14

Grey Partridge Painting by A.H. Shortt
1945



Credits:
Image courtesy of: Archives of Manitoba, Shortt, A.H. 1, N1379

15

That's one beautiful thing about being a naturalist, you don't need equipment except binoculars and a notebook. And you know, you can elaborate on that, but the less you have to carry around the better. So we didn't have much to go on as far as we were frugal people, which is part of how you have to live. And I think that's a good training for, for all your life because you learn to do that without thinking. Frugal without thinking. I make my own curtains and dresses and things like that. It's all part of the prairie somehow. Cause we used to go fishing, mother was the greatest fisher. She was also Manitoba's champion nurse nest finder. So you know I couldn't help but love nature and so on.

16

Pen and Ink drawings in the Winnipeg Tribune, by Angus Shortt
1935
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

17

I picked the prairie because of the background. It seemed, you weren't crammed in with trees or anything like that. And you could watch birds flying, migration going over. And there were so many interesting things, right on the prairies. The flowers, the shrubs and the ground squirrels and ground hogs and…the visits of the marsh hawk, who'd come over the prairies looking for mice. It was nice, that…of course you go back into the woods and you get lots of birds that don't venture out.

18

No place like it
2005

19

Stress leaves me when I go onto the prairies and it seems so free and as…well, there's not the traffic or the noises of the city and the air smells good usually and oh, I don't know, the beautiful skies and sunsets. Angus took a lot of pictures of all of those things, he painted a lot of those things, you know. Being with Angus, and being inquisitive myself, I notice so many things of, from nature to a little seed just starting, sprouting, you know? And there's no place like it.

20

We don't need the mountains
21 July 2003
Living Prairie Museum, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

21

We could, where I lived, which was just the equal of Angus', but on the other end of the city. I could go across the street and bring home, either some chokecherries or Saskatoons to eat, to make jelly. And bring home a bouquet of flowers, you know? That was wonderful. You live with that and it's part of your daily life, that you're imbued with all this around you and I guess we were like "country bumpkins", I don't know. But we've always loved the prairies and if the prairies have a little dip to them, oh how beautiful that is! We don't need the mountains!