Just a quick post to tell you about the River Barge Festival that started today! This 5-day festival is one of the Cultural Capital of Canada “Arts for All” offerings, and a marvelous idea!

It was a gorgeous, sunny day and one of the bands my husband manages, Johnny Cajun, was playing a set, so we Snugglied up our now 2-month old and headed over to the Forks for some fresh air and lively tunes.

The riverfront was full of people happily taking in the music and blue skies. The river taxi was doing runs back and forth, and from their location on a barge the band played on!

Upcoming acts include Greg MacPherson, Chic Gamine, Sierra Noble , Fred Penner and many others. I hope you get a chance to go over the next few days!

Note from Emma: WoMH guest-blogger Ian is back, this time with the scoop on Assiniboine Park!

When I first moved to Winnipeg last year, I was already familiar with some of the more popular/interesting outdoors hangouts. I had been to the Forks, explored the Exchange, shopped at Polo Park and ventured all the way down to the University of Manitoba (which is about as far south as I’ve been since I’ve moved here). However, one place I had never been too, or even really heard of for that matter, was Assiniboine Park. I stumbled upon the park last spring, when I went there for a work-related bbq lunch. Since then, I’ve been back numerous times with friends, visiting family, and solo. I tend to be fond of urban parks.  I love Stanley and Queen Elizabeth parks in Vancouver. I was impressed by the Toronto Islands Park. I’ve experienced Central Park, Hyde Park, and many more in Europe; but I have to say, Winnipeg has a pretty nice park in Assiniboine and here are some reasons why (in no particular order):

Number one: It’s larger than Stanley Park in Vancouver. Not by much mind you, but it is (I looked it up). Plus, unlike Stanley Park, it doesn’t have a major traffic artery bisecting the park in two.

Number two: Assiniboine Park has some pretty cool gardens. The formal English garden was very nice stroll through last summer, but I was most impressed with the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden. I had never heard of Leo Mol before I moved here, so I was surprised to find an entire garden filled with his creations. However, I was quickly impressed with how nicely it was all laid out, and quite entertained by the variety of creative sculptures. The small display building and courtyard area in the middle of the garden is a wonderful spot, which was made even better when I discovered the (free) live Sunday jazz series in the garden last summer. You don’t get that in Vancouver!

Number three: All the trails through the gardens, forests and fields, around the duck pond and along the river make the park a great place to walk. It’s so nice to get a walk through the forest without leaving the convenience (and mosquito controlled confines) of the city. Plus, you get a great walking bridge over the river that leads directly to a delicious ice cream stand. Bingo!

Number four: Trains, planes and automobiles. Assiniboine has a miniature railway which, even though I haven’t experienced yet, I always appreciate. Also, there’s the cool old CN steam engine near the south gate. As for planes, with the airport just across the river, the park fields are a great place for plane spotting. It’s pretty cool, and a bit unnerving to see A320s and 737s flying that low right above you. Sometimes I get the urge to wave, thinking someone might actually see me and wave back! And of course, the park also has one key feature that would endear itself to any Winnipegger: abundant free parking!

Finally, number five: The Lyric Theatre at the Pavilion. I have been to the Lyric twice now, camped out with my folding chair on a prime piece of real estate, to see the WSO perform a free show on a gorgeous summer evening. This is a perfect combination and the best bang for my entertainment dollar (even after the well-deserved donation). This year, I will endeavour to experiment and try out more free performances at the Lyric; the Big Band Series looks promising, and I’ve heard that I need to see Moses Mayes, so I will have to make the trip a few times this summer. That’s not too difficult since even the drive to the park all the way down Corydon is rather pleasant (though I’m always tempted to pull over and have a beer or cappuccino on a bustling patio.)

There are many other things to enjoy in Assiniboine Park that I didn’t mention in my list. The conservatory is nice and I expect this is especially so in the winter. There’s the zoo, which I’ve enjoyed as well, though I have mixed feelings about zoos. I have yet to sample the park in winter mode, but I’m looking forward to taking my skis out there next winter.

