We rose from our warm beds to a temperature of minus 28C outside, the coldest it has been here this winter. Too cold for comfortable skiing, so Sue and Ken went for a skate on the Rideau Canal.
Helen stayed at home and I walked down to the canal to meet Sue and Ken for lunch. We are about the same distance from the centre of Ottawa as we are in Timperley from the centre of Manchester (13 to 15 km), but some of the riverside stretches here are on private land. So it’s a 4 km road walk to Hog’s Back falls, into which the water in the top picture pours.
Nearby, the footpath beside the Rideau Canal is joined at this lock.
After a couple of kilometres the end of the skating rink is reached. The sign at the end of the canal indicates 7.8 km to the Parliament Buildings – claiming to be the longest rink in the world.
I walked about half way down the rink before meeting Ken and Sue. Here, the rink passes under a bridge, near the TD football stadium, home of the Ottawa Redblacks. Note the motorist who appears to have taken the wrong exit at a roundabout. Canadians don’t ‘do’ roundabouts!
It was a day for wrapping up warm.
It’s traditional to snack on ‘BeaverTails’ when skating on the canal. These are flavoured pastries, our favourite being cinnamon and sugar. By the time we had queued up, we were sufficiently cold to need to indulge in a bit of speed eating, so photos of the actual BeaverTails (which is exactly what they look like) will have to wait.
I walked and the others skated back to where Ken’s car was parked next to the Dow’s Lake extension to the ice rink. Somehow I managed to arrive first, and I was relieved to see them not too far behind me on this icy cold day.
In between all this activity, Helen and Sue had been baking a cake. It was Ken’s birthday today. Just two years to go before retirement for him.
The kitchen had, during the manufacturing process, been designated a ‘no go’ zone due to a minor explosion of sugar. Surely they were making a cake, not a bomb! But I was allowed to record the results of their efforts, as portrayed below.
Careful! It’s about to explode!
I dread to think what’s in the turquoise icing…
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