In The Hills Spring 2010

VO L U M E 17 N U M B E R 1 2 010

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Greenbelt expansion A hard look at the pros & cons

Backyard chickens Help for new mothers

Drama for youth Bethell House hospice

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Changes

O P E R AT I O N S M A N A G E R

We’re a bit reluctant to toot our own horn here at In The Hills.

We do our best to reflect the best, or most interesting, things about our community and examine the issues that concern it. And then leave it to you to decide how well we’re doing.

However, in the spirit of spring renewal, we’ve made some changes, and we’re puffed up enough to tell you about them.

Monica Duncan | Roberto Fracchioni Michele Green | Alison Hird Douglas G. Pearce | Laura LaRocca Bethany Lee | Jeff Rollings Nicola Ross | Don Scallen | Ken Weber

inthehills.ca We’re very excited to announce the official

Gillian Gauthier | Rosemary Hasner Robert McCaw | Pete Paterson | Ron Pitts

Kirsten Ball EDITORIAL

PHOTOGRAPHY

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launch of our new website. Although we strongly believe in the power – and pleasure – of print, there is often information we just can’t cram between the covers. Web editor Tony Maxwell has worked hard over the past few months to develop an interactive site where you can not only find all the content of the current issue and highlights from past issues, but extend your reading experience with a host of “web extras.”

The web-exclusive content includes links that take you more deeply into topics featured in the magazine, regular posts from our bloggers, audio samples and slide shows, as well as comments from our readers via Facebook and Twitter. We hope you’ll join the conversation!

kidsinthehills.ca We’re equally delighted to announce the launch of a sister site devoted exclusively to parents and kids.

Kids’ site editor and Orangeville mom Bethany Lee has coordinated a one-stop-shop of family-oriented services and events, expert advice on such topics as nutrition and health, as well as commentary from “everyday parents” about the joys and challenges of raising a family in the hills.

Headwaters Nest Bethany now also has a regular column in the magazine where she reflects on her personal experiences as a parent in the Headwaters countryside. In this issue, she talks about coming home to the hills to raise her son and she offers suggestions about local activities for families to enjoy.

Edible Hills We’re also very pleased to welcome Roberto Fracchioni. As the executive chef at The Millcroft Inn in Alton, Roberto brings exceptional expertise and enthusiasm to his reflec tions on savouring the local harvest at its seasonal best.

As we welcome Roberto, we bid a fond farewell to Sandra Cranston-Corradini, who has been our Country Cook for fi fteen years. A cordon blue chef, she has fi lled our recipe fi les with dozens of scrumptious offerings, from healthy salads to decadent wedding cakes. Thank you, Sandra!

520 Riddell Road, Unit C, Orangeville 519-942-1568 1-800-461-4401 donsheatingandcooling.com

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Must Do Finally, we’re introducing a feature page of our own highly selective “picks” of just some of the things that make life such a distinctive pleasure here in the hills.

Enjoy!

I L L U S T R AT I O N

Shelagh Armstrong Linda McLaren | Jim Stewart DESIGN | ART DIRECTION

Kim van Oosterom Wallflower Design ADVERTISING SALES

Roberta Fracassi | Julie Lockyer ADVERTISING PRODUCTION

Marion Hodgson Type & Images PROOFREADING

Susan Robb COVER

Great Blue Heron

by Robert McCaw — In the Hills is published four times a year by MonoLog Communications Inc. It is distributed through controlled circulation to households in the towns of Caledon, Erin, Orangeville, Shelburne and Creemore, and Dufferin County.

Subscriptions outside the distribution area are $21.oo per year (including gst).

Letters to the editor are welcome.

For information regarding editorial, advertising, or subscriptions: PHONE E-MAIL

519-942-84o1

info@inthehills.ca

FA X

519-942-1118

MonoLog Communications Inc. R.R.1 Orangeville ON L9W 2Y8

www.inthehills.ca — The advertising deadline for the Summer (June) issue is May 14, 2o1o.

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

I N

T H I S

I S S U E F E A T U R E S 18

LETTING OUT THE BELT

D E P A R T M E N T S 8

Should the Greenbelt expand?

by Jeff Rollings Keeping backyard chickens

by Monica Duncan 15 18

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60 BUNDLE OF JOY?

Help for new mothers

by Laura LaRocca 32

64 ENCHANTED THESPIANS

Playwright Jane Ohland Cameron

by Michele Green

Peel County jail

by Ken Weber 57

Our favourite picks for spring 58 36 HOMEGROWN IN THE HILLS

Rock Garden Farms

by Nicola Ross

HEADWATERS SKETCHBOOK

Trilliums

by Linda McLaren

MUST DO

50 HERONS & CO.

Magnificent marsh birds

by Don Scallen

46 HISTORIC HILLS

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Jim Stewart

40 BETHELL HOUSE

Caledon’s new hospice

by Iain Richmond

THE DIGEST

Countryside news

by Douglas G. Pearce

OUR OWN EGGS

EDIBLE HILLS

Asparagus & ramps

by Roberto Fracchioni

Our readers write 12

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LETTERS

HEADWATERS NEST

Swimming back upstream

by Bethany Lee 76 WHAT’S ON IN THE HILLS

A calendar of spring happenings

by Alison Hird 86 A PUZZLING CONCLUSION

by Ken Weber

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L E T T E R S

On the Same Page!

BookLore & The Public Libraries of Dufferin County Encourage You to Read

Olympic Fever Local Heroes The Brutal Telling

By Louise Penny Published by Headline

121 First Street, Orangeville 519-942-3830 One Book One County Events from March to May Grand Finale in June

SPRING

IN THE GREENHOUSE

As inveterate readers of The Globe and Mail’s “Lives Lived,” we can only think of your second annuall coverage of Local Heroes (winter ’09) as “Lives Beingg d Lived” and were thrilled to see their return. Lives lived eand being lived are well deserved tributes to the lifest long contributions and passions of each individual, past and present! They deserve to be recognized and thankk you for doing just that.

Sheilagh Crandall & Sarah Crandall Haney, Caledon — Jen and I were really honoured to be selected as Local al Heroes. We are in such good company – there are somee incredible people in our community. Thanks to Jeff Rollings for writing the series and all the extra work he put into it. It is a really good way to promote all the causes and issues that so many of us care about in the community.

We do know that everybody reads In The Hills because of the comments we hear on different pieces.

On a personal note, I am sure I am going to take a lot of ribbing from my local girlfriends for the “Supperhero” headline, but it will give them a good laugh. Thanks also to photographer Pete Paterson. He is a genius with the camera!

Karen Hutchinson, Caledon — Thank you for the lovely article and kind words Jeff Rollings wrote about my daughter, Jade Scognamillo, in your Local Heroes article. It is an honour for her to be considered a hero – she certainly doesn’t see herself that way!

I enjoy reading In The Hills every season. Keep up the great work! Headwaters is such a wonderful place to live, and we feel blessed to have found it when we moved from England!

Jane Scognamillo, Caledon —

Fabulous Floral Designs Antiques Unique Gifts and Home Decor

What a great magazine. The information about the Local Heroes was amazing. It is so neat to read about people you sort of know. Also, the book reviews and just about everything else were great. We enjoy all the issues, but especially this one.

Deanna Ruple, by email —

We Deliver 78 John Street • 519-941-2592 www.orangevilleflowers.com

AWARD WINNING FLORIST

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Editor’s note: We received this additional information from Jane Helie, one of the “Kind Hearted Cat Herders,” featured in Local Heroes: “Anyone wishing to assist one day a week, donate toward the cost (approx. $200/ month) of food, or provide old lawnchair cushions, please contact Jane Helie at jjkhpets@xplornet.com.”

Wow, what an experience! I was lucky enough to be selected as an Olympic torchbearer. My allocated slot for the relay was on the day following Orangeville, Dec 29, in Thornbury. It was a bitterly cold day with strong winds, road closures and blow ing snow hampering our journey north at 4 a.m. (Special wind guards were fitted to the torches to protect the flame.)

the aftermath I soon realized that all the torchbearers were running far from their home communities, and there was an overwhelming feeling of warmth and friendship. The staff were well organized and great.

Our team and the public of Meaford and Thornbury were open-hearted, cheering and smiling and snapping photographs.

It is truly wonderful that ordinary people are given this opportunity. My family came to Canada in 1997, and became proud Canadians in 2002.

I am not an athletic person now, but my childhood dream was to be a gym teacher. All this changed with an illness when I was 16. Since then I have lived a fast-paced life. I work as collections manager at Duf ferin County Museum and Archives. My husband and I give back to the community through our popular What’s On website which we have run entirely on volunteer hours for nearly ten years.

My job now is to share this wonderful experience back with the community.

Alison Hird, Caledon Editor’s note: Alison’s torch has been acquired

by Dufferin County. It can be seen at Dufferin County Museum. See her photos at inthehills.ca.

— I loved your article and pictures on the Orangeville Olympians. However, I was sur prised that you failed to mention one of Orangeville’s most successful female Olympians, Janine Rankin. She went to two Olympics, 1988 and 1992, for gymnastics. She has two world-recognized moves on the balance beam that are named after her (Rankin 1 and Rankin 2) and that have never been duplicated.

Robert Abbott (Janine’s husband), Proton Station — I used to love the Olympics and found them very moving. But I’ve lost all interest in them, mainly because of the United States’ need to win the most medals and the use of drugs. It’s impossible for me to believe that most winners aren’t cheating – it’s the ones who can hide their use who don’t get caught.

I feel sorry for young athletes who are losing the interest of the public because of this trend.

Gloria Hildebrandt, Halton

CORRECTION In the winter issue, there was an error in the caption accompanying the photograph of Olympian Jay Hayes. He and his family company, Hayes Co, are no long affi liated with the Thornbury Equestrian Park. The Collingwood Horse Shows moved to the Nepean National Equestrian Park in 2008, running the National Capital Show Jumping Tournaments; National Open August 11–15; and National Tournament August 18–22, 2010. Please visit hayesco.ca for more information.

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the Highland Railroad It is well known that the Highland Rail Group’s anticipated rail line through the Town of Orangeville will be used for transporting trains heavy with aggregate product from the Highland Companies’ proposed and unprecedented 2,400 acres, 200-foot-deep mine in Melancthon Township. Trains will travel through Orangeville south to Toronto and north to Owen Sound where gravel will presumably go on ships and out of Canada… and the profits will go to a faceless Boston-based hedge fund.

Orangeville citizens need to carefully consider what an active rail line, with a busy schedule, carrying heavy materials through their streets, many of which are residential, will mean to them as residents and business owners, and not get too excited when local papers claim “Victory” for Orangeville.

They might also consider that it is not a victory for their friends and neighbours who will live next door to a 2,400 acre, 200-foot-deep, airpolluting, water-sucking hole that rocks their world daily with explosives. It is simply one more link in a chain that brings rural Melancthon and the headwaters of Dufferin closer to possible destruction.

For those who think that this rail line needs to go to Highland Companies proposed, giant, gravel mine in Melancthon, because it must be necessary to supply Ontario’s (Toronto’s) insatiable thirst for gravel, think again. There are 7,000 gravel pits in Ontario, and a recent State of the Aggregate Resource in Ontario Study noted that there are enough pits within 75 kilometres of Toronto to supply their gravel needs for the next 20 years, and then there are all the other thousands of pits outside of the 75-kilometre band.

Twenty years, without a giant pit in Melancthon, will give the Aggregate Industry adequate time and incentive to revamp how it does business. The Toronto Environmental Alliance (www.torontoenvironment.org) strongly encourages the reduction, recycling and reuse of aggregate materials for the greater Toronto area and surrounding municipalities.

Ever wondered what happens to giant skyscrapers and enormous bridges that are torn down? That cement can be recycled. The Aggregate Industry is one of the most financially and politically powerful industries in the country. Check out www.gravelwatchontario.org.

It is the ethical duty of the industry to invest in the reduction, recycling and reuse of materials rather than continue to devastate non-renewable farm land. excerpted from a letter from Marni Walsh, Melancthon

May 18 - 22 at 8 pm May 22 & 23 at 2 pm U May 23 at 7 pm A Soul-stirring musical! The unforgettable and inspiring story of a woman who triumphs over tremendous odds to find joy in life and her true inner beauty.

With a joyous Grammy-nominated music score of jazz, gospel and blues, The Color Purple captures the hearts of young and old, uniting audiences in a celebration of love!

The full text of the letter can be read at www.inthehills.ca.

— Tim Shuff’s article “High Stakes in the High County” (autumn ’09) was very well done and I have received many comments on how bang on the writing was to capture the story. I think your article has really touched a nerve out there. My wife and I get comments on the article literally every day. The magazine is very well read.

David Vander Zaag, Melancthon

Endangered Cougars?

The reports of cougar sightings (“We asked and you told us,” winter ’09) reminded me of the restrictions on endangered species in Ontario.

The federal Species at Risk Act (sara, 2004) addressed federal lands and authorized provinces and territories to pass similar legislation. The Ontario Endangered Species Act (esa, 2008) listed 184 species that are now protected by law in Ontario – vegetation, fish, molluscs, animals, etc.

Strangely, while the SARA does not list the cougar, the ESA does; so the cougar may be destroyed to protect you and your livestock in Canada, but not in Ontario.

Has Ontario seceded?

Charles Hooker, Orangeville

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L E T T E R S

Tractor Wheels

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I am writing to correct the portrayal of the Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC) published in your story “Homegrown in the Hills: Cider House Rules” (autumn ’09).

The piece suggests that the applicants for Spirit Tree Estate Cidery and farm market in Caledon were subjected to inordinate regulatory scrutiny by the NEC, local conservation authority and the Town of Caledon. I regret that the writer did not contact the NEC while preparing the story because the information that was presented was incomplete and unfairly negative.

In fact, the NEC did everything in its capacity to allow Mr. Wilson to proceed with his farm market and cidery and encourages compatible agricultural commerce in the Niagara Escarpment Plan area. excerpted from a letter from Don Scott, Chair, Niagara Escarpment Commission Open letter to the NEC: Re the request that Spirit Tree close their Tasting Room permanently, and close their entire operation for the winter, we must frankly tell you that we are affronted and incensed.

This is entirely the type of operation that is needed throughout the Escarpment and Caledon. Their operation is sustainable, follows good conservation principles, and leaves as small a footprint on the environment as is possible ... To shut down the operation now that it is getting established is outrageous. excerpted from a letter from John Patcai and Barbara Browerman, Caledon For the full text of both the above letters, including details of NEC’s objections to the application, see www.inthehills.ca. Spirit Tree Estate Cidery is temporarily closed pending compliance with NEC regulations. The original story included an interview with Caledon councillor and NEC commissioner Richard Paterak.

More on Geothermal Re: Letter from Colin Lewis, “Value of Geothermal Rebates in Question” (winter ’08).

We had a ground source geothermal system installed at our residence in May 2008, after a thorough research of the value and credibility of such a system.

We experienced that the manufacturers of the geothermal units had a substantial number of certified accredited contractors on their lists. We received five contractors’ quotations, and, although some differences were identified, all the quotes were reasonably close.

Our own observations of this technology are that if you convert from oil, propane or forced-air electric heating, the savings are approximately what the promoters suggest they could be. However, the coming HST and “Smart” meters will diminish some of the potential savings in the future.

June & Terence McGarigle, East Garafraxa

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Being a tractor-trailer driver myself, I naturally took an interest in the puzzle called “The Case of the Phony Insurance Claim” (“A Puzzling Conclusion,” winter ’09). After reading it, and reading it, and reading it, and pondering what could possibly be wrong with the claim, I was even more confused when I read the solution. Above is a photo of the tractor trailer unit that I drive. Look sharp, or you may miss it. Indeed, a photo of a 24-wheeled tractor-trailer.

Until ten years ago, this riddle was correct. However, recent developments in tire rolling resistance, and fuel economics, has led to the development of the “super single” a single tire designed to replace two. Look at the fi rst axle on the trailer, it’s hard to notice! The tire description would be 2, 4, 4, 2, 4, 4, 4.

Otherwise a great issue as always.

Brandon Muir, Grand Valley (One of several correspondents who kindly pointed out this error.)

Sweet Charity In your article “Olympic Fever comes to Orangeville” there is a factual error in reference to the June 2010 production of Sweet Charity, directed

by Roland Kirouac. Sweet Charity is being produced by Orangeville Music Theatre, not Theatre Orangeville.

Jeff Bathurst Orangeville Music Theatre

ONLINE IN THE HILLS For more letters and commentary from our readers, including further contributions on the topics of cougar sightings and rural mail delivery, or to add your own thoughts or comments on any of the stories in this issue, please visit www.inthehills.ca.

You can also send your letters by e-mail to sball@inthehills.ca. Please include your name, address and contact information. In the Hills reserves the right to edit letters for publication.

welcome to www.inthehills.ca It’s here! After months of tinkering, much of it based on readers’ feedback, our new website has emerged from beta testing and is now live!

extra! the magazine... and much

more!

Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to curl up with the print issue four times a year, but we hope the website will extend your reading experience between seasons.

And, perish the thought, if you happen to find yourself without your copy of the magazine, you can enjoy all the current print content online. Plus, if you’re looking for past articles, our archives now include highlights from previous issues, with more to come.

twitter and

tweet

What would a website be without “tweets” and Facebook updates? You can “follow” us at www.twitter.com/inthehillsmag or “become a fan” of our Facebook page at www.face book.com/inthehills. If that’s not enough, receive regular email updates by subscribing to our RSS feed at http://feeds. feedburner.com/inthehills.

extra!

We think there is nothing like holding a real magazine in your hands, but the website does allow us to add extras that just aren’t possible in the print.

At inthehills.ca, here are just some of things you can do:

Listen to sample tracks from the CDs of local musicians featured in our annual music review.

View full-screen slide shows of works by our Artists in Residence, local Olympians, and other photographic material from current and past issues.

Read web-exclusive contributions from our bloggers, Bethany Lee, Christine Thomas and others. And link quickly to additional information about topics featured in the magazine.

for

especially parents and kids www.kidsinthehills.ca We’re very pleased to be launching a sister site, kidsinthehills.ca. It is a comprehensive local resource full of useful information for moms and dads, including kid-friendly events, professional parenting advice, and comments from other parents – along with blogs that take a look at the lighter side of raising a family in the hills.

You can go directly to www.kidsinthehills.ca, or link through to it on our home site.

Comment on any of the stories in this or past issues. Just go to the story on the site, scroll to the end, and fill in the comment box. Recent comments appear on our home page.

tell us what think

Plan your entertainment outings

The website will continue to evolve. How it does will depend a lot on your feedback and ideas. You can find us anytime at

by watching our home page Twitter of event “picks” of the day, or by linking to our long-time events partner, www.whatson.ca.

Find local goods and services

you

www.inthehills.ca

through ads that link you directly to our web advertisers’ sites.

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

11

C O U N T R Y S I D E

D I G E S T by Douglas G. Pearce

Beer, Beer Diet “Enkidu, a man raised by wild animals in the classic Sumerian poem Epic of Gilgamesh, knew nothing of beer until a prostitute guided him to a shepherd’s camp. Upon finishing seven full cups, ‘his soul became free and cheerful, his heart rejoiced, his face glowed... He became human.’ Beer was so popular throughout ancient Mesopotamia that some historians argue it inspired the earliest farmers to domesticate grain.”

“Rich in carbohydrates, protein, and, of course, alcohol, beer became a dietary staple for many cultures throughout history. In Elizabethan England, mothers safeguarded their adolescents from foul water by serving them ‘beer stew’ – stale bread mixed with beer and spices.” From Worldwatch, Nov-Dec/09.

Bingo “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.”

Herbert Hoover, 1928.

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“Struggling farmers, in an attempt to reap greater profits, cultivated large tracts throughout the Great Plains, removing precious nutrients and moisture from the soil and putting great strain on the land. Couple that with cattle overgrazing and a drought and the dust bowl was born. Enter the soybean: Packed with soil-replenishing nitrogen, it gave back to the land what crops like corn stripped away.

“Planted in large quantities and used in crop-rotation practices first developed in ancient China, soybeans helped suppress erosion and hold the ground together. With the stabilization of the land helping to stabilize the economy, America was slowly pulled out of the Depression, thanks in part to the amazing soybeans – for over 5,000 years an integral part of cultures and diets.” Hugh Daubney, in Seeds of Diversity, Autumn/09.

Ig Nobel Economics

Celebrate Today!

540 Riddell Rd., Orangeville (519)942-1933

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

“After a year filled with a f lock of financial achievements any one of which might merit an Ig Nobel, the economics prize was bound to be controversial. The Ig Nobel committee selected the management and auditors of four Icelandic banks... for

beans, banks and brands demonstrating that financial market fluctuations can rapidly transform very small banks into very large banks, then rapidly reverse the process, thereby demolishing the national economy.” From New Scientist, Oct 10/09.

Ig Nobel Mathematics “The mathematics prize went to another financial wizard, Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, who imbued his compatriots with a sophisticated understanding of large numbers by printing the national currency in denominations ranging from 1 cent to 100 trillion dollars as the country’s inflation rate soared to 231 million per cent.” From New Scientist, Oct 10/09.

Id Tags Some remarks by Wendell Berry made at a meeting on the U.S. National Animal Identification System, which promises to require every single livestock animal to be identified and tagged, no matter the size of the operation: “The need to trace was made by the confined animal industry – which are, essentially, disease-breeding operations. The health issue was invented right there. The remedy is to put animals back on pasture, where they belong. The USDA is scapegoating the small producers to distract attention from the real cause of the trouble. Pre sumably these animal factories are, in a too familiar phrase, ‘too big to fail’.”

“This is the first agricultural meeting I’ve ever been to in my life that was attended by the police.” From Small Farm, Sep-Oct/09.

Dry Cleaning “The dirty business of laundry has long sought improvements over oldfashioned soap and water. The Celts washed their clothing in human urine. The launderers of ancient Rome rubbed a claylike soil known as ‘fullers earth’ into their stained togas. During the Renaissance, books of ‘secrets’ circulated through Europe, offering such household stain-removal concoctions as walnuts and turpentine.”

“Modern dry cleaning is credited to a Frenchman, Jean-Baptiste Jolly, who in the mid-19th century realized the stain-removal potential of kero-

sene when his maid accidently spilled a canful onto his soiled tablecloth.

Hydrocarbon-based solvents prevailed thereafter until the 1960s, when flammability concerns and the affordability of new synthetic chemicals led to a switch. Tetrachloroethylene, also known a perchloroethylene (‘perc’) became the preferred solvent among most of the world’s dry cleaners.”

From Worldwatch, Jan-Feb/10.

Paw Prints “According to the authors of the new book Time to Eat the Dog, it takes 0.84 hectares of land to keep a mediumsized dog fed. In contrast, running a 4.6-litre Toyota Land Cruiser, including the energy required to construct the thing and drive it 10,000 kilometres a year requires 0.41 hectares.

Dogs are not the only environmental sinners. The eco-footprint of a cat equates to that of a Volkswagen Golf.”

From New Scientist, Oct 24/09.

Pet Utility “Dogs can hunt, herd and guard.

They can sniff out drugs and bombs and even whale fæces; they guide blind and deaf people, race for sport, pull sleds, fi nd someone buried by an avalanche, help children learn and possibly predict even earthquakes. Cats are good if you have an infestation of rodents.” From New Scientist, Dec 12/09.

Ad Nauseum “On average, a child in Canada, the U.S., Britain or Australia will see anywhere between 20,000 to 40,000 commercials a year. In the U.S. and Canada, children on average spend 60 per cent more time watching television in a year than they spend in school. Many schools are infi ltrated by advertising anyway – from compulsory viewing of ads on a ‘news’ program to posters in cafeterias and near soft-drink machines. So incessant is the f low of advertising that a U.S. study found three-year-old toddlers capable of recognizing an average of 100 brand logos.” From CCPA Monitor, Feb/10.

Computer Whiz “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Ken Olsen, President of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977. ≈

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

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Following in the Footsteps of the Group of Seven M AY 15 , 2010 t o S E P T E M B E R 5 , 2010 Organized by the McMichael Canadian Ar t Collection

Art enthusiasts, Jim and Sue Waddington have been photographing the exact locations represented in the landscapes of the Group of Seven for over thirty years. This enchanting exhibition will showcase the Group's art alongside present day photographs taken of the original locations that inspired these works of some 100 years ago.

T O M F O R R E S TA L L PA I N T I N G S , D R AW I N G S , W R I T I N G S

N O W O N U N T I L A P R I L 25 , 2010

Nellie Lake, Killarney

Organized and circulated by the Ar t Gallery of Nova Scotia Explore the “magical realism” of Tom Forrestall’s paintings, drawings, and journal sketchbooks by examining themes of nature and tensions between reality and imagination. This retrospective exhibition chronicles the artist’s curious observations and exploration of his surroundings, the nature of his creativity, and the source of his visions, through his works.

Tom Forrestall (b.1936), Dog, Girl and Beach, 1979, egg tempera on panel, 108.8 x 114.8 cm, Collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Gift of Willard Strug, Halifax, 2005, 2005.506

Sponsored by

Additional support from

Good Foundation Inc.

A.Y. Jackson (1882–1974), Hills, Killarney, Ontario (Nellie Lake), c.1933, oil on canvas, 77.3 x 81.7 cm, Gift of Mr. S.Walter Stewart, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1968.8.28 Hills, Killarney, Ontario (Nellie Lake). Photograph by Jim Waddington, courtesy of Sue and Jim Waddington.

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14

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

A R T I S T

I N

R E S I D E N C E

clockwise from top right : Torso, 2oo8, 26" x 32"; Subconscious, 2oo9, 2o" x 24"; Figures, 2oo9, 21" x 26"; Stretch, 2o1o, 26" x 32"; Nature Nurture, 2oo9, 26" x 32"; Performance, 2oo9, 26" x 32"; all oil on canvas

Jim Stewart Caledon artist Jim Stewart has been creating figurative and abstract paintings since the early 1970s. “I experience life as a spectrum of energy from essence through to the visible and tangible … I allow my creative side (right brain) to have free rein to express this life energy as I am living it in the moment.” Along with gallery shows, his award-winning work has appeared in many national magazines, as well as this magazine for which he illustrates the events calendar. A graduate of Ontario College of Art, he also instructs Aikido and holds a seventh degree black belt. www.jimstewart.ca IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

15

must do A highly selective guide to the picks of the season.

must

must

munch

When Pia’s Bakery opened on Broadway last year, the idea of the quick take-out lunch in Orangeville was transformed.

Our favourite lunch indulgence is Pia’s wickedly scrumptious cobb sandwich.

It’s a very hearty combination of avocado, blue cheese, bacon, homeroasted turkey, tomato and lettuce, served on your choice of bread fresh from the store’s bake ovens. At $9.5o, the cobb costs a little more than your average fast-food take-out, but taste and quality make it worth every penny.

While you’re there, consider picking up a few slices of Pia’s melt-in-your mouth quiche to treat your family for dinner.

Pia’s Bakery 177 Broadway 519-307-1258 piasbakery.com

dance

On Saturday, May 1, the Orangeville Agricultural Centre will be transformed with the sights, sounds and flavours of the Serengeti, where the nights are warm and the beat is irresistible.

Serengeti Sunset is the theme of this year’s 13th annual dinner, dance and auction in support of Headwaters Health Care Centre. The evening will feature African drummers and dancers, a fullcourse, African-themed dinner by Gourmandissimo, followed by the foot-tapping rhythms of Night Train. You’ll definitely want to buff up your dancing shoes and trip the light fantastic.

Tickets for Serengeti Sunset are $175 per person (a portion is tax deductible).

To order, call 519-9412702 x2303. For info, visit www.headwaters health.ca, click Serengeti.

must

Mono’s native son, Dan Needles, is back, but Walt Wingfield is on vacation.

Instead of Walt, stockbroker-turned-farmer, we meet Ed, farmer-turnedmechanic – and mystic.

Needles’ new comedy, premiering at Theatre Orangeville, delivers the laughs when Cassandra, an urban psychotherapist, sets up a private practice next door to Ed’s garage and he seizes the opportunity to expand his skill set.

must

laugh

After his star turn playing all the roles in the Wingfield plays over the past couple of decades, with this new play, the inimitable Rod Beattie catches a break. He plays Ed, and only Ed. Ed’s Garage runs from May 6 to May 23 at the Old Town Hall Opera House in Orangeville.

