Olympic Snow

Down in the Byward Market, a series of snow sculptures were erected in various locations. This being an Olympic year, the Games played a strong influence in the work from the carvers.

Such as the sport of curling. Yes, I am a Canadian. No, I cannot explain curling.

This rendition of the bobsled is another example.

A short walk away from these three, this Olympic and Maple Leaf sculpture stands outside of a restaurant that serves good Italian cuisine.

This last one, of course, features the idea of the Olympic torch.

Dubai Ice

Today Winterlude comes to an end here in Ottawa and Gatineau for another year. It's a public holiday in Ontario called Family Day (a totally fake and pointless day off, mind you...), and it's the last chance to take in the sights. Though I've taken plenty of pics this year, so we're going to be immersed in ice and snow sculptures for awhile.

Here is the second mermaid sculpture in Confederation Park. I've also taken pics of these statues at night fully lit, and those shots will be forthcoming.

You might remember my mentioning a few days that a carver from the United Arab Emirates had carved an ice sculpture here. This is his work, a crocodile.

I wanted a shot of the beast's head.

This last one is from a Mexican carver, and has a Native influence on it.

Moving off into other aspects of Winterlude for a bit, but we'll be back in the park.

Mermaid

Over on the west side of Confederation Park, there were six sculptures assembled by single carvers. I showed you a couple of them in progress a few days back. This first one is one of the two mermaids.

This second one is a bit more impressionist, but two drama masks form the heart of the sculpture, with afternoon sunlight passing through the ice.

And this one is a fish. Incidentally, the evergreens you see in the background are just a few of many scattered through the park. These are Christmas trees still in good shape, and put to a second use for Winterlude.

Tomorrow I'll show you the other three sculptures by solo carvers.

Warrior

Three more sculptures from the park today. These can all be enlarged by clicking on them, by the way. This first one depicts man and nature in an intricate way.

While this one focuses on the simple act of sniffing a flower.

And this one, in fact, won first place in competition, depicting a warrior of the ancient world in battle. I'm impressed by how the carvers fashioned a flowing cape behind him.

Secrets

Another pair of sculptures today. This first one I showed you several posts ago, when the carvers were just getting started. It's the work of an American and Peruvian duo, depicting a sunken plane and the wildlife around it.

This second one is from the other team from Yakutzk, Siberia. It uses fishing as its theme.

I wanted a closeup on the face of the old fisherman.

Horseman

Two more ice sculptures from Confederation Park today. I mentioned in an earlier post about the carvers from Yakutzk. There were actually two teams from that Siberian city, but I'm reasonably sure that the pic I showed you in that post features this first sculpture as their final work. It's a boy standing on a galloping horse, with two other horses close by.

I decided to take two shots with a slightly different angle.

I like the delicate attention to detail by the carvers on this sculpture.

Jabberwocky

Today I'm starting with the finished sculptures at Confederation Park, and I'll begin with three. This first one gives us the essence of the surfer and the wave. A small dog is incorporated in the lower right.

This second sculpture concerns itself with games. From board games to dominos to a Rubik's Cube, the carvers went with various amusements.

This last one I took from two angles. It's the Jabberwocky, from the Lewis Carroll stories.

It certainly does look fierce in person.

Pretoria Bridge

Today we have a very different bridge over the Rideau Canal from yesterday's Corktown Bridge. The Pretoria Bridge links the north side of the Glebe with the Ottawa East neighbourhood. It is a vertical lift bridge dating back nearly a century, bearing the name of the road above it, which was named as a nod to veterans of the South African War of 1899-1902. The middle section can rise during the summer to allow taller boats through the gap. This time of year, skaters pass beneath it.

This is the arch for one of the walking paths. I like the stonework.

There are two similar structures at the west side, on both sides of the street. It's from here that the middle section can be raised.

The view of the bridge from the north side.

And from the south.

While this shot from on top of the bridge looks southward again, skaters going back and forth along this stretch of the Canal. Throughout Winterlude, this stretch of ice will be much used. Some facts about the Canal skateway: the route is a total of 7.8 kilometres from the Ottawa Locks to the Hartwell Locks, and the total surface area adds up to over 165 000 square metres, the size of 90 Olympic sized rinks. It holds the Guinness record for the largest naturally frozen skating surface in the world.

Back to the ice sculptures tomorrow...

Corktown Bridge

I'm taking a couple of days away from Confederation Park for another side of Winterlude, the Rideau Canal. We're looking north on the final stretch of the Canal. You can see the Chateau Laurier there in the distance. This shot is taken from the Corktown Bridge.

Looking south, we see more skaters. The Canal is much busier on the weekends right now than when I took this, on a weekday, but even so, a fair number of people get onto it during the day. The bridge itself is relatively new, a pedestrian crossing between the University of Ottawa, there on the left, and Centretown to the right. It gets a good deal of use during the day, and is a rather graceful bridge as it spans across the Canal.

And it does attract that odd tendency people have to fasten locks to the railings that we see on other bridges in other cities.

There are staircases leading down to the Canal from each side of the bridge, and temporary stairs down below onto the ice itself. From here, you're getting a better look at the bridge itself, with the mix of the campus buildings beyond it.

I like the shape of the supports, and thought they'd frame skaters rather nicely for this shot.

And here's what the bridge looks like from the surface of the ice. It bears the name Corktown as a nod to the many Irish workers who came over to work on the construction of the Canal in the 1820s and 1830s. Many settled in the Ottawa Valley afterwards, and to this day, there is still a strong Irish presence in the valley, so the name suits the bridge. And the bridge itself, I've always thought, enhances the Canal itself.

Frozen Splendour

This ice sculpture stands at one of the entrances into Confederation Park. Colour has been incorporated into the ice.

Not everything in the park, mind you, is an ice sculpture. These snowshoes, for instance, are quite oversized. Perhaps Paul Bunyan might find them useful?

Nearby, out in the open stands this ice sculpture of two bears. It carries a theme of friendship between Canada and Germany since the end of the Cold War. The maple leaf is on the sculpture at the left, while a representation of the Brandenburg Gate is on the sculpture at the right.

At night, sculptures throughout the park get lit up with multicoloured lights for an entirely different effect.