A forest in the city? Hmmm. Obviously someone is very optimistic here. But still, it has every quality of a forest. It represents 287 hectares of forest, prairie, pond and marsh. The forest was created in 1974 and officially opened to the public in 1980. There are more than 200 species of plants in here. Now that is a quality.
Just grass? No, Prairie Grass
So let’s take a little walk in this forest, still mostly barren after the cold winter…
Winnipeg has always been a busy city. With the geological environment we have here, it is not a surprise that a lot of that environment has been exploited over the years. Manitoba has many places where the earth has given up its riches for man to build and decorate with. Tyndall stone for the Legislature and lots of other buildings, Limestone for the houses and cement for concrete.
Not a sight for a natural reserve…
Rare are the cases where nature has been able to get back what it lost after man’s passage.
In the south west part of Winnipeg lies Fort Whyte, now know as Fort Whyte Alive. Here they have succeeded in transforming the industrial wasteland back to a haven of peace, quiet and activities for man and animal.
Who would have thought that in April there would still be ice on the rivers in Winnipeg? Well, I suppose that on the low temp side of Winnipeg one might expect just about anything…
Ice on the Assiniboine river is today mostly gone. We have had a warm March. At least that is what I thought when looking at the Assiniboine river at Munson Park.
The Assiniboine, a bit high
But when I came a little upstream on my bicycle, there was a surprise…
Many of us have asked this question over the years. Obviously if you have little pictures at very recognizable events, there is not a big problem. But the old shoeboxes with pictures will tell you differently. How many pictures do you have in these boxes (“I will put them in an album, I promise!”) of which you don’t even remember taking them?
Ok, there has always been this method: simply write down where you took your pictures and be done with it. Just look in these old shoeboxes. The proof is in there, somewhere…
A tree, somewhere in the wide wide world. But where?
Nowadays we have different tools to get us through this chore of adding information to our pictures. The first one is Lightroom from Abobe, the second …
The first time I heard about prairie dogs was when I went to Fort Whyte Alive in Winnipeg. I expected some kind of coyote to show up. Was I wrong about that! I did have some attenuating circumstances pleading for me… The prairie dog is a native of North America and does not live in Europe.
Meet Pete the prairie dog
These little guys live in small hills in which they dig holes and tunnels.