In The Hills Winter 2009

VOLUME 16 NUMBER 4 20 09

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M A G A Z I N E

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C O U N T R Y

L I V I N G

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H E A D W A T E R S

R E G I O N

Local Heroes Ten extraordinary people Books & Music More than 35 reviews

The best game you can name!

The good old hockey game in Hillsburgh and Bolton

For Home and Country

The WI: a century of service

Olympic Fever

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

I confess to having had a certain jaded ennui about the Olympics. The sometimes nasty politics, the billion-dollar sponsorship deals, the cost overruns (again!), the judging and drug scandals, even the milliseconds that ludicrously separate “heroes” from “losers.” What was to like? Well, as I have been reminded in the past year or two, it’s the athletes themselves, of course.

When I heard a couple of years ago that my former neighbour Sarah Bonikowsky had made the Olympic rowing team, I felt a rush of emotion. Suddenly, the very sweet, bright, somewhat shy young girl who used to babysit our cats would be out there testing herself in front of millions.

Sarah had gone away to university and I hadn’t seen her for years, but like so many others, I set my clock for 4 a.m. to get up to watch the final race.

This summer, I did see Sarah again. She is now a confident and composed young woman and she had come home to attend Mono’s Big Day Out, a community festival that included recognition of the town’s Olympians. As each athlete stepped forward and said simply their name, their sport and the Olympiads in which they had competed, I felt again that curious rush of emotion, this time clearly shared among the whole crowd. On that sunny day, the grand ideals of the Olympics – too often lost amid the hype and sentimental clichés – were made real and personal again in the faces of the athletes who are our friends and neighbours.

As we were assembling the photos of local Olympians to go with this issue’s coverage of Orangeville’s Torch Relay celebrations, Sarah’s father, Gary, also sent along his journal entry from the day after her race – and then generously agreed to let us share his moving, parent’s-eye account of, yes, what truly is the agony and the ecstasy of Olympic competition.

But it’s not just on such celebrated world stages as the Olympics where individuals show their mettle. Once again this year, we profi le ten exceptional “local heroes,” citizens whose extraordinary commitment and service – some of them in the public forum, some of them quietly in the background – make these hills a better place to live for all of us.

And along with them, we also offer our annual review of books and CDs by the writers, illustrators and musicians in our midst, many of whom toil long and hard in isolation before they boldly send their efforts out for public judgment.

A grateful year-end toast to all of them!

EDITORIAL

Sandra Cranston-Corradini Liz Beatty | Tracey Fockler Michele Green | Alison Hird Douglas G. Pearce | Jeff Rollings Cecily Ross | Nicola Ross Lisa Watson | Ken Weber PHOTOGRAPHY

Rosemary Hasner | Kate Martin Pete Paterson | Pam Purves 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 ONLINE IN THE HILLS

Tony Maxwell, Headwaters Media Inc. Bethany Lee, Focus on Media COVER

Roland Kirouac and Bryon Mackie

by Pete Paterson — 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

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519-942-1118

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

www.inthehills.ca — The advertising deadline for the Spring (March) issue is February 5, 2o1o.

We acknowledge the assistance of the OMDC Magazine Fund, an initiative of Ontario Media Development Corporation

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

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I S S U E F E A T U R E S 17

LOCAL HEROES

Ten extraordinary people

by Jeff Rollings 30 OLYMPIC FEVER

Orangeville welcomes the Olympic Flame

by Cecily Ross 37

D E P A R T M E N T S 54 COMING OF AGE IN THE SIXTIES

An excerpt from After the Falls

by Catherine Gildiner The Women’s Institute

by Ken Weber

A FATHER’S TRIBUTE

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ONLINE IN THE HILLS

Excerpts from the web 12

THE DIGEST

Countryside news

by Douglas G. Pearce 15

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Roslyn Levin 42 HISTORIC HILLS

The Bolton Kinsmen

by Ken Weber

THE PICKUP QUEENS

The Hillsburgh Ladies

by Liz Beatty

49 SKETCHBOOK

Woodpeckers

by Linda McLaren

44 THE YEAR IN BOOKS

New books by local authors and illustrators

by Tracey Fockler

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THE COUNTRY COOK

Hearty fare for a winter’s eve

by Sandra Cranston-Corradini

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LETTERS

Our readers write

60 FOR HOME AND COUNTRY

An Olympic rower’s father writes about the experience

by Gary Bonikowsky

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THE YEAR IN MUSIC

New CDs by local musicians

by Lisa Watson

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HOMEGROWN IN THE HILLS

Downey’s Estate Winery

by Nicola Ross 68 WHAT’S ON IN THE HILLS

A calendar of autumn happenings

by Alison Hird 78 A PUZZLING CONCLUSION

by Ken Weber

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L E T T E R S

High Stakes– High Dudgeon

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

Should the proposed open-pit mining project in this community be authorized (High Stakes in the High County, fall/09), then it is inevitable that depopulation will result. It will become the death knell for Melancthon.

The pursuit of the almighty dollar in this greed-driven society always takes precedence over the welfare and human rights of people and the value of the existing culture.

Melancthon has been growing top quality crops in its fertile soils, soils that are ideally suited to the production of potatoes. Beneath these soils lies a huge deposit of sandstone that has drawn the attention of those who see its monetary value, but not its importance to the provision of fi ltered and potable water, water that feeds the wells of the local community. Remove the sandstone and you destroy the community.

Municipal water would have to replace contaminated or dried-up wells.

The cost of the infrastructure needed to provide municipal water to all residents would be astronomical and few in the community would be financially capable of meeting it. It follows that, should the unthinkable occur, the Highland group of shareholders should be held responsible for the costs of materials, installation and labour required to provide municipal water.

If the final decision goes to the Ontario Municipal Board, then in all probability the process of dismantling that community will be approved.

The OMB always seems to rule in favour of business; it focuses, usually, on business, jobs and tax revenues rather than on human consequences.

Should excavation be approved, it is unlikely that more than 120 jobs will be created, and those only for the time required to remove the sandstone. The local farming people will not be the beneficiaries of those jobs because most sold out to Highland because they wished to retire. Most would not have accepted the tempting financial offer from Highland had they been aware of the destruction that was planned.

They know once the land is destroyed, it will never recover. They believed the promise that the plan was to build a major world-class potato operation and that convinced them to accept the $8,000 per acre offered.

The negotiations to purchase the rail and to extend it to locations where deep water can accept shipping capable of transporting the sandstone to distant markets are also rumoured. If true, it would see the sandstone sold to the most lucrative markets, benefiting only the shareholders, not the province or the local people.

This assault on a spectacular environment and a successful farming area, the habitat of numerous indigenous creatures, and the lives of the local people must be denied by the elected authorities before it becomes too late.

K. Mesure, by e-mail

Thank you so much for your story “High Stakes in the High County” (fall/09). So many are still not aware of what is about to transpire and now more will be better informed.

I am hopeful that you will continue to dig deeper into the business dealings of John Lowndes and The Highland Group. Although they paint a pretty picture, things are not always as they seem.

The lives of so many of us living adjacent to the proposed pit have been in turmoil for the past many years.

Although we may own smaller acreages, nonetheless, we too have poured our life savings and hopes for the future into our homes. And as we have heard on more than one occasion, “I would not want to live here, with the gravel pit, the rail lines and the wind turbines.”

Although most of us don’t want to live under these conditions, we also do not want to give up our beautiful homes at a loss. Because of his future plans for our community, Mr. Lowndes is the one who has caused the value of our homes to plummet.

He claims to care about the wellbeing of residents. Well, I can only hope that he will be honourable and be true to his word. It’s all very well to pat himself on the back for giving out donations, scholarships, etc. Would we all not love to do that if we could afford to?

We can only hope that Mr. Lowndes will step up to the plate and show some compassion for those of us who are caught in the middle of this lifechanging and heartbreaking position.

That he will send his representatives to our homes with reasonable offers to purchase our properties.

Only then can we get on with our lives and the possibility of a brighter future.

One of the Many Concerned Residents in Our Community.

Name withheld on request

Lively Living Library

With regard to “How You Walk the Line” (fall/09) by Jeff Rollings, with photography by Pete Paterson, about Dufferin County’s first Living Library: As a “book” in the Living Library, I was one of twenty people who were able to share their life and background of diversity with society, both in the community and outside Dufferin County.

What a turnout at curtain time. “Readers” were people of all ages, including some children, there to find out about diversity and learn about others’ way of life. Your story created such an impact and was read by so many that there was a full house. We did not know what to expect, and so to see such a success was indeed gratifying.

As an Imam, questions from my readers were specific about my religion and misconceptions about Islamic faith. Our dialogue gave me the opportunity not only to share, but also to learn from the readers.

On behalf of the twenty Living Library books, I thank you and your staff, the organizers and their assistants, the community and the readers, for their efforts, time and kindness.

Khwaja Ajib, one of 20

ODSS timeline Just received In The Hills and began by reading the delightful article by Leslie Godfrey on my old high school (The School on the Hill, fall/09). However I believe there is a mistake in the caption of the picture of OHS staff. I believe 1974 is an incorrect date. I attended in 1962 and there were twenty-seven staff members in the yearbook picture. Mr. Cline, Mr. Percy, Mr. Gibson and Miss McPhedran all looked much older in my 1962 picture than they do in your 1974 picture.

Pat Walker

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and profound experience. There was a very positive energy in the room throughout the event.

Brandy Robinson took a significant lead in this event. She saw a clip on CBC about the Living Library, attended one in Guelph, and put Dufferin on the map by bringing the event here.

Thanks to Brandy and the organizing committee, the Orangeville Library, and everyone who participated as a book, a reader or a volunteer. And a special thanks also to photographer Pete Paterson and Jeff Rollings for a very articulate article leading up to this successful event.

Jennifer Moore Dufferin Diversity Network Committee Member

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The Living Library held October 22 (“How You Walk the Line,” fall/09) ended up with twenty “books” – people who identified themselves as being part of a marginalized group and/or as having experienced oppression. We had a great response from the public, and most books were lent out for at least three of the four possible sessions.

Comments overheard as “readers” left the building were all extremely positive: “Wow, I can’t believe an event like this took place in Dufferin;” “When is the next one, I’m bringing my friends;” and “This was absolutely incredible.” The “books” I had the chance to speak with also felt great about being a part of such an exciting

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Editor’s note: Our reader is correct. The photograph was from 1947 (not 1974). Our apologies.

To read more memories of ODSS from past and present students and teachers, as well as Bethany Lee’s blog about her experience at the 125th anniversary reunion in October, and to see a slide show of historic photos from past decades, see the comments following the article at www.inthehills.ca.

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

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We asked and you told us Following are excerpts from some of the responses we received to our online queries. To read the full text of these, along with more comments from our readers, or to add your own thoughts and stories, please visit www.inthehills.ca.

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There are an increasing number of reported cougar sightings in our region. Are cougars, and other wildlife, including bears and fishers, returning to the hills?

We had a bear sighting on our property at Airport Road and 20 Sideroad in Mulmur a month ago. The bear was lying on our driveway eating apples that had dropped from the tree. A week later, a neighbour called to say he saw the bear near our home and we also found bear feces on our front walkway. A little too close for comfort when we have three small children.

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

We live in the Cedar Mills area…

About the middle of August this summer, I was looking for my black lab… I thought I’d found her lying, enjoying the afternoon sunshine about 100 yards away…noticing that her eyes looked gold in the sunlight, not their usual black. Moments later my dog came wagging up the path behind me and we both were able to stare as a big black cat…stood and stretched and easily leaped over the four-foot fence that separates my lawn from a field of tall grass… The tail was quite long and curled a bit on the end. There is no doubt in my mind that it was a cat.

My husband called us urgently as he was leaving the house one morning

four or five years ago to look at a big black cat that he saw in the exact same place. However it ran into the forest before the rest of us saw the animal…

Finally, I was driving home around 9 p.m. down Mt. Hope Road about two years later and slowed for a large cat (I don’t know the colour) that I saw crossing the road in my headlights. It was pulling a smaller animal across the road and ran into the brush…

My stories are usually met with skepticism or the suggestion that these are really just coyotes or dogs, but I know that I have see this kind of cat at least twice myself and my husband was very sure of his sighting too.

Susan Armstrong

It was about four years ago now…

Less than a 100 feet from where we were standing I saw a kitty. He looked just like our Jack kitty – orange in colour. I said, hey, look it’s a Jack cat. My husband says, that’s no Jack cat, that’s a cougar. This thing was HUGE! … He sauntered through [our friend] Bill’s backyard, along the top of the hill, then headed down to the valley. We were both in such shock, we could barely blurt out:

Bill, Bill, come quick. By the time he showed up, of course, the mythical cougar had disappeared. …It was very funny on many accounts, as Mark Nelson had just regaled a story about the myth of the Hockley Cougar. We, of course, were thinking it was the ranting of an old man, maybe one too many pops! Now Mark comes to us and says, tell me the story of the cougar again?

Christine Thomas, Mono

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It’s a wonderful thing that nature has found its way back home!

In the last year I have seen two fishers, one in a friend’s barn in Amaranth and one crossing the road in Hillsburgh. A friend and I believed that we caught a glimpse of a cougar in our travels along Hwy 89 near Airport Rd. It was standing among

some tall grass in a grove of trees next to a field full of sheep. As we slowed down on the shoulder, the creature retreated quickly into the bush… We can rest assured that nature will find a way to work with us; it’s really a question if we can do the same for nature.

Jay Wilson

Ballet Jörgen

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Where is your Mailbox?

Canada Post has dictated that a number of boxes, including mine be moved, in a number of instances with no obvious advantage to the carrier, and in some cases, such as my own, creating a very dangerous situation for the user.

It is totally impractical, especially in winter, as well as being environmentally undesirable, to use a car to collect mail, and the Canada Post officials offered, as their only alternative…a space at a group box in town, or a box in the post office also in town, 4 km distant, initially without charge, but involving the added considerable inconvenience of the ensuing change of address.

This would appear to be an indirect step, countrywide, towards eliminating rural mail delivery, and hardly a green alternative.

Susan Ware, Melancthon

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Dec 2 at 7:30 pm

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Canada Post has directed many rural residents to move their mailboxes as a safety measure for carriers, but at what cost to the safety and convenience of homeowners?

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There is a significant body of science surrounding the current and historical levels of much of Ontario’s wildlife populations and distribution. Unfortunately, there has been a rush to conclude that the Eastern Cougar has returned to Southern Ontario, without one single piece of factual evidence in not less than 100 years to prove it so, regardless of the countless reported sightings.

It is a wonderfully romantic idea that we might have these awesome cats among us once again, but it is most doubtful!

Rob Best, President Upper Credit Field Naturalists

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II am am aa handicapped handicapped veteran veteran of ofwwii WW2 and am bottom unable to safely at the of awalk slight hill, without 250 feet crutches.

To traverse the distance from my home to the new mailbox location and am unable to walk safely without south of the original location.

The along theTogravel road is beyond my capability andwinter extremely dangerous, crutches. traverse the distance from roads in the are already more especially inthe thenew winter. my home to mailbox location narrow due to the pile up of snow… I K. Mesure along the gravel road is beyond my worry that cars may come speeding capability and extremely dangerous, over the hill and not see me until the Iespecially will not move mailbox because I fearlast forminute. my safety.

Theis new location at in themy winter.

Why Canada Post is and the bottom of a slight hill, 250 feet south of the original location.

The roads in K. Mesure the government not concerned about the winter are already more narrow due to pile up of snow… I worry that mythe safety? cars may come speeding over the hill and not see me until the last minute. Why I will not move my mailbox because I Eleonora Cignini is Canada Post and the government not concerned about my safety? fear for my safety. The new location is Mono-Adjala Townline Eleonora Cignini, Mono-Adjala Townline Our mailbox at its present location is no hazard for the mail carrier and it is safe for us. Canada Post’s protestations to the contrary, the safety issue is not the motive for the measure for relocating our mailbox, but the reduction in the number of rural mailboxes and their eventual elimination likely is!

Michele Zaichuk

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C O U N T R Y S I D E

D I G E S T

by Douglas G. Pearce

Lazy, seedy, devious and stay-at-home Border Thaw “Climate change has led to the introduction of one of the world’s fi rst ‘mobile borders,’ between Switzerland and Italy. The border was originally defi ned according to where the watershed line was on a series of glaciers, some just below the worldfamous Matterhorn. But rapidly melting border glaciers have changed the location of the watershed.

“The two countries have agreed to redraw the 750 km border, then leave its maintenance to a panel of experts to revise as the glaciers continue to melt.

“Between 2007 and 2008 most alpine glaciers retreated by at least 25 m, with the Gornier glacier on the SwissItalian border retreating by nearly 300 m. The glaciers are expected to be all but gone within the next 30-40 years.” From Ecologist, June/09.

Homeland Security John Kenneth Galbraith “...held ‘oneman bilateral’ hearings on behalf of both Prime Minister Lester Pearson and President John F. Kennedy in negotiating a new aviation treaty to accommodate the arrival of jet aircraft and make it unnecessary for flights between Toronto and New York to stop in Buffalo.” CCPA Monitor, Sept/09.

Post-It Notes “They began in 1980, when a St. Paul, Minnesota choir member’s hymnal bookmarks kept falling to the floor.

Chorister Arthur Fry, an engineer at chemical company 3M, joined forces with 3M scientist Spencer Silver, inventor of a peculiar adhesive that stuck poorly to surfaces. The glue provided perfect temporary fixes for paper scraps such as hymnal bookmarks.”

From Worldwatch, Sept-Oct/09.

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

“Planning a Caribbean escape this winter? ‘Touring a tropical paradise affords one the opportunity to eat poisoned food, swim in contaminated waters, and sustain serious injury from marine life.’ That’s the jaundiced view of the brand-new Infections of Leisure, the only textbook dedicated to spoiling your free time. It details how eating mussels can cause twoyear bouts of amnesia and how playing sports helps spread ringworm.

And who knew that pet hedgehogs, turtles, and iguanas are just crawling with salmonella? The new fourth

edition adds chapters on ‘Perils of the Petting Zoo’ and ‘Infections on Cruise Ships’ to its earlier warning of the dangers of camping, going to the beach, gardening, or simply being at high altitudes.” From Science, Sept 11/09.

Lazy Housewife “Lazy Housewife bean, one of the oldest documented beans, produces slender green pods that are delicious as snap beans and can also be dried for a soup bean bar none. Its name celebrates the first beans that did not need stringing!” From Seeds of Diversity, Spr-Sum/09.

Heart to Heart “If you happen to be waiting for a new organ, consider that 40,000 corneas, 16,000 kidneys and 6,500 livers change hands every year. And, remarkably, about 40 people have received new hearts from living donors: someone with bad lungs but a healthy heart can get both from a cadaver – less risky than transplanting lungs alone – then pass their own heart along.”

From New Scientist, Aug 15/09.

Parts List “With the human genome sequenced, scientists have begun the vastly more complicated process of determining what the three billion bases that make up our genes do, how and when they are turned on and off, and how the proteins they design collaborate to carry out various functions. That is the real challenge, for the sequenced human genome merely represents a list of parts. As geneticist Eric Lander has said: ‘We’ve called the human genome the blueprint, the Holy Grail, all sorts of things. It’s a parts list. If I gave you the parts list for a Boeing 777 and it has one hundred thousand parts, I don’t think you could screw it together, and you certainly wouldn’t understand why it flew.’” From The Big Picture,

by David Suzuki and Dave Robert Taylor, Greystone Books (2009).

isolated to a small valley near the Atlantic coast in Pennsylvania until 25 years ago. Now you have it growing in every corner and climate of this country. That is rapid plant adaptation. It is also food security through redundancy. As climate change accelerates, your network of growers and their gene pool will become more and more vital to our national interests.”

From Seeds of Diversity, Spr-Sum/09.

Rellay? “aoccdrnig to rsceearh at cmabrigde uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.”

From a review by Andrew Robinson of Writing, by Barry B. Powell, WileyBlack (2009), in Science, Apr 3/09.

Clever Plants “‘A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible’ goes the Welsh proverb that lends this fascinating book its title. Focusing on seeds, ecologist Jonathan Silvertown has written a witty and charming introduction to the evolutionary wiles of the plant kingdom. Who knew, for instance, that we enjoy beer thanks to yeast’s devious scheme to poison fermenting barley seeds with alcohol, denying their nutrients to other microorganisms?

“Cooking and eating become evolutionary subversions, too, in Silvertown’s entertaining company, as humans exploit the extraordinary biochemical ingenuity of plants, and vice versa. If the apple is the tree’s way of getting us to spread its seeds, we have our passion for ripe fruits to thank for the evolution of our three-colour vision, which allows us to see red berries hidden in a sea of green. Do read this eyeopening book.” From a review by Gail Vines of An Orchard Invisible: A Natural History of Seeds, by Jonathan Silvertown, University of Chicago Press, in New Scientist, July 18/09.

Happy 25th In wishing a happy birthday to Seeds of Diversity, a Canadian seed saving and sharing organization, which he founded, Ken McMullen says, “The great threat to biodiversity today is rapid climate change. Plant life will need to adapt at a faster rate than ever before. Rapid plant adaptation is your strength. Brandywine tomato was

Final Thought “If you look at the science about what is happening on Earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data.

