A Few Quick Notes 621

-After very cool temperatures just a few days ago, we've moved into a sunny warm patch.  Yesterday, and hopefully again today, we'll see temperatures above zero and plenty of melting.  Assuming this trend continues as forecast we should see plenty of melting over the next few days.

-Jeannette and I had an incredibly productive and pleasant day yesterday.  We began by walking over to the first Farmer's Market of the season.  Unfortunately, we were going to buy some lentils and barley and that vendor was absent.  From there we made our way to the pet food store and then the downtown shopping district.

After grabbing lunch and taking care of a little downtown shopping we realized that we were just feet and minutes away from a free Regina Symphony Orchestra chamber ensemble concert at the public library.  Amazingly, though we arrived only a few minutes before they were to begin we had a great selection of seats to choose from (within just a few minutes after our arrival almost all of the available seats were taken).

After the concert we spoke with a member of Jeannette's book club and her friend who was visiting from Winnipeg.  Not only were we able to pick up a little inside information about hot Winnipeg restaurants, we learned a little more about the free concert series at the library.

Once we returned home we hopped in the car and made our way out for an afternoon drive.  In our continuing attempt to at least visit many of the towns surrounding Regina we made our way through Pense and Belle Plaine.  Unfortunately, the melting snow and muddy streets likely meant that we weren't seeing these towns at their best.

-Hopefully we will head out for a walk along the creek later this afternoon.

-Because I'm a sucker for this kind of thing I'm watching the Manitoba NDP leadership convention as being streamed by CBC.  Yesterday I followed the Newfoundland NDP convention via Twitter.  I think I'd probably watch/follow almost any delegated convention occurring in Canada - they really make for exciting viewing (whether or not you like the party involved).

-Not having a dishwasher is a real bummer.  It seems that we constantly have a sink full of dirty dishes to do - no matter how many sinks full of dishes I've already done.  Definitely a bummer.

I wonder what's going on down there

As someone who had never been to or seen the Canadian prairies until two days ago I'd always wondered if the presence of agriculture was as prevalent as it often appears to be in media coverage of the region.  It turns out that flying into and out of prairie cities on a clear day is a great way to observe that, yes, huge seemingly unending swaths of these provinces are, in fact, devoted to agricultural production.  Moreover, on the flight from Winnipeg to Regina I saw few signs of economic development other than those associated with the agricultural sector.

Before I go any further I should probably make three points clear.  Firstly, I know that the economies of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are not exclusively agricultural.  Secondly, I also know that these provinces are huge and that the terrain differs from region to region (i.e. that there are at least a few hills in each of these provinces).  And, thirdly, that I know I saw only a relatively small portion of either of these provinces (though on my various flights I did probably see hundreds or thousands of square kilometres of each province).

That said, to reiterate, what I did see was overwhelmingly flat land devoted to agricultural production.  There were literally farms as far as the eye could see.

I couldn't help but wonder if there is more land devoted to agriculture in this photo than in all of Newfoundland and Labrador?

And if I focused more closely on a specific area it was pretty easy to see what was going on on the ground.

At times, particularly in Saskatchewan, some of the fields/regions were a little more pock marked.  I still don't know exactly what was going on in these situations.

And maybe it's just me and my unfamiliarity with prairie farming, but I kind of thought that the farms just outside of Winnipeg looked a little different than the farms near Regina.  But again, maybe that's just my unfamiliarity with prairie farming.

I was particularly pleased with myself when I found the line in the land a little east of Winnipeg where the farming, or at least the overwhelming predominance of farming, basically comes to an end and forested areas pick up.  Until yesterday I had no idea that such a line even existed - I had always assumed the farming gradually lessened.

And isn't it also nice to see a little of the earth's curvature?

I'm getting close!

Just a few minutes ago I arrived in Winnipeg. I have now been in 9 of the 10 Canadian provinces. When I land in Regina in a few hours I'll have the full set.