On Monday I saw a mural I’d never noticed before on the side wall of the Food Fare Store on the corner of Westminster and Maryland Street. It said SMILE in big huge letters.
It made me smile.
And that was the intent of its creators Tierney Milne and Brother Jopa from Vancouver. They said they wanted to bring a pop of colour and joy to passers-by and inspire them to connect with their inner child.
Tierney Milne has studied psychology and has a particular interest in how colours and shapes can impact our sense of well-being. Brother Jopa is a lettering artist. The two created the SMILE wall in 2019.
Looking at the wall earlier this week I was reminded of a poem by Jez Alborough
Smiling is infectious, you catch it like the flu, When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too.
I passed around the corner and someone saw my grin. When he smiled I realized I’d passed it on to him.
I thought about that smile, then I realized its worth. A single smile, just like mine could travel round the earth.
So, if you feel a smile begin, don’t leave it undetected. Let’s start an epidemic quick, and get the world infected!
Many scientists believe smiling is actually contagious and that it does make us feel better.
Hopefully, The Smile mural on Westminster Avenue in Winnipeg has made lots of people smile since it was created five years ago and will continue to make folks smile for many years to come.
Earlier this week my friend Esther invited me to go to Munson Park to look for her favourite first sign of a Winnipeg spring.
It was a gorgeous sunny day and it had been a while since I’d visited Munson Park which is located along the Assiniboine River on land that once belonged to the Richardson family.
Kathleen Richardson gifted it to the city of Winnipeg for a park after her family’s home on the property had been torn down. The house originally belonged to a lawyer named John Henry Munson, hence the park’s name.
Once we’d entered the park it didn’t take long to spot delicate blue flowers poking their lovely heads out of the ground.
“I call them Blue Stars or Blue Confetti,” my friend said and indeed they did look like tiny pieces of confetti peppering the newly greening grass and celebrating the warmth of spring.
Blue Star seemed a perfect name too. Bees were buzzing around the six-petalled flowers and I could see tiny buds for more blue stars shooting up out of the dry brown leaves covering the ground.
Later my plant app informed me the flower’s official name was the Siberian Squill or the Scilla Siberica but I liked Blue Star or Blue Confetti much better.
If you are waiting for confirmation that spring has arrived in Winnipeg go to Munson Park and check out the blue confetti.
Image from the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association website
Today is Canadian Independent Bookstore Day! It’s a day for readers, writers and publishers to celebrate bookstores that aren’t part of a larger chain but operate independently to serve their communities in unique ways.
The McNally Robinson Booksellers store at Grant Park Shopping Centre. Photo by Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press
Here in Winnipeg we are incredibly fortunate to have an AMAZING independent bookseller McNally Robinson. I personally love McNally Robinson because…………..
McNally Robinson at the Forks- image from the McNally Robinson Facebook page
10. They have a location at The Forks which is just a short walk from my home. I can pop in at the Forks store anytime, buy a book, pick up a beverage and sit in a comfy chairby the river outside or in the lounge inside to read.
Colleen Nelson was the host of my launch for Sixties Girl at McNally Robinson
9. The Grant Park store hosts launches for local authors. Both my novels Lost on the Prairie and Sixties Girl had a McNallys launch. John Toews who coordinates these launches for the store is such a professional and suave facilitator.
With my friends taking a course about chocolate in McNally’s community classroom
8. McNally Robinson offers interesting courses in their community classroom. I’ve taught a course there and taken numerous courses myself.
7. They have a bestseller list which is published each week in the Winnipeg Free Press. It highlights Manitoba authors and Canadian authors with stars and maple leaves.
Posing with a photo of Miriam Toews who is from my hometown
6. McNallys has huge photos of accomplished writers from Manitoba on the walls of their Grant Park Store. Authors like me can aspire to being included one day.
5. They have a reward card which gives you discounts on your purchases. Members of the Manitoba Writers Guild get theirs at no cost thanks to McNallys.
Such a thrill to see my novel Sixties Girl on this table
4. They have a bestseller table where the works of local authors are displayed right alongside the books of famous authors. How cool is that?
3. The children’s section at McNally Robinson Booksellers is wonderful. I spend many hours there every year at the beginning of December picking out the perfect Christmas book for each one of my grandchildren.
Prairie Ink Restaurant- photo from the McNally Robinson X page
2. They have a terrific restaurant Prairie Ink. I’ve enjoyed so many meals there with friends and family. The West African peanut soup is a winner with me but so is the goat cheese and beet salad.
With two of my aunties and my Mom’s dearest friend at McNallys
1. McNally Robinson Booksellers have made their store a community hub for a diverse group of book lovers, a place that just feels like ‘home’ for Winnipeg authors and readers and their friends and family.