But if you meet the people who are working to restore this Earth … and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.” Paul Hawken, quoted in Home Power, Aug-Sept/09. ≈

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

A R T I S T

I N

R E S I D E N C E

from top : The Wild Way; Ever Alert; Lookout; Ripe Pears; Eye on the Prize

Roslyn Levin Sumi-e is a form of rapid and spontaneous ink painting, in which the brush is felt to be an extension of the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spirit and energy. Shelburne artist Roslyn Levin has been painting in this Japanese brushstroke style for nearly 30 years, primarily wildlife subjects, and this year she was the recipient of two international awards. Roslyn also teaches the technique and can be seen working at her studio at DragonďŹ&#x201A;y Arts in Orangeville. She currently has a solo exhibition at the Curiosity House gallery in Creemore, until December 3. www.artbyroslyn.on.ca IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

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LOC A L H E RO E S

B Y J E F F R O L L I N G S 쐽 P H O T O S B Y P E T E P AT E R S O N

It’s people who make a community. And our second annual celebration of local heroes is a salute to ten extraordinary people who define our community at its best. 쐽 Some of them, like Jade Scognamillo, are just starting out, their early achievement a rich promise for the future. Others, like Doc Gillies, represent an exemplary lifetime of community service. Some, like Larry Kurtz, dream large and share those dreams on the public stage. And others, like Jane Helie and Tammy Clark, quietly pursue a daily act of humanity. 쐽 All of them make these hills a better place to live.

To add your support or to learn more about the causes and organizations mentioned on these pages, see Local Heroes at www.inthehills.ca and follow the links.

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

17

HE ATHER BROADBENT CAPTIVE ON THE CAROUSEL OF TIME

F

or thirty-five years, Caledon’s respected heritage expert Heather Broadbent has been speaking up on behalf of our past. Though officially retired since 2000, she continues to champion the cause of cultural and natural heritage protection as vigorously

as ever.

Heather immigrated to Canada from Britain forty years ago, although she has deeper Canadian roots. “The fi rst generation to emigrate here was my great-grandfather,” she says. He settled in the Humber River watershed, near what is now Etobicoke, and her grandfather was born soon after. However, after only six years the family went back to Britain, and remained there until Heather returned two generations later.

To say Heather’s knowledge of the region’s natural and cultural history is encyclopedic is to sell it short. She claims she comes by it naturally: “Everyone in the family was interested in history. Knowing my grandfather was here inspired me to learn not just about the pioneer history, but also native history.”

Heather began putting that accumulated wisdom to use in 1974 as something of a self-appointed Caledon heritage czar, raising the issue at hearings for land development proposals and other municipal functions. In 1981, she obtained a vocational licence to conduct archeological assessments.

Heather stuck with her volunteer heritage cause for eleven years. And in 1985, when the town established the first paid position for a heritage resources officer, Heather was the natural choice for the job. She remained in the role for the next fifteen years.

18

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

During that time, her influence grew far beyond Caledon. Arguing that regard for heritage should be enshrined in legislation beyond the confines of the Heritage Act, she participated in updating the provincial Planning Act in 1985 to reflect heritage considerations. “We ended up with something stronger because of that,” she recalls. Today, heritage clauses appear in a wide array of provincial policies, including the Aggregate Resources Act. Heather also served for six years on the Ontario Heritage Foundation, and a further six as vice-chair of the Conservation Review Board, which hears appeals to the Heritage Act. On home turf, she was instrumental in establishing what is now called Heritage Caledon and other heritage advisory committees throughout Peel. She was also a major player in the development of the Peel Heritage Complex.

It’s a mistake to think that Heather is all about artifacts in a museum, however. She is just as passionate about natural heritage, and has served with a long list of groups aiming to protect and restore the Humber River – everything from efforts to have it designated as a Canadian Heritage River (it was) to conducting historic bridge inventories. “My grandfather lived in the Humber watershed, and I’ve lived here the whole time,” she says, to explain why the river holds such a prominent place in her heart.

“Retirement is exhausting,” says this heritage diva of her hectic life.

“Just before I retired I was on seventeen committees. Afterwards I got it down to six. Now it’s back up to eight or nine. I’ve been very lucky.

My interest became my life.”

DOC GILLIES THE FIXER

H

is nickname tells his story. Legendary community champion Doc Gillies’ real name is John. Although even his wife Nancy calls him Doc, he’s not a doctor. He’s the Fixer.

Doc’s mister-fi x-it skills fi rst came to light in the 1950s. He was working as a sales manager for an ailing Ford dealership in his hometown of Galt. Doc successfully turned the business around. The company took notice, and put him on the road doing the same for other dealerships, bringing him to Orangeville in 1959.

Nancy liked the town. They stayed, and Doc became the new owner of Broadway Ford.

In the mid-1970s Doc sold the dealership to his employees and began planning an early retirement: “I was forty-two and I thought ‘That’s it. I’m done.’” He had a forty-two-foot sailboat built, took his five kids out of school, and for the next two years the family toured the Mediterranean, and then crossed the Atlantic.

“Fewer than a hundred boats a year were making trans-Atlantic crossings at the time,” Doc recalls. Why such an extreme family adventure? “It was so I could get to know my kids. I was always working. It occurred to me that I had been an absent father.”

On his return to Orangeville in 1983, Doc served as the town’s economic development officer until 1988 – for which he was paid one dollar a year. “They gave me an office, but I don’t think I ever actually got the dollar.”

After that, he began partnering with others on residential development projects that now include more than 450 homes in Orangeville. He also built and still owns three Orangeville malls.

Although Doc’s contributions to the development of Orangeville’s physical landscape are significant, they pale beside his record of community service.

A long-time supporter of youth, he was a major player in the construction of Rotary Park and later its skateboard park, and he worked behind the scenes to help establish The Door youth centre. A strong advocate of the value of education, he helped with the fundraising efforts for the reconstruction of the Orangeville Public Library and the acquisition of the Humber College site.

In health care, he has served as chair of the Headwaters Health Care Foundation, and is one of the hospital’s senators. He was an unpaid general contractor for the Highlands Medical Clinic, and remains instrumental in ongoing medical clinic planning.

As if all that weren’t enough, he also donated land to the Town of Orangeville for a planned tourism centre, and is a forty-nine year member of the Orangeville Rotary Club.

In 2008, he was named a provincial Senior of the Year.

Along with David and Huda Scott, Doc and Nancy are currently honorary fundraising chairs for Building Dreams Together, a partnership between Community Living Dufferin and Theatre Orangeville to construct a new work and rehearsal facility. Doc also serves with Friends of Island Lake, Headwaters Communities in Action, and Family Transition Place.

These days, Doc focuses on fi xing the future. “I’m endeavouring to build leaders,” he says. “We need people to take hold and sometimes it’s better to come along with an older horse.”

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

19

JADE SCOGNAMILLO OUR L ADY OF THE L AKES

Y

ou need to be careful when you meet 15year-old marathon swimming marvel and champion fundraiser Jade Scognamillo.

You might want to adopt her.

It’s not that this conqueror of both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario needs saving. It’s that her sense of community, commitment, courage and poise raise the bar on “inspiring.” If anyone has ever picked a dream and then utterly dedicated themselves to achieving it, it’s Jade.

Her passions for both swimming and charity began when she was still a youngster in Kent, England. Her mom, Jane, nearly drowned as a child, and vowed her own children would swim, so Jade started lessons at age five. Perhaps more remarkable, she was just eight when her habit of raising funds for charity took hold: “My mom and dad were having a big anniversary party,” she says. “My aunt was ill with cancer, and I wanted to help, so I held a raffle at the party and

20

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

raised a hundred pounds.” At age nine, she began competitive swimming.

In 2004, the family travelled to Ontario on an exploratory visit, considering emigration. Jade says, “One of the big reasons I was ‘for’ moving to Canada was because I learned about the people who swam Lake Ontario.” The family did move here in 2005, settling on eighteen acres in northeast Caledon. Jade enrolled at Country Day School and began training with the Vaughan Aquatic Club, based in Aurora, under the direction of coach Nancy Black.

The next step must have been nerve-wracking for her family. Imagine your 13-year-old seriously declaring that she plans to swim Lake Ontario, soon. And as a warm-up, she’ll first swim Lake Erie. Oh, and by the way, the whole thing will be a huge charity fundraiser for Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto, which needs infant incubators.

Mom Jane, dad Tony, younger brothers Paul

and Connor must have set their worries aside though, because in July 2008, at age 14, Jade became not only the youngest, but, at five hours and forty minutes, also the fastest swimmer to cross Lake Erie. More stunning, she beat the old record by more than two hours, afterward claiming she did it “with energy to spare.”

That energy would be needed if Jade was to attempt t he traditiona l route across La ke Ontario, established in 1954 by Marilyn Bell. At fifty-two kilometres, the crossing from Niagaraon-the-Lake to Toronto is more than thirty kilometres longer than the Erie route.

As a landed immigrant, Jade’s powerhouse Lake Erie swim went in the record books under Britain – her only disappointment from the experience.

Weeks before the Lake Ontario swim, however, the situation was rectified when Jade received a unique grant of Canadian citizenship in a ceremony presided over by local MP David Tilson.

On July 24 this year, after thousands of hours of training, after all the anticipation, the big day had arrived. But with supporters gathered at the water’s edge, boats at the ready, Jade underwent a further test of her mettle when the swim had to be called off at the last minute due to thunderstorm warnings. Rescheduled for July 31, the swim was again delayed by bad weather, though this time only by a few hours. Finally, at 9:33 p.m., in the dark, Jade stepped into the water.

A few windy, wavy hours in, experiencing illness and facing a long night ahead, Jade had her first doubts. What helped keep her going? “My coach had this great idea,” she says. “Before the swim she gave me cue cards and got me to write things on them that inspired me or that I liked. Random things – Sick Kids, the money I’m raising, even chocolate. Then she stuck them to the side of the kayak where I could see them. I also had the names of all the people who had doubted me – you remember them, you know.” The technique didn’t stop there – she even had Sick Kids logos painted on her fingernails.

Battling on through the night, did she ever want to quit? “Well,” she says, a certain wisdom in her tone, “wanting to get out and doing it are very different things. I kept telling my coach that during the swim. I was having dull pains – more annoying than anything else. She kept asking if I wanted to get out and I’d say, ‘No. I just want to tell someone!’”

Eventually the long night ended, the task at hand brighter if no less punishing. “Lake Erie was warmer and not as wavy,” she says.

“Most of Lake Ontario was about sixty degrees, though in some places it went down into the fifties.”

As Toronto slowly grew on the horizon, Jade’s grit and determination competed with her exhaustion and pain. In the last kilometre, after so many hours in the water, one more gruelling challenge awaited: “The waves grew to five or six feet in the last part,” she says. Nevertheless, when she finally touched the wall at Marilyn Bell Park, a crowd cheering her on, she had become the youngest person ever to swim Lake Ontario. “Everyone thought I didn’t look very happy to be finished,” she recalls, “but actually my face was frozen and I couldn’t show any emotion.”

Although the record for the fastest crossing of Lake Ontario is a little over fifteen hours, Jade’s goal had been to complete the swim in under twenty. In order to avoid strong currents at the mouth of the Humber River, she ended up swimming sixty kilometres instead of fifty-two – “It felt like I was swimming to Hamilton before going to Toronto” – but despite that she made it in nineteen hours, fi fty-nine minutes and forty-nine seconds, that is, with eleven seconds to spare.

Jade has exceeded her original target of raising $35,000 for Sick Kids, and is now aiming at $70,000. So far she has brought in a little over $50,000, but donations will be accepted until the end of the year.

You might expect Jade to be relaxing these days, her goal achieved, but taking it easy doesn’t seem to be in her. She continues to train seven times a week, spending about twelve hours in the water and several more hours on what she calls “land training.” On one hand, she’s pondering university – “I’m into sciences and math” – but on the other, she’s sizing up the Olympics.

There’s little doubt we’ll hear more from charming Jade Scognamillo, but will she swim another lake? “Not necessarily,” she says, and there’s something telling in her explanation: “A lot of athletes are pushed by their parents, but this came from me.

There’s no way you can do it without being one hundred per cent committed. A lot of it is physical, but most of it is mental. Without that, I wouldn’t be able to get across.”

Without a hint of been-there-done-that, she says, “I came out of the lake a different person.”

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

21

ROB CICCOTELLI RUNAWAY S TAGE COACH

I

n September, 2010, Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School in Caledon East will be officially designated a school of the arts. For Rob Ciccotelli, a dramatic arts and photography teacher and a driving force behind the initiative, the event can be marked up as one more successful performance.

The sheer volume of this man’s creative endeavours is astonishing.

Beyond his full-time work in education, he’s also a playwright, artistic director of a theatre company, a theatrical producer and director, a professional photographer, and member of a slew of arts boards and committees. This husband and father of three has also worked in fi lm, and in the summer he teaches photography for a private school. Whew.

Rob’s frenetic pace has been fruitful, though. Over his fifteen years teaching at Robert F. Hall, the school’s drama program has become one of the most respected in the province – garnering an impressive catalogue of awards and commendations at provincial and international school drama festivals. Theatre Orangeville youth programs have been a rich source of students, but they also come from across the region.

Rob’s equally successful plays, including contemporary takeoffs of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet (renamed, Romeo and Juliet Hook Up, but with a classical all-male cast), have been performed on stages across southern Ontario, including Theatre Orangeville, Rose Theatre in Brampton, Stratford and the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto. Many of the members of Theatre Anon, his theatre company, are former students.

Of the arts school designation, which has been five years in the

22

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

making, Rob says, “We’ve had an enhanced drama program for four years, so it’s not new to the drama department, but it is for everyone else.” The program establishes two streams at the school. Those who sign up for “Pathways to the Arts” will take six to eight credits over four years, from fields of study including drama, visual arts, music, media and dance.

Although Pathways to the Arts is an obvious fit for students who are serious about theatrical or fi lm careers, Rob notes, perhaps surprisingly, “Likely 95 per cent of our students aren’t interested in performing as a career.” However, learning to stand up in front of an audience has other benefits: “I wouldn’t say it turns introverts into extroverts, but it brings out what may be hidden in people.” He adds that several of his former students, including some who have become lawyers, have told him how valuable they find that skill in later life.

Only in his mid-forties, much lies ahead for this guru of performance.

He’s currently writing a treatment of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, set amid the big hair and shoulder pads of the 1980s. “It’ll have to include Billy Idol’s song ‘White Wedding,’” he says with a laugh.

Production is scheduled for 2010.

“I do what I love to do,” Rob says of his hectic life. “It’s a lot of fun for me. My kids think it’s a scam that I get to make a living at it.”

Applications for Pathways to the Arts will be available in late January, 2010, for submission by mid-February. Contact Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School at 905-584-1670 for more information.

L ARRY KURT Z BOOGIE-WOOGIE MAN

T

he founder of Orangeville’s highly successful Blues and Jazz Festival, Larry Kurtz is also a craftsman, musician, singer and songwriter; a man of many and varied passions. Somehow, he’s good at all of them.

At his day job, Larry is proprietor of Kurtz Millworks in Orangeville, producing Victorian architectural mouldings, gingerbread, doors and cabinetry. Anyone who owns an old house and has tried to match the trim might want to nominate him as a hero just for that.

Larry says he launched the business in 1990 because he had “grown restless” with work as a renovator. “I was always into old houses, and wanted a shop.” It was while he was working on refurbishing the Dufferin County Courthouse in Orangeville that the light went on: “I thought ‘I know. I could replicate hundred-year-old woodwork.’”

With that in mind, he set up a display for one weekend at the Orangeville Mall and “got enough work for the whole summer. I’ve never run out of work since.”

Reproduction Victorian woodwork was hard to come by at the time, and he says, “There were no mentors, no training programs. You just had to figure it out on your own.” These days he’s still doing that, employing new materials and cutting-edge technology that allows him to replicate historic designs more efficiently and cheaply.

Though it seems almost out of character for the quiet craftsman, Larry’s musical showmanship comes with the same “let’s just figure it out” attitude. A childhood member of the church choir at the Salvation Army in Brampton, he was singing a cappella in front of the congregation at age ten. In high school he sang in a band, and at fifteen began learning how to play the harmonica.

However, music soon took a back seat to more practical concerns. Married the first time at age twenty, a homeowner by twenty-one, Larry didn’t return to the harmonica until he was in his mid-thirties. “We started playing out in the shop once in a while, just for fun.

Suddenly, we had a band.” Trouble and Strife was born.

They’ve come a long way since. Their latest, self-promoted and self-titled blues CD is receiving airplay on 175 radio stations in forty countries. The band is hoping to record a new album this winter.

We can thank Larry’s wife Norma for switching on the light for his next obsession. “My wife said, ‘It’s crazy that we keep driving all this way to these blues festivals,’ and I thought ‘Wouldn’t it be good to have one here?’”

Starting small, Larry promoted a blues show in Orangeville. “There was a line-up to get in,” he says and, with that demand in mind, his vision for the Orangeville Blues and Jazz festival took shape. “I just decided this was something I wanted to accomplish in life,” he says. And accomplish it he did. Rapidly growing since its fi rst edition in 2003, the free festival now takes over downtown Orangeville on the first weekend in June, drawing over 21,000 people and a wide range of big name performers.

If you’ve ever had trouble picking a dream to follow, you might take a cue from Larry’s answer to the question, why the blues?

“I didn’t choose the blues, the blues chose me. It’s the only thing that comes easy. It was the same with the harmonica, it just seemed natural. If you love something and keep plugging away, you’ll attract the right energy.”

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

23

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

JANE HELIE & TAMMY CL ARK KIND -HE AR TED C AT HERDER S

BY MI C HEL E GREEN

F

ive days a week, every week, Jane Helie drives to Hillsburgh, a white-knuckled half-hour trip during inclement winter weather. Upon her arrival, the occupants scatter, stealing back tentatively as she performs her duties in a tiny, unheated cabin. Occasionally Buddy rubs against her leg in a gesture of cautious affection. Jane expects nothing more.

For nearly a decade, Jane and Tammy Clark, who takes over on weekends, have cared for a feral cat community. It all started in 2000 when Tammy noticed a cluster of feral cats in a nearby empty lot while she was having her car repaired. She and Jane returned several times to feed them. Realizing this was a tricky situation, Jane said to Tammy, “Now that we’ve started this, we can’t just walk away.”

Cats are sexually mature at six months of age, often producing litters of seven or eight kittens. Do the math: a feral cat community is an unbridled population explosion. The problem often begins when an outdoor house cat does not return home to have her litter or when farm cats wander off to procreate.

“We decided to start a ‘trap, neuter, release’ program,” Jane says.

Marilyn Case, who worked in Hillsburgh, joined their cause, notifying them when a cat was trapped and dropping it off at the local veterinarian. Under Jane’s watchful eye, each female recuperated for five days at her home before returning to the community.

“Early on, a few people complained about the cats. Some were grumbling that they should be killed,” Jane says. “So we attended an Erin Township meeting where Tammy explained about the trap, neuter, release program that would allow the community to survive and let mother nature run its course.” Ear tattoos identify the cats and the population has remained steady at approximately thirty.

A dilapidated van donated by a nearby garage owner became the first sleeping and feeding quarters. Five years ago, Jane received permission to construct an insulated shed on the property. With lumber and a door donated from Toronto, they built the shed, assisted by a local senior. Comfy cat bunk beds with blankets and quilts line the walls and a cupboard houses supplies. The cats are fed daily with de-worming medications and vitamins added as required.

During the seven years it took to complete the catch, neuter and release program, litters continued to be born. Over fifty kittens were trapped and spayed or neutered. Marilyn took on the responsibility of domesticating the kittens before putting them up for adoption.

The trio paid thousands of dollars in vet bills for spaying and neutering as well as fees for medicine and to euthanize those too ill to save. Not to mention the ongoing cost of food. Since Marilyn moved out of the area, Jane and Tammy soldier on alone.

“I sold my motorcycle to pay one very large vet bill,” Jane says.

“But I just loved that cat.”

Jane has always been an animal person. She currently has eight cats and dogs of her own – a couple with special needs. Recently she began volunteering at the Upper Credit Humane Society, serving a term on the board of directors.

The feral cats are aging and one day the community will die out.

The end will come quietly with no medals or certificates to recognize this long labour of love, time and expense.

“We did this because it was the only humane thing to do,” Jane says.

tammy clark (left) and jane helie

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

25

KEN JE WE T T THE OLD MAN AND THE TREE

T

he maple leaf may be synonymous with all things Canadian, but actually finding a true native maple to plant can be a daunting challenge. Ken Jewett, founder of Maple Leaves Forever, is out to change that.

Ken was given his father’s hobby farm at age twentyone, and it was there that his passion for planting trees began. (Ironically, he was working in sales for Abitibi paper at the time.) At age forty he started Marsan Foods, a manufacturer of frozen prepared meals. The company blossomed, and has been featured as one of the fifty best-managed family businesses in Canada.

It was after he retired that Ken returned to his interest in maple trees. “The original motivation for Maple Leaves Forever,” he says, “was an Ontario government program in the 1800s that subsidized farmers for taking maples and other hardwoods from their woodlots and planting them along the roadsides.” The program resulted in the tree-lined roadways so common to the landscape of these hills.

But those trees are starting to disappear. Maples can live for up to 400 years, but pollution, salt and construction take a toll on roadside trees. As well, Ken explains that some experts feel the tree’s natural preference is to grow in a crowded, shady forest – and their longevity is reduced when they are strung out in a line. Regardless of the cause, Ken says, “Here we are in the early 2000s, and all those maples from the 1800s are starting to die.” Most are not being replaced.

