Winterlude 2014 Foxy Fun

Heyo! Myself, Varakitsu, Renge and the Dolls Of Ottawa group went downtown to enjoy the Winterlude festivities with our Doll meet. We all appeared to have fun taking in the festivities and taking images.

– Fancy Canadian Winterlude guides.

(All images taken with a Lumix GF-1 – Pancake lens.)

What is Winterlude? A winter festival to celebrate the winter season with fun for all ages. It’s a festival with ice sculptures, skating on the Rideau Canal, kid parks for sliding, and other fun winter activities. More perspectives from my side in the related articles that I want to nudge you towards below.

I wanted to host a Doll meet at Winterlude because of my blog mascot – Varakitsu – being an arctic fox lady. I assumed it would be neat to have fun with both a doll meet and typical Canadian winter festivities which is fun when you allow it to be. I was sadly an hour late, though relieved that that the meet still happened. I’m pleased with the way it went.

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– Related Links & Articles:

– Winterlude Homepage:
http://www.pch.gc.ca/eng/1379706275276
(Or a Wikipedia for when link re-directs.)

– Winterlude 2010 – Rideau Canal:
https://arcticukitsu.com/Blog/?p=607

– Winterlude 2010 – Gatineau:
https://arcticukitsu.com/Blog/?p=600

– Winterlude 2010:
https://arcticukitsu.com/Blog/?p=572

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– Love is already in the air for February 14th’s festivities.
– Lovely snowshoes!

– Stick what appears to be Popsicles onto the ice cubes!
– A WW2 couple with the husband saying goodbye; Heard a girl thinking two gay soldiers were kissing with a “Go Canada!” type comment.

– Most likely hard to see – a figure-skater performing on the Rink of Dreams.

 

– Love the view I’m seeing from the city hall. I’m also assuming a new building was built being that blueish-green structure to the left.

– A new flag hoisted up which sparked a swift ownage by the Ottawa mayor.
– Three of the Winterlude’s mascots hanging around. A funny bit below with one of the orange ones and a volunteer.

I’m finding it amusing how much attention both Kita and Varakitsu gained with the people going to the Winterlude area and the Parliament Building. The volunteers at Winterlude came to to take a peak, even that mascot bear representing Winterlude. I laughed.

Apparently Kita has the same “problem” that my Varakitsu has with her elegant night gown. That tail of Kita’s is causing the skirts to bulge out from the back or to pop out from the back.

– I wanted to see Kodama’s Kita with her new tail she got from G-Anime 2014. Beautiful tail.
– As soon as I took out Varakitsu the wind picked up. She’s in a wind-bracing pose that doesn’t look all that proper.
– Vara & Kita both posing happily with their backs towards the Rink of Dreams.

 

– Vara happily showing some Canadian pride 🙂
– Renge wanted to attempt to make a new friend XD

– Being originally a Doll Meet idea we gathered and had fun chatting away over various things. T hat tail of Vara’s attracting more attention XD.

 

– Was getting a bit hungry so I went with a Smoked Sausage because of the line-up for Beaver Tails. Seeing food let off heat in the cold was awesome.

-> Top Ranking Ice Sculptures; Two images next to one another:

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And then some more ice sculptures placed on the Confederation Park’s fountain. A nice ring of ice sculptures.

– Drinking beer the Canadian way with an ice mug (and not drinking Bud Light or anything like that. Needs Zlaty Bazant or Sapporo as booze :P)

– Just chillin’ in that Canadian manner.

– The line-up for these special ice sculptures was insane. The line you see viewing in the tent was also on the outside of that. I tried to take images in the sneaky manner instead.

– Warming up once again at the city hall while trying to get “artsy” with my images. View of the Chateau Laurier from the City Hall’s entrance.

– Was trying to nudge the DoO group towards the War Memorial to see if I could take some images of the scarf statues, even if on the late side. I didn’t see any from afar from the side I could see from what appears to be repair work on the monument.
– Parliament building in all its glory.
– One of the Parli’ blocks under heavy maintenance. I always see these like this constantly being under heavy repairs.
– I wanted to take images of Vara near the flame but too many people. Tourists. Ah well. I spy a coin thrown on top of the flame.

After a few ideas of how and where to take images we finally decided to take images on top of the steps leading to and from the Parliament. Also loads of salt covering the area in its powdery form which made posing quite troublesome.

– Loving how Varakitsu looks. Wish she had a proper jacket of some kind.

 

– Ah, Vara isn’t being shy. She’s simply trying to pose for the camera requiring distance. Kon! Was amused how people were observing the photo-shoot, also taking images whenever they could. Spotted either a Russian or Eastern European family wanted an image 🙂
– Renge happily sitting on Vara’s fluffy warm tail; Sitting on it to keep the tail from falling off the hat.
– I love it! I love it! All that’s missing now is Vara in her proper outfit while also holding onto a proper sword.

And that’s a wrap! Kon!

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I loved this meet up! Was on the tardy side, though still fun regardless of that. Wish I had a Beaver Tail though. Must also thank Dolls of Ottawa (sorry if I can’t call you by name, haven’t linked you to your name handle yet) for touching up Varakitsu’s hair. I’m able to tolerate it for just that much longer.

I’m also pleased with how Varakitsu came out in this meet-up, especially Renge with her foxy antics. Varakitsu has another round of loot coming that would have been perfect for this meet-up. Still hunting for proper ears.

And for future noting – I loved the sound the bus made as it climbed a bridge, and then down. That vibration and humming one hears when about to lift-off. I’m even amused by Japan getting Ottawa type snowfall (I heard up to 50 cm in places) with a meter or two high snow-piles on people’s cars. My Tumblr blog also had its second birthday on February 7th which reminds me that “Arctic Kitsune” is Varakitsu’s generic name, not mine. I got stuck with that name for stupid messy blogging reasons ^^; My Blog’s next birthday is on Feb 14th, so in a few days.

Until next time! Kon!