Some photos around Ottawa

In 2017 Canada will celebrate it's 150 Anniversary as a unified country, this is when the 4 original Provinces ( Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) united to create the Federal Government in Ottawa.

So you can imagine everything that can be re-built, renovated, improved is being done right now and will be until 2018. The City Ottawa is under an impossible to drive around program of re-building the sewer system on all major roads, re-surfacing is taking place also, a new light train system is being built. Then major improvements and new buildings are springing up everywhere. The Queensway highway 417 which crosses the city from East to West is also being enlarged with new overpass and more lanes.  In the centre of the City the Parliament precinct is completely being re-built at a cost of well over 3.5 Billion dollars, politicians want the best for themselves but not for you. There are barricades everywhere, not to mention new monuments to pet projects of our controversial and infamous Prime Minister Stephen Harper, hopefully he will be gone next year and polls indicate that there will be a totally new administration in town in 2015.

So in other words skip Ottawa until 2017 when most of this construction will be over with. Ottawa is worth visiting when there is no construction. However in the summer what is very nice around the city is the display of flowers.

One of the original Trafalgar Square (London) fountain from 1843 given to the National Gallery of Canada in 1955 and installed in Confederation Park in 1975.

 Flowers on Elgin street in front of the National Arts Centre

Flowers on Sparks Street 

Sparks Street is the oldest pedestrian mall in Canada. Unfortunately deserted after 5pm and on weekends. It is an office tower area with very few shops and a lot of construction right now in the Parliament Precinct area. 

Queen Street, the Light Train tunnel is 30 meters underneath but the real story here is the old Cemetery and the hundred or so graves discovered in this trench. About 110 years ago the cemetery was moved from this area but those who could not afford to move their dead relatives or the dead who had no one to claim them were simply paved over. Now the City has moved everyone out and is looking for relatives who might want to claim those unfortunates. This is going to be very difficult to see the least. They probably will simply end up in a communal grave in one of the Cemeteries in the City.

The West Block of Parliament under wraps, no it is not an art installation by Christo et Jeanne-Claude. No it is part of the massive renovation project of $3.5 Billion dollars so far to modernize these buildings built around 1860. This is only phase one, once this project is completed in 2017 the central block will be closed and renovated. Both the House of Commons and the Senate will move out. The House will sit in the Courtyard of the West Block in a exact replica of the House and the Senate will sit in the old Train Station for a period of a few years. The whole project is to be completed by 2027. The final cost is a closely guarded secret.

 The Bank of Montreal branch on Sparks street at O'Connor across the street from Parliament
is to become the new Party Central for Parliament. This spectacular building in pure Art Deco was built in 1930, it is all black and white marble inside and the floor also in marble is made to look like waves from sea to shining sea. It is now under renovation some $210 million dollars has been spent modifying the building, I do hope they have not ruined it in the process. Mind you the public will never know since once it is completed it will be off limits to mere mortals.

Details of the wrought iron in the windows re-silvered and re-gilded.

Sparks Street in Ottawa has been transformed in the last 50 years from a vibrant pedestrian mall with shops to a dead zone. Once the Parliamentary precinct work is completed it will become part of Official Ottawa and off limits to citizens, occupied mostly by Parliamentarians and their staff when they are in town Monday to Thursday.

However another chain is opening for beer drinkers, Ottawa is a beer town it is simply a question of dollars and cents, you can buy a lot more beer than wine.

In the old abandoned Woolworth's and Zeller's store Bier Markt is opening a giant restaurant and beer garden. You have to wonder how they will succeed given that they depend on the lunch crowd. No one around after 5PM and no one on weekends.

Another heritage building circa 1890, the old Yesterday's which use to be Sherry's restaurant, the food was rather pedestrian to go with the mall, it finally closed. It is being renovated and Dunn's smoke meat house is opening to go with the Beer hall across the street.

Grant House on Elgin Street, for years this old patrician house built in 1873 was a famous roast beef restaurant, then it closed. The house sat empty for a few years and now it has been restored and Chef Beckta is opening a million dollar restaurant and wine cellar which given his reputation would be a premier restaurant in the Capital. The house has been incorporated into the new Canada Council building.

Next to Grant House is the First Baptist Church c. 1875.

The Old Teacher's College on Elgin street, c.1870 now the Office of the Mayor of Ottawa.

