That time I was on the Skate Patrol for ten years (Part 2)

In Part 1 of this three-part series, I explained how I got my start on the Rideau Canal Skate Patrol. I left off in 2009, the year after we got new neon yellowish-green jackets. Here I am in said jacket at my favourite Ottawa footbridge:

2009 was a year with many changes, and not just the Obama bandwagon that Beavertails jumped on:

How the Corktown Footbridge got its name

I know I just posted a blog post about the Corktown Footbridge, and I've previously covered the opening, but in honour of St. Patrick's Day—and my just-over-one-eighth Irish heritage—I'm reprinting the article I wrote in this month's issue of the Centretown Buzz, telling the story of my time on the naming committee for what is now the Corktown Footbridge.

8 Love Locks' Flat

Both the Ottawa Citizen and the Centretown Buzz did stories about the love locks on the Corktown Footbridge in advance of Valentine's Day. Come to think of it, so did I.

What I didn't post was this photo from the same day, showing a chain of "love locks" (I suspect this set is just regular locks...), with the canal-side pavilion "8 Locks' Flat" in the background:

I have a lot of photos of the canal and of the footbridge, as you can imagine considering the Pedbridge blog I used to document the bridge's construction in great detail, and considering I was on the naming committee for the bridge!

[Look for more one-photo posts under the label Singles]

3D Thursday: Bicycles and icicles

This past weekend, Citizens for Safe Cycling's third annual Family Winter Bike Parade ended at 8 Locks' Flat, where a number of bike racks were laid out for us on the patio, which we diligently filled. A number of cyclists had already left by the time I took this photo:

Source photos for the 3D image: Left, Right

Mike from the Ottawa Bicycle Lanes Project posted a Vimeo video of the ride.

As I left 8 Locks' Flat, I noticed some people had hung some posters from the Corktown Footbridge. If you zoom in, you can make out the words "Marry Me Tia". Awww... (I didn't get a 3D photo of it)

I then headed to the Winterlude festivities in Confederation Park to check out the ice sculptures. As with previous years, there were plenty of military themes, in particular commemoration the start of World War I. This life-sized sculpture depicts women waving off their soldier husbands or boyfriends heading off to war by train.

Source photos for the 3D image: Left, Right

Another angle:

Source photos for the 3D image: Left, Right

Here's the official description of the sculpture, entitled "100 Years Later – The Beginning of the First World War"

This sculpture is presented by Veterans Affairs Canada, and Winterlude is for the first year being presented by the department of Canadian Heritage, as indicated by the banner at the bottom of the placard. (The NCC still maintains the Rideau Canal Skateway.)

The 36th edition of the three-weekend-long Winterlude festival continues in its final weekend this Saturday through Monday (Family Day) along the Rideau Canal, in Jacques Cartier Park, and at various venues elsewhere.

The skateway will remain open after Winterlude for as long as conditions permit. See current conditions on the official NCC Ice Conditions website or on this unofficial website which is more mobile-friendly.

[Tune in on Thursdays at noon for a new 3D image. View the 3D label for other posts with 3D images. 3D FAQ]

Bixi's back for 2013

As of today, Capital Bixi is back in action! For subscribers like me, that means my key should work for the remainder of my one-year subscription (which I bought last June). And for you readers of my blog, that means I'm going to blog about it!

I never got around to blogging my Bixi photos last year (and the year before, my season-opener blog post used photos from the 2009 pilot), so I get to include some of those with this post. For example, the one above was taken last June at the Museum of Nature's east lawn, at Elgin and McLeod. On Saturday night, the bikes had been re-installed, though it was decidedly snowier:

One last (hopefully) blast of winter

The weather forecast suggests that we'll be getting another 20-centimetre blast of snow in the next couple of days. This might be my last chance this year to get some of my winter-related photos out before trying to forget that season and focus on spring and summer. So here goes.

