leading up to April 9

On Thursday April 9, Fina and I got to spend some time in a lovely forest in Winnipeg, Bois des Esprits. I have blogged about it before. What was so awesome was that this time we happened upon what we believe was a doe who was either injured or in the beginning stages of labour. She was lying down and there were 5 or 6 other deer keeping watch over her. None of them ran away from us and the watchers wandered around, making a hedge of protection around her, not allowing us to come near to her. We stood there and watched for 15 or 20 minutes. The doe just sat there looking at us and the rest kept a watchful eye on us as well.

Here are some pics and videos of that wonderful sight.

Doe lying down

On Friday and Saturday we got to take part in our town's Cabane à sucre festival, the sugaring off / maple syrup festival.  It takes place at our museum, where we hold our outdoor playgroup. So the kids love being on our stomping grounds with hundreds of other people.

They actually tap trees in our little Manitoban town and make maple syrup (in a very small quantity). The festival is a fun time with horse drawn wagon rides, a look into our museum and into Maison Goulet (and old fashioned house from the 1800s, complete with functioning wood oven) as well as local music, soldiers dressed in period costume and the fun of eating tire sur la neige (maple taffy on snow).  We always love it.

on the wagon ride

dancing with an interpreter

Tire sur la neige

It was a great time!