The Twilight Hour Descends Upon The National Capital Area

It seems appropriate for the final day of August to go with twilight images. This was taken in late May. I was walking on Bank Street where it crosses the Rideau Canal, an ideal spot in the city for sunset views.

These were in June, a couple of days before the summer solstice. I photographed first from the Transitway above Billings Bridge Mall, looking northwest.

A few minutes later, I was passing over the bridge itself as Bank Street crossed the Rideau River here.

This was the following night, taken on the Bank Street Bridge again, with the sun just about down, but  appearing considerably further north on the horizon than it had in May.

This was taken late in June on Billings Bridge again as I passed over the Rideau River.

This shot, taken again on the Bank Street Bridge, dates back to mid-July.

While this is just a few days later.

This last one is taken on the second to last day of July, while I was approaching the area of the Canadian War Museum for an event I was taking in. We'll be looking at that event as part of a series in a few days.

A Summer Day Within The Landscapes Of Canada Garden

I wanted to pay a summer visit to the Landscapes of Canada Garden at the Canadian Museum of Nature, so I stopped by one fine day in the middle of the month. Plants from the boreal forest, the Prairie grasslands, the Arctic tundra, and the mammoth steppe have been growing here on the west side of the property, first opened last year. It starts with the plants and trees of a boreal woodland, each of which is marked, such as the ostrich fern in the second shot.

Prairie grassland is a mix of grasses and wildflowers. It's taken awhile for real growth to show up this year, perhaps because of a very rainy season, but heat has helped.

Arctic tundra is characterized by plants among slabs of rocks, plants which are thriving at the moment. The iceberg sculpture is among this area.

This plant is in the Mammoth Steppe area. It's common yarrow, otherwise called Asteraceae. The family of mammoths stand nearby, guarding the approach to the museum. They've been moved from their original position, which stood close to where the iceberg is now, but it's a good spot for them.

The Feathers, The Roses, and The Fleurs-De-Lys

Populace is the title of an art exhibition that is being held on the east lawn at the Canadian Museum of Nature from mid June, and will be wrapping up in a few days. As part of the Canada 150 celebrations, the Ottawa Guild of Potters came up with the idea of 9000 ceramic feathers, fleur-de-lys, and roses placed here on the lawn in rolling waves, many of them around the mother and baby dinosaur statues that also stand here. The three items are nods towards the First Nations peoples, as well as the French and English peoples of Canada. Two thousand people were involved in the project, either in the making of the ceramics, or in placing them here. I stopped by to photograph the set on a couple of different days.

Mother Earth, Birchbark, And Odyssey And Hope

Over at my writer's blog today, I have another photo post from the Ottawa Welcomes The World embassy series, this time featuring two Caribbean nations, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago.

I am finishing the MosaiCanada series today, but I will be back before it closes in mid-October, so we'll see another series down the line. Here are more shots of Mother Earth.

On The Trail Of The Algonquin People is the title of this sculpture, depicting a family working on constructing a birchbark canoe.

This glance back takes in a different view of The Voyageur, which I showed earlier in the series.

This last work, titled Odyssey and Hope, is not a mosaiculture piece, but representative of what is called ecological art- in this case, driftwood shaped like a mare and colt. The idea comes from a British artist, Heather Jansch.

And I finish where I started, with another view of the plant covered train. I hope you've enjoyed the series.

Mother Earth Rises In The Park

Here are more looks at Mother Earth, The Legend Of Aataentsic, the largest of the floral sculptures at MosaiCanada. The animals surrounding her- bison, horses, deer, moose, caribou, and an eagle- are all over the place, as if just sprung into life, while she looks remarkably content.