Lake Winnipeg. A lake half the size of the country of The Netherlands. Or roughly 80% of Belgium. It is big enough to have a semblance of tides. Small enough to be called a lake. Dubbed an “Inland Ocean”. Many people may ask themselves if a water surface this vast will freeze in the “horrible” Canadian Winter.

Yep, it absolutely freezes over. With ice thick enough to hold cars and trucks without a problem. In summer it is a very attractive place to spend a lazy summer afternoon, in and around the water. So let’s go and have a look at Lake Winnipeg around the year.

Read more: A lake year-round

When I was a kid, going to “the park” meant a ten mile walk, feed the ducks walk around a bit and then take the ten mile walk back home. It seemed that “the park” was always far away and only held ducks as entertainment. Later I was aware that there was also a library, and the ten mile walk had become a two mile walk instead. A few years after that revelation, by bicycle, the walk was replaced with a five minute ride.

However, the entertainment of the ducks remained, along with the occasional drunk falling in to the water. That happened only once. Ducks had never interested me, so when I was told for the first time here in Canada that we would go to “the park” for a great day out, I was kinda skeptic.

Read more: Nature close by

However much your job is giving you what you need, you will want a change in scenery from time to time. Sometimes a weekend away from the house and the office will do the trick. This time it was my turn to get away from the hustle and bustle of the job and get off the grid. Well, get off most of the grid. There were still roads where we went but all the rest was “off”.

We were going to a quiet place called Manigotagan, up north into Manitoba. Once, this was a place of great activity. Trees were being felled, pulp and paper mills were nearby and the area had a 365 day per year activity rate. Today, that has changed.

Read more: Manigotagan

Summer is here and with it come summer weekends, wildlife and summer storms over the prairie. All packaged in a wrapping of quietness and laziness. Well, for most of us. If you want to photograph that laziness, you’d better get moving before the summer is over.

The weekend usually starts on…

Read more: Lazy summer weekends

When I was young, I listened to a piece of music called “Fishing junks at sunset”, performed by Jean-Michel Jarre. It is a very old Chinese song known as the "Fisherman's Chant at Dusk". At the time I thought my then favourite composer had written it. Recently, I came across “Fishing yawls at sunrise”. No song this time, not even music.

Just the serenity of Lake Winnipeg at 4am. I had the chance to go out with a friend and some local fishermen on their boats called yawls.

Read more: Fishing at sunrise

It’s this time of the year again, the time when the skies in Manitoba change by the minute. Going from pale blue to outright menacing.

Sky and weather have always been one of my “more serious” interests, trying to find out why a certain weather type occurs. Storms are the obvious choice for this kind of research, but other skies are equally interesting. With the added benefit that I don’t have to have the dents removed from my car once I’m done shooting hail storms…

Read more: Skies of Manitoba (9)

When speaking of wildlife, it is understood that we talk about birds, deer, moose and so on. A lesser known fact is that Manitoba also has native plants. One of those plant families is the Orchids. Manitoba has 37 different wild orchids.

Now if they had said 273 orchids, I would have said, “Fine, I’ll see what I can get” but 37 is a doable goal to get them all. Or at least get close. So last week I went hunting for orchids.

Read more: Hunting for orchids