These Ottawa city workers are just finishing prepping the ice above Rideau Falls. They are drilling holes with ice augers, and marking them with spray paint. They will put a charge in each hole and blast, breaking off slabs of ice and sending them over the falls, preventing ice dams and floods.

The start of a new month already!? @waub.bsky.social wrote that the Anishinaabe name for this month is Onaabenii-giizis, meaning moon of the crusted snow, which matches the snow conditions here in Ottawa right now, and is also the title of his apocalyptic novel ecwpress.com/products/moo... .

The sap is starting to run! Ça commence à couler! At the Vanier Sugar Shack the maples are tapped, the buckets are hung, and the sap is just now starting to run. This afternoon most buckets and taps were dry, but some of the taps on trees on the sunny side of the hill were just beginning to drip.

Only a couple of trees were tapped at the Vanier Maple Forest in Ottawa, though many were marked with red ribbons. There was no sap running into the buckets yet - it was only -18ºC! - but it should start very soon. The Vanier Sugar Festival takes place later in March museoparc.ca/en/programmi...

At Confederation Park the ice sculptors were finishing up at Winterlude/Bal de Neige. Lots of people! Nice sculptures! I liked this one called “Heart of my childhood/Coeur de mon Enfance” by Jocelyn Galipeau and Oleksiy Poda. It is about time for the maple syrup season that it shows! #winterlude

Also: The baby's back! The humongous "Head of a Baby" is back on display at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa, in the collection, just after you exit the special exhibit. Artist Ron Mueck from Australia made it in 2003. I am not going to post a picture because you have to see it in person. Crazy!

It was -25ºC here, à propos for the National Art Gallery’s excellent exhibition “Winter Count: Embracing the Cold” (on until Mar 22). Many great paintings! This parka on display would be practical now. BTW: You you can photograph anything except if there’s a tiny no cameras icon on the nameplate.

I personally had a very nice day here in Ottawa despite the cold weather. It is basically the same cold here as in places in Minnesota. Shocked and disappointed by the ongoing cruelty towards the people there. It is time for that to end. Leaders in the USA, please step up and do the right thing.

Nice winter weather today so we went skating on the Rideau Canal Skateway again! On the way there I ran across this cool mural which I don't recall seeing before. It is signed "Fatspatrol" and I found it on the artists webpage here: fatspatrol.wixsite.com/fatspatrol . It is called "I hope hope wins"

The 2026 Anishinaabe language learning calendar from @anishinabeknation.bsky.social just came out! This year it has really lovely cover art by @mishiikenhkwe.bsky.social ! Lots of resources in there for language learners, and also interesting for people like me who know only a few words, if any.

The Rideau Canal Skateway opened fully today! Here it is this afternoon, looking southeast under the Laurier Avenue Bridge towards the Corktown Footbridge. The ice was really quite good from Rideau to Bank Street. It was mostly okay but rough in patches from there to Dow's Lake and on to Carleton.

Happy New Year from Ottawa! This year, the Rideau Canal opened for skating on New Year's Eve for the first time in many years. Over 3 km was open - about half the full length of the Skateway - and the ice was quite good. We were grateful for the chance to be out there. Best wishes to all for 2026!

It was freezing rain at night here in Ottawa and rain today. It is slippery to walk, skiing is lousy, and cars are sliding. I put studded tires on a hand-me-down mountain bike and put that to the test. Amazing! Totally stability and control! The only problem areas were where snow is caked down.

Bunch of turkeys. This is at Beechwood Cemetery today, in Ottawa. I'm impressed that they don't seem at all bothered running through snow in their bare feet.

Snowy forested ravines like this will become little streams feeding meltwater into the Ottawa River in spring. Here the noon sun - so low these days! - shines through the woods casting long blue shadows in the snow.

Clear skies and cold at noon today along the Ottawa River, which is in winter mode, but there is still plenty of open water. The trail conditions were great to walk, ski or fatbike. There were quite a few skiers on the Ski Heritage East trail with tracks well established and even some skate-skiing.

This afternoon the Ottawa River was otherworldly with lightly falling snow decorating oddly shaped ice surfaces. Some people had already skied along the path, but the snow is pretty thin for that. This intermediate season is perfect for fatbikes, though - a bit slippy in places but great overall.

In Ottawa today the trees, grasses and other plants put on a show. The ordinary, everyday world turned magical and monochrome.

Statue of Liberty stands up just a little bit taller, glances back at poor huddled masses.

For councillors voting for Landsdowne, how bad would it have to be to vote against? Going 9800 seats to 5500 is okay - how about 2500? No roof is okay - how about no seats? PVC instead of a park is okay - how about a dump? Public housing funds for private parking is okay - how about hospital funds?

When they sing the US national anthem at the beginning of sports events, they should change the line about it being "the land of the free". It just doesn't seem that is what it is these days. Maybe "the land to be free"? It is still the home of many brave people. I hope things get better for them.