Box office: 519-942-3423 www.theatre orangeville.ca

plant Gardening by definition is about imposing order on nature. But it is a whole lot easier if nature is on your side. Instead of coddling exotic cultivars in your perennial border, consider increasing the population of native plants. There are all kinds of good environmental reasons for doing this, but ease and beauty are probably reason enough. For sunny spots, consider bergamot, black-eyed susans, echinacea. You might even want to bring in some goldenrod from the fields. It is tall, elegant and non-invasive in the border (just ask the Europeans who treasure it!)

You’ll find a good selection of native plants for sunny, shady and wet areas, along with advice to get you started at: Glen Echo 15070 Airport Rd South of Caledon East 905-584-9973 www.glenecho.com

16

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Plant Paradise 16258 Humber Station Rd Caledon 905-880-9090 www.plantparadise.ca

must

read

Dufferin’s three public libraries have joined forces with BookLore to present Dufferin Reads! One Book, One County. Two book have been selected for county residents to read, and talk about, together: a Quebec-based mystery called The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny, and for young readers, One False Note (part The 39 Clues series), by Gordon Korman, who will be in Dufferin on Sunday, May 30 for the wrap-up of the children’s event.

But don’t spend all your time with your nose in a book. Between now and the beginning of June, several events related to the themes of the books have been planned to enhance your reading pleasure, including a presentation by a forensic scientist, an antiques seminar, a wood carving workshop, and a weekly contest and draw.

You can borrow both books at the libraries in Orangeville, Shelburne and Grand Valley.

Purchase them at BookLore 121 First St Orangeville.

Details of related events are available at all four locations.

Like those of Canadians across the country, the hearts of the citizens of Headwaters were deeply touched by the plight of Haitians following the devastating earthquake in January. Local churches, banks, businesses, musicians, artists and schoolchildren quickly got on board, digging deep into their pockets and their talents to assist the relief effort. Although Haiti has faded from the daily headlines, the needs of its citizens remain desperate.

must

help

Among the organizations still on the ground is Starthrower, founded as a registered Canadian charity in 2004 by Orangeville resident Sharon Gaskell. Its goal is to raise and distribute funds for the education of Haitian youth.

Donations to Starthrower may be made in person at Acheson, 78 First St, Orangeville, or by mail to Starthrower Foundation, 2 – 123 Broadway, Orangeville l9w 1k2

For more information, including Sharon Gaskell’s regular reports, visit www.starthrower foundation.org IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

17

Letting the belt out a notch should the greenbelt be expanded?

S

BY JEFF R O L L IN GS

The Ontario Greenbelt Plan and Legislation were enacted in 2005 in an attempt to curb urban sprawl on some 1.8 million acres in a giant band surrounding the Toronto to Hamilton urban core.

The initiative – covering an area bigger than Prince Edward Island – has earned international acclaim and proven popular at home. A 2009 Environics poll, on behalf of the provincially funded, not-for-profit Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, shows 93 per cent of Ontarians indicate some level of support for the Greenbelt, with only 4 per cent who remain opposed.

In 2008, with the ink barely dry on this spiffy new plan, the province announced criteria that would allow municipalities to include themselves in the Greenbelt on a voluntary basis. The criteria specified that lower-tier municipalities must specifically ask to be included in the plan area, and

18

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

have the support of the upper-tier municipality as well. So far, no municipalities have made the request, though a few have said they are thinking it over. Any requests will be considered as part of a ten-year Greenbelt Plan review in 2015.

The Ontario Greenbelt Alliance is a coalition of more than eighty environmental groups, co-ordinated by the Environmental Defence organization. A few months after the Greenbelt expansion criteria were announced, the Alliance released their vision for growing the Greenbelt. Called Greenbelt 2.0, the proposal includes a map showing the Greenbelt ballooning by a further 1.2 million acres, or 66 per cent.

In the Headwaters region, the proposed expansion would add almost all of Erin, Mono and Mulmur, large portions of East Garafraxa and East Luther (including Luther Marsh), and tip into Melancthon and Amaranth. In Caledon, already largely under Greenbelt control, portions of the so-called “White Belt,” unprotected lands

to the south, would also be included.

Added, too, would be all the lands in neighbouring Simcoe, up to Georgian Bay The central purpose of the plan is to protect farmland and environmentally sensitive land on the urban fringe from development. Ironically, it is those in agriculture – the very sector the plan aims to help – who are among the most vocal critics of Greenbelt expansion.

Would expanding the Greenbelt be a good way to preserve more countryside, or is it just another layer of run-amok environmental bureaucracy?

Given that the plan and legislation are still relatively new, the debate tends to centre on the very existence of the Greenbelt, rather than the merits of expanding it.

In essence, there are three camps in the argument. There are those who think all Greenbelts are good, those who think all Greenbelts are bad, and those in the middle who like the concept of a greenbelt, but question whether this Greenbelt is doing the job.

P H O T O S R O S EM A R Y H A S N ER

O IT’S ALL GOOD with the Greenbelt, right?

or two

The central purpose of the plan is to protect farmland and environmentally sensitive land on the urban fringe.

Ironically, it is those in agriculture who are among the most vocal critics of Greenbelt expansion.

W

HY WORRY?

Harvey Kolodny is a board member of the Mono Mulmur Citizens’ Coalition, or MC2. A professor emeritus at the Rotman School of Business, University of Toronto, Kolodny chaired a public forum on Greenbelt expansion held in Mono Centre in November.

Tell Harvey you’re looking for someone to speak in favour of Greenbelt expansion and he holds up his hand and says “Pick me.”

Also a supporter of Places to Grow, the provincial plan for directing where population growth will happen, Kolodny says “I think the Greenbelt has done a terrific job of protecting us from sprawl. I give the province enormous credit for their efforts.”

Kolodny cites a long list of benefits from the Greenbelt, primarily environmental.

Not only does he see it preserving the woodlands, wetlands and water resources surrounding the GTA, he also feels it raises awareness about the importance of environmental considerations. He points out that the Greenbelt is consistent with the principle of living “green,” and as such is

“in alignment with most of our population’s current preferences, especially the younger generation.”

Beyond direct environmental benefits, Kolodny also sees a business advantage.

“Combined with the extensive artistic community in the Headwaters area, the Greenbelt can make Headwaters a culturally attractive destination for GTA residents and tourism in general.”

In short, Kolodny takes the “greater common good” view: that the benefits of the Greenbelt for the many outweigh the concerns of the few who feel negatively affected.

While acknowledging that the plan overrides municipal planning controls, he points to numerous examples of what he sees as bad local planning, and says, “I have more faith in the province.” Beyond that, he adds, “The Greenbelt doesn’t stop local planning, it just has rules for how to do it.”

David Pond, a political scientist at the University of Toronto, wrote a 2009 paper entitled “Ontario’s Greenbelt: Growth Management, Farmland Protection, and Regime Change in Southern Ontario,” which appeared in the publication Canadian Public

Policy. He sees the Greenbelt and Places to Grow as a return to centralized provincial planning, similar to the 1960s, and points out the Niagara Escarpment Commission was a product of that era, as were “compact, livable communities in downtown Toronto.”

Pond agrees with Harvey Kolodny’s opinion about the need for a provincial plan: “Only the province has the authority and the jurisdiction to implement a co-ordinated response to the all-encompassing challenge of sprawl.”

Municipal councils are prone to take the expedient short view, says Kolodny “There’s so much turnover, and that’s dangerous.

Who knows what agenda some future council might have? The Greenbelt protects us from municipalities that see housing development as their primary path to growth and from municipalities that bend to local pressures and have no long-term planning in place.”

Kolodny sees the population in Headwaters as being “in transition,” and although he acknowledges that the agricultural sector is generally opposed to Greenbelt expansion, he says “I’m not convinced that [the Greenbelt] is not of interest to the rural population in this area. Agriculture is a declining activity here. Farmers make up a very small percentage of the population now, and even that continued on next page

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

19

analysis of the quality of the agricultural acreage included in the plan or of what was left out.”

greenbelt continued from page 19

is disappearing fast.” Indeed, that is true in Mono and Mulmur, where the number of full-time farmers has dwindled to a handful.

Region-wide, among those farmers who are left, some had banked on selling out to developers for a hefty profit. Now that development is tightly restricted, many fear the value of their land will plummet. However, Kolodny sees it differently. “The reality is, if a farmer wants to sell, he’ll fi nd city people who will buy it at a good price.”

Is the Greenbelt doing what it set out to do? “I think so,” Kolodny says.

“It was meant to put a band around the city to stop sprawl, and I think it’s doing that. But it didn’t handle the leapfrog issue well. So now, north of the Greenbelt, developers are buying all the land.”

Though Kolodny feels expanding the Greenbelt would help resolve that, he doesn’t hold out much hope that the expansion will go ahead. “Expansion will never happen in this part of the world,” he says, explaining that he feels there is a lot of suspicion of the province locally, along with a deep-seated resistance to anything perceived as loss of control. “There’s this attitude that ‘we have to fight.’ I can understand how that happens, but I disagree.”

For expansion to take place here, he says, “The politics would have to change.”

S

ULTANS OF SWING

Richard Paterak, a regional councillor in Caledon, supports the Greenbelt, but not without some reservations.

About two-thirds of Caledon is covered by the Greenbelt, and from the perspective of five years within its jurisdiction, Paterak says, “To my mind the Greenbelt Plan is a fully justifiable exercise to control sprawl and should have been sold to the public on that basis. The aspect of controlling sprawl is what I find most appealing in the Greenbelt Plan.”

20

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

However, he adds, “What I didn’t like about the Greenbelt Plan was the rollout. In the rollout, and continuing today, it is claimed that the purpose of the plan is to preserve farmland. In fact, there was no concerted analysis of the quality of the agricultural acreage included in the plan or of what was left out … In Caledon the so-called ‘White Belt’ includes land that is of higher agricultural value than much of what is in the Greenbelt Plan.”

Ca ledon ha s long ma i nta i ned tough municipal regulations aimed at protecting its rural countryside, and despite the stated purpose of the Greenbelt Plan to protect land from development, in some parts of Caledon it had the opposite effect.

“The Greenbelt upset the apple cart a bit,” Paterak says, “because it left a large part of the Peel Plain out of the Greenbelt Plan and in the White Belt.

The day this news got out, land speculators swarmed up and down the farm lanes of south Albion and Chinguacousy trying to entice sales – and they have been successful.”

Paterak has other quibbles. “I also didn’t like how the Protected Countryside and Natural Heritage Systems were drawn on the map, sometimes with little knowledge of what was on the ground. This weakened the government’s arguments because property owners had their land evaluated based on a computer program that analyzed air photos, often incorrectly.”

Errors in Greenbelt mapping can also affect the local economy. Paterak explains, “In the recent past Caledon has seen that although tourism development is allowed in the Greenbelt Plan, it may be fraught with difficulties due to the poorly drawn boundaries and inclusion of inappropriately attributed Natural Heritage Systems. I highlight tourism because tourism is the only area of economic activity that can be beneficial to the tax base within the Greenbelt Plan.”

Noting that the Greenbelt is often promoted to the urban population as a place to pursue recreation, Paterak says, “Those urbanites can have a positive impact on the fiscal reality of municipalities if they are allowed to do more than hike and picnic in the Greenbelt.”

In the short term, Paterak feels the Greenbelt Plan has added confusion to the local planning process. “In Caledon we have land that is both in the Greenbelt Plan and in the Niagara Escarpment Plan or land that is in the Greenbelt Plan and the Oak Ridges Moraine Plan, and land that is just in the Greenbelt Plan. This makes for some complicated explanations when

landowners come to our planning department with questions about their property.”

However, he is optimistic that the confusion will fade as property owners educate themselves. “I think slowly but surely this is ironing itself out.”

For Paterak, there is one more important concern. The Greenbelt Plan strictly prohibits bringing lakebased water and sewage services into the plan area. Water is already piped from Lake Ontario to Bolton and Mayfield West in Caledon, but the so-called “Big Pipe” solution of importing water from one ecosystem to support another is anathema to environmentalists, and the Greenbelt Plan ref lects that. However, some northern settlement areas in Caledon are also experiencing water supply problems.

P H O T O P E T E PAT ER S O N

“There was no concerted

The Greenbelt “didn’t handle the leapfrog issue well. So now, north of the Greenbelt, developers are buying all the land.”

Paterak notes that in Places to Grow, the province dictates to municipalities that they must accept specific amounts of population growth.

And he sees that leading to conflict, particularly in cases where well-based sources of water are either unavailable, or too costly to install.

“If it becomes necessary to bring in lake-based services, there will be unnecessary delay or even no action.

It’s the sort of thing that can only be addressed at the time of plan review and the province will be under great pressure to be seen as not watering down the Greenbelt Plan – no pun intended – while municipalities are required to provide these services.”

Despite his concerns, Paterak’s support for the Greenbelt remains.

What’s more, he takes the go-big-orstay-home approach: that expansion is perhaps the best hope for longterm protection. His advice for other municipalities debating the issue is that “if they want to avoid being commuter corridors with high road costs, they should consider adding significant areas to the Greenbelt.”

That way, he says, “Commuting through the Greenbelt will be very unattractive economically and time-wise.” continued on page 24

The Greenbelt aims to protect the environment and agriculture. But it leaves out large swaths of Caledon’s Peel Plain where farms, such as the one above, were lost to sprawl.

Windmills, aggregate mining and industrial farming are permitted uses.

What is the Greenbelt anyway?

WHAT IT IS The Greenbelt Plan and legislation were enacted in 2005 by the Ontario government in an effort to control sprawl in the region surrounding the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

The 1.8 million acre Greenbelt is a cornerstone of a wider provincial growth strategy, including “Places to Grow,” which sets regional population growth targets. The Greenbelt includes both the Niagara Escarpment and the Oak Ridges Moraine.

WHAT IT AIMS TO DO The stated goals of the initiative are:

environmental protection Provisions in the plan are intended to protect, maintain and enhance natural heritage, water and landform features, and provide long-term guidance for the management of those systems when development is contemplated.

agricultural protection The plan aims to prevent land fragmentation caused by lots severed from farmland and re-designated to other uses, at the same time as allowing the agricultural sector the flexibility it needs to operate.

culture, recreation and tourism The plan supports conservation of cultural heritage, provision of publicly accessible built and open-space areas, and encourages sustainable tourism development.

settlement areas Within settlements, the plan seeks to both support the economy, by allowing for sufficient residential and employment lands, and sustain the character of rural communities.

infrastructure and natural resources The plan supports infrastructure development deemed necessary for growth, and provides for the protection, availability and use of renewable and non-renewable natural resources.

Detailed maps which accompany the plan identify its boundaries and designate the area within them as Protected Countryside. The mapping also identifies Natural Heritage Systems and urban boundaries in the plan area.

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WHAT IT DOESN’T DO It does not compensate rural landowners, including farmers, for any loss in equity caused by the elimination of “development rights.” In effect, property owners’ rights to farmland now cover only its continued use for agriculture, and owners cannot appeal inclusion of their property.

It does not prohibit aggregate operations, road and infrastructure construction, wind turbines/farms, factory farming or golf courses.

It is not a park. There are reports of increased trespassing on privately owned Greenbelt land, and of related crop damage on farmland. In some cases, confronted trespassers have claimed a right to be there, because it’s “in the Greenbelt.” The Ontario Federation of Agriculture has pointed out that road signs reading “You are entering the Greenbelt” do not indicate that the land is not open for public use.

Phone: 519.941.2401 Toll Free: 1.800.637.5910 Orangeville, ON

www.bryansfuel.on.ca IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

21

Thickening around the Middle THE GREENBELT ALLIANCE CALLS FOR A HUGE EXPANSION OF THE PROTECTED COUNTRYSIDE

MULMUR TOWNSHIP

THE UNITED STATES

Mulmur is just putting finishing touches on a brand new official plan. Planner Ron Mills says it “shows we’re serious about protecting the environment, more serious than the province. Wind turbines, for example, could totally change the face of the township, but the Greenbelt Plan doesn’t say no to those things.” Mulmur’s new official plan will include policies on rural character and scenic value, as well as enhanced ground and surface water protection.

South of the border, the “Eat Local” movement is credited with something often thought impossible in today’s agricultural economy: a comeback for small farms. After steadily declining for more than a century, the US Agriculture Department reports a 20 per cent increase in the number of small farms in the country, between 2002 and 2008, to 1.2 million.

The eat local trend is also appearing in major US chain supermarkets – even Walmart – which now feature local food sections, major corporations which now offer local food in their cafeterias, and 1,200 school districts that have connected with local farmers to provide fruits and vegetables for children.

Hundreds of farmers’ markets have appeared across the US, reported as 4,692 in 2006 – a 50 per cent increase from 2001.

Closer to home, the number of Ontario farmers’ markets has grown from a low of 60 in the 1980s, to 160 in 2008.

SIMCOE COUNTY While the Greenbelt Alliance calls for virtually all of south Simcoe to be included in the Greenbelt Plan, the region also faces an unprecedented number of development applications. Meanwhile, the province is concurrently developing “The Simcoe Plan,” expected to bring extensive urbanization south of Barrie along the Highway 400 corridor. Places to Grow foresees Simcoe’s population growing to 667,000 by 2031, a 70 per cent increase from 2001.

GREY HIGHLANDS

MULMUR

MELANCTHON SOUTHGATE

EAST LUTHERGRAND VALLEY

WELLINGTON NORTH

AMARANTH

EAST GARAFRAXA

GREY CENTRE WELLINGTON

SIMCOE

ERIN

DUFFERIN YORK GUELPH/ ERAMOSA PEEL WELLINGTON

HALTON WATERLOO

22

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

CLEARVIEW

MARKHAM

ESSA

ADJALATOSORONTIO

East of Toronto, Markham city council is considering creation of a “food belt” on 2,000 hectares within city limits, effectively eliminating any further outward expansion and forcing growth to occur through intensification of the existing built-up area.

Countering the proposal, a recent full-page advertisement in a Markham newspaper warned of the dangers of runaway intensification. It was headlined, “Stop the Apartment Belt.”

INNISFIL

NEW TECUMSETH

URBAN RIVER SYSTEMS

BRADFORDWEST GWILLIMBURY

Greenbelt protection would be extended to include urban river systems whose source lies within the Greenbelt.

CALEDON’S WHITE BELT The Greenbelt Alliance would cut the size of Caledon’s “White Belt,” a strip of land between the northerly urban boundary of Brampton and the current southerly limit of the Greenbelt, by about half.

MONO

WATERLOO REGION

KING

MARKHAM CALEDON VAUGHAN

Foodlink Waterloo Region works to connect local farms and food businesses, educate people about local food, and provide marketing and consulting services to farms and businesses engaged in the production of local food. Started in 2000, the non-profit agency is largely funded by a variety of government partners, and considered one of the pioneers of Ontario’s local food movement.

Locally, Caledon Countryside Alliance has aggressively pursued an “Eat Local Caledon” campaign that includes linking farmers and buyers and organizing an annual “Eat Local” month among its many initiatives. See www.eatlocalcaledon.org.

BRAMPTON area proposed for expansion by the greenbelt alliance

HALTON HILLS

existing greenbelt niagara escarpment plan area (also part of existing greenbelt) oak ridges moraine (also part of existing greenbelt)

whitebelt

existing built areas

future set tlement areas Compiled from various sources, this map is not to scale and is intended as an illustration only.

For accurate reference, consult your local municipality, or the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance at www.greenbeltalliance.ca IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

23

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greenbelt continued from page 20

M

ulmur Township planner Ron Mills is the first to admit he’s conflicted. Raised on a Beaver Valley farm, he remembers implementation of the Niagara Escarpment Plan in the 1970s, and the local resistance that came along with it.

Now, however, he sees the long-term benefit of the escarpment plan.

When it comes to the Greenbelt, he also sees benefits. He supports efforts to identify and map core environmental areas and the linkages between them. He agrees with the need to curb sprawl, and he feels that in the long-term the Greenbelt, like the Niagara Escarpment Plan, will likely be seen as positive.

However, for Mills, like Richard Paterak, the devil is in the details. He feels the motives behind the rush to expand the Greenbelt are questionable, the agricultural policies are a farce, and that it is premature to consider expansion until we better understand the impact of the existing Greenbelt.

While acknowledging that a majority of GTA residents support expansion of the Greenbelt, Mills suggests that is because an overwhelming majority of the population in the Greater Golden Horseshoe is urban.

The Environics poll showed that urbanites have little concept of what Greenbelt restrictions actually mean, beyond the simple fact they’re supposed

The Environics poll showed that urbanites have little concept of what Greenbelt restrictions actually mean, beyond the simple fact they’re supposed to be “green.” to be “green,” and they experience no direct impact from the legislation.

David Pond describes this as a “wealth transfer.” Urban supporters of the Greenbelt don’t pay any direct taxes to finance it, because there is no compensation to the rural landowners who maintain it. The government promotes this as a cost-free benefit to the majority urban electorate, while the rural minority covers the expense.

While the urbanites like it but don’t understand it, Ron Mills says, “For the people to whom it matters the most, the landowners who will be the most impacted, the reverse is true.”

The Environics study shows most rural landowners are educated about the implications of the Greenbelt, and, by Mills’ estimation, “a majority of them say ‘Leave us alone’.”

It’s not hard to understand why farmers might be skeptical. A 2007 study by Richard Vyn at the University of Guelph, entitled “The Effects of Strict Agricultural Zoning on Farmland Values: The Case of Ontario’s Greenbelt,” found that “over half of

LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY CHANGES FOR FARMERS SINCE INTRODUCTION OF THE GREENBELT IN 2004 Once left pretty much to do what they wanted on their own land, in recent years farmers have been subjected to a plethora of regulations related to environmental protection and food safety. Does this just bring them in line with the regulatory supervision long imposed on other industries, or has the pendulum swung too far?

Some farm advocates suggest that as guardians of both the land and the food supply for the greater community, farmers should be compensated for their costs related to environmental protection.

Below is a list of some of the legislative and regulatory changes affecting farm operations since the introduction of the Greenbelt in 2004. provincial policy statement revisions places to grow act greater golden horseshoe growth management plan minimum distance separation formulae revisions nutrient management planning clean water act endangered species act conservation authority “generic regulations” occupational health and safety source : ontario federation of agriculture 24

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

the Greenbelt area is negatively impacted by more than a 25 per cent decrease in the value of land assets.”

Not surprisingly, the greatest negative impact is in the developer-enticing land close to the GTA, and dissipates farther away from the urban border.

For those leapfrog lands just beyond the Greenbelt, however, Vyn – who won an award from the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society for his work – says the opposite is true.

There, he found increases averaging from 17 to 27 per cent, and as high as 43 per cent.

Reflecting on the oft-stated intent of the Greenbelt plan to protect agriculture, and a second University of Guelph study that shows animal agriculture is declining at a faster rate within the Greenbelt than outside it, Ron Mills concludes, “The whole premise of protecting agriculture and agricultural land is way overblown.

Agricultural land is already well protected, and even with the Greenbelt, where development commitments have been made, they’re still going to be honoured. In areas where there’s more pressure to urbanize, the Greenbelt will prevent some development, but it’s impossible to stop it all.

“I don’t think the province really cares if agriculture happens in the Greenbelt. The province’s priority is to protect land, not farming. You can’t even do farmer retirement severances any more … Expanding the Greenbelt will not help agriculture.

Why farm in the Greenbelt with all the regulations, when you can go elsewhere? They’re trying to be responsible and do the right thing, but for the greater public good, at the expense of landowners.”

Mills also has an alternative take on the motivation behind the agricultural policies in the Greenbelt plan: “There is all this talk about protecting agriculture in the Greenbelt, but I wonder if people really understand what that means. The future of agriculture is factory farming. Sure, there are a few family farms left, but now it’s really a big, corporate business. Do we really want factory farms next to subdivisions?”

More likely, thinks Mills, “The province wants to keep it in big chunks for things like wind power continued on page 26

DON’T LET YOUR DOLLARS GO DOWN THE DRAIN. IN THE MEANTIME, LET’S EAT! “The issue is not the Greenbelt.

It’s how are we going to eat?”

So begins a conversation with Karen Hutchinson, who holds two stakes in the Greenbelt debate: one as a fourth-generation Caledon farmer, the other as executive director of Caledon Countryside Alliance.

After five years experience with the Greenbelt, she’s of the opinion that there’s a more critical issue: “To me the bottom line is farm viability. I want a local food and farm system, and I want to preserve that capacity for future generations. Nothing has changed about that in the last five years. We need to deal with that before we deal with the Greenbelt.”

Are local planning measures enough to protect agricultural land from development? Apparently the developers don’t think so. Citing Caledon’s Official Plan Amendment 179, which offers specific measures to protect agriculture, Hutchinson says “Caledon has been proactive on agricultural policy.

Nonetheless, along with the Greenbelt, Caledon got 27,000 acres of “White Belt.” Right away, the farmers in the White Belt started getting pressure to sell.

Some people have been getting knocks on their door almost daily.”

As land gradually gets bought up, either by speculators or city weekenders, and is in turn rented back to farmers on a year-by-year basis, it limits farmers’ long-term investment in land management and what can be produced. As a case in point, Hutchinson says, “It would be hard to develop an orchard.”

The years required to achieve organic designation pose a similar problem, and the type of farming is also a consideration. “I’m the first to agree that equestrian operations, for example, are an important part of the farm community and the economy, but they don’t contribute to food capacity.”

As to a University of Guelph study indicating an accelerated decline of agriculture within the Greenbelt compared to outside it, Hutchinson says “You need to look at the bigger picture. To begin with, it’s just tough to farm. Then it’s way harder for near-urban farmers, who also have to deal with traffic and higher taxes and population close by. It’s even harder to get your tractor or equipment serviced.

“We need to develop a new model for near-urban agriculture,” she goes on.

“It will be a balance of factors. First, what crops can they grow? Next, Statistics Canada says 38 per cent of the food in our system goes to waste, so that has to be addressed. Also, considering peak oil, we need to integrate renewable energy into the system – especially for the greenhouse industry. Start by picking the low-hanging fruit.”

Hutchinson’s vision doesn’t stop there. “We need a Food and Agriculture Act that ensures farmers can have a decent income, send their kids to school and save for retirement. It also needs to help make sure children have the option to farm. It would invigorate farming the way the Green Energy Act has for energy ... Why is it that we have poor farmers when one in five Canadian kids aren’t getting enough to eat? Isn’t there something wrong with that?”

The recent crisis in the automotive sector also raises Hutchinson’s ire. “Why hasn’t there been a bail-out for agriculture like there was for cars? Agri-food is a $33-billion industry in Ontario, and it employs 700,000 people. We all eat three times a day. There’s a direct link between our food and our health. So why do we always take the lowest tender on our food? We’re just not looking at that.”

Is the Greenbelt doing what it set out to do? “No. It may be achieving some expectations, but if you mean farm viability, no.”

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

25

greenbelt continued from page 24

and gravel pits. If it’s all cut up in little pieces, it’s less available for what Toronto needs.”

In his view, f loating the idea of expanding the Greenbelt is also a “politically sexy, expedient thing” for the province to do. “Anything ‘green’ is in favour. They do need to get reelected, and the Greenbelt helped them do that once already.”

Considering the region’s tiny number of votes compared to the province overall, Mills says “It’s a ‘no lose’ for provincial politicians, but a ‘no-win’ for the locals.”

Mulmur is just putting finishing touches on a brand new official plan and Mills says, “It shows we’re serious about protecting the environment – more serious than the province. Wind turbines, for example, could totally change the face of the township, but the Greenbelt Plan doesn’t say no to those things.”

In the new official plan, he says, “We’ve incorporated all the provincial policy stuff but then we went beyond that. We developed our own

policies for rural character and scenic value.” These policies would restrict the development of wind turbines.

Mills continues: “We also included enhanced ground and surface water protection. We did those things because they matter to us even though some may fly in the face of provincial interests … All municipalities are not created equally. One-size-fits-all solutions remove accountability and give less say to the grassroots.”

Another factor Mills urges people to consider is the one-way nature of the plan. “The legislation specifically states, once you’re in, you don’t get out.”

Because only five years have passed since the original Greenbelt plan was put in place, there is so far little in the way of hard data regarding the impacts – intended or otherwise – of what is the largest experiment of its kind in the world. Mills says “There’s no way they should expand the Greenbelt before doing a thorough review of impacts from the existing Greenbelt, and then fairly inform people about what they learned.”

