Canadian underground cold war artifacts

© Brian Lalor

The Diefenbunker is a massive 100,000 square feet four levels bunker, built to protect the government in the event of a nuclear attack on Ottawa. It was commissioned by Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in 1959, as part of his government's reaction to escalating tensions in the cold war. The Diefenbunker was designed to hold 535 people for up to 30 days.

It was a top-secret operation. A former farm in Carp was chosen as the perfect site.

The site was completed and began operation in 1961. 

 © David Peter Forcier

 © Diefenbunker Museum: OSAX

 © Emily: Rec room and cafeteria

 © Jimmerman Fish

 © Kevin and Ruth: Prime Minister's bedroom

 © Leslie Hossack: Women's quarters, level 300

 © Marcia Lea: The operation 1

 © OlivierGa: Salle machine informatique

 © OlivierGa: War room

 © Petacon Photography

 © Sarah Mulholland: Atom bomb

© Suellen: Lunchroom

The Diefenbunker was given National Historic Site status in 1994 and was closed the same year. The building remained empty until the foundation of a museum in 1997. I visited the Diefenbunker in… 2009? We sure had a lot of fun but the overall experience was kinda really strange!

Well, the Diefenbunker is now a not-so-clandestine relic of the cold war. Wait… there is another bunker carved into the rock…

The original Diefenbunker site was abandoned because of flooding. Today the unfinished underground construction is underwater.

Unhide infos here: The Other Top-Secret Bunker

Know your garden

Jeremy Miranda is an American painter who lives on the north shore of Massachusetts. It is a region made up both of a rocky coastline, dotted with marshes and wetlands, as well as several beaches and natural harbors.

 Beach House

 Church

 Collectors

 Desktop

 Faceted Iceberg

 Faceted Iceberg

 Faceted Iceberg

 Iceberg in June

 Know Your Garden

 Massive Iceberg

 Northern Shore

 Searching

Solarium

•••

This Gravenhurst song came to my mind when I saw the painting called Searching.
 

Gravenhurst - The Diver

Heartwarming patina

Welcome to a unique atelier in which merry handcrafted artworks are created, Popielnik: shrines, angels, birds, boxes, horses. Made mostly from old materials, polychromed with acrylic color and patinated, they expose the beauty of the wood and look as if they were found in the workshop of a youthful and generous woodcutter.

Popielnik is also an art gallery located in Kazimierz (a district of Cracow) and an online Etsy shop.

Chimney boy

 

Barns, water towers, granaries. Mary Fischer has always been fascinated with buildings and architecture. She works ceramic in white clay and finishes her pieces with photo transfers onto wet clay, slip and iron oxide washes, to get a muted antique feel to her work.

Photography © MudFire Gallery

"I've been interested in buildings and photographing buildings and reading architectural magazines ever since I can remember," Mary Fischer says.

In high school in New Braunfels TX USA, an architect came to talk to the class during a job fair.

"He stressed the math, and I really don't do math. That definitely dampened my spirits."

So maybe she wouldn't be an architect. She still loved architecture. Mary Fischer took a class in clay. The rest is history.