And I didn’t put this on the list but for me McNallys has a unique smell- a special combination of scents I have never been able to put my finger on, but I LOVE it.
I swear you could take me into McNally Robinson blindfolded and I’d know I was there after I took my first breath of the rarified air in that haven for book lovers.
You should check out this great article in the Toronto Globe and Mail about McNally Robinson Booksellers.
On Tuesday morning at 9:00 o’clock I paid a visit to a class of Grade 3s at Winnipeg Mennonite Elementary School. They had just finished reading my novel Lost on the Prairie. They were a fabulous group of kids full of great questions about the story.
Kids’ artwork -the hero of my novel on his horse Prince and a copperhead snake who provides suspense in the book’s second chapter
The students showed me the drawings they had made of scenes from my book which just blew me away. It’s so cool to see your words come to life in children’s art.
Our almost one year old granddaughter is part of a program that the Winnipeg Mennonite Elementary resource teacher facilitates called Roots of Empathy. This is a world wide initiative where babies come to visit schools and help the children there to develop empathy and caring.
Our daughter-in-law has been visiting Winnipeg Mennonite Elementary regularly during this past year so the school children can see how our little granddaughter has grown and changed.
And……….. on Tuesday at 11:00 o’ clock Dave and I were invited as grandparents to be guests as well. It was a wonderful experienceto watch our granddaughter charm the children and to hear all the questions they had to ask about her.
After the eventful morning we went to DAWNING a nearby restaurant for lunch. Several years ago when I was waiting in the Grace Hospital Emergency room to have a broken wrist attended to my husband Dave went to DAWNING to pick up some soup for me.
It was AMAZING! Everyone in the waiting room smelled how good it was and asked Dave where he’d got it.
We decided to go back to DAWNING for soup and a sandwich for lunch and it was delicious!
I’ve looked DAWNING up on Trip Advisor and it gets rave reviews for its delicious food, generous portions and friendly service.
I asked the owner where the name came from when we paid the bill. He says it’s a reference to the fact that their restaurant specializes in great breakfasts served beginning at dawn.
We had a lovely morning on Tuesday topped off with a lovely lunch.
The black arrow points to an upside down headline about a twins contest
One of the recent exhibits at the Winnipeg Art Gallery was Headlines which celebrated the 150th birthday of the Winnipeg Free Press. The wall you saw when you entered the exhibit was papered with old newspaper articles.
I was intrigued by an upside down bit of a headline that read……..$3000 To Be Won in Twin Contest.
What was that about?
Apparently in 1952 the paper published photos of 62 sets of twins- 124 individual photos over the course of two months. You had to match the twins correctly to win one of 169 prizes that totalled $3,000.
Patty Black Faulkner holds a newspaper from 1952 with some of the twin photos. She was one of the twins featured in the contest. – photo by Joe Bryksa/Winnipeg Free Press
Patty Black Faulkner and her twin brother Michael’s photos were submitted by their mother June Black.
In a 2012 article in the Winnipeg Free Press June said the contest was very popular and everyone in her neighbourhood rushed to get their paper in the morning to examine the latest photos that had been published.
The lucky winner of the contest was a Mrs. Glen Sheldon. She was a hairdresser from Stonewalland the story about her win and her photo was on the front page of the Saturday, December 20, 1952 issue of the Winnipeg Free Press.
The pull quote from the interview with Mrs. Sheldon says, “I can’t believe it!”
A Carlton University thesis by Nadya Lynn Pankiw states that only 38% of Winnipeg’s residents are regular readers of the Free Press. Perhaps they could use another contest, like the twins one of 1952, to boost their readership.
Did you know that Winnipeg is home to dozens of places that have been designated National Historic Sites of Canada? I have a personal connection with seven of them.
The Fort Garry Hotel was one of a series of château style hotels built by Canadian railway companies in the early 20th century to encourage travel across the country. It opened its doors in 1913 and was named a Canadian National Historic Site in 1981.
A friend and I were honoured on the occasion of our 70th birthdays at the Fort Garry Hotel this past October.
Our family poses outside the Burton Cummings Theatre before a concert by our son’s band Royal Canoe in 2016.
The theatre formerly known as the Walker Theatre was built in 1907 and was the site for many political rallies in its early years particularly related to the labour and women’s suffrage movements. It became a National Historic Site in 1991.
This is the St. Boniface Museum but it first served as a convent for the Grey Nuns. Constructed in 1851 it is the oldest building in Winnipeg. It was named a National Historic Site in 1958.
Dad and his fellow interns at St. Boniface Hospital in the early 1960s
When my father was an intern at St. Boniface Hospital in the early 1960s many of the nurses he worked with were Grey Nuns.
