post comments here, including the asshole who just a few hours ago asked if I have a spam problem- drop dead. Throw yourselves off a bridge. Commit suicide, you fucking worthless twits.

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