With rain forecast, we decided to visit the local Nature museum. Helen dropped me and Sue off at the entrance, then we visited the museum before walking the 11.6km home, via the Rideau Canal, Hog's Back Falls, and Mooney's Bay.
It did rain, but by the time we emerged from the museum we needed sunglasses, which we'd left at home.
The first thing that caught our eyes in the museum was the stained glass windows at the entrance. As in most museums of this type, there was far too much to take in on one short visit. The building itself, built in 'Scottish baronial' style, is remarkable - it started off in about 1905 as a museum in a farmer's field, and it rose to fame by housing the parliament for several years after the parliament buildings burned down in 1915. It has been refurbished with stairs outside the main part of the building, where an original tower was demolished due to subsidence, and this new 'lantern' structure houses what appears to be a giant inflated jellyfish in the stairwell.
The first four pictures were taken in the museum, the fifth was taken as we strolled along the 7.8km skating 'rink' that is the Rideau Canal.
Below the random gratuitous dinosaurs are two woodpeckers next to each other in the aviary. Downy on the left, Hairy on the right, clearly showing the difference in size.
Below them is a Great Auk, a specimen that defeated the taxidermist.
I'll do another posting soon, with a few more pictures.
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