Dreaming Of Ice Sculptures And Ice Hogs

Some business to see to before I get to things today. Last month, you might recall that I reviewed Secondhand Shoes by Shelly Arkon. You can find the review right here. Shelly is doing a blog party and giveaway tied into the ebook release starting tomorrow through to the 21st. You can find her at the blogs The Life Of A Novice Writer and  Secondhand Shoes.  The ebook version is up at Amazon, as is the paperback version. And here is the teaser for the book: 

The shoes didn’t fit. It was an omen.

Eighteen year old psychic-medium-germ-a-phobe Lila should have listened to her ghostly Gram’s advice the morning of her wedding, “Take off that dress and those shoes. And run.”

En route to the honeymoon, she decides to listen after too many disagreements with her groom. It doesn’t pay to go along to make everyone happy.

Still in her wedding dress and shoes, she escapes out a diner’s bathroom window into the Florida woods despite her fear of snakes and germs with her dead Gram’s direction.

So she begins a journey of finding her inner strength, putting her on a deadly run from her psychotic groom and his deranged friends.

Will she ever get past her fear of germs and snakes? Will she survive her honeymoon?

To get in on the giveaway, it'll be fantabulous (to borrow a term from the book) if you'll tweet this to your followers:

Free books and prizes @ http://secondhandshoesnovel.blogspot.com/ Feb.19 to 21st #FReeBooks#KindleAmazon Please Retweet

 Free books and prizes @ http://www.shellysnovicewritings.blogspot.com/ Feb.19 to 21st #FReeBooks#KindleAmazon Please Retweet

As well as posting this at Facebook:

Secondhand Shoes is FREE Feb.19, 20, and 21st. Get your copy: http://www.amazon.com/Secondhand-Shoes-ebook/dp/B00B1ZNQAO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361049290&sr=8-2&keywords=Shelly+arkon%2C+Secondhand+Shoes

Feb. 19th, 20th, and 21st join us to Spread the News and Cheer on the Run Away Bride Give Away and Blog Party. You could win a 15 dollar Amazon card or an autographed copy of Secondhand Shoes. Visit http://secondhandshoesnovel.blogspot.com/

Feb. 19th, 20th, and 21st join us to Spread the News and Cheer on the Run Away Bride Give Away and Blog Party. You could win a 15 dollar Amazon card or an autographed copy of Secondhand Shoes. Visit http://www.shellysnovicewritings.blogspot.com/

Check out Shelly's pages, and let her know you're in on the giveaway!

***

Winterlude is at an end as of today, here in Ottawa and Gatineau. Over three weekends in February, the two cities host festivities celebrating the very best season of the year (no, not summer). The Rideau Canal is at its skating season height, with over seven kilometres of skating to offer. Beavertail pastries can be found all over the place (and are quite delicious). Ice hog mascots make their way around the various sites. Ice sculptures, snow sculptures, ice slides, and more are erected in various spots on both sides of the river. And both the locals and the tourists come in by the legions to take in the celebration of winter.

I've been busy taking pictures over these three weekends. I'd like to claim these as mine... but I'm still  using film cameras. So I've gleaned a whole pack of pics for you to enjoy.

The opening night festivities this year were at Ottawa City Hall, which served its purpose well. Our Governor General opened up Winterlude on a cold night, with performers on stage and above stage, and pyrotechnics for good measure.

The Canal itself is the centrepiece of the entire event, and thousands upon thousands skate on the weekends and through the week. For those of us who don't skate, or never learned how to (such as yours truly), the ice is still very easy to walk on.

Confederation Park in downtown Ottawa is ground zero for the ice sculptures, most of which are housed beneath shelters to keep them preserved well from wind and sun (they look as good this weekend as they did when they were first erected). In recent years, some other parts of the park have been turned into art displays during Winterlude. There are several of these sculptures and artworks about, and one is in collaboration with a South Korean festival this year. 2013 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War, and several of the displays have that Korean theme, particularly this thirty five metre long tunnel of over a thousand Korean paper lamps, which has an otherworldly sort of effect, day and night.

Watching the carvers at work is a special treat, on the first weekend, which marks a competition between them. They come from all over the world, and they are masters at the craft, using a multitude of tools: chainsaws, handsaws, chisels, hammers, and sandpaper to get down to the finest details of the ice.

Over in Gatineau, along the shores of the Ottawa River, Jacques Cartier Park is made over into a children's playground with ice slides and other fun things to do (including a zip line this year). There are several snow sculptures scattered about there, and some of the tools the carvers use are quite similar to their ice carver counterparts.

