Category: Postcards from Manotick

This week in pictures: winter family fun – and an award!!

How cool is this? I just found out that Postcards from the Mothership won third place in the “Art and Photography” category of the Canadian Weblog Awards!!

2012 Canadian Weblog Awards winners

I had been nominated in three (!) categories: Best Parenting Blog, Best Blog about Life and Best Art and Photography Blog. (And a HUGE thank you to whomever nominated me!) I love the fact that the Canadian Weblog Awards are juried (no grovelling for votes!) and I love love love that I won in the Art and Photography category. Thank you!!!

So, ahem, how about some photos?

On Saturday, we went out to enjoy Manotick’s Shiverfest with a little sledding. What we didn’t realize until after was that the city had closed all its hills because they were so icy. We’d hauled ourselves out in the cold, though, and we had the hill to ourselves for most of the time we were there, so with me playing traffic cop to make sure nobody took off too soon and wiped out a brother, we ended up having a lot of fun.

Shiverfest sledding fun

Shiverfest sledding fun

Listening to Lucas hoot and holler, somewhere between exhilaration and terror, was priceless, as was his bellow of assurance at the bottom of each run. “I’m okay mom!”

Shiverfest sledding fun

The next day Tristan and I braved the cold for a wander around the Lime Kiln Trail. The poor wee birds must have been starving with the recent deep freeze, because I swear we could have just sat in the car and held our hands out the window to feed them. We’ve fed the chickadees many times, and I’ve never seen them so aggressive.

Feeding the chickadees

Feeding the chickadees

The middle bit of the week was a little less photogenic. Tristan put together this “cracker napkin” and I thought it would make a good instagram shot.

Cracker napkin

And there’s always room for a cat-dog shot, right?

Cat's eye view

(I’d like that one a lot more if the light had been a little better and the shot a little less grainy. Oh well.)

And then suddenly, Simon was nine years old!

Happy birthday Simon!

Can I eat my cake now mom?

Doesn’t his expression say “okay mom, one more, but can I eat my cake now please?”

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think there is a birthday party at some point today for which I should be getting ready… 馃槈

You’re shivering anyway, so come out this weekend for Manotick’s ShiverFest!!

Hoo boy, is it cold out there or WHAT? If I understood the forecaster correctly, this is the coldest stretch of weather in Simon’s entire lifetime, and he turns nine next week. Brrrr!

But this weekend, we’re warming up to a temperate minus 15C, so it will be perfect to come out and play during Manotick’s annual winter festival, Shiverfest!

Don’t like the cold? There’s indoor fun to be had as well, including a chili cookoff and a trivia contest (with a raffle prize of a porch portrait session with a certain Manotick photographer you might know!) Here’s the schedule of fun:

Friday Jan. 25th:
6:00-6:50 pm Rideau Skating Club Exhibition (Manotick Arena)
6:30 pm start Outdoor Bonfire (Centennial Park)
7:00-8:00 pm Family Skate Night (Manotick Arena)
8:00 – 9:00 pm Dr. Kaboom (Manotick Arena Hall, upstairs)

Saturday Jan. 26th:
7:30-11:00 am Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast (Manotick Arena Hall)
9:30-11:15 am Children’s Fun Time, Ages 2-6 (Manotick Cooperative Nursery School at the Arena)
10:00 am-Noon Horse Drawn Sleigh Rides (Centennial Park)
All day: Tobogganing and Skating (Manotick Mountain/Outdoor Rink – Centennial Park)
1:00 – 2:00 pm Dino Reptiles (Manotick Arena Hall)
2:00 – 4:00 pm Chili Cook-Off (Manotick Legion)
6:00 – 9:00 pm Bands that “Raise the Roof” (Manotick Arena Hall)
9:00 – closing Open Mic” Night (Mill Tavern Restaurant)

Sunday Jan 27th
1:00 – 4:00 Pm Trivia Contest (Mill Tavern Restaurant): Grab a few friends, put together a team of 2 -6 people and have a memorable afternoon at The Mill. Contact trivia@manotickvca.org for tickets.

