Odds And Ends Around A National Capital

 I have some odds and ends from the last few months for you over the next three days. I start with these shots from before Christmas, when I was returning across the Ottawa River on the Alexandra Bridge from a visit to the Museum of History. I photographed the Ottawa skyline over the frozen river.

I used the bridge itself to frame Kiweki Point.

My path took me past the Peacekeeping Monument, with Notre Dame in the background.

I hadn't posted this shot from the Christmas market at Lansdowne. At the east side of the Aberdeen Pavilion, there had been a spot with regularly carved ice sculptures.

Late in the month, passing through the Glebe neighbourhood, I photographed this building I've passed by on occasion. It is in fact a church, a Quaker congregation.

In mid-January, back at Lansdowne Park, I photographed the Aberdeen Pavilion at night.

I've been occasionally photographing the development of the future main branch of the Ottawa Public Library at Lebreton Flats. The building will also house some space for Library and Archives Canada. Most of the work now is being done inside. I took this shot from the north in January.

One day I stopped by the National Gallery of Canada briefly. This looks up through the reflecting pool from below.

Outside, Maman by Louise Bourgeois is always worth taking a photo of.

I attended a PWHL game at Lansdowne. The game is fast paced, and the crowd enjoys it.

In early February, out in Nepean, I took time to photograph a church I haven't photographed since before Covid, I believe. Julian of Norwich Anglican Church stands out well in winter.

Morning Star

A reminder to members of City Daily Photo- the theme for the 1st of February is Double.

Continuing where I left off, here is more of that marvelous sculpture by Bill Reid.

A look out the windows. The Ottawa shoreline was ghostly in the snow.

And up at the ceiling, with my favourite work of art in the national capital region. Morning Star is a large abstract mural by the Dene artist Alex Janvier, painted in 1993, evoking his own aboriginal heritage. I don't usually go for abstract art, but I love his style, and particularly this painting.

One can even use the staircases and escalators to frame the painting in unusual ways.

Heading up, another look out the windows. Parliament Hill was vanishing in the snow.

We'll pick up here tomorrow.

The River Through Changing Seasons

 My second position to document the change of seasons in a given spot is on the Portage Bridge, upstream from Parliament Hill, roughly where the provincial boundary between Quebec and Ontario is. The Gatineau shoreline is at left, with landmarks including the Alexandra Bridge, Kiweki Point, the National Gallery, Notre Dame, the Supreme Court, and Victoria Island also seen. I come out here twice a month to do this series. You'll see the next post coming for the July theme day post, which deals with water.

I start with this shot taken in the latter half of July.

A few days later, I returned late in the day.

Around the middle of August, things were cooling down.

Towards the end of the month, I returned on a day with dramatic skies.

When I came back at mid-month in September, it was on a sunny day.

In the last days of that month, I was back.

When I returned on another day in the first half of October, it was under similar conditions.

And the same thing later in October- ideal conditions. The next day would bring in a lot of rain.

I stopped by on Remembrance Day en route to the War Museum. There had been snow two days prior, and the skies were clearing.

I returned late in November. The snow was gone, but it was a cold, moody day, with snow to come.

When I returned in the first half of December, the snow was back, and the river was in the midst of

freezing up.

My last shot in this series was taken on Boxing Day, after a visit to the War Museum.

Outlook

 I ascended to the platform itself to take in the views. I plan to return in the fall for some sunset views.

Here we have the other of the statues that stood here at Kiweki Point when it was Nepean Point. Samuel de Champlain was the French explorer who first came up the river in 1613. A statue was raised in his honour and placed high on a plinth at the top of the hill. The plinth is gone, but the statue is back near its original location, and standing alone, with the scout that once stood at its base now off on its own. Champlain still looks to the west.

Another sculpture belonging to the National Gallery. This is, I believe, the first time I've photographed it in its own right.

A final view, and a pleasure to have come here.