Winterlude 2012 – Ice Sculptures
Feb 6th – 2012 – One day of +6C temperatures and clear blue skies with lots of sunshine took a quick toll on the smaller sculptures out in the open by the fountain in Confederation Park and by the time that Steve Boyton and I arrived to photograph them in the evening, they were no longer in existence. This year, the Winterlude planners had erected canvas shelters to protect the larger carvings from the elements. Although the larger carvings were all dripping wet and had melted somewhat and, in some instances, had lost parts due to gravity and the melting action of the day’s heat wave, there were enough of the sculptures still intact to provide a glimpse of the excellent work that had been completed only a day earlier. These are but a few of the remaining large sculptures. Forecast colder temperatures will preserve what remains for a few more days but the grandeur and full beauty of the more delicate carvings has unfortunately succumbed to one day of warm weather, not what the planners and NCC folks would have wished for.
The one day of warm temperatures did not too adversely affect the ice on the nearby Rideau Canal so the canal stayed open for ice skating and that would have pleased the organizers and taking away a bit of the sting of losing the sculptures so quickly.
