Free tree!

The City of Ottawa delivered our free tree on Friday, along with a bag of shellfish compost and pine mulch.

This is a closeup of the leaves on the tree.

We had asked for a ginkgo biloba tree as our first choice. The Ginkgo Biloba has very distinctive leaves, so we didn't get our first choice. The Ginkgo Biloba is very unique and is very hardy against pests and harsh climactic conditions. This species of tree also has no other living relatives. But the most unique aspect of that tree is that it is a living fossil - it is from the Pilocene era.

For our second choice, we had asked for a Maple tree, which this is not. I couldn't remember what our 3rd choice was so I started googling for images of the leaves from the tree list on the city's web site, ignoring the maples and the ginkgo biloba, of course!

This is a photo of a serviceberry tree that I found on ecoterralandscape.com. I saw this photo and it reminded me that I had selected the serviceberry because its berries are good food for birds. The serviceberry is not a huge tree so having it relatively close to the garage is okay.

This is the info from the City of Ottawa web site about the serviceberry.

Can you read it? I'll transcribe it for you:
Botanical name/common name: Amelanchier spp. Serviceberry
Native to Ottawa: yes
Average height at maturity: 7 m
Average width at maturity: 4 m
Characteristics: white flowers and edible fruits
Summer colour: light green
Fall colour: red-orange


The tree has been planted, and I am watering it with the root feeder. I left it in the ground for almost an hour because only a little water comes out as the end is mostly clogged with a little stone that is stuck in the nozzle!

NCC Sound and Light Show

I had tried to find out what touristy things were on, for the skin and blister visit. One attraction that was still on was the National Capital Commission's (NCC) Sound and Light show. It is a celebration of Canada, the history, the natural beauty, and the people that made this country great. It was a 30 minute show that was held after dark, and used the Parliament Buildings as a surface to project the images onto. It was 'held over' until Monday Sep 14th, so we decided to go down on Sunday night as it wasn't raining and we weren't sure it wouldn't rain on Monday night. This shows the Peace Tower, in the period leading up to the show.

Of course, it was dark, and it was difficult to take a photo. Miraculously, this one turned out quite well, so you can see how the Parliament Buildings were used as a projection screen.

I was quite surprised that the seats (bleachers) were all full, and there were even people sitting on the grass to watch the show.

It was quite chilly that evening, as all the tea we had before going down town was fighting to make its way out, so we made a speedy exit to get home.