Meanwhile, on the Ottawa

Champlain using his astrolabe by the Ottawa River in 1613,
Library and Archives Canada

Here's something else coming up in May, at the Victoria Day weekend, a so-called Outdoor Ottawa River Festival which is all to do with kayaks, canoes and rafts. The website seems to presuppose that everyone knows where the event will take place, but in case, like me, you can't find that information without difficulty, the apt-sounding address is the Wilderness Tours Resort * at 503 Rafting Road, Beachburg, Ontario. Beachburg is in the Township of Whitewater Region (sic., near Cobden). It's where the French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, in 1603, lost his astrolabe, a quasi mythical object which was not found again until 1867.

* Prime Ministers Trudeau and Chrétien, in the days when Canada still had a functional Liberal Party, both used to enjoy the rafting at this location.

Friends of the river

The Bytown Museum beside the canal locks in Ottawa

I came across a website today that advertises a society called Friends of the Rideau. They seem to be based in the Smith Falls / Perth area and are holding their Annual Spring Meeting at the Rideau Canal Museum, by the eponymous falls in Smiths Falls, the weekend after next (May 14th). This is a great little museum, by the way, in a building which used to be a mill; a visit there makes an interesting introduction to the history, geography and ecology of the whole river and canal network.

Some of this is repeated by the Bytown Museum beside the canal locks in Ottawa, but why not? The engineering that went into this waterway deserves to be remembered and celebrated. The Rideau Canal been a World Heritage site since 2007.

Music in the park

In Major's Hill Park (Tulip Festival photo)

Sorry to say we'll be gone by the coming weekend that will be the start of Ottawa's Tulip Festival. It promises to be a good festival this year, featuring plenty of music making by the local choirs, bands and orchestras, as well as dancing, etc., especially in Major's Hill Park, the "main activity site" for the festival. This year's tulips aren't out yet, but some flower buds are starting to show a little colour.

The promontory where the park lies overlooks the inlet where the Rideau Canal flows into the Ottawa River and this high ground was once the home of Lieutenant-Colonel John By who masterminded the construction of the Canal in the 1820s. It was called Colonel's Hill in those days. Later, the lockmaster's house stood here, demolished in 1876 when the hill finally turned into a public park.

View from the Ottawa River, 1834, with Major's Hill on the left

There's nothing new in people enjoying musical entertainment in this park. In the nineteenth century it was used for the same kind of recreations.

My photo of a picture displayed in today's park

Frog or toad?

I forgot to mention the creature I nearly trod upon at the far end of the Minto Bridges the other evening. It was either a frog or a toad, I'm not sure which, a dark skinned one, too swollen with eggs to attempt a quick getaway. Apparently there are opportunities to monitor the frogs and toads of Ontario and the Frogwatch website encourage participants to keep their ears open for the noises made by these species. (When we moved to Canada and first heard the local fauna we could hardly believe our ears.)

We haven't yet heard any frogs calling, this year. Any day now perhaps, although we may miss them by flying to China. In the lake called Xi Hu, close to where we'll be staying, I dare say there are even larger and more vociferous frogs and toads.

Plenty of activity

Just home from a warm (20ºC!) Sunday afternoon stroll by the Rideau River, where we weren't the only ones. People on their own, in pairs, or in families were jogging, running, cycling and roller-blading along the trail, overtaking the fast walkers, the slow walkers and the dog walkers. A young woman was taking photos of the geese from the river bank. On the grass, people were throwing frisbees back and forth or playing impromptu games of badminton. Games of soccer, too, a lively multiracial group of under-fives making up one of the teams, all dressed in the appropriate clothing. Maybe it was someone's birthday party. The tennis courts in Stanley Park in full use and a couple of young men were taking turns to score "baskets" through the nearby hoop.

The willow trees are all in leaf now, including the horizontal ones blown over last week. I hardly need to add that it suddenly looks and feels as if summer's here.