Walking around the Glebe...

[fajrdrako]

For weeks I've been wanting to take pictures, because Ottawa is so beautiful in October. Today I finally went out and did it - having missed the best, but it was still fun. The bright scarlet tree in front of my apartment building has faded to a grey-burgundy, and half the leaves are gone. There are beautiful leaves thick on the ground to rustle through as you walk.

These pictures are the first taken with my new camera. My old camera was the digital equivalent of a Brownie: point and shoot. This one has bells on its whistles and I haven't learned how everything works yet. It will be fun to learn. Today's set of pictures:

Inside my apartment:
The delphiniums I bought at the Farmer's Market today:




My living room: the birds, the other delphiniums, the fannish portrait of Bodie from The Professionals:




Boys playing in the street:




The tree behind my apartment building:




I loved the way this tree cast a shadow on the house:




The playground:




A few brave flowers still grow in the gardens, despite the frost last night:




The fire station:




Another house on my street - I liked the little pumpkins hanging above the porch:

Comments

[megaloo13.livejournal.com]

The foliage is gorgeous! And I love the last picture of the pumpkins on the stairs, it's so autumnal.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's classic autumn right now, but fading fast. How I wish I'd been able to take photos last week.

But it's still beautiful and it was great fun to wander around with my camera. I also saw a tall old man walking his tiny fuzzy dog - I wanted to take his photo but I was too shy to ask and there was no way to do it surreptitiously. I need to get better at this.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

It's SO Glebe-ish!

I loved the picture of the tree & its shadow.

The leaves have been at their peak this week in my area -- just gorgeous. Made me feel good just to look at them.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I liked the tree with its shadow, too. The sun was so bright today, and the shadows so dark - a typical late-October look, beautifully dramatic.

Has your husband been taking photos of your trees?

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Glad to see all of this, even at this distance.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

Beautiful! Your neighborhood looks very pleasant, and I especially love the tree with its shadow. So vivid!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's a beautiful tree in that icon, too. I love good pictures of trees.

And I'm delighted that you liked mine. I hope to take more.

[dameruth.livejournal.com]

Very pretty -- and a lovely day, too! :D

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It was a gorgeous day - I wonder how many more we'll get of those?

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

Lovely! Now that the election is over, I'll try to get out and about here in TOwn with my Kodak. We are about halfway into the change of leaves.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think Toronto is probably about two weeks behind us on the weather - I look forward to seeing your pictures.

[raissad.livejournal.com]

Wonderful foliage. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes. Too bad I can't claim responsibility. I just look out of my window, and enjoy.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

You live in the prettiest place...

I wish Lewis Collins still looked that good - alas he does not :(

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You live in the prettiest place...

Ottawa is utterly beautiful - I've seldom seen a city so nice. There are plenty of beautiful places in this world but really lovely cities are rare, and I'm rather proud of the one I'm in.

[threeringedmoon.livejournal.com]

I didn't see the garland of pumpkins until I read your caption. What a neat idea!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Garlands of pumpkins seem to be the fashion here this year - I saw it on a couple of other houses. Nice decorations, I thought. There aren't many Halloween decorations, not yet; but there probably won't be a lot.

[toraks.livejournal.com]

I slipped on some leaves this morning walking in to work -- will have to look at the trees and see what they're doing. ;-p

Though, after growing up in western Pennsylvania and New York, the foliage here just doesn't really qualify as being really autumnal! I still remember fondly the 5-6 hour drive through the forested hills of Pennsylvania and New York between home and Cornell University for "Fall Break". The trees would often be within the height of their colors at the beginning of October, and I'd be driving through the hills and just seeing the trees displayed in their glory.

Ah......

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Do let me know what your trees are like - I don't remember any colour changes at all the year I was there, but then, I was in the heart of London.

[toraks.livejournal.com]

I will. I don't think they change all that much.

By the way, forgot to say those are great pictures! I feel a bit more like I know where you live now! :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, now you've seen the block I live on, and what sort of trees and houses (and kids and playgrounds) are there. GLad you liked the pictures!

[allyra.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous! Thank you for sharing!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You're welcome - my pleasure.

[flautopiccolo.livejournal.com]

Beautiful pictures! I especially like the tree and its shadow.

This is my favorite time of year. I took pictures around our neighborhood (near Boston) last week.

Enjoy your new camera!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Beautiful pictures!

Thank you.

I especially like the tree and its shadow.

I just thought it looked so dramatic. Nature creating art.

Did you post your pictures somewhere? I didn't see them on your LJ.

Enjoy your new camera!

