The Big Hand

If you're paddling toward the south perimeter highway, about 150 metres before the perimeter, you'll see an intriguing statue of sorts on the eastern shore of the Seine (It's on private property, so please respect that. If you're travelling on foot, you can see the hand from a path on the opposite shore, behind the condo buildings on St. Anne's Road. There's even a bench for you to sit on and gaze at the hand).

It's a fibreglass hand, more than one metre high, with different colours in each section of the fingers.

Its owner, Marc Hebert, works at a museum workshop. He told me the Manitoba Museum had the hand and other body parts on display - about 15 years ago, roughly - as part of some exhibit about the human body. He doesn't remember the details, but he recalls the different colours on the fingers were meant to signify either different senses or areas of sensation.

When the exhibit was over, the hand was destined for the trash, apparently, so Marc took it home. It was elsewhere on his property for a few years and has been on the shore for the last 10. It has weathered the elements quite well, but Marc says it is slowly deteriorating.