Colours

A reminder to members of City Daily Photo that the theme for December is Slow.

More fall colours today around Ottawa. 

I was in the Nepean area one day, and fall colours alongside this church caught my eye.

A bus ride later, I was waiting up at the Tunney's Pasture transit station. Trees outside the perimeter drew my attention.

This vibrant tree was outside a bank in the Glebe.

One day I headed out in the direction of Lebreton Flats.

Pindigen Park is here, and this tree certainly drew me.

Autumn colours around nearby buildings had the same effect.

Here we look across at the Canadian Firefighters Memorial, with fall colours in the background. The large statue of a firefighter points towards a wall with names of those firefighters who have died in service.

Across the road is the National Holocaust Monument, with the War Museum in the background.

My path led me on, in the direction of the nearby Portage Bridge.

Here at Richmond Landing, I took more shots of fall colours.

I kept moving along the bridge, which spans the Ottawa River between Ottawa and Gatineau. The river passes through a series of islands here, including Victoria Island, home to the ruins of an old carbide mill. We'll pick up here tomorrow.

Whenever Flames May Rage

The Canadian Firefighters Memorial is a national memorial to those firefighters who have died in the line of duty over the history of the country. Its presence at Lebreton Flats is entirely appropriate- the Great Fire of 1900 was brought to a halt in this area. It is designed by Douglas Coupland, and the landscape architecture company that made their own contributions planted trees and bushes that turn red in the fall, and are often the first to return in the wake of forest fires. This is the view looking at it from the street, near where I left off yesterday, with the bushes and rocks sloping upward.

A wall of names, designated by province and territories, honours the dead- both those who died directly during fire responses and those whose illnesses are attributed to the job.

Across from them is a large statue of a firefighter. Each September, a national service of remembrance is held here, and the names of newly lost firefighters are added to the wall.

It is a dignified, moving place, especially when you start looking at the names.

The firefighter's Prayer is inscribed at one entrance.

One last look at the place.

Quite Haunting And Poignant

 Edward Burtynsky's involvement in the National Holocaust Monument involves large scale  contemporary photographs of places from the story of the Holocaust, etched onto the walls of the Monument. This is Site Of Death March, Near Mauthausen, Austria. In the dying days of the Second World War, the Nazis marched prisoners along this road, shooting those who couldn't keep up.

Abandoned Railroad, Treblinka, Poland is the largest of these. Nature is slowly overgrowing the old railroad that took people to the death camp. 

A memorial flame is lit up inside a side chamber.

Two more photographs etched side by side. Hiding Place, Warsaw Jewish Cemetery, Poland stands at left. At right is Prayer Room, Theresienstadt, Czech Republic.

Track 17, Berlin, Germany is seen here. From this place, many were sent to the death camps.

 Fence, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland is the most haunting of these.

The upper deck, reached by stairs or elevator, points directly towards Parliament Hill.

A look down the stairs.

And one last look, with the War Museum in the background. Tomorrow we pay a visit to its neighbour, another monument.

The Darkest Chapter In History

 The National Holocaust Monument is at Lebreton Flats, across from the War Museum. Dedicated in 2017, it pays tribute to the victims of the Holocaust during the Second World War.

It is a collaborative project. Daniel Libeskind designed it, with landscape architecture by Claude Cormier's firm. Doris Bergen provided the direction of a Holocaust historian, and the Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky contributed with dramatic works inside. The harsh angles are completely appropriate to the subject, I think.

Panels within tell the dark story of the Holocaust.

A look around the space. More from here tomorrow.