International Biodiversity Day at the Canadian Museum of Nature

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22 May finds Fred and me in Ottawa on International Biodiversity Day, and the 100th birthday of the Victoria Memorial Museum Building, now the home of the Canadian Museum of Nature. This is the grand reopening of the exhibits, a new glass "lantern" in the form of the building's original stone tower, and of walls newly reinforced against the foretold Ottawa Valley Earthquake. Admission to the Museum is free for today and tomorrow, and the halls are filled with people.  We are in the Salon on the third floor, with the Alliance of Natural History Museums of Canada exhibit tables.  There has been a lot of interest in my plein air paintings, in the 30 Years Later Expedition, and in the specimens we displayed from this spring's travels. It has been nice to connect with the provincial museums that we will be visiting on our travels across Canada.

I have finished my Thursday painting (the Buckthorn in Bloom) but did not have time to do one on Friday, with all the preparations for the weekend.  I will be packing on Monday and Tuesday for a trip to Calgary, Alberta, to travel with my parents to Yorkton, Saskatchewan, to celebrated the 90th birthday of a favorite aunt.  Watch for my already-begun painting for 24 May, but I may miss one or two days after that as I make the geographical leap by air.

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