Since the moment we were here in Canada, we have heard how people spent their weekend “at the lake”. It is obvious that in a country where there are thousands of lakes people spend the weekend at the lake.

It also helps if you have a car, a map and a good address to go to.

Arriving at Lake Winnipeg

Since I have passed my driver’s license here in Manitoba, I can drive any car I like, although for rental sakes I have to stay in the province. At first sight that looks rather restrictive, certainly if you come from Europe. There, often a province is hardly bigger than the city of Winnipeg, give or take a few square kilometres. Manitoba is roughly the size of 1.5 times France or Ukraine.

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Nice title, eh? Well, it goes with the pictures. Rarely recorded for its acoustic quality but still an integral part of fireworks. Mostly the louder the better.

No wonder the boats had to stay away

Fireworks have intrigued people since their creation, some people love them, some hate them. Some have nice memories, others think of war.

Let’s not go into the memories, but more into the way of capturing them and preserving them as colourful pictures, shall we?

Read more: Boom bada Boom!

First of July is Canada Day. Canada celebrates its independence from England since 1867. However, the last bonds with England were shed only in 1982. Even more reason to celebrate this day. And no, we don’t celebrate the fourth of July like our southern neighbours.

Canada Day

We are happy to be independent from any other country in the world.

But what are you going to do on a national holiday without any plans? You could go to the different street festivals in the city, stay home or go to the zoo. I decided to go to the zoo and take pictures of the fauna. The Assiniboine Zoo is free on Canada day, saving me a whopping 5 dollars entry fee. But what to do in a zoo at a +32C temperature?

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The south-western part of the Whiteshell Provincial Park in Manitoba has a huge collection of petroforms. The petroforms found here encompass all styles found anywhere else in North America. The human forms, animals and geometric forms can be found in many places, but never all in the same place.

To the petroforms

That makes us think that the origin of the petroforms lies in the Whiteshell Park and the art of it has moved outwards from here over the continent… Would it be that this place is even more special than all the other places where the petroforms are found? That seems very likely, some signs point to this.

Read more: Boulder art II

Man has always tried to explain the unexplainable throughout the ages. Whatever could not be explained was an action of a god. That is still true today. Although the place of the gods in our life becomes smaller and smaller with our “knowledge” and scientific methods.

A seemingly uninteresting granite slab

Some things, however, remain actual and can still not be explained, even by the best scientists. One of these “things” can be found in the Whiteshell Provincial Park in Manitoba. There is a place, accessible to the public, that keeps its mystery, even after many centuries.

Read more: Boulder art

Sometimes we get the feeling that we would be better off if we could just go into a bank, into the vault and take whatever we want. Ok, some *other* people will frown upon that thought and will try to persuade you of the contrary, or pick you up once back on the outside. I was lucky enough to have nobody double-crossing my plans.

The vault door

So I was looking for a building with a vault, offering me everything inside. No strings attached. First thing I found was the vault. It was open. By the looks of it, that door wouldn’t keep a 12 year old bank robber out for more than 15 minutes. But that door is also more than a hundred years old. Methods have changed since then.

Read more: A perfectly good occasion…

In troubled times, one must be very careful with one’s opinions. That is a well-known fact. Even today, discussions can heat up between adherents of the NDP and the Conservative Party, between Democrats and Republicans or, to remain in the photo sphere, between fans of Nikon and Canon.

Goulet Memorial Park

However, in the founding times of a country expressing one’s opinion is infinitely more dangerous than choosing between one camera brand or  another. Today, Canada is one of the most stable countries in the world, but 140 years ago, that was really different.

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