Ottawa, Ontario - A gaggle of geese

We took another walk today on the path by our home and were treated to a veritable herd of beautiful goslings. The Canada Geese are back home from wintering in the southern U.S. and busy raising babies.

When we approached on the path, a couple of adults started walking toward us. This is the part where we get hissed at and bitten, I thought. They will often attack pretty ferociously, people included, if they feel they or their babies are threatened. It turns out these were not aggressive, and had probably been fed by people before, but they watched our every move just in case.

We saw that 4 adults guarded no less than 65 (by Nickie's count) little goslings. Canada Geese only lay about 3 to 8 eggs at a time, so these are obviously the combined offspring of the whole flock and these 4 adults are on babysitting shift. (If you look by the river and trees in the background, you'll see some other adults resting and watching.) We had brought some unsalted peanuts for the squirrels, but we just couldn't resist these cuties so we cracked open the shells and fed them. Interestingly, 3 of the babysitters examined the peanuts but wouldn't eat, letting the babies snap them up. The 4th did eat one and was immediately bitten and chased by one of the other babysitters for it. Apparently the babysitters are expected to leave all the food for the babies, and will get a nasty reminder if they do otherwise. Yes, there is a social order, and you'd better follow it mister!

Ottawa, Ontario - Scary weather

Recently, the wind kicked up like we'd never seen or heard before. First it started howling and wailing and then suddenly it got even more violent until we were afraid the windows were going to shatter. It was terrifying, actually. I was online so I quickly looked up weatheroffice.gc.ca to see what was going on. It said there was a severe thunderstorm watch, and that such conditions can lead to tornadoes so be alert to local conditions. The sudden winds died down somewhat, and we were convinced that if that wasn't a tornado, it was something close to it.

We live on a street with a few other large apartment buildings, so when I looked out the window before all this happened and noticed that the streets were deserted, it struck me as more than a little weird. It looked like a ghost town. Apparently, Canucks watch the weather reports very closely and knew to stay inside. I can see we're going to have to develop this habit too.

Well, we found out a couple of days later that indeed, no less than three waterspouts (tornadoes over water) formed over the Ottawa River nearby. One jumped onto land as a very strong F0 tornado (not quite an F1 on the Fujita scale) just west of us, travelled southeast (south of us), and ripped the roof off a building, amongst other things, before petering out. We thought that one must be the explanation for all that we experienced. But we discovered that there apparently was another tornado that didn't make the news, which hit the parkland between us and the river - a close call indeed - and ripped out several large trees by the roots in a neat path. The roots came out with big chunks of earth still attached, up to around 8 feet high. Even experiencing the violence of this storm didn't prepare us for what we saw here, and it was hard to imagine the force it must have taken to wreak this kind of damage. It's one thing to be in California and hear about tornadoes from afar; it's quite another to experience such powerful forces for yourself. We were awestruck.

This is a panoramic "stitch" of 2 photos. The damage continues off to the right.


Nickie standing next to one of the root masses gives you an idea just how big these trees are.


The trees fell almost like dominoes. This one, like several others, fell and broke on top of the ripped-out roots of the next tree.


A closer view

Ottawa, Ontario - Make tracks!

A squirrel made tracks by our car. Now those are cute!!

Ottawa, Ontario - Winter weirdness

The snow has started melting, but only so far before refreezing in another cold snap. So it formed this waxy-looking coat of ice across everything. (The first 2 photos are from Feb 17.)

The curb on our street




At a nearby parking lot - it only looks wet; it's actually frozen solid

Ottawa, Ontario - Winterlude or Bal de Neige

Every winter, the city of Ottawa holds its winter festival, known as Winterlude in English or Bal de Neige (Snow Ball - get it?) in French. They have music, cultural presentations from the Inuit (formerly known as Eskimos, which is now a defunct and improper term) and First Nations (the Canadian equivalent of Native Americans), sound and light shows, ice fishing, dogsled rides, skating on the Rideau Canal (the world's largest skating rink), free skating and skiing lessons, a giant sledding hill, community ice carving, and an international ice carving competition where renowned ice-carvers from all over the world come and work their magic in the ice. It's truly an event not to be missed. Despite still having some difficulty with our health, we managed to make it out there for a few hours and it was soooooo worth it.

Keep in mind, we had not one but two warm spells during this 3-week event, so by the time we went some of the detail had been lost from the sculptures pictured here. They were still amazing despite the setback.





