Making the most of the ice

I mentioned the ice-fishing in this blog last month.

Here are a few of the temporary fishing huts on the Ottawa River, viewed from a couple of thousand feet. In the bottom right hand corner (click on the picture to enlarge it) you can see that the fisherman has made a row of eight holes with his auger. This particular cluster of huts on the south side of the river was a small one, but along other stretches, such as the north side, east of Gatineau, as shown in my second picture, the layout is so well organised you could call it a town, with visitors (either on snowmobiles or in vehicles on wheels) zipping along the ice streets. Some huts have little ice rinks in their front "yards."

It isn't only the fishermen who clear away the snow to make skating rinks on the river; shore-dwellers do this too. Here's a home-made rink just off shore by Old Highway 17, probably shared by the nearby homeowners who meet on the river for a game of hockey.

Meanwhile, in the city, sculptors have been playing with ice in a more professional way, etching stylized fish, for example, onto carved blocks, for Winterlude's "Crystal Garden."