What’s your favourite place/thing/aspect of Assiniboine Park? Do you have other favourite parks in the city or places you like to go for a quick nature getaway? I know I’m curious to try out FortWhyte Alive. I’d like to hear some of your suggestions too!

-Ian

I wouldn’t call myself a foodie. I don’t eat beef. Or shellfish. I’m finicky about ginger and hate soy sauce. I know cupcakes have been a trend food for way too long, but I love them anyway. And I sometimes feel like a lousy Canadian when I admit I prefer butter-flavoured imitation maple syrup, which my in-laws lovingly refer to as “pole syrup” (sirop de poteau).

So while I wouldn’t call myself a foodie, I would call myself a food-lover. (I know, lame, because as if there are any food-haters.)  I like thinking about food, in general. I like looking at recipes, even ones I know I’ll never get around to making.  Mostly I enjoy reading others’ thoughts on ingredients, gear, and restaurants…call it cooking vicariously, if you like. Because the availability of all these things varies so much geographically, it’s always a pleasant surprise when you come across a blog that refers to restaurants and stores you can actually visit, and ingredients you can easily find!

Lucky for us, Winnipeg has several good food bloggers/writers, and I’ve rounded up a list of some of my regular reads. Have I missed anyone?

• Dine Out Winnipeg: Restaurant reviews, tips, events, etc. Very extensive archives.
• Breakfast Connoisseurs: Two funny dudes on an eternal quest to find the city’s best breakfast…. their website is the only place you can find hours, payment details, etc., on a lot of small places. Extra props for the hilarious podcast!
• Savour Winnipeg: Monthly roundups of foodie events, gossip, and other local news.
• Winnipeg Eats: A great mix of food politics, recipes, tips on using local produce, etc.
• Zollipop: Zolli writes about local ingredients, local restaurants and her cooking adventures, generally accompanied by lovely photos.
• Cake-ology: Company blog for the Exchange’s Cake-ology Bakery.
• Food Musings: A mix of personal posts, recipes, reviews, and more. I fell for the cute heart pictures at the end of each post!

I’m looking forward to this summer for a bunch of food-related reasons. One, we’re hoping to do some container gardening of a few herbs and veggies this summer (we’re gardening newbs; baby steps!). Two, we picked up a composter at the city’s compost & rain barrel sale a few weekends back. So even though we have no use for compost right now, by this time next year we should have some of the nice, rich stuff to help grow more veggies, and we can stop throwing a big proportion of our kitchen scraps into the garbage. Three, I’m excited for trips to the Farmers’ Market (though I cringe at the long drive down to St. Norbert) and to u-pick some berries. Lastly, and this may be delusional, but I’m hoping that being off on mat leave will afford me time to do more cooking and experimenting in the kitchen.

Do you have food-related summer traditions or activities you’re excited for? Do share!

Things on my to-do-once-I-move-to-Manitoba list:

Get married? Check.

Buy a house? Done.

Have a baby…  any time now!

Yep, my husband and I will welcome our first child very shortly, and since pregnancy is such a major life event, the last nine months have given me a real education in expectation. Reflecting on it all  has inspired me to share a bit about what I’ve discovered – I hope it will be of some use to fellow expectant parents in the city.  I’m certainly no pro, but I have managed to figure some things out!

Doctors, Obstetricians & Midwives

One of the most frustrating things about moving to a new city is getting yourself set up with new healthcare providers.  When I found out I was pregnant, I hadn’t yet found a family doctor, and that was pretty stressful (as if there aren’t other things on your mind when you’re in your first trimester, like not throwing up!). The Family Doctor Connection did not prove to be particularly helpful – I wound up just searching the internet for Winnipeg medical clinics accepting new patients and eventually did get into one.

Eventually I was referred to an obstetrician who think is great, but when I found out that pregnant women in Manitoba can choose to work with a doctor or a midwife, I was disappointed that I hadn’t pursued the latter option. Fortunately, we’ve been able to somewhat bridge the differing styles of prenatal care by hiring a doula who has been meeting with us regularly over the last few months, and who will be with us when our baby is born.

