A Variety Of Sights Around The City

 More odds and ends today. Late one day in the second half of May I was at Lansdowne Park around sundown and took these two shots- similar to how I started yesterday's post, but a different time of day.

 

A few days later, I attended a CFL football game here in the stadium, the pre-season home game. The home team lost in pretty much the last second of the game. I don't begin to understand football, but I like the crowd energy, if that makes any sense. I don't like soccer.

And another night, but the same location- the Aberdeen Pavilion, with the crescent moon in the west, and Venus visible above the building.

At the beginning of June, I had errands to run in Westboro. I got there in a timely fashion. Getting back, however, was not timely. I waited a half hour for a bus, despite the app saying the next bus was two minutes away, then ten minutes, then fifteen.... and by the time the bus got there, the driver made a point of driving the slowest I've ever seen any driver, as if he was trying to hit every stop light on an orange light. I got home around twenty minutes after my transfer time ran out, and was thoroughly disgusted with the driver.

This shot is taken from the upper deck- our city service has some double decker buses, and I happened to get one of the front seats for what ended up being an interminable ride home.

In early June, I took this shot of St. Luke's Anglican Church, in the Chinatown neighbourhood. I can't recall photographing this one before, though it's close to home for me.

A few blocks away, blossoms on a bush caught my eye.

This is Abbotsford House in the Glebe late one June night. The house is a former farmhouse of the 19th century that serves as a senior's community centre, flanked by a nursing home on one side, and a retirement home on the other side. The Moon was in full in the western sky.

A few days later there was a European cultural day in the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne. I should have taken more photos, but did take this one of colourful dancers.

More blossoms, this in a front yard in Centretown.

Heading home one evening, and passing through the Glebe, I looked at this parking garage that's been there a few years. For the first time I noticed the herons on the roof. I suspect these are the work of a local artist who works in concrete.

On a much needed rainy day in Little Italy, I took this shot.

This is home to the Czech embassy. It's often been part of Doors Open, but wasn't this year. On Doors Open weekend in early June, I passed by and took this shot.

I round out today with this shot taken a few nights back as I was passing through Centretown on my way home late in the night. Had this fellow not moved, I wouldn't have even noticed him. As it was, I spoke cheerfully to him, and he stayed in place long enough for me to take a shot.

Christmas

 Merry Christmas.

I tend to mark the day on my blog with churches. I begin today with a shot taken at the end of November in Westboro. This church houses two congregations- All Saints Anglican and First United. I pass by here once a month.

At the end of the prior month, the sanctuary door had been open, and I got a look inside. What I saw surprised me, as I'd thought the sanctuary would be parallel to the street. Instead, it runs northward away from the street. The original sanctuary, to the west, is now a chapel, and the two are joined together by what I'm guessing is office space, since it's all one building from the outside. The pastor I spoke to said the original building dated to the 19th century, and this current sanctuary is from the 1950s.

Taken on the same day as my first shot, this is the Catholic parish of St. George, at the western edge of Hintonburg.

This was taken one early December morning in the Glebe, in pre-dawn light. Here we have Fourth Avenue Baptist Church.

And downtown, this is Centretown United Church.

Snow was falling on the day I took this. St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church is downtown, across from the Supreme Court of Canada.

I'd been inside in late November- their annual Christmas sale. I took a chance to stop inside the sanctuary.

The arrangement of the sanctuary is unusual, with the pulpit off to the side at centre as opposed to at one end of the space.

Something else unusual: among the musical instruments here was a harpsichord.

St. Patrick Basilica is a Catholic church downtown. This time of year they have a nativity creche outside.

And I finish with this shot of Notre Dame Basilica, taken late in the afternoon just a few days ago from across the street at the National Gallery of Canada.

Ends And Odds

More odds and ends today. On the same day as yesterday when I left off on the Alexandra Bridge, I departed and headed alongside the National Gallery of Canada, photographing the facade and Notre Dame beyond it.

This view includes Maman, the spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois.

Fire And Ice is a downtown street festival that usually ties into Winterlude. Of course Winterlude didn't happen this year, but the event happened. It was just delayed into March because of that whole trucker convoy occupation unpleasantness. I passed by one morning and this set of illuminated beams caught my eye. The lights changed as I walked around them.

At the end of March while in Hintonburg, a store display caught my eye.

And on the same day, in Little Italy, I noticed a neighbourhood cat sniffing around. A definite cutie.

In the first half of April I was in Nepean one day when it was off and on rain. This dramatic sky was a rainfall after it had parted.

And one last shot for today, taken a few days ago. On May 5th, the Horticulture Building at Lansdowne was hosting an embassy event for the Netherlands, marking Liberation Day. These large tulips out front were part of the set up as I was passing by while staff were setting things up inside.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Shadows

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

I am going with several locations over time. One day in February I was passing by the work site for the future home of the main branch of the Ottawa Library, which will be sharing the building with facilities from Library and Archives Canada. I'm occasionally documenting the project as it goes along. Work was going on, and the shadows cast by the machines and the higher ground within the pit seemed fitting for the theme.

In late March I was passing through the Hintonburg neighbourhood one afternoon with a somewhat hazy sky. A portion of this community centre cast a shadow on another section.

Just up the street, another example of that, with a section of a church, the Paroisse Saint Francois d'Assise, extending outwards and resulting in a shadow against the main body of the church.

Early in April one morning, I had a bit of time on my hands and was passing by this building. Once the main branch of the Bank of Montreal in the city (at a time when they made banks to impress), it's been in government hands for years, named the Sir John A. Macdonald Building, and used for receptions. Most of it was still in shadow from the higher buildings to the east and southeast.

One block up is Parliament Hill, with the West Block in the foreground and Centre Block in the background. Most of it was gleaming in the sun, but those sections facing west were still cast in shadow.

Along the west side of West Block is one of the statues of former prime ministers and Fathers of Confederation that dot the Hill. Robert Borden was prime minister from 1911-20, and his monument stands out here. At this time of day it's in the shadows created by a building across the street to the southeast, but spends much of the day in the sun.

The following day I was in Major's Hill Park, a short walk to the east of Parliament Hill. This statue of Colonel John By, the British military engineer who oversaw the building of the Rideau Canal, stands in the park. The flowerbeds around him were still surrounded by snow fences to protect the tulip beds. Those snow fences created a good pattern on the pavement.

The same here, a short walk away, with the fence that keeps the visitor away from the cliff's drop a few feet away. The shadows on the pavement suited the theme. At the time, the ice on the Ottawa River was breaking up.

A short walk away beyond that is the new monument for working trades. They include two large plumb bobs, tools that have been in use for thousands of years, and which cast good shadows in the afternoon sun.

I finish with this view towards Parliament Hill, with much of the slope in shadow, the trees doing a lot of that, but also the angle of the slope, which is steep.