Here's an inuksuk I built outside Bridgehead on Elgin after a snowstorm in December. It was one of those ones with really sticky snow. A couple of days after falling, that sticky snow had hardened into snow you could cut chunks from.

That was actually from the storm pictured below on Gladstone, where the snow 'flakes' were the size of frosted mini wheats. I hope this week's storm doesn't bring us this heavy stuff:

Centretown time capsule: August/September 2007

Happy Labour Day everyone!

For today's post, I want to do something a little different. I wanted to give a snapshot of what was happening in Centretown five years ago in August and September 2007. With a high proportion of renters, many Centretown residents—even those active in community affairs—weren't here five years ago (nor was this blog!). For the rest of us, it'll be a trip down memory lane.

The 2007 Labour Day parade, organized by the Ottawa and District Labour Council, ended as usual at McNabb Park for the annual festival with free hotdogs, corn on the cob, and other attractions (if you're reading this post shortly after it goes up, head out there now! They should be there from the end of the parade until 4:30pm). You might recognize this photo of the wading pool as one of the four at the bottom of the CCCA's 'promo cards':

September 2007 marked the official opening of the Corktown Footbridge on the 11th (the bridge opened to traffic the previous September). Municipal politicians and interpreters in 1830's period dress were there to cut the ribbon.

Ottawa pedestrian advocates, unite!

This evening, pedestrian advocates from across the city will meet at City Hall to get a group for Ottawa pedestrians on its feet. In recent years, frustrations about walkability have grown in the absence of a common venue for people across the city to come together to draw attention to pedestrian issues or push for the implementation of the Ottawa Pedestrian Plan.

Somerset Ward Councillor Diane Holmes (note: I work in her office) has decided it's time to bring these people together so they can organize themselves into a group that will speak out in unison about the barriers to walkability across the city.

There are big problems and little problems all across the city, and systemic problems that transcend individual communities. One problem is illustrated above at the Corktown Footbridge (my favourite bridge): even though it was built specifically for pedestrian use, the steps are blocked off to actively prevent pedestrian use in the winter. Both functionally and aesthetically, the barricades--which clearly weren't part of the original concept--detract from the award-winning design of the bridge.

Following on the recent successes of the cycling community (including Citizens for Safe Cycling and the Ottawa Biking Problems website), Ottawa walking advocates have started a twitter account, @OttWalk, and a website for Ottawa Walking Problems, where you can submit reports of problems spots around the city and pin them to a map.

[Look for more one-photo posts under the label Singles]

A safer crossing for pedestrians on Somerset

Well, the City of Ottawa has been on a roll, fixing up a number of problems that have been on my list for a while, including fixing the potholes on Lewis and the sign at McLeod and Bank, as I blogged recently.

Those were both nuisance issues, but one true safety problem has been fixed: the lack of crosswalk lines at Somerset Street West and The Driveway.

To recap, this was perhaps the only stop sign in Centretown that wasn't accompanied by a stop bar and crosswalk lines, depriving motorists of an important cue to give right-of-way to cross traffic (including pedestrians and cyclists). I'd been nearly hit on my bike by a motorist who stopped at the stop sign, but blindly started again without registering that I had the right of way along Somerset (thanks to my yell, he braked hard and his bumper just tapped my front fork).

In this photo, it looks more like a laneway to motorists coming from the right.

I'd noticed this past spring that the lines at the nearby intersection of the Queen Elizabeth Driveway and Somerset West were faded, suggesting that the city would be repainting soon. A prime opportunity to add crosswalk lines to The Driveway (the near intersection in the photo below). And this was the gist of my April post on the subject, which I forwarded to City Hall.

Busted rail on the Corktown Footbridge

When crossing the Corktown Footbridge the other day, something didn't feel right about the height of the railing. On closer inspection, I realized that it had been busted out of shape.

While it does stick out, it's supposed to be at a right angle (coming out to a point, as many people complained), not piercing out like this.

It had probably been knocked by a sidewalk plow or an errant truck. You can see that the supports up along the bridge are all pushed against the fence.