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With regard to water and waste-water treatment alone, the report says it would cost more than $237 million every year to replace the natural filtering power of land and wetlands in the Credit River Watershed with man-made water treatment systems. When natural space is developed, many of these costs shift to residents and taxpayers. Other lost value, like the loss of pollinators, cannot be replaced.

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

ANIMAL AGRICULTURE DECLINING FASTER IN THE GREENBELT -28 percent greenbelt -23 percent ontario

dairy

-24

beef -13

-27

hogs -11 -8

sheep/goats 34

-19

poultry/eggs 5 5

horses /ponies

17 -7

total farms -4

A recently published study by Professor Harry Cummings and two graduate students at the University of Guelph revealed that, between 2001 and 2006, animal agriculture declined faster within the Greenbelt than anywhere else in Ontario.

The Greenbelt wasn’t established until 2005, and so further data will be required to determine what effect, if any, the legislation and plan have on this trend.

I

NDUSTRIAL DISEASE

St at i st ic s f rom t he Ont a r io Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal indicate that more than 148,000 acres of GTA farmland were lost to urbanization between 1976 and 1996. Despite this loss, and others across the province, Ontario’s farm economy as a whole has remained highly successful, consistently outperforming other provinces.

As David Pond says, “Fewer farmers are producing more on a smaller land base.” And he goes on to quote research to show that “the conversion

of agricultural land into other uses is a manifestation of the success of the agricultural economy, not its failure.”

The reality is the industry will continue to shed land as long as the economics are favourable, regardless of the Greenbelt and even if the selloff strategy is short-sighted in the face of population growth, climate change, peak oil, or the geopolitics of food security. At least, until such time as those issues overtake the realpolitik.

So, if the agricultural industry is shedding that land, and now we’ve continued on next page

water filtration Water which is absorbed into the ground and then slowly released over a long period has been filtered of pollutants and its temperature has been moderated.

flood control By absorbing and slowly releasing rain, snow melt and

run-off, forests and wetlands help prevent flood/drought cycles in downstream waterways.

healthy soils Ontario has the majority of Canada’s Class 1 farmland,

and more than 7,000 farms are located in the Greenbelt. The natural heritage system contributes to water storage, prevention of soil erosion and restoration of soil nutrients, and supports wildlife species that provide natural pest control.

climate moderation One large tree can transpire 450 litres of water per day, acting like a giant air conditioner.

carbon sink An average tree will sequester 200 to 225 kilograms of carbon over an 80-year period.

source : your greenbelt, your health – environmental quality by ontario nature and the ontario college of family physicians IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

27

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Discover new horsepower on your land.

GROWTH IN FARMS PRODUCING CERTIFIED ORGANIC 2001-2006 greenbelt

21.3 percent growth 46.4

ontario

59.4

canada

The high level of rented farmland in the Greenbelt (42 per cent) may explain why growth in organic farming has been limited. Farmers are unwilling to invest the time and cost to become certified on property they don’t own. Also, smaller organic farmers in the Greenbelt may rely on direct marketing, and see less need for certification. source : greenbelt grown: a profile of agriculture in the greenbelt, friends of the greenbelt foundation, november, 2009

greenbelt continued from page 27

said the developers can’t have it, who will have it?

Yes, perhaps a big chunk will go to rich weekenders, seeking to escape the apartment belt, and the horsey set, but given how vast an area the Greenbelt is, that will only account for so much. And who else can afford it?

Here’s a pessimist’s scenario: Some future provincial government, or a series of them, who need to feed, house, transport and provide energy for millions of new people don’t take quite such a look-at-all-the-prettybirdies approach.

The green in Greenbelt could start to look more like money than environment. More like a huge swath of aggregate quarries, wind farms and corporate agriculture, all of which are permitted by the Greenbelt Plan.

Then we have highways for all those trucks, corridors for hydro transmission lines, transit connections and goods movement, all feeding the demands of a massive, densely packed and energy-hungry urban population outside the Greenbelt boundaries.

That’s all permitted too.

Crazy you say? Well, on a smaller scale that’s pretty much what happened to the Parkway Belt, Conservative Premier Bill Davis’s first attempt at a greenbelt, which today is the 407 highway and a hydro transmission corridor.

Something else to consider: already, aggregates, wind farming, corporate agriculture and a rail connection are the cornerstones of a backedby-billions business plan proposed by the Highland Companies for thousands of acres in Melancthon Town-

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

ship. Melancthon is also home to one of Ontario’s most prominent wind farms, approved and built with lightning speed.

Would the situation in Melancthon be different if the township were part of the Greenbelt? Not a whit.

In that Greenbelt-as-Industrial-Belt scenario – the place where Toronto hides the pantry, the electrical panel and the kitty litter – when the pit is proposed next door, or the soaring towers of a wind farm engulf the view in all directions, how many of us will still be prepared to argue that greater public good trumps the concerns of a handful of locals?

In any event, as family farms become factory farms, the feed mills are turned into trendy restaurants, and the farmers’ dirty old pick-ups are replaced by the lawyers in Cadillac Escalades nipping out to their weekend hideaways, we will most certainly not be the small-town agricultural community we once were. ≈ Jeff Rollings is a writer in Orangeville.

The Ontario Greenbelt Alliance has recently released “Green Among the Grey: Fifth Anniversary Progress Report on the Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt.” It identifies key threats to Greenbelt, such as inappropriate infrastructure, aggregate mining and leapfrog development, and recommends significant changes to aggregate and agricultural policies within the plan area. The full report is available at www.greenbeltalliance.ca For additional Greenbelt information, go to www.inthehills.ca and see the links at the end of this story.

HAVE YOUR SAY The Environics Poll across the Greater Golden Horseshoe showed a high level of support for the Greenbelt. But how do we feel about it here in the hills?

Should the Greenbelt be expanded? Have your say at www.inthehills.ca

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29

DISCOVER

BROADWAY . . . AND BEYOND

There’s more to see and do

Downtown Orangeville

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Pear Home

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Genesis Decorating & Design Gallery

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Imagery & Truth Original Art, Neilson Cabinet Works, Genesis Space Creations Decorating & Design, Property Styling Staging & Décor, Mary Dancey Interiors, Window Magic Interiors Ltd.

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• Theatre Orangeville Presents Eighteen Wheels by John Gray April 8th to April 25th Ed’s Garage by Dan Needles May 6th to May 23rd • Market on Broadway Farmers’ Market Opening Day Pancake Breakfast May 8th • Market on Broadway Farmers’ Market Every Saturday from 8am to 1pm

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A.M. Korsten Jewellers

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Fine jewellery, custom designs, watches. Goldsmith and gemologist on premises.

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Our own eggs

BY M O NI C A D U N C A N

Although chickens are “easy keepers,” our rural towns and townships tend to allow backyard chicken keeping only in areas zoned agricultural or rural, with appropriate setbacks. Interestingly, in Caledon’s zoning bylaw under the term “livestock facility,” the words “chicken” and “egg” do not appear. When pressed, bylaw officers in several jurisdictions admitted that their job is reactive. If someone complains about nasty neighbouring chickens, officers will be obliged to investigate; however, they don’t go looking for infractions. A few urban communities, such as Guelph, Brampton and Niagara Falls, allow backyard chickens. Toronto is considering a community pilot project, while Vancouver recently approved chickens with some restrictions. Kitchener-Waterloo rejected the idea.

The “pro” arguments for backyard chickens include selfsufficiency, especially for families hit by the recession, the “raise-yourown-food” educational value, and the simple healthy protein supply.

The “con” arguments begin with fears of Avian flu and end with concerns about the birds’ welfare – chickens require daily attention, and risk being ignored when the novelty wears off.

Still, in villages and cities throughout North American, backyard chickens have caught on, sometimes as an underground activity in defiance of bylaws. In Toronto, where it is still illegal to keep chickens, one guerrilla chicken raiser maintains a website, www.torontochickens. com, that is choc-a-bloc with tips on raising urban chickens. And there are accessories, too. If you want to save yourself the trouble of building your own coop, check out the Eglu, a portable, futuristic chicken pod for your friendly fowl, reputedly designed by four British Royal College of Art graduate students (www.omlet.us). Or consider the Ready Coop, not as elegant as the Eglu, but Ontario-made (www.readycoop.com).

John Davis, owner of Davis Feed & Farm Supply in Caledon, says the bird flu scare of a few years back slowed the trend to backyard chicken keeping. But by last spring, he says, production couldn’t keep up with demand. As well, as interest in food quality grows, “people are asking for organic and hormone-free feed for their chickens, and putting in more vegetable gardens, too. They just sleep better at night knowing where their food comes from.”

32

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

I

n a bid to become somewhat more self-sufficient, my husband and I recently decided to try keeping our own chickens for egg production. Mention

you keep backyard chickens and you get one of two reactions: a glazed look of non-comprehension, followed by a small shoulder shudder, or an exuberant, “Oh, I love my chickens,” from someone you had no idea was a doit-yourselfer.

Although we are both only one generation off the farm, our egg quest soon brought the glum realization that we are what the locals call “book farmers.” We picked our parents’ brains, queried suppliers, and eventually purchased a cheery paperback called Keep Chickens.

With the fervour of a winter gardener contemplating the spring seed catalogue, my husband set about designing his chicken villa, debating what kinds of chickens to acquire, and wistfully dreaming up his “girls’” names. Oh yes, these girls would have names.

Before the snow was even off the ground, the hammers and Skilsaw were activated, although what started off on March mornings with an orchestra of buzzing, crashing and hammering, ended by day’s end with a random tap…tap…tap, as the late spring cold insinuated itself into his bones.

After several disappointing delivery delays and an ominous sotto voce “There’s trouble at the chicken farm” comment from our supplier, our Rhode Island Reds fi nally arrived, one month late. They were rather larger birds than we had expected and rather squashed into their shipping crate. Still, lo and behold, the blessed event, we had our first egg, right there in the dented and pooped-upon orange plastic shipper.

It would be several more days before the hens would begin to lay regularly, and then the treasure hunt was on. The hens scattered like roadrunners, disappearing into the spirea to commiserate, as we crawled about in the deep grass of their yard, looking for where they might have hidden their first few misshapen eggs.

Oddly, so we thought, they didn’t automatically march single fi le into their house to lay.

They didn’t know how to sit in their fancy new roosting boxes either.

Each day my husband would patiently don his long-sleeved fi re gloves, catch each flailing bird and put her protesting-highness inside the house on the perch, hoping she’d get the message: “See, you can do it, little chicken.”

Each day, the hens made skeptical sounds and fled as he approached.

Eventually they got the idea, but proceeded jointly and severally to lay all their eggs in only one roosting box, in a kind of a chicken assembly line: “Here’s one (wiggle, wiggle), now move over, here’s another, now move over.”

Mornings were announced with a worried chorus, a sound that really sets chickens apart from the joyful daybreak trillings of their relatives in the wild bird kingdom. Chickens emote like professional kvetches, moaning and protesting over their latest aches and pains. However, that gives way soon enough to throaty clucks, as they flap their joy at my husband’s approach. They have now graduated to a perch in a crabapple tree, and they run and jump around – apparently just because they can.

How they sleep is in the realm of weird farm tales. Are our chickens different? We had assumed they would retire gratefully each night into their cozy roosting boxes. But these girls sleep in a small snuggled continued on page 34

If we are what we eat, I would be a cruelty-free, free range, flax-fed, omega-3, large brown egg.

If you’ve ever wondered what those many labels on egg cartons really mean, the Egg Farmers of Ontario (formerly the Ontario Egg Marketing Board) kindly provides a glossary for Grade A retail eggs at www.getcracking.ca. All eggs have about the same nutritional value except those rated as Omega-3, Omega Pro or Vitamin Enriched, in which case hen feed has been fortified. Below is a brief description of what egg labels mean. The list says nothing about taste, which I can assure you, improves richly with the quality of a hen’s life. Once you get used to good eggs, there’s no going back.

classic or regular eggs

read “factory farm.” hens are housed three to seven birds to a wire cage with sloped floors. feed: corn, grain, protein, vitamin and minerals, especially calcium.

premium quality

as above, but specifically from young hens at the peak of their laying cycle, so tend to have stronger shells and thicker whites.

free run

housed together on barn floors, no access to the outdoors. may lay eggs in their own litter. feed: as above.

free range

housed together on barn floors, some access to outdoor pens or pasture. feed as above (not necessarily organic), with addition of found insects, seeds, grasses.

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organic

feed: as above, but certified organic.

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omega-3

may be factory farmed. feed: fortified with omega-3 fatty acids via a diet containing 1o to 2o per cent flaxseed.

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vegetarian

may be factory farmed, but feed contains only ingredients of plant origin.

Large registered egg processing plants are regulated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which governs nutritional labelling, among other things.

Producers on a smaller scale, provincial and local, might include discretionary labelling such as “organic-style” or “cruelty-free” to describe their products.

Note that while several of these labels imply a better standard of living for the chicken, until you get to Free Range, no access to the outdoors is guaranteed.

Again, if we are what we eat, consider the chicken raised in confined squalid circumstances, and whether eating the produce of a miserable bird can be truly healthy, karmically or otherwise.

After the cost of chicken housing, which may be as simple or elaborate as you fancy, backyard chicken keeping reduces the cost of a dozen premium eggs to about $1.95.

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

33

break an egg The cholesterol bugaboo related to eggs is just that, an issue for those with heart disease, but not for the rest of us. We’re stocking up on recipes that use lots of eggs: angel food cake, hollandaise sauce, clafouti, crème caramel, quiche, varieties of vegetable tarts on puff pastry, and my personal favourite, a sinfully rich French recipe worthy of Michelin.

Flour-Free Chocolate Cake 8 oz bittersweet chocolate 2 oz unsweetened chocolate 1 cup unsalted butter, cut half into small pieces to soften

4 eggs ½ cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla

garnish: powdered sugar, walnut or strawberry halves

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Preheat oven to 35o°F. Line a round 8-inch pan tightly with foil. Melt chocolate with half the butter in a ceramic bowl in a microwave oven at half power for several minutes. (Observe melting process: If it melts fast, boils or smokes, lower power rating accordingly). Remove from microwave, stir and let cool for 5 minutes. Blend in rest of butter bits. Add eggs one at time, beating well after each. Stir in sugar and vanilla and turn into pan. Bake about 25 minutes (cake will be soft in centre).

Cool to room temperature and refrigerate overnight. Turn out of pan and remove foil, sprinkle with powdered sugar and garnish with walnuts or strawberry halves.

heap of feathers and beaks, their heads pointing into one corner, feet thrust out behind, easily two-thirds of their volume disappearing like rubber chickens in the prop pile at comedy camp. Their curious habits leave us wondering, like adoptive parents, about the conditions of their early upbringing.

At first they even disdained table scraps, scratching a safety zone around the giant U-boat of a zucchini placed in their yard. Now they love leftovers and happily pick away at stuff they find themselves, as though every bean, grub and grasshopper were the best thing ever. Every day is brand new and every day they chatter away incessantly, as though nothing but nothing could be better than a blue sky, some flax seed and grit. And they check out every new thing with cautious curiosity. “Oh I don’t know about that,” says the boldest, as she sidles closer and eventually gives my knee a peck. Then they all follow suit.

Much as I like my chickens, I confess a certain perplexity when it comes to the voluptuous love of chickens that I have witnessed among other, sometimes surprising, enthusiasts. These girls are steely eyed and inscrutable. Is this a calculated intelligence that I just don’t get? Their chattering and squawking translate in my head to an existential lament, as in, “Where are my eggs? Where are my eggs!?” They are not cuddly at all, though I know some chicken keepers would protest.

Zsa Zsa, Eva and Magda : Don’t ask writer Monica Duncan which is which – she can’t tell one from the other.

And their names ? To me they might as well be You, You and Hey You. I can’t tell them apart. But after much consideration of the babyname canon, my husband named them for the Gabor sisters. Indeed, one is flamboyant and forward, like Zsa Zsa, the next almost equally extroverted, like Eva, and the third, well, she is “the dark one,” the oft forgotten Magda.

As for their penchant for serial marriages, well, we like our sleep and don’t plan to have a rooster around any time soon. The sisters will still deliver their delicious one-a-day. And those “dahlink” princely boys with the big back combs and swagger?

Well, they’d just spell trouble. ≈ Monica Duncan, a newcomer to acreage life, recently added bat wrangler to her resume – but that is another story.

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

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H O M E G R O W N

I N

T H E

H I L L S

by Nicola Ross

Seasonal rites

P H O T O S P E T E PAT ER S O N

Rock Garden Farms offers the very best of in-season, Ontario-grown fruits and vegetables

W

hat’s your website address?”

I ask Margaret Galati as we wrap up our interview.

Sheepishly, she admits that Rock Garden Farms doesn’t have one. “But if you call, someone will answer the phone,” she assures me.

Truly though, you have to visit Rock Garden, on Airport Road just north of Caledon East, to appreciate what an extraordinary place it really is. Step inside the 2,000-square-foot retail market and the tomatoes are rosier, the apples are piled higher, the baked goods smell better. Outside, perennials, annuals and, especially, hanging baskets overf low in the spring, while pumpkins, squash, gourds and Indian corn create a giant cornucopia for autumn shoppers. It’s hard to put your finger on what makes this business so very special, but a couple of hours with Margaret sheds light on this family-run operation’s secret ingredients.

“We are each responsible for a section of the store,” Margaret explains.

“Before customers arrive, we’ve already checked our section, weeded out spoiled fruits or vegetables and trimmed the f lowers.” While this level of care shows, it isn’t Rock Garden’s entire secret. Good product – and lots of it – is the main menu.

Margaret’s parents, Nick and Tish Iuglio, ran the Tullamore Market further south on Airport Road for twenty years before moving the operation to its present location in the late eighties. Nick, who grew up in Naples, comes from a long line of farmers, so it was only a matter of time before he started his own produce business. But first Nick ran into Tish, a native of Calabria, Italy and a cashier in the Toronto Superstore where he worked in produce.

According to Margaret, it’s her dad who is the stickler for quality. And most of what Nick knows he has passed along to Paul Galati, a young Brampton man who started sweeping floors and taking out garbage at the Tullamore Market when he was only 16 36

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

ROCK GARDEN FARMS PROPRIETORS NICK & TISH IUGLIO MARGARET & PAUL GALATI 905-584-9461 16930 AIRPORT RD NORTH OF CALEDON EAST OPEN APRIL 1 – 30 8AM – 7PM MAY 1 – OCTOBER 31 8AM – 8PM FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES; HOMEMADE PIES, BREADS & PRESERVES; MAPLE SYRUP; FRESH LOCAL EGGS; HANGING BASKETS; ANNUALS/ PERENNIALS/CUT FLOWERS; PICK-YOUROWN STRAWBERRIES; PEACHES & CREAM CORN

years old. Margaret says that she and Paul became fast friends, and despite her mother’s well-intentioned warning about the pitfalls of working with your spouse, the couple married and now have three sons aged 12, 10 and 5.

Tish and Nick Iuglio with Margaret and Paul Galati and their children, Anthony (left), 12, Michael, 10, and Stefano, 5. “If you call, someone will answer.”

Paul gets up at 2 a.m. every day, seven days a week from April 1 until October 31. Groggy-eyed, he heads down to the Ontario Food Terminal in Toronto with his father-in-law.

There the duo spends hours picking through the very best apples and cucumbers, tomatoes and peaches that Ontario has to offer.

Anyone who questions the quality of produce at the food terminal need only listen to local-food-guru Anita Stewart wax poetic about North America’s third largest food market.

Only Chicago and New York boast larger facilities. The Toronto Food Terminal has 80,000 square feet of cold storage. Stewart calls the Food Terminal “manland” because of the predominance of men who barter over the price of fruits and vegetables, and rely mainly on handshake deals.

Nick and Paul arrive well before dawn to avoid the crowds and get the pick of the produce.

The pair is back in Caledon East by 7 a.m. with a new load of the freshest, sweetest, tartest and most colourful

produce they can find. An hour later, Rock Garden opens to the stream of customers attracted by beautifully displayed, remarkably fresh produce, pies, bread and other baked goods that are prepared on site daily. Tish’s homemade chutneys, preserves and, especially, her roasted peppers and tomato sauce are also beloved by Rock Garden’s customers, as are Margaret’s flowers and hanging baskets.

Belfountain resident Kate Subak sets her annual clock by Rock Garden Farms. “It’s the rhythm of the season,” the young mother of three explains.

“I know Rock Garden opens each year on April 1, but sometimes I manage to hold off going until April 2!”

This year, Rock Gardens’ brand new 8,000-square-foot greenhouse means there’s even more to entice Subak and others. Margaret has started growing some of her own flowers so that she can prepare custom patio plants, hanging baskets and Easter arrangements.

“We sell thousands of hanging baskets,” says Margaret. If you doubt her,

visit Rock Garden anytime between April and July to see for yourself. “I’ll put up 500 hanging baskets,” says Margaret, “and we’ll blow through most of them over a weekend.”

Margaret’s home-grown f lowers will complement the other two crops cultivated on the farm: strawberries and corn. In a good season, strawberries fly out of the store at a rate of 100 six-quart flats per day. Meanwhile, those so inclined can pick their own from the five-acre patch.

Rock Garden Farms also plants thirty to forty acres of corn, mostly peaches and cream. During the season it is piled high waiting for shoppers eager to pass this rite of an Ontario summer.

Interest in fresh Ontario produce has skyrocketed over the last five years.

And this helps account for a shift in Rock Garden’s customer base. About three-quarters of their clientele once consisted of people driving by en route to their weekend cottages. “Now,” says Margaret, “local shoppers keep us busy throughout the week.” The word is out. Increasingly, local shoppers are heading south from Dufferin, east from Erin, and all points in-between to get t heir week ly “ f i x” of Rock

Garden’s luscious produce.

Adriana Roche who, together with her husband Gilles, owns the Gourmandissimo Catering and Fine Food Shop in Caledon East, is one of the lucky ones. Rock Garden is on her doorstep. “I’m always confident that I’ll get the best quality fresh produce from Margaret,” she says. “If we need something special, Paul will always get it for me.” Gourmandissimo’s herbs, fruits and vegetables come from Rock Garden.

That kind of customer service is another of the ingredients that sets Rock Garden apart from larger chain stores that might sell produce a bit cheaper. Kate Subak, for instance, doesn’t just buy food from Rock Garden; she gets cooking and canning tips from Tish. Paul hands out gardening advice, and Margaret gives her hints on growing flowers.

All this helps account for Rock Garden’s absent website. “I’m a people person,” says Margaret, her almondshaped eyes sparkling. “I’d rather be helping customers than answering e-mails.” ≈ Belfountain writer Nicola Ross is the executive editor of Alternatives Journal.

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

E D I B L E

H I L L S

by Rober to Fracchioni

I L L U S T R AT I O N S S H E L A G H A R M S T R O N G

Eats

Shoots and Leaves

As the ice and snow of winter dissolve, it won’t be long before tender leaves begin to pop out of stark branches and valiant green shoots push their way up through the muddy soil. Spring always arrives like a surprise.

After months of bleak days and cold nights, suddenly we are surrounded by glimmering signs of the abundance to come.

However, it is not the sight of crocuses that excites me. Nor the hope of trilliums and lilies-of-the-valley. Though the flowers are pretty enough, it is the tender shoots of edible vegetation that really start me salivating. Delicate leaves of ramps begin to fill my daydreams. And I imagine the thin crunchy stalks of asparagus that will soon find their way into my kitchen.

Perhaps you already have a seed catalogue tucked under your pillow. And, if you love food as much as I do, perhaps the mere sight of the first green bud will send you too scurrying to plan your spring recipes.

The culinary treats we are about to experience are plentiful. I’ve chosen two early season favourites that I recommend you do not miss.

First of all, asparagus. If you tell me you’ve been eating asparagus all winter, I’ll have

no choice but to pretend I don’t hear you.

No need to remind you that local food is always a better choice than imported, but the way you cook asparagus can accentuate the difference.

Fresh, local asparagus is a delicate creature and should be treated as such. If your habit is to drop asparagus into a pot of water and boil until it is faded, mushy and limp, then the flavour of our home-grown asparagus will be undistinguished from that of its Mexican or Peruvian cousins. On the other hand, a gentle sauté in butter over low heat accentuates everything that makes our hills’ variety superior to the travel-weary vegetables that clutter the grocery store aisles.

Alternatively, a quick grill over low heat not only gives fresh, local asparagus a sweet crunch, but is also a great way to christen the barbecue.

My other spring favourite is ramps. Also known as wild leeks, they are not often found in grocery stores outside of Wales.

On this side of the pond, we are fortunate in these hills to have plenty of forests where leeks grow wild. You might find them growing with rebellious abandon in your own back woodlot.

If ramps haven’t made their way into your own garden yet, try a little coffee-shop research. You will surely find someone who will allow you to pull a few of these delicious, garlicky gems from their soil, or steer you to a patch of shade where they have spread out on the forest floor.

When you do find a supply of wild leeks, please be as considerate as you would be of any untamed species. Don’t take more than you will use, don’t disrupt the soil around the area, and above all please ensure that you do eat them. There is no greater tragedy than to be blessed with such a rare treasure as wild leeks only to see them wilt in the refrigerator. Again, cooking involves nothing more complicated than a little sauté in organic butter to bring the sweet taste of spring straight onto your plate.

I hope by now you are excited to try some of these first foods of the season. I’ve provided the recipes below to get you started.

Remember to use local asparagus and choose slender, bright green stalks. As long as they aren’t the size of saplings, you won’t need to peel the stems.

Roberto Fracchioni is the executive chef at The Millcroft Inn & Spa in Alton.

grilled asparagus with buttered ramps and sauce gribiche 36 1 tbsp 2 tbsp ½ lb ½ tbsp

asparagus stalks, max 3/8" diameter olive oil grapeseed oil (or canola or vegetable oil) ramps (wild leeks) unsalted butter

asparagus Trim the asparagus where the stalks start to become woody. Toss with vegetable oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Grill over low heat until slightly charred on the outside, but tender in the middle, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and drizzle with olive oil. ramps If the bulbs are still attached, trim the leaves where the green part starts to develop from the white stem. Clean leaves and bulbs of ramps very well, being careful not to bruise the leaves. Dry the leaves well. Heat a pan over medium heat, and dissolve the butter in the pan. Wait for the butter to “foam up.” (This is the point when the butter will melt, cook a tiny bit and start to produce a white foam in

the pan.) Once the butter is foamy, add the ramps and cook very quickly, about 1 minute, just until the leaves are wilted. Season with salt and pepper and serve with the asparagus. Serves 6. If you want to make this dish a little more substantial, serve it with a toasted baguette, and a nice spring sauce, such as Sauce Gribiche.

sauce gribiche 3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled 2 tbsp Dijon mustard 2 tbsp capers in vinegar, drained and very finely diced 2 tbsp gherkins in vinegar, drained and very finely diced 2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped 4 tbsp vinegar 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 6 tbsp grapeseed oil salt and pepper Pass peeled eggs through a tamis, or fine mesh strainer. Add mustard.

Whisk in oils, like making mayonnaise. Fold in gherkins and capers.

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

39

Bethell House

A tranquil home away from home for those in the final stage of life.

BY I A IN RI C HM O ND

I

pull up the lane leading to Bethell House and carefully nose my car into a spot among the half-dozen panel trucks and pick-ups that crowd the entranceway. As I enter the front door, I’m assaulted by the buzz of chainsaws and the pounding of hammers. I’m here for a tour of the site, and I know the current storm of activity will soon subside and be replaced by an extraordinary oasis of tranquility – a “home away from home” for residents of Caledon and Dufferin who are living through their final stage of life.

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Bethell House will officially open April 14 as the first full-service residence dedicated to hospice care in the Headwaters region.

Today, my tour guides are Nancy Hall, manager of resident care, staff nurse Donna Loughren, and Sheilagh Crandall, a member of the gardening committee.

As Nancy hands me a hardhat, I ask her about the guiding principles behind the new building. She answers without hesitation, “If this were my home and if this were my family, this is what I would want.”

Her reference to “home” echoes an earlier interview I’d had with

Gabrielle Coe, executive director of Hospice Caledon: “The purpose of Bethell House is to provide a beautiful home for people in the most fragile time of their life.”

A 1997 national survey revealed that a vast majority of Canadians want hospice care available to them if they become terminally ill. Yet 75 per cent of us still die in hospitals or longterm care residences that may or may not have palliative services. Full-time residential palliative care facilities are as rare as mid-winter robins. According to The Hospice Association of Ontario, there are only twenty in the province.

