Sightings Around The National Capital Region

 I have some odds and ends today. I start with this sunrise view over the Rideau Canal, taken from the Bank Street Bridge, early in March.

Some days later while in the Little Italy neighbourhood, I looked down into a rock cut from an overhead bridge. A commuter train track- currently under reconfiguration- runs through here. The amount of ice clinging to the rock wall caught my eye.

And a few days later we had some freezing rain. I tried my hand at photographing the ice clinging to branches of these bushes along a house in Centretown.

Later that same day, I was in the Byward Market, passing through the series of courtyards one finds here.

There is some art hung in the courtyards- reproductions of the originals, I would think, since you wouldn't hang art in the elements. These are by indigenous artists, starting with Mi'kmaq Universe by Teresa Marshall.

The Time Is Now,  And Yesterday, And Tomorrow is by Christian Chapman.

And this is Dancing Bear, which I've shown you before, by the Inuit sculptor Pauta Saila. It occupies the heart of this courtyard, and always gets a smile out of me. We'll see another work by Saila, in a smaller form, down the line, but in a place close to here.

Closing in on my destination, I came across this fellow outside the Silver Fox, a barbershop.

Here we have Notre Dame Basilica, the most prominent church in the city. I was going into its neighbour across the road for a visit- the National Gallery of Canada. Note the bike racks- this was on the first day of the presidential visit in late March, and getting out of here was more complicated than getting in.

Hours later, fog had rolled in, and it really looked appropriate for the church. My preferred exit route was closed because of the security arrangements for the visit, and I had to detour from here on foot.

I conclude with another courtyard view in the Market, taken that night, while making my way to catch the LRT and get past some of the proverbial gridlock in the core because of the visit. The fog added the right element to things.