Two lesser known waterfalls of Ottawa - Princess Louise and Wateridge

The lovely Manon has been very indulgent with my affection for waterfalls and has been willing to accompany me to Hog's Back Falls, the Chaudière Falls and even the Rideau Falls.

And this past month, she agreed to visit two waterfalls that I only learned of very recently.

I must be clear that neither of these falls appear on lists with titles like Canada’s Most Breathtaking Waterfalls or The 14 Most Amazing Waterfalls in the World. However, the first one I will mention does appear on both the 15+ Waterfalls to Visit in and Around Ottawa and 8 Breathtaking Waterfalls You Need to See near Ottawa.

The Princess Louise Falls

The Princess Louise Falls might not actually be breathtaking, but they are pretty and are conveniently right next to St. Joseph Boulevard in Orleans. 

What to do there: You can get really close to the falls to enjoy them. It is a nice spot to go to have a snack or to do some thinking. There's also a path through the woods that would likely reward a little hiking. 

Parking: We parked on Taylor Creek Drive and walked about 400 metres to get to the base of the falls, but it looks like you could park across the street at the Ottawa Uyghur Center and basically be right there.

More information: 

• Lots of history from Linda Seccaspina at The Mysterious Princess Louise Falls
• Google Maps 

Wateridge Waterfall

The Wateridge Waterfall (also known as the Aviation Museum Waterfall) is across the Promenade Sir-George-Étienne-Cartier from the Aviation Museum.

It might be a dramatic waterfall in the spring, but it is definitely not dramatic in the middle of July. Especially because there is a big fence that prevents you from getting close.

I'm having trouble finding historical details about this waterfall, but it looks like it's part of municipal drainage from about a hundred years ago.  

What to do there: There are some unshaded benches along the pathway to the waterfall, so I suppose you could sit on one and read your new Louise Penny novel or jot your thoughts in your diary. 

Otherwise, it's take in the local wildlife (which in mid-July included lots of wild flowers, dragonflies and pretty yellow birds) and verify that water really is trickling down. 

Also you can pat yourself on the back for having seen Ottawa's fifth and most obscure waterfall.

Parking: The nearest unpaid and legal parking requires you to walk a kilometre each way. It is on C.H. Airport Marina Road by the entrance to a path that appears to be popular with dogs. The walk is probably very pleasant when you are not taking it in the middle of a heat wave.

The paid parking at the museum is about 300 metres closer but you have to walk next to the Promenade to get to the falls.

Google Maps 

It also looks like you can stop on the Promenade at the blocked off pathway entrance so you only have a short walk, but it might not be legal parking and doesn't look safe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video from 1995

Until very recently, I had a box with twelve 3/4" U-matic videotapes that dated from the 1980s and 1990s from my university days in the early 80s and volunteering at the Rogers 22 community TV station in the mid-90s.

The tapes were in a box collecting dust. Every few years, I'd look into getting them downloaded but it was always difficult to find someone with the right equipment, at an affordable price, and where it wasn't too complicated.

Until now. Someone on Reddit asked about downloading VHS tapes in Ottawa, and someone else replied with several options. I sent emails to a couple of the choices and it turns out that Ottawa Video Transfer has a U-matic machine, and they were willing to do it at a reasonable price. They sent a courier for the pickup and return and put the resulting mp4s on a thumb drive.

The box of tapes is now gone and I have started the process of trimming the clips, adding in things like titles, name captions and close captions and uploading them to Youtube.

The first is from September 1995 with Corinne Baumgarten reporting on the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair. Camera work by David Taylor. Interviews with John Barton, Chris Edwards, Roberta Huebner, rob mclennan, Lorraine Montgomery and Theresa Morrow.

Fellow residents of Ottawa: You are welcome

Do you remember March 3, 2023? We got 15 cm of snow. It was the fourth big dump of snow this calendar year. After tuckering myself out shovelling, I decided to shell out the bucks and order an electric snow shovel.

It arrived on March 10.

Since then we've had a few flurries that melted before I could even get outside with the new shovel. 

Was my purchase of an expensive electric shovel the reason we received no more significant snow falls? I see no other explanation.

I regret that my purchase did not prevent the ice storm with its resulting tree destruction and power failures, I think the fault for that probably lies with someone who was thinking of buying a generator but didn't.

Yesterday, it went up to 30°C. Right now, it's 21°C. I imagine someone
is thinking I should move the electric shovel to the basement and the boots next to it to the closet.

But rest assured my fellow winter sufferers, I will keep these things by the door a while yet.

And I will also hold off on putting the summer tires on the car.

Hydrants with sunglasses

Two nights ago, over on the other side of Bronson, we saw a hydrant wearing sunglasses. So last night on our walk, we paid attention to the hydrants and almost every hydrant we saw is also sporting shades.

