Icy Sculptures, In Progress And Finished

Back to Sparks Street. One day during Winterlude I found an ice carver at work with a chainsaw, starting work on a smaller ice sculpture.

One more look at the Louis Riel ice sculpture, which held up quite well throughout Winterlude.

This was one of the interactive installations set up along the street, large wheel structures you could sit inside, pump the handles to get the interior portion of the wheel moving, and images would on the inside and outside, not unlike a film. In this case Alice In Wonderland.

On the second weekend of the festival, pairs carvers from Canada, the U.S., and Mexico carved a series of larger sculptures. A Canadian pair carved Going Gorillas.

This is titled Heilung The Mother Nature, by carvers from Canada and Mexico. More from here tomorrow.

Dragon Boats Crossing A Cold Finish Line

Here we had the last of the dragon boats to cross the finish line for this heat.

The rest of the teams were starting to get out of the boats, so that the next set of teams could take to the boats. You must be slightly daft to do this, but it's a hugely popular event, in terms of participation, both in the winter and the summer versions. I've seen more of the winter version, however, and that's not likely to change. Tomorrow we return to ice sculptures.

The Heat Of The Race In The Freezing Cold

Starting where I left off, the dragon boats were coming back down the ice, each team looking to advance to the next round.

You Have To Be Slightly Crazy To Get Into This

Returning to Winterlude today, and to the Rideau Canal at Dow's Lake. The Dragon Boat Festival has been happening in Ottawa for years each summer at Mooney's Bay, south of this location. Some years ago, the festival organizers inaugurated a winter edition as part of Winterlude, the first time that ice dragon boat racing was held in North America. It's been part of Winterlude ever since. It seems harder to do than the summer version. Teams head down a 200 metre course on the ice, with the boats resting on an apparatus outfitted with blades to skate across the ice. The rowers aren't using oars, but sticks with spikes to drive into the ice and propel themselves forward. This all takes place on the Friday and Saturday of the second week of Winterlude, with many teams competing. I came down on the Saturday morning, a bitterly cold day, and photographed a couple of the heats. Here we have teams just about ready to go. The spectators were lined down the ice, almost all of them on the same side of the ice I was on.

And the call was made: the race got started, boats starting to glide down the ice.

I turned to photograph behind me. The Arboretum stands on the shore of the lake.

While waiting for the next heat to come back down the ice, I took some perspective shots.

And so it was that the next race was underway, coming back. I have more of this over the next couple of days.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Municipal Building

The first day of the month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo. And March has Municipal Building for the occasion. Check out how others are taking on this theme right here.

Ottawa's City Hall is downtown, on a large property it shares with a provincial courthouse. I photographed it one morning last month, approaching from a direction I rarely use: the south side. Here is where we get a good view of the two very different aspects to City Hall. At the left, the 19th century architecture of the Heritage Building stands out strongly with the more modern wing of what was originally built as the regional headquarters before the city amalgamation. The two buildings are linked by an overpass walkway. The Heritage Building houses offices and committee rooms, while much of the day-to-day work is in the new wing. 

Here we have a look into the council chambers, in the new wing. You might notice the wall in the background at left; I did a post about the sculpture there back in 2017 that some of you may remember.

On the other side of the wall outside the council chamber are a series of paintings by Ottawa artist Ben Babelowsky depicting scenes from Ottawa, both urban and rural. The series is collectively titled The Ottawa We Love.

A large atrium stands in the heart of the new wing. This look outside at the snow includes a sculpture.

This lion sculpture is mostly buried in snow. One half is lighter than the other. Fable VII is the title of this, but I refer to it as The Ghost And The Darkness.

Back in the atrium, I photographed this painting, titled Aftermath, 1916. It is a gift by the artist, Ross Rheaume, given to the city in 2016 to mark the centenary of the burning of the original Centre Block. The artist depicts the ruin of the Parliamentary block in daylight following the fire.

Here is a wider view. The columns at left bear banners for the various local history museums spread out across the city.

While this view shows some of the walkways between upper levels.

Back outside, here is an exterior view on the north side.

And over to the left is the skating rink outside City Hall. The Cartier Square Drill Hall, an armoury built in 1879 and still in use today. stands in the background.

Here we have another view of the Heritage Building.

Looking back gives a view of the main west entrance to the new wing.

And one final view from the southwest corner of the property at the Heritage Building, dating to 1875 and once a teacher's college. The Human Rights Monument is at left, an abstract monument that is one of several national monuments in the capital.