May 31

Drove from Moose Jaw to Lethbridge, a full day of driving. Even so I managed to walk 4.43 km today. Stopped by the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery, not open and in the midst of installation any way. Also stopped in Medicine Hat and the Esplanade Art Gallery and Museum. Wonderful gallery space and a great show of photographs documenting the Co-Op movement in Saskatchewan during the 1940's to 1950's. Back in Lethbridge by early evening.

May 30

Spent the day driving to Moose Jaw. As a result only walked 1.28 km. Listened to lots of country music though. Seems appropriate for the terrain covered.

May 29

Thought I had finished walking in Winnipeg - especially in the rain. But Carol came to town yesterday and I wanted to show her the town. On the street with umbrellas in hand early we:
1. Walked up Osbourne to the WAG to see the show.
2. Walked from the WAG down to the Forks. I was surprised to find that I had never actually been in the Forks but had only passed by on all sides many times. Had lunch.
3. Walked down by the Red River for a ways, the banks and walking path are flooded again from all the rain.Walked back up to Main Street by the Manitoba Museum
4. Up to King Street and over to the Exchange district and Platform Gallery.
5. Over to Portage for some late shopping and down Donald to the Millenium Library to look at the public art works of Cliff Eyland and Nick Wade.
6. Down Donald and across the Donald Bridge to Osbourne and then back down to Kingston Crescent. A day's total of 18.23 km.

May 28

End of the residency today. Spent the afternoon at the gallery packing up the production material and leaving the final project in place. Had to drive today. As a result only walked 7km. Drove to the airport, a wonderful modernist structure.
Packing up the next couple of days before driving back to Lethbridge. I'm going to continue the blog till at least the end of the WAG show on June 30, although I'll be walking in other places, but thinking of Winnipeg.
One benefit of driving today is that my feet are still dry.

May 27

Beautiful sunny and warm this morning. Walked down Kingston Crescent directly into an extensive web of cankerworm threads hanging from a honeysuckle bush. Like something out of a bad science fiction movie. After brushing off webs and worms, continued down to St. Vital Bridge and up Osbourne to the WAG. Did some chores before the reception marking the end of the residency portion of my exhibition. Walked 107.93 km last week. The reception was well attended, the cookies and coffee were a draw. It was a good way to mark the end of this portion of the project. The walk home from the gallery was very pleasant. I walked along the railway right of way parallel to Pembina highway. 12.35 km today, Total walking distance for the month was 385.84 km. Feet dry today.

May 26

14.52 km today for a total of 107.93 km this week.
Walked up Pembina Highway today. Not the most attractive of paths even on a good day. Today isn't a good day. Raining heavily and steadily all morning. Frequent pools of water on the road means dodging into parking lots etc. in order to avoid being soaked by passing vehicles. After 5 hours in the gallery my feet were still wet. Left the WAG at six and walked back across the Maryland Bridge and down Academy to Stafford. Down Stafford to Grant, popped over to McNally Robinson books, had a bit of a browse. Home by eight. Feet still wet.

May 25

19.84 hard km today.
Snow early this morning. Amazing. Although later, while walking into town via the river there were lots of warblers and finches singing, even goldfinches. Worked at the gallery for the afternoon. Ernie, the gallery photographer took some very good installation photographs and at closing time there was a wedding taking place in the atrium. In the evening I went with curator Mary Reid to see a performance at Winnipeg Contemporary Dance . Choreographer and dancer Alvin Erasga Tolentino in a solo performance titled: Field - land is the belly of man. A video/dance multi-media performance. Refreshing. Went for a drink afterwards with the dance company and Tolentino, then walked home. Two nights in a row walking in the dark, a much different perspective of Winnipeg.

May 24

Todays walking distance was 24.11 km. Strolled down to Wildwood Park this morning. It's a postwar community designed around central greenspaces with automobile access to the neighborhood limited to alleys. Interesting area but confusing to walk in. Lots of cankerworms dangling from the trees and a big turkey population. Walked from there up to the supermarket on Pembina Highway. I inadvertantly ended up on the wrong side of the road and the sidewalk deadended at the underpass. My choices were either to backtrack about a kilometre or climb up and cross the railway tracks. There had been a couple of recent incidents in the newspaper of people being injured trying to cross tracks in town, one of which was about a young man who lost a leg. I survived the track crossing and continued to the shop. On the way home I saw a pedestrian trapped in the middle of Pembina Highway, unable to finish crossing or return to the side he had started from. I wonder if he is still there.