Locally, Headwaters Health Care Centre does have three palliative care rooms where families can visit at any time and even spend a night or two with their loved ones. However, nursing staff must divide their attention between palliative patients and their general ward duties. Local home-care services are also available to palliative patients in their homes, but between visits families fend for themselves.

Carol Riddell, the palliative care co-ordinator at Headwaters, says she “can’t wait till Bethell House opens.” She believes it will provide a welcome addition to current health care services by meeting the specific requirements of adult patients in the last two to three months of their lives.

In those final weeks, wouldn’t all of us choose to live as comfortably as possible, both physically and psychologically? That is the primary goal of full-time on-site palliative care. Dr. Robert Saul, who heads palliative care at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, has noted that “having a site outside of the hospital allows you to be more creative, it may stop ‘medicalizing death’ so that we can focus on other things, like how can we create a space for living rather than for dying.”

Nancy Hall, who worked for more than two decades for the Victorian Order of Nurses, mostly as a palliative care resource nurse, says that a site away from the clinical milieu of the hospital has been a dream shared by Hospice Caledon and community nurses for a long time. “People really want to stay at home” she says, “but that is not always possible if the caregivers in the house don’t have the necessary skills, if they’re burnt out from exhaustion, or if they don’t have the money for round-the-clock personal care.”

Realization of the dream became possible when Caledon resident Lorna Bethell donated $2 million to the cause. Her late husband Tony and her daughter Elizabeth had convinced

her over the years that a hospice in Caledon would benefit the community. Elizabeth’s conviction came from her years in community nursing and Tony’s from his war experience. He had been a prisoner of war in the notorious Stalag Luft III where he witnessed the deaths of fifty comrades at the hands of enemy soldiers. These events affected him deeply and years later he confided, “Nobody should die such a lonely death as these men did.”

When Tony was dying six years ago the family was fortunate enough to be able to care for him at home.

“Everyone deserves that kind of care,” says Lorna. “People should not have to go to a hospital to die – the hospital’s job is to make people better.

When life is nearing the end and doctors can do no more, people should live in a home-like atmosphere with family and friends around them.”

After her husband’s death she took up the torch and dedicated her contribution to the memory of Tony and his ill-fated comrades. Her formidable generosity was the catalyst that inspired many more donations from the community. With those, along with funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Bethell House was soon to become a reality.

Nancy, Donna and Sheilagh lead me into the central living space just beyond the entrance hall. This houses a spacious kitchen, a dining area, a sitting room, a library, a quiet room and a children’s playroom.

Donna makes it clear there are no formal meal sittings. “Food will always be available and residents have the option of using the dining area, but attendance is not mandatory if they choose to eat in their rooms. We want families to feel as though they were at home participating in their loved one’s life.” Part of the kitchen will be open at all times to visitors who might want to “heat up some soup or make tea and toast for grandma” during their visit.

Visiting privileges are consistent continued on next page

Architectural drawings of Bethell House. With its large central living space and ten, light-filled residential rooms, the hospice was designed to be “a beautiful home for people in the most fragile time of their life.”

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

41

with the home-away-from-home philosophy. Relatives, friends, even pets can come and go anytime. They might even camp for a while on the double pull-out couch in each of the residential rooms.

Each of those ten, fifteen-footsquare rooms also includes a wheelchair-accessible en suite bathroom, a mini-fridge, and a capacious shelving unit for books, TV, photos and other personal items. The peaceful atmosphere is enhanced by the interior design of Rafe Bethell (Tony’s son) which features muted colours and handmade wooden furniture. Each room also includes two framed prints and an original watercolour by a local artist.

In addition, all the rooms have a glass door that exits directly to the outside and two windows to let in natural light and provide a view of the gardens.

Today, Sheilagh can hardly contain her enthusiasm for the unique garden design donated by local landscape architects Audrey and Juergen Partridge.

An experienced gardener herself,

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Sheilagh sweeps her hand across the still-wintry scene and declares, “The aim is to create the gardens so that they can be enjoyed as much from the inside as from outside.”

Populated by a mixture of native plants and shrubs, Sheilagh promises the gardens “will attract a wide variety of birds and butterflies.” Then she adds with more than a hint of pride, “Beyond the formal gardens, another significant departure from convention will be the wildflower meadow fi lled with drought-resistant plants. No lawnmowers, no whippersnippers will assault the peace. The growth will be bushwhacked once a season only. An arboretum around the meadow will house trees planted in honour of deceased loved ones.”

The tour finished, we drive to the old Inglewood general store for tea and a discussion about the practical matters of running Bethell House.

For instance, what staff will be on the premises from day to day? Nancy answers, “We will have a full-time staff of thirty made up of registered nurses, registered practical nurses and personal support workers. Dur-

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bethell continued from page 41

P H O T O P E T E PAT ER S O N

On the construction site: Gabrielle Coe, executive director of Hospice Dufferin, Audrey Partridge and Sheilagh Crandall of the garden committee, site manager David Dautovich, and Nancy Hall, manager of resident care.

learning more about living than dying

BY I A IN RI C HM O ND

From 1990 to 2oo7, I volunteered for Hospice Dufferin, a community program devoted to serving the needs of people living with life-threatening illness.

I began, not without trepidation, with a series of weekly visits to the home of my first companion. (The term “client” never quite captured the essence of such relationships for me.) My duties were simple: to offer an ear and companionship to a man confined to his house because of his illness.

As I remember, there was surprisingly little awkwardness as we launched our new association. That first day, over tea and cookies, he began to tell me his life story. With each visit from then on I was privy to chapter after chapter of his personal narrative, until he succumbed to his illness a couple of months later.

During that first relationship and in several others over the next decade or so, what I noticed again and again was the complete lack of artifice in my companions.

It probably helped that we came to each other as mature adults without prior acquaintanceship. I know now that I learned a great deal more about living from these men than I did about dying.

Many people have asked me over the years if my hospice work was sad or depressing. On the contrary, some of my most joyful memories of recent years occurred during my time as a hospice volunteer.

In 1991 Hospice Dufferin inaugurated “Circles,” a program that brought together eight to a dozen clients every Thursday to meet with four or five volunteers for a morning of games, crafts and sharing. The dominant sound in the room each day we gathered was laughter. It erupted easily during raucous domino games or simply from animated conversations. On a few occasions folks elsewhere in the building felt obliged to ask us to “keep it down!”

I remember having a snowball fight with Suzanne a couple of months before she died. Of course, sometimes there were tears when one of us reached the end.

But as George Bernard Shaw noted: “Life does not cease to be funny when people die, any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”

My last one-on-one companion became, over five years, a very close and admired friend. Jim and I met at Circles and soon I was a regular guest at his farm.

Lorna would bring in the tea with cake or cookies as he and I babbled on and on about politics, business, farming, and much more. He was a remarkable man I would not have otherwise met.

Without doubt the benefits of hospice volunteering are multiple. First, you are contributing to the larger community, at the same time as becoming a member of another. Then, there are the connections and friendships that cannot help but enrich your life.

Personally, the experience led me to reflect more openly on my own mortality.

Not such a bad thing, given the undeniable fact it is a destiny we all share in common. Oh, and don’t forget the tea and cookies.

ing waking hours there will be three full-time staff at all times. And overnight, one RN and an RPN. In addition we anticipate that we will need about 200 volunteers.”

As my jaw drops in amazement, Nancy smiles, reaches forward, lifts

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the history of hospice “The focus of hospice care is on life, not death.”

Dr. Cecily Saunders The hospice concept reaches back into the Middle Ages when religious orders established “hospices” at the crossroads of routes between religious shrines.

Such shelters served worn and weary pilgrims, many of whom were travelling to the holy places seeking cures for chronic illness.

Through time, similar havens of rest and succour took various forms. With the dawn of the twentieth century and an increased interest in the social and psychological aspects of dying and bereavement, the contemporary vision of palliative care began to emerge.

The first “modern” hospice, St. Christopher’s, was initiated by Dr. Cecily Saunders in 1967 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in East London, England. Here the physical, spiritual and psycho-social needs of patients and families were all attended to in a much more comprehensive way than previously practiced. For instance, pain medication was “given by the clock” rather than by the onset of pain, thereby mitigating much of the distress experienced by patients.

The publication of On Death and Dying by Swiss-born psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in 1969 furthered the inquiry into the end-of-life process.

The term “palliative care” was coined by a Canadian. In 1975 Dr. Balfour Mount of Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital spent some time with Dr. Saunders in London. He came home to create a “palliative care” unit at the Royal Vic. Because the word hospice was often used to describe a home for the poor and the derelict, Mount preferred the verb palliate (“to make less intense”) to describe his new program, the first in Canada.

bethell continued from page 43

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shift per week. Volunteers are also welcomed who can commit to an average of one shift twice per month on evenings and weekends."

Volunteer duties will range from companionship for residents, household duties or meal preparation, to gardening, reception and clerical work, or the provision of complementary therapies. Says Nancy, “It’s amazing how many people want to help in some way.”

Hospice Caledon is in the process of recruiting a medical director, a position for which “there has been a healthy degree of interest,” says Gabrielle Coe. The ideal candidate will be a family practitioner with a special interest in palliative care along with a knowledge of pain and symptom management.

What about the cost? Since residents will live here free, where on earth will the money come from to sustain the operation? Replies Nancy, “About 50 per cent will come from the Ministry of Health and the remainder will come from fundraising initiatives and private donations.

People can contact us and we’ll let them know what our needs are and how they can contribute.”

As I listen to Nancy, Donna and Sheilagh, I find myself hoping that I’m still in the area when my time comes for hospice care. The question follows: How do you choose who gets in? Again Nancy explains: “Doctors,

other health-care providers, or family members can contact the local Community Care Access Centre for consideration. Chances are, if there’s a vacancy, there will be a room waiting for you.”

As we say our goodbyes, I can’t help but appreciate the dedication and generosity it has taken to bring Bethell House to our area. It will not only offer a tranquil setting for those at the end of life and their families, but it is a remarkable cross-community effort that truly proves the adage that it takes a village.

When I asked Gabrielle Coe what she would like to say to the community now that Bethell House has become a reality, she took a quiet breath and offered a heartfelt “Thank you.” ≈ Bethell House, a residential hospice, is located at 15835 McLaughlin Rd, at the north end of Inglewood village in Caledon. A public open house will take place on Wednesday, April 14, from 2 to 8 p.m.

The first residents and their families will be welcomed at the beginning of May. For information about the services of Bethell House and Hospice Caledon, or to donate or volunteer, call 905-951-3534, 1-800-305-7905, or go to www.hospicecaledon.ca.

Iain Richmond is a freelance writer who lives in Mono.

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H I S T O R I C

H I L L S

by Ken Weber

hen it opened in 1867, Peel County’s new jail was seen as a sturdy symbol of justice. A century later it was called a barbaric dungeon. Today, it is part of an award-winning heritage complex.

For a building destined to have a long and prominent history, the Peel County Jail did not begin well. By its completion in 1867, it had come in late and 93 per cent over budget. One of the first motions passed by the When it came into service in 1867, built on land donated by the Village of Brampton, Peel County jail was a grim edifice modelled on England’s notorious Newgate Prison.

council of the brand new county was to ask the province for a special grant For the councillors, building a jail was not a matter of choice. To be an independent county in Ontario, a jail and courthouse were prerequisites.

Peel’s pricey facility not only filled the bill, but even attracted admiring comments, such as the observation of an English tourist who called it “a handsome pile.”

Not “handsome” to those inside The tourist’s description must have triggered a sardonic comment or two from the wrong side of the bars.

Like most nineteenth-century jails in Ontario, the design of Peel’s unhallowed halls was modelled on that of England’s fortress-like Newgate Prison.

The jail’s mandate was punishment, pure and simple. Cells were tiny. The narrow metal cots had skinny straw mattresses. Lighting was inadequate, the heating even more so, and well into the twentieth century, the nighttime toilet facility was a pail. Prisoners cleaned their own cells and killed the vermin (lice, centipedes and the like).

There was little or no recreational activity and no skills training. Exercise was usually limited to thirty minutes to an hour a day in the yard, although prisoners could be put to work at gardening and repairs – complete with ball and chain if that was deemed necessary.

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Peel’s jail, however, boasted a perk that not all facilities could claim: a family-sized apartment for its “governor.” This, in addition to a reasonable income (in 1962, the starting salary was $5,500, somewhat above the average start for Ontario teachers at the time), meant the position was easy to fill.

As in all jails, the governor’s rule was absolute. He was responsible for privileges, visiting rights, food quality (and quantity), discipline, even for administering sentences, such as strapping, which was still applied a century after the Peel jail was built.

Fortunately for the inmates, Peel’s governors seem to have been an enlightened lot.

According to May Greig, for example, an assistant matron from 1950 to 1971, Governor Joe Mitchell refused to strap prisoners on the back, avowing that applying the leather to the buttocks was enough. Mitchell was also known for administering fewer swings than the judge had specified, although he still believed in the power of deterrence. One reason younger prisoners were housed in a common area was so that a strapping could be heard clearly by everyone nearby.

The urge to be free Joe Mitchell was not alone in his management style. One of his predecessors, William Partridge, was noted for serving inmates a Christmas din-

In its final decades, Peel County Jail generally housed prisoners serving short sentences (weeks or months) and others awaiting trial or transfer, but in the beginning the facility was pretty much full service. Early records tell of a highwayman serving nine years for robbing a stagecoach, of a cow thief serving nine months, and of a 16-year-old girl awaiting trial for infanticide (she was acquitted). Statistics for 1868 show the jail housed sixty prisoners that year, all but fi ve were citizens of Peel. Among the prisoners were twenty-fi ve farmers, six blacksmiths, a tailor, a baker, a whipmaker, a gentleman – and five wives.

Only half the prisoners in 1868 were literate, and only seven of the sixty were female. The most frequent sentence that year was “aiding and abetting manslaughter” (13), followed by “assault” (7) and “drunk and disorderly” (6).

There was one murder that year, one manslaughter, one “suspected of being a member of an illegal society,” and one “obtaining lumber under false pretences.”

Ironically, one-third (20) of the 1868 inmates were from Albion Township, the jurisdiction that had fought hardest against the creation of Peel County, and the expense of building a jail.

ner that, as the Brampton Conservator put it, “would match the excellence of any hotel repast in the province.”

This generosity might account for the significant number of transients who tried to get into Brampton’s jail for brief stays, especially in winter, and especially during the 1930s. Still, their numbers were well matched over the years by inmates wanting to go the other way.

Among the more daring of the latter was one A. Preston, who made a ramp of a bench and table to get over the wall in broad daylight and then upped the chutzpah factor by walking right past Sheriff Broddy’s house. Preston was never seen again. Nor were the two prisoners in 1906 who pulled the jail’s pump out of the well and used its long draw pipe to defeat the wall. During this particular escape, two other prisoners watched the proceedings, but declined to participate in the belief that their obedience would help prove their innocence at their burglary trial. (It didn’t.)

The escape in 1932 of yet another inmate, E.C. Morrow, was surprising because he had only two days left in his sentence. However, he had done time in Owen Sound before being transported to Peel and, on release from Peel, was due to serve another sentence in Barrie. Unlike some of his predecessors, Morrow was recaptured, perhaps because in an inspired moment on his way out, he had grabbed a suit of gaudy street clothes off a rack, making it easier for his pursuers to identify him.

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to cover the gap.

A solitary confinement cell was still in use in 1968. A prisoner named Hodge, then 18, reported spending 30 days there in a cell with a steel mesh bed, no lighting, and with curved ceilings that allowed him to stand erect in only one spot. He was fed twice daily (cold bean cake and tea) and had to request drinking water. His toilet, a white potty, was emptied once a day. According to his written account, when he objected to his treatment during a court hearing the Crown argued successfully that no judge should interfere with jail authorities doing their job. Arraigned for car theft, Hodge spent a total of three months in Peel County Jail. The charge was dismissed.

As the Peel jail aged, the number of attempted breakouts increased, although the strategies generally did not reflect well on the planning skills of the would-be escapees. A case in point: In 1950, inmates Morissette and Everson could be heard up and down the corridors busily sawing the bars of their cell with hacksaw blades in the middle of the afternoon.

Still, the Attorney-General’s office was sufficiently impressed by the sheer volume of activity to hold an inquiry. Among other ideas, it came up with a recommendation to cover the jailyard wall with smooth plaster to make it harder to climb. Ironically, no escapee had ever successfully scaled that wall until after the recommendation was implemented.

Worse than jails in Cuba!

The province took control of all county jails in 1968. That same year, the Peel County Jail was officially condemned, a sanction pronounced annually thereafter until the facility was finally closed in 1977. That year, one of its final and more famous inmates (for five days), Black Panther leader Huey Newton, described the place as worse than the jails in Cuba.

It was not an unjustified comparison.

The cells, albeit with lighting now, still measured about four feet by seven feet as in 1867. The straw mattresses were now foam rubber (several of which a prisoner managed to set afire in 1976, resulting in a total evacuation). The jail was understaffed and overcrowded and, despite the well-established philosophy of “correction” in prisons by this time, the nature of the building meant that operations continued pretty much as they had in 1867.

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Next year, the old Peel County Jail will be reborn yet again as part of the dramatically renovated and expanded Peel Heritage Complex. Construction on the $10-million project begins this month. When the complex reopens in the fall of 2011, it will include a spacious new art gallery, meeting and event venues in the historic Peel County Court House (1867), new community performance and studio space, as well as additional storage for the archives. During the construction, access to the Peel archives will be limited. However, in the renovated complex, the archives will continue to occupy the jail as they have since 1986. And, as they are now, some of the original old cells will remain preserved for the amazement of visitors.

Updates on the progress of the renovation, including information on interim access to services, is available at www.peelheritagecomplex.org.

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After finally being closed down in 1977, the jail was renovated and incorporated into the Peel Heritage Complex, where it became home to the region’s archives.

Making a silk purse Although the end of its service as a jail was too long in coming, the rebirth of the old building as a heritage complex was dramatic. In 1986, nine years after the last cell door had clanged shut, the Peel County Jail opened to enthusiastic public acclaim as a museum, art gallery and archives, now known as the Peel Heritage Complex. The enthusiasm was reinforced by a premier award of excellence for contemporary architecture – chosen from among twenty-nine entries. By both preserving history

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

and blending it with modern purpose and function, the building is now a site of distinction in the Region of Peel.

It took 120 years to get there, but at long last the old Peel County Jail truly deserves to be called a “handsome pile.” ≈ Caledon writer Ken Weber is a frequent researcher at the Peel Heritage Complex where a gallery in the museum shows what life was like in the former jail and old newspapers tell even more stories.

In the history of Mono’s Sheldon Creek Mill (“The Story of a Mill,” Autumn ’09), a brief reference was made to the Newell family. Although the family ran the mill for twenty-five years, from 1840 to 1865, preliminary research turned up little information about them. Since the story appeared, however, descendants of the Newells have filled in details of an intriguing family history: Sam Newell and his wife Anne grew up together in County Down, Ireland in dramatically different circumstances. According to family lore, Anne (b.1775) was the only daughter of Lord and Lady Thornbury, and Sam (b.1774) was a labourer on the estate. When Anne’s parents discovered the two were in love, they banned Sam from the property and, in effect, from employment in Ireland. In despair, he went first to England and then to North America. Anne, the story has it, crawled out a window one dark night, along with her maid, to follow her beloved Sam. When they married, she lost all claim to property and title.

While this narrative is difficult to verify, what is certain is that Sam and Anne arrived in Mono together in the 1820s and established a farm just south of the mill. In April 1840, they traded this farm plus some cash for the mill. When the mill’s founder, Joe Alexander, died of cholera in 1832, his widow was left with five children and another on the way. Although she struggled to keep the mill going over the next eight years (with Sam’s help, it is believed), it must have been a relief to trade for a farm.

Sam and Anne turned over the mill to their son John (and his thirteen children) in 1847 and enjoyed a few years of retirement. They are buried together in St. John’s cemetery on Mono’s Seventh Line. Sam died in January 1852. Anne followed him one last time, just six weeks later.

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Herons&Co.

BY D O N S C A L L EN | P H OTO GR A P H S BY R O B ER T M c C AW A ND R O N P I T T S

T

he muskrat landed with a “thud” a pace or two from where I stood. Spat up from the gullet of a heron on high, it now lay in peaceful repose on the forest floor. The muskrat was not fully

grown, but it was still a substantial animal. I pondered the implications.

I marvelled at the obvious elastic capabilities of a great blue heron’s throat. The muskrat had been swallowed whole for heaven’s sake! I wondered at the struggle between bird and mammal that must have ensued prior to the final gulp. And I soberly considered that the partially digested muskrat could have hit me or one of my companions.

50

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

At the time of the incident, I was counting great blue heron nests at a breeding colony or “heronry.”

Heronries can contain dozens or even hundreds of large stick nests perched high above the ground in mature deciduous trees. The plummeting muskrat was no accident. Regurgitating food and dropping it in the direction of potential predators is a typical heron stress response. Perhaps such behaviour evolved to warn off predators, or perhaps the food could be seen as an offering: “Here, take this and go away!”

The regurgitated food, and the excrement, euphemistically known as “whitewash,” that gets sprayed in the course of regular hygiene from nests to the woodland floor, lends a rather ripe ambiance to an active heronry. The sound of a heronry is also notable. Multiply each nest by three or four young, all squabbling like drunken bar patrons when their parents return with food, and you have a cacophony that disturbs the usual woodland idyll.

Before I go any further I should note that a casual visit to a heronry during the breeding season is not a good idea. Herons are easily spooked. Regurgitated food is nutrition lost to the growing young. Trespassing can flush adults from the nests, leaving vulnerable eggs or fledglings to the mercies of the

above : The great blue heron’s flight suggests that of a pterodactyl over a steaming Jurassic swamp. left : The black-crowned night heron stalks minnows that glint in the moonlight.

weather or to marauding scavengers like crows and ravens. Repeated visits can even cause colony abandonment.

The protection of heronries is one reason the Grand River Conservation Authority prohibits boating in Luther Marsh, where a great blue heron colony is located, prior to August 1.

So what was my excuse? At the time I was participating in the Ontario Heronry Inventory, a project of Bird Studies Canada to monitor trends in great blue heron populations throughout Ontario. Brief visits to the heronries were considered acceptable.

While great blue herons forage throughout the entirety of the Headwaters region, their heronries are far more localized. Luther Marsh, the glorious waterfowl nursery straddling the borders of Dufferin and Wellington counties, is one location.

Perhaps the largest though, is at Albion Hills Conservation Area.

In November last year, I counted eighty nests perched in beech, sugar maple, white ash and basswood trees at Albion Hills. A single beech held eight nests, another held six and a large sugar maple supported five. From this colony great blue herons fan out to forage at the numerous kettle lakes that spangle the Oak Ridges Moraine.

K

aren McDonald of the Toronto Region Conservation Authority says that “the number of nests at Albion Hills has been steadily expanding over the past four years.” This is good news for our local herons, but the news from the province as a whole is less positive. The second Breeding Bird Atlas of Ontario (2007) shows the great blue heron population has been in decline since the early 1980s when the first atlas was completed. While there is some uncertainty as to the causes and magnitude of this decline, fewer frogs, a heron staple, may be a factor. Further study of both heron and frog populations may provide some answers.

It appears that for now at least, this area, richly endowed with ponds, swamps and streams, continues to offer great blue herons the choice aquatic edibles they covet. It is a safe bet that any local pond, stream or marsh harbouring fish or frogs is visited regularly by these birds. They are often seen wading silently or flying methodically overhead. This f light between their heronries and favoured fishing holes is far more direct than that of easily distracted crows. “As the heron flies” would better indicate the shortest distance between two points than “as the crow flies.”

Tip to tip, the wings that power a great blue heron’s f light match the arm span of an average human adult. A heron carried aloft on these wide wings imaginatively suggests the flight of a pterodactyl over a steaming Jurassic swamp, an illusion enhanced by the heron’s voice, a prehistoric-sounding “croak.”

G

reat blue herons are often mistakenly called “cranes.” True cranes are an unrelated group of wading birds that includes the storied whooping crane, a magnificent and endangered bird rescued from the brink of extinction by intensive conservation efforts in the United States and Canada. There are no whooping cranes in our region, but there are now sandhill cranes, close kin.

Sandhill cranes have swept down from Ontario’s northwest into southern Ontario over the last few decades. Similar in size and colour to great blue herons, small numbers of them now nest at Luther Marsh. If you look up to see a large grey bird flying overhead, watch how it holds its neck. If the neck is folded back in an “s” shape you have spotted the far more common great blue heron. However, if the neck is fully extended, you can welcome a recent immigrant to Headwaters, a sandhill crane. continued on next page IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

51

above : As dusk falls on the heronry, parents settle in to roost on their nests of rough sticks. left : Sandhill cranes are similar in size and colour to great blue herons, but fly with their neck fully extended. They are recent immigrants to the hills. right : The delicate feathers of the egret were once eagerly sought by the millinery trade, a fad that led the birds to near extinction.

herons continued from page 51

W

hile most residents of our hills have at least a passing acquaintance with great blue herons, far less familiar are the other species of herons that inhabit the hills. One of these is the great egret, a pure white heron of ethereal beauty that has inspired poets throughout the ages.

Judith Wright rhapsodized about these sublime birds in her poem, called simply “Egrets”:

OnceOnce as I travelled as I travelled through through a quiet a quiet evening, evening, I sawI asaw pool, a pool, jet-black jet-black and and mirror mirror still. still.

Beyond, Beyond, the slender the slender paperbarks paperbarks stoodstood crowding; crowding; EachEach on itsonown its own whitewhite image image looked looked its fill, its fill, and and nothing nothing moved moved but thirty but thirty egretsegrets wadingwading – thirtythirty egretsegrets in a in quiet a quiet evening. evening.

OnceOnce in a in lifetime, a lifetime, lovely lovely past past believing, believing, youryour luckylucky eyes eyes maymay lightlight on such on such a pool. a pool.

As though As though for many for many yearsyears I hadI had beenbeen waiting, waiting, I watched I watched in silence, in silence, till my tillheart my heart was full was full of clear of clear darkdark water, water, and and whitewhite treestrees unmoving, unmoving, and,and, whiter whiter yet, those yet, those thirtythirty egretsegrets wading. wading.

The “lucky eyes” of naturalist Linda McLaren, the gifted Amaranth artist responsible for “Headwaters Sketchbook” in this magazine, have gazed more than once in her lifetime at similar scenes. For the last two years McLaren has monitored an amazing assemblage of great egrets at Luther Marsh. She 52

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

told me of taking Chip Weseloh, an egret researcher with the Ministry of the Environment, to Luther two summers ago.

“On the evening in early September of 2008 when I met Chip to show him where the [egret] roost was, we counted over 200,” McLaren says.

“He kept looking at them through his binoculars and saying, ‘I had no idea. I had no idea!’”

Chip Weseloh has studied great egrets for years and is one of Ontario’s foremost experts on their habits and haunts. His reaction to the Luther Marsh egrets indicates just how impressive that aggregation is. In fact, at one point late last summer, Linda McLaren counted over 300 egrets.

Of interest to Weseloh is that these egrets do not breed at Luther, but rather use it as a post-breeding roosting area. He thinks they probably migrate south to the marsh from a thriving nesting colony he studies on a Georg ia n Bay isla nd nea r Collingwood.

For the egrets, the lure of Luther is not accommodation but the minnows and other small fish they can

stalk easily in the extensive shallow waters. These fish, to borrow a sports term, are very underrated. We generally ignore them, but we shouldn’t.

Without them the egrets – and their inspiring beauty – would not exist.

That beauty was almost their undoing a century ago. Entire colonies were “shot out” to acquire the delicate feather plumes known as “aigrettes” that decorate the backs of egrets during the breeding season. (“Aigrette” is a French word that gave rise to the name “egret.”) These plumes were eagerly sought by the millinery trade to add flourish to hats for fashionable ladies.

Herbert K. Job, an early twentiethcentury writer and ornithologist, reported that at a single auction in London, England in 1902, 48,240 ounces of heron plumes from North America were sold. “As it requires about four birds to make an ounce of plumes,” he calculated, “these sales meant 192,960 herons killed at their nests, and from two to three times that number of young or eggs destroyed.

Is it, then, any wonder that these species are on the verge of extinction?”