Midwives are funded through the province of Manitoba and can generally attend hospital and home births. Be forewarned, though: there’s a shortage of midwives in the province. According to this Free Press item, the province funds about 40, but needs more like 200.  Apparently, the College of Midwives is turning away more than half the people who want a midwifery birth. You can see a list of all midwife practices here. (Midwives support low-risk home and hospital births – pretty cool.)

Hospital Births

In Winnipeg, only St. Boniface Hospital and the Health Sciences Centre (HSC) have maternity wards.  I’ll be delivering at St. B,  which is made up of private, LDRP (labour/delivery/recovery/postpartum) rooms, and semi-private rooms. You can take a monthly “virtual tour” of the St. B maternity ward every 2nd Thursday of the month. The first half hour/45 minutes is a powerpoint presentation by an anaesthesiologist, addressing drug options for labour. The second half is a slide show and presentation by a labour & delivery nurse, and for me, this part of the presentation was much more valuable. The nurse shared when to come to the hospital, and what to bring, and answered the question that everyone wants to know: how do I get a private LDRP room? (The answer is sort of complicated, but I was relieved to know that even if you don’t get an LDRP room, you still have your own room for labour, delivery, and recovery. It’s only after the delivery that you’ll be sharing a room.)

Also of great interest to me is the construction of a free-standing birthing centre (“Women’s Health Clinic”) that is scheduled to begin by Spring of 2011. It’s expected to handle 500 births per year, and “will include a primary-care clinic and four birthing rooms, and facilities for education and counselling.” (CBC News item)

Ultrasounds

Sorry ladies, this ain’t the United States, where if you believe what you see on A Baby Story, you’d get a whole bunch of chances to see your little one in utero. In Manitoba, I’ve been told, and it was my experience, that unless you’re high risk, you’ll probably get one ultrasound at around 20 weeks. And it’s for medical purposes, not to determine the sex of the baby. (Don’t bother to ask if it’s a boy or a girl, because apparently they won’t tell you! At St. B, anyway. I’m not sure about HSC.) At St. Boniface, you can order a DVD of your ultrasound for $50 (allow  weeks for processing). This was a hard reality for me to learn, since all I wanted was one snapshot to show family and friends, and tuck into a baby book. In the end we opted save some money (am I becoming a frugal Winnipegger, or what??) and to forego the ultrasound DVD. If you’re willing to pay, BabyMoon and UC Baby are private ultrasound clinics that offer a variety of photo/DVD/etc. packages.

Doulas (a.k.a. labour coaches)

As I mentioned earlier, we found a wonderful doula through Birth Roots Doula Collective who has been meeting with us over the last few months and will be with us when I go into labour. She has been an excellent source of information, reassurance, and support and we feel very lucky to be working with her. While doulas (personal labour coaches) aren’t paid for by the province, most have a sliding scale fee policy… we are paying the full Birth Roots price at $575+tax. Other organizations such as MACFE (a non-profit) charge less.

Incidentally, word on the street is that doula services in Manitoba are way underpriced. A friend of mine in Calgary who is also expecting looked into getting a doula, and the least expensive service they found cost $900. I have heard that doulas in Toronto often charge $1000. We’ve had such a positive experience with our doula so far that I’m sure we would happily pay a higher rate, if it were required.

Prenatal classes, activities & networking

One of the downsides of moving away from your old friends is that once “baby fever” hits your gang, you may find, as I did, that you want to be around other expectant mothers but don’t know any! Fortunately I’ve been able to meet some other pregnant women through prenatal classes and prenatal yoga, both of which are held at Birth Roots. I’ve especially enjoyed the 8-week yoga class, as we generally had group discussions both before and after the class. Moksha Yoga also offers prenatal yoga, and the Winnipeg Leisure Guide lists several pre-and postnatal (and pre-/postnatal friendly) classes including yoga, aquafit, exercise, etc.

