Going offline

As I am heading to Europe tomorrow for a holiday, I will be offline until the end of August.

Thank you for reading this blog.

Ottawa's Ornamental Gardens

Today, on a whim, I visited the Ornamental Gardens at the Central Experimental Farm (near Dows Lake) in Ottawa. I went there by bus (Bus No. 3 from Downtown or Rideau Centre).

Colorful flowers and beautiful gardens always make me so happy, though I have always preferred cooking to gardening. Time flies when I am working in a kitchen; time stands still when I have to do gardening... :D Fortunately, I am not required to do any gardening these days.

Nowadays I just visit gardens and admire their beauty, and leave the gardening to people like my sister (the keen gardeners).

Anyway, it was a lovely day to be out and about. I managed to take quite a few photos of the Ornamental Gardens. Here is a sample:

Back in Ottawa

I'm back in Ottawa for a couple of days before heading off to Europe.

I really enjoyed the train ride from Montreal to Ottawa this afternoon. I'm so glad I made it a point to travel by rail.

By the way, I visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal yesterday, and it was most enjoyable. Photography was allowed in certain parts of the museum, and I was fortunate it was allowed in the Decorative Arts section, which was actually my favorite part of the Museum.

Here are a few photos of some of the things I saw in the Decorative Arts section of the Museum:

This piece is by Dale Chihuly. It caught my attention before I realised who made it. It brought back memories for me - I saw some of Chihuly's works in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, four years ago, and I recall I was fascinated by them, but had forgotten all about that until yesterday.


This is a lovely stained-glass window, isn't it? I bet it was painstaking work to create something like this.


An old chair with a most unusual design.


The designers of these pieces of furniture had imaginative minds indeed. I take my hat off to them.

"This market is making me so happy ..."

That's what one of my friends (former Group B classmates) said, as we walked around the Marché Jean Talon, a local fresh produce market in Montreal, this afternoon. I have to say I agreed with her. Here's why:













My friend was really happy to see such a lot of fresh produce at really affordable prices. To those of us who love to cook, a market like that is heavenly. It beats shopping in a supermarket.

To me, Marché Jean Talon is basically the Montreal version of the Flemington Markets in Sydney or the Rocklea Markets in Brisbane.

Montreal Fireworks (Presented by an Australian Team)

About two hours ago, I went down to the riverside with a couple of my friends (former Group B classmates) to see the Montreal Fireworks Competition. Tonight's pyrotechnic display was presented by an Australian team (Foti). The fireworks lasted for a full 30 minutes, and it was just spectacular!



I captured quite a bit of the fireworks display on video, but here is the finale, which was the nicest part of it.



I know some of the hearts (fireworks) were upside down, but maybe it is "love from Down Under". lol

Roses in the Montréal Botanical Garden

I visited the Montreal Botanical Garden yesterday and was delighted to discover a lovely rose garden there.

Guess what? I went crazy with my camera again and took lots of photos. Here are the roses I really liked (note: names of roses indicated in square brackets, as they were labelled at the botanical garden). Now, all I have to do is be able to make marzipan (or pulled sugar) roses as beautiful as these one day. :)


[Montreal]


[Rainbow Sorbet]


[Electron]


[Zambra]


[Artistry]


[Countess Celeste]


[The McCartney Rose]


[Maid of Honor]


View of the rose garden


The fountains near the rose garden

----------------------------

The next two photos are for my sister.


I am sure she knows exactly why I took this photo.


I saw this cute little creature in the botanical garden, but wasn't sure what it was. I have been told that it is a chipmunk.