It’s an activities rich week-end in Ottawa. In my mind the most popular ones are:

• Doors Open Ottawa
• Ottawa Ribfest on Sparks Street
• Ottawa Chinatown Night Market

But there’s more! Check out this link to see the other events happening in the city.

It’s Doors Open this week-end. A great way to step inside buildings that are normally closed to the public. And others you might not have thought of. Go out! Explore. The City of Ottawa has a great Doors Open event information page. See what ToDo Canada has to say about the even.

Parts of Carling Avenue are not particularly brilliant. It is forecast that the arrival of the Altea Active – Wellness and Social Club will help bring life back to that at times dismal Avenue.

May is involved with the SoPa – “south of Parliament”. He states that currently, the civil servant strike is bringing people downtown and to the restaurants but beyond that they have thoughts for how to revitalize the downtown core.

Of course Ottawa has the well known, large museums:

• Canadian War Museum
• The National Art Gallery
• Canadian Museum of Nature
• Canadian Museum of History
• The Canadian Aviation and Space Museum

But what about the smaller museums. The Ottawa Business Journal has put together a post on the Hidden gems: Discover Ottawa’s other museums

As reported by CityNews and CBC yesterday, the stretch of Wellington Street in front of Parliament that was closed subsequent to the Freedom Convoy of January 2022, will repopen today, Friday April 28. Such great news! It certainly took long enough! Must be 18 months ago or so I’d be driving back home from a friends uisng Sussex Drive then Wellington and thinking what a great drive it is. Next time I do that there’ll be a champagneless celebration in my car – and I’ll certainly not take that drive for granted ever again.

Bear in West End Ottawa


What started earlier this morning as a warning to residents ends sadly. I was going to say: “I’m reading conflicting information on this, but I’ll just keep writing.” Then I read that the bear was euthanized. The bear was first seen in Bells Corners then in the Bridlewood area. In an earlier post I read that he had returned to the woods. Subsequently, I read that residents were being asked to temporarily take down bird feeders as the bear was attracted to those. Alas it seems the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry refused to capture the bear and finaly the police shot him dead. The MNR and the City lacked coordination on how to deal with a bear who was not aggresive, just hungry. Sad! Very sad!

I’ll nevertheless retain the second part of my post which is: What to do when you encounter a bear. Good to know. In the past I’d read you are to react differently according to what type of bear you are faced with but for now lets stick to this: