New glimpses into old Favourites

Recently, we discovered a cool new bonus perspective on Shirley's Bay. one of our tried and true trails in Ottawa.

We already knew that the trail was great for teaching Margot how to cross country ski; it has just the right amount of hills to make skiing interesting, without too many hills to cause too much trouble. However, the bonus we discovered is that, in the dead of winter, you can ski right onto the Ottawa river. 

The first time we went on the ice we saw some snow kiteboarders in the distance

The first time I tried this was a few weeks ago and I'll admit that I was bit nervous about going onto the ice of such a vast body of water. But the second time I tried I went full steam onto the ice.

What I enjoy most about skiing on the ice is the long horizon you get. The river just keeps going and going. People who live near the sea, beside tall mountains or even in treeless places like the Prairies, perhaps don't appreciate just how fortunate they are to have such vast views. In most parts of Ottawa such views simply don't exist - everything is so flat and normally your horizon is only a couple of hundred metres away.

Two brave explorers

But that's not the case here! On the river, the snow and ice just keeps going and going with nothing to interrupt your sight line except for the occasional kiteboarder or ice fishing hut....

Small but annoying fact: I lost my waterbottle somewhere out here!

The perfect place to feel small. 

Baking is Essential

I meandered down Wellington Street on Sunday. Even though non-essential stores are supposed to be closed (except for curb side pickup for online orders) the Wellington Bagel Shop is still open. So I took full advantage and bought...English muffins. No just kidding, I bought bagels.

Then on the walk home I bought some pastries from Luisa Bakery, which is a Portugese bakery that has opened up at the end of my street. I bought two Pastéis de Nata, one Pastéis de Feijão, two Palmiers, and one Cinnamon bun. (haha I just realized that I purchased a "deal" of 6 pastries for $13 and if I had bought them individually it would have been $11.50! I have to sit in on one of Margot's math classes).

"Let them eat Pastries!"

I also picked up a bottle of Laranjada - a kindof carbonated orange flavour soft drink. It's different! The kind of thing I would drink on an overseas trip to Europe while thinking..."how different!". I like it.

These guys opened last summer. Brave! And yummy.

I haven't been closely following what is non-essential vs. essential but it seems to be that as long as a store has a portion of its shop devoted to grocery store-ish products, it can stay open. This appears to explain why one of our local ice cream shops, Stella Luna, has mysteriously stayed open. I noticed a month ago that they replaced all their seating with grocery store shelves. I wondered, at the time, why they did that. Now I know, those far-sighted rascals: lockdown proof ice cream. Just what Ottawa needs in the dead of winter!*

* They may also be able to stay open because they offer take out?

And now, a message from... the Gladstone

Taken from the currently closed Gladstone Theatre, which is around the corner from our house:

You said it!

With the closing of Ottawa's only independent cinemas, the Bytowne, last week, how much longer can places like the Gladstone survive? Just hang in there guys...