Two online forums have been somewhat useful, too: Baby Center’s Parents in Manitoba board and What to Expect’s Canadian Parents board.

Maternity & baby clothing and gear

I’ve had a lot of luck finding gently worn maternity clothes at Mom’s and Children’s Paradise, got my winter coat at Motherhood Maternity, and almost never left Thyme without something cute! As for baby gear, a colleague told me early on to watch the Zellers flyers because they routinely have big sales in the baby department… and it’s true, they do! E-Children is a smaller chain whose Winnipeg store in located in the Exchange, and they have really lovely cribs, bassinets, bedding, furniture, etc. there. We purchased cloth diapers from a local mother/daughter team who runs Canada’s Diaper Ladies. I’ve also heard good things about AMP Diapers.

And again, I wouldn’t be a thrifty Winnipegger if I didn’t scope out a bunch of garage sales a couple weekends back, and score a bunch of barely-used clothes, a Snugli, and a diaper bag for a fraction of what they would have cost new. (On a related note, this year I discovered that there are somewhat regular “community garage sales” where entire neighbourhoods plan their sales on the same weekend… I visited the Whyte Ridge sales on May 8, and the Linden Woods sale is right around the corner on June 5.)

I’ve also made excellent use of Winnipeg Public Library‘s extensive collection of pregnancy and baby name books. I’m looking forward to taking the little one to some WPL programming eventually, too!

Anyway, that’s about it (I know, this was a novel) from me on this topic. I’d love to hear about others’ experiences, tips, and comments about preparing for a baby in Manitoba… it can be an overwhelming and anxious time of life, so the more we can share with each other, the better

Note from Emma: I’m excited to introduce you all to Winnipeg O’ My Heart’s very first guest blogger… welcome, Ian!

Hello, loyal readers of WoMH. As you may know, this little prairie blog started off with three fine contributors, of which only Emma has remained to hold down the fort.  Well fear not for the future, because I am here to reverse the exodus trend. My name is Ian and I hope to make a semi-regular contribution to WoMH, to add my own thoughts and observations on this great city as seen through the eyes of a newcomer to Winnipeg and Manitoba. I am, coincidently, also an ex-pat British Columbian who moved out here for a career change and new opportunities and adventures.

I am just days away from my one year ‘Pegiversary, which I believe commenced when I was issued my funky (and now sadly defunct) two-piece Manitoba drivers’ license.  In this short time, I have explored many of Winnipeg’s diverse neighbourhoods, partaken in its cultural events from the symphony to the social, the fringe festival to Folkorama. I have also walked in the sand at Grand Beach, visited the Icelandic museum in Gimli and ridden the train to the northern reaches of Manitoba (where I happened to spend most of my first Manitoba winter!!!) But now I am back in the ‘Peg, living and working downtown and eagerly awaiting my second summer in the city (this time with more sun!).

So that’s a brief introduction of my story.  I hope that you’ll enjoy my occasional observations, kudos and critiques of life at junction of the Red and Assiniboine (I can finally spell that name!) rivers.  Cheers, and enjoy this wonderful weather while it lasts!

–Ian

Tonight’s the night of the “world’s biggest social”, held in honour of Manitoba’s 140th birthday. I’ve been to exactly one social in my almost two years in Winnipeg (two Bud Spud & Steaks, though!) and that’s probably enough for me… I won an incredibly awesome prize that fateful night and would like to keep that record intact!

I still feel a little conflicted about the concept of fundraising for weddings, even though it seems like it’s basically the same pool of money (and crushing sense of guilt and obligation) that passes from one couple to the next, which I am happily exempted from since I didn’t grow up here and don’t really get it. But I can say for certain that it’s a brilliant concept for fundraising in general, especially when the proceeds are going towards community development projects and, in the case of the Winnipeg social tonight, the Health Sciences Centre Foundation, CancerCare Manitoba Foundation and Children’s Hospital Research Foundation of Manitoba.