A true Canadian maple is one of ten species native to different parts of the country, such as big leaf maples in British Columbia, sugar maples in Ontario, and red maples in Quebec. Instead of these, garden centres typically sell a variety of cultivars and hybrids, or trees of unknown genetic origin, shipped in from the United States where warmer temperatures make them cheaper to produce.

At Maple Leaves Forever, a registered national charity, Ken and his two staff work with seed collectors and nurseries to provide a certified supply of “seed zone identified” native seed, mostly for sugar, red and silver maples. Trees planted in the same climatic zone as their parent trees are thought to be hardier.

The organization also acquires native seedlings, saplings and calipre stock from its network of certified nurseries. It then makes the trees available to landowners, municipalities, conservation authorities and community groups for half the nursery selling price, with Maple Leaves Forever funding the balance of the cost.

In 2008, 8,500 maples were planted through the program. Restoration on rural roadsides, laneways and hedgerows in southern Ontario has been the major focus so far, though Ken says that one day he would like to see the operation extend across the country.

“You’ve got to have a dream,” says this champion of our arboreal identity. “It doesn’t have to be in business, or making money, but it needs to be something where, in order to get there, you’ve got to be committed.”

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

karen hutchinson (left) and jennifer clark

K AREN HUTCHINSON & JENNIFER CL ARK SUPPERHERO AND HER SIDEKICK, SOUP GIRL

T

his dynamic duo of aproned crusaders battles to build a local food system.

Karen Hutchinson has been executive director of Caledon Countryside Alliance since 2003. Although she has worked on many rural causes in that time, she says she is most proud of what CCA has accomplished when it comes to local food.

The organization’s Eat Local Caledon initiative, spearheaded by staffer Jennifer Clark, has exploded since its inception in 2007. Through the program, Caledon was home to Ontario’s first Eat Local week in 2007, and that grew into Eat Local months in 2008 and 2009. Karen and Jennifer have promoted Eat Local dinners at Caledon restaurants, hosted four “trade connections” meetings, and produced the 2008 and 2009 Field to Table Directory, linking producers and buyers. They launched the Inglewood Farmers’ Market last year, and partnered with others to launch the Caledon Farmers’ Market in Bolton this year.

Along the way, they have also organized an ongoing series of workshops, cooking classes, and special events.

Those events include the “Caledon Crunch,” during which thousands of elementary students across the town all bite into a Caledon-grown apple at the same time.

With much of the Peel Plain in south Caledon consumed by development, and all the other woes in agriculture, you might expect the outlook for local farming to be grim. But Karen, a fourth-generation Caledon farmer, doesn’t see it that way: “I think Caledon is the perfect spot for agriculture,” she says. Citing factors such as climate change, peak oil and the contaminated food scandals in China, she says, “People are much more concerned about where their food is coming from. There’s a real evolution. They’re starting to appreciate their relationship with the farmer.”

Will Caledon farmland be swallowed up by development? “I’m betting the farm there’s another option,” Karen says. “There are enough factors changing in the Peel Plain right now that I think it could become the last, best food-producing region in the province.”

Later, she adds “When you look at our farmland and countryside – including the 27,000 acres in Caledon’s ‘white belt’ [farmland excluded from Greenbelt protection] – start to imagine the potential of local food. Instead of more houses, imagine building the foundation of a new green economy, a local and sustainable food system with family farms, orchards, market gardens, vineyards, farm market stores, bakeries, dairies, butchers and local businesses. Let’s start thinking seriously about the legacy we’re going to leave for future generations.

Farmland doesn’t have to be land waiting to be developed; there is a higher and better use.”

Jennifer, who also runs a catering business called “Soup Girl” that features local food, is just as passionate about the cause and, like Karen, she practises what she preaches. She says “The drive is to get people excited about fresh, healthy local food. It’s easy to cook, and a nice way to spend time. Then you make them understand the environmental benefits.”

Jennifer has recently been promoting a program called Take a Bite Out of Climate Change. It provides eight guidelines for reducing food miles and greenhouse gas emissions, and includes a local food pledge.

Details can be found on the Eat Local Caledon website. Over the next year, she will also be conducting training programs for farmers interested in local marketing. “We want to attract more people into farming, so that there is local Caledon food.”

Holy good idea, Soup Girl! ≈

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

27

There’s more to see

Dragonfly Arts on Broadway Start a new tradition this Christmas – give all Canadian art and fine craft. Come in and meet our award winning, internationally acclaimed artists.

519.941.5249 189 Broadway www.dragonflyarts.ca

Readers’ Choice Books make the perfect present. New and used. Gift certificates available. Always a sale.

519.940.8740 151 Broadway

Café Bella Meet with friends, relatives and business associates and enjoy our casual, friendly ambience.

We can also provide panini, sandwiches, salads and dessert for your office meetings and functions.

Breakfast all day!

519.941.0300 85 Broadway

Bluebird No time to dine? The Bluebird take out offers a full menu for you to choose from.

Open for lunch and dinner, Tuesday to Saturday.

519.941.3101 Take-out ph#: 519.941.5246 100 Broadway

Websites worth visiting: marketonbroadway.ca • theatreorangeville.ca

Winexpert Superior quality juices. Full-service wine making establishment.

Fun, easy and economically wise.

100% satisfaction guaranteed.

All inclusive pricing.

Mention this ad and get a $10 gift card towards starting your next batch at the $141 level or higher.

519.940.4111 41 Broadway www.winexpertorangeville.com

Maggiolly Art Supplies A full selection of quality art materials. Maggiolly Art Supplies has been serving the local artist community since 1996.

519.942.9560 158 Broadway www.maggiollyart.com

Genesis Decorating & Design Gallery A professional design team offering decorating solutions and products.

Imagery & Truth Original Art, Neilson Cabinet Works, Genesis Space Creations Decorating and Design, Property Styling Staging & Décor, Mary Dancey Interiors, Window Magic Interiors Ltd. 519.415.5577 83 Broadway

The Manhattan Bead Company Please visit us for all your beading needs!

519.943.1299 111 Broadway www.manhattanbeadco.com

and do Downtown Orangeville • A magical holiday evening for the entire family! Orangeville’s Moonlight Magic & Tree Lighting Ceremony November 20th 6pm to 10pm • Theatre Orangeville presents “A Christmas Story”, a festive family favourite – November 26th to December 20th - Town Hall Opera House Cabelo The Art of Hair At Cabelo – The Art of Hair, our commitment to our clients is a priority. We believe that the ability to create a suitable and customized style for our clients is an art.

Pear Home Introducing all the colours of Winter for your home, or a gift for any occasion.

Open 7 days a week

519.941.1125 98 Broadway www.cabelo.ca

519.941.1101 185 Broadway www.pearhome.ca

Greystones Inn & Spirits Pub

Academy of Performing Arts

Open 7 days a week, 11am to close.

Spirits Pub, Red Feather Pub & Patio Feature Nights Wed: 1/2 price feature wine, cocktails & apps.

Thurs: $4 Creemore pints.

Fri & Sat: Live Entertainment CHEERS! 519-941-2235 63 Broadway

Fun, inspirational atmosphere!

Children and adult classes.

Hip-hop, ballet, tap, acro, vocal, musical theatre, ballroom and more. Now offering adult yoga classes too.

The Chocolate Shop

As We Grow

Indulge yourself with a tasty tidbit, or surprise someone special with a delectable treat.

Handmade chocolates and truffles. Gifts for any price range.

Women’s fashions up to 3x.

Adorable baby and children’s fashions, plus youth. Check out www.jolenecanada.com for children’s special occasion fashions. The store for hats and mitts – baby to adult.

Open daily.

519-941-8733 113 Broadway – next to the clock www.aswegrow.ca

519.941.8968 114 Broadway

Noinkees Noinkees…the thoughtful purchase. We offer unique, fair trade, earth friendly, Canadianmade, clothing, accessories, jewellery, bath & body, toys, and gifts for women, moms2B, kids & infants.

519-942-4456 168B Broadway – through the tunnel www.noinkees.com

519.941.4103 133 Broadway www.academyofperformingarts.info

The Scented Drawer Ltd. Fine Lingerie Boutique Be uplifted this holiday season with perfectly fitted intimates. New winter collections from petite to voluptuous.

Discreet personalized service in a relaxed atmosphere. Mastectomy bras and prosthetics, shape wear, bridal, hosiery, accessories and sleepwear for women and men.

519.941.9941 143 Broadway

discoverbroadway.ca

Olympic

Fever

Roland Kirouac choreographs the excitement as Orangeville prepares to welcome the Olympic Flame

BY C EC ILY R O S S

Dances with Snowmobiles Roland Kirouac (right) is the dynamo who is orchestrating the celebration, including a snowmobile ballet, that will mark the arrival of the Olympic Torch Relay in Orangeville. More than 200 musicians, children and athletes will participate in the two-hour event on December 28. Boxer Bryon Mackie (left) will carry the community Torch to light the town’s celebration cauldron. Mackie has won three professional Canadian titles and coached 12 young boxers to titles, earning him Boxing Ontario’s Coach of the Year Award in 2003.

The Olympians Among Us More than two dozen Olympians have made their home here in the hills. Some of them grew up here, some of them settled here following their days of Olympic competition. From their own albums and Olympic sports files,

CP PHOTO / J GIBSON

following pages pay tribute to some of those exceptional athletes, past and present, in the intense moments of Olympic glory.

a an pilcher al alan p ill ch her r CALGARY CA A LG G AR ARY Y 19 1988 9 88 A BE AL B RT R T VI V LL LLE E 1992 19 9 92 9 ALBERTVILLE Al Pilcher’s ninth place finish in the 1988 cross-country 4 x 10 km relay was the best ever result for the Canadian team. He has twice been both Canadian Nordic Champion and North American Nordic Champion. Formerly of Orangeville, where he trained, Al now lives with his wife and three children in Ottawa where he is a business professor at Carleton University.

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

C P P H O T O / T ED G R A N T

the photos on these and the

b rn be bernadette rnad a et ad e te bowyer b ow w ye yer BARCELONA BA A RC R EL E ON N A 1992 19 9 92 9 This former captain of the Varsity Blues field hockey team and member of the U of T Sports Hall of Fame suffered a serious knee injury during the final match of the Olympics, ending both her sports career and her job as a Peel police officer. A graduate of Orangeville District Secondary School, she now lives in Mono where she and her husband have three children and have fostered several others over the past thirteen years. Bernadette also trains foster parents through the Children’s Aid Society.

Canada Oh Canada | There’s a flame that burns eternal | With a warmth that will not fade | There’s a flame that burns in spite of wind or snow | It’s the spirit of our people | It’s the spirit of our land | It’s the flame inside our hearts | Let it grow *

comes to Orangeville

I

n the course of his more than fifty-year career, Orangeville choreographer Roland Kirouac has directed the fancy footwork of everything from elephants and hand puppets to motorcycles and mountain climbers. Indeed, if the Olympics offered a gold medal for choreography, surely it should go to this 72-year-old Quebec native, who has applied his talents to such big events as the opening of Toronto’s SkyDome and the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.

But it is Kirouac’s current project that promises to provide the ultimate test of his prodigious talents.

The town of Orangeville has been selected as one of forty “celebration communities” for the national torch relay as it makes its way across Canada in the lead-up to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Kirouac is masterminding the twohour party planned for December 28 outside the

Tony Rose Memorial Sports Centre, and his enthusiasm is boundless.

“It’s going to be huge,” he says. “Gigantic. It’s going to be like the opening of an Olympic Games. It’s that grand. A major event.”

Kirouac has put together what he calls “a show in the round.” The thousands of spectators expected to attend the gala outdoor celebration will be surrounded on all sides by an unfolding extravaganza of sashaying ice skaters, Dixieland bands, local choirs and step dancers, as well as skiers and snowboarders waltzing down Murray mountain. There will even be a kids’ kazoo band. But the most ambitious performance may be the precision ride by The Orangeville snowmobile club. Under Kirouac’s direction, members have been practising their noisy, gas-powered ballet for months (using ATVs until there’s enough snow).

A stickler for detail, Kirouac has personally mapped out in painstaking detail every last movement of every one of the more than 200 performers, right down to the dancing snowmobiles. “Every element will be a show in itself,” he says.

Kirouac, who has taken time out on this rainy October morning to talk about his plans for the torch relay ceremonies, looks like a countrified version of Fred Astaire; just imagine a straw fedora and corduroy sports jacket in place of top hat and tails.

It’s a fitting comparison considering that one of Kirouac’s proudest accomplishments is a 1985 award-winning Ritz Cracker commercial that he created and performed in as an Astaire look-alike, dancing atop a cracker box to the tune of “Putting continued on next page on the Ritz.”

CP PHOTO / MIKE RIDE WOOD

* The lyrics at the top of this and the following pages are from the song “Shine Your Light Upon the World,” written by Scott White for Orangeville’s Torch Relay celebration and to be performed by the TOYS choir.

ATHENS A AT HENS HE N 2200 NS 2004 000 4 B IJJ IN BE N G 2008 2 08 20 8 BEIJING At 19, Keith A K i h Beavers B won bronze and broke the Canadian men’s record in the 200-metre backstroke at the 2002 Pan Pacific Championships. He went on to compete in two Olympic Games in backstroke and individual medley. Keith attended MonoAmaranth Public School and got his start in competitive swimming at Caledon’s Dorado Stars Swim Club.

He now lives in Vancouver and has an MSc in kinesiology from the University of Waterloo.

CP PHOTO

k it ke keith i t h be bbeavers a er av rs

ja jay ay hayes ha aye y s

ca cameron ame m ro r n sy sylv sylvester lv v ess tee r

BARCELONA BA A RC R EL E ON N A 1992 19 9 92 9 SY Y DN N EY Y 22000 0000 00 SYDNEY Jay Hayes has represented Canada at major international equestrian events since he joined the Canadian Equestrian Team in 1985. He was president of the Collingwood Horse Show for twenty years. The show will be held for the first time this year in Thornbury Equestrian Park, a 250-acre equestrian/residential development he is developing in Blue Mountain. A former resident of Cheltenham in Caledon, Jay now lives with his family in Mono.

His three daughters also ride competitively.

BEIJING B BE IJJ IN N G 2008 2 088 20 A graduate d off M Mayfi fi eld ld S Secondary School, Caledon’s Cameron Sylvester (left) took up rowing at Island Lake Rowing Club after shin splints ended his running ambitions. Since their twelfthplace finish in lightweight double sculls at the Olympics, he and his partner Doug Vandor have won silver medals at two World Cup competitions and took fifth at the World Championships.

They now have their sights firmly set on 2012.

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

31

This December 28, on one of the darkest days of the year, the town of Orangeville will bask briefly in the light of the Olympic Torch.

The traditional lead-up to the Winter Olympic Games, which will be held in Vancouver in February, began its 106-day journey to 1,030 communities across Canada on October 30.

Orangeville is has been selected as one of forty “celebration communities.”

Following is a partial list of events planned for the two-hour outdoor celebration at Tony Rose Memorial Sports Centre on Fead Street. 쮿 Brampton Flying Club provides an aerial escort as the Torch Relay arrives. 쮿 Stage performances featuring singer Mark Dubois, step dancer Chanda Gibson, the Orangeville Dixieland Band, Orangeville Sweet Adelines, Children’s Kazoo Band, and Theatre Orangeville Youth Singers performing an original Torch song written for the occasion. 쮿 A choreographed ski and snowboarding exhibition on Murray’s Mountain – and presentations by the Orangeville Curling Club and the Crushers, Tigers and Wolves hockey teams.

쮿 A skating performance on a temporary outdoor rink. 쮿 A snowmobile ballet performed to music by the Orangeville Snowmobile Club. 쮿 Torch bearer Bryon Mackie carries the torch onstage, accompanied by an honour guard from the Orangeville Legion, and lights the 1.3-metrehigh celebration cauldron. 쮿 Recognition of local Olympians, past and present. 쮿 Four skydivers from The Descenders Parachute Club perform a spectacular finale as the Torch leaves the site and continues on its way.

P H O T O CO U R T E S Y D U F F E R I N CO U N T Y M U S E U M & A R C H I V E S

On the same day as the Orangeville celebrations, the Olympic Torch will also be carried through Alton and Erin. And it will pass through Bolton ten days earlier on December 18.

Details of precise times for the community relays as well as the start time for the Orangeville celebration will be announced closer to the event. Check the town’s websites for information.

CALGARY CA A LG G AR ARY Y 19 1988 9 88 A BE AL B RT R T VI V LL LLE E 1992 19 9 92 9 ALBERTVILLE L LL LI LLEH EHAM EH AMME AM M R 1994 ME 19 9 944 LILLEHAMMER In addition to her trio of Olympic performances, Michelle McKendry competed on the World Cup circuit from 1988 to 1995, achieving eight top ten finishes, as well as three top ten finishes in World Championships. Michelle grew up on the family tree farm in Mono, began skiing at age four at Loretto, and was a member of the ski team at Orangeville District Secondary School.

She has two children and now lives in Victoria where she is completing her licence to be a personal trainer.

LONDON LOND LO N ON ND N 1190 1908 9 8 90 The gold medal George Campbell won as a member of Canada’s Olympic lacrosse team was said to be his proudest possession, but this Orangeville dentist was best known locally for his exceptional community service.

Among his many pursuits, he was a founder of the Orangeville arena, curling club and golf club, and served as mayor of the town from 1914-1916. A fourth-generation native of Orangeville, he died in 1971 at age 94.

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

Right now though, he is describing the Torch Relay’s closing spectacle: four skydivers parachuting down to the site, smoke billowing from their heels, brightly coloured canopies open, the thousands of spectators singing along to the tune of Kool and the Gang’s hit song, “Celebration.”

With his hands he mimes the falling skydivers and then segues into an imaginary drum roll: “Ta ta tah, ta ta tah. It will be very, very powerful, very visual. The icing on the cake.”

But as Kirouac is only too aware, when it comes to orchestrating such an ambitious event, anything can happen. He recalls the 1989 SkyDome

m ch mi michelle hel e lee m mckendry-ruthven c ke k nd n ry r -r r utt hv v en n

gee or george r gee harold h ar arol old ol d ca campbell amp m be b ll

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olympics continued from page 31

la laurie aur r iee g graham raha ra ha am LAKE LA A KE K P PLACID LA A CI C D 19 1980 9 80 8 SA A RA RAJE JEVO JE V 1984 VO 198 84 SARAJEVO CA A LG G AR ARY Y 19 9 88 CALGARY 1988 During more than a decade on the National Ski Team, this Inglewood native and veteran of three Olympic contests won six World Cup competitions and three National Downhill titles. She was the first North American woman to place first in a World Cup giant slalom. A Member of the Order of Canada and inductee to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, she now lives in Ottawa with her husband and two daughters.

Let your light shine through the darkness | Let it shine across the land | Share the flame of peace with others | Let it travel hand to hand | Share your hopes, your dream, your courage | Share the strength you have inside | Shine your light upon the world | Let it shine

opening, which called for a group of ten members of Toronto’s Emergency Task Force to rappel down 300 feet (about 30 storeys) in unison from the stadium’s metal rafters to the ground.

As far as Kirouac knows, the stunt had never been performed from such a height, and without the sheer rock face that rappellers usually have to brace themselves against on their descent.

To make matters worse, the team couldn’t practise in the SkyDome because it wasn’t completed, so they rehearsed the stunt at Maple Leaf Gardens where the jump was a mere 125 feet. On the day of the opening, Kirouac says, “a couple of the guys

backed out. They just couldn’t face it; it was too far to the ground.” The others made it safely but the doubled pairs of leather gloves they wore to protect against rope burn were worn right through.

Then there was the first and last time that Kirouac tried to choreograph a bunch of vegetables, at the 75th anniversary celebrations for the Royal Winter Fair. Even the Garden City Circus’s dancing elephants he had worked with earlier in his career were more co-operative than this wagonload of pumpkins and eggplants, which upended into a pile of manure on the way into the show ring. continued on next page

k vi ke kevin v n st sstittle t it i t tl t e BEIJING B BE IJJ IN N G 2008 2 08 20 8 Kevin K i Stittle S i l (right) ( i h ) and teammate Oskar Johansson came heartstoppingly close to a medal with their fourth-place finish in Beijing in the Tornado sailing class. A graduate of Orangeville District Secondary School, Kevin played hockey at Tony Rose Sports Centre and windsurfed on Island Lake – a sport in which he also competes. He has multiple Canadian and North American gold medals for sailing and was named Canadian Sailing Male Athlete of the Year in 2008.

ga gary a ry r vvipond ipp on nd ROME R RO M 11960 ME 9600 96 With the Canadian basketball championships under their belt, Gary Vipond and his team members headed straight to Olympic competition. After that he settled into a career as a high school science and phys ed teacher in Etobicoke. Gary and his family moved to Caledon in 1977. Now retired and living in Orangeville, Gary is past president of the Dufferin Arts Council.

He still enjoys a game of pickup basketball with his ten grandchildren.

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

33

Canada Oh Canada | From the peaks of rocky mountains | Past the open prairie fields | Let the flame you carry reach the northern sky | Past the lakes and past the forests | To the ocean’s rugged coast | Share your light with every person you pass by

olympics continued from page 33

“Roland is a character,” says Orangeville communications director Sheila Duncan. “He’s very passionate and I love that.” A case in point is the snowmobile ballet. “You can imagine the first time he met with the snowmobile club. There he was dancing around, hamming it up, trying to sell these guys on the idea of a ballet. But by the end of it they were all laughing.

They loved the idea. His enthusiasm is infectious,” she says.