Sounds like fun, right? Here’s what Shiverfest 2011 looked like:

Sleigh ride

Snowman sledding

Lucas and the red sled

Think of it as the perfect opportunity to take your “Why I love Ottawa/Gatineau” photo contest photo. And HEY! There’s a Shiverfest photo contest, too!

Check out the Manotick Village and Community Association website for more info!

The one where Santa rescues her from a ditch in a red tractor on Christmas Day (true story!!)

I swear on everything dear to me that every word in this story is true and absolutely without embellishment. This is exactly and honestly how it happened.

We went to Granny and Papa Lou’s house for a late breakfast visit this morning. My brother and his family were going to stay an extra day, but the pending snow storm spooked them and they left for southern Ontario at noon instead of tomorrow as planned. We were driving back to Manotick shortly after lunch, and chatting about the Christmas Day years ago I drove lazy loops around the Manotick rural roads enjoying my Starbucks coffee while Tristan and Simon snoozed in the back seat. I couldn’t help but laugh when we noticed Lucas fast asleep in his car seat. At four he’s a little old for afternoon naps, but after two days of cousin visits and Christmas, he was pretty wrung out. We stopped by the house long enough to drop off Beloved and the big boys and Lucas and I headed out to drive a few more lazy loops of those rural Manotick roads.

Of course, I had an agenda of my own. We’ve been so busy getting ready for Christmas that I’ve been positively drooling to get out and take some pictures of the thick, pristine snowfall from a few days ago. I was a couple of kilometers from home on Dozois Rd when I noticed how beautifully the sun was hitting the snow in a little forest. I couldn’t resist. I pulled over to the shoulder of the deserted road and reached for my camera — and that’s when I realized it had been in the bag that Beloved brought into the house when I’d dropped him and the boys off.

Mildly disappointed but not completely perturbed, I pulled out my iPhone instead. Lovely, wasn’t it?

Photo 2012-12-25 12 54 46 PM

And then I put down my phone, rolled up the window (I hadn’t even gotten out of the car – call me lazy) and put the car in gear. And my stomach sank as the wheels started to spin. I tried rocking it, twisting the wheel, easing it and flooring it. Nothing came even remotely close to moving the car.

I was completely and righteously stuck in the snow.

All I could hear was Beloved’s voice, see him shaking his head. “Have you learned yet? Picture-taking fool.” We have roadside assistance, but on Christmas Day I feared we’d be at New Year’s Eve before they got around to me. I thought I’d try to get myself out first.

I wasn’t there long when the first Good Samaritan stopped. He and I used our windshield scrapers to try to dig some room behind the (deeply buried) front wheels so we could stick the floor mats under them and get some traction. That plan had just failed utterly and completely when I glanced at in my rearview mirror….

(remember, every single word of this is 100% true)

…. and saw the red sleigh tractor pulling in behind me. I may have giggled a bit in relief as I stepped out of the car, but I swear my jaw dropped open when the tractor driver popped out and I took in the flannel shirt, the long white beard and the (honestly, every word is TRUE!) twinkly blue eyes.

“Having a bad day?” he asked with a smile.

“Not since you showed up!” I grinned back at him. He was already at work attaching a chain to the underside of my rear bumper. I had the presence of mind to grab my iPhone at that point to capture the moment. There is no better blog fodder than an anecdote that makes me look ever so slightly foolish while having a happy ending. With a Christmas twist, I knew it was bloggy gold.

Photo 2012-12-25 1 06 52 PM

He pulled me off the shoulder and back on to the road, and we both got back out of our vehicles. “Can I give you a little something for your troubles?” I asked, thinking of the $20 I have stashed in the dash for Starbucks emergencies.

“‘Course not,” he grinned. “I’d take a hug, though.” Which I gladly gave to him without hesitation.

