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Tuesday 4 June 2013

I'm Back Home

I'm back.  Boy I tell ya - two driving trips from Saskatoon to Winnipeg is a LOT of driving.  I am bagged. I had a terrific trip though.  I went with my 9 & 13 year old boys for a bit of a vacation.  Having a little girl means my boys get some serious mama-neglect.  We really needed this time alone to reconnect (and disconnect - ahem: gamers).  We stopped for lots of photos and unexpected adventures.  This detour behind Chamberlain, SK was worth the giggles.  You know the prairies are pretty flat so this was well worth the detour.

aaagh!  look out!  it's not flat here!  lol

Here we are - at a ridiculously LARGE tree near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

boys under the tree by the highway

Because we get real winters, the trees don't grow this big.  I'm not sure what happened to this one!?  What a monster.  Me & the boys went all the way to Gimli, a town on the fifth largest lake on the planet, Lake Winnipeg.  You couldn't see across it and that was the SHORT distance.

sailboats, ships, and fishing boats at Gimli's harbour on Lake Winnipeg

Here are my boys with Rick and Heather Lair.  He's a woodworker, and she's an established award winning quilt artist and teacher.  We stayed with them for the weekend!  She & I have had many conversations but this was the first meeting in person.  : )  (She's awesome!!  More on that later...)

Heather & Rick with my boys

On the way, we were blown away at how BIG these turbines are!  (No pun intended...)

waaaay bigger up close than what we expected!

We headed back to Winnipeg where I taught another 'Basic Embroidery' workshop.  THANK YOU LINDA for organizing this!  You Manitoba stitchers are so much fun!  I got to meet Beth Wolchock-Brown too!  She's the one whose fibre art I was raving about from the Manitoba Craft Museum's show.

After that we were off to wrap up the show at Prairie Ink.  The waitress came up to me so excited - she told me my art was super popular, attracting a steady flow of people.   She told me there has never been so much traffic in there with any other show before.  That was pretty cool to hear!  I wrapped up the sold pieces and took the rest home with me.

On our way though Brandon, Manitoba, there was the coolest sunset.  I drove and drove and finally decided I couldn't take it anymore.  I pulled over on Highway #1, backed up to get the silos into view, and headed for the ditch to snap this.  SPECTACULAR it was!  It was SO BIG that I couldn't fit it in my camera view.


Now - it's back to reuniting with my girl, and starting up some cool new projects.  I AM ITCHIN' TO GET STICHIN'!  I'll be posting the available art soon!  Thanks everyone for all your support.  : )

xo

6 comments:

Tara B. said...

Did you just say we don't get real winters out here?! ;) Ha! Ha!

That might have been one of the half-way trees. They are actual landmarks. I found an article about them here...
http://www.manitobaphotos.com/interesting.htm

Heather Lair said...

Monika, it was so lovely to have you and your boys visit! I do hope you can come back again soon.
Heather

monika@mysweetprairie.ca said...

Haha Tara - I wrote, "because we get real winters here". ; )

I'm so sorry I missed you this time. And Heather - omg I miss you already. !!

~Monika

Marie Cron said...

Your show was awesome.. Some of us went to see it after Registration for EAC Seminar.
Small world.. Heather Lair taught at Quilt Canada 2012 last May in Halifax and I waa fortunate to meet her... and assist her during one of her classes. Her work is also inspiring....

Anonymous said...

Hi Monika,
Our family calls that the Tornado Tree. Many years ago my son and daughter-in-law were travelling to Winnipeg. She spotted the lone tree waaay off in the distance and started yelling at my son to get off the highway because there was a tornado coming toward them.
To this day every time we drive by, some will shout, "there's the tornado!"
So nice that you and your boys had such a great trip.
Joyce

What Comes Next? said...

sounds like you had a great trip, and very successful show. I laughed out loud when you talked about stopping and backing up on TC1 - I don't know how many times my husband has done that! Your shot was worth it (as are most of his) He recently commented on some of your Flickr pics - he was as amazed as I always am about your talent!

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