I’m book-clubbing it up tonight, so cube cheese and rye bread are not in the picture for me, but there’s some good pre-emptive coverage of what’s in store for social goers tonight in today’s Free Press: ”Ain’t no party like a Manitoba party“. The articles includes tips & memories from fellow bloggers Ben MacPhee- Sigurdson and ChrisD as well as from other prominent ‘Peggers. It also includes a list of 20 essential social songs, which is eerily similar to the standard setlist of every junior high dance I ever went to.

Hope you get your fill of C&C Music Factory, pretzels on paper plates, and kolbassa a-plenty. And my fingers are crossed that you win the silent auction prize you want the most!

Just a little plug for one of the events happening in Neepawa during Manitoba Homecoming 2010.

On Thursday May 13, there will be two presentations of Of Songs and Battles (“De chants et de batailles”), a fascinating look at the history of Francophone community in Manitoba, produced by the CJP.  I had the pleasure of seeing this reading (accompanied by live music from Kin) last year at the CUSB and left the event feeling proud, inspired, angry, and in awe of the tireless efforts of francophones in this province.

Are you planning on going to the world’s largest social (at any of the 63 satellite locations), or any other events during the 4-day blitz in Neepawa? Let me know how it goes!

…but hearing that Manitoba may soon go to 10-digit dialing makes me a bit sad. Apparently, Manitoba will get a new area code (probably 431) and you’ll have to dial an area code before any local numbers sometime in 2012.

I’d gotten used to 10-digit dialing in Vancouver – I didn’t really question it, as there are so many people, and therefore phones, in the Lower Mainland that it only made sense. But when I was growing up in southern Alberta, it had always been 7-digit dialing. It was a huge deal when they added a second area code for northern Alberta, but it wasn’t hard to get used to, either. Then, on a recent trip home, I couldn’t figure out why my local calls weren’t going through. “You have to dial 403,” my mum told me. And so Alberta had gone 10-digit, too.

Lots of people speak wistfully about the good old days of party lines or when everyone had the same first three digits, so that when someone gave you their phone number, you only had to remember the last four. In the same quasi-nostalgic way, I guess I’d always thought it was quaint, or charming, or something, that here in little old Winnipeg, we don’t have to dial an area code. But now it looks like those days are coming to an end.

It’s a seemingly trivial thing, I know. Anyone else a bit verklempt over this, too?

Among all the lovely scenes in Carol Shields’ novel The Republic of Love, one of my favourites is where the female protagonist, Fay, describes what a small world it is when you live in this city:

“The population of Winnipeg is six hundred thousand, a fairly large city, with people who tend to stay put. Families overlap with families, neighborhoods with neighborhoods. You can’t escape it. Generations interweave so that your mother’s friends … formed sort of a squadron of secondary aunts. You were always running into someone you’d gone to school with or someone whose uncle worked with someone else’s father. The tentacles of connection were long, complex, and full of bitter or amusing ironies that characterize blood families. …

Some days, she can wait anonymously in the bus shelter at River and Osborne and speak to no one, and the next day she’ll run into any number of acquaintances. These surprises used to drive Peter crazy, the oppressive clannishness they implied and the embarrassments, but Fay again and again is reassured and comforted to be a part of a knowable network.”

This very passage is one I read ten years ago and decided that Winnipeg was a place I’d like very much live. And although when I moved here I had only one close friend in the city, I had behind me many generations of Manitobans: a vast array of aunts, uncles, cousins and a couple surviving grandparents.  Once I started dating my future husband, Michel, there would be many more opportunities for our families’ stories to intersect. The connections started presenting themselves at a somewhat alarmingly frequent rate.  For instance, we discovered that my sister-in-law’s brother had taught my cousins at Collège Jeanne-Sauvé. It also turned out those same cousins had once visited Michel’s family farm on a school field trip, and indeed eaten a meal with his parents! Another two sets of crossed paths are detailed in Aaron’s post “All Roads Lead to Portage and Main“.

