Parliament Hill And The River Over Time

Once a month, more or less, I come up to a viewing platform where the Alexandra Bridge starts to cross over to Gatineau. From here, I take a shot of Parliament Hill above the Ottawa River through the seasons for documentation. The Chateau Laurier and the Rideau Canal can be seen at left in these pictures.

This first shot was taken in early March on a sunny day. 

In early April, I returned. The ice was breaking up.

The middle of May saw very different conditions, with spring underway.

I missed getting to this spot in June, but passed by on Canada Day, on a day that was hazy due to wildfire smoke conditions.

Later in the month, here's how it looked.

This was how things were looking in August.

Late in September, I returned once again, early one morning.

This was how things looked in the middle of October.

However, by the time I returned in the latter part of November, I was in for a surprise. The Alexandra Bridge is being worked on for some time to come, and the pedestrian lane closed up. The bridge itself is closed up to cars, with pedestrians and bikes allowed through on the central lane. And so my viewing platform was cut off to access. I decided to find a similar vantage point just up the road, a hundred metres or so.

I was returning from visiting the Museum of History a few days before Christmas. I took another shot from here.

But to be honest, I wasn't happy with the location, and thought of another spot a short walk further, in Major's Hill Park, a spot I have often photographed from. I took this shot with the last light of the day. This will do nicely going forward with this series.

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.