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Fortunately tragedy was averted by the work of early conservationists who successfully lobbied the United States government to outlaw the plume trade. This lobbying effort gave rise to the Audubon Society, a prominent American conservation organization that adopted the great egret as its symbol.

By the time the egret slaughter ceased, only a few scattered colonies remained in the southeastern United States. It is from these outposts that great egrets advanced to recolonize the rest of the eastern United States.

Then, according to Chip Weseloh, “they were found breeding in Ontario in the 1950s and their numbers have been going up gradually ever since.�

Now their expansion has embraced our region, with the aquatic richness of Luther Marsh helping to fuel their recovery. If this trend continues we can expect great egrets to appear more widely in this area. Perhaps one day soon you too will be able to thrill to the presence of egrets in a pool of “clear dark water� in your neighbourhood.

Will the egret expansion continue?

Double-crested cormorants may throw up a roadblock. These large fish-eating birds compete aggressively with great egrets for nesting sites and their numbers have exploded in recent decades. Tens of thousands are now found along the shorelines of the lower Great Lakes and they are rapidly colonizing inland sites as well, including Luther Marsh.

Chip Weseloh is hopeful though: “The egrets seem to be able to figure out that they should not challenge the cormorants for nesting spots in the tops of trees,� he says. “If they nest in the lower reaches, they seem to be able to avoid conflict with cormorants.�

T

here is another heron that lives commonly among us in the hills, but because it lacks the flamboyance of the great egret and is much smaller than the great blue heron, it often escapes notice. It is the green heron, a crow-sized bird named for its blue-green back and upper wings.

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herons continued from page 53

The green heron, like its larger relatives, has a long neck tipped by a dagger beak that it can lash out, cobra-like, to catch frogs, fish and tadpoles. Often, green herons crouch motionless and wait for unsuspecting prey to swim within striking range.

At other times they walk in Tai Chi motion along stream edges and pond margins, watchful for the slightest movement in the water.

These hunting strategies are common to other herons and egrets as well, but green herons have a fascinating way of feeding that is theirs alone. Last summer, while paddling a quiet stream, I rounded a bend and spotted a green heron hunched atop a log, peering down into the water.

Preoccupied, it was not aware of my presence.

I watched as it dropped a twig into the stream. Before the twig drifted out of range the heron picked it up and repeated the performance. Green herons are tool users. They cast sticks, leaves, berries and other small buoyant objects into the water as lures for curious minnows.

The recent second Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas documents an alarming 29 per cent decline since the early eighties in the probability of observing green herons in the province. The causes are not yet understood. The usual suspect, habitat loss, does not appear to be one of them, for as the atlas notes, “much suitable habitat is unoccupied.” Perhaps fewer frogs, a possible cause of the decline of great blue herons, is also playing a role in the decline of green herons.

O

ne of the rarest species of heron to occupy our region is the black-crowned night heron. This dapper bird sports a black cap and back that contrasts with grey wings and a whitish breast. During breeding season, a pair of long white plumes extends rakishly from the head along the upper back. Its red eyes glow like rubies. Fish and frogs that successfully swim the daytime gauntlet of egrets, green herons and great blues have this stalker to contend with after dark. Five-star dining for a black-crowned night heron is a

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above : American bitterns are masters of camouflage. facing page : Green herons are crow-sized and, like crows, they are tool users.

clear pool of silvered minnows glinting in the moonlight.

Thirty years ago there was a colony of black-crowned night herons at Luther Marsh. In the absence of boating restrictions at that time, this heronry became a destination for canoeists and camera buffs who caused its abandonment.

“The intrusion happened before the young could fly,” says Robert Bell of the Grand River Conservation Authority. “They jumped from the nests and drowned.”

Only now are black-crowned night herons beginning to nest again at Luther Marsh. “I have observed several adults and hatching-year birds this year for the first time since I came here in 1985,” Bell reported last summer. This cautionary tale emphasizes the vulnerability of heronries to human disturbance.

I

f the colony of black-crowned night herons at Luther Marsh continues to grow, we may begin to see these nocturnal hunters elsewhere on our local waterways, for they travel widely in search of good eats. However, there are two other herons that live in the hills that will never be commonly observed. They are the bitterns: the American and the least. Both are marsh birds and both are camouflage experts.

The American bittern was recorded from several Headwaters’ wetlands during the second Breeding Bird Atlas project, primarily along the Niagara Escarpment and at Luther Marsh. However, it is rarely seen by chance because of its fascinating habit of pointing its bill skyward as it stands among reeds and cattails. The brown streaking on its neck and breast make it one with the vegetation.

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The small least bittern is rare in the Headwaters region.

herons continued from page 55

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Listening rather than looking is a better way to find this bird. American bitterns have an otherworldly call, usually heard after dark. It is described in A Field Guide to the Birds by Roger Tory Peterson as “a slow, deep oong-ka choonk, oong-ka choonk, oong-ka choonk.”

Summon your lowest bass voice from the deepest channels of your throat and you may approximate the sound. Then a nocturnal visit to Luther Marsh in springtime will offer you a chance to compare your rendition with that of an actual bittern.

If American bitterns are difficult to see, their diminutive cousins, the least bitterns, are even more so.

There are dedicated bird watchers in the hills who will live out their lives without ever having one of these enigmatic birds grace their binoculars’ field of view.

Not much larger than a grackle, the aptly named “least” bittern is very rare in this region and is only reliably found, where else, but at the crucially important waterworld that is Luther Marsh. Robert Bell is sure that they breed at Luther, “but they are tricky buggers to find.”

“Tricky” understates the difficulty finding these tiny herons that seldom leave the vegetative cover of their wetland homes. The best way to locate them, like their cousin the American bittern, is to listen for their call, described in The Sibley Guide to the Birds as “a low, cooing poopoopoo.”

Herons and egrets wading in local wetlands or silhouetted against blue skies, excite people whenever they are seen. They speak to us of grace, elegance and regal bearing. But they speak to us of other things as well.

Built of the fish, frogs and small mammals that wetlands support, herons are the literal embodiment of those wetlands. Healthy populations of herons tell us that our wetlands are healthy; declining numbers whisper that something has gone awry. We should listen closely to what the herons say. ≈ Don Scallen is a naturalist who teaches elementary school science.

All photos by Robert McCaw except great blue heron composites (“Great Blue Yonder” and “Heron Rookery”) and sandhill crane by Ron Pitts.

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

57

H E A D W A T E R S

N E S T

by Bethany Lee

I L L U S T R AT I O N S H EL A G H A R M S T R O N G

The journey back upstream ends at home in the hills

It’s spring and the sap is sweetly flowing. Sugaring-off season is a great time to get out with the whole family and learn about the transformations happening in our local forests. The young and young at heart love watching maple syrup being made, as well as the pancake breakfast that usually follows!

Information on local maple syrup festivals, including the annual event at Orangeville’s Island Lake on March 28 and 29, can be found at www.ontariomaple.com/ maple-festivals/central-ontario.html

Celebrate the Earth : This year, Earth Hour begins at 8:30 pm on Saturday, March 27 (www.earthhour. org), and Earth Day is on Thursday, April 22 (www.earthday.ca). Celebrate by taking your friends and family on a nature walk in the hills. Something as simple as planning a lights-out evening of fun and “indoor camping” can thrill the kids and make for lasting memories.

Envelop yourself in the creative warmth that spring will bring when the Festival of Quilts comes to the Village of Erin, March 20 to 28. Erin BIA and village merchants will present more than forty quilts throughout the village.

Young crafters and sewers would love to wander through the village. Challenge them to a “Quilt Count” while learning about a time-honoured tradition.

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

M

y blue, dust-covered ten-speed wobbled as I rode south down the concession. The cicadas buzzed in the trees above, mimicking the sound of boredom in my head. It was the dead end of August and teenage ennui had set in. What to do when there is seemingly nothing to do? Frustrated with the rocks that forced my tires to spin uselessly, I headed toward town and picked up my friend on her bike. Quiet between us: a couple of months of hanging about with nothing to do, and two teen girls were actually silenced.

It must have been that summer that I decided: I needed to get out.

And so, like many teens approaching the end of high school, I found myself dreaming of a life far, far downstream. Soon, university acceptances were in hand and a decision was made. I was happily off.

Fast forward a decade to the nineties. I am engrossed in my life “in the city,” living close to downtown Toronto, the GO line, and within walking distance of at least five coffee shops, where trained baristas blink in confusion when an “outsider” attempts to order a “double-double.” Ah, heaven. Culture, amenities, food, accessibility.

On occasion, I would head “home” for family visits and to decompress. A nice cup of tea, taken on my parents’ back porch, horses grazing in full view, was indeed soothing to my soul.

As I grew a little older, those tea times with my mom and dad on their farm seemed to come more often – almost weekly. And our discussions turned toward real estate. The market was booming and it seemed like a good time to stop renting and invest in my future. I was soon a regular on MLS, scouring my trendy urban neighbourhood for a “find.”

But a find in the city turned out to be elusive. Prices were astronomical in comparison to what I knew was available just a little bit further upriver.

My circle widened to the suburbs. Line-ups for new developments saw clamouring suburbanites taking shifts at waiting in cars over weeks. I was unnerved.

And the more I looked at tiny condos and lot sizes measured in feet and inches rather than acres, the more claustrophobic I became.

I realized that when I was growing up I always had the option to run out the back door to explore at will.

I could spend a day constructing a most magnificent

rock garden world, or skipping stones into a pond or stream, or digging around with a stick in an abandoned gravel pit. On several farms, my brother and I even found garbage dumps buried at the edge of the woods, where farmers from long ago had tossed their refuse. We uncovered milky glass bottles, rusty springs and broken tools from these archaeological digs. Our days were free-spirited, driven by the need to discover, build and then deconstruct using our hands.

As I continued to head for the hills every weekend for rest, relaxation and Sunday hikes followed by roast dinner, it finally occurred to me – these hills are my home. I consciously realized it was time to head back upstream in anticipation of my future child as well.

I found a house through information my parents discovered the old-fashioned way: word-of-mouth. A local lumber baron was renovating a century-old house and was planning to sell in the next few months.

Did they know anyone interested? I did a drive-by immediately.

Even though the walls were crooked and the floors slanted very perceptibly, the structure and foundation weren’t my worry. What made my heart lurch slightly was the thought of my big, shiny gym where I attended classes every day in Toronto. I didn’t actually speak to the people there, but wouldn’t I miss them? What about restaurants? Where would I find my favourite veggie curry? Would there be high-speed internet?

My parents were still on dial-up! What about the commute – it would be tolerable, I hoped.

I also wondered if my child would somehow miss out without the culture and amenities that I had become accustomed to – access to museums, public art displays, mass transit. I wanted my child to grow up hearing different languages. I wanted my child to be “worldly� and not “sheltered� as I had sometimes felt as a farm kid.

All of these questions had to be put aside when I signed the offer and became a homeowner for the first time.

I trusted my community would surround me and it was all going to be okay.

As it turns out, my community didn’t embrace me, at least not right away. Friends had moved away. And those who hadn’t moved had just plain moved on. There was no big shiny gym, no curry and no highspeed to be had. I couldn’t find a doctor. City friends didn’t “get it� and wouldn’t come to visit. Now married and with my imagined child soon to be a reality, I felt stuck in an inbetween world – alternating between feeling like a big fish in a little pond one day, and a little fish lost from its school the next.

Slowly over a period of years, we have settled in. I have connected with other parents who also decided to swim upstream to start family life.

We agree upon a respect for the land, animals and simple pleasures. These connections have replaced the more artificial sense of community that I once had in my city digs.

We have found pockets of culture as well; we just had to seek them out.

We walk to the market to pick up veggies and bread on Saturdays, and talk to artisanal cheese makers about their craft. We’re welcomed warmly by name at the independent bookstore, the coffee shops, and other small local stores we frequent. When my son was a toddler, his daycare provider cooked up some wicked roti and had him eating fish curry before we knew it.

Many of our activities now revolve around being outdoors. Early on, I purchased the rugged versions of baby back-packs and strollers so that we could hit the trails. As he grew, my son learned about mucking out a barn from his grandparents. For him and his buddies, rides in the wheelbarrow became de rigueur when family and friends gathered for Sunday work sessions in the garden.

I’m happy to report that my son now spends hours constructing his own little rock garden world, just as I did, and yet he is neither sheltered nor uncultured here in the hills. ≈ Orangeville writer Bethany Lee is the online editor of kidsinthehills.ca, a sister site to inthehills.ca, where she also has a regular blog.

Visit a farmers’ market and have fun meeting local growers and learning about fresh produce, meats and cheeses, artisanal baked goods, plants and seedlings.

Local farmers markets are open in: Orangeville Saturdays 8 am – 1 pm, behind the Town Hall on Broadway, from May 8. www.marketonbroadway.ca Inglewood Wednesdays 3:30 – 7 pm, next to the General Store, from June 10. www.eatlocalcaledon.ca Bolton Thursdays, 3 – 7 pm at the Albion Bolton Community Centre, from June 17. www.caledon.ca/farmersmarket

The Orangeville Blues and Jazz Festival comes to Orangeville from June 3 to 6. It’s always a treat for the kids and family to get out and enjoy the music on what is usually one of the ďŹ rst warm weekends of the year. Broadway is closed for the festival, making it a safe event for kids and families. Visit Alexandra Park with your blanket and let the kids have fun and rock to the beats; maybe even let the little ones stay up late while you wander downtown. www.objf.org.

520 Riddell Road, Unit B, Orangeville 519-941-2873

Dufferin Children & Youth Festival takes place this year on June 12, from 10 am to 3 pm at the Fairgrounds Shopping Centre (Walmart Parking Lot). This event is for children of all ages and always includes lots of fun, balloons, face painting, and hands-on activities.

Free admission (though there is a charge for some activities).

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QNPGLE NSBBJC HSKNGLE For more events and activities for kids and their families this spring, visit kidsinthehills.ca. A new, comprehensive local resource for parents, the site is devoted to both the serious concerns as well as the lighter side of raising a family in the Headwaters countryside.

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

59

Bundle of Joy? Babies arrive trailing clouds of happy expectations.

But often those first few months can be anything but a joyful experience.

Fortunately, this region is rich in programs to help mothers cope.

BY L AU R A L A R O CC A

J

ennifer Van Winden is a confident and assertive woman, but when her second baby was born, she felt more like a lost

kindergartener on the first day of school.

Her son Tommy was just 19 months old and Jennifer was breastfeeding baby Sarah every two hours around the clock. By the time Sarah was a month old, Jennifer was exhausted and irritable, with little time left over for her son.

It didn’t help that the family had moved to Orangeville from Hamilton just three weeks after Sarah was born. In Hamilton, where Tommy was born, Jennifer’s family had been readily available to lend a hand. Now, feeling anxious and inadequate, Jennifer didn’t know which way to turn.

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Jennifer’s feelings are hardly uncommon. When a new baby is born, a new parent is born as well, and both have much to learn. Every baby is different, and even second- and third-time parents can lack confidence in their skills and need to learn to trust their instincts. To make things more difficult, many mothers, like Jennifer, have moved away from their families and no longer have that support to help them through the learning curve.

Amanda Philip was fairly new to the Hillsburgh area when her daughter Timber was born. Most of her family and friends lived in Hamilton and Amanda had recently left her job at a Georgetown chiropractic clinic. She felt isolated in her country home and had no one nearby to ask for advice. After Timber went through a growth spurt at three months, Amanda was concerned that she was not getting enough milk.

Amanda called the local La Leche League, a mother-to-mother support network for breastfeeding women. The volunteer leaders at La Leche are experienced mothers trained to provide oneon-one counselling by telephone and in person.

The organization also sponsors monthly meetings where discussion centres around breastfeeding, but can include other parenting concerns.

Amanda was invited to the next meeting and quickly became a regular attendee. The meetings offered her a chance to socialize and share experiences with other mothers.

“I was always encouraged to listen to my mothering instinct first and foremost, as this was telling me what was best for my child.”

That confidence has carried into other parenting decisions and, seven years later, Amanda is still attending meetings, but now as a leader. “I feel strongly about the need for new mothers to have the information and support I gained through La Leche League.”

Mothers with questions about breastfeeding can also turn to a public health nurse, lactation consultant or community breastfeeding centre.

Amanda, who now lives in Amaranth, made long-lasting friendships with some of the other mothers in her group and they introduced her to other local resources, including the Ontario Early Years Centre (OEYC) which offers Family Time (a drop-in program), parenting and child-parent workshops, a childcare directory, and other services. The programs vary from centre to centre.

Some are geared toward mothers only, but most also welcome fathers and even grandparents.

Pam Seidel of Bolton has been visiting the local OEYC since her oldest daughter, now three-and-ahalf, was just a few months old. “The staff is amazing,” she says. “They genuinely care about the mothers and their children and are passionate about what they do. It’s more than a job to them.”

She attends the OEYC at least a couple times a week and both her daughters (the youngest is 17 months old) are enrolled in activities. She calls it her “home away from home,” a safe place to meet other mothers and playmates for her children.

One of the first programs Pam participated in was You and Your Baby, for new mothers. Weekly classes cover topics such as nutrition, health and

safety. A similar program, called Baby Basics, is offered in Dufferin and Wellington by the public health unit.

Pam says the opportunity to share the highs and lows of motherhood is important. It can be lonely staying home with a new baby whose only form of social interaction on some days is crying.

Pam now serves on the volunteer board of OEYC, as well as two committees. She also works as a parttime teacher on evenings and weekends when her husband is available to care for their children.

Without OEYC, she says she would have had a harder time staying home during the week.

According to literature from Best Start, Ontario’s maternal, newborn and early child development resource centre, four out of five mothers will experience the “baby blues,” and one in five will have a postpartum mood disorder, making it a more common complication of pregnancy than cæsarean section.

Looking back, Jennifer Van Winden realizes she suffered from postpartum depression after the births of both her children. With the help of her family she had struggled through in Hamilton, but alone in Orangeville it wasn’t until she found OEYC that she was able to grab a lifeline.

She took the advice of a friend and began attending a support group called Feelings After Birth (FAB). It is a collaborative program run by OEYC, public health and Dufferin Child and Family Services. A similar program, called Adjustments After Birth, is available in Bolton.

Jennifer still describes her first FAB session as

home with a new baby whose only form of social interaction on some days is crying

“horrible!” Tommy cried at being left in the on-site childcare, while she sobbed through her story in the meeting room. She left more exhausted than when she’d arrived – something she hadn’t thought possible.

Nevertheless, she returned the next week, apprehensive, but encouraged by the unconditional acceptance and understanding, along with the useful information, she’d received that first week.

Tommy quickly fell in love with the childcare providers, and after a couple months, even Sarah – who rarely left Jennifer’s arms – would stay in the childcare room for an hour or so.

Robin Berger, the public health facilitator at FAB, is a lactation consultant as well as a nurse. She reassured Jennifer that it was normal for Sarah to nurse so frequently, and offered other breastfeeding information. Jennifer began to relax – and so did Sarah, who soon began sleeping in four-hour stretches at night.

Jennifer now describes OEYC as “one-stop shopping” for all the support and information her family needs. In one place she found answers about breastfeeding, toilet training, nutrition, child development and postpartum adjustment.

She has taken several of the parenting workshops where she has not only met other parents with similar concerns, but also discovered lots of great ideas to try and a sense of community. “Not only have I benefitted,” she says, “but my kids have been given the best start in life.”

These resources also give mothers somewhere to turn for guidance besides parenting books and the Internet. While these are also useful, it can be difficult for a new mother to find the time or energy to read the books or sift through all the information on the Internet. As Jennifer explains, “A book can’t pass the tissues or offer a hug in support.”

Attendance at FAB is “open,” so new mothers begin and others leave (or “graduate”) according to their own needs. The new members witness how symptoms of depression have subsided for the veterans, and the veterans can see how far they’ve come. The groups are kept small and discreet, so they aren’t intimidating for the newcomers.

The weekly meetings begin with a check-in, where each mother can talk about her week, ask questions and receive feedback, or simply vent.

The facilitators strike a balance between this “air time” and offering tools the mothers can use in the future, such as problem-solving techniques. DCAFS facilitator Nina Little describes the program as a continued on next page IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

61

PHOTO GILLIAN GAUTHIER , GIGI PHOTOGR APHY

it can be lonely staying

many mothers feel the need to hide their struggles because they are afraid of being judged or are ashamed that they need help

bundle of joy continued from page 61

INTERIORS BY DECORATING DEN

truly “group” experience where both mothers and facilitators participate fully in the process.

After her positive experience at FAB when Timber was an infant, Amanda Philip returned to the program after her son Rush, now three, was born. “Having a safe place to talk about my frustrations, feelings and disappointments helped to relieve some of the pressure building up inside, and allowed me to relax more with my children.”

The mothers who attend FAB come from all walks of life. They are firsttime and fifth-time moms, young and “mature,” single and married.

Postpartum mood disorders do not discriminate against anyone. Still, many mothers feel the need to hide their struggles because they’re afraid of being judged or are ashamed that they need help. As one mother put it, “I was crumbling on the inside, but no one knew.”

At FAB, mothers can take off their masks, shed the illusion of perfection, and discuss their feelings with women who understand because they’ve been there too. “It helps just knowing you are not alone,” Amanda says. “There are other mothers who aren’t perfect.”

Jennifer says the group was a lifechanging experience where the skills she learned, such as active listening and a greater degree of empathy, help her in other areas of her life.

Among those lessons, she says, “I now understand that asking for help does not weaken me.” Instead of aiming to be the “perfect super-mom,” she is content to be the best mom she can be. “Being a truly great mom is an evolution, not an inborn trait or something you can learn from a book and implement overnight.”

Indeed the benefits for many mothers often reach beyond the problem or question that prompted the original contact. Mothers say their relationships with their babies, their other children, and even their partners are improved. Perhaps more important, the mothers are getting their needs met – for friendship, reassurance, encouragement and support, or even a small break from the daily routine – and this has a positive effect on those around them.

Susan Willnecker, Orangeville’s OEYC program co-ordinator and FAB facilitator, often uses this analogy: Flight attendants tell passengers that in emergency situations, adults must put oxygen masks on themselves before helping their children. This is, of course, because a person deprived of oxygen will not be able to help others for long. The same principle applies to motherhood: mothers whose needs are met have more to give their families. ≈ Laura LaRocca is a freelance writer and mother of five, aged four to 14.

She lives in Laurel.

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

P H O T O S P E T E PAT ER S O N

Amanda Philip, shown here with her daughter Timber (left) and son Rush, first called La Leche League in Orangeville when Timber was an infant. Seven years later, she is still attending La Leche meetings, now as a leader.

Appointments you dream about

Jennifer Van Winden reads with her children Sarah and Tommy. After attending the Feelings After Birth program, she came to realize that “being a great mom is an evolution, not an inborn trait or something you can learn from a book.”

New Mother Support For a full list of services and contact information mentioned in this article, along with other services available to parents throughout the Headwaters region, visit www.kidsinthehills.ca Dufferin parents will also find a useful directory of family services at a new website recently launched by the Dufferin Coalition for Kids, or DuCK, an advocacy group comprising organizations that provide services to families and children up to 18: www.dufferinfamilydirectory.org Below is a quick reference to some of those services: Wellington-DufferinGuelph Public Health Unit 1-800-265-7293, www.wdghu.org

Dufferin Parent Support Network A collaborative network of parents and community agencies for school-aged Peel Public Health children. 519-940-8678, Caledon residents, www.dpsn.ca 905-584-2216, www.

— peelregion.ca/health Dufferin Child & Family Both public health units Services An integrated offer a variety of services children’s service agency, for parents of newborns including child protecand toddlers, including tion and mental health breastfeeding centres, concerns. 519-941-1530, drop-in programs and www.dcafs.on.ca — parenting classes.

— Child Development Ontario Early Years Resource Connection Centre (oeyc) Peel Connects Ontario government parents with early years programs for parents programs and services, and their children up including special to age 6. Programs vary needs. 905-890-9432, by location: Dufferin www.cdrcp.com programs in Orangeville — 519-941-6991 x 2205; Growing Great Kids Shelburne 519-925-5504; (Guelph-Wellington) Grand Valley 519-928Co-ordinates services 3383. Caledon programs for children up to age in Bolton 905-857-0107, 6 with special needs.

Cheltenham, and weekly Call KIDS Line to access: via the Rural Community 519-846-2715 or Outreach Mobile Unit 1-800-265-7293 x 3616, in Alton, Caledon East, www.growinggreatkids Mono Mills, Valleywood. guelph-wellington.com

Infant and Child Development Service Peel For children at risk of, or experiencing, developmental delay.

1-877-266-4566, www.icdspeel.ca — East Wellington Community Services Weekly playgroups in Erin, Hillsburgh and Orton. 519-833-9696, www.eastwellington communityservices.com — Best Start Ontario’s maternal, newborn and early childhood resource centre. 1-800-397-9567, www.beststart.org — Midwives of Headwaters Hills Two midwives at Headwaters Health Care Centre provide prenatal, birth, postpartum care.

519-941-born (2676), www.midwivesof headwaterhills.ca — TeleHealth Ontario Free 24-hour access to a registered nurse. 1-866-797oooo, tty: 1-866-797-ooo7

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

63

e ach ye ar, jane ohl and c ameron writes &

BY MI C HEL E GR EEN

hat happens when you combine twenty teenagers, an untried script, a youthful crew and eighteen rehearsal days? Last August, Theatre Orangeville’s Drama Young Company set to work under Jane Ohland Cameron’s guidance to create The Enchantment of Peter Pan. I tagged along.

P H O T O P E T E PAT ER S O N

week 1 day 1

64

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Twenty young actors are abuzz with excitement and nervous energy in Theatre Orangeville’s temporary rehearsal space in the Zehrs plaza. On a steamy August morning, in the creative ambience of sets and props from past productions, they await the announcement of the cast list.

The eager young thespians range in age from 11 to 16. Each one of them has already auditioned to secure a place in the four-week summer program that will culminate with a performance on the stage of the Old Town Hall Opera House. Each of them will have a role in The Enchantment of Peter Pan, the play that director and playwright Jane Ohland Cameron has written especially for them. The question is, which role?

In these tense moments, Jane appears as nervous as her young charges, but as the parts are finally read out, each actor accepts his or her designated role with surprising maturity. Within minutes, the first script-reading is underway.

Thirteen of the students have worked in previous productions with Jane, each year honing their performance skills. Others are neophytes, here for their first theatre experience. Many struggle to read their lines – words are stilted and unfamiliar. Some young voices shake, barely audible, while others exude confidence, at risk of overacting. Jane interrupts only when essential, gently nudging her script into reality.

“I consider it a privilege as a playwright to have the opportunity to create original pieces and workshop them with such an enthusiastic cast,” Jane, says.

A privilege and a massive undertaking, to be sure. The challenge of creating characters for twenty aspiring actors and blending dialogue into a cohesive plot that holds the interest of actors and audience is not a job for the faint of heart. But Jane is up to the challenge.

It was her three sons, Greg, Geoff and Chris, who, in 2002, coaxed Jane out of a long hiatus from theatrical work when they signed up for the Theatre Orangeville’s Drama for Young People program.

With a background in acting and script-writing, Jane took a keen interest in her sons’ activities. By the next year she was volunteering and that work convinced her of the need for scripts written especially for young people. Her volunteer work became paid employment, and when Gary Sarazin, who founded the youth program in 1998, left to teach in Dubai in 2005, Jane was asked to take on a leadership role.

“I love this theatre and I love Gary’s philosophy that theatre should be inclusive and not exclusive,” Jane says. “His emphasis was on the process as well as the product because he wanted the kids to celebrate and love theatre.”

This is Jane’s second summer as playwright and director. The 2008 production, Just This Once Upon a Time, was such a success that the script has been accepted for publication in Scripted for Schools II, an online catalogue published by Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Jane Ohland Cameron “I can’t think of another art form that so totally captures the way I see the world.”

direc t s a ne w pl ay for a spiring young ac tor s

week 2 day 8 “Focus please, people,” is Jane’s constant mantra as the actors’ confidence builds, friendships are forged and youthful chatter erupts at every opportunity. Half-built Styrofoam rocks and tape designate the set and stage parameters as the actors, scripts in hand, block out their movements.

The energy is palpable as they race toward the final scene for the first time since the initial read-through. Some actors fidget and Jane’s voice, hoarse from a week of steady instruction, betrays a measure of frustration as she brings them to attention. Still, when the final line is executed, the room bursts into spontaneous applause. Jane smiles and the play is born. After lunch they will tackle their roles without scripts.

