First Images Of A New Year

These shots are my first of the year, taken on New Year's Day. I headed over to Carleton University to catch the O-Train, and thought the minimalist look of the rails through the snow made for an interesting image. The same applied to animal tracks beside the station through the fresh snow.

Downtown, I came to Parliament Hill, which had been the scene of a big party on New Year's Eve. I should have come on down- I developed a headache late that afternoon and stayed in. These banners are hanging downtown along Wellington Street, a mark of the 150th anniversary of Confederation. The statue behind it is Henry Harper, whose presence I've featured before.

Crews were busy on the Hill, bringing down the stage and other infrastructure elements of the previous night's events. The evening had included two sets of fireworks, a concert, and a passing of the torch by school children from Ottawa's City Hall to the Centennial Flame.

This stage was set up down at City Hall, a few blocks away. Something else has been set up here as well- a large torch sculpture that I assume is going to remain lit for a good long while- probably through this anniversary year. This was where that passing of the torch had begun.

Cleaning Up At The Fenceline

 Back around the beginning of November, I started noticing scaffolding and sheltering going up around the stone walls and iron fencing of Parliament Hill's south side, alongside Wellington Street. The buildings and grounds of the Hill have been and will continue to be undergoing extensive work, and this was part of that process, though a much faster job, and in time for the 150th anniversary of the country. On the 29th of December, while I was passing by this area on my way to another destination, work crews were taking down the last of the scaffolding. Crews had been busy over those weeks giving the walls a good cleaning- either by sand blasting or power washing. Stone does, over years, tend to attract pollution, but it can be cleaned up and ends up looking fresh. In one of these shots, you can also see the stage that had been set up for a New Year's Eve concert.

The Museum And Monuments

Before getting started, I did a guest post about photoblogging for author Molly Jo Realy that was published yesterday; have a look at that link and leave a comment!

Over the Christmas holidays, I stopped by the Canadian War Museum one day to photograph the building and two monuments in winter conditions.

Across from the museum, the National Holocaust Monument is taking shape. At present, work is due to finish up sometime this spring.

The other monument is nearby- the Canadian Firefighters Memorial, with its statue of a firefighter pointing to the wall bearing more than 1300 names of those who have given their lives in the line of duty across the country since the earliest days of the profession.

Historical Images Of A Chateau

The Chateau Laurier was opened in 1912 and named in honour of Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier. It was a dream project for Charles Melville Hays, a railroad baron who had the misfortune to be aboard the Titanic during that whole little scrape with an iceberg. Hays was buried at Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal, though there are stories that his ghost carries on here in the hotel he never got to officially open. His portrait can be found here, alongside a number of period photos that grace some of the corridors on the first floor, showing the development and life of the place.

Laurier and his wife Zoe feature in one of those photographs, from the opening of the hotel's first phase, held weeks after the opening was supposed to happen out of respect for the death of the hotel's founder.

Yousuf Karsh features prominently in the story of the hotel- several of his photographs hang in a lounge off the main entrance, while the man himself appears in this photograph amid the others. Long before Karsh had moved his studios here to the hotel for the latter part of his career, he already had an association with the place. His first solo exhibit in the 1930s had been held in the Chateau.

Winston Churchill also had an association with the hotel, often staying here when he came to Canada, or attending official conferences or dinners. In the second shot, he's accompanied at his left by our prime minister at the time, Louis St. Laurent.

Many famous people have come to the hotel at one point or another down through the decades. This photograph of Prime Minister Mackenzie King has him flanked by the American actor Jack Benny and Benny's wife Mary Livingstone, who were promoting the war bond drive during the Second World War. The hotel has also served as a place for state functions, such as a dinner held in honour of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during their visit in 1939.

On those occasions when I do pop into the Chateau, I often stop by this portrait of Churchill himself, in the lounge near other Karsh portraits. It's the defining image of both men- Churchill's resilience in the face of war made Karsh's career internationally. The photo, taken after Churchill had addressed the House of Commons on a visit to Ottawa on the 30th of December, 1941, features the legendary scowl for a very good reason- Karsh had taken the great man's cigar away.

The Chateau plays host to all sorts. It even lets disreputable scoundrels pass through and take selfie shots via over-sized mirrors.

Tracing The Footsteps Of McGee

This is a section of Sparks Street downtown. The outdoor pedestrian mall is a block south of Parliament Hill. The architecture of the entire street has changed over time- in the 1860s, a boarding house stood where the Subway now resides. It was a local home for Members of Parliament away from their ridings. Note the historical plaque over to the side. 

