Ottawa for the winter

Christmas decorations in the halls of Parliment
Here we are. 
In Ottawa. 
For the winter. 
For a very, very cold winter as it turns out.

After last year in sunny Spain the cold is particularly, well, noticeable…


We decided that Ottawa would be our location of choice during the winter of 2017/2018 because this is the last year of our son’s university education (we think) and it seemed fitting to stay in country, and close enough.  We managed to get the exact same apartment this time as we did 2 years ago which is terrific.  We know where everything is and could jump right into life in our capital.

Ottawa is a very beautiful city with wonderful government buildings, the Rideau canal and our beloved, near-by Byward market area.  We even managed a visitor right off the bat since a mutual friend had an important birthday.  As the seat of operations for the country it can be interesting to do some activities that relate to the government.  So – we trundled up to Parliament Hill and sat in on a session of Question Period where we watched the Opposition ask questions of the Government.  This was in December and the building was beautifully decorated, with a choir singing as we exited from the session.


As part of Canada’s 150th birthday some bright soul thought it was a good idea to put a skating rink up on Parliament Hill.  What a dumb idea!  The bill for this ran to $5.6 million dollars!! 
So – Canadian taxpayers – whatcha think??

The Boondoggle rink on the Hill

This is a temporary rink, due to be closed originally on Jan 31, but now I think this has been extended to the end of February, so perhaps the costs will continue to creep up.  Unbelievable. 
Now it does appear to be well used – but really - $5.6 million??
The irony was that one of the questions during that session of Question Period related to the lack of clean water infrastructure on some of the native reserves.  I wonder how many reserves could be helped with clean water for $5.6 million ? 

In any case – it is now heavy-duty winter (did I mention it was cold here?) and the canal has frozen (😊).  I took this shot on a warm day, unfortunately, but there had been skaters out the day prior.  

Rideau Canal - frozen but too soft to skate on

This other shot is taken from exactly the same location, just in the other direction.  Ottawa is darned pretty. 



Even the graffiti is pretty.  This is the alley next to the building which houses the yoga studio I go to, a mere 3 blocks from our place. 

Beautiful Graffiti


One nice thing with our place here in Ottawa is that it is a 2 unit apartment and we have had quite a few interesting folks in the lower unit over this time and last.  Currently the lower unit is being used by a Brazilian family whose dad is doing a research project with a professor at U of O.  Very interesting, and well travelled family.  Kids are doing an ESL type program during the day.  Last time here we met a young couple from Belgium who used this as a first stop during their immigration to Canada.  They were concerned about an increase in terrorism in Europe, and were proved right.


Now – Ottawa is not without its downside of course.  Our place, while in an interesting and vibrant area of the city, is also in a somewhat mixed neighbourhood.  Our apartment is quite nice, as are the homes on either side.  But in the neighbourhood there is a large amount of public housing and two homeless shelters.  Last time here, no issues whatsoever.  The shelter folks were typically down on their luck friendly types, many with mental health issues.  Greetings all around as we walked by and no requests for money.  Currently though there has been a safe injection site installed and things are a bit different. Now the folks hanging about seem to have a link to the local drug scene – needing some, selling some, you get it.  Unfortunate.  While I understand the value of such a site I can sure appreciate the NIMBY perspective too.  We now bypass this block during our daily walks as the overall feel is a bit dark.  On the other hand we have a much better appreciation of the Ottawa police, who always seem to be somewhere close by.

Stay warm.





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