Ice passing Porter Island

The temperature's above zero, it's cloudy but not raining and the Amphibex is as far upstream as Cummings Bridge. That's progress. This afternoon, as we walked towards the Rideau Falls—brown water in full spate!—I could smell the river. Heard and saw ducks on it, too.

Following the current of the river, the pieces of ice broken off by the Amphibex, but not into such large chunks as I've seen in previous years, are making their way to the falls. Beneath the falls the pile of ice is spreading, dirty with foam around the edges. The other (?) Amphibex is no longer trapped in that area. Pools of water are forming in the riverside parks, not to mention the puddles on streets and sidewalks. Slush everywhere.

In my picture the ice is floating between Porter Island and the Bordeleau Park bank. In 1913, there was a smallpox isolation hospital on this island. Nowadays it is where the elderly live, either in one of the most prestigious and expensive retirement residences in town, The Rockcliffe—it offers one or two bedroom and studio apartments, a luxurious lounge "with a panoramic view of the river," a library, a spa, a theatre, a dining room opening out on to the gardens with a and patio area and a limousine to take the residents anywhere they want to go—others live in the building opposite, on the other tip of the island, the nursing home.