The Twilight Falls Upon Yet Another Year

Yesterday while preparing posts I noticed that my post for yesterday was my three thousandth published post. Where does the time go?

It is New Year's Eve, and it has been my tradition to end each year with twilight shots. Such is the case this year. I start with this early October shot taken on a street in the Glebe. I'd come down this street in the last light of day to photograph some fall colours I noticed along its stretch, and the sky through the trees caught my eye.

In the middle of October I saw the twilight sky over Chinatown. Note the arch above the street.

This was taken in early November one evening in Centretown.

A few days later I took these two shots heading west during the last light of day.

In mid-December I went up to Parliament Hill late in the day to photograph the Ottawa River in twilight, something that I find fitting to close out the year. Centre Block is here.

West Block was already in silhouette. I headed that way.

There's some high ground between West Block and Centre Block, with two statues on it: Prime Minister Lester Pearson and Queen Victoria. Access onto the hill itself is closed off for the winter.

Here we have a glimpse of this side of West Block, with the Confederation and Justice Blocks and the Supreme Court in the background.

Pearson sitting in silhouette.

And Queen Victoria.

Two looks westward along a cold Ottawa River, taken a few minutes apart. I was upstream yesterday morning on the Portage Bridge and noticed ice is forming up below the Hill, but it's a stretch I would never cross.

And my closing shot for the year: the Gatineau side of the river, with the Museum of History on the shore at right. Off in the distance are the Gatineau Hills. Happy New Year to all of you.

A Celebration Of A Canadian Winter

I conclude today with more of the winter light show projected onto Centre Block, with animals, landscapes, and people as part of the presentation, a show that concentrates heavily on winter and has been a tradition for years at Christmas time. I took a couple of videos, which you can see by clicking here and here.

One last shot. With this I bring this Christmas series to a conclusion. Tomorrow we see out the year for New Year's Eve.

Christmas Lights In The Capital

Today and tomorrow I close out the Christmas series with lights in the capital. I start with this view on the Sparks Street pedestrian mall.

A few blocks away at City Hall, trees are decorated. The Cartier Square Drill Hall neighbours the contemporary wing of City Hall in the background.

Across the street from City Hall is Confederation Park. Its Christmas decorating is a bit different. Balls of light are hung between trees, and instead of lights wound around branches, coloured spotlights from the ground illuminate the trees.

The Lord Elgin Hotel is lit up in the background here. The National Aboriginal Veterans Monument can be seen in silhouette against it.

The National Arts Centre looms in the background in this shot.

One more view looking into the park. I was heading up the street from here past the NAC.

The NAC is part of the boundary of Confederation Square, and the National War Memorial is the heart of the square. Christmas lights were ringing around the trees surrounding it.

From here I proceeded to Parliament Hill. For many years in the summers there has been a light show called Northern Lights projected onto Centre Block. It has a winter counterpart, on from early December into early January, and it turns out to be back, even with the work going on in Centre Block. The light show is a new one compared to when I last saw it in 2019; I don't know if it was on last year at all, and I wasn't around during the summer at night to see if Northern Lights was being held this past summer. If you're in the area, the show is about fifteen minutes long, repeating on the quarter hour from past five until eleven or so in the evenings.

Christmas Decorations

Today I conclude this visit to the Chateau Laurier with its Christmas trees. 

The first of these trees above is sponsored by the Honduran embassy- hence the flags- and the ball decorations are the work of a Honduran born Canadian artist, Jene Garay Varela

One last view from in here.