2020

2020 has been an unforgettable year. Maybe not for the best reasons, but I know that I will always remember it clearly. The year with no festivals, no gatherings, the year I learned to do everything on Zoom. I’m so hopeful that we will have our amazing Winnipeg festivals back in 2021, but it’s not looking good right now.

We weren’t able to do as many canoe trips, because my partner was laid off from his stable job in March (like so many others….) This meant a bit of a disruption to how we’d previously spend summers, paddling on the weekends. I’ll be updating the Adventures section shortly with one new trip that we did this summer and maybe adding some information to previous adventures that we recycled again this year. Thankfully, I was still able to spend plenty of time outdoors and I think that saved me.

I helped organize 30th anniversary events for the organization Save Our Seine, most of which were outdoors. We did several bike tours which were tons of fun! I helped with Save Our Seine’s Landcare project, cleaning up and planting native species along the Gabrielle Roy Trail. I volunteered with Bike Winnipeg as a bike marshal and got to go on many of their bike tours. Most of that is over now, but I continue to ride my bike around the city, exploring parks and greenways and enjoying our urban greenspaces.

Now that it’s winter, I renew my commitment to being outside as much as I can. Every year I do this and every year I spend more and more time outside throughout the winter. As a result, every winter is better than the last, and I hope to keep the trend going through this COVID-19 winter season. At the very least, making sure there are more bright days than there are dark days. I hope you can make the best of it too.