Hopefully it will be repaired soon.

2009 Canal Epilogue - Dow's Snow Sculpture

Since Thursday will be the last day of this year's canal season, this is my last canal-related post of the winter. This is a particularly difficult decision for me, for I took more and better photos as the season wore on. I have 77 more canal photos I'd like to share--and I didn't even get a chance to see (or photograph) the ice sculptures at Confederation Park this year!

But instead of thinning this collection down to a scattered superficial summary, I'm going to keep this post to a single storyline. The other photos I can (and probably will) post next canal season.

In late January on Dow's lake, I noticed some interesting activity in the snowy median between the two tracks. There were some blocks of ice, roped off with a warning sign:

A few days later, a wooden box had been assembled in the spot. I recognized this as being the same type of box they used to fill with snow in front of City Hall for snow sculptures:

But the boxes on Festival Plaza had only been one panel square. This one was two panels wide...

...by three panels deep. Definitely a big sculpture:

Here's a wider shot of Dow's Lake from the South end:

And a closer view from the South side, with Dow's Lake Pavillion in the background:

A few nights later, they filled the box with tight-packing snow using two large snowblowing tractors:

And two days later, it was full. (I just had to sneak in one of my great sky photos!)

During Winterlude, it became evident that the attraction wasn't the snow sculpture, but the snow sculpting, which would go on throughout the weekends of Winterlude. Here the sculptors have made lots of progress on the top half of the sculpture. The bottom half is strong enough for them to walk on!

The theme of the sculpture is "biodiversity at risk," and it depicts a number of endangered polar animals. We can prominently see a walrus in the front. (You can read the panel in the full version--click to see it)

And here's a shot from another angle taken on the third weekend of Winterlude. The Walrus is very visible, as are a bunch of seals:

The bottom part has been sculpted further:

Here's a shot of a snow sculptor at work:

Some polar bears up top, and a beluga whale down below:

Here the bottom part is more defined, and the event is clearly advertised: "Snow Sculpture in the Making"

Oh, dear! The sun will melt away the snow animals! I guess they really are endangered! Ah, well.

All good things must come to an end.

As for today's gratuitous photo...

Last Sunday, I was skating along and saw these two gentlemen having fun and getting their photos taken by various passers-by. The gentleman on the left said he was Colonel By and asked me if I knew that he built the canal. (Not to be outdone, I ended up tellin him more things about the canal that he didn't know, including the name of the Corktown Footbridge and the history behind this name). They said that the Sunday after Winterlude--which they correctly predicted would be the last Sunday of the season this year--should be costume day. A very good idea! I'll have to remember it next year.

Fittingly, I got a shot of them in front of the Corktown Footbridge:

Well, it pains me to refrain from posting some of the images I have, but it's time to move onward toward Spring (did you know Daylight Saving Time is this weekend?!?) The bright side is that I will be able to get back to photographing and posting about Centretown again!

The Bridges of Rideau Canal, part 2

This is the fourth in the canal series of posts, depicting photos from the Rideau Canal Skateway and Winterlude. Last time, in The Bridges of Rideau Canal, Part 1, we peered at the Arboretum footbridge, and visited the overbearing and majestic (respectively) Bronson and Bank street briges. From here, we'll continue North!

Since the Midtown Footbridge hasn't been built yet, the next bridge in our tour is the bridge at Patterson Creek in the Glebe. This is by far the smallest one you can skate under. I like to clack my skate blades against the ice to hear the echo while skating under it. But this wasn't possible the day this photo was taken. There was an awfully big snowfall in early January, so the snow would have muffled any echo. Here you can see some cross-country ski tracks in the snow leaving Patterson Creek:

The next one is another beautiful old bridge, Pretoria. I've shown shots of Pretoria bridge in some previous Canal posts, but we need a little backstory. Here it is early in the 2009 season, when the Canal was only open from Pretoria to Bank: