Lansdowne Park And The Canal

I went down to Lansdowne Park down in the Glebe on the last Sunday morning of the Tulip Festival to stop by the farmers market. Tulip sculptures were present.

In the case of this pair, they have the Aberdeen Pavilion in the background.

I decided to head back downtown via the paths of the Rideau Canal and check out some of the tulip beds along the parkway. This one, which features a sculpture that was put up at the time of the Calgary Winter Olympics, is near the entrance to Lansdowne Park. The Canal can be seen beyond the parkway.

Looking at it from the other side gives a view of the Aberdeen Pavilion again.

A nearby tulip bed and trees in blossom made a good shot.

Then I carried on, following the Canal along the bike paths as it wound its way downtown. Tulip beds could be found along the way.

Leaving the Canal, I backtracked a bit to the Canadian Museum of Nature, which always has a couple of tulip beds near its main entrance during the festival. I will be back into this series, as I have several more tulip posts yet to come, but tomorrow is the theme day, so that's interrupting this for the moment.

Within Confederation Park

Confederation Park downtown had tulips during the festival. I took this first shot late one afternoon, while walking with Tom and his wife up towards the War Memorial.

A few days later I returned. I approached via the staircase descending from the Mackenzie King Bridge and photographed this tree in full bloom.

These red tulips were arranged near one of the military monuments found here in the park.

A totem pole is here, and tulips are seen behind it.

Many of the tulips here are of the Canada 150 variety.

I circled around to frame the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument with spring blossoms.

Then I headed down the street towards another park entrance.

I like to frame a shot of the tulips at ground level with spring blossoms above. That can best be done at this entrance. A few days earlier, when I had first visited, the trees had not been in blossom stage, but in those three or four days, blossoms exploded into full view on many trees in the area.

More Of The Paparazzi

I left off with this bed of tulips yesterday. Several of the beds have short terraces built into them designed for photo ops, which is how this woman can be seen in their midst, ideal for the photographer at the right.

Then it was time to move onto the last of the tulip beds in this park, at its western end. This particular one is named in honour of the late Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. I will be returning to Dow's Lake to close out the series with a visit I made some days after this one, but we're going to other spots first.

Music And The Tulips

Among the activities at Commissioners Park was a gazebo set up for music performances throughout the Tulip Festival. A school band was here as we passed by, and I photographed a couple of the painted tulip sculptures. I had thought of using these for the Music theme day later in the year- and remembered that I've already got that one set up.

The path led us on, towards more tulips.

Splashes Of Colours

I'm starting today where we left off, with these tulip beds. Dow's Lake itself is visible in the background of the first two shots.

We carried on along the path, which took us past tulip beds with a mix of colours, and an assortment of accompanying flowers.

We came upon the circular bed of tulips, which this year consisted of red tulips mixed with the distinctive Canada 150 white and red tulip.