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Sunday is for riverwalking. Ruth, Mel, Epiphanie and I tromped down the riverbank and off to the Forks. Along the way, we checked out some of the new Warming Shacks, functional art installations that are new since our last trip down the Assiniboine. They’re great! And, as I see it, a good first step toward Art Shanties in the vein of Medicine Lake.

The river and the Forks weren’t as busy as they were last time, probably due to the clouded-over sky and the fact that it was actively snowing.

Sunday afternoon I took a stroll down the frozen Assiniboine River with friends (i.e. the stylish mama pictured below and her adorable offspring, in pink, running away from us. Don’t worry, we didn’t let her go far!).

The unseasonably beautiful weather made the Forks a great place to be! Lots of other people had the same idea as us, and the whole thing had a festival vibe to it, though it’s not a festival per se (though there were some Festival du Voyageur folks there, as well as a kettle corn truck!),

Our pals DJ Co-Op and DJ Hunnicutt were spinning tunes in the centre of the skating rink. (Rink pictured below.)

The young ones ate mini-donuts! (A Forks essential if ever there were one.)

I didn’t take too many pictures — mostly video, which you will see in the January Video Scrapbook, due to arrive in a scant fortnight. I will leave you with one photo of DJ Co-Op demonstrating why he really needs a better iPhone case. And to be fair, one of the stellar DJ Hunnicutt, betoqued, beheadphoned and hard at work!

Via Letter Writers Alliance, news of a super cool art project happening outside of Winnipeg’s unofficial sister city Minneapolis: the Art Shanty.

LWA takes interest in the Art Post shanty, naturally.

As a postal afficionado, I am equally intrigued by the prospect of a small construct where mail will be hand-cancelled, new stamps will be unveiled, and postcards will be mailed. However, I think that the Assiniboine River would be a perfect locale for our own village of Art Shanties!

Some Shanties that particularly capture my imagination:

• Ace Stellar Shanty — for stargazers, astronomers and astrologers!
• Art Swap Shanty — “Filled to the brim with intriguing art objects, and visitors are invited to swap their own art for any work that strikes their fancy.”
• The Black Bania — A working sauna!
• Dance Shanty — I think the name is self-explanatory.
• The Light House — “With the ‘light’ house, we intend to gather as much energy as possible so that we can give it away freely.”
• Shan-Tea — “The door is the handle, the stove is the spout, the Tea fosters hospitality, conversation and giving.”

If you ask me, this kind of project has Art City written all over it. Let’s do it!

I’m picturing Christine Fellows in a songwriting shanty. Fred Thomas in a graf shanty (though I suppose the enclosed space would preclude spray paint — still, there are other tools of that particular trade that are less toxic!). Send + Receive with a sound art shanty. Videopool with a video shanty. The list goes on! It would be a great midwinter antidote to the cold. Plus, one could skate between shanties!

Last Friday I walked home via the frozen river that runs behind my building, which during the summer months I have to cross via a slightly out-of-the-way bridge. Bridges are for suckers. Anyway, the river is obviously frozen in the winter and it is home to Canada’s longest ice trail, which Winnipeggers use to great effect for recreation and transportation — mornings and evenings you’ll see people skating and walking to and from work on it. Of course, this being Winnipeg, the weather is capricious. Last week was remarkable in that it was cold but not too cold — cold enough to keep the surface of the river frozen but not so cold that the thought of leaving your heated abode makes you want to kill yourself. So you saw a lot more people out on the river. Over the last few days, however, we’ve experienced and unseasonable thaw, complete with ridiculous thinks like freezing rain and large, chilly puddles. As a result, the ice trails on the river are disturbingly liquid-looking. No one has been on the river this week, because that shit is dangerous.

Friday night I was getting a ride home from St. Norbert with my neighbour Sean, who enjoys many outdoor winter activities such as nighttime photography and snowshoeing. “Every time you go out on the river when it’s frozen, you’re taking a risk. You have to be careful.” This came up as we were talking about certain quarters calling for improved warning signage around the many outlets that line the river, pouring waste water into the river and thus creating a melty spot in the otherwise frozen waterway. Certain individuals, leaving the designated skiing trail, have been known to fall in to such spots. Sean figures it’s unreasonable to cordon off or even put signs at each of hundreds of outlets along the rivers; also, it’s something he’s not particularly anxious to see, because he’s the sort who would rather have the freedom to go where he pleases, taking his safety into his own cautious hands. “So it’s risky even when it’s -40?” I asked. “Yes,” he said. “But the thing is if you’re going to fall through the ice, you’re going to fall slowly.” Good point.

Anyway, it’s been kind of sad to look out my window at the slushy ice rinks and pathways that ribbon over the river this time of year. Kind of a waste, really. Especially since people in my building have taken to developing the winter landscape in the form of creating multiple toboggan runs down the riverbank from the parking lot to the surface of the river. So weirdly enough, I’m hoping the temperature drops from the 0/-1 level it’s been hovering around this week to a more manageable -10/-15. (All temperatures Celsius, natch.) This way the sidewalks will be less slushy/icy and the river will be useable again.

It's fascinating to take a close look at things that are inaccessible in warmer weather, like a bridge support, marked by high water lines and graffiti.

The river path is dotted with plywood shacks with benches for putting on skates and such. This one near the Osborne Bridge had been tagged with painted woodblock art by an artist whose identity I don't know. Al Lorde probably knows; I'll ask him and report back.

The concrete expanse that forms the base of the high-rise apartment building next to mine is a popular spot for graf artists, some with more finesse than others. This 5-foot high piece I found quite remarkable.

When the river initially froze, the water level was unusually high. As the water level sank to normal levels, the top frozen crust of the river broke up into chunks of ice that piled up on the riverbank. Neighbourhood folks created these inukshuk-like structures with the ice chunks.

Showshoe tracks on the river.

Bundle up!

Well, it’s winter in Winnipeg. And “winter” here means something different than it does in many other places. I have actually seen people on Twitter complain bitterly about temperatures of 32F/0C. Here in Winnipeg, a winter temperature of -10 is considered “beautiful winter weather,” perfect for outdoor activities. If the mercury hits -5C (as it did on Boxing Day) everyone is practically jubilant with the freedom of not having to cover every square inch of exposed skin.

To be honest, the cold doesn’t really bother me too much until -20C. And for the last week it’s been about -34C, which is too cold. For some reason, this year feels like it’s going to be a tougher slog through the deep freeze temperatures, especially with the weather predictors saying it’s going to be a uniformly cold winter. This is where we have to get creative, I guess, in keeping ourselves sane and warm in the dark days of winter.

I’m at the point in my life where I can really appreciate the value of a winter vacation to a tropical locale. I’m also at the point in my life where I cannot afford such a thing. However, I’m not going to begrudge my pals who can. Lindsey took three weeks in Mexico before Christmas (thankfully she didn’t ask for sympathy when, on her return, she was scheduled to work the 24-26), a few days in a resort and the rest backpacking. Lindsey’s a smart woman; she knows how to stem the tide of contempt that might arise from her friends when she returns to the land of ice and snow. I’m an easy sell. All it takes are a few tokens:

That’s a wool felt owl, with twiggy legs that remind me of the chicken’s feet my dad likes to order at dim sum. Beside the owl is a Zapatista keychain. “It’s basically a doll keychain, made in black, with a little gun on it,” Lindsey remarked. Plus a cool piece of coral. There was chocolate too, but I ate it already obvs.

Like I said, I’m easily amused and am thrilled to be amused by my globetrotting friends.

But let it be noted that I photographed the items on my living room windowsill. The white background in the window is the snow that piles up there in the winter.