Although a little less tangible, perhaps my favourite Winnipeg coincidence involves my late  maternal grandfather, who owned a successful Winnipeg dance school back in the day. When I happened to mention his name to Michel, he couldn’t believe it — he’d grown up seeing commercials for his dance studio on TV. In fact, he said, he was sure he’d written about Ken Mathews in a short story in school. A few weeks later, we happened to be cleaning his apartment and amazingly, came across the story he’d written some fifteen years earlier. And sure enough, he described his protagonist as being able to “play hockey like Wayne Gretzky, play tennis like Pete Sampras, and dance like Ken Mathews.” I found it incredibly endearing. (More recently, he found out that one of my uncles used to play for the Jets, and pronounced that he didn’t know he’d married “Winnipeg Royalty”. Ha!)

I’ve never really been able to explain why I felt that Winnipeg was home. I don’t know what it was that made me think this city — a city that I had no real adult experience with — was where I was meant to be. The prairies part was easy enough to figure out – I grew up on them, and had been away too long, I guess. But as for the city itself? My parents had met and married here, my brothers were born here, but neither of those facts really have much to do with me. Or do they? Maybe it was the fact that every major roadtrip my family took when I was growing up was to Manitoba.  Maybe it was the constant backdrop of Winnipeg references: the house on Lenore, or Marshall Crescent. The Christmas tree at King’s Drive. Or my personal favourite: The Fort Richmond Zellers cafeteria, where, in the 70s, my mum and her best friend would smoke cigarettes and get French fries for the kids.

But it worked out. All these funny coincidences, these random connections, they seem to serve as some sort of proof that I was here even when I wasn’t here. And I like that feeling a lot. Perhaps it’s as simple as what Carol Shields wrote: geography is destiny.  In The Republic of Love, when Fay and Tom finally meet, they realise there’s actually an intricate web of connections between them. That’s how I think of my life here: not just because of the connections my husband and I had before we knew each other, but because how else explain my decision to move here?

Anyway, what got me to thinking about all this was was Kyla Roma’s recent post, “Moments from a Prairie Winter“. Kyla writes:

“I know why people choose to leave here, because you don’t get a big city life. You don’t have hundreds of clubs to choose from, the big artists don’t come through, and the big stores tend to pass us by. You don’t have the mountains of Vancouver or the city chic of Toronto. And it can be claustrophobic. Live here for a while, and when you talk to almost anyone long enough you will find a connection to them through ex-employers, friends, hockey teams, or distant aunts and uncles. Sometimes that can be hard, and people want to define themselves without having to run into their entire graduating class when they’re grocery shopping.

But the wonderful thing is that if you choose to stay, you can be known. You can run into friends everywhere and meet people easily. You can take the time that you are sealed in under sheets of ice to get your passions off the ground and into flight. You can go to underground shows, and know who’s who. You can line dry your clothes and have raspberry bushes in the middle of the city.”

I think this is the blessing and the curse of Winnipeg. I didn’t go to school here, so there’s no risk of me running into my entire graduating class while I’m grocery shopping. In fact, the very idea of that is probably what motivated me to leave my hometown eight years ago.  Now, bumping into someone I know is a pleasure, a small reminder of this little big city and my place within it. No matter how I wound up here, I’m glad I did.

Inspired by Greg G’s recent blog post, I thought I’d share my own list of dream Winnipeg-related Jeopardy categories. (This meme comes from Douglas Coupland’s excellent novel, Microserfs, which is probably one of my all-time faves.) I’m still a relative newcomer to the city, but here are a few categories I’m pretty sure I could ace:

• Size and Locality of Potholes on the Disraeli Bridge and Overpass, circa March
• Common Typographical Errors by Commenters on the Winnipeg Free Press Website
• Odds of Vegetarian Entree Availability at Catered Events
• Winnipeg Wrap Form & Function

Aaaaaand a few I’m sure I would fail miserably at:

• Underground Navigation of Portage & Main
• Social Music 101
• Minnesota/North Dakota peasant-vision ads of the 80s

Okay, so I know they’re not standard Jeopardy-type categories, but I had fun coming up with them.

What are your dream (or dreaded) Winnipeg-related Jeopardy categories?