Not all of Kirouac’s career highlights have been beset by the vagaries of the weather or the difficulties of dealing with animal, vegetable and mechanical performers. He spent years in the relatively predictable world of television,

acting as choreographer for such programs as The Wayne and Shuster Hour and The Bobby Vinton Show, and for ten years he was lead dancer and choreographer for The Pig and Whistle.

He even taught a hand puppet, Shari Lewis’s Lamb Chop, to dance. A feat that surely makes realizing his longheld dream of forming the world’s first kazoo band seem like child’s play.

“There’s no such thing, of course, as a kazoo band,” says Kirouac. “But I’ve always wanted to do one. Every time I brought it up at a [torch relay] meeting everyone would laugh. Because the idea is funny. But when they saw I was serious, they went for it.”

Kirouac approached The Maples

Independent School and they jumped at the chance. Thanks to his tutelage, thirty students aged eight to twelve will perform a two-minute medley at the torch relay celebration consisting of such old favourites as “You Are My Sunshine,” “Five Foot Two,” and “I’ve Got a Loverly Bunch of Coconuts.”

“Roland does not think small,” says Duncan. “He wants his show to be the best.” And Kirouac is convinced that his ambitious program is the reason Orangeville was chosen as one of two communities (the other is British Columbia’s Tofino) that were profiled in a television documentary about the torch relay that aired on CTV in October.

P H O T O CO U R T E S Y H O C K E Y C A N A D A

“There was nothing to do but shovel them back and carry on with the show,” he says, adding: “Nothing ever works out the way it’s planned.

That’s why we practise and rehearse as much as we can. I hate surprises.”

He admits that with the torch relay, however, the biggest surprise may be the weather.

“If there’s no snow, it will be tough.

We can always make some for the skiers and snowboarders. But not enough for the snowmobilers. And if it’s not cold enough to make ice for the outdoor rink, well…” he smiles sadly and lifts his shoulders in a Gallic shrug.

br brad ra ad d bbowden ow w deen t e rr te terrence rren en n cee ‘‘to ‘torchy’ t rc to r hyy ’ mi m millar llar ll ar MEXICO M ME X CO CITY XI CIT C IT T Y 19 1968 9 68 8 M NI MU N CH H 1972 1197 9 2 97 MUNICH Mono’s Torchy Millar has been involved with the Canadian Show Jumping Team for more than four decades. In addition to Olympic competition, he has ridden on 23 Nations Cup teams, as well as coaching and training. He was chef d’équipe of the silver-medal-winning show jumping team in Beijing and is currently chair of the Jump Canada high performance committee.

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

SALT SA A LT T LAKE L AK K E CITY C TY CI Y 2002 2 000 2 AT A T HE HENS NS N S 2200 000 4 ATHENS 2004 TORI TO R NO RI N 2006 2 00 06 TORINO Two sports, two gold medals – for sledge hockey in Torino and wheelchair basketball in Athens.

This exceptional 26-year-old paralympian grew up in Orton and attended Westside Secondary School in Orangeville. He was the recipient of the 2006 Ontario Male Athlete with a Disability Award and Team Canada’s 2008 award for most valuable sledge hockey player.

v rg vi virginia r in nia a (grant) (gr r an a t) t ridpath r id d pa ath h MELBOURNE M ME LB B OU OURN RN N E 1956 19 9 56 Virginia Grant (shown on vacation following the Olympics) placed fifth in the 100-metre free-style swim in 1956. The showing (one-tenth second faster than the previous record) made her Canada’s first-ever point-winner in individual women’s swimming in Olympic history. Virginia lives in Mono and is the former proprietor of Oasis Fine Foods in Orangeville.

Let your light shine through for Canada | Let it shine across the land | Share the flame of peace with others | Let it travel hand to hand | Share your hopes, your dreams, your courage | Share the strength you have inside | Shine your light upon the world | Let it shine | Let it shine | Let it shine © Scott White

“We have taken an enormous chance here,” he says, “We could have hired a rock band and sold hot dogs, but we wanted to go for a really big show.

That’s why we were chosen for the CTV documentary. It’s going to put Orangeville on the map.”

K irouac says he cou ld n’t have brought it this far without the support of people like Mayor Rob Adams, Duncan and the relay committee.

“Sheila Duncan has been amazing,” he says. “I don’t know how she does it, but everything I ask for, she comes up with.”

What will he do when it’s all over?

Well, there’s the East Garafraxa farm he shares with Sandra, his wife of

Hockley Hills School of Horsemanship

thirty-two years. And there’s the volunteer work they do together visiting local retirement homes and Hospice Dufferin. Then his eyes light up.

“I almost forgot,” he says. Kirouac will be directing and choreographing Theatre Orangeville’s June 2010 production of Sweet Charity. It’s the realization of dream.

“Sweet Charity is one of my three favourite musicals,” he says. “I’ve already done the other two [The Boyfriend and Guys and Dolls]. Now the circle will be complete.” ≈

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ORANGEVILLE 246063 COUNTY ROAD 16

Cecily Ross is a freelance writer who lives in Mulmur.

CP PHOTO / TIM O’LE T T

519.940.8197 www.schoolofhorsemanship.com

w ltt er wa walter r pady pad a y HELSINKI HELS HE LS S IN N KI K 1952 195 9 2 Walter Pady’s Olympic experience was followed by a long career dedicated to his sport. At the same time as he managed his recreation supply and outfitting business, he was chair of the Canadian jumping team for ten years, then chair of the overall Canadian equestrian team in the eighties. In the nineties, he served as chair of the Royal Horse Show, followed by a three-year term as CEO of the Royal Winter Fair.

Now retired, he lives on MonoAdjala Townline and rides with the Eglinton and Caledon Hunt.

a la al allan an re r reddon ddon dd on n LOS LO S ANGELES ANGE AN GELE GE LE E S 1984 19 9 84 8 Allan Reddon performed routines in six gymnastic divisions in the 1984 games. Although he also made the 1988 Olympic team, he was unable to compete due to family commitments.

He has participated in several World Championships and was a provincial coach for four years. Allan has three children and is a partner in Moguls in M’Ocean, a sports outfitting store in Orangeville. An all-around athlete, he continues to pursue mountain biking, skiing, scuba diving and sailing.

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

35

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A Father’s Tribute Sarah Bonikowsky of Mono Centre was a member of the Canadian women’s eight rowing team at the Beijing Olympics last year.

After very promising trials, the team placed fourth in the finals.

The next day, Sarah’s father, Gary Bonikowsky, recorded the following entry in his journal.

AUGUST 18 : RACE DAY!

W

ell, we’re sitting here in the dark, crowded belly of a huge Air China 747 out over the Pacific somewhere, and our Olympic adventure is almost over.

We’re on our way home.

I’m still trying to process the events of yesterday and the meaning of their stunning conclusion. Stunned is the only word that seems to describe the state of consciousness that I found myself in as I stared blankly at the Jumbotron for a full two minutes at the end of the race of races. Who could have predicted such an unlikely scenario – the Dutch, who our girls had already handily beat, storming from fourth place in a late charge to take second and knock our team off the podium? It’s the stuff Olympic moments are made of. Only it was the wrong team! Three years of training and it all comes down to 8/10ths of one second! What must my little girl be feeling now? Is she okay?

The day did not start out like this.

After their thrilling first place finish in the repechage, we arrived at the course much more relaxed than on Wednesday and quite hopeful of at least a bronze medal. Maybe even a silver if they could upset the Romanians. There was a much different feeling about the course today. I suppose it was what they call the Olympic spirit. All of the heats and semi-finals had been run. This was the summit to which all previous events had been leading.

The first thing I noticed on our arrival was that, for the first time, the distant blue mountains ringing the course were visible through the everpresent haze. We had heard of their presence from Sarah, but this was the first time we had actually seen them.

It seemed a good omen – as if they were there to witness the spectacle.

Throughout the afternoon races were won and lost. There was jubilation and there was disappointment,

Sarah Bonikowsky, third from top, and the women’s eight rowing team prepare for competition in Beijing.

but in a very real sense everyone here was a winner – they were all in the fi nal of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. On any given day, any one of these teams at the pinnacle of their sport could, in a flash of brilliance, find themselves on the podium. That was the vibe – a general sense of expectation and hope, of coming together to play and compete – and a celebration of the best the sport had to offer. After all, these were the Olympic games.

The racing was close and intense.

Unlike the heats of previous days, which were run back to back in relentless ten-minute intervals, this day there was a dignified break between races as medals were awarded, flags raised and anthems sung. This sense of pageantry and celebration had a calming effect, at least on the spectators, and there was a buoyant sense that, on this day, anything could happen. And, for the Netherlands, it did.

As the victors ascended the podium yesterday something unusual happened. In our four trips to Shunyi to watch the racing unfold we had not seen the sun, but now it dropped out of the low cloud layer behind us, bathing the podium and the banner-strewn grandstands on the far side of the

course in golden light. The gorgeous, multi-coloured Olympic banners across the way were beautifully reflected in the calm waters of the course now fallen silent. It was the perfect moment in time – except the wrong team was standing on the podium.

I found this somewhat disturbing.

In fact, it seemed almost cruel under the bewildering circumstances.

Anyway, these were among the thoughts and images that nagged at my consciousness on the long, silent bus ride back to Beijing. Why had this been allowed to happen? Why weren’t our girls standing up there bathed in sunlight? If I were God, I surely would have arranged things differently. But I’m not, and that’s probably a good thing for everybody else on the planet.

It wasn’t until this morning, walking pensively back to our apartment after emailing my reluctant race report home from Canada Olympic House that the light came on. That post-race heavenly glow was no cruel mockery. It was God saying, “It’s okay.

I’m still here. And I meant this for good. Trust me.”

I thought back to that devastating race in the Olympic Qualifier in Munich last fall. It seemed like a disaster at the time. But if the boat

hadn’t been strengthened and training intensified as a result for the Late Qualifier in Poland this summer, they probably wouldn’t have even made the Olympic A Final.

But make it they did. And yesterday they put in a world-class performance.

Isn’t that enough?

As I sat here trying to reconcile this odd mixture of disappointment and gratitude, I was once again reminded of that passage from Ecclesiastes that I have trundled out so many times as a message of encouragement: “The race is not to the swift…” Well, having viewed that passage from both sides now, I thought I’d better look it up and read it again in its entirety. I was surprised by what I found.

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” Ecclesiastes 9:11.

Of course, what appears as “time and chance” to us, is really God’s “working all things together for good” beyond the scope of our limited vision.

And I guess I’m okay with that. Our life’s path, with its unexpected twists and turns seldom makes sense until seen in the rear-view mirror – often way down the road.

Also, I can’t forget that, while we were all focusing on one boat, there were six boats out there in that final race. That’s fifty-four souls out there racing for gold, not to mention their dedicated coaches, and I believe God is personally involved in every one of those lives. This Olympiad may be the best the world has to offer, but there’s always something much bigger and more enduring going on in the background, beyond this world’s glittering stage.

I cannot deny the temporal reality of the disappointment that nips at the edges of my consciousness when I forget to praise for that. But it is temporal. And it is mainly for Sarah anyway. She’s the one who did all the work. We just got to participate in the adventure. But the strength of character I saw in her immediately after the race has largely negated that disappointment. It was the struggles just to get there that were developing true character in her. And while an Olympic medal may have a certain cachet that can last an athlete’s lifetime, true character is for eternity.

Her positive attitude in light of the day’s events revealed the heart of a true Olympian…and more. ≈ IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

37

THEPICKUP

QUEENS

For 35 years, nothing has come between these Ladies and their Sunday morning hockey game at the Hillsburgh Arena.

BY L IZ B E AT T Y

A

s always, Mary Cunningham is last into the dressing room of the Hillsburgh hockey arena.

That’s why her spot is at the end of the bench near the door. She’s not tardy by nature. On the contrary, Mary’s busy to-do list this morning has already included attending church and visiting her parents to help out and share a quick coffee – all before hockey. Now in fast-forward, she changes into her gear, laces up her skates, then impatiently eggs on her lingering teammates.

“Come on, let’s get out there, the Zamboni’s almost off the ice,” she urges impatiently. Despite the prodding, her long-time friend Betty McEachern is 38

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

once again last onto the rink.

And so the scene unfolds, pretty much as it has every Sunday morning for the past thirty-five years in this typical small-town Ontario rink.

Cunningham, however, and this bevy of pickup players are just about anything but typical.

They’ve reserved the same 11 a.m. ice time since the early seventies, when the original core of the “Hillsburgh Ladies,” some of them now grandmothers, first pioneered the idea of women’s hockey in the ErinHillsburgh area back when they were teenagers. Today, players range in age from mid-thirties to mid-fifties, with a few daughters of the original crew

joining in when they’re home from school.

While younger, faster, better-coached female players have come along in good numbers since those early days, these women are still on the leading edge. Their sheer love of the game shows young up-and-comers how women can keep playing for many decades, just like men; and more important, how women can, in their own way, embrace the easy camaraderie so entrenched in men’s beerleague culture.

Still, you could say the Hillsburgh Ladies started out as an act of defiance.

“Girls can’t play hockey” is how Cunningham’s boyfriend bluntly

put it back in the day. And that was all the motivation she needed to gather up some friends and book that first Sunday morning ice time. Cunningham showed up to her first game in figure skates.

“

I remember being so scared that first time out. I hadn’t really played before and I wasn’t a good skater,” she explains. “Being farmers’ kids, we weren’t that rich. We had softball in summer, but we wanted a sport we could do in winter that we could afford. Hockey was it.”

Many girls from those early years still lace up today: Sandra Prowse,

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At left, the Hillsburgh Ladies. back row : Diane Mayes, Janet Eagleson, Coraleigh Little John, Chris Langman, Sandra Prowse, Lorri Taylor, Vera Longstreet, Catherine Langridge. front row : Mandy Orr, Mary Grace Blair, Betty McEachern, Chris Tucker, Sally Fitzpatrick.

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Sharon Marshall, Lorri Taylor, Vera Longstreet and Betty McEachern.

Without enough players for the usual five a side (plus goalie and a couple of subs), it’s usually three on three – white or orange sweaters. All this means there are few rules and lots of ice time, a perfect scenario for this free-wheeling group and their long-standing philosophy of putting enjoyment, friendship and exercise ahead of competition.

“We were never like many of the girls today who’ve played with the boys and had real coaches from the time they were five or six,” says Taylor.

“We went from figure skates to ‘boy’ skates.”

“The problem with us,” adds Longstreet, “is that by the time we could get a coach, we were too old to listen.”

It’s impossible to go more than a minute in this group without a good wisecrack. And that’s just the way the Hillsburgh Ladies like it, although Cunningham argues, “It may be a stretch to call us ‘ladies.’”

In fact, these women have to think twice when asked about their official name. It’s not the sort of thing they fuss over. “Hillsburgh Ladies” just happens to be what the rink manager wrote down on the ice schedule thirty-five years ago, and no one has ever bothered to change it. A fitting little anachronism.

“The point is, our Sunday morn-

ings have never been about being competitive. It’s just fun. It’s a Sunday morning skate. It doesn’t matter who comes out or if there’s somebody new that’s never played before. There’s no pressure from us,” says Taylor. In other words, hot-doggers, aggressive types and players who take themselves too seriously need not apply.

On and off the ice, the Ladies know how to poke fun at each other and themselves, without judging or criticizing. The familial comfort with each others’ flaws, the sarcasm, the laughter – it all seems to be at least as big a draw as the game itself.

“

I remember this one game. I’d just joined the team and had only been playing a couple of years,” said Janet Eagleson, also an award-winning fantasy hockey/sports writer. “I decided I wanted to practise my quick start – sort of sprinting with short choppy steps from a standstill. But I just fell flat on my face without a soul near me. Someone skated by silently and tapped me on the butt. Back at the bench, someone finally blurted out, ‘What exactly was that?’ And everyone burst out laughing, including me.”

There’s a strong feeling of trust within the group and it’s not their way to be effusive about how deep their friendships go, though their

bonds clearly extend well beyond the arena doors.

“We’ve had people lose family members, have first grandchildren, or deal with breast cancer. All sorts of life occurrences, we offer support or we celebrate without turning it into a big girlie thing,” says Eagleson.

When teammate Sharon Marshall was diagnosed with breast cancer, Longstreet and Cunningham held a baseball tournament to raise the $2,000 each required to enter The Walk to End Breast Cancer. (Cunningham is now in her fifth year as a participant in the event.) And when Marshall first began playing again, no one would touch her on the ice, no matter how many goals she scored.

Their first instinct was to protect her.

Eagleson notes the team’s connections spill over into their daily lives, too. “You get your hair cut by the stylist on the team. Mary is the bank manager for many girls. One woman’s husband is the meat manager at Hillsburgh Foodland. It’s a community thing, so there are real connections both on and off the ice.”

Underlying it all, there seems to be a genuine appreciation for what each woman brings to the game, both as a player and as a friend.

There is tota l consensus t hat Cunningham is “the Cheerleader,” particularly for her pre-game pep continued on next page

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If you’re interested in joining in the Hillsburgh Ladies’ Sunday morning game, Mary Cunningham suggests you show up at 10:30 a.m. to play, or at 11 a.m. to watch and chat with the players to see if it’s something you would enjoy.

To find out more about women’s or girls’ hockey, ask about leagues at your community arena.

For general information: Women’s Hockey in Ontario www.whockey.com/prov/on Ontario Women’s Hockey Association www.owha.on.ca Caledon Women’s Hockey Association peel.cioc.ca/record/CAL0386 Orangeville Girls’ Hockey Association www.orangevilletigers.com Brampton Canadettes Girls’ Hockey Association www.bramptoncanadettes.com Thunder Struck!

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

hockey continued from page 39

talks. With her petit stature and no-holds-barred attitude, Chris Langman has become known as “the Rabid Chihuahua” – an interesting visual. Taylor is dubbed “the Encourager,” because she frequently points out good plays by opponents, even as she fends off their advances.

Laid out flat in front of her own goal, Taylor is teased by Longstreet, “the Mouthpiece,” who wants the moment photographed. Chris Tucker, a new player, is “the Laugher” – you’ll often hear her long before you recognize her behind her cage. Sandra Prowse is the team “Cherry Picker” for her habit of sitting in front of the opposing goal, waiting to put the puck in the net. Others are quick to qualify this dubious title with the explanation that Prowse’s badly injured hip and knee make skating difficult. “Yes, that’s true,” says Prowse. “But I did it before the injury too.” More gales of laughter.

On this Sunday, McEachern lives up to the tenacity of her nickname, “the Terrier.” The diminutive 54-yearold executes a very Gilbert-Perreaultlike end-to-end rush in the final minutes of the game, culminating in a wrist shot that beats the goalie’s outstretched glove. Sweet.

The members of this grab bag of true characters travel from as far away as Mansfield, sometimes taking back routes around closed winter

left : Chris Langman, Chris Tucker, Catherine Langridge and Sally Fitzpatrick prepare for the game. above : Goalie Mary Grace Blair fends off a deke by Sally Fitzpatrick.

roads, to make their Sunday morning skate. Although many play in other leagues, their Sunday commitment is clearly about more than getting extra ice time. Everyone agrees that the sense of camaraderie among the Hillsburgh group is unique, and not something they’d easily give up.

About three times a year, the Ladies all don sweaters of the same colour to compete in tournaments, from Ottawa to Hawaii. “It’s fun to have the opportunity to take our skills to the next level,” says Eagleson. “But even then, our easy-going approach carries over. At tournaments, we’re there to work our tails off, for sure, but it’s still all about having fun. Even so, we’re pretty good when we really start playing together.”

“In some ways we’re getting better with age,” adds goalie Mary Grace Blair, who was once shelled with fifty shots in single game at one of the team’s early tournaments. As Taylor is quick to point out, though, in years following the Ladies made the finals.

However, Cunningham and her teammates all agree that it’s getting more challenging to compete against the younger players who have had the advantage of better, earlier training.

And in tournaments, there just aren’t enough older women players to justify a separate “masters” division, as you might find in men’s competitions.

Still Cunningham is not ready to give up yet.

“For me, one of the drivers is to keep up with the younger ones coming through,” she says. “I like to hear them say, ‘No, you’re not fifty-five!’”

“

I think we’re the first generation of women hockey players who got involved and kept it up,” says Longstreet. “There aren’t a lot of us and as you get older, there are things you start to give up. But for us, this group is not one of them. We just keep going.”

A buzzer marks the end of yet another Sunday morning pickup game. As the Zamboni rolls onto the ice, the Hillsburgh Ladies snake down the corridor, sticks in hand. The ruckus of locker room talk begins and, as with beer leagues everywhere, a good portion of it is not fit for print.

Copious belly laughs ensue. Tucker’s gregarious chuckle rings above the crowd. I lean over to McEachern as cans of golden liquid refreshment snap open around the room. “Nice goal,” I say. She shrugs off the compliment. “What was the fi nal score,” I ask. “Or does anyone actually keep count?”

“No, it’s not important,” she responds with a warm smile, then turns to offer up a cold one. “Care to join us?”

Who wouldn’t. ≈ Liz Beatty is a freelance writer who lives in Brimstone.

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

41

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

In the early spring of 1967, the Stanley Cup playoffs, the high-flying Leafs, and yet another bust by Canada’s world cup team held the attention of hockey fans everywhere in these hills. Except in Bolton.

I

n the early spring of 1967, Bolton hockey fans didn’t need the Leafs or Canada’s faltering world cup team for excitement; nor were they giving much thought to the soon-to-expand NHL. That’s because, after a fourteen year drought, Bolton was celebrating no less than four league championships by the hometown boys.

