A quiet city of 83,000

Grave of Cecil Spring Rice, 1859-1918

On my way to pick up my bike that has been in for a tune-up at the bike shop this week, I walked through Beechwood Cemetery, Canada's national cemetery today. I was on the look out for a certain grave, the resting place of Sir Cecil Spring Rice ('Springy' Rice, as he was affectionately known). He died in Ottawa in 1918, having written the words of a hymn that nearly everyone knows: "I vow to thee, my country ..." (the music by Holst and its repeated use on Armistice / Remembrance Day are what makes it memorable). The motive for my quest was that I need to illustrate an article that one of the Ottawa-CFUW members has written about this, for publication in an upcoming issue of our newsletter, for which I'm currently the editor. We'd already found a picture of the grave online, but I wasn't sure we had permission to use it, so thought I'd take my own photo.

Knowing that there are a great many graves in this cemetery I thought I had best go into the office to ask where this one was located. The lady at the reception desk was very helpful, even giving me a map, having looked up the information in a thick reference book. The areas of the graveyard are numbered, in no very logical order it seems to me, but I'm sure there's a system behind it. I commented on how full the cemetery was, and the lady replied that "at the last count" they reckoned they had 83,000 people buried here. That is a lot. Some of their families have had memorial trees planted as well.

During my walk I started on Beechwood Avenue and walked all the way to the St. Laurent Blvd. at the far end, which is quite a distance, meandering to follow the roads and to search within Section 22. I did find his grave in the end but failed to find the grave of my friend Melita, whose funeral I'd attended here last year, the remembrance ceremony taking place in the "Sacred Space" indoors and at her graveside (but we were led there and I couldn't remember the exact plot). The place looks different in the summer.

The Chinese Pagoda at the cemetery

I'd been on a guided tour here once and remembered that at the eastern end there's a Chinese area with names on the gravestones written in Chinese characters. I found that again and admired the oriental pavilion with a cast iron incense burner beside it and a gateway that adorns the garden alongside. This no doubt gives comfort to the relatives of the people buried here: a touch of home.

A film about Beethoven's ghost

It is set in Ottawa, filmed over the course of a year at a private home here and at Elmwood School (a posh and old-fashioned independent school for girls) in Rockcliffe Park. (I've been inside Elmwood and know people involved with the school, so it all looked familiar.) One scene takes place at the National Arts Centre downtown, and there are some outdoor scenes shot in the local parks and woodland. At the end of the film an aerial sequence was filmed from a drone.

This is how the creator of the film sums up the plot:

A 12-year-old disenfranchised girl is visited by the ghost of Beethoven because he can’t stand the way she is destroying his music at the piano. Both her mom and her music teacher have failed to raise her musical interest level. Meanwhile, her friends have been trying to lure her to the soccer field or to practice gymnastics — without much response. It’s the power of music and Beethoven’s bombastic belligerence which shakes Sarah out of her doldrums and leads her into a local piano competition where she plays his Moonlight Sonata. Sarah is rejuvenated by these life experiences and is finally able to celebrate with her friends on the soccer field.

Sarah MacDougall Meets the Ghost of Beethoven is the title of this film. I was in the audience in Freiman Hall at the university when Music and Beyond screened it, and when the director Kevin Reeves (who also conducts a local choir) answered questions about it. It was fascinating to hear him explain how he prepared for the at-home scenes, where the girl is practising the Beethoven pieces on her piano:

...most of it was shot in my living room, around the piano, where Beethoven coaches Sarah, yelling at her frequently. For nearly a year I had seven windows covered in black, like a studio, so that we could control the light for the piano scenes. We even had to simulate a massive lightning storm.

The ghost, played by one of Mr. Reeves' friends, well cast in the part and charismatic, especially once he'd donned the wig, apparently, enters the story quite early and from then on plays the dominant role in it. There are some recognisable actors. Julian Armour, Music and Beyond's Director, plays the part of the music teacher, Mr. Edwards. "Call me Tom!" he says, in a scene with the girl's anxious mother. He plays his own personality, but is just right in this role. The mother is played by another friend of the director's.

The girl herself was well coached and could play the piano very musically too. Her own schoolmates (from the school's Drama Club!) acted as her schoolmates in the film. Because the project took a year, there were times when the actresses had grown up a year between one scene and the next, but the fading in from one sequence to the next was so cleverly done that I didn't notice. "Sarah" hugs the ghost in the scene where she says goodbye to him, and tells him she loves him, a touching moment. There is of course a didactic message in this story. At the end of it, on the sports field, the girl lists all the other classical composers she'd like to discover. In future, I'm sure the film will regularly appear as a teaching tool.

Mr. Reeves has a twinkling eye and a great sense of humour. At one moment, in the scene played at the NAC, another recognisable Ottawa musician and personality, Matthew Larkin, is mistaken for Beethoven's ghost, because (in reality, and especially when seen from behind) he has similar hair.

I and the old gentleman sitting beside me chuckled throughout and thoroughly enjoyed this event.

In case you'd like to watch the film or skim through it yourself, I attach the whole YouTube recording here:

Two weeks in Ottawa

We have been busy with Richard and Sarah from England for the last two weeks, who seemed to make the most of their time here. I thought I'd write down what they did, in case in future we ever run out of ideas for entertaining other visitors. The following list also explains why I haven't had time for blogging recently, especially since the Music and Beyond festival started; I have a festival pass that I'm using on most days, at the moment.

Thursday, 26 June, having arrived on Air Canada flight 889, Richard and Sarah walked with us to the Minto Bridges and Rideau Falls at sunset.

Friday, 27 June. I took them in the car through Chelsea, to both ends of Meech Lake, then back to Chelsea, where we saw the Gatineau Park visitors' info. centre and a few shops. Then we had a drink in the garden of a cafe and drove back to Ottawa. In the afternoon Richard and Sarah walked around Parliament Hill and the Byward Market. Elva, Laurie, Carol and Don came round to join us for supper.

Saturday, 28 June. To the Natural History museum, and then they walked home through town. Richard went flying in PTN with Chris in the afternoon while Sarah had a rest, and after supper I took both visitors to the “sunset ceremonies” and “musical ride” in the grounds of the RCMP headquarters. We were lucky that this free public show coincided with their visit.

Sunday, 29 June. Outing to Upper Canada Village by car with lunch at the Morrisburg golf club.

Monday, 30 June. Day’s outing to Omega Park, Quebec, taking the river ferry from Cumberland on the way there and back. We stopped at the flying club on the way back too.

Tuesday, 1 July. Canada Day. Our visitors claim to have walked 6 miles round town in the extreme heat and thunderstorms that day.

Wednesday, 2 July. Visited National Art Gallery and Royal Mint, on foot.

Thursday, 3 July. River boat ride from Gatineau. Lunch outdoors at Canadian History Museum’s cafeteria. In the afternoon Richard visited to Aviation and Space museum without Sarah, driven there and back by Ali.

Friday, 4 July. Chris took a day off work so he could drive us to Mud Lake via riverside stone sculptures. We fed the wild birds and stopped for a pub lunch. Richard and Sarah visited the War Museum in the afternoon and in the evening we all went out for a barbecue supper at Elva’s and Laurie’s house.

Saturday, 5 July. Richard visited Science and Technology museum, while Sarah kept her feet up, reading and watching videos. In the evening, Richard and Sarah fed the geese in our local park.

Sunday, 6 July. Visit to the Museum of Canadian History, taking the water taxi back to Ottawa.

Monday, 7 July. Taxi to Science and Tech museum (Richard’s 2nd visit). Bus back to town. Canal boat ride. Walked through local parks to Rideau Hall side gate at sunset.

