Ends And Odds

More odds and ends today. Spring blossoms are a delight to see. These are close to home, taken in late May.

In late May I attended the opening night of an exhibit at the War Museum. The exhibit was about Canada and the American Civil War. It was a busy event, and I've been back since to photograph the exhibit. But on that opening night, this artist was working out in the lobby, on a painting of Mary Ann Shadd. She was a free woman who came to Canada and established an abolitionist newspaper. He told me the painting would end up at Carleton University's school of journalism. A fitting spot.

Close to home again, this kitty is one of a pair in a home down the street from me.

I photographed this ad on a bus shelter for one reason. The placement of the hands on the watch made the watch look mad.

On an afternoon in early June, I went with friends to see Pressure out at a movie theatre in Kanata. This is the film about the meteorologist whose forecast affected the timing of D-Day. En route, we picked up one of the guys, and the route took us through Riverside South, part of the Gloucester area, and across to Barrhaven to the west. This meant crossing the Vimy Memorial Bridge, which spans the Rideau River. This was my first time seeing it.

Returning later on, I took another shot.

Also in early June, the Mexican embassy had an event at the Horticulture Building at Lansdowne Park. This vivid display- all sand.

The skies were darkening that day. A thunderstorm was en route.

This was a storefront display downtown one day in June that got a laugh out of me.

I finish with this view from the west on a late June walk. The future main branch of the Ottawa Public Library, which will share space with some facilities from Library and Archives Canada, continues to have work done, most of it inside now.

Churches

I have several churches today, most taken at points in February, and the first few of them were taken on a day when I went out to Nepean. This is St. Tekle Haimanot Ethiopian Orthodox Church. While I have seen churches with steep roofs before, the curves on this rooftop are unlike what I've seen in the past. The Orthodox Church made inroads into Ethiopia long before colonization.

Across the street is St. Elizabeth Catholic Parish.

Paroisse St. Bonaventure is a French speaking Catholic church nearby.

This is Calvin Christian Reformed Church. It dates back to 1953.

And this is Julian Of Norwich Anglican Church.

On another day, I took in this view of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church downtown. The church stands across from the Supreme Court of Canada, and is the only building along Wellington Street here that is not a government building. The congregation was founded in 1828, and the present church dates to 1872.

On Family Day in February, I went out to the New Edinburgh area to visit Rideau Hall in the winter. I'll have posts on that in a few days. Two nearby churches drew me first. MacKay United Church was founded as a Presbyterian church in 1875 before becoming part of the United denomination in the 1920s. The present building was erected in 1909-10, and is in the Romanesque Revival style.

St. Bartholomew's Anglican Church is up the street, near one of the entrances into Rideau Hall. It is the official church for the Canadian Governor General, as well as the regimental chapel for the Governor General's Foot Guards. The parish dates to 1867, with the church completed the following year.

This shot, from early March, was out in Barrhaven. This is Divine Word Evangelical Lutheran Church, which I last showed at Christmas time. We'd had a thaw that removed much of the snow from the west facing church entrance, but the city has had snowfalls since.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Tired

The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo, and for February, that theme happens to be Tired. You can see how others are interpreting this theme here.

For my take on the theme, I decided to think outside the box and focus on something I could never be tired of, but which some of my readers might feel that way: winter. I don't know why anyone could tire of it, I mean, it's a perfectly beautiful, lovely season with all the cold and the snow and the frost and the... oh, I suspect at least someone is visualizing my brutal death in an avalanche right about now, so let's get on with it. 

This was taken in Barrhaven in December on a snowy day, with one of the main roads in this area passing beneath a railroad track.

On another December day, I photographed the Rideau Canal from the familiar vantage of the Bank Street Bridge, looking east. The ice was covering everything at this point, but it wasn't open to skaters yet.

Further south, and on a day late in December, I stopped where Bank Street passes over the Rideau River, and photographed looking west. The river mostly closes up over the winter here, but beneath the bridge, enough open water remains that ducks congregate here through winter.