In just over two weeks, the local peewee team, Sheardown Transport, had won the league title, and the midgets, Bolton Golfers, had done the same. Even the little kids, the BA Flyers, had won the novice championship. It was Bolton’s juvenile team, however, that was really packing fans into the old wooden arena on Hickman Street. From the moment the season began, the red hot Kinsmen had been toppling one team after another en route to the all-Ontario Juvenile “C” finals.

This team had set the stage for drama a year before. On a Saturday afternoon in April 1966, in the southwestern Ontario town of Dresden, the Kinsmen were one goal up going into the third period of the final and deciding game for the provincial championship. Then in the dying minutes they were scored on twice and came home empty. Disappointment in Bolton that spring was real but short-lived – the hometown fans had every reason to be confident that the next hockey season would bring something better.

SCORING ACROSS ONTARIO

When the Kinsmen took to the ice in the fall of 1966, they knew competition in their league would be stiff.

Although they would face traditional rivals from towns of similar size, such as Woodbridge, Elmvale and Aurora, the schedule also put them up against Barrie and Newmarket, where the pool of available players was much larger.

But Bolton’s experienced and very able coach, Roy McKay – a major factor in the team’s success – shrewdly expanded his own talent pool by inviting in stars from the local midget team, such as the high-scoring Gene Fewster who, along with two other younger players, became the unstoppable “Kid Line.”

By early January, after a weekend in which the Kinsmen played four games in three days (typical of the schedules then to minimize travelling) and swept all four, it was clear that Bolton’s juvenile team was a major force. By the first week of February, they had won the league championship, eliminating much-favoured Barrie and handily taking out Newmarket. They moved swiftly through the next stages, playing through a sequence of two-out-of-three series without a single loss, first against Nobleton, then Elmvale and then Cannington. (In the six games it took to do this, Gene Fewster scored fifteen goals!).

After next taking out Lakefield, again in a sweep, the Kinsmen were in

Bolton Kinsmen, OMHA Juvenile “C” Champions, 1966-67 front row, left to right : H.Newlove, W.Kirby, D.Casey, B.Matson, B.Clements, T.Praught. centre row : J.Lostchuck (manager), J.Farquharson, J.Casey, P.Ford, K.Koper, R.McKay (coach). back row : D.Lemon, C.Markey, P.Markle (trainer), R.Salvian, E.Fewster. (missing : J.Deachman).

Eugene (Gene) Fewster, upper right, was drafted by the Boston Bruins but chose instead to complete a degree at Colgate University in New York State on a full hockey scholarship.

the fi nals. They had breezed through the playoffs and had almost forgotten what it was like to lose a game. But now, in the all-Ontario fi nals, they were up against a team with a similar record: the Maidstone Green Hornets.

Maidstone, a small community (and a township in Essex County) near Windsor, had a long tradition of local hockey. In 1967, its players had been drawn from across the township to produce a team that no other juvenile team in southwestern Ontario could touch. When they bowed to the Kinsmen in a two-game, total-point series (4-4 and 8-6), it was the first and only time the Green Hornets had ever lost.

On the day after the finals, there wasn’t a soul on the streets of Maid-

WINNERS EVERY WHERE IN â&#x20AC;&#x2122;67 1967 was a good year for local hockey. While the Bolton Kinsmen were cutting a swath through southern Ontario, other teams in the hills were equally busy. The Cheltenham Harvesters became all-Ontario Intermediate â&#x20AC;&#x153;Câ&#x20AC;? champions, taking out a team from Wiarton that year in the ďŹ nal.

It was also in Wiarton where the Shelburne Muskies shone after eliminating their Palmerston rivals. In house league senior hockey, the Grand Valley Bruins took the championship game against the Grand Valley Lions.

Meanwhile back in Peel, Bolton produced yet another winner when its team in the Central Peel Junior Farmers league took out the team from Alloa three straight; and in Brampton, the seventh annual novice tournament, the biggest in the world, was bringing in teams from all over Ontario and the northeastern U.S.

stone. In Bolton there was a parade.

Once upon a time, local hockey was that important.

HOME TEAM LOYALT Y

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Those young teams could fi ll the arena almost every game back then,â&#x20AC;? says Bill Whitbread, veteran sports reporter for the Bolton (now Caledon) Enterprise. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They played good hockey, but it was more than that. Take the scheduling. On the same night youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d have the bantams play at seven oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock, the midgets at eight and the juveniles at nine. Whole families would turn up because everybody would know at least one player. Most of us knew all of them! They were our own so it meant a lot for community spirit.â&#x20AC;?

It was the same in other towns, Whitbread adds. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The NHL had only six teams then, even though in â&#x20AC;&#x2122;67 it was the last year for that. And they were kind of in a different world, so in your own town local teams were really popular. Every once in a while a home team would get a player like Fewster â&#x20AC;&#x201C; could he score goals! He set up plays too; and never hogged the puck â&#x20AC;&#x201C; so youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d have a kind of home-grown star. People become even more interested in a team when that happens. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Today, if a kid is a top player thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good chance he wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even play at home. If heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old enough he might get drafted and be moved somewhere.

Some parents even sell their homes and move to another town if itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll benefit their kid. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not much opportunity to build a loyal fan base when that kind of thing happens.â&#x20AC;?

Gene Fewster, now a successful building contractor in Caledon, has his own take on the home-team phenomenon. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hockeyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a business today, at least rep hockey is. For us on the Kinsmen back then â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and for the other teams too â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it was the love of the game, the fun of playing.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Now that I look back at it, I realize how much the crowds were part of that,â&#x20AC;? Fewster adds. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In fact the fans were almost like another person on your team. Because it was your hometown, you wanted to do better for them as much as for yourself. That doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seem to be the way it works today.â&#x20AC;?

Both men, the veteran reporter and the former player, agree it is unlikely the days of the hometown crowd and home-team excitement will return any time soon. On the other hand, if hockey fans want to enjoy the delight of cheering on a winner, it could be that the hometown arena may be the place to look.

The Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1967 but havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been close since.

Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s national team was shut out for almost the next three decades.

Meanwhile Boltonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s teams have picked up an impressive number of championships since â&#x20AC;&#x2122;67, and a quick scan across our hills shows similar results in other communities too. For nostalgic hockey fans, who may have become cynical about the game they love, perhaps local teams are the answer. â&#x2030;&#x2C6;

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AN ARENA WITH PERSONALITY Because Boltonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old arena on Hickman Street was built originally as a natural ice rink (though it had artiďŹ cial ice well before 1967), the site was chosen in part with a view to locating in the coldest spot in town. It must have worked â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in reporter Bill Whitbreadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s many columns it became the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hickman Street Igloo.â&#x20AC;?

For Bolton teams, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iglooâ&#x20AC;? was a bit like having an extra player on the bench because visiting teams were easily unnerved by its architecture. There were sheets of curling ice immediately outside the boards and no seats. Instead, fans cheered from a catwalk above the boards that hung over the playersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; benches. The unique design, at least in the opening minutes of a game, could be intimidating to strangers.

Because it was situated beside the Humber River (so dampness added to its â&#x20AC;&#x153;iglooâ&#x20AC;? reputation), the old arena was often subject to atmospheric developments which contributed to its one-of-a-kind status. In April of â&#x20AC;&#x2122;67, for example, WildďŹ eldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s game against Drennanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Department Store in the North Peel Senior League ďŹ nals had to be postponed because of fog, not on the streets but inside the building.

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

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YOU CAN’T SAY THAT IN CANADA!

by Margaret Wente Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente cer tainly knows how to cause a stir. And it’s a good thing, she insists, despite the regular avalanche of hate mail and calls (from the entire province of Newfoundland, no less) for her to be slapped with a cod and boiled in a vat of seal oil.

In this, her second book, Americanborn Wente combines memoir with past articles – some humourous, some explosive – to tackle taboo topics, or blind spots she sees in her adopted country’s psyche. Canada is a society of tribes, she says, most of whom are far too thinskinned for her liking. But for all our foibles and baff ling cultural morality, she can’t imagine living anywhere else. l wrote An Accidental Canadian. She has a country Margaret Wente also home in Mulmur. (HarperCollins Canada, $29.99)

SHARING SNOWY

by Marilyn Helmer and illustrated by Kasia Charko More than anything in the world, Ali wishes her brother didn’t have allergies so she could have a cat. One day, in her secret clubhouse at the end of the garden, a stray cat appears, and Ali is overjoyed.

Caring for Snowy and keeping her a secret is harder than she thought. The decision she has to make when she finds out Snowy already has a home is even harder.

Fergus author Marilyn Helmer gently teaches responsibility in this chapter book for young readers, while Alton’s Kasia Charko’s pencil and watercolour illustrations playfully express the emotional journey of Sharing Snowy’s feline-obsessed little girl. (Orca Book Publishers, $6.95)

I

t’s been more than a decade now since this magazine fi rst included a year-end review of new books by local authors and illustrators. There were eight books in the line-up that fi rst year. In recent years, there have been as many as three times that number.

We couldn’t have done it without the assistance of Nancy Frater, the owner of BookLore, and her long-time staffer and freelance writer Tracey Fockler.

When Nancy and her partner Ellen Clare first opened the store, they were going against the trend. Independent book retailers were disappearing, pushed out by the big box book stores. That’s still the case today – even the venerable Pages on Toronto’s Queen Street shuttered its doors this year – but BookLore has continued to thrive.

And its loyal support of local authors, whether established or neophyte, is just one of the many reasons this remarkable little store has secured its place so firmly at the cultural heart of our community.

BookLore will celebrate its 20th anniversary in the new year. May we be among the first to wish it a very happy birthday – and very best wishes for many more to come!

RE V IE W S BY T R AC E Y FO CK L ER

MIDDLE-AGED SPREAD MOVING TO THE COUNTRY AT 50

AFTER THE FALLS COMING OF AGE IN THE SIXTIES

by Catherine Gildiner In the long-awaited sequel to Catherine Gildiner’s bestselling memoir, Too Close to the Falls, we find young Cathy recently expelled from Catholic school and on the move with her eccentric parents to the suburbs of Buffalo. For a high-spirited young woman the 1960s were, perhaps, the perfect decade to come of age. The same energy that earned her a doctor-prescribed job in her father’s pharmacy at the tender age of four leads her deep into the civil rights movement.

But for all the rush of revolution, harsh reality – in the form of first love betrayed and her father’s fatal illness – inevitably breaks the spell.

Catherine Gildiner is a clinical psychologist and author of the novel, Seduction.

She has a country home near Creemore.

(Alfred A. Knopf Canada, $32.95)

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

by Sonia Day Sonia Day knew her life would change with the impulsive purchase of forty-eight acres and a run-down century home in rural Belwood – what she and her husband didn’t expect was a biblical plague of squirrels, guerrilla pot growers, the devolution of her gardening style from Englishcountry to critterus-interruptus and the steady draining of their bank account into their money-pit of a dream home.

In spite of it all – or perhaps because of it all – country life took hold and something funda mental within them shifted. For all its humour, Middle-Aged Spread is a heartfelt love letter to Canada and the joy of living in closer harmony with its land.

Sonia Day is a gardening columnist for The Toronto Star and author of The Plant Doctor. (Key Porter Books, $24.95)

HOW ROBIN SAVED SPRING

THE ORPHAN BOY

by Debbie Ouellet

illustrated by Paul Morin An old man looks up into the sky and is puzzled to find a star missing. The next morning, an orphan boy appears at his hut and offers to fetch water and tend his cattle in return for a home. When his cattle thrive while others weaken in the drought, the old man breaks his promise to the boy and plots to uncover his secret.

The Orphan Boy was originally published in 1990 and garnered Paul Morin multiple awards, includ ing the Governor General’s Award for Illustration. His richly textured, sun-drenched paintings show the grit, sand and twigs from the African landscape. Morin designed this new edition and added ten original paintings to Tolowlwa Mollel’s retelling of the Maasai legend.

Paul Morin lives in Rockwood and can be found at The Paul Morin Gallery in Erin. (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, $21.95)

Lady Winter loves the white and blue world of snow and ice, and even though it’s time for her long nap, she doesn’t want to let it go. Her solution?

Cover Sister Spring with a snowy blanket and let her sleep forever. Not everyone is happy with her decision though. One by one, the forest animals try and fail to wake Spring.

Finally it occurs to the dun-coloured robin to enlist the help of Mother Sun. Robin pledges his voice to her in song and, in return, receives a blaze of red-orange morning light on his breast to take back to Sister Spring.

Gorgeous illustrations by Italy’s award-winning Nicoletta Ceccoli accompany Loretto’s Debbie Ouellet’s enchanting story of the changing seasons. (Henry Holt And Company, $18.95)

TUK AND THE WHALE illustrated by Mary Jane Gerber Tuk and his clan aren’t surprised when a ship carrying European whalers is spotted on the horizon. Grandfather dreamt of strangers in big boats needing their help, and Grandfather’s visions are rarely wrong. The terrible-smelling men with bear-like faces covered in whiskers trade valuable goods for food and furs, and although Tuk is elated with the gifts and joins the men in their hunt for a bowhead whale, he also has a lesson to learn. The white men can teach him many things, his Grandfather warns, but not all of it will be good.

Orangeville’s Mary Jane Gerber’s penand-ink illustrations capture the stark beauty of the eastern Arctic in this chapter book for young readers by Montreal author Raquel Rivera. Mary Jane Gerber’s previous books include A Pioneer Alphabet and Thanks for Thanksgiving. (Groundwood Books, $8.95)

EXPLORE THE SOLAR SYSTEM!

by Anita Yasuda Building your own space shuttle (complete with Canadarm) and making a delicious, Stonehenge-style solar observatory from Rice Krispie squares are just a few of the activities in this fact-packed, fun-fi lled children’s book.

Projects, games and experiments as well as terminology, mini-biographies of early astronomers, descriptions of major constellations and important space “firsts” are sure to delight budding sky-watchers aged six to ten.

Anita Yasuda’s previous book, Japanese Children’s Fabrics, was a cultural look at Japan through the art of textiles. She lives in Mono. (Nomad Press, $13.95)

DIEPPE CANADA’S DARKEST DAY OF WORLD WAR II

by Hugh Brewster “On the beaches of Dieppe, our Canadian cousins marked with their blood the road to our final liberation.” This inscription on the monument in Place du Canada, Dieppe, in no way understates the sacrifice made by our soldiers. The raid was poorly planned, and the Canadians were sent into a battle they could not win. A thousand men died on the beaches, over five hundred were wounded and almost two thousand were taken prisoner.

In 2007, Mulmur’s Hugh Brewster travelled to Dieppe and attended the 65th anniversary of the raid. The stories of the veterans he spoke to, interspersed with photographs, maps and illustrations, bring the events of that terrible night vividly alive.

Hugh Brewster’s previous books in this child ren’s series (which adults will also find absorbing) are On Juno Beach and At Vimy Ridge. (Scholastic Canada, $19.99)

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

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‘Tis the Season to Indulge ...in a Little Mischief

I LOVE MY HOCKEY MOM and THANKS TO MY HOCKEY DAD

WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

by the Orangeville Flyers Novice AE Team

by Mag Ruffman Actor and home-reno expert Mag Ruffman spent over a year in conversation with Steve Smith to produce this indepth look at Canada’s favourite scratchy-voiced, ducttape-loving handyman. Smith tells of a childhood building flour bombs, meeting his life-long love Morag, the early years of making music, and the jump to television with the shows Smith & Smith and The Comedy Mill.

The Red Green Show had its rocky patches – after cancellation by chch, Smith went deep i nto debt to buy t he rights – until he took creative control and turned the Possum Lodge crew into Canadian icons. As Red says, “It doesn’t take long for men to make a decision. It’s making the decision look smart that takes the time.”

Mag Ruffman lives in Mulmur.

This book is only available at Home Hardware.

(Toolgirl Press, $24.99)

The Mitten Anniversary Edition

By Jan Brett Published by Penguin

Zoobreak

By Gordon Korman Published by Scholastic

Hush, Hush

By Becca Fitzpatrick Published by Simon and Schuster

Available at BookLore Independents Matter

121 First Street, Orangeville 519-942-3830

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

When asked by coach Jason Howel and teacher/hockey mom Jennifer Sutoski to express in words and pictures the amazing things their parents do for them, Jason’s team of seven and eight-year-old hockey players produced a wonderful collection of answers.

From putting up with stinky equipment and skipping off work for important games to sneaking good-luck kisses in the dressing room and crying every time their child scores a goal, their parents have done it all.

“The players remind us,” Jason says, “that each moment is a memory to be filed away forever. The kids know what their moms and dads have done for them – the efforts have not gone unnoticed.”

These two stocking-stuffer-sized books are the perfect gift for any parent who has ever driven their child to a six a.m. practice, shivered for hours in the cold arena and then screamed their head off every time their kid hit the ice. (Key Porter Kids, $9.99 each)

RED GREEN : THE MAN BEHIND THE CHARACTER AND VICE VERSA

THE EAT-CLEAN DIET FOR MEN

by Robert Kennedy & Tosca Reno Men and women have different eating habits. The most obvious example? Women crave chocolate; men don’t feel satisfied unless they’ve ingested an entire cow.

Written in easy-to-read language, fitness guru Tosca Reno and her publisher husband Robert Kennedy tackle these differences and explain how a diet free of overprocessed, sugar-laden foods will increase men’s fertility, sexual health and prevent heart disease and diabetes. Included are sixty “manfriendly” recipes as well as tips on how to shop and stock your refrigerator. ($21.95) Also new on bookshelves: The Eat-Clean Cookbook ($34.95) and The Eat-Clean Diet Companion ($17.95). The EatClean Diet Recharged is due out in January. ($21.95).

Tosca Reno and Robert Kennedy live in Caledon.

(Robert Kennedy Publishing)

SPITS & GIGGLES

HEARTS AT STAKE

by Alyxandra Harvey Being a teenager is tough. Being a teenager who is prophesized to be the rightful vampire queen when she goes through the “bloodchange” on her sixteenth birthday simply, well, sucks. Solange Drake would rather be hanging out with her best friend, Lucy, than (ick) drinking blood and becoming some stupid fang-faced leader of the “undead.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like she’s going to have a choice. A bounty on her head spurs her family into battle mode, and Solange finds herself on the run with the annoyingly cute vampire-hunter sent to take her out.

Hearts at Stake is the first in “The Drake Chronicles” series for teens. Book two will be published early 2010. Mono’s Alyxandra Harvey, author of Broken and Waking, is undergoing big changes of her own as her writing career takes off. Hearts at Stake is boosted by impressvie print and internet marketing campaigns, and Alyxandra is preparing for a book tour of major U.S. cities come the new year. (Walker & Company, $12.50)

Kids’ Furniture and Accessories Introducing

HATLEY THE HURLEYVILLE TAXI TWO THOUSAND POUNDS OF BACON AND BONE

by Clare McCarthy Clare McCarthy’s pioneering ancestors were a wonderfully eccentric lot. The Irish immigrants raised a family of inventors, wily businessmen and tellers of tall tales. In this laughout-loud family history, McCarthy focuses on his uncle, Howard Hurley, who became famous when he trained a pair of Tamworth boars to pull a cart. Howard, Red and Rusty traveled to agricultural fairs across Canada and Hurley’s home in Algoma became a well-known tourist destination. More than 100,000 people (including Prime Minister Lester Pearson and his wife) paid a dollar for a ride on the legendary Hurleyville Taxi.

Orangeville’s Clare McCarthy is a writer, storyteller, and an editorialist and cartoonist for The Orangeville Banner.

(Moose Hide Books, $9.33)

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SEBASTIAN AND THE SPIDER KING

by Anouska Fry Eleven-year-old Sebastian is heartbroken when he’s kept from joining his archeologist father on a dig in South America by a case of chicken pox. Housebound, he stumbles across an old journal and discovers that great danger lurks in the Venezuelan rainforest.

With the help of his cousin Polly and his oddball Uncle Troy, Sebastian must find a way to defeat the Amazonian Spider King and save his father.

Anouska Fry lives in Shelburne. (Authorhouse, $13.95)

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519-942-7762 416-859-0762 Store located at 635551 Hwy 10, Mono continued on next page IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

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GROWING UP IS NOT HARD TO DO… IF YOU CAN TAKE THE BUMPS

by Gerald Ward Growing up poor in rural Nova Scotia in the 1930s and ’40s, Mono’s Gerald Ward and his six siblings had to rely on their own dangerous imaginations for entertainment. Putting bullets in a tin can and throwing it on the fire was great fun – so was starting brush fires, eating apples in a tree with a black bear, and accidentally painting the neighbour’s outhouse with glue instead of paint (resulting in the neighbour’s wife getting stuck to the seat!). The life lessons come hard – and sometimes with permanent scarring – in Gerald Ward’s hilarious collection of anecdotes. (Gerald Ward, $12)

INTERROGATION IN MEXICO

Elegant décor packages s unique tent, garden and ballroom décor custom draping s innovative floral s seasonal treatments Please join us on November 20th as we celebrate the grand opening of our second studio in the quaint village of Palgrave. Sip some cider and enjoy a selection of holiday wreaths and garlands or consult with one of our designers to create custom pieces for your home. Planning a wedding? Enjoy a personal consultation, and see why we have been leaders in the wedding and event design business for over 17 years.

by Elaine Lister Orangeville’s Elaine Lister delves back into the realm of international intrigue with her second CIA adventure novel. This time around it’s a beloved Mexican politician, who is hungry for power and secretly involved in the drug trade, threatening peace and order in the Americas. The breakneck action takes place in Cuba, Mexico, Columbia and Canada.

