This Week: Ottawa, the nation's capital!



On the road to Ottawa

We are off to Ottawa in a Ford Focus from Enterprise and MapQuest in hand.  MapQuest says 2.5 hours - It's an easy and beautiful drive.

We arrive to our luxury hotel room at the Westin Ottawa ( a Starwood Preferred Guest hotel). John had just enough points accumulated for us to get the last room available at the Westin – a suite, which was at least the size of the condo we are living in in Montreal.

From the picture window in our room, we look to see what we might want to explore – the By Ward Market. It’s very colorful, charming and touristy – thought it was a cross between Marche Jean Talon and Vieux Port.

It looks like the storm is coming, so we go back to the hotel to take advantage of the gym and spa while the storm rushes through.  Jacuzzi and swim for me – Jacuzzi and sauna for John.  Then we go back to the room for showers and wine and window gazing. 

Watching the storm coming our way

After showering, we watch the evening light up

We watch the lights of the city start going on while sipping on our California wine that we bought at the state liquor store.  Then to dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Next day, to Starbucks for chai lattes and downloading John’s Kindle NYTimes (I got the wireless connection for my computer, but it wouldn’t work for the Kindle).  Then to Parliament  HIll for a tour and the rest of the day's touring.

Parliament Hill

Beautiful building and a very informative tour (the concierge said the tour was 20 minutes – it was more like an hour and a ¼.)  After the tour, we viewed the city from the tower and then walked around the grounds.

Looking West from the tower

The Library Spire

Looking across to Gatineau
and the Museum of Civilization

From there we walked through a park to the bridge that took us to Gatineau for the Museum of Civilization.  FABULOUS!

The First Nations exhibit takes up the whole 1st floor - it took us over an hour to walk through and still weren't able to take it all in.



 

First Nations Exhibit

Then to the  visiting exhibit - Japanese Tradition and Innovation. It was a beautiful contrast between traditional customs and items that translate into modern day conveniences. From sedan chairs to motorized bicycles and  smart cars, Inro storage boxes to lacquered cellphone covers.  It was all there –  “those clever Japanese!”  – remembering tradition and applying it to today’s conveniences.

The next morning, we go back to Starbucks for lattes, NY Times and then to “Chapters” bookstore to see if they had the books available that John wanted for his Kindle. A beautiful morning of crisp wind and billowy clouds in the distance. We take a last stroll downtown, another long look from our room window and start back to Montreal.

Beautiful weather, beautiful city, lovey people and a very informative trip for Dr. Berteaux and myself.

The drive back to Montreal
filled with beautiful views of beautiful trees and billowy clouds

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The next day, when weare back in Montreal, I pack up my art stuff, take the bus to the other side of town and PRINT at Atelier Circulaire!  I just did some embossing and chine colle.  The pieces here are not really finished, but I thought they were worth showing.

Cards done from proofs and scraps

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Next week - finish up the things we want to do before we leave the city...

The week started a little slow and rainy.



Rain, rain, go away...


This week seemed very slow and uneventful, but after reviewing the things we did, I guess we were pretty busy.

On Sunday, We found a movie theatre that was affordable and had movies in English that are subtitled in French.  We saw The Debt, a good action thriller with Helen Mirren  and Tom Wilkinson.  If I had found this theatre sooner, we may have gone to more movies.

The week seemed to be pretty wet so we worked at home with the rain showers throughout the day.

 

No rain on Tuesday, so John goes off to the McGill Library and I to the Grande Biblioteche to return books and get new ones. on my way back to the bus stop, I admire the buildings and a mural. 

I love looking at the sky's reflection

The event for the week in Montreal was the opening of the new MSO (Montreal Symphony Orchestra)  Concert Hall.  The CBC aired the grand opening concert for the MSO so we watched and listened.

Montreal Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall

The next day we made a trip to McGill and then to the open house for the MSO Concert Hall.  Even after listening and seeing the Concert on TV the space is beautiful and impressive.