I thought this one in a First Nations booth was extra gorgeous, with its intricate design and ice "feathers" embedded in the ice bricks. The white design is not paint; it's ice too. Curiosity got the best of me, as it usually does, and I just had to snap a closeup. Next to it a Native artist was carving a totem pole.






This is... I dunno... at least 10 feet high.


If you look, this ice carver has a teeny little pink pig model sitting on top of the ice pig he's carving.


Something for the kidlets. Little figurines are frozen into a chunk of ice, and kids can don a pair of safety goggles, grab a mallet and pick, and dig 'em out. What fun! :-)


These next two are community ice carving - that is, if you want to give it a whirl, just sign in and they'll hook you up. Notice the sculptures all the way around the fountain.


It really is incredible what some people can do.


Yes, this Blackberry is really made of ice - buttons and lettering and all. For the black and red logos they cheated and added dye, but that's it. Naturally I had to touch it and check it out because I just couldn't believe it!


Canadian Space Agency - Agence spatiale canadienne
The CSA-ASC highlighted the missions of two astronauts, scheduled to fly this May. These are replicas of the space shuttle (left) and Russia's Soyuz spacecraft (right), which will be carrying them, and in the middle is the International Space Station with Earth in the background. Absolutely incredible, isn't it? There were also talks on working and living in space.


Plaque reads: "Before Midnight" by Master Ice Carver Junichi Nakamura of Obihiro, Japan. In Japan, he is a farmer, but to the rest of the world, he is one of the world's best ice carvers. An ice carver since 1982, Junichi Nakamura has competed in numerous ice-carving competitions in Canada, Europe, the United States, China and Japan. He is the recipient of many top honours and awards, including a silver medal at the Winter Olympic Ice Carving Competitions in Turin, Italy, and gold medals in Nagano, Japan, in 1998 and Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994. Junichi Nakamura is assisted by Suguru Kanbayashi, member of the Canadian Ice Carvers' Society.




These next two are "The Story of Jack Frost."




The official Winterlude/Bal de Neige photo-op. I bugged Nickie to be in the photo with me, but she was more content taking the photos than being in them. Awww.


The "Crystal Lounge" with ice walls, ice shelves complete with ice knickknacks, an ice sectional couch, and an ice coffee table. Yes, those are cell phones frozen inside the wall and table. Okay, this was completely awesome. (And sitting here is not as cold as you'd think.)


The Rideau Canal - the world's largest skating rink. This skateway is almost 5 miles long.


View down the canal


I'd say this is the way to travel. Lots of skating parents pulled their youngsters behind them on sleds. Others parents pushed strollers as they skated (obviously, strollers under these conditions were sliding, not rolling, but it works). They also have special metal "trainers" for kids who are learning to skate - these look like a walker but without wheels, and keep them from falling while they learn.


There are two of these delightful places that I know of. They take Canadian maple syrup, throw it in snow, and quickly insert a popsicle stick. The syrup hardens into a cold blob on the stick and they leave it there in the snow until you buy it. Then you pick it up and eat it before it softens and oozes off the stick. The cold blob melts in your mouth, releasing an explosion of the richest maple flavour you've ever tasted. GASP!! Heaven, I'm in heaven...


Look at all that maple goo hardening in the snow. MmmmMMMMMmmmm yummy...


Winterlude was fascinating, strikingly beautiful, awe-inspiring, educational, tremendous fun, and blissfully delicious. We can see ourselves coming back year after year!

Ottawa, Ontario - Ice crystals on the window

I was in the car last night/this morning and noticed these beautiful ice crystals on the windows. They sparkled brilliantly all over, with so many colours refracted in different directions! These pictures really don't do justice to how they really looked, but I just had to try to capture at least some small part of what I was seeing. All this is probably old hat for my fellow Canadians, but for me these were too cool for words. So to speak.

Ottawa, Ontario - Windrow

What is a "windrow," you ask? It's a Canadian term for that pile or wall of snow created by the snowplow as it clears the roads. The one next to our truck (by the lamppost) is getting just a bit large. It's been a snowy winter!

Ottawa, Ontario - Christmas lights

A view of Christmas lights from our balcony. I just thought it looked kind of cool with barely visible fingers of clouds reaching from behind this nearby building, and lights glowing against its silhouette.