Elaine Lister is also the author of A Cover Too Deep. (Publish America, $24.95)

We are excited about our new studio, offering the sharp, clean, and upscale look that you’ve come to know and love from Rachel A. Clingen Wedding Design.

IF WINTER COMES

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www.rachelaclingen.com

by Les Cartwright A violent snowstorm. Power outages across the country.

The prime minister calling a State of Emergency. Nothing we Canadians haven’t seen before… except it’s June and military forces are guarding fuel sources with orders to shoot looters on sight. As society quickly devolves, a family nestled in a tiny escarpment town stumbles upon an unimagined conspiracy in their struggle to survive.

Les Cartwright has written short stories and radio dramas for both the BBC and the CBC. He lives in Orangeville. (XLIBRIS, $19.95)

THE FAMILY HISTORY A Tradition of Excellence in a World of Champions Located in the heart of horse country 19815 Airport Road, Caledon Mon-Wed 10-6, Thurs-Fri 10-7, Sat 10-5, Sun 11-4 519-942-3933 www.runningfox.com

Kulhay Wellness Clinic

by Jean Jardine Miller Asked by her bereaved sister-in-law to trace her family roots, Holly finds the complicated lives of her midVictorian ancestors surprisingly similar to her own.

Parallel stories, one in the present, the other beginning in 1856, tell the universal tale of familial love and loss.

Jean Jardine Miller lives in Shelburne. (Jardine Miller Publishing, $15.99)

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

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PREHISTORIC JOURNEY: THE FIRST EXPEDITION

by Dianne Narrol England, 1908. A working-class fisherman with an interest in archaeology experiences the perils of time travel while researching the demise of the Great Irish Deer.

Bolton’s Dianne Narrol mixes history and romance in her fi rst, century-spanning adventure novel.

(This title is available at www.double-dragon-ebooks.com as an ebook for $5.99 usd or a print version for $19.99 usd.) ≈

Belfountain Spa in Erin 165 Main St., Erin 519-833-0031 Canada’s #1 Alternative & Medical Facility www.kulhaywellness.net

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Tracey Fockler works at BookLore, an independent bookstore in Orangeville, where she also facilitates a book club.

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

49

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. This CD has been around awhile, but still hits home for this songstress with poetry, sweet vocals, fabulous arrangements and some sexy music. Lily is an original that’s for sure. In a word: Enchantment – a song which, along with some of her other work, has been used to commercial purpose, and understandably, as she is a musical seductress. There’s a lot of “Kill Bill” guitar on here – more commonly known as Spaghetti Western Reverb, which I happen to really like. Born in B.C., Lily and Chilean hubby José of By Divine Right fame make their home here with us in the hills. Favourite tracks: without question Enchantment (which you must experience in video form on You Tube) and Raise the Veil – divine. Lily’s more recent CD, called Lily Swings, on which she covers Billie Holiday is also available everywhere.

JAMES DESROCHES INTO THE WIND

Recorded at Valleyview Studios, Ancaster 2008

If you liked the Mainlanders, you’ll like James DesRoches. New to the area, James has music in the family. He’s no Teenage Head like his bro, but his guitar work on this mix of easy styles certainly shows he’s been paying attention since those days. There’s jazz, there’s Calypso – even some nicely executed Spanish-styled strumming, plus some yummy Dylan-esque harmonica to round out this Greenwich Village Bob Denver-ish collection of originals. If you’re a harmonies freak like me, you’ll be singing along with much of his music. There are a lot of love songs, though, sorry girls – he’s married thirty-odd years now, with a great big bouncing family of kiddies and dogs. Favourite tracks: If You Came to Me and What Can I Do?

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

Recorded at Batty Steer Studios, Mono and Orange Studios, Collingwood 2009

“My bookie says I’m the luckiest man he’s ever met. And the doctor says I’m the sickest one he’s come across yet.”

So goes a line from one of Devin Hentsch’s songs called Daughters of Lawyers. What a fabulous title! Leonard Cohen, Chuck Mangione and a hint of Italiano is as close as I can come to describing Devin’s music. There’s a little bit of Joni in there, too, which likely adds to the appeal for me after the four years that Devin’s had an entry in these pages. He definitely has my attention. Cory Bruyea, Justin MacDonald, Justin Castator, Jae Marr, Jocelyn Burke, and other people whose names don’t start with ‘J’ represent the continued artistic support model of that loose collective of local musicians called the Harmony Rainbow Group. Favourite tracks: Daughters of Lawyers and Margarita Green.

DEVIN & THE DARK LIGHT LOUD TO LIVE WITH

D

o I look different? I feel different. Four years ago, the editor of this magazine asked me if I’d be interested in reviewing local music. I immediately visualized Brenda Starr, reporter – only blond, with glasses, and attitude – scoping out the talent in Orangeville.

At the time, age 48, my comic-strip reality seemed to be expanding rather than contracting as one might normally expect, but I digress.

I was really on the crest of a fabulous movement of art in the area, barely aware of its parameters. The ten or so years that I’ve been involved musically with the Headwaters Arts Festival left me little time to explore the actual art that was going on. Since I’ve leapt into this world with both feet, I’ve been swept into the momentum of irrepressible creativity.

Blessed be this place. It holds such beauty that my heart is in my throat a good deal of the time these days. I have met such gentle and passionate people, and the work of many of them is reviewed on these pages.

For an average price of $20, for anything from eight tracks of epic electric guitar to ten total hits that deserve to be widely celebrated, I give you the poets and princes of music in the hills. Their work is available at the music stores in the area.

For the first time this year, we’re pleased to be able to offer sound with our reviews. If you want to have a listen, visit www.inthehills.ca – there are samples on the magazine’s site and links to more on the musicians’ websites.

(P.S. If you know of any other fine local recording talent, please consider dropping me a line at lw@lisawatson.ca.)

SASS JORDAN FROM DUSK ’TIL DAWN

LILY FROST CINE-MAGIQUE Recorded & produced by José Contreras, Aporia Records, Toronto 2006

BY L IS A WAT S O N

Recorded at Backroom Studio, Toronto 2009

Vibrant Sass Jordan walks the walk and all. This gravelly-voiced goddess, who I count in my circle of inspiration, has her priorities straight and gives due regard to all aspects of her life – family, friends and her creativity. She and husband Derek Sharp are a magical, musical combination. Sass told much of how she approaches life in a recent article in Chatelaine, offering no excuse for living large and passionately. With connections forged over expansive careers, Sass and Derek are readily able to find supporting and talented musicianship to bolster any musical endeavour. This CD exhibits consideration for a diverse appetite of musical genres and has an easy and warm overall tone. Favourite tracks: Sass and Derek wrote all but a Tom Waits’ remake of Ol’ 55, which I love, and the killer track for me is Awake.

SIDEWAYS Recorded in-home and at Singing Water Ministries, Hockley Valley 2009

This was a lovely surprise in so many ways. Gary Beck is a skilful jazz guitarist and his wife Jumanah has an exquisite voice. The recording loses nothing for its simplicity and it is all very smoothly executed. God loves jazz, and I daresay he loves a beautiful songstress singing his praises even more. There’s some David Foster/Dionne Warwick largess here that is certainly appropriate to the Christian content. Favourite tracks: Jumanah Samba is a fabulous jazz instrumental with a great and complex rhythm count; and an arrangement based on Psalm 23, called Shine Your Glory, is indeed glorious.

JUSTIN CASTATOR THE GLOW

Recorded in-house 2009

Another fabulous talent from the Harmony Rainbow Group, Justin is an instinctual and intellectual musical artist who waxes lyrical about the much anticipated new age. His poetry works on many levels: music and word, imagery and mysticism, creating a lovely, flowing tapestry of layered sound. If MC Escher had a musical counterpart it might be Justin Castator.

They call him The Glow. There’s some great distance and tin on Justin’s naïve vocals with hypnotizing (sometimes discordant) synthetic harmonies, and some Glen Campbell/Mark Knopfler Tequila Sunrise electric guitar. Favourite Tracks: A Break in the Clouds and Pendulum, a lovely prayer.

Recorded at Metalworks 2009

These boys are still having the time of their lives playing the blues at fairweather festivals from Bobcaygeon to Cancun. Front (and back) man Sab goes back in the music business and the inside cover shows him with Alice (Cooper) and with Kris (Kristofferson) and Young Sab and Old Sab and Sab and the beer-bellied Family Band.

Oh dear. Proficient musicians all, the priority seems to be fun, stayin’ in the groove and making sure the cooler’s full of red wigglers. Guest musicians include David Rotundo (be still my heart), Johnny P and Gino Scarpelli.

And we all have to thank Erin’s own Dana Mundell for drumming in more good times. Favourite tracks: That’s What I Call the Blues (Sab’s Dr. Hook vocal hook) and Northern Boys 2, sounds like they’ve just returned from the war, but I’ll bet not.

SAB FLYIN’ HIGH & LIVIN’ FREE

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T RADITIONAL Q UALITY C ERTIFIED S ALES & I NSTALLATIONS South West Corner Hwy 10 and King Rd. 905-838-1114 Fax 905-838-1116

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

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193 BROADWAY 519-942-4297 www.henningsalon.ca info@henningsalon.ca

EVERY GIFT BRIGHTENS LIVES We have ideas for everyone on your gift list.

BRUCE LAING A DREAM…

RYAN BARWICK & THE SMALL TOWN BAND

HENNING SALON

Recorded at Erinwood Studios, Erin 2008

Recorded in Aberfoyle 2009

This has a real American Graffiti feel to it – music to eat teen burgers by. The CD cover has a fi fties-retro look, with fabulous old cars and a flashback image of a neon-bejewelled drive-in theatre and period Ferris wheel. Ryan has created a step back in time to pop shops and puppy love. You’ll want to sing (and maybe even dance) along with many of these fourteen original tunes, each with its own attributes: great arrangement, familiar Dylan-styled harmonica, compelling Clarence Clemons-flavoured saxophone, and the drama of Bob Seger-like vocals.

Favourite tracks: Won’t Hurt You Anymore and Drive – straight to Ann Arbor with my girl and twenty bucks worth of gas. You’ll feel it.

This is the creative culmination of some thirty years of musical ruminations by my friend Bruce. His songs are genius and I sure hope he gets discovered soon. Bruce has a talent for “catchy country” and has girls a-swoon at every event he plays. His “Dream” boasts ten original tunes recorded and gently mixed and miked with a delicate turn on the reverb – light and not fancy, but full. Bruce is one of the hardworking musicians that keeps live music alive here in the hills and he has a huge cast of friend and fan as he strums familiar rhythms to our lives here in the big O. Favourite tracks: Edge of the Bed – hit potential for sure, and My Angel – another hit! I think I've found my travelling buddy to Nashville.

YOGÃLAYA THE SPACE TO BE

GUIDED RELAXATION WITH NATASHA BOLDIREFF

Recorded at Vivace and vWave Studios, Toronto 2009

Holy cow – who is this kid? This smacks of past-life memory. His mom just shakes her head and drives. TJ screams up and down the neck of his guitar and he and his buddies “wank” out like they were born under a table that was nailed to the floor. There’s some fabulous backup instrumentation in the form of electric violin and what I’d call synth-funk, and the CD overall has a pretty mature flavour.

There’s even a little Spanish flamenco on it. I mean – how does he know this stuff – he’s only sixteen. Favourite tracks: Dream Suite – classically hard rock guitar, and Spanish Interlude – espagn-eeessshhh!

THE MUIR FAMILY

Recorded in Orangeville 2009

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

Last year I was lucky enough to find a fabulous local CD with three wonderful guided meditations that I still listen to – and hope it encouraged sales for Andrea Fielding. It’s not music in the usual sense, but a good part of the “listening” I do is guided meditation – just for my head, cleansing the palate, if you will. Natasha is my yoga instructor and, in my experience, an expert at inducing deep relaxation. To have fiftythree minutes of her nurturing Savasana is like throwing a warm, heavy blanket over my soul. By the time you’ve finished listening to this, all of your 73 trillion cells will be blissed out – trust me. It’s what the world needs now. Go to www.1hourmeditation.com where it is being sold globally, or pick up a copy at BookLore or Harmony Whole Foods. Namaste, baby.

TJ WHITELAW ELECTRIC ECHOES Recorded at Bruce Ley’s Studio, Mulmur 2009

This is a CD full of classic country tunes performed pretty much the way you remember them. There’s some fine guitar pickin’ and fiddlin’ and dobro by our own Bruce Ley. Donna Muir sang with her uncle’s band, and she and her two sons, Brandon and Aaron, and the rest of the band bring country comfort to fairs, barbecues and the like in the neighbourhood. Aaron sings your favourites with Dwight Yoakam panache and I’ll bet there’s some honky-tonk times wherever these folks play. Favourite tracks: Ring of Fire (gotta love JC) and Neon Moon.

JULIAN PETTI ECHO BAY SESSSIONS

wonderful

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Recorded in Algonquin Park 2009

This last-minute entry to the annual lineup demonstrates the virtues of the advanced recording equipment musicians have available to them these days.

Julian packed his tent, his canoe and a Tascam 4-track ďŹ eld recorder and two Neumann U87s and lost himself (or should I say found himself) in the tranquility of Echo Bay. His introspective lyrics and passionate guitar are the obvious inďŹ&#x201A;uence of John Lee Hooker and Neil Young. I think I even picked up a bit of Ravi Shankar in there somewhere. I occasionally hear crickets and babbling water in the background â&#x20AC;&#x201C; nice. At the time of writing Julian was unsure what form distribution would take, but you can listen to him on MySpace. Favourite tracks: Versing to the Wall and All My Praying.

Recorded at The Meat Freezer, Mono 2009

Alice Cooper eat your heart out. This is some pretty dark stuff in my opinion, but I think Ian Starkey, the creator of Shanks, has found an interesting way to take leave of the everyday. An architect and father of four by day and musical wizard by night, he brings an epic quality to each tune, along with some surprising instrumentation, including glockenspiel, French horn, Shinto tea bell and ďŹ&#x201A;ashlight(!), in addition to the usual electric guitar, bass and drums. The theme of the CD is graphically captured on the cover reproduction of a Passerotti painting called The Butcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Shop 1580s. Ianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s upcoming CD will have a cake theme.

Favourite tracks: Ass-End of Town (really, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just fun to say) and Norman Mailer (rings of King Crimson).

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MAGIC MOUNTAIN Recorded at Orchard Studios 2007

At only 23 years old, Johnny Lane is something of a household name here in Orangeville. He and his band (Mike Rennie on bass and Dan Mills on drums) have been working on their rock and roll hoochie-coo for six years now and this CD of original tunes has a ZZ Top/Don Henley ďŹ&#x201A;avour that old rockers will love. Johnny worked and toured as a guitar/backline technician and had the opportunity to work with Glass Tiger and Honeymoon Suite, as well as The Tea Partyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jeff Martin, whose inďŹ&#x201A;uence produced a new world of guitar tunings and a more expansive writing style that is reďŹ&#x201A;ected here. There is also some unclaimed (as of writing) harmonica that is to die for. Favourite tracks: Moola and Sidewalk. â&#x2030;&#x2C6;

Westside Market Village Orangeville 519-940-8901 Magic Mountain Collingwood 705-446-0378

Singer-songwriter Lisa Watson lives in Orangeville. She recorded her first cd, Watsongs and Other Gems, last year.

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

53

COMING OF AGE IN THE SIXTIES A N E XCE R P T F R O M AFTER THE FALLS BY C AT HE R INE GIL DINE R

Young Cathy McClure had no idea how idyllic her unconventional childhood in the leafy security of Lewiston had been, until it disappeared. But, as she embarked on adolescence in a new home, it wasn’t just the family fortunes that had changed, the wide world was changing too. In After the Falls, the sequel to her bestselling childhood memoir, Too Close to the Falls, Creemore author Catherine Gildiner dissects a decade of personal and political turmoil with humour, honesty and insight. The following excerpts are from the first chapter: Expulsion.

A

s we crept up the narrow winding road that rimmed the Niagara Escarpment in our two-toned grey Plymouth Fury with its huge fins and new car smell, my father pressed the push-button gear, forcing the car to leap up the steep incline and out of our old life. The radio was playing the Ventures’ hit “Walk Don’t Run.” I sat in the front seat with my father while my mother sat in the back with Willie, the world’s most stupid dog.

We were following the orange Allied moving van, and I kept rereading the motto on the back door: leave the worrying to us. Two tall steel exhaust pipes rose in the air like minarets from both sides of the truck’s cabin. Each had a flap that continually flipped open, belching black smoke and then snapping shut, like the mouth of Ollie, the dragon handpuppet on the Kukla, Fran and Ollie television show. The smoke mouths kept repeating the same phrase in unison: It’s all your fault … it’s all your fault.

I pressed my face to the window as the car crawled up the hill in first gear. Lewiston, where I’d grown up, was slowly receding. The town was nestled against the rock cliff of the huge escarpment on one side and bordered by the Niagara River on the other. St. Peter’s Catholic church 54

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

spire, which cast such a huge shadow when you were in the town, was barely visible from up here.

The sun was resting on the limestone cliff, setting it ablaze. I squinted at the orange embers on the rock wall, but the reflection was so glaring, I had to look away. My childhood too had gone up in flames.

*** As the car chugged toward the top of the escarpment, I, like Lot’s wife, looked back at the town below me. I had no idea then that I was leaving behind the least-troubled years of my life. Strange, since I felt there was no way I could cause more trouble than I’d caused in Lewiston.

It was 1960. We were doing what millions of other people had done: we were migrating. The Okies had left the Dust Bowl for water and we were leaving Lewiston for what my mother had mysteriously described as “opportunities.” Whatever the reason, we were leaving behind the chunk of rock that was a part of us.

What would I do in Buffalo in the summer heat? When I was working at my dad’s store in Niagara Falls, I would wander over to the falls and get cooled off by the spray. I couldn’t imagine not being near the rising clouds of mist that parted to reveal

the perpetually optimistic rainbow.

What would my life be without the falls to ground me? Losing the falls was bad enough, but how could I leave the small, idyllic town of Lewiston, where history was around every corner? General Brock had been billeted in our house during the war of 1812.

Our basement had been part of the Underground Railroad that smuggled black slaves to Canada. And would I ever again live somewhere where everyone knew me – where I knew who I was? I would no longer be the little girl who worked in her dad’s drugstore. Roy, the delivery driver with whom I distributed drugs all over the Niagara Frontier, used to say if someone in Lewiston didn’t know us, then they were “drifters.”

*** Soon the escarpment was only a line in the distance, and Lewiston had disappeared. I would always remember it frozen in time: the uneven bricks of Center Street under my feet; the old train track up the middle, worn down after not being used for almost a century; The Frontier House, the hotel where Dickens, James Fenimore Cooper and Lafayette stayed and the word cocktail was invented; the maple and elm trees that arched over the roads, and the

Niagara River, with its swirling blue waters that snaked along the edge of town.

As we began to head south, I thought about the tightrope walker my mother and I had seen, years ago, inching across Niagara Falls carrying a long balance pole. We stood below on the lip of the escarpment, holding our breath. My mother kept her eyes shut and made me tell her what was happening.

I felt as though now, as I headed into my teenage years, it would take all I had to maintain my balance. I knew the secret was to never look down at the whirlpools below, to focus on a fi xed point at eye level and keep moving. I had no idea then how much I would teeter when the winds of change in the 1960s got blowing.

*** When my father had announced the move, he said we were going for “new business prospects.” He said that the economy had changed and that pretty soon there wouldn’t be any more small, family-run drugstores. I had never thought our drugstore was small – I thought of it as enormous. He maintained that the world was being taken over by “chain stores.” I didn’t know what these were; I thought at fi rst that he meant hardware stores

that sold shackles. He explained how chain stores worked out better prices from the drug companies, how they didn’t make specialty unguents and didn’t deliver. Most of the work was done by pharmacy assistants. He could no longer compete; it was time to get out before we were forced out.

Did he really think these chaintype-stores would catch on? Had he forgotten about loyalty? I thought of all the times Roy and I had risked our lives delivering medication on roads with blowing snow and black ice, or worked after midnight to get someone insulin. It was my father who always said that customers would appreciate the service and be loyal. But just days ago, when I’d questioned him on this, he said that people could be fickle and that their loyalty was to the almighty dollar. All the service in the world couldn’t keep a customer if Aspirin is cheaper elsewhere.

When I said that was terribly unfair, he pointed out that that was just human nature. People did what was best for themselves at any given time.

I’d never heard him speak so harshly.

He’d usually espoused kindness and “going the extra mile.” He put his arm around me and said that the world was changing and it was best to move on. You couldn’t stop progress.

After all, America hailed the Model T; no one cried for the blacksmith.

As we drove along the ugly, detour highway, weaving between gigantic rust-coloured generators that obscured the view of the rock cliffs and the river, I asked why, since we must be getting near the city of Niagara Falls, we didn’t see the silver mist of the falls spraying in the air like a geyser. My father told me the highway we were on was being built by Robert Moses (who would coincidentally name it the Robert Moses Parkway, though I never saw a park). Moses designed it so that tourists would be diverted from the downtown core of Niagara Falls and forced to drive by his monument of progress, the Niagara Power Project. No one would drive through the heart of Niagara Falls any more, which is where our drugstore was. My father predicted, accurately as it turned out, that the downtown would soon die. ~~ After about a half-hour, my father circled off the New York State Thruway onto a futuristic round basketweave exit marked Amherst. “Wait until you see how convenient this home is for getting on the highway and travelling,” he said.