“You know,” I couldn’t help but add with a shy smile of my own, “you kinda even look like Santa Claus.”

“You think?” he said, with an “aw shucks” sort of tug on his beard. He told me his name is Andrew.

I thanked everybody profusely and climbed back in to my car. Lucas had slept through the entire event, which really only took about 15 minutes from photo to escape. I drove on down the country road smiling to myself and already writing this blog post in my head, but I realized that while it makes a great story, you’d never believe me about the Santa Claus part. So I turned the car around, maybe a kilometer down the road from where I’d been stuck, and headed back the way I’d come, expecting to see him still winding up his rusty chain. I figured I’d impose on his good will one last time and ask if I could take a photo of us together, if he didn’t mind. I crested one hill and then another, and passed the mucked out bit of snow on the shoulder where I’d been stuck and kept on to the intersection with Mitch Owen — but there was absolutely no sign of him or his tractor.

He had disappeared.

Now this makes for an awesome story, but the funny PS is that I am not absolutely convinced that I’ll be able to publish this story on my blog. I tried about 20 times to tweet the photo of the tractor pulling my car out of the ditch in the following tweet: “OMG I just got rescued from a ditch by Santa in a tractor on Christmas day!! #truestory #merrychristmas” and each time, the tweet failed.

Photo 2012-12-25 1 49 19 PM

By the time I was home, I even tried to tweet it from my desktop. I kept getting an error message I’d never seen before, in more than 16,000 tweets.

Screen Shot 2012-12-25 at 1.48.04 PM

Clearly, the big guy wanted to keep his good deed a secret. But I just couldn’t help myself, and so I sat down to tell this story. I was just about to press the ‘publish’ button when it hit me: Photoshop! I could enlarge the section of the original photo with the tractor, and you could see for yourself. I promise you that I did nothing to this photo except boost the resolution to 200%. Check it out!

Santa crop

Not the clearest photo ever, but tell me you can’t clearly see the beard, the grizzled hair, and even the flannel shirt.

Santa rescued me from my photo-taking foibles on Christmas day. Best! Christmas! Story! EVER!!

(and I promise, I swear, I absolutely guarantee — every single word is true!)

Merry Christmas, my bloggy friends! I hope your Christmas is filled with wonder and funny stories. 馃檪

Edited to add: how much do I love the Internet? Want a better picture of my hero Santa? Thanks to Laura Jane Photography on Twitter for this much better photo of Santa-Andy. See, he really does look like Santa!! 馃檪

Speaking of adventures in publishing…

Before I became obsessive about photography, I was in love with words. I’ve always loved to tell a tale, and to find the perfect words to do it justice. Once upon a time, I thought I might even write a book some day.

Well, I didn’t exactly write a book, but in the same week I self-published not one but TWO photography books on Blurb.ca, take a look at what else is in print: my very own article and photograph in Ottawa Family Living magazine. How fun is this?

Ottawa Family Living magazine, December 2012

OttFamLiv Mag Dec 2012 pg 2

That’s my byline! I wrote the article AND I took the photo of Watson’s Mill. I’m pretty darn pleased with myself. 馃檪

Watch for your copy of Ottawa Family Magazine (also featuring my friends Sara McConnell and Karen Wilson, among others!) in this Saturday’s Ottawa Citizen.

Edited to add: oh look! Here it is online!

Christmas Tree Quest, 2012 edition

We are firmly in the ‘cut down yer own’ Christmas tree camp now. I can’t believe we resisted for as long as we did! The problem this year was that December 1 seemed a wee bit early to get one, but December 8 seemed way too late. In the end, we carpe-d the diem and launched the festive season with a vengeance yesterday. First, we went to the Manotick Santa parade, always a favourite. Then, we grabbed our saw and headed out to Thomas Tree farm.