Tuesday, 8 July. I had the car so could drive Richard and Sarah to Wakefield: we saw Wakefield Mill, the covered bridge, Wakefield's tourist information centre (an old farmhouse converted into a museum) and shops. Lunch at Chamberlin’s Lookout with a view of the Gatineau River. After that, I drove them back to Ottawa where they saw the RCMP visitors’ centre by the RCMP stables, then home through Rockcliffe Park, seeing the houses of Ottawa's upper classes.

Wednesday, 9 July. Our visitors walked to Rideau Hall for a tour of the Hall, visitors’ centre and grounds. From there, they walked into town and had lunch at the Earl of Sussex Pub. In the evening, we all went to Parliament Hill to watch Mosaika, the national capital's sound and light show.

Thursday, 10 July. Lunch at the Canal Ritz restaurant beside the canal. I drove them to Parliament Hill afterwards and they walked home, one last time, from there. In the late afternoon, we drove to QNX via the Nepean Sailing Club. They departed on Air Canada flight 888 in the late evening, while Chris and I began to recover from this hectic fortnight, spending an hour or so at the Clocktower Pub in New Edinburgh, with friends.

Wabano!

The word means "New Beginnings" and refers to "the dark moment before dawn, when magic happens."

Our Diplomatic Hospitality Group was welcomed to the new Wabano Centre on Montreal Road with a joyful chant, sung by three young women and a man to the beat of a drum, "the heartbeat of Mother Earth." Carlie Chase, Director of Initiatives (on the left in my photo), said, "We want you to get to know us and our culture, not just the building. You can help to tell our story of what's here."

People call it a health centre but there is no word for health in the aboriginal languages, because their word meaning "good life" encompasses emotional, physical, mental and spiritual health, as well as pride in one's heritage and a sense of belonging (prosperity was not mentioned).  "A long, long time ago," said Bruce, "the Creator gave us four different medicines." He held them up and passed them around, to show us: sage, sweet grass, tobacco and cedar. Sweetgrass grows all over North America and has a purple root. They braid it for various purposes. Cedar leaves are used to make a tea full of vitamin C that has been used as a cure for scurvy. Tobacco is their ceremonial incense, used when making a prayerful request from other people or from Mother Earth.

We were introduced to the Smudge cleansing ritual, reminiscent of what happens at the incense burners in Buddhist temples. The sacred herbs are burned in a shell, a symbol of water, and the smoke fanned towards the supplicant with a feather, representing the wind, so that she can pull it across her head, her ears and eyes, and breathe it in, thus taking away negativity and encouraging kind thoughts. It "reminds us to be quiet." Silence is important in the aboriginal way of life. "We don't have a religion. There's no dogma. We only offer what's needed."

The coloured dome of the building, yellow, red, black and white, represents a medicine wheel and also stands for the different races of the world's people, the colours of their skins. Preventative medicine is a basic principle of indigenous culture: "You are to reflect the beauty that you see around you. That's the teaching!" The medicine wheel also shows the four stages of life, which "don't divide; they connect." Therefore on Wabano's Cultural Nights "... seniors, youth and everyone are together. It's a little chaotic."

By contrast, Carlie Chase was critical of mainstream Canadian society that's "set up in silos."

The Montreal Road Wabano Centre has enough room for a reception of 500 people, exhibition space, a rooftop garden where traditional medicines will be grown and used for teaching, a sewing centre where women can use industrial-strength machines and take sewing classes, a catering business, likewise offering people the chance to learn employable skills, a medical clinic, youth programs, day care for young children, mental health and homelessness care, and a "maternal wellness" centre. While we were there we saw a very young baby being carried home, after a check-up. Since 1998 the Wabano health care providers have been helping to deal with the marginalised people in our city. Bruce, for example, had spent 11 years locating and helping homeless aboriginals on the streets. At present they have a 6-member outreach team for the homeless and a team visiting vulnerable seniors as well.