The organ pipes glisten

There are mini concerts during the Open House days in the concert hall, we see/listen to a guitar quartet, “Fandango.” The acoustics are such that you can hear the quietest pluck of the strings throughout the Hall.

"Fandango" 
Even the quietest pluck of the strings can be heard throughout the Hall

On Saturday morning we go to Milton Park to see if there is a last French class.  There isn’t a class, so we go to breakfast, then walk to the Old Port.  I show John the Graphic Gallery where our friend, Evelyn Klein, has work for sale.

The cobbled street of St. Paul Ave.

Then to Marché Bonsecours to the World Press Photo 2011.  It is a powerful show of photo journalism from around the world. To get a glimpse of the photos in the show go to: http://www.worldpressphoto.org/exhibition

Young woman from Afganistan left her abusive husband
and as punhishment her nose was cut off.
The BP Oil spill, beautiful, but deadly

After spending an hour or two reading and viewing all the photos, we rest by the port and see Pont Jacques-Cartier in the distance.  It’s such a nice day after all the rain this week, we decide to walk the 3 miles home to see more of the city.

It's a beautiful day, "Let's walk home"

Beautiful, empty, abandoned building

Looks like we are almost home
From our rooftip we can see the bridge and Molson Factory

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Next week – change plans for NB trip, now to Ontario – Ottawa, the nations’ capital!

Just Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic (?), this week...

This week was dedicated to being home and reading my books. 

One of the books and the map

I really “got into helping” Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache through his emotional recovery from a catastrophic case and a murder in Quebec City where he was trying to recoperate  with the distraction of research on the battle fought at the Plains of Abraham.  I got my tourist map out of the old City of Quebec and followed the Inspector and his dog, Henri, around the old city to find clues and experience the winter weather in the province of Quebec.  This has been a wonderful way to learn a little history and culture of Quebec.  More than once, I went to the map and/or, better yet, the computer to learn a little more about the historic heroes and places that have shaped Quebec into the culture that exists today.  A perfect read for being in the province of Quebec.

The proof of new woodblock
and woodblock







I cut a new woodblock and also tried to plan out a layout to structure a larger piece with my smaller pieces.  The new wood cut turned out pretty well.



 

As you can see, on my effort for my larger piece , I had trouble with the plate moving when hand pressing the monotype plate (I don’t expect anyone but printmakers to understand this last sentence, so if you don’t understand, don’t despair.) I’m hoping that I will solve this problem with a real press at Circulaire, if I can confirm a reservation for a press there on Sept. 16.

The big event for Canada this week was the conversion from analog to HDtv nationwide.  Since there is a new HD TV here in the condo, all I had to do was reset the tv on Sept. 1 (conversion day).  All the analog stations disappeared and the HD stations are coming in clear and crisp with occasional digital squares appearing on the screen since we are on an antenna rather than cable.  I also found the “caption” button on the remote, now we watch the French language stations captioned in French. For some reason, we can understand what’s being said and what’s happening in a movie or program with the captions.  So, instead of studying our notes from class, we just watch French movies and feel like we are studying for class.

Looking east on Mont Royal
Olympic Tower and Stade roof in background

This was a long  Labor Day weekend and we discover av. du Mont Royal is ending the summer season with the street fair that began the summer season. 

To fill space for this week, I thought I’d show how we’ve been getting to our French class (for the last time) – the bus and bus stops…

John waits at
Sherbrooke Est et av. De Lorimier

On the bus...

 

John waiting at
Sherbrooke Oest et St. Urbain after class

Here is our bus...#24

A major bus stop at a Metro Station
Sherbrooke Station

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Well, this has been week 14 – John continues write and rewrite chapters of his book on the computer, read his newspapers on his Kindle and goes to the gym.  I'd say, our lives here in Montreal have settled in – maybe it’s that we are getting ready to move on to the next part of our big adventure…Argentina in just 4 weeks!

But, wait, there still are things that we need and want to do before we leave, we’d better start scheduling these things, we only have 4 weeks left here (these last 3 months have just flown by.)

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Next week – we plan out our last weeks here in Quebec…