May 23

9am, rain - read yesterday's Free Press.
10am, rain - read yesterday's Globe and Mail.
11am, rain - read last Sunday's New York Times.
12 noon, rain lets up - leave house and walk to gallery. On the way stop at used bookstore and browse, don't buy anything.
Later in the day, walk to IRCOM (Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba), for an afternoon art class. Meet with Nancy and Cam, and a bunch of kids recently arrived from Africa and the Middle East . Take the group on a walk to the gallery to talk to the kids about walking and taking pictures. Extremely enthusiastic group.
Starts raining again while walking home.
14.o5 km today.

May 22

19.41 km. Suburban walking today. Walked to the mall , then up through the community towards the downtown and gallery. Heavy rain started when I was about halfway there. I had anticipated that the weather would clear up when I left the house but I was wrong. I wasn't very well prepared for the rain. Large pools of water accumulate on Winnipeg streets very quickly and drivers often don't make much effort to avoid them when passing pedestrians. The rain is refreshing though. When I walked home later in the day it was still raining heavily, got wet again.

May 21

Moved into new housing today, in the suburbs. As a result only walked only 6km. The new place is on the banks of the Red River and is a reminder of the unexpected power of nature along with the pleasure. I walked to the nearest grocery store to stock up on basic supplies and in the process began to understand the basic hostility of suburbs to the act of walking. Arterial roads intersecting with local throughways converging with railway right of ways does not make for friendly pedestrian activity. Trying to avoid being run down by people riding bicycles on the sidewalk, even with bicycle lanes immediately beside the pedestrian path, makes me wonder about walking and cycling in the city. The river seems peaceful in comparison.

May 20

Only 10 km today but I walked a total of 106.04 km last week so decided to take it easy. I cleverly waited till it had started to rain before leaving this morning. Rain seems more conducive to finding a warm dry spot than it is to wandering around so I went to the gallery to work for the afternoon. After closing time it had stopped raining so I walked back along the river to Main and Alexander, it was quiet in the city today. I'm changing residences tomorrow so spent part of the day packing up.

May 19

Walked 11.75 km today after getting out the door unusually early. Wandered up to Osbourne Village to see what was up on a quiet Saturday morning. Not much. After searching around I finally found a cafe that was open before noon and had coffee and brunch while working on some images on the laptop. Sometimes it pays to lug it around. Stopped in at the Manitoba Legislative building to take a look but the CBC was setting up for their live coverage of the election on Tuesday, so I didn't see much.
Spent a quiet afternoon at the WAG, but while strolling back to the apartment later I saw the fire department rescue a young person from the roof of a building.

May 18

Walked 17.81 km today. I walked up to the gallery to meet Cam Woykin for lunch and realized I had forgotten to bring a camera. We walked back down to the apartment and found that someone had urinated in the entranceway to the building. Made me ponder about the lack of public facilities in Winnipeg. As I have been walking around I have seen quite a few people making use of dark doorways etc. to relieve themselves.

Picked up a camera and Cam and I walked up to the Common Ground restaurant. Had a smoked turkey reuben sandwich with sauerkraut and a pickle. Very good. We walked around the neighbourhood and made our way back to the WAG. Spotted the vegetables later on, on my way home.

May 17

Walked 17.28 km today, very fast. Started the day by having a latte with Vera Lemecha at MAWA. After coffee I started walking north on Main thinking I'd cut through the neighbourhood to a bridge over the railway tracks. The north and south sides of the city are divided by major railway yards and there are limited pedestrian opportunities to cross from one side of the city to another. In this case I missed the bridge I was aiming for and ended up much farther west. I passed over the Arlington bridge, which was originally built to span the Nile river in Egypt but ended up in Winnipeg. It also seems to be a dividing line between areas of influence of competing street gangs.
The reason I was walking quickly was because I had a meeting to go for a walk with a group of art educators. I was late. But only a few minutes. We went across the Assiniboine River and back - a short walk of less than 4km.
Cam Woykin dropped by the gallery in the evening and made an arrangement to go for a walk and lunch on Friday. On the walk home I stopped by an opening at Plug In where I ran into Sigrid Dahle and dined on finger food and smoked salmon.

May 16

16 km today. Rushed to the gallery this morning (via a used-book store, not that much of a rush) in order to be on time for the Art for Lunch series. A number of very engaged people showed up and I led them on a short walk around the park adjacent to the gallery, followed by a Q&A at my installation site. A beautiful sunny day, although a bit breezy. Later in the day I met with Meeka Walsh to go for a walk with her and her two dogs, Callum and Fergus, an unruly and enthusiastic pair. We walked past her new house to see the renovation in progress designed by the architect Neil Minuk. After walking back from her house in the semi suburbs, I flipped open a older copy of BorderCrossings magazine and looked at Meekas' introduction. It began, in slightly paraphrased form: "I have two big dogs...and they require a lot of walking."

