I have been taking a new route to the office since the beginning of August. For the past 5 years I have taken mostly back-roads and a Parkway to travel from our home to downtown. Our office was re-located to the south east end of town and so now the easiest way to get to work is via the 174/417. It was during my new drive in that I started to notice these Sunflowers along the side of the 174 just before Montreal Rd. The move at the office and life in general kept me from heading out to take some photos for almost 3 week. Here are a few of my favorites and a shot of my wonderful photo assistant.
If you have been reading along since the beginning, you will know that I have Scottish roots.
Maxville, Ontario, a little town of about 900 people that is 45 minutes east of Ottawa, is home to many Scottish settlers from days gone by. Many families, including my own came to the Glengarry area directly from Scotland back in the early 1800’s. My ancestors emigrated from Glenelg, Inverness-Shire.
My ancestors farmed the land just outside of Maxville for several generations before my grandfather moved the family into the town proper to own and run the hardware store. He and several other businessmen put up some money to the help organize the first Maxville/Glengarry Highland games and 71 years on these games have turned out to be one the largest Highland Games in North America.
I have played both the Pipes and Drums in these and other highland games in and around the Ottawa area. But playing the pipes at these games, in front of my extended family was and is still one of my best memories.
Please enjoy these few photos from the games this year
Just looking at this makes me hungry.
Something for everyone
Jim of The Sons of Scotland Pipe Band
Garth Hampson – sings the 3 national anthems like no one else. A great all round nice guy too!
At the start of the day, highland dancers encircle the field and do a massed highland fling. A crowd pleasing start to the day every year.
The guest of honour this year. Captain Bob Pearson, a true Canadian hero who saved 61 passengers when the 767 he was piloting ran out of fuel. He glided the 767 down from 41,000 feet to Gimli, Manitoba with out a serious injury and no loss of life.
The RCMP Pipes and Drums – National Division.
RCMP Pipes and Drums – playing at the halt
78th Highlanders from Halifax, Nova Scotia
The Grandstand and playing field from the eastern mound.
While waiting for one of my daughters to arrive from the U.K. for a summer visit, I spent some time Plane Spotting from the main terminal at the Ottawa Airport.
The Airport’s Official name is Macdonald–Cartier International Airport and is named after two of the founding fathers of Canada, Sir John A. MacDonald and Sir George-Etienne Cartier. The Airport code for Ottawa is YOW or CYOW. The Airport was active as of July 2, 1927.
An interesting fact is that in 1950 the village of Bowesville was expropriated to expand the airport. The current main terminal now stands on the site of the crossroads at the center of the village.
I have always had a fascination with planes and I am a fairly proficient MS Flight Simulator pilot. I hope to spend some more time plane spotting in the future.
So today we travelled north of Ottawa through places that I have heard of most of my life but never visited. Places like Brennan’s Hill, Low, Kazabazua, and Gracefield Quebec. We took Highway 105 all the way from Ottawa past Gracefield and then east over to the south end of 31 Mile Lake. We visited friends at their trailer. The scenery was spectacular and it was a great day to take photos.
We took advantage of the Canada Day long weekend to travel to Mount Albert, Ontario to visit with family. About 4,000 people call Mount Albert home and they call themselves “Mounties” or “Mount Albertarians”. Mount Albert is named after Prince Albert, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, in honour of his visit to Upper Canada in 1860.
My Aunt has two beautiful cats. Henry an orange striped cat and Stirling an almost black cat. Henry was a friendly cat, while Stirling never really relaxed the whole weekend. He is even a little skittish with my Aunt and her family. So not to join the Cats of the Internet movement, but Henry was such a cooperative cat, I was able to take several portraits of him. Very photogenic.
I loved taking these photos as I don’t normally take shots with people or things in them. I usually just take cityscapes, landscapes and long exposure Waterfalls. I am really interested in taking aviation photos and more night photos. So stay tuned
Today we took a drive up to Mont Tremblant to meet good friends from Montreal for lunch and an afternoon of great conversation.
Mont Tremblant is about a 2 hour drive from Ottawa and is a year round tourist destination. They have excellent skiing in the winter, a vibrant village, lots of trails to hike, and a fantastic – must do – night walk on the mountain called Tonga Luna.
This past weekend we rented a little cottage on Green Lake. Green Lake is located just a little north of Shawville, Quebec. This area was surveyed in 1792 but settlement did not occur until 1825. Green Lake is the largest lake in the area.
These are a few photos that took as part of my homework assignment while we were at the cottage.
The ruins are what is left a research facility that was owned by Thomas ‘Carbide’ Wilson (1860 -1915). Thomas was an ingenious inventor, engineer, entrepreneur and electrochemist. He invented a process to make Calcium Carbide which is used in Acetylene.
In 1909 Thomas build several buildings at Meech Lake to do his research as well as an acid condensation tower, creating the first Phosphorus Acid Condensation plant in the world. The dam that he build here also provided electrical power. Sadly Thomas died in 1915 and the buildings quickly fell into disrepair.
The photos I took show the water falls as they leave Meech Lake. The water eventually makes it way to the Gatineau River, then to the Ottawa River.
For these shots, I use an ND16 filter. Most shots were F22, 20-25 secs shutter speed and ISO 100.
Today I took my camera down to the historic Rideau Canal Step Locks located in the shadow of the Chateau Laurier Hotel located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
I used an ND8 filter and a set my camera to manual mode. I used F-Stop 22, Shutter Speed 1/2 second and ISO 100.
