Catch-up - Photo walk, Remembrance Day, Plants and Animals

It's been much too long since my last post!!  Let's see if I remember how to do this...

Jenn is involved with a photography project at church, where people are encouraged to "see" and pay more attention to the world around them.  A few weeks ago, while she was on vacation, I helped out by leading a photo walk, where a group of interested people would go on a walk on a planned route, and take photos.  However, only one person showed up, so it was a bit smaller group than anticipated!  We did have an interesting walk nevertheless.


The route led us around the convention centre, and this cool sculpture, inspired by the plentiful rain.

I liked the similarity to the roof of the old part of the convention centre.

Stairs leading down to the sea-plane docks.

Enjoying a nice fat cigar, and the view.

The roof of the convention centre is covered in grass and shrubs.

The fountain underneath the Olympic cauldron.


Last Sunday I went to view the Remembrance Day ceremonies at the cenotaph.

 

Some of the old WWII vets still manage to march in the parade.

 

Everyone adds their poppies to the base of the cenotaph after the ceremony.

And, to warm up from the chilly day, I went to this sweet little Quebecois diner, for a huge helping of smoked meat poutine - it hit the spot nicely!!

This afternoon, we headed out to the University, to see the Biodiversity Museum.  It's a research library of over 2 million specimens of plants and animals from all over the world.

The entrance hall features a skeleton of a Blue Whale!  It is 80 feet long, and amazing to see!

They've got rows and rows of cabinets, filled with the various specimens.

 

Some are on display as taxidermy, animals posed in natural conditions.

 

Others are in drawers, samples more appropriate for scientific study...

Or in jars (mostly suitable for horror movies!!)

It was a surprisingly fascinating few hours that we spent there!  We saw a short film about how they excavated and reassembled the whale - it was rotting for 20 years buried on a beach in PEI, and still had a lot of very smelly flesh!  Thankfully they were able to clean it up.