May 15

Went for a determined walk today, 20.5 km. Walked along the bicycle path by the Assiniboine River, then crossed over and came back on the opposite side. A runner stopped and asked me if there was something special going on because he had never seen so many photographers on the street. I suggested that it might be because it has suddenly become Spring, the cherry blossoms were out and the leaves had become full. Finches and warblers were singing, and it was a bright sunny day. Megan Tamati-Quennel (curator of contemporary Maori, Indigenous Art at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) gave a talk at the WAG tonight. Great overview of contemporary Maori art! Unfortunately, I was sitting under an airconditioning vent and was just about hypothermic by the end. Rushed outside to find a bitterly cold wind blowing.

May 14

Meandered 10.2 km today. Raining. Went directly to the newsagent and got the New York Times. Found a cafe, had a pot of Roibus tea and read the paper thoroughly. Watched street construction as well. Walked over to the gallery, did my daily postings, made some arrangements to go for walks, then zigzagged through the exchange district back to the apartment. The rain had stopped by then.

May 13

12.5 km. today. Meandered a bit. Slow leaving the apartment, then realized time was passing so rushed out, forgetting to eat breakfast or bring a lunch. Passed through a quiet Sunday morning downtown to Portage and Main, continued to the Via train station, looked in the lobby and continued on. Stopped at McNally-Robinson bookstore and looked for something to read while I had lunch at their cafe. Browsed for a while till I realized I was paging through "Classic Tractor" magazine. Went immediately and had a bowl of soup and some cornbread. And coffee. Went up to the gallery and had some interesting conversations with different family groups looking at the exhibits. The "Through the Eyes of a Child" exhibit seems to attract lots of parents with children. One young girl wanted me to tell her exactly how photography is art. Left the gallery at closing time, went back to the apartment and walked up and down a couple of flights of stairs several times while doing my laundry.

May12

13.02 km. Started a little late as when I was leaving the apartment I ran into Bill Eakins, who offered the loan of a ladder to replace the light bulbs in the kitchen. I've been cooking in the dark for a week so I accepted his offer enthusiastically.
Strolled across the Esplanade Riel to St. Boniface. Wandered past the Louis Riel statue behind the Collège-universitaire de Saint-Boniface and back to Winnipeg across the Norwood Bridge. Noticed a pile of feathers on the lawn in front of the Legislative building. An older woman who was passing on her daily walk stopped and suggested that a falcon probably got a pigeon.
After spending the afternoon at the Gallery, I bought some groceries and walked back through a more western residential area, a bit rough but not unpleasant.

May 11

11.44 km. Set out this morning without much focus. Walked down towards the Red River with the thought that I would follow it into town. When I eencountered the river and started walking along the bank I discovered that:
1. there was no formal path.
2. I was in a heavily industrialized area that was fenced right to the rivers edge.
3. I had to crash through bush and avoid falling off steep banks into the river.
4. I was walking directly away from town.
5. I was following a large loop in the river that led me directly back to where I had started.
I ended the day by going to a reception at MAWA (Mentoring Artists for Womens Art) for Stacey and Vanessa, outgoing administrative staff.

May 10

10.3 km. Walked around to the Millenium Library to take a picture of THE, Nick Wade's sculpture. Discovered that a wild turkey has taken up residence in the courtyard behind the building.

Met with a couple of school groups in the gallery and then went for a walk-interview with Chris Read of the CBC . Tried to find the turkey again but apparently it had moved over to the Air Canada building.

May 9

11.2 km today. Walked along Main St. to Winnipeg's North side. Very hot day.

May 8

14.02 km. Walked across the pedestrian bridge that spans the Red River to St. Boniface and Louis Riels tomb and statue (the one that was moved because it isn't representational enough). Continued along the Red River and got trapped on the wrong side of the river. Backtracked to the bridge I should have crossed to get back to Winnipeg.

may 7

11.29 km. Headed north a bit, towards the rail tracks and the older part of Winnipeg. Pass by Douglas Cardinal's Thunderbird House.

May 6

17.01 km today. Walked down by the Assiniboine River. Evidence of recent flooding. Walked out to the suburbs.

May 5

only 7.09 km today. Rainy. Nice light though, when the rain lets up. Stopped to buy a bottle of wine and was followed around the store by a security guard.

May 4

10 km today. Still working in the downtown area between MAWA and the WAG.
Looking forward to finishing the set-up at the gallery.

May 3

8.15 km today. still setting up at gallery and having short walks through town. I stopped to admire the public safety building.

May 2

Walked 13 km. Explored downtwn areas. Getting a sense of the city.

May 1

Walked 9.23 km. to the gallery and back, with a few erratic detours. Setting up and organizing the project.