Today’s horoscope

Farmers' markets sprouting all over the city, bringing producers and consumers together

The happiest way to bring people together is with food. Suddenly, people want to talk and share. Those two things are at the heart of farmer’s markets in and around Winnipeg and the reason why they are cropping up everywhere.

Clearly, there are needs being met all around — the farmers need customers and a place to sell from; consumers want to know more about the food they buy and who they are buying from; and communities want to come together and need places to do it.

Those needs — commercial, social, nutritional and even political — are increasingly being met inside Winnipeg’s city limits.

Evan Comstock, the co-ordinator for the Bronx Park Farmers’ Market says their market at Bronx Park Community Centre, 720 Henderson Hwy., is having a great year.

Camping in a winter wonderland

The temperature is well below freezing. There’s snow on the ground. Daylight makes an appearance for a few short hours. Let’s go camping!

While Manitobans are no strangers to the joys of camping in summer, there’s a growing trend toward doing it when a pair of short and flip flops just won’t cut it.

“It’s an opportunity to get spend a few days in the wild at a time of year that not many people get to experience,” said Noel Linsey of The New Tradition Outdoors and a big fan of winter camping. “Snow hanging heavy on pine boughs in the early morning light, the intense quiet of the winter woods after a fresh snowfall or a pine marten playing hide and seek at the edge of camp and the smell of the woods at rest.”

Options abound for winter camping. Start with your backyard, for real. It’s a practical opportunity to see if you love it or hate it and to test out your gear. If all goes well, it’s time to venture further afield. Some provincial parks remain open for winter camping. In Spruce Woods Provincial Park, the Epinette, Seton and Yellow Quill trail systems have open campsites and the Jackfish Lake cabin is available. In Turtle Mountain Provincial Park, ski in on the Adam Lake trail system to the James Lake cabin for an overnight stay. Best of all, it’s free to use the cabins, but registration is required. Check with the provincial park of your choice for other options.

Ehnes, WSO orchestrate joyous reunion

World-renowned superstar violinist James Ehnes came home Saturday night as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra officially launched its milestone 75th season with the Brandon-born musician as the featured guest artist.

The inaugural concert in the (A)bsolute Classics series led by Daniel Raiskin showcased the now Florida-based fiddler in Beethoven’s “Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61,” with the Centennial Concert Hall filled to the rafters with 2,015 listeners — notably the largest in-person crowd since the global pandemic first shuttered the world in March 2020 — already buzzing with excitement.

After WSO executive director Angela Birdsell welcomed the mixed generation audience with a heartfelt “it gives me hope we are all witnessing the return of live performance for good,” Raiskin led the players through a hushed “Prayer for Ukraine,” by Kyiv-born composer Valentin Silvestrov in 2014 — even more timely and needed than ever.

Then Ehnes strode onstage with his gleaming 1715 “Marsick” Stradivarius in hand, immediately greeted like a conquering hero as one of the world’s most sought-after violinists on the international stage. It’s also noteworthy that the multi-award-winning musician, who “grew up” with the WSO, and continues to perform with major orchestras worldwide in addition to his inestimable chamber music and recording career, marked his professional debut in 1990 with this very same orchestra under the baton of the late, great Bramwell Tovey.

‘Good for buyers’: home sales for November down

THE scales of Winnipeg’s housing market are almost balanced, according to recent Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board data.

Dynacare strike could lead to lab test logjam

DOCTORS and health-care advocates are raising concerns about patient care if a Sept. 8 strike goes ahead at the private company that provides nearly all medical lab services in Manitoba.

There is no essential services agreement in place with Dynacare, so if its lab techs are off the job, patients who need blood tests and urinalysis will be directed to hospitals and public clinics for those services.

“There’s only so many of those workers and I’m sure that the public folks are bracing for big crunch of additional patients if the strike really goes ahead,” Noah Schulz of the Manitoba Health Coalition said Monday.

Dynacare serves 1.2 million Manitoba patients a year at 23 community lab locations.

Public health rules protests highlight continued divisions

Two local rallies in two days against incoming public health orders have left some southern Manitoba leaders disavowing the method, with others stopping short at disavowing the message.

After the province announced proof of immunization would be required for health-care workers, teachers and correctional centre employees starting Sept. 3 — and without such proof Manitobans would not be able to take part in a variety of public activities — rallies Sunday and Monday drew more than 1,000 people each on Highway 32, just south of Winkler.

In nearby Morden, Mayor Brandon Burley didn’t mince words criticizing leadership that wouldn’t publicly reject the rationale behind the gatherings.

"I think right now there's a serious issue with regards to the voices that are being heard, and the voices that are being loud and the voices that are being most prominent. And right now, the voices we need to be establishing as municipal leaders is that vaccines are necessary, and vaccines are the only way we're going to get through this quickly and efficiently,” he said Tuesday.