A Stroll Through The Arboretum

 I had gone as far as I wanted in Commissioners Park for fall colours, but the other part of my destination was on the far side of Dow's Lake, called the Arboretum.

The view here includes Canada geese, making a lot of noise, along with ducks. Across the lake, which is lowered for the season being part of the Rideau Canal, is the naval reserve station HMCS Carleton. A careful eye might pick out the green roof of the observatory at the Experimental Farm.

I headed in that direction.

The Arboretum begins when you pass the reserve station. It is actually part of the Experimental Farm, a government agricultural facility and working farm, and here a multitude of trees have been planted.

There's a marsh along one side of the path, likely a remnant of what was here before. Before the days of the Canal, this was all called Dow's Great Swamp.

Willow trees appear to be late to change their leaves.

A creek feeds into the Canal, and so its levels are reduced to a trickle over the winter.

This slope beyond sees sledding in the winter.

As I was leaving, the rain was just getting started.

Return To Commissioners Park

 I mentioned that I would return to Commissioners Park to close out this series on the Tulip Festival. And so today we begin that. On Victoria Day in May, I returned, starting this visit across from the park at the grounds of the naval reserve station HMCS Carleton, glimpsed through the trees. Tulips in the foreground were present, though a bit past their prime, days after my previous visit.

I headed over to the park.

Tulips

 The biggest site for tulips during the festival is at Dow's Lake. I started one visit over at the grounds of H.M.C.S. Carleton, a navy reserve station, where tulips are found in a flowerbed at the entrance.

These big painted tulips were at the pavilion overlooking the lake.

I crossed over to Commissioners Park, where most of the beds are found. This one is less formal than others.

This big one is dazzling, lined with muscari as a companion flower to the tulips.

I like to get views from the ground up.

Queen

 Today I'm concentrating on this last bed of tulips in the park, lined with muscari. It is dedicated in memory of the late Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. As crown princess during the Second World War, Juliana found safe haven here for herself and her daughters.

Across the road and across from the Dow's Lake  Pavilion is the grounds of a naval reserve unit, H.M.C.S Carleton. Here we have another tulip bed. Tomorrow I go elsewhere, but we'll be back to the lake when I close out this series. Sometime in July.