“Pic of the Week”, March 24, 2023: Whiteshell River, Manitoba

06 Whiteshell River and Lone Island Lake (2)

Located in eastern Manitoba, in Whiteshell Provincial Park, this river was a special place to me as a boy and teenager.  It was here that our father often took us fishing in the late spring and early summer, especially to Lone Island Lake.  When I recently revisited the Whiteshell River, I’d forgotten how pretty the place is.
The river connects a series of lakes which become difficult to navigate in the late summer because wild rice grows in abundance.  It’s been decades since I saw natives harvest the rice, bending the stems over their canoes and then using a club to knock the rice grains loose onto a tarp.
(Click on thumbnails to enlarge photos)

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Gimli’s Seawall Murals, Lake Winnipeg

01 Gimli Seawall Murals

It had been at least 35 years since I visited Gimli.  The town had grown quite a bit and its reputation as an ethnic travel destination is now firmly established — a bit of Iceland in central Canada.
Gimli has an active summer-time harbor, used by local sailing and boating enthusiasts and commercial fisherman (who harvest Lake Winnipeg’s bountiful walleye, goldeye and whitefish, among other species).  To protect the harbor from strong winds and tall waves, a six foot high concrete sea wall was constructed that extends almost 1000 feet from shore.
The seawall was an ugly grey slab so in 1977 the Gimli Art Club decided to transform it.  Local artists donated thousands of hours to create scenes about the life and …

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Seven Sisters Hydroelectric Dam, Manitoba

00 Seven Sisters

Almost all of the electricity generated in the province of Manitoba is clean hydroelectric power.  Some argue that the plants are large and unsightly, but once they have been built, they churn our clean power.  There are a number of such plants in Manitoba, many of them located on its eastern edge.
The Seven Sisters Generating Station is the largest hydroelectric plant on the Winnipeg River.  I’d first visited this plant when I was a young boy and have been back a few times since, my last visit a few years ago.

Constructions on the Seven Sisters station started in 1929 and the plant was operational, generating power, in 1931 — 75 megawatts from three turbine-generators.  An expansion of the station began …

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“Pic of the Week”, December 30, 2022. Hayfields near Anola, Manitoba

02 Hay field near Anola (1)

I spent many years of my life on the Canadian prairies, so the sight of harvested hay is nothing unusual.
In the old days we saw small rectangular bales (about 70 pounds) dotting the hay fields, but more recently it seems most farmers are storing their hay in these gigantic rolls; these can weigh over a thousand pounds and require heavy equipment to be lifted and moved.
I enjoy seeing and smelling harvested hay — something about it appeals to me.
(Click on thumbnails below to enlarge photos)
 

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“Pic of the Week”, February 4, 2022: Lady in the Park, Winnipeg

00 Lady in the Park

I enjoy interesting pieces of public art. Sometimes a bookish scene like this can qualify as interesting, at least to me.
Located in Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park, inside the English Garden, you can find this statue known as “Lady in the Park”. It’s a bronze created in 1994 by Prince Monyo Mihailescu-Nasturel, a Romanian-American artist.  For years the statue was located at the Winnipeg home of entrepeneur Izzy Asper. After he and his wife Babs died, the Lady in the Park was donated to Assiniboine Park by the The Asper Foundation.
The cold and snow make the setting interesting, more so than a warm green summer scene. I like how someone placed a woolen hat on the lady’s head.
(Click on thumbnails to enlarge, right …

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“Pic of the Week”, January 7, 2022: The Manitoba Maritime Museum, Selkirk

00 Manitoba Maritime Museum

Sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised by things you didn’t know existed.
So it was when I came across all these beached ships off the bank of the Red River in the town of Selkirk, slightly north of Winnipeg. I’d lived in Manitoba for the first 24 years of my life and had no idea it was there. My dad and I were on a drive exploring the local roads when we spotted it — dad can’t drive a car anymore but still loves to go for a ride, so I try to take him around as much as possible when I visit. The scene was surreal, these ships crowded together as if warming themselves on this cold snowy day.
This is …

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“Pic of the Week”, December 10, 2021: The Duck Pond, Winnipeg

00 Duck Pond

The duck pond is a popular gathering spot in Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park. The character of the pond changes greatly with the seasons. In the summer it’s home to lots of ducks and geese, but with the coming of winter (when the wise waterfowl head to warmer climes in the south) it becomes a popular place to skate.
When I visited with my father a few months ago we drove through the park on a cold day and came across these scenes of people skating on the pond — everyone from kids just learning to people very experienced and fast on the ice.
(Click thumbnails to enlarge, right arrow to advance slideshow)

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“Pic of the Week”, November 5, 2021: Fresh Snow, Victoria Beach

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My family owned a small cabin in Victoria Beach when I was young, located on this very lane. We spent a lot of time here in the summer, enjoying the quiet of the place, fishing, riding our bikes, hiking, and swimming at the beach.
When I visit my elderly father in Winnipeg, we enjoy going for rides to visit places that touched our lives.  This past winter we revisited this holiday community after a fresh dusting of snow had covered the roads and pine trees.  I thought the soft light of winter made the scene quite pretty.
(Click on thumbnails to enlarge, right arrow to advance slideshow)


 

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