Sunday in Autumn

This is the first day of Autumn and today starting at 7am we had the Canadian Army Marathon all over Ottawa and Gatineau. Upwards of 22,000 runners, we saw them running up and down the Rideau Canal towards the finish line which is near the Governor General's Guards Drill Hall.

It is a fall day, cold and grey, the trees have started to change colour and leaves are falling in droves. By the end of the afternoon, the sun came out and gave this strange effect over wet streets and damp leaves a bit like a painting by Turner.

Last night we had friends over for dinner and I had asked our favourite florist Minou at BelFiore on Elgin street, if she could do something for our table centre, www.belfiore.ca. She has such talent, here are the photos of what she did. The orange flowers are called Star of Bethlehem, usually white. We had Maigret de Canard and roasted potatoes. For dessert peaches in white wine, though the season for peaches ended 2 weeks ago. The Appetizer was a salad of greens with a slice of watermelon sprinkled with cracked pepper and goat cheese.

So on this first day of Fall, a bit of music by Johann Melchior Molter, Concerto for trumpet

Regent Park, London

This beautiful park was a great project of John Nash in 1811 to transform what had been the hunting forest at the time of Henry VIII. This hunting park was bordered on one side by the village of Marylebone, with the parish of St-Marylebone (c.1400) and the Tyburn River. Next to the Church graveyard and until 1791, there was a hunting lodge used by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Today all this is part of central London. It is one of the most beautiful Royal Parks in London. It is called Regent's Park in honour of the Prince Regent, son of King George III who assumed the regency in the last years of his father's life. The Prince Regent will become King George IV (1820 to 1830) he will be succeeded by his brother King William IV (1830-1837) the sailor King. This park was a huge real estate project and was to be bordered by Palladian style mansions, some were built but the whole project was never fully realized, though what you see today is nothing short of spectacular. It is my favourite of the Royal Parks in London, the rose garden alone is worth a visit to Regent's Park.

If you walk up Baker street towards Regent's Park you will pass the famous 221 b, Baker Street, the home address of Sherlock Holmes.

it is a museum and open to the public.

one of the many palladian style mansions lining Regent's Park, many are homes or colleges

the park is a very tranquil setting for birds like this Heron to fish in the streams.

In 1935 King George V celebrated his Jubilee as King and Emperor, this gate was erected and Queen Mary's garden created, a beautiful place to visit.

At this time of the year few roses remain in the rose garden but still some beautiful specimen can be seen.

This type of white rose is called Ice Cream

imagine living in one of these flats bordering Regent's Park.

the steeple of St-Marylebone where John Wesley worshipped, he is remembered as the composer of Hark the Herald Angels sing. He is also buried in the Church yard. Lord Byron was baptized at this church and Lord Nelson was also a parishioner as was is daughter Horatia. 

Flora Romana

While we were visiting the water gardens at Villa d'Este yesterday in Tivoli, we saw in Cardinal d'Este Palace a painting exhibit called Flora Romana or Roman flowers. The naturalistic genre of flower painting became established in Rome towards the end of the 16th century. A nice change in painting styles brought about by the Renaissance, I do get tired of Virgin in Child.
By the end of the 16th century, Rome became one of the most important centres of medical experimentation and botanical research of the time. During those years books were printed in Europe containing only images of flowers, the passion for botanical collection was spreading. It was around 1583 that never seen plants from the New World started appearing in Europe, painters indulge patrons, Jan Breughel the Elder was a master of the genre and he was copied in Italy.

Mario Nuzzi began to compile a vast archive of drawings of the most rare flowers in Roman gardens at the request of the Cardinal nephew of Pope Urban VIII. The great Princely families of the Court of the Pope started to compete amongst themselves to have the most beautiful gardens and rarest blooms. This led Mario Nuzzi to develop art markets for floral paintings and great artists would compete for commissions from patrons and art dealers. This way families could show off the product of their gardens and give paintings as gifts to distinguish and powerful friends they wanted to please. Some of the painters who found favor with wealthy patrons, Abraham Breughel, Francesco Mantovano and Jean Baptiste Mannoyer.

It was very interesting to see these paintings of flowers and plants we take for granted because they have become common in our gardens today, forgetting that 500 years ago, these flowers and plants had never been seen in Europe and were ''new'' to European eyes.