Blast from the past very present once again

Spacious rural garden makes smooth transition to urban space

It’s not uncommon for homeowners to dig up some of their beloved plants when they sell their home and move to another property. But relocating hundreds of prized plants from an established and spacious rural garden to a blank slate is a whole other matter.

In 2022, Sandra Gessner Eggertson and her husband decided it was time to sell their three-acre rural property near St. Andrews. They purchased a home on a quiet street in Winnipeg where Eggertson planned to make a new garden. Their rural property was listed that fall and sold immediately. Eggertson moved in December, but first, hundreds of treasured perennials, including hostas and specialty lilies and iris plants, needed to be transplanted into pots.

With the assistance of a good friend — a fellow lily and iris enthusiast — the enormous task of digging and dividing took three months. The plant divisions were loaded into a truck and transported to her friend’s farmyard, where they spent the winter in a protected location with ample snow cover.

“First we placed bales of straw in the shape of a big square to act as a catch-all for snow,” says Eggertson. “The pots were placed close together inside the square and then covered with mulch. I had very few plant losses.”

Mosque’s restorative justice program helps newcomers find their way

The Masjid Bilal is a chunky grey building just off Logan Avenue surrounded by warehouses and railyards. It looks more like a bunker than a mosque.

But on a Friday afternoon in late June, its green-and-white carpeted interior is humming with activity. Two men in white robes and flat woolen caps are seated on the carpet poring over a copy of the Qur’an. A few young boys dodge through hallways, poking curious noses into open doors. At the back, next to a table piled with prayer mats, two girls in hijabs share schoolyard gossip. In the kitchen, women are cooking up pots of rice and chicken for people who will soon arrive for Friday prayers.

The Masjid Bilal is a community hub for members of Winnipeg’s African diaspora as well as Muslims from many other countries.

It’s also home to the Bilal Community and Family Centre, an innovative, community-centred nonprofit that is meeting vital needs for newcomers in this city.

Kriechmayr matches legends with double speed gold at worlds

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy - Vincent Kriechmayr matched two legends of Alpine skiing at the world championships Sunday by adding downhill gold to the super-G title he won three days ago.

The Austrian became only the third man to complete the so-called speed double at a worlds after Hermann Maier did it in 1999 and Bode Miller in 2005.

“Hermann Maier is an Austrian legend and Bode Miller is a legend, too. To be on the same step is really amazing,” Kriechmayr said.

“I don’t compare myself to Hermann or Bode Miller, they were also Olympic and World Cup overall champions,” said the Austrian, adding it would take time to sink in.

Belarus runner alleges Olympic team tried to send her home

The Markham sprinter picked up where he left off in Rio, reaching the podium in the 100 metres — won by a guy he’d never heard of. De Grasse’s specialty, the 200, is just around the corner, Rosie DiManno writes.

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: After 12:15 a.m there are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions. The moon is in Libra.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

This is a momentous day for you because you can go after what you want. You’ll be forceful in all your communications. In fact, conversations with partners, spouses and close friends could bring about the very improvements and changes you want.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Lobster and crab harvesters push back against ‘red list’ meant to help right whales

It is disappointing that crustaceans have been added to a so-called "red list" of seafood to avoid as a way of protecting endangered whales, Canadian lobster and crab harvesters said Tuesday.

A recent report by California-based Seafood Watch, a group that monitors global harvesting of fish and crustaceans, said lobster and crab fishing industries are a menace to the endangered North Atlantic right whale because the animals get entangled in fishing gear.

Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada, says the red-listing does not take into account the "significant efforts" being made by Canadian lobster harvesters to avoid entanglements with the whales.

"We have an extensive program where when we see a single whale, we close all the fishing around that whale for a period until the whale leaves," he said in an interview Tuesday.