25 foot long icicles

After the excitement of the other evening and the Aurora Borealis, the rest of the week has been a little more normal. The weather has turned a little brighter and I spent a nice hour or two down by the river on Thursday taking some photographs and enjoying the bright sunshine. I was stood under the road bridge and noticed a snow fall coming from the pathway above. It actually started to move along the pathway and as it got nearer to me I moved out of its way as a whole pile of snow and hard ice fell down from above. It was only when I got back up to the path that I saw the local workman driving a small tractor, clearing the paths. I’m glad I moved at the last minute as some of the lumps of ice were pretty big.

A small pile of snow in a car park

The river bank

Frozen bits on the river

The snow being cleared from the bridge above

Lovely

The river itself is now close to freezing. I have been watching it as the weather gets colder and the snow falls. I have never had time to watch the process of a river freezing before and it’s quite interesting. I couldn’t comprehend how a moving river turns to ice but it’s really quite simple:-

The snow falls and the weather is freezing. The cold weather causes ice to form along the edges of the river in much the same way that icicles form from drainpipes. The snow that falls alongside the river banks also helps as it slowly melts and moves and bits fall into the river itself. These lumps don’t melt in the river as the water is very cold, but turn into a mushy soft icy lump. These lumps of mushy ice them get caught on the river banks and form larger lumps which stick to the ice. Over time, these lumps fuse together on the river banks and by the legs of bridges and in the shallower parts of the river. Slowly as more ice forms and more snow falls they get larger and larger until they freeze into solid ice. It is much the same way that twigs, logs and rubbish in the river can congregate together to form dams and the like, but much cooler!!

Talking about ice and icicles I am surprised by the way that a lot of the houses around here have huge icicles hanging from the drain along the roofs. Some of these drainpipes are so full of ice that they are bending out of shape and will surely cause damage to the houses if they aren’t broken off and cleared away soon. Some of them are massive too – One just down the road has grown from the drain and is about 8 feet long. The bottom of the icicle actually reaches to the rail of a balcony, where a 2^nd and 3^rd icicle have formed below it creating a three tiered icicle monster about 25 feet long!! 

Icicles

Ricicles

Fookin big Nicicles

So that’s the weather – what else has been happening? Buffy has been on the local television channel again, this time looking at winter coats. We had another night at Sierra and Andy’s place last night, spending a couple of hours in the hot tub outside in the snow. Me and Buffy were the only ones with bollocks enough to get out of the hot water and roll in the snow before getting back in! It was a fun night out though and may be the last time we get to do that as Sierra and Andy are hopefully moving into a new apartment soon.

Today is Saturday and after quiet morning I went into town around tea time and stood with crowds of families and kids watching the annual Santa parade as it drove along Portage Avenue in the centre of the city. It was a pretty good show with one of the Canadian Olympic medallists leading the parade (Desiree Scott, who won Bronze as part of the women’s soccer team) There was all the usual things – people dressed as reindeer, jugglers and clowns, cars and trucks with Christmas lights all over. My favourite part was the 3 or 4 concrete mixers covered in fairy lights – I don’t know why, but I just love concrete mixer trucks. One strange thing I noticed is that while there were lots of floats n the parade giving sweets and candy away to the children, there was also floats that were collecting food and cans for homeless people. Maybe they should combine their ideas and instead of giving free sweets to unthankful little kids – maybe they should put the money spent into buying food for the homeless.......... Hmm, it’s just an idea!

Winnipeg sunset

Desiree Scott

Its nearly Christmas

Reindeer

Horses

Abominable snowman

Concrete truck

And another

Later in the evening I met up with Buffy’s mum and dad at the local church where Buffy was singing with Prairie Voices in their first concert of the season. It was a good concert with guest choirs from Winnipeg and Edmonton. The first choir on had really loud yellow ties as part of their uniform, but were really great at singing. 

One of the other choirs

Prairie Voices - and more photos of them below....

After the concert we all piled around to Walker, Barry and Evans house along with about 50 other people and spent the rest of the evening drinking and chatting to celebrate the end of the first concert  - a good end to a good evening, which finished at about 4am when we finally got home.

You will be happy to know that the weather today is even nicer than it has been during the week. It’s a couple of degrees above freezing and sunny outside – I’m hoping that it stays like this during the week so that I can get out for a couple of runs before it freezes over again. It does feel a little strange though as last night at the Santa parade was the coldest I have felt since being here – mainly because I was stood still for an hour and my feet and hands got cold. As long as you keep moving the cold doesn’t really feel that cold!!

BREAKING NEWS  –  BREAKING NEWS  –  BREAKING NEWS  -  BREAKING NEWS

Ok, its not that important but you will be happy to know that I have actually now seen two snowmen.......

A few sunny days in Winnipeg......

