Having A Feast For Breakfast

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We had breakfast on Saturday morning at a new Winnipeg restaurant called Feast. They serve modern dishes rooted in traditional First Nations foods. Everything is prepared with locally sourced ingredients. Feast is at the corner of Ellice Avenue and Shebrooke just across from the West End Cultural Centre. The eatery is housed in an historic Winnipeg building designed by J.D. Atchison an architect from Chicago who designed more than a hundred buildings in the city in the early 1900s. The interior space has been beautifully renovated with lots of light, a bar and comfortable seating. They’ve maintained the old tin ceiling but added…….Lovely light fixturesand large illuminated photos of Manitoba landscapes that sweep across the space. The menu includes breakfast, lunch and dinner items featuring things like bannock, wild salmon, grass fed bison, home made berry jam, maple syrup, fry bread, cranberries and saskatoons. I had The Ellice

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Sun Dogs and Steam

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Dave and I walked to the Forks Saturday morning for breakfast. With wind chill in the minus 40 range it was a bit of a biting experience.  As we crossed the foot bridge in Steve Juba Park I noticed a sun dog beside the Human Rights Museum. Even though I nearly froze my fingers  I stopped and took off my gloves to capture the scene with my camera. Sun dogs are created by light interacting with ice crystals in the air. Sun dogs appear as subtly colored patches in the sky. The ice crystals act like a prism bending and refracting the light. I turned around after photographing the sun dog to see another lovely sight.  Steam was rising up out of the Red River making it look all other-worldly and fairy tale like.  Since parts of the flowing river haven’t frozen yet the running water was emitting streams…

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Selkirk Settlers- Matching Canada and Scotland

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Selkirk Settlers by Gerald Laing

This statue called Selkirk Settlers stands at the end of Bannatyne, the street where I live. I did a blog post about the statue and recently I received a message from a blog reader who told me that the very same sculpture stands in Helmsdale Scotland.  Helmsdale was the departure point for the Scots thrown off their land during the Highland clearances. Tenant Scottish crofters were evicted from their homes by the rich lairds so they could use the land for grazing sheep. Many of these exiled Scottish families ended up immigrating to Winnipeg. Michael was kind enough to send me a photo of the sculpture in Helmsdale.

Photo by Michael Forbes of the Selkirk Settlers sculpture in Helmsdale Scotland

The sculpture in Scotland was created by artist Gerald Laing, the same artist that made the sculpture in Winnipeg. I found out that Laing is…

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Matching Macau and St. Boniface

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We had a visitor from Hong Kong recently and we took him on a cruise down Winnipeg’s Red River. When we passed the St. Boniface Basilica we explained how the cathedral had burned down in 1968 and only the front facade of the original church remains. It has become a well-known Winnipeg landmark.  Our guest said, “That’s just like in Macau.” We had never thought of the comparison but it was very apt.  

At the church facade in Macau with my parents

We visited the island of Macau many times during the six years we lived in Hong Kong. There is a famous church there The Church of St. Paul built by the Jesuits. It was destroyed by a fire during a typhoon in  1835. The facade remains and is probably the most photographed spot in Macau. 

We watched a play behind the St. Boniface Basilica facade at the…

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What is Cool?

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What do you think is cool?  The creators of this art installation at The Forks in Winnipeg asked 2015 people that question. Each flag in the installation has a photo of someone’s face and their response to the question, “What is cool?” This ‘cool’ art was created by fourth year environmental design students from the University of Manitoba- Brenton Leskiw, Kent Mundle, Matthew Rajfur and Corey Doucette. What would you put on a flag in this exhibit? 

Other posts……

Crossing Seal River

What’ Gandhi Doing in Winnipeg?

The Famous Five

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Dipping my Toe into the Human Rights Museum

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It’s terrible I know! I live a couple of blocks from Canada’s Human Rights Museum. People have been coming from all over the world to see since it opened in September and till last Sunday I still hadn’t been inside. We had a house guest who wanted to see the museum so we took him to visit the building which has become a distinctive landmark on the Winnipeg landscape.  

Before we even went inside I wanted to find out more about the landscaping or seeming lack of it around the building.  Signs told us about the Prairie in Progress that is growing on all sides of the museum. Grasses and plants native to the prairies have been planted  and visitors are encouraged to watch as they establish themselves on the site during the next few summers. This approach is meant to show respect for the ground on which the…

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Once in a Blue Moon

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So I’ll admit it.  I didn’t know what a blue moon was.  We were at the Winnipeg Goldeyes baseball game on Friday night and my friend Merle pointed out the moon coming up over the trees.  “It’s a blue moon,” she said.  My husband Dave cheerfully posed with the blue moon and explained that a blue moon is when there are two full moons in one calendar month.  The fact that this happens only rarely explains the origin of the phrase ‘once in a blue moon.’

My friend Elizabeth posted this amazing photo of the blue moon over Austin Texas where she lives. Nice to think that she and I were looking at that same beautiful moon even though we were thousands of miles apart. And our friend Mitch captured the blue moon over Jessica Lake where he owns a cottage. 

Look how excited Dave is about that blue moon…

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The Most Beautiful Bathroom in Winnipeg

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I had lunch with my sister at The BerMax Cafe on Corydon not long ago.  The chairs were comfy, the decor interesting and the food was fine, although the air conditioning was on full blast so we froze as we sat  and talked.  But……………… the restaurant has the most interesting bathroom. Check out this high tech sink.  You hold your hands under the centre of the tap for the water to come out and then you just move your hands apart where they are dried under the two metal pieces sticking out on either side.  A little card by the sink tells you how it works. You feel like you are in the centre of an Italian city as you use the washroom. This floor to ceiling scene is to your right as you use the facilitiesAnd this is the view to your left.My mother always said you…

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Meeting with the Mayor- The Arts Are A Priority

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Last week the members of the Residents of the Exchange District  here in Winnipeg had an opportunity to meet with Mayor Brian Bowman. He told us about some of his visionary ideas for  the city and we talked to him about our concerns and questions.

Mayor Brian Bowman meets with members of the Residents of the Exchange District at the Gurevich Art Gallery

One priority for the mayor is increasing funding to the arts. Since many galleries, studios and performance venues are located in the Exchange District this could be particularly important to our area of the city.

Winnipeg Exchange District painting by Caroline Dukes at the Millennium Library

Mayor Bowman  told us  for every dollar you invest in the arts you get an $18 economic return. The average Canadian city invests $35 per person annually in the arts. Winnipeg invested $5 when Mr. Bowman took office. His first budget…

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Fools and Horses

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We biked over to Broadway yesterday morning to have breakfast at Fools and Horses a new coffee place that just opened.  Our niece’s fiancee helped craft the interior design. We wanted to check it out.  We also knew the nephew of good friends was making some of the baked goods on the menu.  While she prepared his Americano coffee Dave chatted with one of the Fools and Horses owners who just happens to be a former student of his. We found a seat in the sunny front window.  I had the poppy seed roll and Dave a prairie apple cinnamon roll. What good coffee, delicious pastry and a great place to people watch!! 

You can find out all about Fools and Horses on their Facebook page. 

Other posts about Winnipeg restaurants…….

Promenade Cafe

Winnipeg Free Press Cafe

A Blast From the Past

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