Taking A Winter Stroll In A Garden

I went by the Canadian Museum of Nature a couple of weeks back on a grey day, because I wanted to photograph the Landscapes Of Canada Gardens in winter conditions. I will do so again at some point in the spring. This is the main entrance, still marked with the building's original name, the Victoria Memorial Museum. The building combines Gothic Revival and Scottish baronial styles, and looks very much like a castle.

I went in reverse of my usual course this time, starting with the mammoth family. The Mammoth Steppe is one of four ecosystems represented here, along with Prairie Grasslands, Arctic Tundra, and Boreal Forest, each featuring plants from those ecosystems planted along the path. This time of year, the plants are dormant, mostly buried beneath the snow.

The path leads beneath this large sculpture of an iceberg. This was done by Bill Lishman, the Canadian artist, naturalist, and inventor whose achievements include an ultra light glider he used to guide geese on migrations. His story was adapted for the film Fly Away Home, and I took these shots after the news came out that Lishman passed away of leukemia just before the new year.

As you can see, the plants are mostly buried beneath the snow this time of year. That's certainly true of the grasslands area, as well as low lying plants in the boreal forest area, but not the trees. 

A couple of days later, I returned, but this time to the east side of the property, where a pair of statues of mother and baby dinosaurs can be found. These are of the species chasmosaurus irvinensis.