Vivid Shade

Starting off with the bed of tulips I finished with in yesterday's post, the colours were striking.

Park Vistas

Now that summer is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere, it was time for a new header. This one was taken last Canada Day during a quiet interlude outside the Museum of History in Gatineau, with a view of the Ottawa skyline across the river.

There are a number of planters set up along the path on the west edge of Major's Hill Park. They tend to be planted less densely, and make a lovely shot with Parliament and the Ottawa River in the background.

Less dense in the way of tulips also applies to the area around some foundations, which are preserved in the park and once housed the By family during the Canal building period.

At the north end of the park are larger beds of tulips. This one features the glass tower of the National Gallery as a backdrop.

While this includes Notre Dame.

We'll carry on here tomorrow with the first bed, seen here.

Viewpoints

Here are some more views from the tulip beds behind the John By statue in Major's Hill Park.

At the east end of the row, the Colonel's statue looks out towards Parliament Hill. Below in the gap between here and there lies the Rideau Canal's entrance into the Ottawa River.

The Park

A reminder to members of City Daily Photo that the theme day for July 1st is Neighbourhood.

Major's Hill Park is another destination for tulips during the festival. I went on a couple of occasions. Today we'll start looking at the first visit.

Some of the tulips are around and behind the statue of Colonel John By, the man who led the construction of the Rideau Canal. The Connaught Building lingers at right in the background, while the American embassy is at left.

The Chateau Laurier can be seen in the background here. We'll pick up again here tomorrow.

Gardens

Of course tulips are found throughout the national capital area during the festival, not just in the large parks but in personal gardens and other spots. 

At Lansdowne Park in the Glebe, tulips line a series of bushes on the north and south sides of the Aberdeen Pavilion. I'll show you more from here down the line, taken a few days after this one.

The same applies to the War Memorial, where a few days after taking this shot, I took more around the cenotaph. 

Here we had tulips outside another residence.

This garden featured some of the Canada 150 tulips that came out some years ago.

And this was outside a spa in Little Italy.

Displays

Here's another perspective of the same bed of tulips I left off with yesterday, with tulips at left coming into bloom while others at right needed a few more days to show.

The bed across the path was of a similar state: some starting to show, others not yet, but also planted with companion flowers, such as below.

A short distance away in Little Italy, I photographed these a few minutes later. Tomorrow we'll check out other areas

Two Hats

The Man With Two Hats is one of a set of two identical tall sculptures by the Dutch artist Henk Visch. One stands here looking out over Dow's Lake, with a tulip bed in the background. The other is in the city of Apeldoorn, in the Netherlands. It pays tribute to the liberation of the Netherlands by Canadian soldiers in the Second World War. It is out of that liberation that the Tulip Festival found its origins. The Dutch started sending tulips as a show of gratitude, and a formal festival was organized several years later, an initiative of the landscape photographer Malak Karsh.

In the flower bed beyond, a few of the flowers were starting to show, but it would take a few days before the bed was really in its prime.

This particular bed shows how one type of tulip can be coming along while the other is yet to show.

As is also the case here. I'll carry on from here tomorrow.

Early Growth

During my first visit, some of the tulip beds were yet to show colours, such as this one.

Some of the beds, either here at Commissioners Park or elsewhere, are planted relatively densely. Others are like this, with little density. Tulips surrounded by soil still are picturesque.

There's a rich variety of them, in multiple colours and types.

Up in the north side of the park, overlooking the lake, was a car decorated for the occasion. I'll leave off here and show you what else is here on a permanent basis tomorrow.