The Conflict Between Good And Evil

Contrary to popular perception, the federal government does not fund this work because it happens "off-reserve" and it surprised most of our group to hear that 70% of First Nations people in Canada do not live on reserves. In fact more than half of these people come to the cities for the sake of jobs or education, but often find themselves "blocked" (as Carlie put it) because when they arrive they have no idea how to use the buses, the health system, etc. and have to be helped. Wabano's mission is to break down the barriers. In Canadian schools indigenous culture is only taught as an optional (elective) subject and even then, not until Year 11, so non-aboriginal Canadians tend to be ignorant, prejudiced. Police and social services personnel and the general public are encouraged to come to the Centre and learn.

The federal and provincial governments contributed $2.3 million each to the building project, but a further $9.6 million was required. The star blanket tile design on the floor of the Fire Hall, where individual tiles are being donated for $200 each, is part of this fundraising campaign. $400,000 has been raised so far, and by renting parts of the building to visitors for meetings and celebrations such as weddings, more money will be made. The board room is an impressive place for meetings, with tongues of flame on the table.

"Fire" in the board room

The architect Douglas Cardinal intended the building to be symbolic; it is on four levels. The earth floor is the basement where children are cared for. Water, represented by a blue floor and glass or glazed surfaces, is where the new mothers go for guidance (women are traditionally the keepers of water). The reception area up a curved flight of steps is inspired by fire (the community) and above that is "the sky world, where all is possible" on Level 4. We were taken up to the top of the building in groups and peered through the windows of a classroom where women were being taught to make quilts. In the corridor, pictures of "the Seven Grandfather Teachings" were hung displaying Wabano's core values: Humility, Truth, Honesty, Love, Bravery, Respect and Wisdom. Again, I was reminded of Asian culture.

We were shown inside the washrooms, even the Gents', decorated with wampum belts. The Ladies' featured a strawberry mosaic, strawberries representing the heart.

Pictures and artefacts like the heron sculpture (standing for provision and patience) or the feather head-dress gave us further insights. A corn husk mat hung in the main hall. During winter the women of the family would braid corn husks together, a laborious task, and tell the story of how the Sky Woman brought corn, beans and squash to Mother Earth.

Andrea decorating a stick

While one group was touring the premises, the rest of us could help ourselves to coffee and bannocks and decorate "talking sticks" in the Fire Hall. This was to demonstrate how family therapy worked. The idea is that (s)he who holds the stick is the one who may talk. (Sometimes a feather, antler or rock is used for this purpose.) The others must listen, because, as Bruce says, "When jaws are wagging, ears don't hear." When a troubled family comes to the Centre each member of that family has to contribute "something dear to their hearts" with which to decorate their communal talking stick. Our Diplomatic Hospitality members each took home such a stick. I decorated mine with a foil cone on a strip of leather, some red embroidery thread, three plaited coloured ribbons with beads, larger glass beads, a strip of fur and a feather. Some of the others were more flamboyant!

Finally it was time to "complete the circle" and finish with a Circle Dance around the star on the floor, everyone joining in: foreign diplomats, their Canadian friends from Ottawa and the Wabano people.

Round the pond on a Sunday morning

Downy Woodpecker (Wikipedia image)

Seven of us did a circuit of Mud Lake this morning, stopping to feed the chickadees and nuthatches with the bird seed we'd brought with us. We had gloves on but discovered that the little birds––so light weight!––preferred to land on our bare hands. We couldn't leave our hands bare for long because the windchill was a biting -18ºC.

As we came to the section of the path near the Deschênes Rapids on the Ottawa River, we spotted some other kinds of birds: American robins (weren't they supposed to migrate south?) and a pair of woodpeckers. To my delight the male one flew onto my hand. Further on we saw a cardinal too.

The rapids

On Mud Lake itself, entirely frozen over, families were having fun on skates, one part of the pond having been swept for practising, another part for impromptu games of hockey. The trail we followed was shared with cross country skiers and children being pulled along on sledges. Robert and I had a chat about travelling to Siberia!

Elva, Francine, Carol and Robert at Britannia Point

A most satisfactory walk. When we sat down to brunch at the ever popular Newport Restaurant on Richmond Road, the men at one table, their wives at another, the waitress commented that we smelled like washing fresh from a clothes line. "Where have you girls been?" she wanted to know.

