Moving day

Moved to http://robink.ca/blog

The colour red

Today’s entry is in honour of the colour red.

Here are some flowers across from the Canal Ritz.

I think this is a Yaris. 

This wall is at Strathcona park. It isn’t red, I just like it.

Here is a closeup of the graffiti on that wall.

When I was a kid in BC we called these mountain ash berries. They were so profuse that we made a game out of strewing them all over the street and stomping on them like bubble wrap. I don’t know if these are the same thing or not. These are on the canal bike path near the Somerset bridge.

Coming home on Rideau I saw this intriguing billboard. Hmm…
Nah, I’m not that lonely.

Then I noticed this great wall art at the Bytowne cinema.

It made me want to dash home and watch a movie. (Oh by the way, there is a new review on the Movies page.)

Museum of big things

This was the kind of day when it was hard to take a picture that didn’t look like it belonged on a calendar, such as this perfect autumn tree.

 

But enough about nature! I’m tired of nature. Today I visited Ottawa’s little-known Museum of big things, also known as No.4 Generating Station. 

Look at those big things! What could they be? The generating station does not explain.

Big thing 1

Big thing 2

Big thing 3

Then I rode home through Westboro. I continued to have many questions, such as “What is this?” The writing doesn’t appear to be using the alphabet as I know it, and those stars are scary. Is an attack imminent? I can’t even understand it well enough to Google it. (I just noticed that they are stars of david. Is this message written in Hebrew?)

One-stop shopping?

Nice van!

TV shrine. Did it meet an untimely end? Maybe Elvis shot it.

Conch meat (very clean), beef feet. Yum!

And what is this? They’re going to need more than that big leaf to keep away such a hard rain. Or is that a cliff they might fall off? And look at those ducks sneaking up on them! Yikes!

Anyway, it was a beautiful and puzzling day in October.

Long squeegee

This is how they wash the windows at Chu Shing.

Diamonds on my windshield

The fountain at Confederation Park on Elgin.

Blogging

I was trying to articulate the rewards of blogging. This is what I came up with:

It’s kind of like doing your best on a school project and getting an A for it and putting it up on the wall.  It makes you feel good. (Or even if you only got a B, somebody will still probably like it.)

I realize some blogs are meant to express deep thoughts about politics and culture. My preference is for blogs that deal with daily life in a particular place.

Here’s a random picture. It’s Eliza Gilkyson tuning up at this year’s Ottawa Folk Festival.

I met Eliza Gilkyson. Finding myself standing next to her in a crowd, I asked her if she was herself. She said she was, so I told her what a huge fan I am. “Thank you,” she said. She was very pleasant and friendly in this brief fan encounter, and attractive as well: sort of tall and rangy.

Here’s Ferron at the same workshop.

I also met Ferron once, at a concert in Peterborough. As I was buying one of her CDs I told her it seemed like her music had always been there in my life, marking the passing of the years. She signed my CD, “For the sweet passing of time.”

If you don’t know Ferron, I think you should get one of her CDs at once. I recommend “Testimony” or “Shadows On a Dime.”

Update: Oh-oh, those are out of print. I have them but nowadays all my music is MP3s. I don’t have the CDs. The later albums are good too, but I like the early ones better. I understand there is a greatest hits album called “Impressionistic,” but I haven’t heard it. I bet it’s good!

If you don’t know Eliza Gilkyson, I recommend “Paradise Hotel,” “Land of Milk and Honey,” or “Hard Times in Babylon.” Those you can get.

Ride to Britannia

Every day with good weather feels like it might be the last one for awhile. Today I took a bike ride out to Britannia Park.

This crane is the first sign of construction that I’ve seen on Lebreton Flats. I’ll try and revisit the same location now and then to see how things are going.

Crane to nowhere

It was a day for the subtle colours of early fall.

Leaves 1

Leaves 2

Leaves 3

It was also a day of reflections. Here is the sky in puddles on the bike path.

Sky 1

Sky 2

Here is the sun in a shallow inlet in Britannia Park.

Sky 3

Here’s a seagull I met. He kept on sashaying up closer to me. Sometimes seagulls can be extremely vain. All they want to do is get on camera.

Seagull

That’s it for now! Have a look at my new Movies page for some movie reviews. 

Big Day on Cambridge Street

Down here on the south side of Somerset and Cambridge, a dead-end street, we sometimes get feeling a little sad about our sorry-ass barricade, which consists of a  couple of pylons and a rusty chain. And not only that, about once a week somebody drives through the damn chain, and then it turns out the only thing every motorist in Ottawa has ever wanted to do is to turn south off Somerset onto Cambridge. They like it so much they go around the block and do it again.

Across the way on the north side of Somerset and Cambridge, also a dead-end street, things are a little different. They have elegant planters and lush vegetation over there. Pretty nice:

You can imagine how excited we were when this crew from the city showed up in the rain and started tearing out the pylons. Our thoughts ran wild. Maybe we’re getting planters too!

Here’s one of those pylons dragging its rusty chain. Begone sorry-ass pylon!

I bet when they’re finished, our street will look like this! Happy people with umbrellas will pose framed by the gorgeous vegetation.

 

Now they’ve gone away. I bet they went to get the beautiful planters. For the moment it looks like this. I’ll let you know how it looks when it’s finished. If it’s as nice as i think it’s going to be, I’ll probably take down my Alex Munter sign and put up a Bob Chiarelli.

6:30 pm: Hmm… I guess they got held up down at the planter warehouse. Maybe they had a flat tire. But they might still come! If they come back tonight, I’ll go out and hold a flashlight so they can install the planters.

The next day: Looks like we’re getting new pylons. Here is a shot of a new pylon next to one of the old pylons. The new pylon is on the right. But I bet we get a shiny new chain!

Hog’s Back

I like to try to photograph water close up so it looks like something else, such as glass or ice. I don’t know if I succeed or not. These are all from Hog’s Back falls. I wish they were bigger.

For a change of pace from all that water, here is a rock.

More water.

Here is a rusty old machine.

Water again.

 

Here are some ducks. I’ve never seen so much grooming activity in one place. 

And there is my trusty bike, patiently waiting for the long ride home.

Somerset Bridge

The new bridge over the Rideau Canal opened yesterday. I went down to see it. I love the new bridge because it is only for walkers and cyclists. It is not for drivers at all. And it is a fine little bridge!

In the distance you can see its big brother, the Laurier bridge.

Then I walked home. I saw all kinds of things!

Some cops going to a wedding

When you use a telephoto lens it flattens out perspective, so distant things seem like they are on the same level as closer things. In this picture I was hoping that this effect would create a striking connection between the cops’ helmets and the streetlight globes. It’s there but it isn’t that striking, maybe because they aren’t the same colour. Maybe if I was a Photoshop wizard I could just brighten up the streetlights, and this would be a lot better picture; but I’m not.

I followed the cops to the lawn of the Supreme Court, where the bride was waiting. I didn’t know you could get married on the lawn of the Supreme Court! I guess you can if you’re a bunch of cops.

A frieze of a bunch of soldiers

A very surprised building

People and statues

This picture shows the flattening effect of a telephoto lens. The stairs don’t look like stairs, they look like a wall, because the people at the top are the same size as those at the bottom.

And not only that, one of the statues has a bird on its head!

The Eternal Flame

Autumn leaves

And then I was home.