Anyone who has spent any time at all in Mazatlan is familiar with the sculptures, especially the ones along the Malecon.
In my wanderings around the grounds of The Legislative Buildings recently I found several interesting faces, some I was familiar with and some I was not.
There was good old Queen Victoria, everyone knows her!
and Louis Riel, we know him too.
The Earl of Dufferin
and James Wolfe
might not be as well known so I cheated and took a photo of the plaques as well.
but Taras Shevchenko, who was he???? I had to look him up. How did we ever live without Google?????????????
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko was a Ukrainian poet, artist and humanist. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language. Shevchenko also wrote in Russian and left many masterpieces as a painter and an illustrator. There are monuments to him all over the world - even one here in Manitoba!
The sculpture of Nellie McClung and the Famous Five was unvieled the week before my visit. I'm sure all the women who are reading this know who Nellie McClung is, but just in case, I took a few extra photos (good idea because I'm feeling lazy)
My favourite faces were on the residents of 'Bear Park".
Sixty-two polar bears were displayed on Broadway Avenue, starting in front of the Legislature and continuing to Portage Avenue, throughout the summer of 2006. The bears were a fund raiser for CancerCare Manitoba and over $500,000.00 was raised, $320,000.00 in the first few weeks of the exhibit alone. Each concrete bear is over six feet tall and was given a unique identity by a local artist. Polar bears were chosen for the project based on the fact that Manitoba is well known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World, and because Winnipeg is the original home of Winnie the Pooh. Eighteen of the bears now live in the Bear Park behind the Legislative Buildings and the balance have been distributed around the city.
I love the bears!
Hi Sandie and Mike,
ReplyDeleteSaw your comment on my blog, thanks. I am making up for a lot of lazing around in Maz over the winter right now. I will be back down there, just not sure of dates yet. I haven't booked a place to stay either. I just have to wait and see what's going on here this fall - I might be needed more this winter and not able to work so much remotely.
We have actually decided to rent out our house in semi-rural Okotoks and take an apartment in the city starting in Sept. The 40 minute drive (if we are lucky) into the city for business activities and work if Mike has an ongoing consulting contract there has finally got to us and since we are empty-nesters it doesn't make sense to live out here anymore. Even driving to and from the airport for business trips (and flights to Maz) will be much easier. So, maybe living closer to downtown will make a difference to my attitude about winter here! But we definitely plan to spend at least some time in Maz.
Catching up on your blogs and they are always interesting and insightful. Even a history lesson thrown in for good measure. Love the bears. In Italy they did this with cows of every color and shape. See you soon.
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