April 9-Windstorm

Mother Nature socked it to Saskatchewan on Friday; the northern part of the province (including Saskatoon) had a blizzard with severe blowing winds. The southern half of the province (including Regina) were tossed and turned by a severe windstorm with sustained winds of 60 km/hr and gusts up to 90 km/hr. (That's hurricane force winds folks.)

Driving along Park Street I saw this house with its shingles being lifted and torn away by the wind. I heard reports of 3 semi-trailer trucks which were knocked to their sides as they drove along the TransCanada Highway. And SGI staff were evacuated from their building because of the wind blowing out their windows.

To read more about the damage, read this LeaderPost article.

April 8-SIAST

This is a picture of the Wascana Campus of the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (or SIAST for short).

The SIAST Wascana Campus has been in Regina since 1972 and in this location (the old Plains Health Centre) since 1998. Over 12,000 students attend SIAST annually, taking one of their 160 core programs at either the Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw or Prince Albert.

For more information about SIAST's Wascana Campus and the programs it offers, go to the SIAST website.

April 7-Wascana Lake

With the warm weather, the ice on Wascana Lake has been thawing. But in places, it is still frozen, as shown in this photo.

The poor Canadian geese thought they were going to land in open water, instead they broke through the ice. The ice is too thin (and they are too heavy) for the geese to take off. Instead they began to break a path in the ice with the forward momentum of their bodies. Once they reach open water, they'll be able to take off. (You can see the path of broken ice behind them.)

After today, there will be no ice on Wascana Lake; it's supposed to reach 19C.

April 6-St. Paul's Cathedral

Above is a picture of the oldest, church building that is still active in Regina. Completed in 1895, this church has served the Anglican community for over 115 years.

Pictures of it from 1895, along with photos its interior and exterior (in different seasons) can be found in the St. Paul's Cathedral wikipedia entry. If you want to learn more about the congregation, go to the St. Paul's website.

April 5-Spitfire

This is my other cat Spitfire. If you do a Google search on "Spitfire" as a name for cats, many cats come up in the listing. I guess there are a lot of owners (like me) who had a hellion for a kitten. He was so angry and clawed, hissed, and spit at me all the time (hence the name). Thank God he eventually calmed down and became the lovable cat you see here.

Both he and Minnie were in the yard yesterday exploring. Here Spitz is sneaking around my cedar trees to see what bird is chirping on the other side.

April 4-Potter the cow

On the lawn of the MacKenzie Art Gallery is a sculpture from Joe Fafard featuring a trio of cows. When I went to the Wascana Centre walking tour online, I found out that this cow is named "Potter". Here's a direct quote from the online tour:

Just over the rise is the half-life-sized sulptures of a bull, cow and calf that were
created by Joe Fafard and donated to the MacKenzie Art Gallery by Claire Kramer.
The bull is named "Potter" after the well-known 17th century dutch animal painter
Paulus Potter; the grazing cow is named Valadon after the French post-Impressionist
painter Suzanne Valadon. The calf was named Teevo after a contest was held to name
the smallest member of this trio.

April 3-Minnie!

This is my cat Minnie who - like all cats - is keeping her owner waiting as she decides whether or not to head outside and enjoy the warm spring day. While she was pondering, I took this photo. She did eventually go outside, as we all knew she would.