By an odd coincidence, I used to have a bag full of old sunglasses that were no good to me (because I wear regular glasses), but now I don't seem to have any sunglasses. So I won't be making a sunglass mobile.

The hydrants in our neighbourhood are all yellow with blue caps, although there are at least two different cap designs. Apparently if a hydrant has a blue cap it means it will deliver at least 15 hundred gallons or more a minute. This seems like a lot of water to me. The yellow body means that it is a public rather than a private hydrant. [source]

Rose Roberts the Piper visits Lebreton Street

The residents of our block of Lebreton Street had a bagpipe concert last night from the talented Rose Roberts (contactable through Facebook). The concert was terrific and it was great to see all the neighbours outside smiling. The toddlers seemed to be especially delighted.

Monsters in Little Italy

I wonder what will happen to these diggers at Preston and Carling when the 45-storey condo is built. Will they just be buried underneath like the diggers of London? Or converted into furnaces like Mike Mulligan's steam shovel?

You might be right to ignore my advice

We had a successful time at the Great Glebe Garage Sale yesterday and I learned an important lesson.

At the very last sale we stopped at, Manon spotted an odd glass dish. "Do you know what this is for?"

It had a spindle sort of thing in the middle. I asked, "is it for a Bundt cake?"

"No," she said, "the sides aren't high enough and there's a pouring spout."

"Well," I said, "if you don't know what it is, you don't need it."

That was enough for me, but Manon is more curious and she had to know. So she asked another customer who made the same guess I made and then Manon asked the adorable 90-year-old Ukrainian woman running the sale.

The owner explained that the item was for roasting a chicken in the oven. You put the chicken upright over the spindle and pour out the juice to make your gravy.

She accepted a very reasonable price that I cannot share with you because her daughter who originally paid for it might come across this and we can't let the daughter know what it went for.

The lesson learned: People may do well by ignoring my advice. And if they do, I might get some roast chicken out of it.

Great Glebe Garage Sale on Saturday

It turns out that my blog postings on the Great Glebe Garage Sale have put me so high in the Google rankings that a reporter actually phoned me today to get some quotes.

Haley Ritchie quoted me in The great guide to the great Glebe garage sale.

She did not use my favourite quote that I gave her: "If you don't know what it is, you don't need it." (This is what a seller thoughtfully told me several years ago and advice I've taken to heart.)

I also advised taking pictures of things that you like but know you shouldn't take home. Here is a picture of something I didn't buy last year.

Yes, now that I look at the picture, I kind of regret not buying it.

Say, the weather forecast for Saturday looks great. Wear sunscreen!

There's lots of great links in my 2013 post on the sale.

A Lucky Lunch in Chinatown

There are worse things than being stuck in Ottawa when it's Chinese New Year's. If you're at the Ben Ben for it, you'll probably enjoy the spring rolls, and you may score a lucky envelope with a candy from your member of parliament in a purple jacket.

Manon loves a parade and she loves New Year's

That dragon can really demolish a cabbage!

Watching a building blow up

I'm happy to report that we managed to get up on time to see the end of the Sir John Carling Building.

So did many other people.


And when it happened, it was startlingly. Boom and then it came down.

Found Hat: Louisa at Lebreton

If I hadn't received so many nice hats for Christmas, I'd be tempted to take this toque that someone found by my house and put on the stop sign. It looks like the person who lost it is not a regular in the neighbourhood because it has been there for a few days.

Great Glebe Garage Sale Tomorrow

Saturday is the Great Glebe Garage Sale.

You should stay home.

The weather forecast is A mix of sun and cloud. Wind north 30 km/h becoming light in the evening. High 16. That is sunburn weather!

It’s also Ottawa Race Weekend [see Notes below].


But if you insist on going anyway, you might want to:

• Follow the excellent advice from Adam Slight at Ottawa Rickshaws;
• Read the excellent advice I provided several years ago in Garage Sale - My Schema (but where I say to stay west of Bank Street, I've changed my mind. You should stay east of Bank Street. Just don't expect to find me there);
• Consider Zoom’s well-written but misguided response: GGGS: Breaking Scrimshaw's rules; and
• Listen to Real Grouchy’s The Great Glebe Garage Sale Song!

Notes:

• Ottawa Race Weekend always falls on the GGGS weekend. Saturday road closures that affect the Glebe start after 3pm when the sales are over.

Bowling at West Park

If you're looking for a fun outing, bowling two or three strings at the West Park Bowling Centre on Wellington Street West might be just the thing for you.

For a group of four, renting a lane for an hour will probably let you bowl two strings.

The lanes are behind and connected to Fil's Diner. This means you can have a round of coffee while you bowl or even a burger and fries.

On two recent daytime outings, Manon and I have been really impressed with the friendliness of the staff.

