Immaculate Conception

Picking up where we left off yesterday, here are more views of the basilica.

I started descending back down to the street, taking a shot of the basilica beside its neighbour. Once a convent, the building now houses the Guelph Civic Museum. I decided on a second filter for the shot.

A half hour or so and some errands later, and things looked brighter. The basilica dominates the skyline of the city, as seen in this view from the downtown.

A couple of nights before my visit, I photographed the basilica from down below. I decided to conclude with this, and used a second filter for it as well. Tomorrow I'll show you for a couple of posts around Toronto.

The Church Of Our Lady

This view looks towards downtown Guelph from the highest ground in the city: Catholic Hill. A local history museum and a basilica stand up here.

This statue stands here. John McCrae was the Canadian soldier, doctor, and poet who wrote In Flanders Fields during the First World War while serving in Europe. Guelph was his family hometown. This statue is by Ruth Abernethy, and is one of a pair of matching statues. The other one is here in Ottawa.

The Church Of Our Lady Of The Immaculate Conception is the most prominent church in Guelph, designated a minor basilica by Pope Francis and a national historic site of the country. Designed in the High Victorian Gothic Revival style, its main construction was between 1876-1888. A parish has been here from the earliest days of the city, a half century earlier. I took this first shot and went with two different filters for it.

I've been in the church before, but as was the case last summer, it was locked up. I started to walk around.

Here we have the back view of the basilica. Again, I decided to go with different filters for this view. Tomorrow I'll have more from here.

Winter Vantages In Guelph

Today I start with three shots taken on three different days in Guelph, at roughly the same spot. There is a wetland area neighbouring the retirement home where my father lives.

Railroads run through the city. This first view looks northwest from a spot near Woolwich and Speedvale.

And this looks southeast along the same track, back to where I was in the above shot. Woodlawn Cemetery is the area at left. A newer portion of the cemetery is actually along the right hand side of the track.

The Speed River, downslope from my father's home, stays open all winter, and so Canada geese remain here through the season, coming up from the river on a regular basis, such as with these four seen from the living room window.

I was awake early enough on a couple of days to get dawn views.

I headed into the nearby Riverside Park for a walk. The bandstand is quiet through the winter.

The river keeps flowing. There are signs that beavers are in the area, with the odd tree that's been gnawed on.

A pedestrian bridge crosses the Speed River in the park. This view looks upstream.

And this looks downstream.

Further downstream in the park, a windmill stands alongside the river.

War Graves And Little Lambs

Today I conclude this look at Woodlawn Cemetery in Guelph.

There are tombstones done in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission style, most of them gathered together in a single area. Some of these are veterans, while others are people who died in action more recently and were returned home.

Quite often in older cemeteries like this, a child angel or a lamb on a tombstone will designate the grave of a child. Such is the case with these.

One wider view from here.

A couple of days later we'd had snow. I was passing by the cemetery and took this shot. Tomorrow I'll take you elsewhere in Guelph.