Reclaiming our cities for people

On Market Hill, in Cambridge

Since I visited Cambridge, England, and Cardiff, Wales, earlier this summer, I have been thinking how pleasant it would be if Ottawa and other North American cities followed the example of the British ones and eliminated more motor vehicles from the places where people congregate. As you walk towards and through Cambridge's central Market Square or along St. Mary Street in Cardiff, where cars once used to wage a continuous battle with pedestrians for priority of access, what you now hear is the sound of human voices and footsteps. What an improvement! Those are acceptable, tolerable, natural sounds; they do not raise your blood pressure. The air is easier on the lungs as well.

Four happy people walk down St. Mary Street, in Cardiff

In Cambridge we sat on a bench by the Guildhall and watched the people go by, very conscious of this quietness. In Cardiff I sat at an outdoor streetside coffee table noticing the same thing.

The only time when Ottawa's city core is reclaimed by the people is on Canada Day when the approaches to the War Memorial and the streets from Parliament Hill to the Byward Market are so thronged with partying crowds that it would be impossible for a vehicle to get through in any case. The only street that's permanently closed to traffic in downtown Ottawa is Sparks Street: "Canada's Most Unique Street" as it claimed to be (to our amusement as we discovered that there are degrees of uniqueness), when we first arrived here.

Where have the vehicles gone since they were forbidden access to the heart of the city in Cardiff and Cambridge? They have been diverted, of course. Driving into town now demands a bit of thought and planning, because you have to park around the edges and walk. Is that such a bad thing? People do get used to the idea when they discover how much more attractive their city has become since the ban on cars, and tend to stop complaining. My elderly mother told me yesterday that small vehicles––"shop mobility scooters"––have been laid on free of charge for the people who don't find walking so easy (although you have to know where to locate them). The city has obviously given this a good deal of thought, as can be seen from this leaflet. Of course it helps that the bus and rail network in and around Cardiff is very good, too.

Links between Canada and China

A drive across town this morning took Lolan and me along the Rideau Canal, skaters making the most of the blue sky and ice that has been swept clear of snow after yesterday's storm. Where the canal widens out into Dows Lake a skaters' road across it has been created so that they can reach the pavilion. This month, during Winterlude, there'll be rides in horse-drawn sleighs here and huts selling Beavertails. Lolan was encouraging me to cross the river into Quebec (where she lives) and share some hot chocolate with her after I'd seen the snow sculptures in the Jacques Cartier Park.

We also talked about the ice sculptures to be carved in Confederation Park this month: the "Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Canada" is going to "highlight the Chinese New Year with a garden of lanterns, dance performances, a photo exhibit and tea ceremonies in an Asian yurt, and the participation of two teams of ice carvers, straight from the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival".


We were on the way to our German conversation and when we arrived at the house I stopped to take a picture, so dramatic did it look in the snow. There too, in the house, was a reminder of China, because one of the walls in the dining room is decorated with a lovely oriental fresco.

A week on Sunday, Chris and I are planning to attend a Chinese New Year event with the Canada-China Friendship Society of Ottawa, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit with a "banquet" at the Mandarin Restaurant on Ogilvie Road.

Drummers, acrobat and crane

If you'd missed this notice in the Ottawa Citizen, you wouldn't have expected to look up yesterday evening over the roofs of the Byward Market to see those seven noisy drummers dressed in 18th century French costumes (tricorne hats) and a trapeze artist suspended in the air from a giant crane. They call it the Mobile Homme. A compulsive sight that stopped the traffic and stopped business in the market for a while too. I overheard a woman saying, "Well, I've never seen anything like that before!"

Un mobile de percussionnistes prenant place à plus de 200 pieds dans les airs, soutenus par une grue de 300 tonnes!

I am so annoyed that I didn't have my camera with me. Here's a link that gives you an idea of the excitement, though.