Well, This World

A picture just for the sake of a picture... This is a portion of the former school grounds at Lavenham, Manitoba where my dad went to school in the 1920's.

There has not been much sewing going on so I don't have any in progress pictures. I have been trying my damnedest to get to making something using the sewing machine, but it seems there is nothing that is particularly inspiring (well, except for a quilt called the firewood quilt on another blog) But the effort preventing the start of that project is, is that I have two already layered quilts that need quilting, and I am trying to keep my "in progress" projects to a minimum. The other in progress project is my christmas list -- in the past few years I have kept christmas giving to a minimum partly because of finances and partly because of a growing disillusionment with the consumerism of gift giving -- the wal-marts of the world with their slogans at christmas encouraging you to buy just a little bit more, or you deserve more... Or even save on this so that you can spend more on that... Anyway, I still don't plan to do much in the way of shopping come Christmas, but I am already working on hand crafted gifts -- if I bought what I am making it would cost near to $60 for each person who I am doing these gifts for, but this way, it costs much less in actual money but much more -- about 4 to 5 hours of my time.



I bought wonderful little dresses last year for my four great-nieces, but this year I am going to make (I hope) dresses for them. I did get the fabric and the patterns, but like I say, I still have to get some other inprogress projects completed first... Whew!



Now not only is there sewing "on my plate" as the clique goes, but things working inside my head too. I had a dream last night that I signed up for some classes! Then in the dream, I WALKED to the school - forgot to bring some paperwork with me so WALKED home then WALKED back to the school to finish my registration for the classes! Now if you know me, I have not been very stable on my feet for most of this year due to health issues --- I wonder if this dream is not just about being inclined to take on something new, but that I will be ABLE to take on this something! I do believe my natural inclination to optimism has begun to take over the past few months of almost depression...

The Lone Prairie

This is REALLY flat land! When I was growing up in Manitoba, in school we were taught that the Canadian Prairies were called the bread basket of the world. As we drove through both the middle agricultural production areas of the provinces and the southern agri areas we saw the golden wheat at its maturity and the equipment used by the farmers to harvest not only wheat but many other crops. In some areas, where the ground itself was not so great for crops, there were many thousands of cattle, both for meat production and for milk. We saw, bison ranches in southern alberta and lamas or alpacas in southern Manitoba. Food on the hoof, was everywhere around us.

The prairie was not just prairie, but great expanses of water -- lakes and rivers, creeks and ponds -- how could any of these crops be grown without WATER? The fun part of water is the beaches, Grand Beach about 75 kms north of Winnipeg has been an attraction for many years. Manitoba's summer equivalent for those within an hours' drive to the hot winter resorts of Mexico and other summer climates. The white sand dunes are something special to me; I have photos of my parents at Grand Beach in the 1940's, and pictures of my sons building castles in the sand, and now a few shots of the beach today.

And a couple of BIG THINGS we saw along the way. The World's Largest Tomahawk in Cut Knife, Saskatchewan, where my grandfather's sister Rose lived. Because we were there on a weekday at the end of the summer season, there were no people about, Cut Knife is a very small village but their display was a wonderment and an unexpected treat. Surrounding the tomahawk, but set back a bit was some orginal buildings from the town area - a general store, an early settler's log cabin, a church and a school. Cut Knife is tucked away down a back road and is not a destination one would specifically head for, but if it is on your way or not too far out of your way, stop in for a bit of a picnic an to wander amongst the old buildings and history of the town...

Another, unexpected surprise, was the World's Largest Elk. This worlds largest was not on our list but there it was, in the town, or more like, the village of Onanole, Manitoba. Just as we came out of Riding Mountain National Parks (a mountain in Manitoba is quite a different concept from a Mountain in British Columbia) this Elk with a big blue sky backdrop came into view as we came down on #10 highway. The oddest things make your heart sing -- this was one of them!

What I learned on this Trip: I love the prairies, but now I love my home in the Fraser Valley even MORE!

Driving about the Canadian Prairies -part one

The best way for me to describe the past three weeks is to post pictures and a few words, the pictures say pretty much everything about the driving part -- not so much about the hotel parts...
Many small towns and some larger towns too, build and create sculptures around the town of things that represent their community, Burrowing Owls in Leader Saskatchewan was a favourite of ours.
My cousin's husband, who lives near Marquette Manitoba is carrying on a hobby started many years ago by his DAD. He collects bottles, every kind of bottle one can image, he houses his collection if a real log cabin that he bought from another farmer in the area. In a space of about 12 ft x 12 ft every inch has bottles, some on shelves some on display stands, some in boxes...

This is Sara the Camel, one of those town sculptures. Sara, represents the Sandilands area of Manitoba and she stands proudly in the town of Souris, Manitoba.

The quintessential prairie, about 20 kilometers west of Winnipeg, Manitoba, just off Rosser Road.

Some where on or near Hwy 2 in Southern Saskatchewan

Elk Island National Park off Hwy 16 in Alberta.

A couple of question about hotels...

First I have a rather strange question for those who may be so inclined to answer... Why is it that hotels seem to think that a bed needs to be so high that you need a step stool to climb up to it (well, I need a step stool - I am a fraction over 5 ft tall) Most hotel beds are as high as my hips or more...

Second question, why is it that hotels feel the need to have baby size toilets? Remember now, I am rather short as it is and I find the toilets low, what must a man who is 6 ft tall think or or even manage to get up off of those baby level toilets??

More pictures tomorrow, but no more weird questions...