Following the first week of rehearsal, Jane assessed the skills of the actors and rewrote Act II, making changes from the point of view of a director rather than a playwright.

“In some cases the actors were given more than they could handle, so I pulled back and redistributed for their benefit.”

As with many of her concepts, this script began as a single image – a boy in a schoolyard duelling imaginary characters. That image led Jane on an exploration of the magic and terror of her own childhood: memories of post-war Ontario, the influence of Victorianera relatives, her love of the Rocky Mountains, and the thrill of being a teenager in the sixties. Eventually the set, characters, voices and scenes appeared to her, and the play coalesced in her mind.

The complex result follows a group of boarding school students who become lost on a mountain during a field trip. Along with invisible “Fair Folk” and a motley crew of super-chilled yogic hippies, they realize they are in the middle of a mining company’s dynamiting operation. The students, whose names evoke storybook characters such as Tink Bell and Peter Pan, are humorously assisted by a dim-witted fairy godmother and the self-centered good witch Glenda, as they learn about themselves and each other before being rescued. Oddly enough the story works.

Jane brings a lifetime of theatre experience to Orangeville. With a degree in English and drama from the University of Western Ontario and a love for musical theatre, she joined a maverick group of graduates who, under theatre instructor Ken Livingston, created an alternative theatre in London, Ontario.

“The early seventies were a time of great change and the company was small and highly experimental, presenting many original works that provided the opportunity to serve different roles in the theatre,” Jane recalls. Although she tried acting, she was shy and felt a “disconnect” on stage, and she soon turned her theatrical passions to writing and working backstage.

“As a result of that training I have a very holistic approach to theatre. I love how all the pieces are put together,” Jane says. “I understand what it feels like for the actor who doesn’t grasp the role as easily as other actors, and I work hard to help that individual break through.”

Jane also worked for Theatre London during the seventies and wrote a script for its touring show before deciding to take a break from the world of theatre. “My only experience was school and theatre,” Jane says. “I had a fear that if I sat down to write plays they would all be about school and theatres, so I made a very conscious decision to go out and experience other things.”

Nevertheless, after a move to Ottawa, Jane’s scriptwriting continued with a commission from the Canadian International Development Agency to write a musical to educate the public about the international food crisis.

“It was quite a stretch to come up with a variety of ways to talk about food in an entertaining and educational way,” Jane says.

The research for Everybody’s Gotta Eat led her to a moral decision to use her royalties from the play to open a bulk food store. For the next decade, she ran the store, along with a variety of other jobs that included writing three episodes of You Can’t Do That on Television.

“Jane’s script is brilliant,” says actor Leela Scott of Hockley Valley. “She does the coolest things. The riddles at the end are like something from a movie.”

Leela, 16, has been taking drama training at Theatre Orangeville since she was seven.

After only a week of rehearsal, her experience shows in the sophistication with which she plays Titania, the calm and powerful leader of the Fair Folk, and she serves as a role model for the younger thespians.

Although this is Leela’s last year as a performer with the Young Company, she may yet have an opportunity to stay involved as a graduate. For the first time, Jane has drafted a group of recent Young Company alumni to run the show.

“I found that we were ending up with an increasingly large group of talented young people who, at seventeen, were too old for the program. And there is not always a place for them to continue in the theatre while they are in town,” Jane says. Returning to work as coaches and technicians enriches their theatrical perspective.

Each day Jane meets with the young coaches to discuss how they can assist individual actors and ensure they are proceeding with a singular interpretation of each role. The emphasis is on teamwork and Jane trusts the coaches to pass on their knowledge to the actors.

“I feel a bit like an orchestra leader because there is a lot of work done behind the scenes beyond what I am doing,” Jane says.

Scenes from The Enchantment of Peter Pan, August 2009

continued on next page IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

65

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Every six-and-a-half hour rehearsal day begins with yoga and Tai Chi exercises.

After that, if they feel inclined, any of the thirty actors, coaches and assistants are encouraged to share their personal stories. “To me that is the heart of what theatre is about,” Jane says. “We are storytellers.”

Acting involves more than reciting lines, and this week the focus is on characterization and body language. Jane brings in the big guns to collaborate: Jenee Gowing, Matthew Shawn Fleming and Ian Walsh lead workshops in movement, voice combined with movement and stage combat, respectively.

Together they review how each character’s personality can be expressed through body language. How, for example, should 13-year-old Michael McCreary move to convey the personality of Hawthorne, whom Michael describes as a “schizoid elf”?

Getting each character’s movements right is a tall order for a large cast on a small stage. Today, it takes nearly an hour to run through what will be a mere ten seconds of performance time, and the sequence will need more polishing before it’s stage-ready. But it’s a start.

The Young Company benefits from some of the theatre’s other professional talent, as well. Among them are costume designer Vandy Simpson, lighting technician Stephen Nixon, and technical director and set designer Beckie Morris. As the students move through their paces, I pop in on Beckie and her assistants. They are up to their elbows in muslin, glue and papier mâché, covering eight Styrofoam rocks.

The set must be sturdy enough to withstand the strain of twenty climbing actors who are not always in the right place at the right time. With just a few days before they move into the theatre it appears there is much to do, but Beckie is confident all will be ready. She is proud of the set – and she should be – on stage those lumps will appear convincingly realistic.

The involvement of professional staff is an important feature of the summer program. Jane wants the students to understand that every person involved in a theatrical production – onstage and off – is equally essential to the final outcome. “If, at the age of eleven or twelve, they learn that, it is a life-long gift that will serve them well in the arts and in life in general.”

The only member of Jane’s support network who is truly behind the scenes, but whom she is quick to credit, is her husband Chris, a Caledon East physician.

The cast and some of their mentors take a break from rehearsal. back row, diagonally from left : Virginia Chambers, Rachel Griffith, Daniel Reale, Michelle Vieira, Michael McCreary, Leela Scott second row, seated : Jayde Lavoie, Justine Tompkins, Bridget O’Rourke, Jane Ohland Cameron, Erica Causi, Megan Saul second row, standing : David Draper, Lindsay Whiting, Eric Goldrup, Nicole Robertson, Holly Bus, Mariel Bulcan-Gnirss front row, sitting and kneeling : James Gerus, Jasmine Lagundzija, James Peters, Dean Harris, Megan McCreary

When Jane is involved in a creative project, Chris takes over at home, cooking, cleaning and raising the family. And during the writing process, he and Jane have animated conversations about the script, “almost to the point where I sometimes feel I should give him credit as a co-writer,” she says.

week 4 day 16 – the theatre “It’s the first stumble-through,” Jane whispers as I slip into the darkened theatre seat beside her and Jenee Gowing. The actors are well prepared and characterization emerges under the stage lights. Jenee encourages the actors to make their movements larger as they deal with unfamiliar surroundings and props.

“Pick up the cues, but don’t race the lines,” Jane calls out as some sections almost grind to a halt and others speed by in a blur of syllables.

The first show is in three days.

“I can’t wait to get on the stage to perform,” says Alton’s Jayde Lavoie. At 11 and in her first year with the Young Company, she is one of the youngest actors.

“I’ve learned that acting is what I want to do the most,” she says. “I’m not afraid to express myself in a group of similar people.” Certainly not – Jayde delivers her lines with such unbridled enthusiasm it is impossible not to smile. Her plan is to become an actress and to open an orphanage for seals.

Jane gives credit to the entire theatre staff, technical staff and volunteers for making the process work. “Not only do we have so many artists in this community who are here as mentors and inspiration for the kids, but they are artists who are willing to share their experiences with kids,” she says, citing Theatre Orangeville’s artistic director, David Nairn, as an example. “He is not just promoting what Theatre Orangeville can do for this community, he is promoting what arts can do continued on next page for young people, and the word is getting out.”

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week 4 day 19 – performance Theatre Orangeville is about half full for the Saturday matinee. Siblings, parents, relatives and friends gather on a hot August afternoon to witness what is undoubtedly an extraordinary event. The charming theatre provides a professional atmosphere that even the youngest audience members seem to respect and the actors perform beyond expectation.

Certainly it isn’t a perfect show. Some actors speak too quickly, some too softly and some stumble with their lines – but that is hardly important. What I have observed during the process is so dramatic that I doubt any of these young people will ever forget it. They have stepped into another world, learning confidence, discipline and respect, along with the impressive results that can be achieved when people work together toward a single goal.

“I feel so lucky because I can’t think of another art form that so totally captures the way I see the world – very holistically with everything connected,” Jane says.

As the curtain falls, her mind is already working overtime. “I’m starting to see cubes, circles and squares and I’m seeing the stage itself on all different levels… but I have no idea where it is going.”

By the time I check in with Jane a few months later, those geometric shapes have miraculously evolved into a play called Feelin’ Groovy, a celebration of Canadian life in the sixties. Note to aspiring thespians of 2010: Dig out the love beads. ≈ Michele Green is a former dancer, dance teacher and choreographer who lives near Belfountain.

Theatre Orangeville Academy Youth Programs Drama for Young People programs are offered throughout the year in both drama and musical theatre.

Theatre Orangeville Music Young Company and Theatre Orangeville Drama Young Company provide in-depth theatrical experiences for young people. An audition is required for entry into these summer programs. The programs culminate with a full-scale public production.

2010 Young Company Productions auditions: Drama only – March 29, 30, 31 & April 1 For both drama & musical – April 8 Musical only – April 12 and 13

Theatre Orangeville Youth Singers (TOYS choir) is a performing choir for children eight years of age and older. The program runs from September to May annually.

For further information about the youth programs, contact the box office at 519-942-3423 or 1-800-424-1295 or visit www.theatreorangeville.ca.

68

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

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Roger Irwin, Broker Barbara Rolph, Sales Representative

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

ROOM TO ROAM Immaculate 4-bedroom country home with pegged oak floor, cathedral ceiling, master suite with sundeck & loft & indoor pool, set on 12.5 acres in Erin with woods & stream & detached 3-car garage. $609,000

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WELCOME TO HAWKRIDGE FARM One of Canada’s grand country estates on 150 acres of private rolling Caledon countryside. 50 minutes from Toronto. Spectacular views. Main house is 28,000 sq ft and has 11 ensuite bedrooms and 7 fireplaces. Indoor marbleite pool complex with stone/granite fireplace, hot tub. 3 spring-fed ponds, tennis court, professional sporting clay shooting course and 4 other residences including guest house, chauffeur’s apartment, manager’s residence. $24 million Jamie Gairdner**

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

71

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IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

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STUNNING TIMBER FRAME HOME On 23 private & mature acres. Over 4,000 sq ft of beautiful living space set into the trees with a long winding driveway for privacy. Open concept with floor-to-ceiling windows, 22ft high ceiling to the peak of the great room and a huge stone fp. Beautifully appointed chef’s kitchen with classic maple cupboards, granite counters & island. Finished in-law basement apartment suite with huge windows, 2 walkouts & private stone patio. Cut trails for the nature enthusiast. MULMUR $885,000

RENOVATED BUILDING WITH 2ND FLOOR APARTMENT ON 2.98 ACRES Currently set up as a highly successful retail outlet for giftware and country crafts, this is a prime location for traffic flowing from Toronto to Collingwood, near the junction of Hwy 10 & 89. Zoned local commercial, there are many uses permitted for this property. Main building renovated & added on to by the current owners in 2000/2001. Main flr area approx 2,300 sq ft plus additional storage of 330 sq ft w/ panabode living space approx 1,000 sq ft on the 2nd floor. NEAR SHELBURNE $749,000

CAPE COD GEM ON 5 ACRES WITH POND AND VIEWS This delightful board and batten Cape Cod style home is situated in the Mulmur Hills on a 5-acre lot, perfect for full-time or recreational use. Over the years the owners have transformed this property.

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UNIQUE HOME ON 10 ACRES Own a piece of history. Original railroad station moved to its current location in the 1970s & reconfigured for residential use. 13ft ceilings, flr-to-ceiling windows, solid wood century doors, full unfin bsmt, mature lot. MONO $484,900

ELEGANT VICTORIAN BRICK SEMI Like no other in town. Upgraded & revitalized over the over the last 10 years. High ceilings, original flrs, huge addition w/ sep suite. Beautiful mature lot w/ sep garage/studio & high privacy fences. CS zoning. ORANGEVILLE $399,000

IMMACULATE MOVE IN READY Bright open concept Arlington model home, beech hrdwd flooring, solid oak staircase, beautiful cream coloured shaker style kit w/ faux stone counter. Larger size lot w/ newly planted spruce & apple trees. SHELBURNE $259,900

4 BEDROOM COUNTRY HOME On a mature 1.3 ac lot on rolling terrain w/ views of the Mulmur Hills. Open concept, wood flooring, massive picture windows, lrg decks on 2 levels. Great family or retirement home. Close to ski hills, 1 hr from airport. MULMUR $379,900

FARM ON 73 ROLLING ACRES Farmhouse & outbuildings incl century bank barn. With bush, views & stream on the property.

Opportunity for home business - or could easily convert into a hobby horse farm. Close to skiing, fishing and golf. MULMUR $399,900

MULMUR GEM Recently severed lot with views to the Niagara Escarpment. An attractive parcel located in an area of beautiful recreational properties. Close to downhill and cross-country skiing, golf and walking trails. MULMUR $259,900

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

73

MOFFAT DUNLAP

MARY KLEIN Sales Representative

REAL ESTATE LIMITED, BROKERAGE

905-454-1100 Direct: 1-866-999-5250

905-841-7430 www.moffatdunlap.com

OVERALL TOP SALESPERSON - 2001, 2003 through 2009* Sutton Group - Brampton, Orangeville, Caledon, Erin

www.maryklein.com

PROFESSIONAL REALTY INC BROKERAGE Independently Owned and Operated *Based on yearly gross sales

Moffat Dunlap*, John Dunlap**, Peter Boyd, Murray Snider, George Webster, Peter Bowers*** *Broker, **Broker of Record, ***Sales Representative

“WATERVIEW” CALEDON Caledon’s premier country residence.

Overlooks private lake. 113 acres. 3 other houses. Greenhouse. Tennis pool, outbuildings. $6.5 million

“GEORGIAN MANOR” CALEDON Great south Caledon location. Grand residence overlooks its own valley. Pool, tennis, river, trails. Separate apartment. $2,050,000

CONSERVATION 1.21 ACRE LOT Impeccably kept open concept 3 bdrm, 2.5 bath has great rm w/ gas fp, maple kitchen w/ stainless steel appliances. New 4-season studio, trex decking, 3-car garage. Stunning landscaping. Quality throughout. $789,900

BACKS TO CONSERVATION Premium lot sides onto park. Stone/brick 3 bedroom, 2 baths w/ great room, gas fp, cathedral ceilings, open concept w/ cherry kitchen, w/o to deck. Full unfinished walkout basement. Sprinkler system. $668,900

LUXURIOUS BUILDER’S HOME Unsurpassed quality! 3,735 sq ft, 3+1 bedroom stone bungalow, 10ft ceilings, basement rec room with bar & home theatre.

Gourmet kitchen, sunken great room, stunning landscaping. Extras galore! $1,150,000

CALEDON ACRE, IN-LAW SUITE 5 minutes to Brampton! Immaculate, all brick, 3 bdrm, 2.5 bath raised bungalow w/ separate entry to 2-bdrm in-law apartment.

On-ground heated pool, custom utility shed.

Fabulous for extended family. $638,900

“WINDSONG MEWS” TERRA COTTA This is just the guest house! Superb main residence plus gatehouse, pond, waterfalls and glorious gardens. $2,750,000

“CONVERTED BARN” CALEDON Fabulous living space crafted from converted barn. Trout pond. Staff house.

Heated workshop. 99 acres. Privacy. $3.95 million

Sandra Cranston-Corradini Sales Representative

www.sandrasellshomes.ca

705-440-7098 / 416-635-1232

Your goals are my first priority!

Town or country, I can help.

74

“HUMBERVIEW STABLES” NEAR PALGRAVE Original farmhouse, plus renovated river cottage, staff apartment, new board paddocks, 20 stalls, indoor arena. $1.495 million

“55 ACRES”, HOCKLEY 5-bedroom home overlooking Hockley Valley. Passive solar design. Separate 2-bedroom apartment in walkout lower level. 50 mile views! $890,000

“HEADWATERS” CALEDON Modern Bauhaus designed home overlooks Belfountain. Private setting. River. Superb view. 2-storey living room. 4-car garage. $1.595 million

“HOCKLEY VALLEY” Step atop a plateau overlooking large stocked pond. 3,000 sq ft energy efficient home. Workshop, saltwater pool, paddocks, stable. $749,900

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Homelife/Romano Realty Ltd., Brokerage

COUNTRY LIVING AT ITS FINEST Beautiful 4-bedroom home at Lake Sylvid, Hwys 9 and 50. Spacious, open concept with 3-car garage and 768 sq ft heated workshop. Gated, interlock drive and 57 acres of shared land adjacent to conservation land and trails. $619,900

WINTER WONDERLAND A pastoral setting and the ultimate in privacy, 99.5 acres, swimming pond, quaint country home with detached garage and pole barn. Beautiful country home featuring lovely all-season sunroom, spacious family room with wood-burning fireplace, huge dining room perfect for entertaining.

Sprawling master bedroom area complete with fireplace, 5-piece ensuite with whirlpool tub.

The list goes on... $635,000

FINE, FERTILE, FARMLAND 180 acre farm just minutes from Orangeville. Fertile, productive used for potatoes and wheat. The land is high and rolling with pond and mixed bush near the rear.

Long laneway leads to classic century brick farmhouse in original condition along with bank barn and detached drive shed. $990,000

COUNTRY SOPHISTICATION This exceptional country property on rolling lot features cherry cabinets in kitchen, centre island and breakfast nook with walkout to porch. Living room open to second level, finished basement with rec room and separate den. $549,000

ENJOY THE VIEW Executive bungalow w/ views of Island Lake. 3 car garage, master suite on one side of home & 2 bdrm on other side for max privacy! 9’ ceilings on main level, sep dining & great rm, convenient pantry w/ pocket door & much more... $669,900

GREAT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY Own one of Shelburne’s finest buildings, this six-plex in supreme condition, well cared for and managed offers 1 bachelor apt, 2-two bedroom apts & 3-one bedroom apt. $469,900

BRING YOUR IMAGINATION An exceptional 46.44 acre parcel of land in south Mulmur offering great views, open meadow, small bush and pond site. Great place to create your homestead. $349,900

LIVING WITH NATURE An outstanding parcel on newly paved road.

71.4 acres of rolling land with approximately 30 acres workable, 15 acres hardwood bush, 15 acres mature spruce trees and 10 acres of open meadow. $379,900

GREAT FAMILY LIVING Beautiful 1/2 acre lot in Cardinal Woods, featuring heated tile floors, maple hardwood floors, large eat-in kitchen with walkout to deck and master with walk-in closet and 4-piece ensuite. $469,900

TRY WORKING FROM HOME 24 acre property with convenient hwy access, 2 ponds, well treed plus open meadow with water hydrant. Two storey home plus sep apt, inground pool, detached double garage & sep 2 storey steel building. $639,900

49 ACRES! Imagine the possibilities! This 49 acre parcel of land is fronting on Highway #10, level and open, north of Shelburne. $199,900

GREAT LOCATION This 91 acre corner farm located on paved county road. High and rolling land with approximately 70 acres workable. Features include 3 bedroom farmhouse, detached steel drive shed 54’ x 100’ with 2-18’ doors, 2 vehicle doors, hydro and water. Original bank barn, approximately 60’ x 80’ with hydro and water available, as well as grain bin. $679,000

COME HOME TO COUNTRY Own this 166 acres of land located on Highway #10, just north of Shelburne. Features a 4 bedroom bungalow home with unfinished basement. Large bank barn has water and hydro, separate drive shed and silo. $699,000 Also available (2 acre lot $59,900) with driveway off of the sideroad and frontage on Highway #10.

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

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I L L U S T R AT I O N S J I M S T E WA R T

Stone culvert below the Caledon Trailway, west of Palgrave; built c.1890.

What’s on in the Hills A

MARGARET M

C A L E N D A R

home+ garden MAR – MAY : SHELBURNE & DISTRICT HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY All meetings

at 7:30pm, except as noted. Guests welcome. Membership $10, juniors $1.

New Horizons Room, Mel Lloyd Centre, 167 Centre St, Shelburne. 519-925-2182; shelburne@gardenontario.org.

Hwy 10, Caledon Village (South of lights) 519-927-3600 Closed Mondays

Mar 22, The Artful Approach to Floral Photography: Photos and tips by Cliff Smith. Apr 26, Where Have all the Flowers Gone?: Presentation by Trish Symons. May 17, Creating a Perennial Bed of Continuous Bloom: Spring flower show and Lorraine Roberts of Plant Paradise.

May 29, Plant Sale: Perennials from members’ gardens and more. 9am.

Dufferin Mutual Insurance parking lot, 712 Main St E, Shelburne.

APR – JUN : ORANGEVILLE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 7-9:30pm,

except as noted. Visitors welcome.

Orangeville Seniors Centre, 26 Bythia St. 519-940-0261, j-cutter@sympatico.ca.

Farm-gate market offering drug-free black angus beef, bison, wild boar, lamb, chicken and pork.

Also carrying an assortment of culinary delights from local producers.

Taste You Can Trust Wed, Thurs, Fri 10-6; Sat 10-4; Sun 12-4

17049 Winston Churchill Blvd, Caledon 519.927.5902 www.heatherleafarmmarket.ca 76

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Apr 13, Care of Trees: Presented by Ray Flannagan. May 11, Irises: Presented by Bob & Ann Granatier. Flower show.

May 22, Flower Show, Plant & Garage Sale: Perennials, house plants, herbs.

8am sharp, til plants gone. Jun 8, Floral Design: Hand-tied flowers for your home by Judy James.

O F

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H A P P E N I N G S

Apr 17, Dividing Perennials: Techniques.

Apr 24, Gardening 101: Helpful tips.

May 1, The Benefits of Mycorrhizal Fungi Workshop: Grow healthier plants.

May 8, Naturalizing Techniques & Lawn Alternatives: Gardening for problem areas. May 9, Mother’s Day Tea & Tulips: Bring mom for complimentary tea/coffee and garden tour. 9am-6pm. May 15, Landscaping with Native Perennials & Wildflowers. May 22, Spectacular Plant Combinations: Fundamentals of perennial design. May 29, Woodland Wonderland: Create a woodland retreat.

Jun 5, Continuous Colour: Creating continuous bloom from spring until frost. Jun 19 & 20, Art in the Garden: Original art set among beautiful gardens. 9am-6pm.

Presbyterian Church, 83 Main St, Hillsburgh. 519-855-4390.

MAR 26 – 28 : ORANGEVILLE LIONS CLUB HOME & GARDEN SHOW Local

A spacious country garden combining careful design, unusual plantings, spectacular Escarpment views. 10am-4pm.

Lilactree Farm, 547231 8th Siderd, Mulmur. 519-925-5577; lilactree@ sympatico.ca.

businesses and suppliers. Fri 5-9pm, Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 9am-4pm. Orangeville Agricultural Building and Fairgrounds, 5 Siderd Mono, off Hockley Rd. 519941-2401 x 227; www.orangevillelions.org.

APR 10 & 24 : GLEN ECHO SEMINARS

10am-noon. $10, refundable as coupon for same-day use. 15070 Airport Rd, Caledon. 905-584-9973. www.glenecho. com. Apr 10, Pond opening. Apr 24, Rainwater Harvest.

APR 16 – 18 : CALEDON HOME SHOW

Annual spring event is host to over 80 businesses. Presented by the Caledon Chamber of Commerce. Fri 4-9pm, Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 10am-3pm. Don Sheardown Memorial Arena, Hwy 50, Bolton.

905-857-7393; www.caledonchamber.com.

MAY 1 : ERIN HOME & LIFESTYLE SHOW

Specialty glass, ironware, furniture, landscaping, farm produce, toys, books, home reno ideas and more. 10am-4pm.

Adults $2; children free. Centre 2000 Arena, 14 Boland Dr, Erin. 519-855-6683; ewintersinger@hotmail.com.

MAY 2, 23, JUN 20, JUL 11, SEP 26 : LILACTREE FARM OPEN GARDEN

MAY 29 : HUGE PLANT SALE Grand Valley Horticultural Society sale: perennials, annuals and houseplants, fabulous prices. 8am. Grand Valley Church of Christ, 50 Amaranth St E. 519-928-2949; www.grandvalley.org/ actiononline/grandvalley/hortsociety.

MAY 29 : BOLTON SPRING PLANT SALE

APR – JUN : PLANT PARADISE WORKSHOPS 10-11am, except as noted.

Free, register. 16258 Humber Station Rd, Palgrave. 905-880-9090; lorraine@ plantparadise.ca.

APR 14 : VINES & VERTICAL GARDENS

Presented by Lorraine Mennen of Pathways to Perennials. Hillsburgh Garden Club. 7:30-9pm. Membership $10; family $15; guest $2. St Andrew’s

Perennials donated by local gardeners.

Bolton Horticultural Society. 9am.

Albion Bolton Community Centre, 150 Queen St S, Bolton. 905-857-4741; www.boltonhort.info.

JUN 26 : MONO GARDEN TOUR Eight spectacular private country gardens in the hills of Mono, presented by Dufferin Arts Council. 10am-4pm. $20, after Apr 12 from BookLore, Renaissance, Jelly Craft, Hockley General Store & others. 416-5335792; 705-424-9727; misdub1@hotmail. com; www.dufferinartscouncil.com.

JUN 26 – SUMMER THYME HERB & GARDEN FAIR Family activities, demos,

refreshments, vendors, herbs and garden items. 9am-4pm. Free. Wellington County Museum and Archives, 0536 Wellington Rd 18. 519-846-0916; www.wcm.on.ca.

arts+craft NOW – MAR 21 : TOUCHED BY LIGHT

watercolour) and discussion, with model.

10am-4pm. Bring lunch. $45. Victoria Parks Community Centre, Mono Mills.

519-307-0210; wgalloway@rogers.com.

APR 24 – JUN 13 : THREADWORKS 2010

Juried fibre art exhibit. 9:30am-4:30pm, w/end 12-4pm. Museum admission.

Wellington County Museum and Archives, 0536 Wellington Cty Rd 18, Elora/Fergus.

519-846-0916; info@wcm.on.ca.

MAY 1 & 2 : HOT GLASS – COOL BEADS

Spring jewellery collection. Bead naming contest. Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Fri 10am7pm, Sun 11am-4pm. Dragonfly Arts, 189 Broadway, Orangeville. 519-941-5249; grant.beth@sympatico.ca.

MAY 8 – JUN 20 : ANNUAL STUDENT ART SHOW Talented artists from eight

Ila Sisson’s exhibition of photographs of sacred sites. Coincides with Sacred Healing Fire (Mar 18-21). 633206 Hwy 10, just N of First St, Orangeville. 519-921-3115.

local high schools. Awards ceremony, live music, 2pm Sat May 8. Dufferin County Museum and Archives.

Hwy 89 & Airport Rd. 1-877-941-7787; events@dufferinmuseum.com.

NOW – MAR 30 : WINDOW ON BROADWAY – SUSAN POWELL

MAY 8 & 9 : GOOD THINGS Sale of

Bright, bold watercolours. Tue-Sat 10am-5pm, Fri to 7pm. Dragonfly Arts, 189 Broadway, Orangeville. 519-941-5249; s.powell065@sympatico.ca.

NOW – APR 5 : ARRESTING IMAGES

Display of mug shots from the OPP Museum. 9:30am-4:40pm, w/end noon-4pm. Museum admission.

Wellington County Museum and Archives, 0536 Wellington Cty Rd 18, Elora/Fergus.

519-846-0916; www.wcm.ca.

MAR 19 – MAY 16 : SPRING AWAKENINGS Celtic festival features works by

local artists. (Festival March 20).

Wed-Sun 10am-5pm. Headwaters Arts Gallery. Historic Alton Mill. 1-877-2620545; www.headwatersartsfestival.com.

MAR 20 – 28 : FESTIVAL OF QUILTS

Celebration of quilts throughout the village. 10am-5pm. Main St, Erin.

519-833-0872; sg@renaissance-erin.com.

