City Daily Photo Theme Day: Best Of The Year

Welcome to 2017 and Happy New Year! As always, members of City Daily Photo start the New Year with a look back at their best or favourite shots of the past year. You can see how other members are interpreting this theme here.

I'm starting with a view of Parliament Hill's Centre Block, taken a day after a major snowfall dumped half a metre of snow on the national capital region. It seems fitting to start with this iconic architecture, as 2017 marks the 150th anniversary of Canada's confederation.

Winterlude is a major festival held in February here, including ice and snow carvings, skating on the Rideau Canal, and many more activities. This was my favourite ice carving, placed in one of the focal points of the festival, Confederation Park.

The Tulip Festival is another festival held in May in both Ottawa and Gatineau, on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. The festival is a legacy of the aftermath of World War Two, growing out of the thanks of the Dutch people to Canada for liberation. In this shot from Jacques Cartier Park in Gatineau, the tulips in the foreground appear bright, with the river and the Alexandra Bridge in the background.

Tulips have also been a staple in the flowerbeds on Parliament Hill during the festival, and of the photos I took here this time out, this one with two people relaxing before the tulips particularly caught my attention.

Commissioners Park at Dow's Lake, a part of the Rideau Canal, is one of the biggest sites for the festival. One of the beds there featured this new kind of tulip that made its debut this year- the Canada 150 tulip, a white and red beauty that has since been made available across the country for gardeners to have planted in the fall, so that they'll be blooming this year for the anniversary. 

Around the beginning of August each year, Sparks Street downtown hosts a busker festival that I love to attend. It draws in buskers from around the world, such as Bendy Em, a contortionist based out of Australia whose act culminates in fitting every bit of her into a small clear box. 

September brought a solemn occasion. There is a national service of remembrance each year commemorating the fallen at the national firefighters memorial near this location, which is called the Garden Of The Provinces. I attended the ceremony this year, and met a fellow blogger for the first time, Stewart, who blogs under the name Furry Gnome. He and his family were attending, as their son William's name was among those new names added to the 1300 Canadian firefighters who have since the earliest days of the country given their lives in the line of duty. This shot, taken before the service, with bagpipers in the open space and Christ Church Cathedral in the background, really stood out to me.

Not too long afterward, one day I happened to come across this immature peregrine falcon perched on a fence at the bus station downtown. He was quite an impressive looking fellow.

I finish with this autumn shot of a bench, taken on an October visit to Rideau Hall in New Edinburgh. The manor and its grounds are home to Canada's Governor General, and are open to visitors- a visit well worth making.