Ice

Winterlude, the mid winter festival here in Ottawa has packed up for another year, and as usual, I rarely got to any of the events. However, at least I got to wander in amongst the ice sculptures after class. It was 31 below celsius, and Brenda was just quaking with the cold. I don't feel the cold nearly as much, particularly after a vigorous couple of hours of martial arts classes! Brenda handled the camera. Because we had left the camera in the car, it was just too cold to take more than one or two pictures before she had to tuck it away under her coat. The poor batteries just didn't have it in them when they get that cold!

And because her coat was continually being opened and closed to let the camera out, she never did warm up, and after a half hour or so, she headed for the car. I was pretty much right behind her!

click on any of these images to enlarge! Its worth the trouble.

The top picture is of the famous Vimy Ridge memorial outside Arras in France. Hopefully we will be going there in May to see the original! However, this one is pretty impressive...towering up about 20 feet into the air! The sculptures are entirely carved out of blocks of clear ice, and in the evenings, they are lit up. The lights often lend an eerie quality to the carvings.

second picture, a closeup of the central statue. I had not realized that the transparent nature of this medium would make them so hard to photograph! Ah well. Like sidewalk chalk paintings, they are designed to be ephemeral. I am sure that the sculptors did not realize that in the background is the Lord Elgin Hotel, where the war rooms of the first world war were situated. And I have no doubt than none of them realize that the park that these sculptures are in are actually on the site of a "temporary" building build to house the war rooms for the Second World War!

Third one down...cannot rotate it correctly on this computer, but you can turn your head! Its a mighty wave upon which a mermaid is body surfing! Amazing detail, and captures the mood really nicely.

Fourth one down, second from the bottom..."Finding Nemo". A gigantic clownfish lurking in a gigantic sea anemone! The whole sculture must be six feet high! A little taller than me!

Bottom pic..the last of the evening. A wonderous stag, proud and easily eight feet from base to top of antler. Poor Brenda was shaking so bad at that point that this was the best of several she tried to get. Shortly after that she said "That's it. I'm going to the car!" And I was pretty close behind her!

I'll try to put some more up tomorrow.