As for the other patrons, on a Saturday, we shared the alley with two groups of kids celebrating birthdays. They seemed to be having a good time, but we didn't interact with them much except for when one little guy went to roll his ball down our lane instead of his.

On a weekday, we were just finishing up around 1 pm when a group of retirees started coming in for what was clearly their regular league time. They looked like serious bowlers - some of them with the wrist braces you see pros wearing on TV. But they were a friendly bunch, asking us how we were doing and not one of them made fun of me for not breaking a hundred on my last string.

Another bonus at West Park is the modern automatic score-keeping system. I kind of miss filling in the scores with a pencil, but it cuts down on controversy and confusion. The cutting edge technology even has special graphics:

• for a spare: a big flashing slash
• for a strike: a big flashing X
• for a gutter ball: (a special treat for the other players, but not for you) a mocking cat!

My brother Paul demonstrates that you can't take the mocking cat personally

New Sculpture at Algonquin College

I spotted a new sculpture at Algonquin College yesterday on my way to the bus stop after work. The sculpture was erected between the new Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence and the Transitway.

I believe these three shopping carts of different sizes are making a statement about consumerism and elevated expectations.

I would have taken more photos and studied the sculpture longer, but the 95 came and I had to run.

I made a movie about a squirrel

This squirrel was eating mountain ash berries last Saturday. I think this means the squirrel was very, very hungry.

Because mountain ash berries do not taste good.

Lantern and LED Tea Candle

A business that I shall not name in this posting has two of these lanterns on the sidewalk by their entrance. Nice big lanterns with tiny dim LED tea candles.

It is not a look I endorse, but I'm having trouble coming up with a pithy way to say just what is wrong with it.

It does seem that the dollar store where they probably bought the little lights let these people down.

Seasonal items for sale at the Superstore

Manon tells me that when a certain young man was much younger, she had a rule:

• He was not allowed to talk about Hallowe'en until after his birthday in September, and 
• He was not allowed to talk about Christmas until after Hallowe'en.

It's a good thing we didn't bring him grocery shopping to the Real Canadian Superstore tonight.

This stuff was across from the Hallowe'en costumes and next to these cute little owl figures.

Bec and Rusty at Irene's

Those of us who happened to be on the right email list got a real treat a week and a half ago when we saw Bec and Rusty at Irene's. Although Rusty (Russell Levia) lives in Ottawa, Bec (Rebecca Campbell) doesn't. I don't know when I last saw them perform together, maybe 1993? (Unless you count last year's Black Donnelly Sisters show where Russell joined in on a couple of songs.)

Pat Moore (hidden), Michael Ball , Russell Levia, Rebecca Campbell and Sally Robinson on the nice big stage at Irene's with sight-lines that are not blocked by support pillars

At this Irene's show there was a bit of tension before they sang the Three Bells, the song about the man whose life is measured by the chapel bells ringing in the village hidden deep in the valley among the pine trees half forlorn. Rebecca suggested that it was first performed by the Browns.

"No, Edith Piaf, I think," said Russell.

"I don't think so," said Rebecca.

I wasn't the only one who gasped. Sure, it sounds crazy that an American country classic like the Three Bells could have been debuted by Edith Piaf, but if Russell says a song he does was introduced by Piaf, you don't bet on the Browns.

According to Wikipedia, Piaf introduced Les Trois Cloches to America in 1945, and the Browns revitalized their career with the English version in 1959.

Youtube has a great video of Piaf singing Les Trois Cloches with les Compagnons de la Chanson.

If you have an Ottawa Public Libary card and you want your own legal MP3 copy:

1. Log in at the Public Libary website 
2. Explore digital music 
3. Open Freegal and 
4. Download your Edith Piaf's Les Trois Cloches 
5. For your second song of 3 free songs this week, you might want to get the Browns' the Three Bells.

If you want a Russell Levia CD (and trust me, you do), you'll find some information at cleverocity.

You can also buy CDs from Russell at any of his gigs, but ask him for one before the show even starts. It makes Russell sad if he doesn't sell all the CDs he brings to a show, so he will bring like 5 or 10. People have been known to drive him home to get more, but that might not happen the night you go.

Mysterious graffiti

Some graffiti artist put a big tag on the wall behind Harvey's on Bronson.

Another graffiti artist, with perhaps less artistic style, but clearer penmanship, asks a question that I share.

What does it say? My best guess, using the graffiti font at fontspace is "PES GESH".

Anyone have a better guess?

Desperate Times on Bronson

I know that the construction on Bronson between Somerset and Catherine is hard on the businesses there. It still doesn't seem right that every time I walk past this sign at the Harvey's, I feel nervous until I get home and see that my car is still in the driveway with no ticket on the windshield.