Deck The Halls

To more standard Christmas stuff today. I've been busy taking pics here and there (including a tourist's walkabout inside Centre Block) with a holiday theme, so expect Yuletide shots over the coming days.

In the south end of the city, outside a hotel, numerous trees on the property are lit up for the Christmas season.

I took these shots at twilight a few days ago.

Passing through the main downtown branch of my bank, on Sparks Street, I came across this Christmas tree  in the heart of the building. This branch is close to the original main branch of the bank, which now serves as an archive for Parliament, a curious mix of old architecture and modern archive technology. Next summer during Doors Open, I'll have to pay a visit inside.

Coming into the Lord Elgin Hotel downtown, this Christmas tree greets the visitor.

Close by is this sitting lounge, with wreaths and decorations for the season. The fireplace is a welcome sight on a cold day.

Not Exactly Your Grandmother's Christmas Carol

Wicked Wanda's is an adult emporium in Ottawa, catering to the kinky and erotic side of life. The store display windows lean towards the fetish side of things, and have a wonderfully naughty and twisted sense of humour to them. While the prudish might gasp in shock, and Sister Mary Margaret might tut-tut in disapproval (whilst secretly being curious), the shop carries on. 

This time of year, they have several dioramas in one window, using Barbie dolls in very creative ways in a series based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Photographing them was a bit of a challenge; I ended up reflected in the glass. 

Christmas Past is conventional, reflecting the literary roots of the story...

But Christmas Present is not at all conventional, reflecting the store inside...

And Christmas Future turns that up a notch. Barbie gets lucky indeed. So does Ken (assuming that is supposed to be Ken). Though seriously, the dude's missing some vital pieces to his anatomy...

Arboretum Walk And Winter Drydocking The Boat

It's odd looking at pictures of grass when we're buried in snow.

These shots were taken in the arboretum in early November. The first is from the high ground overlooking Dow's Lake. Most of the fall colours were gone by this point, but not quite all of them.

On the way through to the university, there's an offshoot creek that feeds into the Rideau Canal. It's crossed by two pedestrian bridges. This is the newest of them.

Among the many varieties of trees here are ones that have berries late into the season, such as these red ones. 

Over at Hartwell Locks, here we have the setup for the winter. The water is drained out from the upper locks, aside from a small stream from beyond the locks.

And this boat is drydocked in one of these empty locks for the winter. Come April, it'll be time to get it floating for another season.

Heads up: I've got something a bit off the wall and racy for tomorrow. Those of a Puritan bent or members of the Sisters Of Little Or No Mercy might want to skip to Friday. 

Brooding Skies And Ghostly Echoes

There is a wealth of bike paths throughout Ottawa and Gatineau- though not useful in winter. This particular path is over in Ottawa South, not far from the General Hospital, along a corridor that is kept largely wild. Back in early November I was down there on a day with grey, brooding skies. It's a different side to the fall.

Though the leaves were gone from these trees, berries were still in place.

Perhaps someone knows what they might be? My botany skills are sadly undeveloped...

Another day, another location, but brooding skies nonetheless. Downtown, this empty lot has stood empty- aside from summer cafes or temporary use- for decades; as I recall, there was an explosion here and the building that once stood here was leveled. That wall decoration might end up in permanent shadow if they ever get around to building yet more condos here.

Higher up on the same wall, we have ourselves a ghost sign, faded with time, a stark contrast to the sky beyond. I find myself wondering who this Snider is, and how many years it's been since he shuffled off this mortal coil.

The Flame And The Tower At Night

The last time I showed you pictures here was around the same time of day- a few minutes past five on a Saturday afternoon. This time, however, was after the daylight savings time switchover, so aside from having darkness fall an hour earlier, we also had a shorter day as the fall carried on.

The Centennial Flame at the front of Parliament Hill is brilliant at night, and the flame is constantly changing.

