Ice by Night

Winterlude 2010, wk. 2, Ottawa, ON

Every year I try to enjoy Winterlude at least once. With 3 weekends to choose from it's pretty easy to fit in the best events: skating on the Rideau canal, exploring the snow park (see next entry) and viewing the masterpieces carved from giant ice blocks with chainsaws.
A friend suggested I see the ice sculptures at night this year because they light them up and there are less children to run your over - well she was right about the first part. So I dragged by boyfriend out to Confederation Park on a Saturday night to see the sculptures and we were confronted with a new feature of Winterlude - a giant dance party. Apparently this year they play techno every Friday and Saturday night to attract a younger audience - it was very loud, but we still managed to see the sculptures without too much trouble.

Under the advice of my sister, I have decided to pick an "author's choice" and allow my followers (yay for my one follower!) to pick a "follower's choice"

Follower's Choice: Like one of the pictures more than the others? Let me know which you like best - next week I'll post the most popular!

Author's Choice: Every week I will pick my favourite picture and try to explain why. My choice is marked with a ♥

This sculpture was not part of the competition but done as a decoration piece. The guns on the ship would light up every so often like they were shooting.

The Butterfly

The Chimera. After I took some pictures of this sculpture (which won 3rd place in the competition), I was suddenly surrounded by 9 year old boys trying to get closer to the sculpture and had to wait for them to settle down before I could get away. Tied for Follower's Choice with The Mermaid

The Geisha.

This sculpture won first prize.

The Gnome. I really liked this one because they utilized the tree in the scene. I also love knitting so the yarn bombing was a bonus!

The Mermaid. The detail on the fin (hard to see in the photo) is extremely intricate, making this a pretty impressive piece.

♥ - this is my favourite photo because of the way the light shines right through her stomach, giving her a supernatural feeling

Tied for follower's choice with The Chimera

Ogopogo -

Canada's Loch Ness Monster

Recycle Walrus. I LOVE this guy! He is made of all recycled material - old water bottles mostly. I just think he is so creative :)

The Chinese Dragon. At one point they had this guy breathing fire - but I guess it was melting the ice so they stopped and we missed it.

Gone Fishin'. This one is fun - they even have the lure seemingly floating about the fish