I wondered where we would be going since my father said travelling spread disease.

A minute later he swung into a sub-

urban housing development with a sign that read kingsgate village, and then onto Pearce Drive. When he turned into a driveway, I was too taken aback to say anything. In front of us was a tiny green clapboard bungalow with pink trim. All around it were identical houses with slightly different frontispieces. My father had picked out this place, but I felt his mortification at having to show it to us. It started to sink in that our historical colonial home with the huge wraparound porch was now history.

Why my mother had not been included in the house hunt was a mystery to me. It wasn’t like she was busy. She’d never in my memory cooked, cleaned or held a job.

She was trying to find nice things to say. “Well, this should be easy to look after. No big yard to rake.”

But I could feel her slowly withering, cell by disappointed cell.

*** The moving van pulled up. As one mover chomped on a hoagie, the other jumped down from the cab, looked at the house and said to my father, “There’s no way you are ever going to fit these huge pieces of furniture into this place. What am I supposed to do with them?” The front door was obviously too narrow for the French armoires and early American dressers.

My father said nothing. I had never seen him look as though he was not in charge. He just went and sat on the porch, which was actually a cement stoop. My mother, who’d inherited these antiques and cherished them, ordered the movers to unload everything onto the driveway. Then she said to my father, “Not to worry, Jim. Some of these things have been in my family for far too long. It’s progress – we’ll clear out some of it – deadwood.”

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*** Once the weensy rooms were fi lled, my father, bewildered, stared at the ocean of antiques in the driveway. He said to my mother, “When I saw this place it was empty. I don’t remember it being so small.”

My mother refused to watch as the movers hoisted the furniture into the attic of the garage. Marble tabletops were removed with crowbars and stored in pieces. Most of the pieces would eventually warp from freezing temperatures and moisture. My parents would never sell them or look at them again.

*** My father was always affable with the neighbours, talking over identical chain-link fences in the summer continued on next page

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excerpt continued from page 55

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about chlorine tablets for aboveground pools and lawn mowers. Although my father was always friendly, most of the people on the street were younger. Our house was, as they say in the real estate world, “a starter home.” Though for my parents it would be a finishing home – hardly bigger than the wooden caskets they would be carried out in.

In Lewiston my father had been used to giving out advice. People had come to him because he was the town pharmacist; he had a position in the church and community and he knew things. Here in Buffalo, people got advice from “Dear Abby.” They weren’t going to go to some washedup old pharmacist. I noticed that he now exaggerated. I heard him telling a neighbour that I was New York State’s high jumping champion, when in fact my title was only for western New York and my record was beaten before I even had a chance to get new track shoes.

My parents adapted to their new circumstances in their own way. My father bought a recliner in leatherette, smoked and watched television. He went to work for a large drug company.

He described his research team as though it were the Manhattan Project; however, when I went to his building, which took up nearly a city block, people seemed to hardly know him.

My mother didn’t do a thing with the house – she never even changed the carpets. She always acted like she was staying in a déclassé hotel. The only problem was that there was no room service. If she ever wondered how a college educated woman who was also a master bridge player wound up on Pearce Drive, she never once asked me.

Their new church was huge and they went unnoticed there. People didn’t walk to church in Buffalo as they had in Lewiston. And no one waited around after church to go out together for brunch. Everyone drove to church and then, after Mass, they got in their cars and, with an altar boy directing traffic, fi led out of the parking lot as though they were in a funeral procession.

Flowers ’n’ Things. Most of the stores were chains and seemed to be full of minimum-wage employees.

Once we ventured out of our cloned subdivision, which my mother and I clandestinely referred to as Tiny Town, I noticed that there was a positive correlation between distance away from Pearce Drive and how big the houses were. The majority were large, elegant brick homes with manicured lawns and built-in pools. Some were mansions with guest houses and elaborate gardens.

My father’s decision to move to Tiny Town was slowly starting to make sense. When I was kicked out of Catholic school in Lewiston, Father Rodwick, the jejune Jesuit who had been my religious-instruction teacher, recommended the school in Amherst to my mother for its great advanced program. My father must have bought the only house he could afford in this swanky school district.

*** I felt a bit sorry for my parents. I knew I was not going to study any harder here than I had in the past. Father Rodwick thought he’d discovered someone with special intelligence. He was wrong. I was only experiencing a motivational blip. A girl will do anything to catch the eye of a handsome man. But there was no point in telling my parents about my prophecy of academic mediocrity. They would get the drift soon enough. ≈ Excerpted from After the Falls.

Copyright © 2009 by Catherine Gildiner. Published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

Catherine Gildiner is already at work on the third volume of her memoirs, The Long Way Home, documenting her university years, first at Oxford and then, in 1970, at the University of Toronto’s Victoria College where she undertook post-graduate studies in English Literature before pursuing her career as a clinical psychologist.

ALISA LOACH - FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY Terra Cotta, On 416-419-1869 www.treefrogproductions.ca

56

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

Within the first few weeks of our arrival my mother and I began to venture out in our Plymouth Fury on reconnaissance missions. We decided to spread our wings a few blocks at a time. We needed to know exactly how bad it was. There were no sidewalks on the major streets, so we never saw people out strolling. The stores all had names that were so unoriginal as to be almost laughable. The convenience store was a chain called Your Convenience. The florist was called

P H O T O M K LY N D E

~~

C O U N T R Y

C O O K

by Sandra Cranston-Corradini

Hearty fare for a

CHRISTMAS

IN THE GREENHOUSE

winter’s eve

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

Versatile, inexpensive and available year-round, eggplant is a wonderful meat substitute. Also known as aubergine, it can be fried, stewed, stuffed, baked, broiled, pickled or made into a casserole for a hearty winter repast. A member of the nightshade family, along with peppers, tomatoes and potatoes, it is one of the few vegetables that should never be eaten raw. Though called a vegetable, it is actually a fruit, the berry of the plant.

Most of the eggplants available in Ontario are the dark purple variety. However, the colour, which can also be white, pink or chocolate, bears no influence on texture or taste. A round dot on the flower end indicates male and a dash identifies female. Originally male eggplants were preferred, but new breeding methods have produced plants with fewer seeds regardless of gender. Choose firm, glossy eggplants when shopping, and look for green caps. Eggplants similar in size but lighter in weight will contain fewer seeds.

Our first course consists of a delicious eggplant lasagna. We tend to prepare ours with a tomato and meat sauce, however the meat can easily be omitted. This makes an easy rechauffé or reheated dish that may be cooked a few days in advance.

Our entrée for winter is a marinated, baked, then broiled chicken, accompanied by roasted fennel.

Fennel is related to celery and has a very delicate licorice taste. A source of phosphorous, calcium and potassium, fennel is also high in vitamin A. The decadently rich chocolate dessert can be prepared using cocoa powder in place of the dark chocolates if they are not readily available. Just use 3 tablespoons of cocoa and 1 tablespoon of butter in place of each square of chocolate. thoroughly mix the egg and flour. Mix the bread crumbs and seasonings in a separate bowl. Heat about ¼" oil in a large frying pan.

With paper towels, gently dab the moisture from the eggplants. Dip each slice into the egg batter and then the breadcrumb mixture and thoroughly coat each side. Fry over medium heat until the crumbs are a medium brown. Drain the slices TOMATO SAUCE on paper towels.

4 lb | 2 kg ripe, cored To make the tomato sauce, tomatoes or 2 large melt the butter in a heavy-botcans plum tomatoes tomed pot. Add finely chopped 3 stalks celery celery, carrot, onion and garlic.

2 carrots Cook to soften, but not brown 2 onions (about 1o-15 minutes). Add the 4 large garlic cloves tomatoes and tomato paste.

2 tbsp | 3o ml butter Add ground beef, if using.

2 tbsp | 3o ml fresh, Bring to a simmer and add the chopped parsley red wine, garlic and herbs.

1 tsp | 5 ml each, chopped Simmer for at least one hour basil and oregano and season to taste with salt splash red wine and pepper. Add more water if 2 cloves sauce becomes too thick.

1 small tin tomato paste To assemble, place tomato 4 c | 1 L ground medium sauce in the bottom of two 11" beef (optional) x 7" pans. Make a single layer Wash eggplant and remove the of eggplant and cover it with a stem and calyx. Slice length- layer of mozzarella, repeat the wise into ¼" portions. Lay on layers then cover with a layer of a cookie sheet and lightly parmesan. Continue layering sprinkle with salt. Set aside for to the top of the dish, finishing 15 minutes. In a shallow bowl, with a layer of tomato sauce.

EGGPLANT LASAGNA

2 large eggplants 4 large eggs ½ c | 125 ml all purpose flour 4 c | 1 L fine dry breadcrumbs 2 tsp | 1o ml garlic powder salt ½ tsp | 2.5 ml pepper olive oil for frying 4 c | 1 L grated mozzarella 2 c | 5oo mg fresh grated Parmesano Reggiano

Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a preheated oven at 35o°F for 3o-45 minutes or until sauce is bubbling. Serves 12.

CHICKEN WITH LEMON AND FENNEL

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chicken into smaller portions and serve with the fennel and leftover cooking juices. Garnish with lemon slices and parsley.

Serves 8.

CHOCOLATE VOLCANO

2 chickens, halved 3 fennel bulbs 1 lemon 4 garlic cloves ½ c | 125 ml finely chopped fresh parsley 1 small onion finely chopped 3 tbsp | 45 ml Dijon mustard 2 tbsp | 3o ml lemon juice 3 tbsp | 45 ml olive oil salt and pepper

5 oz | 15o g semi-sweet baking chocolate 2 oz | 6o g extra dark or bitter chocolate 1 oz | 3o g dark chocolate ¾ c | 19o ml unsalted butter 5 large eggs ¾ c | 19o ml sugar ¾ c | 19o ml all-purpose flour ½ tsp | 2.5 ml vanilla pinch salt

In a medium bowl, combine the oil, lemon juice, mustard and onion. Rub over the interior and exterior of the chickens and refrigerate in a pan for at least an hour. Place the chickens in a roasting pan, season with salt and pepper and bake at 35o°F for one hour. Peel off the outer layer of the fennel bulbs and halve each bulb lengthways. Brush with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and add to the pan when the chicken has cooked for 3o minutes. When the chicken is fully cooked, place it under the broiler for about 8 minutes or until the skin is crisp. Cut the

Butter six 3" ramekins, then dust with granulated sugar. In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate. Beat the eggs and sugar for 8-1o minutes, until the mixture is thick enough to form ribbons. Fold in the chocolate mixture, vanilla and then the flour and salt. Place the ramekins on a tray and bake at 4oo°F for 15 minutes or until the sides of the batter are firm, but the interior is still a bit wobbly.

Turn onto dessert plates and serve immediately. Serves 6.

Sandra Cranston-Corradini is the proprietor of the CranstonCorradini School of Cooking.

Farm-gate market offering drug-free black angus beef, bison, wild boar, lamb, chicken and pork. Also honey, syrup, salsa, jams and sauces from local producers.

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

57

H O M E G R O W N

I N

T H E

fruit wines add

H I L L S

by Nicola Ross

Spirit

to the holiday festivities

DOWNEY’S ESTATE WINERY

58

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

13682 HEART LAKE ROAD

905-838-5395 W W W.DOWNEYS FARM.COM OPEN YEAR-ROUND MAY – DECEMBER 9AM TO 7PM DAILY JANUARY – APRIL 11AM TO 5PM SAT & SUN ONLY 40 VARIETIES OF WINE INCLUDING SOME GRAPE WINES, TABLE WINES (DRY), DESSERT WINES AND ICE WINES FROM $9.95 FOR A 200ml BOT TLE OF CASSIS TO $24.95 FOR A 375ml BOT TLE OF CRANBERRY ICE MOST OF DOWNEY’S WINES CAN BE SAMPLED AT THE TASTING BAR CUSTOM L ABELS ON THEIR WINES FOR WEDDINGS AND OTHER CELEBRATIONS ARE ALSO AVAIL ABLE

past. As I popped the cork on a bottle of pear wine to accompany our appetizer (a fig and olive tapenade), my niece gave me a quizzical look and asked, “Isn’t fruit wine a bit sweet to go with an appetizer?”

Sometime before the family dinner, my interest in Downey’s fruit wines had drawn me and about a dozen others to a tour and tasting organized by the Caledon Countryside Alliance.

One cool Friday evening in September, Roy herded our small group past the petting zoo and goat walk to Downey’s winery. We tasted apple cider before Roy pulled the tops off the stainless steel tanks to expose great vats of cranberries, raspberries and other fruits.

We learned about winemaking and

The biggest barrier to fruit wines is getting people to try them. That’s why winery manager Ed Roy is happy to have visitors spend time at the tasting bar.

were invited to taste the fermenting juice as its alcoholic content rose to the 10 or 11 per cent target.

What struck me that evening was Roy’s explanation that, whereas grapes gain much of their character from the soil, his wines had flavours of their own. This characteristic of grapes is called terroir.

Whether minerals picked up by grapes really do affect taste is debated widely. In a 2003 article in Harpers Weekly, wine journalist Jamie Goode investigated how, if at all, soils affect wine. He noted the definition of terroir “is quite a tricky one to tie down, but it can probably best be summedup as the possession by a wine of a sense of place, or ‘somewhereness.’”

His article suggested the presence of terroir was “proven” by Randall Grahm’s rocks experiment. A “terroirist” – someone who believes in the controversial concept – Grahm investigated the flavour imparted by minerals by adding rocks directly to

wine to see if their addition changed the taste. He observed that the rocks resulted in dramatic differences in aromatics, length and persistence of flavour. “In mineral-rich wines,” said Grahm, “there is a suppression of obvious fruit.”

Following our tour of the winery, our group enjoyed tasting a sampling of Downey’s almost forty varieties of wine and cider, which includes a handful of grape wines. Almost everyone left with a bottle or three tucked under their arm.

Jennifer Grant, owner of Harmony Whole Foods Market in Orangeville, was no exception. Along with a group of friends, Grant had made strawberry wine earlier that year, so she was keen to learn a few tricks of the trade.

Downey’s makes its wines from everything from gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries to peaches, rhubarb, and even nectarines and maple syrup. And while many of their most popular varieties are sweet,

P H O T O S PA M P U R V E S

A

s a teenager and aspiring veterinarian, I devoured James Herriot’s books about his travails as an animal doctor in rural England. Of all the yarns he told, however, there is only one that I recall in detail. In it, Herriot finds himself consuming copious amounts of fruit wine with a taciturn farmer who can’t believe that someone actually likes his homemade brew. As I recall, gooseberry wine was followed by apple, pear and half a dozen others until Herriot could barely see, much less walk a straight line. Predictably, the good vet is then called upon to preside over a particularly difficult birth of a neighbouring farmer’s prized cow.

Herriot’s description of his drunken attempts to deliver the calf was so hilarious that I recall sitting up in bed exploding in loud guffaws. I can only imagine what my university roommates made of my middle-of-thenight belly laughs.

I tell this tale as a way of explaining my willingness to give fruit wines the benefit of the doubt. It’s an attitude that is hard to come by among Canadians raised on wine made from grapes. Whereas many eastern Europeans, the Polish in particular, are very fond of their black currant wine, and many Asians are drawn to sweet fruit varieties, the majority of wine drinkers here turn up their noses at alcoholic beverages produced from the bounty that Caledon can produce: raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, apples and more.

When I asked Ed Roy, who manages Downey’s Estate Winery in south Caledon, about his success with fruit wines, he told me, “It’s a tough sell because most people think that fruit wines are sweet.”

It’s a misconception proven out when I arrived for holiday dinner at my sister’s bearing a selection of Downey’s fruit wines that Roy had carefully paired with our turkey re-

Ed recommended these wines to accompany the turkey dinner of writer Nicola Ross and her family.

most of their wines are dry, some of them mouth-puckeringly so. Try the Crimson Cranberry, if you doubt me.

Back at my sister’s turkey dinner, I poured Autumn Pear, with a sweetness rating of zero, into waiting glasses held by apprehensive family members and friends. With a pale golden hue, it could have passed as grape wine.

The first sip drew a few “ahs.” The wine’s dryness clearly surprised those expecting cloying sweetness.

One sip turned into two and three.

But while Autumn Pear was a pleasant departure from expectations, the general consensus was that it lacked complexity. While readily drinkable, one sister said it didn’t have much “character.” I wondered if it was not character, but “familiarity” that she was missing.

A small bowl of wild mushroom soup topped with a dab of yogurt followed our appetizer. I’d asked Roy in advance to recommend some pairings based on the menu for the family event. So now, on his advice, I cracked open another golden-hued bottle, this one chilled Apple Crisp, also rated zero for sweetness. With a liqueur no longer expected, this wine, prepared from a mix of apples grown

by Greg Downey right at the farm, drew a more favourable response.

“It tastes like apple cider,” said one friend. Others agreed. There seemed to be a comfort level with the familiarity of cider.

We tried Crimson Cranberry with our local fresh turkey, stuffed with apple and prune dressing, and accompanied by mashed potatoes with celery root, pear and parsnip purée, as well as braised Brussels sprouts.

Roy had made this selectio selection because, “We just have to do it.” H He added, “There’s a reason why we se serve cranberry sauce with turkey.”

Crimson Cranberry was not as well accepted as Apple Crisp or Autumn Pear, so we moved on to Downey’s prized Framboise (sweetness 18) with our plum pudding and mincemeat tart, and a choice of the Maple Gold dessert wine (with a dizzying sweetness of 25) or Black Pearl dessert wine (black currant with a sweetness of five) with cheese, crackers and pears.

Downey’s winemaker, Brian Moreau, told me, “The biggest barrier [to fruit wines] is getting people to try them.”

He added, “Our tasting bar is our secret.” And indeed, when I was picking up my wine from Downey’s, a young couple was making good use of the service. They obviously liked what they tried, and walked away with four bottles.

No one at my family dinner expressed any willingness to give up their chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon, but they acknowledged they might expand their wine list to include some fruit wines.

In the spirit of experimentation, we tried adding sparkling water and a twist of lemon to the Black Pearl (black currant) dessert wine. It was a hit and we found ourselves considering the possibilities of making Sangria and other summertime cocktails from Downey’s wines.

As for me? I’ll continue serving a chilled glass of Downey’s very popular Framboise with a chocolate dessert. I also found myself corking the unfinished bottles so that I could try them out on guests at an upcoming dinner party. I never did become a vet, but it seems that James Herriot and I have something in common after all. ≈

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IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

59

The Women’s Institute has been called the most effective women’s organization ever – with good reason. For over a century, the WI has been welcoming, educating, challenging, improving, supporting and “getting things done.”

A D EL A I D E H O O D L E S S CO U R T E S Y H O O D L E S S CO L L EC T I O N , U N I V ER S I T Y O F G U EL P H

for home and country

BY K EN W EB ER

This prayer, known as the Mary Stewart Collect, has been recited in unison by thousands of women at WI meetings over the decades.

In that time, the collect has lost none of its relevance as a guiding set of principles for daily life.

Keep us, O Lord, from pettiness; let us be large in thought and deed.

Let us be done with fault finding and leave off self-seeking.

May we put away all pretense and meet each other face to face, Without self-pity and without prejudice.

May we never be hasty in judgment and always generous.

Let us take time for all things; make us grow calm, serene, gentle.

Teach us to put into action our better impulses, straightforward and unafraid.

Grant that we may realize that it is the little things that create the differences, that in the big things in life, we are one.

And may we strive to touch and know the great human heart, common to us all, and, O Lord, let us not forget to be kind.

60

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F

or a visitor to the 100th anniversary celebration of the Colbeck & Monticello Women’s Institute this past summer, a few impressions were immediate. First, the women gathered at the historic WI Hall in Colbeck were all seniors, some of them well along in that category.

Second, their age was not remotely interfering with their ability to have a really good time.

Ten different WI branches from around the hills were represented at the celebration and it was clear that spirited humour, music, great food and genuine enjoyment of the company of others all took place with the easy familiarity of years of fellowship.

Another impression was just as enlightening. During the official ceremony, Pearl Newson, emcee for the host branch, accepted a commemorative plaque from the mayor of East Luther Grand Valley. Mayor Oosterhof made a gracious presentation and Pearl’s appreciation was equally gracious. Then, before the mayor had a chance to sit down, Pearl asked, “Now, how soon are you going to have it put up?”

The plaque was installed before the month was out – proof again that the Women’s Institute knows how to get things done.

from painted lines to pants pockets The list of the Women’s Institutes’ achievements since their beginnings in 1897 is awe-inspiring. Even so, WI members seem strangely reluctant to toot their own horns, and many of their accomplishments go unsung. As a once prominent Ontario politician put it: “These women can nail down a project as well as any Rotary or Lions club. They just make less noise doing it!” (The politician insisted on anonymity, understandable given that he is a former Rotarian – and a Lion.)

P H O T O K AT E M A R T I N

words to live by

Members and Guests of the Colbeck & Monticello WI Centennial 2009 back row, from left to right : Audrey Bruce; Joy Trimble, The Maples Branch & President of the FWIO; Laura Edwards; June Mournahan-Watson; Pearl WhiteNewson, President, Colbeck & Monticello Women’s Institute; Alice Mournahan; Edith Reilly. front row, from left to right : Vi Belrose, Hockley Valley Branch & Chair of the Central Ontario Area Women’s Institutes; Ada Brayford; Ivadelle Bruce; Catrina Bouwhuis; Maureen Parker, Salem Branch and President, DufferinPeel District Women’s Institute. absent : Ruth McPherson.