MAR 27 – MAR 2011 : HMCS FERGUS: LIFE ABOARD A WWII CORVETTE

Honouring the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Navy and the last corvette commissioned. 9:30am-4:30pm, w/end 12-4pm. Museum admission. Wellington County Museum and Archives, 0536 Wellington Cty Rd 18, Elora/Fergus.

519-846-0916; info@wcm.on.ca.

APR 10 : FROM PAINTING TO COMPUTER Take and adjust a digital

photograph to a painting. Orangeville Art Group. 10am-4pm. Bring lunch, painting, camera, laptop. $45. Victoria Parks Community Centre, Mono Mills.

519-307-0210; wgalloway@rogers.com; www.orangevilleartgroup.ca.

APR 17 – MAY 9 : THE MADE OF WOOD SHOW Display and sale. Interactive

demo. Mother’s Day Weekend,10am-5pm.

Opening Sat Apr 17, 3-6pm, Burdette Gallery. Two venues: Main St, Erin, and Burdette Gallery, 11th line, Orton.

519-833-8560; brianoates@hotmail.com.

APR 17 : PORTRAITURE Workshop

applicable to all media with David Chesterton. Demonstrations (in

TO THE

paintings, alpaca fibre, weaving, jewellery, stained glass and more. Sat 1-5pm, Sun noon-5pm. Rosemont Hall, Hwy 89.

519-925-0421; kai-liis@sympatico.ca.

MAY 15 & 16, 22 – 24 (WEEKENDS) : SHADES OF GRAY – LINDA MCLAREN

Show and sale of original artwork demonstrating her love of nature and rural life. 9am-6pm. Cliff Swallow Studio, 384406 20 Siderd Amaranth. 519-9256040; linda.mclaren@sympatico.ca.

APRIL 16, 17 & 18

MAY 21 – JUL 11 : HOT ART COOL JAZZ

Themed art exhibit in conjunction with the Orangeville Blues and Jazz Festival.

Wed-Sun, 10am-5pm. Headwaters Arts Gallery, Alton Mill, 1402 Queen St. West.

1-877-262-0545; info@headwatersarts festival.com.

MAY 22 – JUN 20 : MASTERWORKS SOUTHWEST Ontario Crafts Council

juried craft show. Thurs-Sun 10am-5pm.

Burdette Gallery, 111212 11th Line, Orton.

519-928-5547; art@burdettegallery.com.

MAY 26 – JUN 23 : DRAGONFLY FEATURE WALL – KATHRYN NAYLOR

Paintings from a recent trip to Mount Kilimanjaro. Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Fri until 7, Sun 11am-4pm. Dragonfly Arts, 189 Broadway, Orangeville. 519-941-5249; info@dragonflyarts.ca.

JUN 1 – 30 : ROTHSTEIN/SHABASON/ HARSTONE/BABYN EXHIBIT Marty,

Anne, Merle and Elizabeth bring together current work in stimulating exhibit.

Wed-Sun noon-5pm. Williams Mill Gallery, 515 Main St, Glen Williams. 905-873-8203; gallery@williamsmills.com.

JUN 2, 16, 22, 23: WATERCOLOUR WORKSHOPS June 2, Textures; June 16,

150 Queen St S (Bolton Arena) Over 80 Exhibitors | Model Home | Free Admission Free Parking | Daily Door Prizes | Penny Raffle

Flowers; June 22, Teddy Bears; June 23, Skies & Trees. 10am-4pm. Register.

Kai-Liis Art Studio, Mulmur. 519-925-0421.

JUN 4 – 6 : DRAGONFLY PAINTS THE BLUES Studio artists explore blue.

10am-5pm, open late Fri & Sat. Dragonfly Arts, 189 Broadway, Orangeville.

519-941-5249; info@dragonflyarts.ca.

Corporate Sponsor Sponsored by:

RBC | RADIO CALEDON THE AMAZING RAIN FOREST | BDO CANADA LLP

continued on next page IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

77

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continued from page 77 JUN 6 : CORN FLOWER FESTIVAL

Celebrate the famous glassware pattern

by W J Hughes. Share sessions, consignment sale and collectors club.

10am-4pm. $10. Dufferin County Museum and Archives. Hwy 89 & Airport Rd, Rosemont. 1-877-941-7787; events@dufferinmuseum.com.

JUN 18 – 20 : QUINT*ESSENTIAL 2010 – IT’S A WRAP Show and sale of blown

glass, jewellery, paintings, pottery and hand weaving. Opening Fri 6-9pm, live music; Sat & Sun 10am-5pm.

Mono Community Centre, 754483 Mono Centre Rd. 519-925-3056; www.brendaroy.com/5.html.

JUN 20 – AUG 29 : HAL HENRY – DUFFERIN’S RENAISSANCE MAN

Fifty years of rural scenes, people and animals. Museum hours/admission.

Dufferin County Museum and Archives, Airport Rd and Hwy 89. 1-877-941-7787; events@dufferinmuseum.com.

JUN 26 – AUG 8 : PAUL MORIN – SOLO SHOW Artist, illustrator & filmmaker.

Thurs-Sun 10am-5pm. Burdette Gallery, 111212 11th Line, Orton. 519- 928-5547; art@burdettegallery.com.

community YEAR-ROUND (THURSDAYS) : ADJUSTMENTS AFTER BIRTH Postpartum

support group. 1:30-3:30pm. Caledon Parent-Child Centre, 150 Queen St S, Bolton. 1-905-857-0900; www.cp-cc.org.

Chef Services

April 17 - May 9, 2010 at Burdette Gallery & in Erin, Ontario www.madeofwoodshow.com

* Weekly in-home meal preparation * Customized menus * Seniors’ textured meals * Seasonal baking Contact Tastebudz 705-716-3013 10% Discount for Seniors

NOW – JUN : CPCC PARENTING WORKSHOPS Supporting parents of

children newborn to six years. Parenting and child development topics. Caledon Parent-Child Centre/Ontario Early Years, 150 Queen St S, Bolton. 1-905-857-0900; www.cp-cc.org.

NOW – JUN : DPSN PARENTING WORKSHOPS Supporting parents of

school-aged children. Discipline, communication, healthy anger, stress management, etc. Various venues.

519-940-8678. www.dpsn.ca.

NOW – DEC 31 : A DAY IN THE LIFE

ROOFING NOTIFICATION Interlock Industries (Ont) Inc. is now offering the Interlock® Roof at huge savings to promote immediate public awareness of our energy efficient, permanent and eco-friendly roofs.

You’ll never re-roof again. Never.

Substantial and instant savings now offered to homeowners in return for helping us create market awareness through product exposure in your community.

Lifetime Ltd. Warranty, 50 years transferable non-prorated. Interlock® is one of Canada’s largest installers of lifetime roofing. Now with TEFLON® surface protector.

1-866-733-5810 www.yournextroof.ca

78

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

DCMA 2010 exhibit introduces you, through objects, to some of the people of Dufferin County. Museum hours/ admission. Dufferin County Museum and Archives, Hwy 89 and Airport Rd. 1-877941-7787; www.dufferinmuseum.com.

MAR 20, APR 17, MAY 15, JUN 19 (SATURDAYS) : PANCAKE BREAKFAST

Caledon Navy League cooks a hearty breakfast of pancakes & sausages.

Proceeds to Bolton Sea Cadets. 9amnoon. Adults $5, kids/seniors $3. Bolton United Church, 8 Nancy St. 905-951-7182.

MAR 24 : CALEDON BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AWARDS Celebrate business

excellence in Caledon. Nominate yourself or another business. Categories and

H A P P E N I N G S

applications online. Caledon Chamber of Commerce. Caesar’s Event Centre, Bolton.

905-857-7393; www.caledonchamber.com.

MAR 24 : INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL NETWORKING/WEB 2.0 Seminar

presented by Orangeville and Area Small Business Enterprise Centre and Ministry of Economic Development & Trade. 9am. $10. Register. Best Western Inn & Suites, 7 Buena Vista Dr, Orangeville. 519-9410440; sbec@orangeville.ca.

APR 14 : FINANCING YOUR SMALL BUSINESS Orangeville and Area Small

Business Enterprise Centre and TD Canada Trust seminar on small business financing from a banking perspective. 9am. Free.

Register. Orangeville Hydro, 400 C Line.

519-941-0440; sbec@orangeville.ca.

APR 17 : BOLTON UNITED CHURCH FISH FRY Enjoy lake trout & whitefish

fresh from Georgian Bay plus vegetables & desserts. 4-7pm. Adults $14; children aged 6-12 $6; 5 & under free. Bolton United Church, 8 Nancy St. 905-857-2615; buc@ istar.ca; www.boltonunitedchurch.com.

APR 18 : BOLTON-CALEDON MS WALK

Family-oriented event combines fundraising with food, entertainment and prizes. Check in 8:30am, walk 10am.

Caledon Community Complex, 6215 Old Church Rd, Caledon East. 416-922-6600; valerie.stevens@mssociety.ca.

APR 18 : VETERANS’ APPRECIATION DAY & LAUNCH OF WAR MEMORIAL

Special day for Veterans and DCMA Virtual War Memorial project, 2pm.

Museum admission, free for Vets.

Dufferin County Museum and Archives, Hwy 89 & Airport Rd. 1-877-941-7787; events@dufferinmuseum.com.

APR 18 : A SPRING AFFAIR Fashion show

by Outback & Co, Caledon and the Ascot Room. Proceeds to Hospice Caledon’s Bethell House, palliative care facility for Caledon & Dufferin County. 11am-2pm. $40, incl brunch. Royal Ambassador, 15430 Innis Lake Rd, Caledon East.

519-927-3335; doreen.beffort@sympatico. ca; www.hospicecaledon.ca.

APR 18 : SPRING GARDEN LUNCH

MAY 7 – 9 : SMALL BUSINESS EXPO

“Adventures in my country garden,” presentation by author, ex-urbanite Sonia Day, plus lunch, music, silent auction.

Proceeds to Orangeville SPCA. Noon3pm. $25, from BookLore or shelter.

Caledon Country Club, 2121 Olde Baseline Rd. 519-942-3140; www.orangeville. ontariospca.ca.

Local businesses promote their products and services. Fri 4-9pm, Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-4pm. Orangeville Mall.

519-278-0312; www.thesbexpo.com.

APR 24 : THE GREAT BIG GARAGE SALE

Family fun: games, woodworking, kids’ crafts, homemade goods, BBQ & more.

10am-2pm. Free. Mono Amaranth Public School, 246303 Hockley Rd, Mono.

519-941-5555; cathy-moran@hotmail.com; www.ugdsb.on.ca/mono.

MAY 8 – OCT 23 (SATURDAYS) ORANGEVILLE FARMERS’ MARKET

APR 24 : CALEDON AGRICULTURAL ANTIQUE QUILT SHOW Antique and

MAY 12 : STARTING A SMALL BUSINESS

APR 24 : MONO VISIONING CONFERENCE Begins the process of articulating

a desirable future for the Town of Mono.

8am-noon. $10. Ecology Retreat, 308046 Hockley Valley Rd, Mono. 519-941-6537; bookings@ecologyretreatcentre.com.

APR 24 : CHELTENHAM BEEF BBQ

Presented by Cheltenham United Church.

5-7pm. $16; children under 10 $6. Eat in or take out. Creditview Public School, King St & Mississauga Rd, Caledon.

905-838-3417.

APR 28 : SMALL BUSINESS INSURANCE

Orangeville and Area Small Business Enterprise Centre presents Small Business Insurance with speaker Roy Chopp, Cooperators. 6:30-9pm. Free, register. Alder St Recreation Centre. 275 Alder St, Orangeville. 519-941-0440; sbec@orangeville.ca.

MAY 1 : SERENGETI SUNSET Dinner and

auction in support of Headwaters Health Care Centre. 5:30pm. $175, portion tax deductible. Orangeville Agricultural Centre, 247090 5 Siderd, off Hockley Rd. 519-9412702; jshephard@headwatershealth.ca.

MAY 2 : MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE CLINIC Learn how to ready your bike

for spring. 10am-4pm. $85, incl lunch.

Orangeville, call for directions. 519943-1131; clinics@trilliumtours.com.

MAY 2 : ONTARIO SPCA FRIENDS FOR LIFE WALK-A-THON 5km walk on

Local fresh produce, home-baked goods, live performances. 8am-1pm. Downtown, Second St, Orangeville. BIA; 519-942-0087.

Seminar presented by Orangeville and Area Small Business Enterprise Centre.

6:30-9:30pm. $10, register. Alder St Recreation Centre, 275 Alder St, Orangeville. 519-941-0440; sbec@ orangeville.ca.

MAY 12 : THE PINK PROJECT: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A GIRL Being a

girl aged 5-11 in the 21st century, presented by four researchers. For parents, grandparents, teachers and others. 7-9pm. $10. Princess Margaret Public School, 51 Wellington St, Orangeville. 519-9408678; info@dpsn.ca.

MAY 16 : WOMEN’S MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE CLINIC Learn how to

ready your bike for spring. 10-4pm. $85, plus tax, includes lunch. Orangeville, call for directions. 519-943-1131; clinics@ trilliumtours.com.

Every Saturday | May 8th to October 23rd | 8am to 1pm Orangeville’s Historic Town Hall Locally grown vegetables, flowers, fruits and more!

WHERE THE SEEDS ARE PLANTED AND A COMMUNITY GROWS

marketonbroadway.ca

MAY 23 – 30 : MY.HOSPITAL@WORK/ SCHOOL & GOLFING FOR MY. HOSPITAL Strengthen your staff morale

while raising money for a good cause!

Dufferin/Caledon area. Jen Shephard, 519-942-2702 x 2303; jshephard@ headwatershealth.ca.

MAY 24 : MUSEUM MONTH OPEN HOUSE DCMA invites everyone to

explore the big green barn, in conjuntion with “May is Museum Month.” 10am4pm. Free. Dufferin County Museum and Archives, Hwy 89 & Airport Rd. 1-877941-7787; events@dufferinmuseum.com.

MAY 27 : FASHIONABLE AFFAIR Peel Region Agricultural Society (Brampton Fall Fair) presents The Fashion Network, Outback & Co. & Undercover Wear.

6:30pm-10am. $20. Brampton Fairgrounds, 12942 Heart Lake Rd, Caledon. 905-8432747; ruth.wiggins@sympatico.ca.

MAY 29 : ERIN SUMMER CELEBRATION

Orangeville trailways. Get pledges to help the animals. Registration 10am; walk 11am. Alder St Recreation Centre, 275 Alder St. 519-942-3140; www.orangeville. ontariospca.ca.

Unique merchandise sidewalk sale includes a variety of events in historic downtown Erin. 9am-5pm. Main St. 519-833-0872; sg@renaissance-erin.com.

MAY 7 : HAM DINNER Plus scalloped

Discover Dufferin! Take an informative and entertaining ride. 10am-3pm. $25, incl lunch. Reserve, from Apr 30.

Dufferin County Museum and Archives, Hwy 89 & Airport Rd. 1-877-941-7787; events@dufferinmuseum.com. continued on next page

potatoes and homemade pies. United Church Women fundraiser. 5-7pm. $12 advance; $15 at door; children 5-12, $6; under 5 free. Westminster United Church, 247 Broadway, Orangeville. 519-941-0381; westminster@westminsterorangeville.ca.

AT THE MARKET ON BROADWAY FARMERS’ MARKET!

MAY 8 : M.A.P.S. SPRING FLING

Great finds: antiques, collectibles, toys, household, books, and more. Proceeds to Coalition of Concerned Citizens. 9am4pm.Bring your own bags. $2; children under 12, free. Someday Farm, 5192 Winston Churchill Blvd, Caledon. 905838-4333; admin@coalitioncaledon.com.

antique-style quilts presented by the Caledon Agricultural Society Hall Exhibit Division. All day tea service. Celebrate the 150th anniversary of Caledon Fair.

10am-4pm. $1.50. Caledon Village Place, Hwy 10 and Charleston Siderd. 519941-6163; www.caledonfairgrounds.ca.

KNOW WHERE IT GROWS

MAY 29 : DCMA SPRING BUS TOUR

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

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continued from page 79 JUN 4 : PALGRAVE ROTARY ANNUAL WINE TASTING Sample wines from

around the world, great food and camaraderie. 6:15-8:45pm. $40, tickets from Palgrave Rotarians and website.

Palgrave Equestrian Park, 905-880-1590; www.rotaryclubofpalgrave.com.

The Humber School for Writers Summer Workshop July 10 – July 16, 2010 faculty Elizabeth Abbott David Bezmozgis Wayson Choy Anthony De Sa Bruce Jay Friedman Mary Gaitskill Annabel Lyon Alistair MacLeod Richard Scrimger Olive Senior Marsha Skrypuch D. M. Thomas Miriam Toews M. G. Vassanji Antanas Sileika antanas.sileika@humber.ca 416-675-6622 ext. 3448 creativeandperformingarts.humber.ca/writers Toronto, Ontario, Canada

JUN 6 : WALK OF FAME & TRAIL CELEBRATION Caledon honours

residents who have made significant contributions locally, nationally or internationally. 11am-2pm. Airport Rd & Old Church Rd, Caledon East. 905-5842272; recreation@caledon.ca.

JUN 11 & 12 : CANCER SOCIETY DUFFERIN TRACK WALK Overnight

track walk for individuals, survivors and teams. Raise pledges or donate.

Orangeville Agricultural Centre, 5 Siderd Mono, off Hockley Rd. 519-941-7024; www.cancer.ca/relay.

JUN 11 – 13 : 150TH ANNUAL CALEDON FAIR Includes agricultural awareness tent,

re-enactment, parade, gymkhana, cattle show and live entertainment. Competition for best-dressed man, woman or family in 1800s-1900s garb. Fri 5-10pm; Sat 8am-10pm; Sun 8am-10pm. $5; $10 family.

Caledon Fairgrounds, 18297 Hurontario St. 519-925-3461; www.caledonfairgrounds.ca.

JUN 13 : MONO IN MOTION Fun-filled

family afternoon,games with a “twist.”

1-4pm. Free. Monora Park Pavilion, 633220 Hwy 10, just N of Orangeville.

519-941-3599; judyk@townofmono.com.

O F

S P R I N G

H A P P E N I N G S

film+theatre MAR 18 – MAR 27 : MY GIDDY AUNT

A riotous romp involves Lady Eppingham, her half sister, and unscrupulous nephews. Directed by Nick Holmes. ThursSat 8pm, $18; matinee Mar 27 2:30pm, $15. Century Church Theatre, Hillsburgh.

519-855-4586; jophenix@sympatico.ca; www.centurychurchtheatre.com.

MAR 24 & 25 : FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

Music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, book by Joseph Stein. Set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. Presented by the Brampton Theatre School. 8pm. Adults $20; students/seniors, $15. Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre La. 905-874-2800; bramptontheatreschool@live.com; www.myrosetheatre.ca.

MAR 25 : ALTDOT COMEDY LOUNGE

An alternative, comfortable, cabaret atmosphere. Six comedians. 8pm. $10 advance; $15 at door. Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre La. 905-874-2800; rosetheatre@brampton.ca.

MAR 30 : BRENT BUTT With Corner

Gas wrapped up, Brent returns to his roots with his clean-cut, coffee-shop humour. 8pm. $55-$75. Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre La. 905-874-2800; rosetheatre@brampton.ca.

APR 1, 9, 16 : FOCUS ON FILM Dufferin

Arts Council lectures by Eva Ziemsen.

Movies inside & out, director’s vision, editing, and how films changed our world. 10am. $40 series, $15 single. Grace Tipling Hall, Shelburne. 705-435-6110.

APR 8 – 25 : EIGHTEEN WHEELS

Rockin’ musical journey through Ontario, prairies and Rocky Mountains, where a missed gear change will find you at the bottom of the canyon! Thurs-Sat 8pm; matinees Wed & Sun 2pm, Sat 3pm.

Fri/Sat evg $35.60; Thurs $32.45; matinees $29.30. Town Hall Opera House, 87 Broadway, Orangeville. 519-942-3423; tickets@theatreorangeville.ca.

APR 9 & 10, 16 & 17 : MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN Inglewood Schoolhouse

Performers present two one-act plays by Noel Coward: Family Album & Star Chamber. Cabaret-style evening includes Clay Hills Band. 8-10pm. $15; dinner/ theatre Apr 17, $30. Inglewood Community Centre, 15825 McLaughlin Rd. 905-838-3359; kmaloney@xplornet.com.

APR 12 : MONDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – LOVE AND SAVAGERY Rated

14A. 4:30, 7 & 9:20pm. $8 from BookLore.

Galaxy Cinema, Orangeville. 519-941-5146; www.mondaynightmovies.ca.

APR 14 – 18, 23 – 25, 29 – MAY 1 : THE ODD COUPLE Comedy, divorced slob

Oscar and meticulous Felix move in together with hilarious results. 8:15pm, matinee Sun 2:15pm. $13-$17. Blackhorse Village Players, 17272 Mount Wolfe Rd, Caledon. 905-880-5002.

JUN 17 – OCT 7 (THURSDAYS) : CALEDON FARMERS’ MARKET Only

The Globe Restaurant Fine dining in 19th century surroundings

*****

Lunches • Teas • Dinners (Closed Tuesdays)

*****

Reservations (705) 435-6981 In Rosemont, Hwy. 89, east of Airport Rd. www.thegloberestaurant.ca

locally grown produce and locally raised meat, plus local artisans. 3-7pm. Albion Bolton Community Centre, 150 Queen St S, Bolton. 905-584-2272; www.caledon.ca/ farmersmarket.

JUN 19 – 20 : HIGH COUNTRY ANTIQUE POWER CLUB SHOW Enjoy the history

of farming with working activities.

Tractor pull. 8am-5pm, parade 3pm.

Camping, food available. $5 at gate.

Orangeville Fair Grounds, 5 Siderd Mono, off Hockley Rd. 519-942-8635; www.antiquefarmpower.com.

JUL 1 : CANADA DAY STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL Pancake breakfast, strawberry

unleash the book in you!

Self publish your own book for business or pleasure!

See our specials at grafo.ca

1 866 274 8520 Create p professional quality t Soft cover or Hard cover publications, bound in options from Linen to Leather.

80

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

eating contest, entertainment, BBQ, petting zoo, crafts, Lions Club Bavarian gardens & more. 9am-4pm. Free. Caledon Fairgrounds, 18297 Hurontario St. 519-925-3461; caledonfair@hotmail.com.

JUL 1 : CANADA DAY – SHELBURNE

Family fun, live entertainment, BBQ and more. 3-10pm: ceremonies 3pm, children’s activities 3:30pm, Shelburne Idol 3:30pm, fireworks at dusk. Free.

CDRC & Shelburne Fairgrounds. 519-9252600; scrouse@townofshelburne.on.ca.

JUL 1 : CANADA DAY – ORANGEVILLE

Run by Orangeville Optimists. Talent show 7pm, fireworks at dusk. Orangeville Fairgrounds, 5 Siderd Mono, off Hockley Rd. 519-942-9597.

P U Z Z L I N G

S O L U T I O N S

from page 86

The Colbeck Hiddenhoms 1 – scales 2 – down 3 – crane 4 – racket 5 – log 6 – punch 7 – match 8 – cross 9 – club 10 – bar

On a Hill Near Hillsburgh

The Kid and the Blue Pickup If the kid had been standing at the side of the road for almost an hour on a hot day, he would not have been able to “snap off” a piece of a chocolate bar that had been in his pocket.

Jack – geraniums Judy – chrysanthemums Jill – poinsettias Josh – Easter lilies

Sharing the Apples Tina – 94 Mary-Lynn – 74 Ramesh – 41 Kearan – 23

jack josh

jill judy

Who Was in Charge?

1 – M. Harris 2 – J. Robarts 3 – H. Ferguson 4 – L. Frost 5 – W. Davis 6 – A. Mackenzie 7 – W. Laurier 8 – B. Mulroney 9 – W. Laurier 10 – J. Chretien

MAY 27 – JUN 5 : A STING IN THE TALE

Mystery/thriller by Brian Clemens & Dennis Spooner. Two down-on-their-luck playwrights are writing a blockbuster – or are they carrying out a perfect murder?

Thurs-Sat 8pm, $18. Matinee Jun 5, 2:30pm, $15. Century Church Theatre, Hillsburgh.

519-855-4586; jophenix@sympatico.ca; www.centurychurchtheatre.com.

kids APR 16 : LAUGH OUT LOUD For ladies

only, hosted by The Caledon Parent-Child Centre. Live comedy, food, prizes, auction. Proceeds to Adjustments After Birth programs. 7-11pm. $60. Glen Eagle Golf Club, 15731 Hwy 50, Bolton.

905-857-0090; earlyyears@cp-cc.org.

APR 22 – APR 25 : WAIT FOR THE PARADE

Tipling Stage Company spring production. $15 from Shelburne Town Hall, IDA, Holmes Appliance & Music Shop. Grace Tipling Hall, Shelburne. 519-925-2600; kmcdowell@townofshelburne.on.ca.

APR 23 : DUFFERIN CIRCLE OF STORYTELLERS Stories with live music

in the Historic Corbetton Church. 7pm. $10 from BookLore, Jelly Craft & Curiosity House. Dufferin County Museum and Archives, Hwy 89 & Airport Rd. 1-877941-7787; events@dufferinmuseum.com.

NOW – JUN (TUESDAYS) : LET’S GET TOGETHER Play and connect with families.

Light dinner, siblings welcome. 5:30-7pm.

Caledon Parent-Child Centre/Ontario Early Years, 150 Queen St S, Bolton.

905-857-0090; earlyyears@cp-cc.org.

APR 12 – 17 : CHILDREN’S EARLY LEARNING PROGRAMS REGISTRATION

Free interactive adult/child early learning and school readiness programs for children newborn to six years of age. 9:30am-4pm, closed noon-1pm, weekdays. Free.

Caledon Parent-Child Centre/Ontario Early Years, 150 Queen St. S, Bolton.

905-857-0090; earlyyears@cp-cc.org.

APR 15 : ORANGEVILLE MUSIC CAMP

Registration Aug 9-13 & 16-20. Ages 8-12, beginners/advanced. Group sessions and performances. $300.

Westminster United Church, 247 Broadway, Orangeville. 519- 941-0381; westminster@westminsterorangeville.ca.

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APR 26 : JUST FOR LAUGHS ROADSHOW

A collection of comics who have performed at the prestigious comedy festival. 8pm. $40-$60. Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre La. 905-874-2800; rosetheatre@ brampton.ca; www.rosetheatre.ca.

APR 26 : MONDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Jâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;AI TUĂ&#x2030; MA MĂ&#x2C6;RE Rated 14A.

French-Canadian ďŹ lm, English subtitles.

4:30, 7 & 9:20pm. $8 from BookLore.

Galaxy Cinema, Orangeville. 519-9415146; www.mondaynightmovies.ca.

MAY 6 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 23 : EDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GARAGE A former farmer, part-time mechanic & full-time mystic helps people with their problems.

Cassandra, an urban psychotherapist, sets up a private practice next door.

Thur-Sat 8pm, matinee Wed & Sun 2pm, Sat 3pm. Fri/Sat evg $35.60; Thur evg $32.45; matinees $29.30. Theatre Orangeville, Town Hall Opera House, 87 Broadway. 519-942-3423; tickets@ theatreorangeville.ca.

MAY 10 : MONDAY NIGHT AT THE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; LAST STATION Rated 14A. Starring

Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer.

4:30, 7 & 9:20pm. $8 from BookLore.

Galaxy Cinema, Orangeville. 519-9415146; www.mondaynightmovies.ca.

MAY 18 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 23 : THE COLOR PURPLE

Soul-stirring musical based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker and the Oscar-nominated ďŹ lm by Steven Spielberg. 8pm. May 22 2pm. May 23, 2pm & 7pm. $90-$110. Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre La. 905-874-2800; rosetheatre@ brampton.ca; www.rosetheatre.ca.

APR 27 : BAM! PERCUSSION: EXPLOSION Side-splitting comedy and

savage drumming virtuosity! From beginning to end, eXplosion electriďŹ es the crowd with rhythms and funny sketches. 8pm. $25-$45. Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre La. 905-874-2800; rosetheatre@brampton.ca.

MAY 1 : TEDDY BEAR CLINIC Face painting, teddy bear rafďŹ&#x201A;e & ďŹ sh pond.

BBQ. Bring a stuffed animal or doll for a check-up, 1 toonie per patient. Presented by the Headwaters Orangeville Auxiliary.