The boarding house was the residence for Thomas D'Arcy McGee, an Irish born journalist, activist, Montreal M.P., Father of Confederation, and one of the most eloquent Canadian politicians of his time. He was coming home late one evening in April 1868 from debates in the House of Commons when he was shot down by an assassin at his doorstep. The plaque is placed here at the site.

Walking east along the street brings us to a modern building named after him. The Thomas D'Arcy McGee Building houses, among other things, a number of federal courtrooms- a fitting use, as McGee's accomplishments included a law degree. The building itself is decidedly contemporary in its look (and very reflective), with a new addition in front of it- the bear sculpture was moved in recent months from its place further east on the street.

McGee's trail also leads further east on Sparks to a pub named after him. D'Arcy McGee's is housed on the first floor of one of the three buildings that make up The Chambers.

Dawn Arises On A Brand New Year

For my first fresh post of the new year, I like to do a contrast to my final post of the year by featuring sunrise shots. I started doing this last year, and it makes sense to carry on with it. In this first case, back in mid-September, I was awake early enough to catch the dawn, a few minutes before seven. On the Bronson Avenue Bridge crossing the Canal, I first photographed to the west, over Dow's Lake. Then I crossed over to the east side where the waters have narrowed back into the Canal, catching the rising sun at the horizon.

A few days later, with one of those occasional bad nights, I decided to take a walk instead of tossing and turning. Crossing the same bridge over to the Glebe, I caught the first hints of  light to the east.

This was the view a short time later, by the time I reached the north side of the Glebe at this park.

This is from Gloucester, out in the east end from late September, taken on another one of those bad nights.

This, by contrast, was in November, again on the Bronson Avenue Bridge looking east over the Canal.

These were also in November, taken first at Brewer Park and then up at the Bronson Avenue Bridge, a few minutes apart.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Best Of The Year

Welcome to 2017 and Happy New Year! As always, members of City Daily Photo start the New Year with a look back at their best or favourite shots of the past year. You can see how other members are interpreting this theme here.

I'm starting with a view of Parliament Hill's Centre Block, taken a day after a major snowfall dumped half a metre of snow on the national capital region. It seems fitting to start with this iconic architecture, as 2017 marks the 150th anniversary of Canada's confederation.

Winterlude is a major festival held in February here, including ice and snow carvings, skating on the Rideau Canal, and many more activities. This was my favourite ice carving, placed in one of the focal points of the festival, Confederation Park.

The Tulip Festival is another festival held in May in both Ottawa and Gatineau, on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. The festival is a legacy of the aftermath of World War Two, growing out of the thanks of the Dutch people to Canada for liberation. In this shot from Jacques Cartier Park in Gatineau, the tulips in the foreground appear bright, with the river and the Alexandra Bridge in the background.

Tulips have also been a staple in the flowerbeds on Parliament Hill during the festival, and of the photos I took here this time out, this one with two people relaxing before the tulips particularly caught my attention.

Commissioners Park at Dow's Lake, a part of the Rideau Canal, is one of the biggest sites for the festival. One of the beds there featured this new kind of tulip that made its debut this year- the Canada 150 tulip, a white and red beauty that has since been made available across the country for gardeners to have planted in the fall, so that they'll be blooming this year for the anniversary. 

Around the beginning of August each year, Sparks Street downtown hosts a busker festival that I love to attend. It draws in buskers from around the world, such as Bendy Em, a contortionist based out of Australia whose act culminates in fitting every bit of her into a small clear box. 

September brought a solemn occasion. There is a national service of remembrance each year commemorating the fallen at the national firefighters memorial near this location, which is called the Garden Of The Provinces. I attended the ceremony this year, and met a fellow blogger for the first time, Stewart, who blogs under the name Furry Gnome. He and his family were attending, as their son William's name was among those new names added to the 1300 Canadian firefighters who have since the earliest days of the country given their lives in the line of duty. This shot, taken before the service, with bagpipers in the open space and Christ Church Cathedral in the background, really stood out to me.

Not too long afterward, one day I happened to come across this immature peregrine falcon perched on a fence at the bus station downtown. He was quite an impressive looking fellow.

I finish with this autumn shot of a bench, taken on an October visit to Rideau Hall in New Edinburgh. The manor and its grounds are home to Canada's Governor General, and are open to visitors- a visit well worth making.