Spring Colour At Rideau Hall

On the last day of the Tulip Festival, May 22nd, I headed up to New Edinburgh to pay a visit to Rideau Hall in search of tulips. This is the official residence of the Governor General of Canada, and it was a cloudy day on the nearly eighty acres of land here. I was quite surprised to see trilliums in a shady spot- the flower, which blooms for just a few weeks, is Ontario's provincial flower.

And there were tulips, in this case growing in the grass. 

On my way out, I paused to photograph this totem pole. I've shown it before in the blog; my photograph of it previously is now on the cover of the magazine Canada's History, which has a special essay issue out at the moment in addition to its regular issue. The totem pole is part of a collage of images making up the cover. 

And this is the cover itself, taken in a shop a couple of days ago.

The spring blooms on this tree caught my eye as I walked through the grounds. It's an Ohio Buckeye, a rarity here, as its usual range tends to be to the south of the Great Lakes. It is one of the numerous ceremonial trees planted on the grounds by various dignitaries for more than a century; this one was planted by Miguel Angel Rodriguez Echevarria, the President of Costa Rica, in 2000.

I found more tulips on my way out, including at the gatehouse.

Moving on, I stopped in at the park around Green Island to visit the Rideau Falls, which we'll look at tomorrow. The French embassy and the pavilion that border the east side of the park and falls were looking gloomy under those skies.