I am sitting on Santa’s knee at a Christmas party hosted by the Grey Nuns. You can see them coming in through the door with gifts
At Christmas the Grey Nuns put on a Christmas party for the intern’s childrenwhich my siblings and I attended.
The Ralph Connor House was the home of the Reverend Charles Gordon who wrote adventure novels under the pen name of Ralph Connor. It was built in 1914 and named a National Historic Site in 2009.
Currently the house is the home of the University Women’s Club of Winnipeg and my aunt, a retired University of Manitoba professor and a member of the club had her 80th birthday celebration there.
Winnipeg’s downtown Exchange District was a warehouse and business centre at the turn of the century. It contains dozens of historically and architecturally significant buildings and became a National Historic Site in 1996.
I live in the Exchange District in the Ashdown Warehouse.
One of the settings for my best selling novel Lost on the Prairie is the old CPR Station on Higgins Avenue which was built in 1906.
This elaborate building is a symbol of the fact that Winnipeg was an important transportation hub in the early 20th century. It became a National Historic Site in 1982.
My Dad put himself through medical school by working as a porter out of the Winnipeg CPR station on the route that took passengers from Winnipeg through the Rocky Mountains to Vancouver.
Lower Fort Garry built in 1830 is a former Hudson’s Bay Company fort which served as a major supply centre for the fur trade in Western Canada and where Treaty One was signed with the Indigenous people of Manitoba in 1871. It became a National Historic Site in 1950.
My son dressing up in a Metis sash and beaver hat at Lower Fort Garry
My brother worked at Lower Fort Garry as a tour guide when he was attending university. When my children were small we visited the fort on many occasions.
You can find a list of the National Historic Sites in Winnipeg here. Do you have a personal connection with any of them?
Thousands of shoppers came and bought almost all the books our wonderful volunteers had sorted and priced garnering us tens of thousands of dollars to donate to the work of the Winnipeg Public Library.
I am on the Friends Board of Directors and volunteered at the payment desk all weekend. I got to know so many interesting book lovers who volunteered with me
What I enjoyed most was watching the endless stream of people eager to read and excited about reading. As they came by my desk to pay so many were just bubbling over with delight at the books they had found.
Two tired volunteers having fun at the end of the sale
It was also terrific watching our dozens and dozens of volunteers have fun together as they helped folks at the sale.
And then of course all kinds of human interest stories developed over the weekend.
One of our board members introduced me to a volunteer named Maria who had moved to Winnipeg six months ago from Lima Peru. Maria thought volunteering at our sale would be a good way to get to know people.
In the lunchroom the next day a young woman named Veronica introduced herself. She had also moved to Winnipeg six months ago from Lima Peru and thought volunteering at our sale would be a good way to get to know people.
Of course, we asked Veronica if she knew Maria. She did not. One of our board members went to find Maria and brought her to meet Veronica.
The two women couldn’t believe they had both landed up in Winnipeg from the same city in Peru at the same time. They hugged and began talking excitedly about getting together.
A woman came to the payment table with a book and told us she was its author. One of our volunteers overheard and came hurrying over.
“I loved your book,” she said to the author and the two women who had never met each other before embraced.
Another heartwarming story was about the little boy who lost the twenty-dollar bill his grandma had given him to buy books. They notified our board member at the help desk and don’t you think a little later a kind shopper turned it in. The young boy was elated to get his money back.
There was a woman who was absolutely delighted to find a cookbook she had spent years looking for and a man who was almost teary about discovering a picture book that had been his favourite as a child.
So many heartwarming stories.
In a television interview Board Director Dominique Wightman said, “This sale is more than just a fundraiser. It brings together a community of book lovers.”
We raised lots of funds for the library at our sale but we also fostered friendships and personal connections and provided thousands of people with good books at reasonable prices.
Here are three Winnipeg buildings that have a connection to my family but are no longer part of the Winnipeg landscape.
This mansion used to stand at 515 Wellington Crescent. It’s where my parents met each other. In 1947 Canadian Mennonite Bible College began using the house as a residence for their students.
The house was surrounded by water during the 1950 flood
One day my Dad came down from his room on the second floor and saw my mother playing the piano in the foyer on the main floor. He stopped to listen. As he liked to put it, “The rest is history.”
My parents on their wedding day
The Old King George Hosptial
My aunt worked at the old King George Hospital when it was the treatment centre for Winnipeg’s polio patients.
In the early 1950s, my aunt was training to be a nurse at the Misericordia Hospital and trainees were encouraged to volunteer at St. George where polio patients in iron lungs needed to be under vigilant surveillance due to the need for frequent tracheostomy suctioning.
My aunt with my parents at her nursing school graduation from the Misericordia Hospital in 1953
The hospital has since been torn down and replaced by the Riverview Health Centre.