Back in Confederation Park, the ice sculptures are a huge draw, both day and night. At night, they're lit in changing colours, and this year, the carvers were splendid workers, carving otherworldly scenes, mighty animals, well endowed mermaids (always a running theme), and even an Alien.

It's at an end now; time for the Ice Hogs to pack it in for a year. Winterlude has been a success again, the weather behaving itself throughout, and the crowds have been out and about. For those of us who love winter, it's a celebration. For those here who don't love winter (are they crazy????), it's one pleasant way to get through the season.

A World Of Ice

And as promised in my last blog, today I'll be showing you around Ottawa and Gatineau, which will be marking the third and final weekend of Winterlude coming up. The annual celebration of the winter season is the national capital's way of revelling in the very best season of the year or finding a way of putting up with winter, depending on your point of view. It's a time of ice hogs, beavertails, skating on the Rideau Canal, ice scupltures, and having fun. And it always starts out with opening fireworks....

I've been busy the last two weekends getting out and about, taking pictures. For myself, I'm still a bit of a dinosaur using film (yes, I know, I know). So I've gleaned some media and other sites for some images of the festivities this year, for your consideration. Enjoy!

The ice carving is one aspect of Winterlude that I find fascinating. Carvers come from all over the world, setting to work on gorgeous sculptures in Confederation Park in Ottawa. They start out, often enough, with the one hour competition, working a single block of ice into a sculpture. After that, they set to work on the bigger works. Among their tools: chain saws, sanders, chisels, hammers, saws, and even flame throwers. The end products are stunning.

Confederation Park is nestled away downtown, and most of the sculptures are housed beneath the shelters you see below. This keeps them out of the direct sun and the wind, both of which can wreck havoc with sculptures. At night, the sculptures are lit up with coloured lights, which gives them a completely different feel.

2012 is the Diamond Jubilee for the Queen, and this large sculpture was created in tribute.

I always like the attention to detail carvers put into their work....

The horseman himself reminds me of one of the Rohan, from the Lord of the Rings tales....

This last sculpture was done this past weekend, after the competitions. It's in commemoration of the Canadian military mission to Bosnia in the 90s.

There's plenty of things going on throughout the three weekends. The triathlon takes place on and around the Rideau Canal, and as you can see below, it attracts a lot of participants.

And the public packs the Canal regularly for skating. This shot is beneath the Laurier Street Bridge downtown. It's a bridge I've always liked the look of, and it gets busy on the weekends during Winterlude.

Back across the Ottawa River on the Gatineau side, Jacques Cartier Park is ground zero for a children's playground for Winterlude. Mascots called the ice hogs regularly circulate there.

And there are a series of large snow and ice slides built up in the park as well. This one, oddly enough, is one of the smaller of the bunch, and believe me... going down the slope is a whole lot of fun.

There are also snow sculptures set up at the park, some carved into the slide mountains, others freestanding...

Winterlude. It's an experience, and one that I love (obviously!) Here in the Ottawa Valley, it's our way to prove we can get ourselves through another winter. Or, for those of us who adore and worship that lovely word, a way to celebrate it. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some quarters to toss into a cuss jar for daring to mention such wonderful words like winter...

Winterlude: Over Already? That's Not Fair!

Yes, once more Winterlude has come to an end here in Ottawa and Gatineau, and I for one will miss it. It's a festival that brings in hundreds of thousands each year to skate on the Rideau Canal, to take in the city, and to celebrate the best weather Canada has to offer. Yes, I'm talking about the winter, quiet, you summer worshippers.... Goodbye, Ice Hogs who look like chipmunks....

One of the basic staples of Winterlude is the Beavertail, which, contrary to what you might think, is neither something kinky or a part of an actual beaver. It's a flat pastry, fried and covered with a variety of toppings. It's a business that's been around awhile, here in Ottawa, and if you pay a visit here, you have to try one out. There are permanent locations in the city, and numerous booths set up for festivals and big days like Canada Day.

I only got over to the other side of the Ottawa River, to Jacques Cartier Park in Gatineau, on the weekend, where I was dismayed to find that the snow sculptures were absent this year. It's actually my favourite part of the entire festival, sculpture teams from all provinces and territories carving out blocks of snow into art forms. Instead, there were a couple about in what's generally a children's play area, with giant snow slides built in the park, right beside the frozen river.

And so once again, time to put away the celebrations for another year. It doesn't mean the winter's over, of course. There's still all of March. And April. And May. And even June.