The first year we got a live tree, we went to Ian’s Evergreen Plantation, which is apparently now called “Ian’s Christmas Adventure Park”. It’s a great place! There’s a play structure, a petting zoo, bonfire and wagon rides. We loved the experience. Last year, we went to Hillcrest Tree Farm just south of Manotick. It was a very different and much more low-key experience. If you’re looking to simply get in, get your tree and get out without a lot of walking, I’d highly recommend Hillcrest, and we adored our tree last year.

We debated the ‘experience’ versus ‘convenience’ factor and instead decided to embrace the unknown by trying something new this year, so we headed out to Thomas Tree Farm just a touch south of North Gower. We’ve found a new favourite, and we’ll be heading back there next year!

We bypassed the wagon ride out to the field and decided to walk the path out to get our tree. How lovely is this, they way they line the paths with leaves?

Wintry path (we're hunting Christmas trees!)

We scouted around until we had the perfect tree. I liked this one that Mother Nature had already decorated. (Amy said on Instagram that this one was clearly the lot tramp, prolific little thing. Had I seen that comment earlier, I would have had to take this one home with us. Beloved likes the Charlie Brown Christmas trees, but I’m fond of the trampy ones!)

This one comes with decorations!

Eventually, we found one we could all love. Beloved set to work with the saw while Lucas made sure he was on track.

Christmas tree quest 2012-1

(My children look like they got dressed in the dark, I know. They do have hats and mitts that more or less match their jackets, but they loved the Ottawa 67s logo hats they got from the Riverside South Broadway Restaurant at the Manotick Santa parade. Definitely the funnest parade take-away!)

Christmas tree quest 2012-3

Tristan’s now big enough that he helped carry the tree back! (sob!) But not big enough to actually cut down the tree, despite his insistence otherwise.

Christmas tree quest 2012-3

Christmas tree quest 2012-8

The menfolk enjoyed the hot chocolate and cookies while I took more photos.

Christmas tree quest 2012-11

None shall pass!

Christmas tree quest 2012-10

If you’re hunting and gathering your own Christmas tree this year, I highly recommend both Ian’s Tree Plantation and Thomas Tree Farm. I’d heard the drought this year was particuarly hard on the tree farmers, but all the trees we saw were healthy looking and it was hard to choose among many wonderful choices.

Guess what we’re doing today? I’m willing to bet there will be more photos to come!

Speaking of photos, I lost the thread of my photo-of-the-day project for a while with sporadic posting after we got back from our cruise. I’ve made a fun new project for myself, though: an Instagram-a-day with a Christmas theme every day from now until December 25. Want to play along? I’m Dani_Girl on Instagram, and I’m tagging them with the hashtag #santstagram.

In which she decides that maybe she doesn’t like living in the countryside so much after all

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 1

What a gorgeous day to be outside. Yanno, I really don’t mind raking up the leaves. I rarely have an excuse to come out and enjoy the yard this time of year, and it will be a long cold winter. It’s nice to be able to get out and do a bit of raking. I’m sure if I break the task down over a couple of days, it won’t seem like much of a burden. Such a small price to pay for having so many big trees on our property, and great exercise, too! *whistles a happy raking tune*

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 4

Okay, seriously? Where are all the oak leaves coming from? We don’t even have an oak tree!!

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 7

Wow, I’ve already filled seven bags and I’ve barely moved out of this corner of the front yard. Maybe I’d better recruit the boys to give me a hand.

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 6

“Boys! Did you just dump that bag so you could jump in the leaf pile?!”

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 10

Man, I am going to write a brilliantly witty blog post as soon as I get my hands on the computer. I’m sure I’ll be able to remember these great ideas later!

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 11

What was that brilliantly witty idea I had again?

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 12

This is exhausting. Maybe I should try the electric leaf-blow/suck thing my parents brought over.

[45 sweaty minutes later, still bag 12]

Never mind.

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 14

Note to self: next year, try to cut the lawn at least once in September or October. This is less like raking leaves and more like combing out tangles in places.

