The birds! The birds! Nature Guy rediscovers joy

Advertisement

Advertise with us

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I left my window open last night, no screen on yet, because there’s really no bugs. But, guess what? A bird flew in, and there was a kerfuffle and I finally shooed him out, without any harm.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/06/2019 (2674 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I left my window open last night, no screen on yet, because there’s really no bugs. But, guess what? A bird flew in, and there was a kerfuffle and I finally shooed him out, without any harm.

I used to be a real Nature Guy who went out walking in the woods alone or fishing and hiking with friends a lot. I realized when that bird got into my bedroom that I was missing something in my life. It was like a messenger. I went to bed praying my life would get better, as I’d become so bored with my computer job and living in the big cement city.

Thanks to that bird, I’m going to look for a place just outside the city beside the woods and get back to nature and birdwatching. I’ll be much happier, I know. I wonder how many times people get hints from God and nature and don’t act on them. I just wanted to pass this on to lonely people.

— Back to Nature Guy, Inner City Winnipeg

Dear Nature Guy: It’s great you took that bird’s entrance into your window for a “call of the wild.” You were looking for a different path in life. Who knows, you may have stumbled on other hints on other days, but didn’t recognize them. But that night, your brain was ready and focused on reviewing your past to rediscover what really would make you happy. That bird embodied your answer — one of life’s little miracles.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: My heart is lonely because I’m a stupid guy. I wanted everything. I got married at 42. I left my wife at home alone night and day while I still did all my bachelor things — cars, sports, gambling, travelling — everything with the guys as usual.

When I came home last week, she was gone with a note on the kitchen table. She said, “You didn’t really mean to marry me and mess up your bachelor life.” She was moving out. I found her at her mom’s and begged her to “come home” but she said, “A house is not a home.”

I asked her if I changed, would she take me back again, and she said, “No, I don’t need to. I’m not desperate anymore.” I thought that was a funny thing to say, until I found out she had a new guy already. I’m going crazy wondering how long that’s been going on. What should I do about him?

— Bachelor Again, St. Boniface

Dear Bachelor: Never mind thinking about this other guy. Learn from your mistake and don’t blame it all on your lonely ex-wife. You kept on acting like a bachelor. She had no real husband in you.

Maybe you don’t want to be married and that’s OK. Maybe you’re a guy who has to be honest with women he meets and say you just need a girlfriend, but not a marriage. There are a fair number of divorced women who never want another husband again, for financial or other reasons — that kind of person might be good for you.

Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6.

Miss Lonelyhearts

Miss Lonelyhearts
Advice Columnist

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Bombers coach happy to be back at work after backbreaking loss to Argos

Taylor Allen 6 minute read Preview

Bombers coach happy to be back at work after backbreaking loss to Argos

Taylor Allen 6 minute read Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2026

It’s the first practice day after a backbreaking loss.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are in a challenging predicament with four games remaining — starting Saturday on the road against the Montreal Alouettes (11-3) — that leaves their playoff aspirations far from solidified.

And yet, head coach Mike O’Shea makes his way behind the podium, looks out at a room of reporters and is grinning ear to ear.

Why so happy?

Read
Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2026

Winnipeg Book Festival starts a new chapter

Ben Sigurdson 4 minute read Preview

Winnipeg Book Festival starts a new chapter

Ben Sigurdson 4 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

Once known as Thin Air, the 2026 Winnipeg Book Festival marks a new chapter heading into its 29th year celebrating fiction, non-fiction and poetry with a new name, new staff and a shorter, more streamlined fest based at The Forks.

Read
2:01 AM CDT

Truck carrying mail, milk and alcohol to isolated N.B. island held at U.S. border

The Canadian Press 3 minute read Preview

Truck carrying mail, milk and alcohol to isolated N.B. island held at U.S. border

The Canadian Press 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 3:14 PM CDT

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND - A truck carrying supplies for an isolated New Brunswick island linked to the rest of Canada by U.S. roads was turned back at the international border Tuesday, says the local member of Parliament. 

New Brunswick South MP John Williamson said U.S. border officials stopped the truck bound for Campobello Island, N.B., because it was carrying milk and alcohol. Importing those items into the United States is prohibited under new rules that went into effect Tuesday as part of the ongoing trade war.

The only land link to the picturesque island, best known as the summer retreat of former U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is a bridge to the town of Lubec, Maine. From there it's an 80-kilometres drive to the next border crossing at Calais, Maine, where the truck was stopped.

Williamson said the truck typically travels to the island every weekday, carrying mail and goods for the island's less than 1,000 residents under a special Canada Border Services Agency licence. The truck is sealed with a customs tag guarantying it will not stop on the way to the island.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 3:14 PM CDT

Winnipeg’s challenge: preparing for weather extremes

Adam Johnston 5 minute read Preview

Winnipeg’s challenge: preparing for weather extremes

Adam Johnston 5 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

A new United Nations report warns the world will exceed the 1.5 C Paris limit by 2030.

Read
2:00 AM CDT

Woman took ‘meaningful’ responsibility after disposing of body: lawyer

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Woman took ‘meaningful’ responsibility after disposing of body: lawyer

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

A woman who was threatened with death if she didn’t help dispose the body of a Mexican man murdered in the basement of a North End home should serve no more jail time, a judge has been told.

Devlin Langlois, 25, has pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to murder in the March 2025 killing of 28-year-old Diego Moscoza.

“By pleading guilty, Ms. Langlois has already taken meaningful accountability for her actions,” defence lawyer Joshua Rogala told King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond at a sentencing hearing Monday.

He urged the judge to sentence Langlois to the equivalent of 14 months already served, plus two years supervised probation.

Read
Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

Collisions send people to hospital; one fatality

2 minute read Yesterday at 10:42 AM CDT

Five people are in hospital following a two-vehicle collision on Monday at the corner of Pembina Highway and Plaza Drive in which three pedestrians were struck.

On Sept. 28, just after 4:30 p.m., a Ford Fusion was travelling northbound on Pembina Highway through the Plaza Drive intersection with a green light when it was struck by a westbound Honda Fit that failed to stop for a red light at Plaza Drive. The Honda Fit mounted the sidewalk, striking three young children who were with an adult.

The three children were transported to hospital in stable condition with minor injuries. The driver of the Honda, a woman in her 70s, and the passenger, a man in his 80s, were transported to hospital in unstable condition. They were both upgraded to stable condition. The driver was issued a ticket under the Highway Traffic Act.

The Winnipeg Police Service’s Traffic Division is investigating.