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.

Ottawa, Ontario - By the Ottawa River

The bike/walking path near our home runs through a gorgeous parkland area and spans the whole Ottawa valley. It also branches off to another path that goes right along the Ottawa River. Walking the path is wonderfully relaxing because it's not "done up" like a public park; other than keeping brush clear of the path, it's left in a natural state and one can see many birds and squirrels throughout. Here we took a walk and went under the bridge to see the river, which is mostly frozen. It's so beautiful and yet very strange-looking, at least to us.

Ottawa, Ontario - Canada Post and 7-11

You read it right... from what we've seen here in Canada, the post office is frequently not just a post office. It's in a mall, grocery store, drugstore, or in this case... a 7-11 convenience store, replete with post office boxes. Now you can buy some chips and a Slurpee, get a newspaper and lottery ticket, pick up your mail, and send off Aunt Bertha's Christmas gift, all in the same store. Never say we're not all about convenience up here.