Frozen Splendour Along A River

 The lines were long to head up to the main slides.

This year, a ferris wheel has been included in the festivities.

Through a gap in the trees, I looked across the frozen Ottawa River. On the far side, the frozen east branch of the Rideau Falls, where the Rideau River meets the Ottawa River.

Behind the big mound are smaller mounds of snow, geared towards activities for smaller kids.

A series of photographic displays are embedded into the wall of the big mound.

They are about the Artemis II mission to the Moon, the first manned mission to our moon since the Apollo program ended. NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman are being joined on the mission by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. 

Military Monuments On The Island

 In June, I headed up to the Rideau Falls for a visit. Here, the Rideau River splits into two channels around Green Island, and spills over to meet the Ottawa River. This is the west channel. Both channels are regulated by dam works, and this one tends to have less flow.

Over on the far shore of the Ottawa River is Gatineau, and the wooded stretch we see is Leamy Lake Park.

There are a number of monuments, most of them military in nature, on Green Island, and on the east shore of the Rideau River. The first we encounter is the National Artillery Memorial, which commemorates the service of the Royal Regiment of Artillery in particular.

Beside it is another monument to the Canadian doctor, poet, and soldier John McCrae, who fought in the South African War and World War One, and whose poem In Flanders Fields lives on, transcending national boundaries.

The statue is by Ruth Abernethy, one of a pair of the man, and larger than life. Its twin is in McCrae's home town of Guelph, at the city's civic museum.

A look across to the far side of the space. More monuments are over there.

One of them is this one. This commemorates the veterans of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, a group of Canadian volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Bubbles

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

 

My first shots were taken in early May. By chance I was at Lansdowne Park, where the children's festival was taking place. There was someone using these two long prongs to send bubbles into the air. Many, many bubbles.

I try not to photograph kids, but sometimes it can't be helped. Besides, most of them were looking away, and the only one looking in my general direction had his face obscured by a bubble or two.

The bubbles were even floating in the direction of the North Stands, and surprisingly still visible on camera.

A related term for bubbles is froth or foam, and it is in this that waterfalls apply. These shots were taken in the first half of May at the Chaudiere Falls on the Ottawa River. These falls are upstream of Parliament Hill, and contain a lot of power as they drop fifteen metres along the full length.

Taken later in May, this is also the Ottawa River, seen from Parliament Hill, where the river still runs swiftly downstream from the Chaudiere Falls before calming down in the wide section below the Hill. The line of white water is an island that gets covered over by water during spring run off before receding.

I took these in the first half of June. I paid a visit to the Rideau Falls, where the Rideau River drops into the Ottawa River in two channels. This is the east branch. 

Passing over the falls on the bridge, I noticed bubbles in the water. The water is very shallow here, but you wouldn't want to walk in it. It's an eleven metre drop. I'll have more from here down the line.

On another matter, this was taken before the weekend in an office building downtown. Happy Canada Day!

Fall Finale

Next to the National Artillery Memorial on Green Island is a new monument, installed several years ago. This bronze statue is one of a twin pair by the artist Ruth Abernethy for the centennial of the writing of the poem In Flanders Fields. John McCrae was the Canadian soldier, doctor, and poet who wrote that famous poem during the darkest hours of the First World War, and the poem resonates across national boundaries. One of the two statues is here, and the other is in McCrae's hometown of Guelph, Ontario, at the city's Civic Museum. This one has a backdrop of autumn red in October.

Abernethy, a Canadian artist well known for her lifelike statues, has a great attention to detail. It includes such things as McCrae holding a handwritten copy of his famous poem in his hand, or poppies painted red around the base of the statue. This statue is larger than life, which helps, as actual life size statues feel smaller than they are. But it's approachable.

I took a shot from here towards the island's other memorials.

And then I crossed the bridge over the east branch of the Rideau Falls.

A final shot. Tomorrow I move into a new series, but it mixes in some fall colours.