And on another late December day, I passed through a number of landmark areas downtown. It was cold and a light snow was falling. Coming to the area around the National War Memorial, I first photographed the National Arts Centre, then the Memorial itself.

I headed up past Major's Hill Park, where I took this shot looking towards Parliament Hill.

Further on, I wanted this view of the National Gallery of Canada.

And I took this view of Notre Dame Basilica, with the Peacekeeping Monument in the foreground.

I finish with a shot from another day in late December, when I did a tour of Centre Block on Parliament Hill. A view outside a window before the tour began took in this snowy courtyard. Grumblings, rants, and death threats from winter haters may commence at your leisure in the comments. 

Odds And Ends In The Capital

I have some odds and ends today. I start with a view from early December of the Ottawa River in a place I haven't shown you before. West of the city core, out around the Lincoln Fields area, the river is wide between here and the Gatineau shore. The shot following it is from later in December, when the river was well into the process of freezing over.

This is Fallowfield Station, out in Barrhaven. It provides those who live out in the west side of the city with a train station if you're headed out to Toronto- a handy thing if you don't want to go all the way out to the main station east of the core. This also happens to be a transit station area; I was on board a city bus when I took this.

Near Fallowfield is the Longfields transit station, where a curious form of public art is situated. Bellwether is the title of a number of bronze sculptures on both sides of the station. Erin Robertson and Anna Williams created four life sized sheep and one border collie and placed them here. This one is the most accessible- most of the others, visible to the passerby on buses, are actually on the other side of the station, on a portion of the property that's actually not accessible to those on foot, so I can't get up to them and take a photo, more's the pity.

This work of art, also in Barrhaven, goes unnamed, as there was no plaque around it. This was before the snow came.

I took this back on the 6th of December, and some of you might have seen it in the Ottawa Daily Photo Facebook page, as I posted it the following day. It is a commemoration for abused and murdered women, a legacy of the mass murder of 14 women on that date in 1989 at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal by a psychotic with an intense hatred of women.

This is the Hazeldean branch of the Ottawa Public Library, situated in the Kanata area.

This plaque is outside the main entrance of the British High Commission. It pays tribute to Canadian Victoria Cross winners of the First World War.

I finish off with two shots taken late in the year. I passed beneath Plaza Bridge on the second to last evening in December. Then I took a shot of the National Arts Centre close by.

Twilight Has Descended Upon The Old Year

It has been my habit to post sunsets on the final day of each year, and so is the case for this New Year's Eve. My first two shots were taken on the same evening, September 22nd, the first day of fall here in the northern hemisphere. I saw the setting sun over the Rideau River at Billings Bridge in this first shot- it was just descending at the horizon when I got this first shot. Two fishermen were out in a shallow part of the river, no doubt in hip waders.

A few minutes later, I'd walked up to cross the Bank Street Bridge over the Rideau Canal to the north, and caught this twilight view.

These two date from the same day in early October, first with the sun set at Central Park in the Glebe.

Later, this was the twilight view looking west from the Garden Of The Provinces And Territories downtown.

I took these two on the same evening in October, coming up along the Ottawa River near the War Museum for this sunset shot before heading off to an event nearby.

The event in question was Miwate, an illumination of the Chaudiere Falls in the midst of the river. This was the final view of twilight while waiting to go in.

This is a view from the Bank Street Bridge over the Canal in late October.

While this one was done in early November.

I took this at the National War Memorial on the evening of November 11th, Remembrance Day, after placing my poppy on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Early in the month when I was in Barrhaven, I was in a shopping area at dusk and took this view looking west. An airplane can be seen at the right on final descent; the airport is east of Barrhaven.

My final sunset shot was taken a few days ago. I headed behind Centre Block on Parliament Hill to take a western view at dusk over the Ottawa River. The dying light of day looked lovely in the frigid conditions as the river continued the process of freezing over. Happy New Year!