Winterlude Stew Competition

Ottawa's annual winter festival - Winterlude - is on this weekend and next.

On Friday, Terry and I headed downtown to the By-Ward Market, where a stew "cook-off" was happening. Various restaurants and institutions had contributed stew for lunch. The public was invited to enjoy a meal and vote on the one they liked best.

I had made a big stew for supper the night before, so I headed into a nearby bakery for coffee and dessert instead.

Terry's favorite was the stew made by the Ottawa Mission - a large homeless shelter.

But his favorite activity was chatting with an Ottawa Redblacks' football player, who was acting as a celebrity judge.

(With the sun shining on my camera, I had a hard time taking a good picture!)

Later we walked around looking at ice and snow sculptures.

Some were still being worked on.

A few, like this one outside the Chateau Laurier Hotel, had crumbled into blocks of ice during the warm weather we had a few days ago.