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 19

Dear Mother Nature, why why oh WHY did you think it was a good idea to make the dead birch leaves look SO MUCH like dog poop? Really, was that necessary?

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 23

I think I’m starting to lose the feeling in my fingers. Also, I think the squirrels are mocking me.

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 25

Sweet farking Jebesus, will I never be finished raking these leaves? This is like Sisyphus meets Groundhog Day with leaves…

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 28

YOU! Silver maple in the corner! Drop yer goddam leaves already!! I’m not doing this again next week.

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 30

You know what I really love? I love it when the half-full bag collapses just when you’re inserting a gigantic load of leaves and it tips and spills not only what you’ve got on your rake but the leaves that were already in the bag because I’ve got nothing else to do except rake and since I’m raking I would really love to rake the same leaves more than once…

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 31

I’ve now lost all feeling up to my shoulders and can’t get the taste of pine needles out of my mouth. My hands are contorted, perhaps permanently, into rake-shaped claws. And still, I rake. And rake. And rake.

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 33

I see you, fancy neighbour with the fancy leaf-sucking tractor. Oh yes, I see you, don’t think I don’t, sitting high on your pretty little tractor with your jaunty little hat and NOT RAKING UP YOUR LEAVES AT ALL.

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 36

Stupid trees. Stupid leafs. Stupid semi-rural stupid countryside. That’s it, we’re moving into a condo downtown next week.

Annual leaf rake-up, Bag 39

“What do you mean ‘what am I doing?’ What does it look like I’m doing? I’m duct-taping this flashlight to my rake. It’s getting too dark to see and I’m not done yet. I can’t stop now, there are MORE LEAVES TO RAKE. MUST RAKE LEAVES. WHAT DO YOU MEAN I SHOULD STEP AWAY FROM THE RAKE?!?!?”

Final tallies for 2012:

Number of bags filled: 47
Number of canisters filled (mostly with twigs): 4
Number of rake-hours invested across the family: 17
Number of rake-hours invested by me personally: 12
Number of times I hit myself in the head with a rake: 6
Number of rakes destroyed: 1
Number of blisters and bruises on my hands despite wearing garden gloves: 4
Number of witty blog posts composed in my head while raking: 7
Number of witty blog posts actually written: I’ll leaf it to you to decide

Don’t blink or you’ll miss it – Manotick’s disappearing houses

On Labour Day, I hopped on my bike for one of my favourite rides – across the island to the Long Island lock station. It’s a peaceful ride on rather crumbly but unbusy streets, past David Bartlett park, and down a dirt road that leads to the very northern tip of Long Island.

The first time we explored that path back in 2010, I was enchanted by the abandoned house at the end of the dirt path. I wondered who lived there and how long it had been abandoned. We often meander that way, either on our bikes or on foot, and I always meant to take pictures of the house and it’s out-buildings. Early in the summer, I happened to meet a fellow who lives just down from the locks on Nicholl’s Island (have you ever seen this little patch of heaven on the Rideau? It’s like cottage country in the city!) and he told me enough about the abandoned house so that I could google it.

Rowat House was built in the 1860s, right about the same time as Manotick’s famous Watson’s Mill. The city of Ottawa was petitioned in 2011 to designate the house a heritage building, and I was able to find a lot of little snippets of the history of the house, the lock station, and the immediate neighbourhood, all of which fed into my fascination for the history of Manotick and the Rideau Canal.

Apparently the house was occupied until at least the mid to late 1990s by descendants of the original owner, William Rowat, who opened a grocery and dry goods store in the former village of Long Island (on the east side of the Rideau River) in the 1850s, and then bought 40 acres at the tip of Long Island itself in 1860 for $1200, where he built his family home.

