Ghosts, Goblins, And Dead Batmen

Hallowe'en is upon us, and so for today I step out of the fall colours. The Comic Book Shoppe has two locations in the city, one of them being downtown. This is in their front window at present.

It includes Batman, in the Black Lantern Corps phase. Long story short, the Black Lantern Corps are a legion of resurrected from the dead heroes and villains in the command of a master, and yes, Batman was dead. Sort of. He got better.

The Green Lantern costume was inside. To make things even more complicated, there's a whole spectrum of colours of Lantern Corps in the Green Lantern continuity. Yes, I am a comics reader. Do you have a headache yet?

A barbershop in the Glebe had its front windows busted some weeks back, and while waiting on new glass, had some art put onto the wood. Suited for the occasion.

This Jack O'Lantern is inside a bank in Little Italy.

Library branches here have Hallowe'en displays at the present. This is in the main branch of the Ottawa Public Library.

This evil looking clown was on a rooftop out in the Lincoln Fields area.

A place in Centretown had quite a bit around their porch.

This was another place in Centretown.

And I finish with these decorations in the Little Italy area.

An Autumn Stroll In The Gardens

To the Illuminati spammer who's been hitting this page and others I read, I believe I speak on behalf of so many people when I make the following suggestion to you. Get yourself out on a boat. Head out to deep waters in the ocean. Something with a mile or two down to the bottom. Sit down, put your feet into a deep tray. Pour cement into the tray. When it's dry, shuffle over to the stern and throw yourself overboard.

The grounds of the Canadian Museum of Nature are ideal for fall colours. On the east side, a sculpture of a mother and baby dinosaur, the species chasmosaurus irvinensis, are located.

On the west side of the museum are the Landscapes Of Canada Gardens. This presents the plants of four distinct ecosystems along a pathway. It starts with a trio of mammoths, life sized, and the plants around them all from the time these animals walked the earth. It is called the Mammoth Steppe.

The museum dates back more than a century, first built as a memorial museum for Queen Victoria. It's seen more than one use over time, but exclusively houses galleries focused on nature now.

Some of the plants of the time of the mammoths have carried on long after those ice age animals departed from this world. They do quite well here now.

Across the path from the mammoths is the largest of the four areas, the Prairie Grassland. Its mix of grasses and flowers grew well this year.

I crossed to the sidewalk to the west to get this view of the museum. An iceberg sculpture of steel looms over the path, and the plants in the foreground are all part of the next ecosystem present here: Arctic Tundra. Amid the rocks, shrubs and plants native to the far north thrive here over the summer.

This is back on the path. The red of the trees at the far end of the Prairie Grassland stood out.

The last of the four ecosystems present in the Gardens is Boreal Forest. Bushes and ferns are seen here, at the end of their annual growing cycle.

These fall colours are across the path, typical of boreal woodlands. The museum itself is just visible in the background.

I took another view of the museum from this area.

This is a visual treat this time of year. Tamaracks may look like coniferous trees, with their needles, but they are in fact deciduous trees. The green needles turn gold late in the fall. These trees exist widely in the vast stretches of the boreal forest in Canada, and can be found in some parts of the United States, as far south as West Virginia.

A final view of the museum from the path. I'll next show them at some point in the winter, and am probably going to be paying a visit inside before that. December and January are good months to fill a photoblog with museum posts, after all. Tomorrow is Hallowe'en, so we'll pick up with fall colours after that- my theme day post has several shots with fall colours in the background around a brown object. That brown object is something you've seen before, but you'll get no further clues out of me.

Churches And Autumn Colours

Last week on a gloomy day I had occasion to head out to the Westboro neighbourhood. Part of the way I walked, part of the way I took transit. I decided that among the shots I'd take on this trip, I wanted church shots along with the fall colours.

I started in Little Italy, with these colours mixed in with St. Mary's Parish, a Catholic church. I've shown it before, but it has been awhile.

My path led me on into Hintonburg. The neighbourhood is dominated by Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.

Nearby is another Catholic church. The Queen Of The Most Holy Rosary Parish is a big name for what from the outside appears to be a modest church.

This is the Canadian United Pentecostal Church further west. It appears to share its premises with another congregation.

And in Westboro itself, this church building houses two congregations. All Saints Anglican Church and First United Church worship here.

The church appears in the background here, beside another building we'll get a look at down the line. It might look like a church, but was built as a town hall.

Seasonal Colours

I left off yesterday in Dundonald Park, which is where I begin again today.

I passed by St. Patrick Basilica on another day from my previous post.

A few blocks away I caught these trees in fall colours.

And a block up the street is this sculpture set I've shown before, though it has been a few years. A First Nations hunter prepares to draw an arrow. His quarry, a deer in the background, stands as if it has already heard him and is about to flee. The gardening between the two was redone in the last year, as the vegetation had grown high enough that the two were out of sight of each other.

More fall colours, outside a home in Centretown. I've shown you this tree at a distance- the first shot from my Saturday post. We'll see it again from another angle.

Here's a wider view.

And this was nearby.

Fall Perspectives

Today I start out with two views from the Bank Street Bridge over the Rideau Canal, first looking west and then looking east.

These fall colours are outside St. Patrick Basilica downtown.

The red of this tree caught my eye. It stands outside a home in Centretown that today is a funeral home.

More fall colours along the way.

I returned to Dundonald Park.

There was a squirrel here. He or she was kind enough to oblige me with photo shoots.