I hope to - and you'll probably see at least some of the results here, with my new-found enthusiasm.

[flautopiccolo.livejournal.com]

Did you post your pictures somewhere? I didn't see them on your LJ.

They're on Flickr. I'll send a link in a minute to share them with you.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, goodie - thank you.

I put the same pictures on Flickr at http://flickr.com/photos/azurite/2958897878/

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I got the link - thank you! And isn't that your icon, staring me in the face? [g] Lovely. I think the last two are my favourites, because of the composition and the contrast of yellow leaves and black branches.

[flautopiccolo.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I like them too. :)

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Lovely pics!

Mind, turnip lanterns used to be popular for Halloween when I was younger, but now the pumpkin has usurped them, from the imitation of N American popular culture (people copy from films and TV) and perhaps because it's easier to carve. Pumpkins were hardly ever seen in British shops until about 10-15 years ago. The home-made element of making guising costumes has been replaced by the sale of ready-made ones. All in the past 20-25 years. So commercialisation triumphs.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, it seems to me that more people here are making their own costumes - or maybe that's because I know a lot of theatre people. It makes sense to use pumpkins here, but are pumpkins as plentiful and cheap in the UK? I suppose if there's a market for them, there's a way of making them so.

We still hear here that 'they don't celebrate Halloween in the UK' but I keep coming across evidence to the contrary.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, it seems to me that more people here are making their own costumes - or maybe that's because I know a lot of theatre people.

Probably. Here it used to be very home-made, but things have been commercialised hugely here in the last 20 years. I've seen it happen in my own lifetime, and it's alarming.

It makes sense to use pumpkins here, but are pumpkins as plentiful and cheap in the UK?

They seem to get brought in especially for Halloween now; also plastic toy pumpkin memorabilia. When I was younger, you never saw them. Lanterns were made from swede turnips/neeps. But now, thanks to US films and TV, children now associate Halloween with pumpkins, not turnips. So the greengrocers import them (mostly from France, I think). They've never been a popular vegetable here until recent years (and very nice they are, too, but they're not part of a traditional British Halloween).

We still hear here that 'they don't celebrate Halloween in the UK' but I keep coming across evidence to the contrary.

Where do they think that North Americans got it from, then?!!! Some people are such prawns… Emigrants took it from here, then exported their own commercialised version back across the Atlantic in the past 20 years or so, and our own homegrown version is dying under the pumpkin-hued onslaught. See my own LJ post on this.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Generally SF authors of her vintage who use initial were women, because of the cootie issue.

I think (hope) this is the sort of thing that goes in cycles. I've seen it happen here in various ways - the commercialization of everything.

I always make my own costumes, myself. And when I was a kid, my mother made them. Seems to me that's the way it should be!

Personally I love turnips - to eat, not to make lanterns of, which I've never tried. But it's a cool idea.

Where do they think that North Americans got it from, then?!!!

I've always wondered that. Never got a real answer. Where do myths start?

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Personally I love turnips - to eat, not to make lanterns of, which I've never tried. But it's a cool idea.

You have to pour hot water in to help soften them in order to scoop them out, but they are very robust. The smell of Halloween is candle-inside-turnip, and treacle toffee.

I've always wondered that. Never got a real answer. Where do myths start?

I do wonder what they think, if they don't know that we did Halloween first! It's just a fusion of the Celtic New Year with the Christian All Souls' and All Saints' Feasts. Then it got stretched out a bit further, as some Halloween traditions, such as bonfires, got shifted to 5 November for Guy Fawkes' Night.

[agentxpndble.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous trees!!!

Hmm... I've *never* seen that pic of the Lads before... {{{covets}}}

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Glad you like the trees. Lucky thing I took photos on Sunday, since the rain has since removed a lot of the foliage.

As for my Bodie and Doyle photo - isn't it great? There's another one, of Doyle solo, on my other wall, which I will photograph sometime. I got them both from a dealer in the States who has, I think, died. I wouldn't know how to get them again, more's the pity.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I've *never* seen that pic of the Lads before... {{{covets}}}

It's the tiny, fluffy, feathered 'lads' that impress me! Budgies=the height of cuteness and adorability!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

They chirp happily and fluffily in the light your your praise. (Which is, of course, well deserved.)

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Good! They are magical wee creatures!

[filkferengi]

Thanks for sharing the cool pix! Our foliage is just starting to turn down here, but will be much less resplendent than usual, due to the last two years of drought. Individual leaves are still gorgeous, but not so much in the aggregate.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

A couple of days of rain, and it's almost all gone now. I got it at the last moment - and I'm glad I did.

[filkferengi]

Me too!