Free parking. Headwaters Health Care Centre, Orangeville. 519-941-2410 x 2268 ; www.headwatershealth.ca.

MAY 30 : C3 KINETICO CALEDON KIDS OF STEEL 5km run/walk and pool

triathlon. Schedule and registration online. Caledon Public School, Kennedy Rd. 905-838-2662; www.c3online.ca.

JUN 10 : FAMILY FUN NIGHT Young

children enjoy crafts, playroom and bedtime stories. 5-7pm. Free. Caledon Parent-Child Centre/Ontario Early Years, 150 Queen St. S, Bolton. 905-857-0090; earlyyears@cp-cc.org.

JUN 12 : DUFFERIN CHILDRENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FESTIVAL A community festival for

children and families. Live entertainment, crafts, music and fun. Parenting Fair with agencies and service providers. 10am3pm. Some activities nominal charge.

Fairgrounds parking lot, between Wal-Mart & Future Shop, 95 First St, Orangeville. 519-940-8678; info@dpsn.ca. continued on next page

Kulhay Wellness Clinic & Educational Centres Acupuncture - Chiropractic Naturopathy/Homeopathy Weight Loss - Detox Nonsurgical Facelifting Belfountain Spa in Erin 165 Main St., Erin 519-833-0031 Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s #1 Alternative & Medical Facility www.kulhaywellness.net

Dr. Katrina Kulhay

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

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seniors/students $8; $25 family of four.

Westminster United Church, 247 Broadway, Orangeville. 519-941-0381; westminster@westminsterorangeville.ca.

H A P P E N I N G S

Forster’s Book Garden, Palgrave United Church. 16218 Albion Trail, Palgrave.

905-880-0303; www.palgraveunited.ca.

JUN 11 – 20 : SWEET CHARITY

APR 25 : SOUNDS OF THE SILVER SCREEN Achill Choral Society presents

highlights from the movies. 8pm. Adults $20; children 13 and under $10, from BookLore, Korsten Jewellers, Jelly Craft Bakery. Holy Family RC Church, 60 Allen Dr, Bolton. 905-729-4527; info@achill.ca.

APR 26 – 28 : ORANGEVILLE & DISTRICT MUSIC FESTIVAL Adjudicator

music MAR 26 : ELMER ISELER SINGERS

Twenty-voice choir conducted by Lydia Adams. Presented by Orangeville Concert Assoc. 8pm. Adult $30; students $15.

Town Hall Opera House. 87 Broadway, Orangeville. 519-942-3423; tickets@ orangevilleconcerts.ca.

MAR 26 : CLASSIC ALBUMS LIVE – PINK FLOYD Popular music from the 60s and

70s recreated live on stage. 8pm. $35-$55.

Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre La. 905-874-2800; rosetheatre@brampton.ca.

MAR 27 : GARNET ROGERS IN CONCERT, WITH HEATHER KATZ

Intimate concert with thoughtful songs and lightning wit. 7:30pm. $25 at door; $20 advance from BookLore, Broadway Music, Acoustic Traditions. Tweedsmuir Presbyterian Church, 6 John St, Orangeville. 519-941-5614.

MAR 27 : SHINDIG Dinner followed by

Sweet Adelines chorus and quartet performances. 6:30pm. $25 from Kids Can Do & chorus members. Horizons Event Centre, Mono Plaza, Hwy 10. 519941-4490; www.orangevillechorus.com.

MAR 27 : ELLIOTT BROOD IN CONCERT

Foot-stomping music, band known for its unique death-bluegrass sound. 8pm.

Cash bar. $20 from Creemore Echo, 100 Mile Store; $22 online; $25 at door.

Avening Hall, Creemore. 705-466-9906; sara@creemore.com; http://aveninghall. switchwebsites.com.

MAR 31 : INTI-ILLIMANI WITH GUEST FRANCESCA GAGNON Traditional

Latin-American music on more than 30 wind, string and percussion instruments. 8pm. $45-$65. Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre La. 905-874-2800; rosetheatre@brampton.ca.

APR 24 : JAMES ANAGNOSON & LESLIE KINTON Caledon Chamber Concerts

presents piano duo in Four Hands, One Piano. 8pm. Adults $30; children 16 and under $15, from BookLore, Howard the Butcher and Forster’s Book Garden. St James Anglican Church, Caledon East. 905-880-2445; caledonchamberconcerts@gmail.com.

APR 25 : THE BELLS OF WESTMINSTER & FRIENDS SPRING CONCERT

26 years of this unique instrument in Dufferin County. 4-5:30pm. Adults $10; 82

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

– Debra Wanless. Register by Apr 1, forms and fee schedule from church office.

Westminster United Church, 247 Broadway, Orangeville. 519-941-0381; westminster@westminsterorangeville.ca.

MAY 7 : BLAST FROM THE PAST Music & songs from the past, with cast of 40, all ages. 7-9:30pm. Adults $15; seniors/ students $10; children under 12 free.

Bolton United Church, 8 Nancy St, Bolton. 905-857-2615; buc@istar.ca; www.boltonunitedchurch.com.

MAY 16 : FROM OPERA TO BROADWAY

Music for lovers and other strangers.

Fundraiser for Stevenson Memorial Hospital, Alliston. 3pm. $30. Rosemont Village Hall, Hwy 89. 705-435-5685.

Presented by Orangeville Music Theatre.

Neil Simon play with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Fri & Sat 8pm; matinee Sun, 2pm. $23. Town Hall Opera House. 87 Broadway, Orangeville. 519942-3423; tickets@theatreorangeville.ca; www.orangevillemusictheatre.com.

outdoors+ environment MAR 28 : TRACING THE TRAIL THROUGH CALEDON HILLS 2.5hr,

medium-paced hike suitable for beginners and families. Some hills. 1:30pm. Bruce Trail, Hockley Rd and 5 Siderd, Mono.

519-833-7261; www.caledonbrucetrail.org.

MAR 30 : FROGS AND SALAMANDERS

Don Scallen describes the unusual biology and life history of local frogs and salamanders. Presented by Upper Credit Field Naturalists. 7:30-9:15pm. Free.

Senior Centre, 26 Bythia St, Orangeville.

519-925-3968; javison@rogers.com.

APR 2 : TERRA COTTA HIKE Moderate

JUN 3 : ORANGEVILLE BLUES AND JAZZ OPENING GALA Launch of the Orange-

ville Blues and Jazz Festival in the Big Ballroom of Best Western Hotel. Details online. 6:30pm. $35 at door; $30 advance from BookLore. Best Western lnn & Suites, 7 Buena Vista Dr, Orangeville. 519-9419041, 1-888-792-5837; gordmcwilliams@ sympatico.ca; www.objf.org.

JUN 3 – 6 : ORANGEVILLE BLUES & JAZZ FESTIVAL Sat & Sun starting noon

– free concerts, workshops, food & craft vendors in Alexandra Park. Live music in over 25 venues. New stage this year on Broadway. Watch website for line-up. 519941-9041, 1-888-792-5837; gordmcwilliams @sympatico.ca; www.objf.org.

JUN 4 : ORANGEVILLE BLUES & JAZZ – BLUE CRUISE ON BROADWAY 250

classic cars & 8 live bands on the street.

New stage this year on Broadway. Watch for info online. 5-11pm. Free. Broadway, Orangeville. 519-941-9041, 1-888-7925837; gordmcwilliams@sympatico.ca; www.objf.org.

JUN 5 : FRED ON THE FARM Fred

Eaglesmith and Fabulous Ginn Sisters make great music and raise funds for The Stop, a progressive community food program. Includes farm tour, dinner, cash bar.

7pm. $47 online, $50 at farm gate; $45 advance from Creemore Echo, 100 Mile Store. The New Farm. 9783 Nottawasaga 6/7 Siderd Mulmur. 705-466-9906; http://aveninghall.switchwebsites.com/.

JUN 5 : COMMUNITY BARN DANCE

Local roast beef dinner, dancing, cash bar. Proceeds to Caledon’s community garden and farm. 4pm. Tickets from

to strenuous, 19km, 5.5hr hike, includes Rockside and Terra Cotta side trails.

Bring ice footware. Pub stop follows.

9:30am. Boston Mills Rd, just W of Mississauga Rd, Caledon. 905-642-2408; www.caledonbrucetrail.org.

APR 10 & 11 : ALPACA ONTARIO SPRING SHOW Halter show, vendors, alpaca

products and seminars. 9am-4:30pm.

Free. Orangeville Fairgrounds, 5 Siderd Mono, off Hockley Rd. 519-942-9597; info@alpacaontario.ca.

APR 18 : HOCKLEY VALLEY HIKE

Easy 10km shuttle hike through rolling countryside. Restaurant lunch follows.

9:30am-1:30pm. Bruce Trail, Airport Rd and 7th Line Mono. 905-822-1877; www.caledonbrucetrail.org.

APR 18 : PALGRAVE FOREST HIKE

8km, 3hr leisurely hike. Suitable for beginners and families. 9:30am. Palgrave Forest and Wildlife Area, Patterson Siderd and Duffy’s Lane, Palgrave. 905-8804037; www.caledonbrucetrail.org.

APR 25 : TRACING THE TRAIL THROUGH CALEDON HILLS Catch

spring as we hike the Bruce Trail for 3 hrs, medium pace. 1:30pm. Bruce Trail, Hockley Rd & 2nd Line Mono. 519-8337261; www.caledonbrucetrail.org.

APR 27 : CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON WILDLIFE, INSECTS & PLANTS Illustrated

talk by Dr Paul Gray, senior advisor to Ontario MNR. Presented by Upper Credit Field Naturalists. 7:30pm. Free. Senior Centre, 26 Bythia St, Orangeville.

519-925-3968; javison@rogers.com.

MAY 1 : BRUCE TRAIL HIKE Forested corner of Caledon. Learn to follow trail blazes and names of spring flowers.

Bring water & snack. Restaurant stop follows. 11am-1pm. Bruce Trail, Coolihans Siderd and Glen Haffy Rd, Caledon. 416245-8662; www.caledonbrucetrail.org.

MAY 8 : ECO FAIR World Fair Trade Day. Fair trade café, perennial plant sale, Ecofestival activities – drumming, greening displays, sustainable mothers’ day gifts. 8am-3pm. Free. Palgrave United Church, 34 Pine Ave, Palgrave. 905-8800303; www.palgraveunited.ca.

MAY 15 : LANDOWNER APPRECIATION HIKE 14km loop hike. South on main

trail through Glen Haffy. Short break at St Francis Centre to honour long-time landowner. 9:30am-2pm. Bruce Trail, Airport Rd & 7th Line Mono. 519942-9864; 4sheppard@rogers.com; www.caledonbrucetrail.org.

MAY 15 : WILDFLOWER IDENTIFICATION Leisurely spring walk in

the Dufferin County Forest. Learn to identify common wildflowers and shrubs.

9am. $5; children free. Register. Little Tract, Dufferin County Forest, 938130 Airport Rd & County Rd 18. 1-877-941-7787; www.dufferinmuseum.com/forest.

JUN 6 : EQUI-FEST 2010 Fun day for

horses and people who love them.

Shopping, demos, health and safety.

9am-5pm. $5, horse & rider, $60. Stall rental extra. Riders register by email.

Orangeville Fairgrounds, 247090 5 Siderd Mono, off Hockley Rd. 705-434-0081; w.h.o.a@sympatico.ca.

www.whatson.ca – your local resource for events!

List your community, arts or entertainment event free of charge. Submission deadline for summer issue: May 7, 2010. Please submit your event using the on-line form at www.whatson.ca. Event information is supplied by Alison Hird, admin@whatson.ca, 519-950-4877 (evg). Visit What’s On Ontario to see up-to-the-minute details of these and other local events.

MARKETPLACE ART & CRAFT

CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

(cont’d)

ALL-MONT LTD. Garage Doors & Electric Operators Residential • Commercial Industrial Sales • Installation • Service Visit our showroom 48 Centennial Rd, #20 Orangeville

519-942-1956

B. A. WOOD MASONRY

“Summer Fling - Art & Alpacas” June 26 & 27 Contact Kai-Liis for spring & summer workshops

Specializing in Stone & Restoration Work Brick • Block

Kai-Liis McInnes RR3 Mansfield 519-925-0421 kai-liis@sympatico.ca

Brian Wood

519-941-5396

CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

(cont’d)

R&M Stucco Superior quality & service Interior/exterior plaster/stucco finishing Marco or Rose Mary Andreozzi

705-434-0248 Saxon~Manor Flooring & Home Quality installations of Wood Floors & Trim Wide-plank & Reclaimed Wood Floor Refinishing Floor & Wall Tile

705.434.8181

Tony Calabrese Stone Mason Flagstone Patios & Walkways Drystone Retaining Walls • Stone Facing Fireplaces • Repairs & Restoration

905 456-9964 Brampton

BIRD FEEDING Caledon Mountain Wildlife Supplies • Wild Birdseed / Feeders / Nesting Boxes • Pet Food & Supplies / Wildlife Feeds • Crafts / Books / Nature Accessories “We’re here to help you help nature.”

18371 Hurontario Caledon Village Tel 519-927-3212 Fax 519-927-9186 Brian Thayer

Unique Custom Homes in Caledon East • quiet cul-de-sac • escarpment views • Energy Star homes 519-938-8417 Sales Office located at 15891 Airport Rd, Caledon East Sat/Sun & holidays, noon - 4:30

C AT E R I N G

Forrest Custom Carpentry Established 1986

Design, Build, Install Wall Units, Bars, Home Offices Call Gary for a Free Estimate 519-323-1121/1-877-454-9522 www.forrestcustomcarpentry.com

CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

ZOLTAN POTOVSZKY

MASONRY

BRICK • BLOCK • CONCRETE • FIREPLACES • STONE Serving Dufferin County & Creemore Area

(705) 434-3285

Insured and Licensed

EQUESTRIAN SERVICES HOCKLEY HILLS SCHOOL OF HORSEMANSHIP English and Western riding lessons for youth and adults Taught in a fun, friendly atmosphere Certified coaches, bright indoor arena Quiet, well trained horses Summer Camp sign-up now available!

519.940.8197 246063 County Rd 16, Orangeville, ON www.schoolofhorsemanship.com QUALITY, AFFORDABLE RIDING LESSONS SAFE FRIENDLY ATMOSPHERE Children & Adults - Learn at your own rate Private, Semi-Private, Group - FREE introductory Lesson Certified instructors for all levels, beginners to advanced Erin, one minute N of Hwy 24 on Trafalgar Rd 519-833-2591 www.greydenequestrian.ca

TO PLACE AN AD, CALL 519-942-8401 OR EMAIL INFO@INTHEHILLS.CA IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

83

MARKETPLACE FOOD

LANDSCAPING

PARTIES

Pottery Parties in the Hills

a division of Heritage Hollow Inc.

Garden Design & Installation Property Maintenance Nursery Stock Supplied & Planted Concrete Garden Ornaments David Teixeira 519-942-1421

DAVE’S BUTCHER SHOP Beef, pork, veal, lamb, chicken, fish - Sauces, rubs, marinades

For all your landscaping and snowplowing needs!

Alder Street Mews, 75 Alder St, Unit 4, Orangeville www.davesbutchershop.ca 519-415-MEAT (6328)

Reliable 24-hour service Kevin Davidson

Art parties for Birthdays, Schools, Corporate Events, Ladies’ Nights, Showers and Fund Raisers.

Paint Ceramics & Play with Clay.

Cakes & loot bags available.

www.potterypartiesinthehills.com

519.942.9022 Where scaly isn’t scary!

• Exciting packages to choose from • Great idea for birthdays, club meetings, corporate events, camps... • Interactive presentations with a variety of exotic critters Jennifer 519-925-1165 www.partysafari.ca

519-943-2649

FURNITURE

EVERGREEN PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

23 Cole Cres, Orangeville

PEST CONTROL

TOPNOTCH

CONSIGNMENT FURNITURE

Where Things of The Past Are Present

We sell carefully chosen, well priced, quality pre-owned home furnishings on consignment.

Visit our showroom at Hwy 10 & King St, Caledon. www.topnotchfurnishings.com keith@topnotchfurnishings.com

Lawn Care Specialists since 1966 Aeration, Overseeding, Fertilization, Insect, Grub Control, New Natural Weed Control, IPM Accredited

647-297-0611

519-833-2325/1-800-215-1608 www.kendalllawncare.com Custom design, manufacture & repair of quality furniture for home & office Call or write today for our product brochure 3creeks@sympatico.ca 519-833-9510 / (after hours) 2182 ERIN

H E A LT H & W E L L - B E I N G

Victorian Sand Cast Aluminum Reproductions • Estate Lighting • Table & Chair Sets • Fountains & Garden Ornaments Open: Wed-Sat 10-6, Sun 11-5 936577 Airport Road, Mansfield

705-434-0200 www.once-a-tree.ca

CPR TRAINING For Healthcare Providers, Business, Personal

/ Seasonal Gardener

“May the Beat be with you”

Garden Bed Maintenance Planting & Pruning Spring & Fall Cleanup

519.942.9944

Janice Sant Barry 705-434-9255

Daniel Fracassi, BCLS Instructor

daniel.fracassi@sympatico.ca

LAND SURVEYING P.J. Williams Ontario Land Surveyor

MARKETPLACE: CLASSIFIEDS DON’T GET ANY CLASSIER For Summer Issue Call by May 14, 2010

606286 River Road, Mulmur

(Prince of Wales & River Road) Open: 8am-4pm weekdays Free Consultation on Weekends by Appointment Phone: 519-941-6231 or 519-925-0057 Fax: 519-925-4010 Email: pjw1211@aol.com

PET SUPPLIES & SERVICE These are signs that your pet’s current food needs to be looked at: • Overweight • Frequent paw licking • Hairballs • Biting root of the tail • Dry, flaky or greasy skin • Smelly ears or skin • Excessive shedding • Stiff joints/arthritis • Recurring ear infections 47 Broadway, Orangeville 519-942-8187 113 Victoria St W, Alliston 705-434-3311 226 First Ave E, Shelburne 519-925-3471

DOG BOARDING ~ GROOMING Exclusive in-home love & care.

Daily exercise & positive play with personal individual attention. Special-needs specialist.

Puppies, seniors, post surgery, diabetics, disabilities, rescues.

30 years experience in professional animal care.

By appointment 519-843-7150 www.K9services.ca

TO PLACE AN AD, CALL 519-942-8401 OR EMAIL INFO@INTHEHILLS.CA 84

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

MARKETPLACE PET SUPPLIES & SERVICE

SEPTIC SERVICES

(cont’d)

PET Portraits

DOGS, CATS, HORSES References provided from happy customers!

in watercolour

by J.Gray

TUTORING

homework help, personal tutoring, exam reviews, prep courses, mastery courses, video game design camp 1-866-519-MATH (6284) 519-307-0989 295A Broadway, Orangeville www.mindovermath.ca

action Satisf ANTEED GUAR

519.927.3454 or 416.690.7262

WELL DRILLING

joan@grayterartservices.com

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

TREE SERVICE Charles Emerson Tree Service

McCauley WELL DRILLING New and Cleaned • Pump Sales and Service 519-217-0331

ISA Certified Arborist

Licenced Technicians Free Estimates

Free Estimates & Consultation Tree Removal & Pruning P Bucket Truck Service Emergency Work P Year Round Service Clean & Reliable Workmanship Fully Insured

WEDDING CAKES

905-801-5891

www.charlesemersontreeservice.com

since 1925

Call & Compare

Home Auto Commercial Farm Financial Services Life

Competitive Rates

Payment Plans

A member of the Precept Group Inc.

35 Main Street, Erin Tel: 519-833-9393 • 1-800-930-4293

TREESCAPES

MOVING TREES SINCE 1983

• Supply and Plant Mature Trees • On-Site Transplanting • Deep Root and Intravenous Fertilizing • Pruning and Removal • Watering

MARKETPLACE: CLASSIFIEDS DON’T GET ANY CLASSIER

519-942-1507

For Summer Issue Call by May 14, 2010

Bed&Breakfast D•I•R•E•C•T•O•R•Y

JENNY’S PLACE B&B Come and enjoy our beautiful Victorian home, walking distance to downtown, theatre, dining and shopping.

Each of our rooms has a television and DVD, and we offer a selection of books and movies. In addition, we also have a separate bed sitting room with a cozy wood stove, ensuite bath and kitchenette and separate entrance. Great for skiers, hikers, romantic getaways, and even for commuters. In the summer we have a beautiful huge deck, overlooking a half-acre of lawn and trees. Besides our hot or continental breakfasts, coffee and teas are always available in our guest kitchen. Open year round.

Rates from $70 to $120. Chris Leith 519-938-8866 3 Fead St., Orangeville

BLACKSMITH HOUSE This c1895 Victorian home in picturesque Creemore (“one of the 10 prettiest towns in Canada,” Harrowsmith Country Life) in the valley of the Mad and Noisy Rivers is ideally situated for visiting many places of local interest and taking scenic drives with breathtaking views of Georgian Bay and the Niagara Escarpment. We offer quiet relaxation, individual attention, warm hospitality, delightfully furnished guest rooms, and delicious Canadian cooked breakfasts. Member of the Federation of Ontario Bed & Breakfast Accommodation.

Single $70; Double $115. John and Jean Smart 705-466-2885 www.blacksmithhouse.ca enquiries@blacksmithhouse.ca

COUNTRY HOST BED & BREAKFAST HOMES Accommodating guests and visitors throughout Alliston, Beeton, Caledon, Cookstown, Erin, Hillsburgh, Hockley Valley, Innisfil, Mansfield, Mono, Orangeville, Thornton, Tottenham and Lake Simcoe cottages. Established 1998. Proud recipient of Customer Service Excellence and Best Accommodation awards. Gift certificates, garden weddings, bridal showers, small conferences, hot tubs and pools. Open year-round.

Singles from $65; Double from $85. Lesley Burns 705-436-3686 www.countryhost.com info@countryhost.com

THE STREAM A tranquil base in the Hockley Valley offers queen-size sleigh beds and the sound of the stream to lull you to sleep. A cedar deck and hot tub overlook the forest, winding trails and foot ridges. Open-plan in cedar, glass and slate features indoor 30-foot tree and fireplace that burns five-foot logs. Minutes to hiking, biking, golfing, skiing, and dining. Seeing is believing - drop in and say “hi”.

Singles from $85; Doubles, private and shared baths, $125-$150.

Discounts for stays over 2 nights. Kersty and John Franklin 519-941-3392 www.streambb.com www.bbcanada.com/thestream john@streambb.com

UNTO THE HILLS The Hills of Headwaters Tourism Award for the Best Accommodation 2007. Rated in the top 5% of places to stay in Ontario by travel writer Janette Higgins.

Quiet in the Hills, where Our Guests send Their Friends.

Warm hospitality in a new climate-controlled French country farmhouse. Magnificent escarpment setting on the Bruce Trail, with 50-km views over Hockley Valley. Charming, professionally decorated bedrooms, ensuites with soothing air tubs.

Single $100; Doubles $120-180. Lynne Laverty 519-941-2826 www.untothehills.ca d.laverty@sympatico.ca

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

85

a Puzzling Conclusion The Colbeck Hiddenhoms As part of its contribution to the annual spring fair in Orangeville, the Colbeck Literary and Etymological Guild (now disbanded) offered the following contest. It was a word-play activity based on “hidden” homonyms. The word “sole” for example is part of a shoe and is also a tasty fish. The clue the Guild offered for this “hiddenhom” was “the part of a shoe that might swim.”

Another clue was “a container for carrying a dismissal.” The answer was “sack.” Try your luck with these clues from the Guild.

1 Octaves on a fish.

2 This you get from a horse. Or a duck.

3 A neck stretch on the construction site.

4 A restrung noise.

5 The captain’s notes in a lumber camp.

6 The drink of choice for self-defence.

7 A flaring competition.

8 Annoyed from one side to the other.

9 A potentially dangerous trump.

10 Exclude the counter.

A

M I N I - M Y S T E R Y

I N

T H E

Who was premier of Ontario when…

The Case of the Kid and the Blue Pickup For a second or two Brooke Barry was almost grateful the air conditioning in her patrol car wasn’t working, for just as the kid snapped off a piece of the chocolate bar in his pocket and offered it to her, she’d reached up to wipe yet another drop of sweat from her nose. The action had stopped her from accepting the chocolate instinctively and, well, his hands weren’t exactly clean.

She’d picked up the kid on 124, near the cemetery north of Shelburne. He was twelve, maybe thirteen, wore a baseball cap, ratty jeans and a sport shirt. He said he’d been waiting there for his father for almost an hour. Brooke suspected he’d actually been hitchhiking and waiting-for-dad wasn’t true at all. Still, she had only been cruising and it wouldn’t hurt to take him on up to Creemore where he said he was going.

The kid didn’t know it yet but she wasn’t going to simply drop someone his age in Creemore without asking a few questions first. For one thing, he’d seen a blue pickup with a broken headlight – or so he claimed. There’d been a holdup down in Caledon East just before Brooke’s shift started. The bad guys were driving a blue Chevrolet pickup with a damaged fender, and it had been confirmed that they headed north on Airport Road. When she’d rather casually mentioned it to the kid, he said, yeah, he’d seen a blue pickup with a banged-up fender, a Chev, he thought. It had passed him going north and then he saw it do a u-turn and go south again. Real fast too.

Boys his age are pretty savvy about vehicles, Brooke knew, and normally she would have called in the tip right away, but given that he had lied to her once for sure, possibly twice, she knew she had to dig deeper on this first. No sense in starting a wild goose chase.

Sharing the Apples

How many apples did each one take home?

86

IN THE HILLS SPRING 2010

Who Was in Charge?

H I L L S

What is the one lie “for sure” that makes Brooke Barry suspicious?

Four teenage friends from Creemore stopped at a u-pick orchard in Caledon on their way home from Niagara Falls.

They had brought a large bag with them and, working together, filled the bag in just a few minutes. However, when it came time to pay, there was a problem because three of them were short of cash. As a result each one of the friends contributed a different amount to pay the bill.

Once they were home they found they had 233 apples and shared them in this way. Tina, because she had paid most of the bill at the orchard, got 20 more apples than Mary-Lynn, 53 more than Ramesh, and 71 more than Kearan. (One apple was wormy and they threw it away.)

by Ken Weber

1

The Town of Erin was amalgamated from the Village of Erin and the Township of Erin in 1997?

David Bob Mike Peterson Rae Harris

2

The Pine River Provincial Fishing Area was established in 1970?

William John Leslie Davis Robarts Frost

3

Caledon East’s beloved Dr. Sam Allison passed away in 1928?

Mitch Leslie Howard Hepburn Frost Ferguson

4 Wilton Downey, former reeve of Bolton, became warden of Peel County in 1960?

John Leslie Oliver Robarts Frost Mowat

4

5 Mono Mills became part of the Region of Peel in 1974?

William John Frank Davis Robarts Miller

5

Who was prime minister of Canada when…

6 A TG&B locomotive called the “Mono” passed through Orangeville in 1876, establishing a record time for the TorontoOwen Sound run?

Alexander John A. Wilfrid Mackenzie Macdonald Laurier

6

7 Grand Valley was incorporated in 1897, as the 9th municipality to be admitted to the County of Dufferin?

Wilfrid Robert John A. Laurier Borden Macdonald

7 On a Hill Near Hillsburgh Four flower growers combined their resources to build greenhouses, one each, atop a large hill near Hillsburgh, reasoning that the location would be ideal for sunlight. The greenhouses were built to form the four edges of a rectangle, with a common area in the centre for parking and general activity. In the greenhouse on the northern edge of the square, Jack raised geraniums. Judy operated the greenhouse to the immediate left of the one operated by Jill. The greenhouse used to raise chrysanthemums is not Jill’s and the one devoted to raising poinsettias is not operated by Josh. The Easter lily greenhouse is directly opposite the latter.

Whose greenhouse is where on this square atop the hill in Hillsburgh, and what flower does each grower produce?

8 Shelburne’s Canadian Open Old Time Fiddle championship was held for the 40th time in 1990?

Pierre Jean Brian Trudeau Chretien Mulroney

8

9 Cedar Valley (near Hillsburgh) got its first telephone in 1910?

William Lyon Wilfrid Robert Mackenzie King Laurier Borden

9

10 In the Hills magazine celebrated its 10th anniversary in the spring of 2003?

Paul Stephen Jean Martin Harper Chretien

10

solutions on page 80