Whimsical Manitoba

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/08/2020 (2116 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Behind that fence, someone’s watching us — with binoculars!” I exclaimed to Margie.

I didn’t expect this on Brandon’s First Street. I peered right back.

I realized two people watched us.

They didn’t flinch.

I walked onto the property, be damned, straight toward one, and confronted pink painted wooden arms with PVC tubes for binoculars, a hat glued on top.

Welcome to whimsy in a Manitoba front yard.

Outrageous yard folly can be expected for a Manitoba Hallowe’en, or Christmas — and not just on Winnipeg’s Candy Cane Lane.

Michael Geiger-Wolf, on Winnipeg’s Mildred Street, uses two kilometers of extension cords for a winning combination with the Star Wars-Grinch-moose-Santa theme — plus the Winnipeg Jets.

In the movie Christmas Vacation, Clark Griswold used 25,000 bulbs, but the Gallants on Aldgate Road string up more than four times that with 150 extension cords. I like the Charlie Brown-Sesame Street-Abominable Snowman-dinosaur-penguin-Santa theme — plus the Winnipeg Jets.

Manitobans display our whimsy year-round. We are enriched by imaginative exhibits of simple painted rocks of flowers, ladybugs, and rainbows outside a Wasagaming cottage, the mash of flags, bright knick-knacks, and happy messages beside Winnipeg’s Northgate Trailer Park, vivid desert bric-a-bac and cactus on Mandeville Street in St. James, or a retired Ford truck as a garden centerpiece in Sifton, about 20 kilometres north of Dauphin. Many communities are blessed with such fanciful displays.

Likely from Christmas, at an Ile de Chenes home we found a deer climbing a ladder. On the eastbound road to Lavenham, about nine kilometres south of MacGregor, a Bigfoot crossing sign warns of looming risk, while Bigfoot walks in a yard near Grosse Isle. In Transcona, where the pink plastic lawn flamingo is the “national bird,” some patriots plant pairs in gardens.

A McCreary homeowner mounted a set of mirrors. It does make the place seem bigger. The mirror trick continues on Winnipeg’s Cunnington Avenue, plus hens, a big bald eagle and a menacing, prowling cougar — for the little kids.

A southwestern Manitoba home erected the “Goodlands Weather Station.” In Goodlands, where folks know funnel clouds, you can’t afford to play loose. Under a wooden weather vane, the Station employs a hanging rope and this guide:

Rope is wet…Raining

Rope is dry…Fair

Rope is white…Snowing

Rope is invisible…Foggy

Rope is stiff…Freezing

Rope is swaying…Windy

Rope is gone…Tornado

West of Carman at Fry’s Trucking, wind is judged by a handsome mid-1950’s sedan hoisted high with a big vane on the back and wind-capturing cups on the wheels.

Near Woodridge, gusts whip up a kaleidoscopic frenzy hitting six whirly-gigs of multi-coloured containers entering the Cadieux’s yard.

Manitobans commandeer entire buildings for whimsy. I adore barns with big smiles, such as the one north of Darlingford with the cute nose, and the happy grin greeting folks entering Beausejour.

On West St. Paul’s Addis Avenue, there is a misplaced, mysterious castle fronted by statues of horses, lions, soldiers, and classical sculptures. On Highway 15, Suruj Persault built his home like a Westeel grain bin of metal. It’s near Glass.

Northwest of Dauphin at Garland, an Air Canada Vickers Viscount airplane is Don Fyk’s cottage – surely with leg room.

Drivers on highway 10 south of Brandon chuckle from three piles of three rocks skillfully cemented on each other. A San Clara lawn displays two small arrangements balancing up to three dozen stones. Near Ostenfeld at Wild Rose Cattle Ranch we waved back at a stuffed chap beckoning from a lawn chair, warmly dressed for winter. A disheveled fella waves at Woodside on Highway 16, while a stuffy but colourful family of five eye traffic north of Lundar.

Treherne folks know the town’s biggest Toronto Maple Leafs’ fan — with cheers splashed across the whole home, plus a reproduction of a Coaches’ Corner booth. I thanked the owner for making the province more interesting, but asked, “What it’s like being a victim since 1967?” I unfortunately added, “It shouldn’t be Maple Leafs.’ The plural is ‘Leaves.’”

Ogopogo is the reputed monster in Lake Okanagan, BC. Following reports of a Lake Manitoba monster, ‘Tobans named it Manipogo. More convinced of the former, a rancher on highway 5 south of Ste. Rose crafted metal green monsters to float in a dugout and the sign says one is Ogo-Pogo. The other is Puff, likely the magic dragon I sang of as a child with my nurturing sisters.

On Winnipeg’s Lodge Avenue a dozen paintings on birch branch easels make an outdoor gallery. To heck with climate control. At Dufrost, whimsical wood carvings include Bender, Shrek, and that one-eyed minion. Portage la Prairie’s Pine Crescent is home to artist Jake Goertzen’s wonderful 6,000-piece steel great grey owl. The city claims it’s Canada’s biggest great grey owl. A metal bison statue eyes you up on St. Andrews’ River Road surely fooling folks and, please, not just me.

On Winnipeg’s Ash Street, along with endearing sayings, admire a driftwood moose – with antlers, and a menagerie of seahorses, blue herons, plus a patriotic beaver. The creator, Phil Manaigre, loves being among his creations and connecting with people who stop by to appreciate. He sums up, “It’s so rewarding.”

But to Phil and others who thankfully distract: you are rewarding us with a more colourful, captivating province.