This week has been spent mostly planning for my get away starting next Tuesday evening. I now have most things in place – a few train trips, a couple of flights, lots of travel in Greyhound and various accommodations, ranging from big hostel dorms to cheap hotels. It’s going to be a busy 5 weeks or so till I get back to Winnipeg on 21 June, but I am looking forward to hitting the road again.

At the end of this week I went to a concert for Prairie Voices – the choir that Buffy sings in. It was being held about 7 miles away at the top of Winnipeg, but it was a nice afternoon , I had done most of my planning and I had time to spare, so put on my shoes and had a lovely walk for about 2 hours in the afternoon sunshine. I arrived at the venue – a Mennonite church and hall, to see Buffy’s dad , outside, so had a chat with him before going in and Joining Buffy’s mum, aunt, uncle and brothers for the concert. It had a bit of everything from Mika to Queen, although in my humble opinion there was a little too much of The Beatles (scouse) and not enough of Oasis (Manc) or any other Manchester bands. The last song was brilliant though – a version of Viva la Vida, by Coldplay.  

Prairie Voices singing....

Saturday was a lovely sunny day and was supposed to be ‘Free day’, when everyone puts out stuff they don’t want onto the kerb for other scroungers to take away. We did go out to have a look around but could find nothing useful anywhere, so we headed down to The Forks, in town, where after a look around the market and finding a weather forecasting stone, we sat and had a spot of lunch in the sunshine. We decided on hot dogs at a place that specialises on weird and wonderful versions of an ordinary dog. I had a Chicago – not that unusual with tomato, peppers and onions, but Buffy’s was a P and J. Also known as Peanut Butter, Jelly and Captain Crunch cereal, with strawberry’s to top it off – all with a normal hotdog underneath. Not really my thing but fun anyway. 

After lunch we continued to enjoy the lovely weather with a walk along the Red River, before heading into town and ending up at a pub called ‘Tavern United’ – a nice bar with a rooftop patio, where we sat drinking coke in the sunshine. I have moaned about the price of things over here enough and especially when the tax is added on top of the displayed prices – so today I will not moan at all but give praise where it is due.... If you want a soft drink, like a coke, then you get free refills – so we sat for nearly 2 hours, enjoying the afternoon sun, drinking ice cold cola and all we paid was $7 – less than £5, for 5 massive glasses. It’s not all bad you know!

The weather forecasting stone....

Weird as fuck hot dog

Not quite as weird

Sunday was another lovely sunny day and we spent the afternoon in a local park, just sitting around, reading, chatting and watching the families playing games and enjoying their barbecues. Just like everyone should do on a nice sunny afternoon. Obviously it also took my mind off the football from that morning, when I was up early and watching the Man United and Man City games, when City got two last minute goals to sew up the premier league title. Good luck to them and I’m already looking forward to next season.

Down....

...by the...

river..

An upside down photo from the bar....

Monday and Tuesday were quiet days. I spent most of the time printing out the details and tickets for my trip away and waiting for the postman to come. I was hoping he would be bringing my new ‘replacement’, shoes before I left on Tuesday evening, but unfortunately he didn’t and I had to make a decision...Should I go away with just a pair of trainers and going out boots, or should I take a hit, buy myself a decent pair of walking/hiking shoes and then just sell the new replacement ones on eBay when they arrive. I decided on plan B and so after waiting in till 3.30pm on Tuesday just in case, I took a quick trip out to Polo Park shopping centre where I bought a pair of Merrell shoes, just like my last pair that I threw away in San Francisco. Luckily, there was a bit of a sale on and so I got them for about £20 less than they would cost at home in the UK. Cool. 

My home made cake and home made treacle......

Nice...

A photo from the bar, not upside down!

So that’s Winnipeg for now. I get the train in about 6 hours to Toronto. I haven’t been sitting around doing nothing all the time though. A few years ago there was a Charity event in Winnipeg called ‘Bears on Broadway’, where Polar bear statues were sponsored and painted by companies and placed along Broadway in town all to make money for cancer charities.

Over the last few years these bears have been moved around town and now sit outside shops and offices all around the place.

I discovered that there was a map online showing the locations of all these bears and so to keep myself from going absolutely mental, I have been getting out and about to see these bears and take a photo of them. Here are a few of the photos I have so far....

Hockey commentator or lumberjack bear?

Tiny bear with a standard size paintbrush bear?

We dont like looking at each other bears

Forest camoflage bear

YMCA bear?

Spoilt teenager bear?

Sunburnt bear?

Bear who plays 'strange' football?

Who the fuck are you looking at bear?

Please help me, im a real bear not a statue of a bear bear?

So I am now all packed and ready to get away again. I am learning from previous experiences and have packed about half what I took with me to Calgary and Banff. I know I will end up wearing most things at least 3 times before washing them and so don’t need 10 t-shirts or 2 pairs of jeans. Let’s hope I haven’t made a mistake in doing so!!

I will be posting again soon – probably at the weekend, depending on what I see and do between now and then.......