Amauti

 In recent decades, it's become practically essential to carry some kind of portable device with us. It started with pagers, and progressed to the contemporary mobile phone, to the point where our coats have an interior pocket specifically made to hold them.

This is a diving helmet.

While here we have a firefighters helmet.

This is the helmet of a fighter pilot.

And here we have a helmet designed for a smoke jumper.

Displayed here is the amauti, a coat worn by the Inuit of the high Arctic. The hood is actually a baby carrier.

Items of the kitchen. This is from the 90s, and is a breakfast maker, handling your coffee, toast, and frying your eggs.

This vacuum cleaner dates from the 1950s.

Pacemaker

 Side by side, two variants of the same device. The autosal is a laboratory instrument used by oceanographers in the measurement of salinity. Its counterpart at left is a portasal, simply a more portable version.

Western society has a long tradition of astronomy, with names for stars, constellations, and other phenomena taken from Greek and Arabic roots. The same stars seen in the northern skies were seen by indigenous tribes in North America, who called constellations by their own names. 

Wintermaker is the Ojibwe name for what we call Orion, and it fits, as it starts returning to the northern skies in late August and stays through to the spring. 

Much of what appeals about this museum is its hands-on quality, especially looking through microscopes and seeing things in a whole different way.

I moved over into another area, which concentrates on technology that is wearable. And in a manner of speaking, a pacemaker is precisely that, worn on the inside, regulating the heart and keeping people alive and well in a way that was impossible a century ago.

An early external model is seen here, alongside a contemporary version.

Every once in awhile people get hurt. Splints and braces might be used to assist recovery. Multiple examples of them are seen here.

These are examples of prosthetics that have been customized to look different, to stand out, to be expressive. They certainly accomplish that.

Ends And Odds In The Capital City

 Early in August while I was attending the Busker Festival, I noticed these two birds pecking away in the spacious planter I was sitting beside. They blended in well.

A short walk away, I noticed something I've walked past countless times at the corner of Bank and Sparks Streets without noticing. I believe the building at this corner might have once been a bank, hence the crest.

A bit further along on Sparks Street is the current location of a sculpture honouring Terry Fox, the Canadian marathon runner who lost a leg to cancer, set out to run across the country from east to west, and lost his fight to cancer before he could finish it. Millions run marathons for cancer research in his name each year.

Some photo bloggers do hip shots. I inadvertently did one during a busker performance, but liked the shot.

This summer has been one of rain. One day at home I noticed the building dark clouds outside my apartment building. Excuse the ropes- there's balcony work being done on my side of the building. To the west, the buildings across the way are government buildings.

The storm clouds built. When it unleashed, it was a furious storm.

With rain comes rainbows. This was on another day in the north end of the Glebe.

August and September is the time of sunflowers. These are outside Abbotsford House, a former 19th century farmhouse that sees new use as a senior's community centre.

On another day in the north end of the Glebe, I saw this rabbit early in the morning. They are not animals of the heat of the day; one is more likely to see them first thing, or in the evening and overnight.

En route to visit a museum, my route took me through the Riverview neighbourhood. I stopped along the way to head down a street and photograph a church. This is the Church of Christ, nestled in a quiet area.

My last shot that day was taken close to home, outside an LRT station. This compass is thematically First Nations, and I recall seeing a similar one outside City Hall.

The Work

Native peoples were in the Ottawa Valley for millennia before white men first came. The Anishinabe lived here from time immemorial. 

Some of what they left behind- stone tools predating the current era.

In the decades from the founding of Bytown to its change of name, it was a turbulent time.

This is a larger than life bust of Colonel John By. We don't really have a portrait of him- silhouettes in profile of him and his wife are the only works done in his lifetime.

The Rideau Canal was a response to the War of 1812 and the ongoing tensions with the Americans. 

Americans had fired this cannonball at Fort Wellington from Ogdensburg. It was fired back by the British, hitting the Ogdensburg courthouse.

This is the trunk of Colonel By and his wife, taken when they came over for the Canal project.

Some of the tools that were used for the project.

It would be the work of a mix of people- French-Canadian, Scottish, Irish, and military units. Its legacy stands strong today. By would return to Britain following the completion of the Canal, and find himself under a storm of controversy, having had gone over budget, even though he had been cleared to make changes as needed in the field. The scandal stayed with him for his remaining years, but history has entirely vindicated him.