I’m not sure what happened in the last decade, but the house was in considerable disrepair by the time we “discovered” it in 2010. It really did feel like a discovery, because the house is on a walking trail (only emergency vehichles on their way to Nicholl’s Island are allowed to use the road that drives over the dam that joins Nicholl’s Island to Long Island) and nearly swallowed up by the surrounding trees. I found these heritage photographs of the house in its heyday in the city of Ottawa report and was going to write a blog post contrasting how the house looked then and how it looks now:

But, alas. On Monday I came zipping down the dirt road on my bike, scootched past the gate, and stopped with my mouth open in shock. The house was gone, absolutely gone, without a trace. The outbuildings were gone, too. This is what it looks like now:

Gone

I can’t believe there isn’t a hint of the house left. Tristan and I rode out there not more than four or five weeks ago, so they moved pretty darn quickly to take it down. I can’t find any mention of the decision to tear it down online either.

I’m not quite sure why I feel such a deep loss over this. We’d only been admiring the house for a few years, and it was coincidentally only in the last few months that I’d really gotten a sense of the place. But it makes me so very sad that it’s gone.

It’s not the only disappearing house in Manotick. I’d been curious about this tiny little house on Bridge Street, obviously abandoned and overgrown, since we moved here in 2010.

169:365 Overgrown

It disappeared this summer, too, to make way for a block-long senior’s home. And there’s the silo on this barn that collapsed in 2011:

127:365 Goodbye old silo

I can’t figure out if I’m happy to have the photos preserving these lost beauties or concerned that I’m condemning them with my camera!

Are you interested in the history of the Rideau Canal and Manotick? I’ve been rather obsessive in my research over the last couple of years and have learned a lot of interesting stuff! Leave a comment if you’d like me to share more, or even better, if you have any info to share about the former Rowat house or the history of Manotick and Long Island! 馃檪

Ottawa family fun this weekend: Manotick’s Picnic in the Park and Soapbox Derby

Phew, I’ve been so busy telling you about family fun on the Mayan Riviera that I almost forgot to tell you about terrific family fun this weekend right here in Manotick!

Sunday August 26 will be Manotick’s annual Picnic in the Park, with a reprise of last year’s very successful soapbox derby. Details from the MVCA website:

Picnic-in the Park, Manotick芒鈧劉s happy celebration of a fine summer is slated to take place in Centennial Park and features fun for the whole family. Hot dogs, hamburgers, soft drinks, popcorn and cotton candy will be available at very reasonable prices beginning at noon until 3 PM. We are hoping that corn-on-the-cob will be available at no charge, donated by Shouldice Farms. Pizza Pizza have generously offered their “bouncy castle” for young children and there will be face painting and balloons. Bring chairs so you can sit in the park and listen to live music.

Please arrive early so that racing can start on at 9:00 sharp! Winners will be announced immediately after completion of all the races. Pre-registration is required. Further details and registration form are available on the MVCA website.

There was a bit of a delay in between when I got my latest update about the picnic and when I managed to get this post up, but as of early in the week there were even a few soap-box derby cars available for those without the means or talent to make one, courtesy of the Manotick Lions, the Legion, the Kiwanis and Watson’s Mill. (I find new reasons to love this community every year!)

Don’t miss the fun this Sunday at Manotick’s Centennial Park. Be there early if you’re interested in the soapbox races, or at from noon till 3 pm for the picnic.

Kale Caesar!

Here’s an actual conversation that I would have never in a million years expected to hear around our dinner table.

Beloved, gesturing at salad: “Is there kale in this?”
Me: “No, we didn’t get any in the CSA this week.”
Beloved: “Aw, that’s too bad.”
Me: “I know, but it looks like we get some again next week.”
Beloved: “Yay!”

Funny, for all those jokes about people not signing up for CSA farm boxes beause of the fear of getting nothing but kale, it turns out the kale has been our favourite discovery. Go figure! It’s got a lovely green taste and full texture to it (unlike some more wimpy greens) and you know where it is absolutely delicious? In a caesar salad.