It is coming in to peak color in Ottawa-Gatineau right now. Many leaves have fallen, but the trees are still well decorated. There are reds, oranges, yellows, browns, but still a fair bit of green here and there. I hope you get the opportunity this long weekend to get out there and get a good look!

Ottawa City council announced a needed refresh of St Laurent Boulevard, with better transit, walkways and bike routes - all welcome, but am I reading this right - most will be done after 2046? www.ottawa.ca/en/city-hall... If so, thanks for the heads up, but that's more than 2 decades from now!?

I almost missed this female? or juvenile? goldfinch because it was wearing camouflage, perched here on one of the stems of what remains of the false sunflowers. It is easy to see here, but that's because is is in the center. You can totally understand the tail colors - they look just like leaves.

It is second summer in Ottawa-Gatineau this weekend. McKay Lake was dressed up in its full fall colors. Just beautiful.

I hope we are able to make our way down this difficult road.

It is late in the wildflower season in Ottawa and these little lavender asters are everywhere. The bumblebees really go for them, and there are many, but the flowers are so small they really have to work, zipping from one cluster to another, landing only briefly on a couple of flowers at each.

Whoa! I almost missed Fat Bear Week this year! Here's the link. Cast your votes for the greatest ones! Not voting would be pretty much unbearable. explore.org/fat-bear-week

Over 50 Canada geese were way up there over Ottawa honking and flying in a V formation, headed toward the setting sun. C'mon guys! One side of your V was like 40+ of you all, the other side was maybe 10. You call that a formation? That's embarrassing. Symmetry, please!

It was a just glorious late-summer/early fall day in Ottawa-Gatineau. It is peak season at the Orleans Fruit Farm and it was hopping at apple picking - still v. good! - and at the tent. Great stuff at the kiosk: corn, four varieties of apples including macs and lobos, strawberries, carrots and more.

The geese have assembled and are honking as they fly overhead this morning. They're almost ready to go.

It is the transition between summer and fall. This bumblebee was sleeping on a false sunflower in a cluster of false sunflowers. Another bee, maybe a sister, flew up and tried to rouse her, but she brushed her away with her front legs and went right back to sleep. Being a bee must be exhausting!

Happy Waababagaa-Giizis, @waub.bsky.social . Where are we now in the whole story? Pre-, mid- or post- apocalypse? These days I'm finding it a bit hard to be sure. I am thinking early-mid?

I was at Montfort Hospital earlier this week. Just wanted to make sure people here know the nurses, support staff, and Dr.s there are amazing super pros! English or French, up to you! But waits are far too long - more Dr.s needed! Also, building maintenance is needed. Automatic doors have to work!

Slightly diminish a band: Martha and the Muffin Tops

Slightly diminish a band: AB/DB

The little white cabbage butterflies are pairing off now. When one flies by itself it looks like it is just flapping around randomly, but they must really have near perfect control, because pairs are able to flutter around each other for quite some time. Cabbage butterfly romance is an aerial dance.

Fireworks at Kìwekì Point, Ottawa, last night.

You are being watched. (Too see the watcher, zoom in near the center.)

I went canoeing today wearing a mask because of the bad air. That’s a first and pretty much unimaginable here until a couple of years ago. The water was gently rippled. The diffuse light gave the surface a silvery shine. There was not much wind at all, but that's a sailboat way off in the distance.

They make PJs for elephants!!!

The white waterlilies are blooming on the Ottawa River. Although they look all white from a distance, closeup they have bright yellow centers.

Yesterday I was surprised to learn from Chief Whiteduck at an Ottawa Riverkeeper event that Kitigan Zibi, a reserve 2h north of Ottawa, still does not have clean running water for about half its people. Can we fix this now? Clean running water for all First Nations would be a great achievement.

A minivan doing a right on red at Aviation Parkway and Montreal Road crashed into an Ottawa Paramedic SUV with its lights on and with its sirens going. Right in front of me around 9:30. ago. Scary. Loud crash. Airbags deployed. It looks like everyone is up and out and okay, thankfully.

The bee balm is still blooming, but it is starting to look a bit ragged. The bumblebees have been working the flowers hard for over a week now. They are getting a bit worn down. This evening I caught one bee napping under a bee balm leaf.

I have only seen a few monarchs so far this year. When I have seen one and tried to take a pic they've been like "no, no, no" and flown off leaving me with just an orange blur. But today at noon in Ottawa this one set down on some milkweed and held mostly still just long enough for a quick photo.

Five cottontail rabbits on my ride home this evening!

Fireflies are lit tonight in Ottawa! They are the kind with extremely short whitish flashes. They're everywhere. It is like being in a stadium at night with the camera flashes.

I thought there were fewer bumblebees at the bee balm this year but they must have been waiting for the harvest: tonight was a frenzy. Here’s a video. Bee balm has tiny florets that the bee has to shove its beak into for a taste before moving on. What a mad scramble! They'll sleep well tonight!

While I was looking at the wildflowers and insects, this creature was keeping an eye on me.