Odds And Ends In The Capital City

I have some odds and ends from the last few weeks today and tomorrow. We start back on Canada Day. I stopped briefly by the Museum of Nature that day, and as I was leaving the property, these ominous clouds were presenting themselves. Within minutes, the first rain began, falling hard. 

A little while later, and a bus ride away, I took this photograph downtown up at the sky. Another round of rain would soon fall, and when I got home, the worst storm of the day came down late in the afternoon.

On another day, close to home. This sweet cat spends a good part of the day napping in front of her house.

Another furry critter. I've probably photographed this rabbit before; this is in the front yard of St. Matthew Anglican Church in the Glebe.

In Major's Park stands this work of art. Twist 1.5 is by Alex Wyse and Ken Guild, done in wood.

Back in the Glebe, this church is one I don't photograph often. Blessed Sacrament Parish is a Catholic church in the south side of the neighbourhood.

The Supreme Court of Canada late in the day- a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture.

One day when I went into Gatineau, I stopped to photograph these flowerboxes alongside the street. You may remember the tulips being in them. After the tulips are done blooming, they get replaced by flowers lasting the season into October.

Once more in the Glebe. The stump of an old tree is hidden beneath all this greenery.

One morning at Lansdowne Park I noticed this squirrel, who noticed me.

For today, I finish here downtown. This is a work in progress, a large mural on a building. It's since been completed, and looks beautiful.

Garden In Summer

 Each season I come to the Landscapes of Canada Gardens at the Canadian Museum of Nature. On the west side of the property, plants, shrubs, grasses, and trees of four distinct ecosystems are found here. I came on Canada Day, with ominous skies looming. We start with Boreal Forest, which covers a vast portion of the country.

The west entrances of the property include these bricks, usually from family members honouring other family.

Prairie Grassland is the next section, with grasses, flowers, and shrubs growing tall in summer.

Arctic Tundra features the plants of the far north, planted amid rocks, and doing quite well in the summer here.

An iceberg sculpture by the late artist and inventor William Lishman crosses the path.

I always try to get a shot from the west boundary of the property, with Arctic Tundra, the iceberg, and the Museum together.

The last ecosystem is Mammoth Steppe, planted around a statue family of Mammoths, consisting of plants that existed in their day and still thrive today. The Queens Lantern is seen beyond, with the Moon inside. The Museum was exceedingly busy; I stopped in for a drink and continued on my way.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Vanishing Point

The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo, and for September, that theme is Vanishing Point. Check out how others are interpreting the theme right here.

I start with a photograph taken from the archives, taken in December 2013. This is from a bridge near South Keys, looking west near sunset over railroad tracks below, a vanishing point at the horizon.

More recent- taken Canada Day night close to home, where spotlight beams shone in the night, appearing to come out of central unseen points.

Not too far away, but taken on another July day in Little Italy. These are the railroad tracks of the Ottawa LRT that runs north-south between Bayview Station and Limebank. The tracks converge off in the distance.

More convergence of lines- this is Carling Avenue over in Nepean, while waiting between buses.

And not that far from my ultimate destination in Nepean, more vanishing points, both in the distance and much closer to me with this side street.

Vanishing points are about parallel lines converging, and a good example is this work of art in Major's Hill Park. Twist 1.5 is the work of two artists, Alex Wyse and Ken Guild, dating to 1978. I photographed it from several points of view.

Finally, more converging lines- rail tracks, lights, and infrastructure. The LRT descends beneath the city core for the east-west route, and the tunnels at the ends of platforms at stations are ideal for capturing vanishing points.

Mixed

It was well past time for a summer header, and so yesterday I switched it out for a rainbow on a summer day taken last year at Lansdowne Park. 

More odds and ends today. Taken in early June, these two shots are close to home for me. This cat spends a fair bit of time outdoors during warm weather, but rarely is seen off property. She is a sweetie.

That same weekend was Doors Open in Ottawa, a series I'll start tomorrow. This building was not on the list, though its neighbour was. This is the embassy for Saudi Arabia.

I was passing Major's Hill Park. This chipmunk caught my eye, and was cooperative for some shots.

Here we have the Rideau Canal in its last stretch, as taken from Plaza Bridge, as it descends towards the Ottawa River. Parliament Hill is at upper left, while the Chateau Laurier is at right.

I passed by the future main branch of the Ottawa Public Library, which will share some space with Library and Archives Canada. Now in the last phase of its construction, the building is really looking a lot like the design sketches.

Here we see it at a distance from the north, with the Fleet Street Pumping Station in the foreground. Old and new.

A channel of the Ottawa River flows through the latter building, which dates to the second half of the 19th century. It passes into this gully, which has been turned into a training area for white water rafting.

I took these on Canada Day night, close to home. The main fireworks of the night were out at Lebreton Flats, off to the north.