It was actually the way that the Peace Tower was lit that drew me up to the Hill. I took two shots, the first with the mobile taking the shot as is...

The second shot is taken with the night settings on the mobile. Same subject, but a different effect. Which do you prefer?

Confederation Square At Night

Back to one of my favourite subjects to photograph today. The War Memorial is a different experience by night, as is the case in this evening shot with a light dusting of snow around.

The Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier are lit up by lights from the ground, nearby buildings, and even a couple of lights mounted up amid the statues of soldiers moving through the arch. The lighting creates such a different effect from being here in daylight.

This shot is from the side of the Memorial, looking at the Chateau Laurier. The hotel is well lit at night. Another personal favourite place to photograph.

Early Ice And Fieldstone

On the last day of November, I went out across the Bronson Street Bridge over the Rideau Canal. We've been here before on more than one occasion. The Canal has been freezing over for awhile, but Dow's Lake itself takes longer. Still, the lake is indeed frozen over. Not that you want to risk walking across that yet.

Zooming in, the frost on the trees on the far shore shows itself.

On the same day, over in the Glebe, I passed by Abbotsford House, across from Lansdowne Park. The place was founded as a senior's home back in the 19th century (back then its residents were referred to as inmates). It serves some of the same purpose today, as a senior's community centre. There's a residence building on one side, and a nursing home on the other. The old fieldstone house is lovely inside, and busy through the week. On that day, it was having a Christmas bazaar through much of the day.

Lansdowne Progress

I've shown you the work going on here before. So I returned not too long ago for an update.

Work at Lansdowne Park continues at full steam. The stadium and the outlying buildings are being worked on. And the pack of developers who will reap the benefits of having public lands at their disposal for the next few decades continue to rub their hands in glee. As mentioned before, I'm not a fan of these developers, let alone what they're doing to the park.

The wooden structures you're seeing below will be the ribs for a large curved screen that will form on this side of the south side stands. All so that this group of wankers... I mean, developers can have their football team. Named the Redblacks. Yes, apparently they love the name.

All while those of us who love living in this city and dislike this project grind our teeth...

I prefer, when crossing the Bank Street Bridge over the Canal, to look at the other side from Lansdowne. The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons is a much more visually appealing structure. The Canal itself, when I took this shot in mid November, was well on the way to icing over. In my next post, I'll show you a more recent shot of what the ice looks like.

Anishinabe Scout

There's another statue in Major's Hill Park, looking to the west. This is an Anishinabe scout, one of the local First Nations tribes. The sculpture once stood at the base of the Champlain monument, over on nearby Nepean Point (I've shown that one to you before.) 

The statue was moved here where it still looks out over the Ottawa River (you can see the river through the grasses in the first shot) out of cultural sensitivities that it rendered the scout inferior to Champlain at its original location. Ironically, the statue had a better view over on the Point.

This statue can be found at the north end of the park, close to this building below. The groundskeeper's house is a small one, and these days plays host to a rotating group of artists on weekends from May into October. It's across from the National Gallery, where the work on replacing glass in the tower continues. I last showed you the Gallery in this post. I took this shot several weeks ago, and there's even more of the tower now exposed from the iceberg canvas that has encased it all summer.

The Colonel

Coming into Major's Hill Park, this statue of Colonel John By stands looking west, on the bluffs above the Rideau Canal of which he designed and oversaw the construction. The soil around the statue and behind will be filled with tulips in May.

A short walk away in the park are the foundation stones of the home he and his family lived in while the Canal was being built. It was a home for British officers after their departure, until the house burned down some years later. An interpretive panel stands close by. 

Artifacts found on the site are preserved in bronze on other small panels.

The York Steps are one path out of the park, a staircase down into the Byward Market, beside the American embassy. This first set of steps gives us a view of the Peace Tower over on Parliament Hill, and the complete staircase is often used by wedding photographers bringing a wedding party over from the park.

Some additional shots from the park coming in tomorrow's post....