A Winter Holiday in Ottawa Gatineau
Reading Time: 7 minutesOttawa is a great place to spend a winter holiday. The great outdoors are around the corner, there are great coffee places and the XC are fairly accessible without a car too.
Winter
Using a bike during the #Transitchallenge2020
Reading Time: 6 minutesO what a gorgeous day it was on Wednesday. Clear skies and a temperature of only -5C. The windchill made it feel more like -15C according to Robyn Bresnahan though. Should I go downtown by bus? I had to do some errands downtown and I was heavily leaning towards public transit. Bus 88 to Hurdman and then backtrack to downtown on Line 1 would do the trick within about 25 minutes. But when I saw the sun light flowing into the house, I realised that I really should cycle at least part of the way, because a real, let alone [Read more…]
Sudbury as a holiday destination?
Reading Time: 6 minutesThis week we are visiting Kathleen Street in Sudbury, go for a skate on Ramsey Lake and a ski at Bioski and Kivi Park. #ottski #ottwalk #ottbike
A weekend in rural Quebec
Reading Time: 4 minutesLast weekend we visited a friend’s cottage near Chèneville, roughly 60 km north of Montebello. We took the quiet back roads from Buckingham via Mayo to stop in a small ski area near Ripon, the Parc des Montagnes Noires. It is not a big area, but there are a few kilometers of cross country ski trails with a few small huts. In 2015 a new building was added, the Chalet Stephane Richer, named after the Montreal Canadiens hockey forward. The chalet is not exactly a cozy chalet made of hand hewn logs, Hudson Bay blankets and a roaring fire. It [Read more…]
Gatineau Park: Winter Paradise in Ottawa’s Back Yard Captured on Mapillary
Reading Time: 6 minutesThe title of this post is a bit unfair, because Gatineau Park really is in the province of Quebec and Ottawa isn’t. It is managed by the National Capital Commission, which also manages the Greenbelt and the Rideau Canal Skateway to name but a few of the many properties they look after. But hey, in a globally connected world, in which two left-of-centre NDP run Canadian provinces (!) (Alberta and British Columbia) duke out a trade war over oil sands oil pipelines, Ottawa, Gatineau and the NCC (National Capital Commission) really should market the area together as one big National [Read more…]
Pea soup after a day in the snow
Reading Time: 4 minutesEasy peasy pea soup Nothing beats a hearty, warm bowl of Dutch pea soup after a long ski. A few times over the winter, we make a big pot which we enjoy over a number of days. Pea soup is one of those comfort foods that are filling, easy to make and easy to freeze and heat up in the microwave later in the season. Recently, a day after I made the soup again, Karen had a colleague over whose roots lay in Burundi. She liked the soup so much that she wanted the recipe. Putting the recipe together, I thought I [Read more…]
Perfect Conditions for 5th Winter Bike Parade (incl. video)
Reading Time: 3 minutesCycling in winter is much more enjoyable than you’d think. Take a look.
Chaudière Island in Pictures
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn January 2015, I had an opportunity to visit the Domtar and Hydro Ottawa sites on Chaudière Island in the Ottawa River between downtown Ottawa and downtown Gatineau. As you all likely know, the site will undergo a complete metamorphoses, starting soon. The property is closed for the public as it is still a working Hydro Ottawa site so I thought it was really cool to see it, before it will be completely transformed over the next twenty years. In a way, although it was cold, I was happy to see it in winter. It really adds to the atmosphere [Read more…]
Gift Card from Santa? Here Are Three Canadian Books
Reading Time: 5 minutesSo now what? Your mother-in-law gave you a gift certificate (or even cash in an envelope) for Christmas and you really don’t know what to buy because you have everything already. Here are three books related to cycling (or to the broader theme of a better city) for winter reading. All three books are written by Canadians: Tom Babin, who writes for the Calgary Herald; Charles Montgomery, a Vancouverite and our own Ottawa authors Craig Forcese and Nicole Laviolette, law professors at Ottawa U. 1 Frostbike – Tom Babin Tom interviewed me in September 2011 when I was speaking in Calgary [Read more…]
A Tale of Two Ottawa Retailers: Hot Chocolate Rocks
Reading Time: 5 minutesThis is a short case study of two different companies in Ottawa that are active on Twitter. Both use social media to get the word about their business out. Twitter is a channel that you shouldn’t ignore in your communication mix. Although many messages get lost in the endless stream of opinions, some times some one picks up on your message and recognises your store when cycling around town. Twitter can help build your image. Neutraceuticals Liquid Nutrition is a store in the Glebe. It is a franchise of Montreal based Liquid Nutrition. They produce and sell “a fusion of naturally [Read more…]