A Closer Look

I'm working on a story for Westjet's magazine about the town of Pinawa. If there's one thing you can count on during your visit, it's a close encounter of the whitetail kind. This image is not cropped. I had some lens cleaning to do.

Hop, Skip, Jump

Lake Winnipeg's lakeshore is littered with debris when the ice goes out. Driftwood, tires and Bic lighters wash up on shore. Clark found a bona fide treasure—an all-metal Dinky Super Toy truck complete with its rubber tires.

Fish in Foil

I learned this foolproof recipe up at Knee Lake Resort (now North Star Resort) last season. It goes in the oven, barbecue or over an open fire. Start with a long sheet of foil. Spread it with butter or margarine. Layer on some fish—any kind will work, even pike that's been in the freezer for eight months. Add salt and pepper. Slather the fillets with your favourite salsa. Top with red, green, orange and yellow peppers, chopped green onions and chopped white onions. Add lots of hot sauce. Omit anything you don't have or don't like. Seal up the foil edges to make a big pouch. If you're doing this in the oven, set it on a cookie sheet for easier handling. Cook it for 25 minutes. The foil pouch will plump up nicely. Let it settle down for five minutes before tearing in. Serve with rice, egg noodles, pasta, mashed potatoes or bannock.

Ribbet

"Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal."

I can't help but think about that old Warner Brothers cartoon when I look at this shot. This giant leopard frog was in the hands of a curious little girl all day who decided to return him to the creek at sundown. Needless to say, he was bushed and didn't put up much of a fight when a curious little boy recaptured him. But the frog still did some mean croaking before burrowing into the mucky bank to get a rest.

Sun Girl

I was trying to trick my Nikon D50 by shooting into the sun. The Nikon won, as usual. This is my niece Jada sitting atop a fence on Easter Sunday. I love the way the wind is kicking up her ponytails.

Buns in the Oven

I baked these this morning. That's an incredible statement in itself. You see, I'm not much of a baker but this recipe is so easy and yields such amazing results that even I can pretend to be an accomplished baker. The secret is frozen dough balls. There are lots of recipes online and they are all slightly different which leads me to believe that this recipe is very forgiving.

1 pkg. frozen dough balls
1/2 c. chopped pecans (optional)
Cinnamon
1/4 lb. butter, melted
1/4 c. + 2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 sm. pkg. regular (not instant) vanilla pudding

Grease bundt pan. Sprinkle with nuts. Toss frozen dough balls in cinnamon. Spread frozen rolls around pan. Sprinkle with pudding mix. Pour melted butter over rolls. Sprinkle with brown sugar and more cinnamon. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel. Let rise overnight in cold oven. Take out in the morning. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 20-25 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes to cool. Invert onto serving plate.

First English, then Ukrainian

With Easter just a few days away, my thoughts have turned to the Easters I remember most. Ukrainian Easters. When I was growing up, English Easter in our house was only half of the equation. A few weeks later, and according to the Julian calendar (April 23 this year), we'd celebrate all over again.

Ukrainian Easter was a religious and somewhat more subdued affair. But it happened later in the year which meant the ditches around Poplarfield would be gushing with spring runoff and the pussy willows would be out in full force. That meant after church and after a meal, we were free to roam, explore and of course, get the mother of all booters.

One of my favourite things I wrote is a piece about Ukrainian Easter. Of course I wrote it in pre-electronic days so I have no idea of I could find a hardcopy or not. But I'm going to try.

Flin Flon For Lunch

I flew in and out of Flin Flon yesterday. Bombed across the lake in a Bombardier and was treated to a lunch of pickerel, wild rice and bannock in the picturesque setting up on the rocks. The tour was part of Travel Manitoba's annual conference. Instead of spending their time in a meeting room, delegates were sent on one of 12 field trips across the province.





Our Bombardier drivers were a couple of character who together have logged more hours on the ice and snow of northern Manitoba than you can imagine. At one point, we were discussing the condition of the ice when our driver said casually, "When they drop through the ice, they actually float for quite a while before going down."

The Klondike may be long gone but people are still staking claims in northern Manitoba. This is what a claim tag looks like. You'll find them littered throughout the north. Apparently there are only about 20 active prospectors in Manitoba.




After lunch our task was to locate staked claims that were located in bluffs across the lake. It involved using snowshoes, compasses and coordinates—lots of math. In the process, one team found some moose poop.

Rotten Ice

Definition: Any piece, body, or area of ice that is in the process of melting or disintegrating. It is characterized by honeycomb structure, weak bonding between crystals, or the presence of meltwater or seawater between grains.

Although Lake Winnipeg is still a solid mass, the top layer is starting to give way along the shoreline. Sections of ice start to break away and the ice crystals make a tinkling sound as they slide into open water.

Land Snakes Alive!

If there’s one thing that defines the Interlake in spring, it’s the snakes of Narcisse. So put aside those images of tulips pressing through winter’s last layer of snow and bunnies running through greening fields. Get you head around holding a tumbling, squirming ball of snakes as big as a volleyball. This is spring, Narcisse style.

Tens of thousands of red-sided garter snakes are expected to emerge from their limestone dens beginning April 23 this year.