However, the old front archway of the St. George Hospital has been preserved on the site.
I attended Sir John Franklin School when I was in grade two in 1961. The school was named after the famous Arctic explorer.
My grade two class at Sir John Franklin School.
My grade two teacher was Miss Ushey and our principal was Miss Fisher.
My sister and I outside Sir John Franklin School
Sir John Franklin School was closed in 1987 and demolished in 1991.
Many buildings that played a role in my family’s life have been torn down and are no longer here. What are some buildings that played a role in your life but have since disappeared?
10. It is one of Winnipeg’s most popular annual book sales. Thousands of people attend. It’s the place to be and be seen in Winnipeg this weekend.
Hundreds of people lined up eager to get into our 2019 saleas soon as the doors opened
9. There will be a huge variety of books on offer- cookbooks, children’s books, art books, history books, mystery books, fiction, new books, old books, rare books, travel books, romance books, nature books………
8. Lots of DVDs, CDs and LPs will be for sale too
7. Money raised from the sale goes to help pay for programming at Winnipeg’s public libraries, things like summer and spring break activities for kids, the writer-in-residence positionand guest performers.
The literacycentre at the new Bill and Helen Norrie Library waspurchased with funds from Friends of the Winnipeg Public Library
6. Other money raised from the sale buys things like hands-onliteracy centres for children to explore in the library, comfortable innovative seating for children at different branches, sewing machines for patrons to use and musical instruments for people to check out.
5. The sale is being held for the first time at a brand new exciting location at The St. James Civic Centre at 2055 Ness Avenue.
Shoppers at our 2023 sale
4. Books in every genre and on every topic have been carefully curated by volunteer book lovers with interest and expertise in their field.
3. Doors open at 10 AM on Saturday and Sunday and will remain open till 3:30 giving plenty of time for leisurely browsing and shopping.
2.The Board of Directors of the Friends of the Winnipeg Public Library plans and organises the sale. I am proud to be one of those directors along with a diverse group of bankers, social workers, former school administrators, lawyers, students, authors, nurses, business people and others who care passionately about our city’s libraries.
1.The sale is staffed by a huge contingent of friendly and enthusiastic volunteers ready to greet you, meet you, and help make your shopping experience at our sale a big success. I’m one of those volunteers and I hope to see you at the Friends of the Library sale this weekend.
The Free Press has some absolutely wonderful op-ed writers who always make me think and help me consider ideas and problems from new perspectives.
Photo of Brent Bellamy from The Free Press
I’m drawn to Brent Bellamy’s opinion pieces because he writes about things that are important to me and the area where I live. My home is in Winnipeg’s Exchange District and Brent has lots of great ideas for how we can make the downtown of our city more liveable, safe and vibrant.
I am troubled by the homeless people I see every day in my neighbourhood and Brent has helped me understand some of the zoning by-laws currently on the books in Winnipeg which are preventing the construction of desperately needed housing in the city.
As someone who likes to walk as much as possible,I loved Brent’s column about creating 15-minute cities where citizens should only have to walk for about 15 minutes to access all the goods and services they need.
Photo of Erna Buffie from her Facebook Page
Erna Buffie is another Free Press op-ed writer I enjoy. One of the main themes of her pieces is the protection of the local environment. In particular, she is a cheerleader for preserving the city’s trees.
My blog readers who followed my year-long diary about my relationship with four trees in my neighbourhood probably understand why Erna’s columns often resonate with me.
In one of her latest articles, she tells us why saying yes to planting more trees and no to building more roads is a winning scenario for Winnipeg.
I loved this piece where she bemoans the way people cut down trees indiscriminately. Erna beautifully describes all the things that trees add to our lives and our living spaces.
Photo of Kyle Hiebert from the CBC website
Although Kyle Hiebert grew up in my hometown of Steinbach and went to school and played sports with my son, that’s only part of why I am drawn to his articles. Kyle writes clearly and succinctly about international issues that might be hard to understand.
His recent article about how Russia is using African countries to prop up their economy was an eye-opener for me.
I really appreciated another piece he wrote about how climate change and conflict are intertwined. He suggests if countries put as much effort, time and money into protecting the environment as they do into fighting with each other, things might finally start changing for the better.
Photo of John Wiens by Phil Hassock for the Winnipeg Free Press
As a grandmother and former public school teacher I truly appreciate John Wiens’ op-eds about education and the well-being of children.John is a former teacher, principal, superintendent and university dean of education, so he brings a wealth of lived experience to his writing.
I was in tears after reading John’s moving piece about the way war and armed conflict are impacting the children of our world.
I read The Free Press faithfully and appreciate many of their regular columnists but I am glad they also accept submissions from so many great freelancers whose excellent op-eds I often find inspirational and thought-provoking.
What Next? 