Admittedly, the boys are less fond of it. They love caesar salad and are vaguely resentful of me messing with it, I think, so I mix half kale and half romaine and hope they can’t tell which is which, but they usually can. Beloved and I fight over who gets the picked-out kale bits. Who knew?

I haven’t been doing the bi-weekly blog post about our CSA share from Roots and Shoots farm that I’d planned. Darn summer has been too much fun! But also, there hasn’t been much to blog about because it would just be a series of posts along the lines of “oh, these are mostly just the regular vegetables we always buy (zucchini, onions, peppers, beans, carrots, etc) except covered in dirt because they were picked YESTERDAY and about a zillion times more tasty.”

Aside from some weird turnips whose name escapes me, I have not been intimidated by any of the vegetables in our CSA share. I have, however, learned a few new ways to use old favourites. Have you ever just sliced a zuke in half and grilled it on the BBQ for a couple of minutes? Instant side dish and OMG so yummy! I’ve also started adding zucchini to my fajita vegetable mix of onions and peppers. And the discovery of garlic scapes and kale have revolutionized my summer menu planning.

When we signed up for the CSA, we had the option of a half share (bi-weekly pick-up) or a full share (weekly pick-up). We went with the half share, figuring it was a good way to dip our toes in the CSA water without having too much go to waste. We pick up on alternate Wednesdays and this is the in-between week. I found myself yesterday poking about in the vegetable crisper in the fridge wishing we’d signed up for the weekly share.

CSA share in the fridge

Only a few vegetables have gone to waste before we could figure out what to do with them, including a beautiful batch of beets that I just could not bring myself to roast during that stretch of days when it was 40C+ every day. That and some Swiss chard. I may have learned to love kale in a hurry, but I’m still only tepid on the Swiss chard. Hey, it’s a start, right?

Got a favourite simple summer veggie dish to share? Bonus points if it includes Swiss chard or kale! 馃槈

Celebrate Ottawa’s history with free family fun at the Rideau Canal Festival this weekend

All summer long, I have been meaning to write a series of posts about the history of the Rideau Canal and how it is tied up with the history of Manotick. Each day I work I drive 20 km back and forth beside our gorgeous Canal, and I often think about how integral it is to everything that Ottawa is today. And what better reason to get out and celebrate the Canal than the Rideau Canal Festival, coming up this weekend? Did I mention it was free? From the press release:

From August 3rd to 6th , the Rideau Canal Festival, will be taking place at two different sites, the Bytown Museum/ Ottawa Locks and the Dow芒鈧劉s Lake Site. This festival, which was voted one of Ontario芒鈧劉s TOP 100 Festivals in 2011, is entertaining, educational and best of all free.

For its 5th anniversary and the 180th birthday of the Rideau Canal, the festival has even more activities for you and your family than ever before! Over 100 000 visitors will partake in the Festival芒鈧劉s free programming, live entertainment, tons of culture, heritage, and contemporary activities that appeal to all ages.

FREE Festival Activities include:

脗路 Outdoor shows on stage; live bands & DJs, Celtic music, and C脙漏ili on the Canal

脗路 Buskers, jugglers, stilt walkers, fire weavers & face painters etc.

脗路 Connecting Children with World Heritage; children芒鈧劉s crafts and activities

脗路 Stone carvers & canoe carver exhibition

脗路 The UNESCO World Heritage photo exhibit

脗路 Rideau Canal heritage walking tours

脗路 Kayak tours, canoe and paddle boat rentals, hula-hoop workshops

脗路 Pirate adventures

脗路 Parade of lights, Dows Lake Pavillion Fireworks, and Rideau Canal Festival Flotilla

脗路 Acrobatic dance shows

脗路 Colonel By Day celebrations,

脗路 And More!

Parliamentary post card

For more information and details on the events, you can check out the Rideau Canal Festival website. Sounds like a great way to learn a little bit of history and have some fun on a perfect summer long week end!