It’s become a kind of tradition for us to head out to our friend Bill and Marie’s cottage in Woodridge, Manitoba to look for crocuses every spring.
Usually it’s pretty easy to find the crocuses but this year we had to go a little further afield and keep our eyes glued to the roadside to see any.
I spotted a crocus first but once we got out of the car to inspect the one I’d spied we discovered that in fact there were budding crocuses all around hidden in the dry grasses.
The crocuses were in different stages of unfurling.
As I mentioned we had to go a little further afield this year to find the crocuses so in our search we visited the community park in Carrick Manitoba a neat little place full of history.
A historical marker in the park explained its significance as a place where trains stopped to pick up coal and water on the Winnipeg to Sprague railroad line built by the Manitoba Southeastern Railroad Company in 1898.
There is a model train on the site.
Dave and Marie gamely clambered up inside for this photo.
The Spurgrave School was in the park. Although it is now covered with siding beneath that siding are the rough hewn logs it was built with in 1909. It is one of the only log schoolhouses remaining in Manitoba.
Note the little building on the left which was the teacherage- a home for the teacher of the school. The school is named for man named Spurgrave, a railway worker who died and whose grave is located at the site.
There was an old fashioned water pump near the school. Dave tried it out and it worked! He had a refreshing drink!
For Dave and Marie who are avid birdwatchers the highlight of our stop at the the park in Carrick was spotting this bird, one neither of them had ever seen before. After we were back at Bill and Marie’s cabin and bird books had been consulted they determined it was a yellow-rumped warbler.
There weren’t as many crocuses out yet this year as there have been on our past crocus escapades but as always crocus hunting was plenty of fun and an interesting adventure.
Thanks Bill and Marie!
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