“Jan.1933. Held a Euchre, proceeds $21.90 cents.

Flannelette bought and diapers made for one family.

Layette given to another.

Paid one-fourth of expense of innoculating the children.”

– excerpts from the minutes of the salem wi in the thirties and forties

Noise or not, our world would be a lesser place were it not for the efforts of the WI, both in grand schemes and tiny details. In Ontario, for example, the influence of the FWIO (Federation of Women’s Institutes of Ontario)

was crucial in establishing such provincial laws as mandatory stopping when school bus lights are flashing, clear markings on poison containers, easy-to-understand food labels, the proper use of slow-moving vehicle signs – and in an earlier day, the installation of railway crossing signs and lane lines on provincial highways.

In addition to consumer advocacy and public safety, the WI has also made important contributions to larger social issues. As early as 1951, long before the formation of the Equal Pay Coalition and fully thirtysix years before the Ontario gov-

INTERIORS BY DECORATING DEN ernment passed the Pay Equity Act, the WI was lobbying for equal pay for equal work. More recently, with the equal pay objective pretty much in hand, the WI has tackled another inequality: the fact that grandparents who legally assume the rearing of grandchildren are funded at a lower rate than unrelated foster parents.

“May 2nd, 1934. There were 18 members. Program: Lullaby song by little Ruth Moffat.

Little Miss Marjorie French and Master Jim Woodland gave short dialogue. In a nail driving contest Harry French won the prize.”

If it is, as their motto says, “for home and country,” there is no issue too big and no detail too small for the attention of the WI. An example of the latter: In the mid-fifties, the Institutes tackled the Canadian Manufacturers Association on the inferior workmanship, design and material of the pockets in men’s trousers. Although the effect of their lobbying cannot be proven, anyone old enough to remember pant pockets of that era would agree the quality has greatly improved. While they were at it, the WI also successfully took on the CMA over flammability of sleepwear and proper identification of shoe sizes.

And the work goes on. A current WI advocacy project is the strengthening and enforcement of made-in-Canada labelling, an undertaking aimed at edifying Canadian consumers, as well as benefitting Canadian producers.

first ontario, then the world The story that Adelaide Hoodless founded the Women’s Institutes because her baby died from drinking impure milk has become legend.

Adelaide was indeed a dynamo – she was also a key player in establishing the National Council of Women and the Victorian Order of Nurses. However, in addition to Adelaide, there was an important male figure involved in the founding of the WI. In 1896, Erland Lee, a member of the influential Farmers’ Institutes and a forward thinker like Adelaide, had watched her turn an annual conference on its ear. The audience, almost entirely male farmers and less than pleased about listening to a woman speaker, was shocked to hear her point out, correctly it seems, that they fed their pigs and cattle more scientifically than their own families.

Adelaide Hoodless founded the Women’s Institutes in 1897, after her baby died from drinking impure milk.

She was also a key player in establishing the National Council of Women and the Victorian Order of Nurses.

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Adelaide’s address inspired Erland Lee to bring her to speak in Stoney Creek. With his help, that event led to the establishment of the world’s first Women’s Institute branch in 1897.

Although Adelaide’s compelling story is more famous, the FWIO regards Hoodless and Lee as co-founders.

After 1897, Canada-wide and then worldwide interest in the ideals of the Women’s Institutes accelerated rapidly. In 1919, the many branches that had been established in Ontario united to form the FWIO. In the same year, Ontario’s federation joined with groups in other provinces to form the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada. In 1933, an international group, the Associated Country Women of the World was created, an affi liation that today includes seventy countries.

Within ten years of the Stoney Creek founding, nineteen WI branches had been established throughout our hills. By the end of World War I, there were thirty-three. By the fiftieth anniversary of the WI there were fifty-seven. (On that occasion, FWIO planned for 6,000 attendees at an official ceremony in Guelph; 12,000 continued on next page IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

61

just getting things done

62

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

wi continued from page 61

showed up.) At one time, there were even local Junior WIs, in Bolton and Hillsburgh, among others.

Although the Colbeck & Monticello centennial celebration was impressive, two other branches, in Camilla and Horning’s Mills, had already passed that auspicious anniversary, each claiming 107 years of continuous operation. Even the youngest among the active local branches, Hockley Valley, has a sixty year history.

above : Though Erland Lee is less known than Adelaide Hoodless, he is credited as a co-founder of the WI for his important support in organizing the first branch with her in Stoney Creek. left : Alice Hollingsworth, a travelling lecturer with the Department of Agriculture, organized 18 new WI branches before retiring to Creemore in 1902. Like Adelaide Hoodless, she encountered heavy opposition from men, like the farmer who told her, “Don’t bring the Women’s Institute here or we won’t be able to get a woman to milk a cow!”

still on top of things Now well into its second century, the FWIO has become a much smaller organization, but there has been no let-up in the commitment to home and country. Along with its traditional causes, especially education, the organization has also embraced more contemporary concerns. They include participation in the Support Our Soldiers Programme, launched when Canadian troops entered Afghanistan, and fundraising for such programs as Women Feed the World and Water for All. In Ontario especially, the WI continues its long-time support of 4-H clubs, and more recently the ROSE initiative (rural Ontario sharing education) has brought attention to the organization’s education and support programs and to its efforts to enhance personal growth and empowerment for women.

However, those broader objectives and global interests have never diver ted branches from their profound sense of local commitment and from their long-established practice of making modest, but meaningful contributions to community betterment.

“May 1939. There were 17 members. Several charitable donations. A motion made to send direct to Dufferin boys overseas, rather than through the Red Cross.”

In Violet Hill, the branch has a long tradition of support for the children’s literature collection at the Shelburne Public Library. And recently, the Horning’s Mills Branch brought in an expert on telephone solicitation fraud to speak to seniors. Every branch in this region also contributes an annual scholarship to a local school. The Camilla Branch, for example, supports history and French at Mono-Amaranth

school and The Maples branch provides a science award to East Garafraxa school.

“May 5th, 1943. Entertained Orangeville and Blount Institutes. Filled 10 ditty bags. Canvas for Children’s Aid Society. Boxes packed for boys overseas.”

membership issues in a changing world Still, in spite of its impressive history, the grim reality for the Women’s Institutes is that membership has been shrinking dramatically for some time. Not that this issue is unique to the WI; it is true internationally for almost every traditional community organization, especially it seems, the historic associations developed pri marily by and for women.

According to the Encyclopedia of Associations, membership in the Business and Professional Women’s Association is down about 90 per cent from its peak; the Order of the Eastern Star is down 75 per cent, and in the U.S., the Association of University Women is off by 84 per cent. Even the PTA has declined by 60 per cent.

By comparison, Rotary, now cogendered, is down 25 per cent, the Masons 71 per cent and the Lions 58 per cent. (Note these are international, primarily U.S. numbers.

Canadian membership data is more difficult to confirm.)

The current president of FWIO, Joy Trimble, a resident of Amaranth and member of The Maples branch, offered this sober analysis at the Colbeck & Monticello Institute anniversary: “Ontario membership is about a fifth of what it was in the early 1960s.

One of our frustrations is that although we are definitely getting new members – we just opened a new branch in Guelph recently and one in Picton – retirement is outpacing recruitment.”

Seven members of t he host branch were present that day at the Colbeck hall. Collectively they had been members of the WI for 382 years, an average of well over fifty years each. As powerful a statement of service to home and country as those numbers are, they also reinforced Joy Trimble’s point.

“January, 1944. Petition to have a more obliging and understanding person at head of ration offi ce.”

At its founding, the Women’s Institute was established primarily as an organization for rural women, but the demographic shift from rural to urban was already underway. By 1921, 50 per cent of Ontario’s population was classified as urban.

Although the WI broadened its appeal a long time ago in order to attract urban women, Joy Trimble says there is a more profound social dynamic influencing WI member-

P H O T O O F A L I C E H O L L I N G S W O R T H CO U R T E S Y H EL EN B L A C K B U R N | E R L A N D L EE CO U R T E S Y F W I O CO L L EC T I O N

Although the WI is noted for mighty and far-reaching accomplishments – a branch of the WI, for example, was instrumental in the founding of Brock University; and during both world wars, the massive efforts of the WI in Canada had international repercussions – over the years it is the work in local communities that makes this organization shine.

Occasionally, these local efforts have been very specialized, as in the case of the Marsville WI which, according to local media, actually raised an orphan child in the 1920s. At other times branches would band together on a here-at-home project like the County Children’s Shelter in Orangeville. During the 1930s and ’40s the shelter benefitted from quilts, furniture, cash, and food donations, not only from the Orangeville branch, but from branches in Honeywood, Waldemar, Bowling Green and others. Today, branches in Dufferin support Family Transition Place, Headwaters Hospital and Hospice Dufferin. Camilla members, for example, produce a quilt a year on average, which becomes a valued lottery prize for fundraising.

In Peel, when visitors flooded into the International Plowing Match at Caledon Village in 1963, branches from Mono Road, Alton, Inglewood, Sandhill and Belfountain joined with others in the county to serve over 7,000 hot meals. It was a peace-time effort not unlike the collective effort that had gone into such FWIO-led projects as Seeds for English Gardens in World War II. Between 1941 and 1945 this hugely successful program sent over two tons of tiny garden seeds to Great Britain, with branches in places like Creemore, Bolton, and Waldemar specifically commended for their contributions.

Other examples of community leadership include the efforts of the Mono Road WI to preserve the pioneer Caesar’s Cemetery in former Chinguacousy Township. And the Colbeck & Monticello Women’s Institute Community Hall became just that, a community hall, when the branch took on the challenge of saving a former church built in 1884. With their creative fundraising and hours of volunteer labour, including the addition of a basement, a corner of East Luther gained an ideal meeting place.

To the southeast, The Maples WI turned yet another former church into a community hall, this time with an unusual twist: the branch assumed ownership way back in 1919 and over the years turned it into a very modern accommodation.

Then, in 1976, it had to incorporate to retain title. Hence we have The Maples Women’s Institute Inc., making our hills the host of a genuine rarity in a worldwide volunteer organization.

tweedsmuir histories ship, namely that so many women are now employed outside the home, while still retaining the lion’s share of responsibility for homemaking and child-rearing – with the result that time for community service is often lost in the squeeze.

“May 1946. There were 13 members. Distributed cards for T.B.Clinic. Donated $10.00 to Cancer Fund. There was a donation of $50 to Miss Shaw for the incubator.”

time for a rethink ?

Ironically, the WI could offer one of the very cures for the frenetic busyness that has discouraged new membership. Among the most important characteristics of WI meetings are the comfort, relief from stress, and welcoming attitude that is central to everything they do.

“The meetings, the friendship, all the laughing, it just makes you feel good,” says one local member. “My kids were teenagers when I joined. I was working full time and to be honest I didn’t really think I would stick with it, but somehow, I don’t know, WI makes me feel better. Like there is something more to life.”

Joy Trimble realizes that one of the keys to renewal is raising awareness of just that kind of experience. “We have strategies we’re working on in FWIO,” she explains.

“There’s an open door for current 4-H members and young people in general, and we believe there’s a whole new target group out there now: women who were too busy with family and careers earlier in their lives but are now retiring.

They aren’t the type to just sit around and we think the stimulation and social networking in WI has a lot to offer them.

“What’s important is for the Institutes to get the word out so that potential members can discover just how personally fulfi lling their participation can be, and how much fun they can have in the process.” ≈ “May 7th, 1947. 16 members.

Adopted an European child for six months.”

Ken Weber dedicates this article to the memory of his mother, a longtime member of WI and former president of the branch in Neustadt (Grey County).

For an association of women devoted to their communities, an interest in local history comes naturally. As early as 1925 the FWIO had a standing committee devoted to historical research. It was in anticipation of the fiftieth anniversary, however, that one of the better-known projects of the WI, the Tweedsmuir Histories, was officially launched in 1945.

The recently widowed Lady Tweedsmuir was happy to approve the use of the former governor-general’s name, and this no doubt helped encourage the branches throughout Ontario to develop histories of their local area. Within ten years, the FWIO reported that 989 branches were compiling histories.

With the possible exception of the Perkins Bull histories of Peel and area, this undertaking by the WI was a Canadian one-of-a-kind. Until then, local history was simply not on the radar.

What resulted from the effort is, quite simply, a gold mine. The histories vary in production quality from simple scrapbooks to leatherbound volumes, but notwithstanding such differences, the “Tweedsmuirs” literally rescued vital information on the early settlers, family histories, farming practices, commerce and industry, municipal governance, and the church and school activities that shaped our communities.

Sometimes the histories include what appear to be idiosyncratic undertakings by individual members.

The Tweedsmuir of the former Coleridge Union Branch, for instance, contains not only the standard fare, but a detailed and exceptionally well-written (and hand-written) account of how roads were developed and maintained in early Amaranth Township.

The Tweedsmuirs have received awards from the Canadian Historical Association, the American Association for Local History, and the Scadding Award of Excellence from the Ontario Historical Society.

Many of the histories are now available to the public in local museums and archives. The Peel Heritage Complex is the official repository for all the Tweedsmuirs of the region. (A fine example in the collection is a four-volume compilation by the former Rosehill WI.) In Wellington, the collection is now available online. The archives in Dufferin hold some but not all of the Tweedsmuirs in that county and anticipate acquiring more.

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Inground pool with pool house/shower/greenhouse, spring-fed pond, Credit River Creek.

Hayfields, bush, rolling land. Extra large workshop/studio/granny suite + 2-car garage and drive shed. Slide show available. $1,495,000

“GARDINER FARMS”, CALEDON Almost 300 acres, 100 box stalls + run-in facilities, indoor exercise track and outdoor galloping track. 7 separate staff houses/apartments, farm office and reception area. $5,250,000

“WINDSONG MEWS”, TERRA COTTA Country masterpiece designed by Eb Zeidler & Macy Dubois. Main residence, gatehouse + log cabin. Pond + workshop.

Glorious waterfalls & gardens. $2,750,000

ULTIMATE TURNKEY COUNTRY GETAWAY One level log house. Charming, updated, open concept on 26 private acres. Stone garage, workshop, stables, natural pond, trail, inground pool. Quiet road, 15 minutes to GO train, 30 minutes to Airport. Just move in. $639,000

“CRAIG ELLACHIE FARM”, ERIN Magical 100-acre farm with sprawling residence and gatehouse. 6 ponds, stable, tennis court, 315 yard golf hole. Woodlands with trails. 1 hour to GTA. Includes 3+ acre building lot. $2,900,000

“HUMBERVIEW STABLES”, MONO TOWNSHIP 49 acres with 2 houses plus staff apartment.

20 stalls. Indoor arena. 15 mins to Palgrave.

Humber River runs through property. Miles of new board fencing. $1,495,000

HOWLING HILLS FARM ON 84 ACS Updated 1835 stone homestead. Private setting at end of long tree-lined lane. Trails through bush, spring-fed pond, peaceful privacy. Minutes to all amenities. Let the farmer do all the work. Aggressively priced. $599,000

BUILD YOUR OWN DREAM...

24 ACRE LOT Tucked away at far end of dead end road, beautiful building lot. Trees, bush, overlooks Grand River. Your choice of building sites.

Only 10 minutes to Orangeville.

Call for all details.

OVERLOOK THE POND, MONO Set atop a plateau overlooking large stocked pond. 3,000 sq ft energy efficient home.

1,200 sq ft heated and cooled workshop, salt water pool, paddocks and stables. Trails.

12.2 acres. $749,000

LUXURY BUNGALOW, MONO Exceptional 5,000 sq ft bungalow with every possible convenience on 25+ acres. Large fenced paddocks and stable. 1,000 sq ft garage and workshop. Miles of riding.

Distant views. $1,195,000

DISCOVER MONO HILLS Country living at its best. Open concept architect-designed. No detail overlooked.

Breathtaking land and views. Organic gardens, peaceful pond, often published.

Top location. 40 mins to Airport. Must see. $1,150,000

MONO, PEACEFUL, PRIVACY Delightful family property. Charming 4-bedroom home, move in condition.

Surrounding private views, stunning pond, separate double garage. Who needs a cottage! 1 hour to city. $955,000

HOCKLEY VALLEY VIEWS Dramatic views over the Hockley Valley.

Total privacy. Minutes to skiing.

2-storey living room. 5 bedrooms plus 2-bedroom apartment. Stone fireplace. $890,000

CALEDON VIEWS Impressive 5-bedroom Georgian home on rolling 27 acres. 3 finished levels. Walk-out lower level to pool and gardens. Tennis court, stream, meadow and hardwood forest. Commuter location. $2,050,000

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

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A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT Renovated from top to bottom, this lovely farmhouse provides the perfect place for daily life or a weekend retreat. Features a spacious new kitchen with centre island and open concept living room with wood burning fireplace. Upper level has guest suite with private bath and master bedroom with fireplace and a 4-piece ensuite. Property consists of 126 acres of rolling land, original bank barn with a great view of the river. $699,900

FINE, FERTILE, FARMLAND 180 acre farm just mins from Orangeville.

Currently producing potatoes and wheat. Land is high and rolling with pond and mixed bush.

Long laneway to classic century brick farmhouse in original condition. $1,100,000

IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES Imagine owning 50 acs of open & rolling land near Orangeville. L-shaped property fronting on Hwy 9 & 2nd Line Mono. In area of car dealerships & commercial/industrial. 2 sep homes, tenanted & land rented to farmer. $3,300,000

CLASSY, PEACEFUL AND QUIET 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... $695,000

71.4 ACRES OF LAND Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t delay in seeing this outstanding parcel of land located just south of Shelburne on newly paved road. Rolling land with mix of hardwood, evergreens and open meadows. $379,900

A LOT OF LIVABILITY! Lovely 2 storey brick home located on 1/2 acre lot. Heated tile flrs throughout the foyers, eat-in kit, breakfast nook & dining rm, maple hrdwd for the balance of the main & upper level. Mstr with walk-in closet & 4 pc ensuite. $489,900

SET AMID THE ROLLING HILLS OF MULMUR Lovingly maintained, this exceptional 4 bedroom home will not disappoint you. Set on 7.4 acres, including paddock and run-in shed for your 4 legged friends. Features large open concept kitchen/family room area with walkout to rear deck along with the classic elegance of a formal dining room. Convenient main floor laundry with access to double garage. $493,900

COME HOME TO COUNTRY, BUILD HERE Private 29 acre parcel in Mono, well treed with a high clearing near the rear. Great views to the south and west. Great location for commuting. $319,900

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 apartment, inground pool, detached double garage & sep 2 storey steel storage building. $649,900

THE POSSIBILITIES ARE GRAND Start planning your dream home. An exceptional 46.44 acre parcel of land in south Mulmur offering great views, open meadows, small bush and pond site. $349,900

TURN THE KEY TO PROFIT Great opportunity in Orangevilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s industrial sector. This 9,500 sq ft clear span steel building has 1,800 sq ft of office space with mezzanine storage above and 7,800 sq ft of open industrial area. This building is fully insulated. $979,000

SET THE STAGE FOR A GRAND ENTRANCE This stately unique home will exceed your expectations. A bright gourmet kitchen with centre island and travertine tile, beautiful great room with soaring 18ft ceiling, open to second floor. Main floor master bedroom, two walk-in closets with luxurious ensuite bath including soaker tub, separate shower, his/her vanities and heated floor. Basement finished to include rec room, games room plus large utility/storage area and access to garage. $769,900

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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

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INDICATES CHRISTMAS EVENTS

Moonlight Magic and Tree Lighting.

7:30-8:30pm. 519-942-9022; tanya@potterypartiesinthehills.com.

arts+crafts

NOV 20 – DEC 6 : HOLIDAY TREASURES Over 40 artists/artisans

NOW – NOV 30 : IMPRINT GROUP

The Art Of Printmaking. Tues-Fri noon6pm, Sat 9am-3pm. Free. Beaux-Arts Brampton, 70 Main St N. 966-330-7779; beauxart1@bellnet.ca.

offer seasonal handcrafted gifts.

Tues-Sun, $2. Opening Fri Nov 20, reserve. Dufferin County Museum and Archives, Hwy 89 & Airport Rd. 1-877941-7787; events@dufferinmuseum.com.

NOW – DEC 3 : ROSLYN LEVIN MONO NO AWARE Solo exhibit of Japanese

brushstroke work. 10am-5pm daily.

Curiosity House Books & Gallery, 134A Mill St, Creemore. 519-925-2401; roslyn@artbyroslyn.on.ca.

NOW – DEC 31 : ’TWAS THE ART BEFORE CHRISTMAS Local emerging

and award-winning artists. Wed-Sun 10am-5pm. Headwaters Arts Gallery, Alton Mill, 1402 Queen St W. 1-877-2620545; info@headwatersartsfestival.com.

NOW – JAN 3 : WYN GELENSE – DAY IN DAY OUT WITH MINOR TRAGEDIES

Artist creates site-specific installation, drawing on history of 19th century buildings that comprise Peel Heritage Complex. Museum hours/admission.

Peel Heritage Complex, 9 Wellington St E, Brampton. 905-791-4055; www.peelheritagecomplex.org.

NOW – FEB 21 : WINTER IN RED AND WHITE Museum artifacts in red and

white, everyday household articles, quilts, clothing, toys and tableware. Museum hours/admission. Wellington County Museum & Archives, 0536 Wellington 68

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

Cty Rd 18, between Fergus & Elora.

519-846-0916; info@wcm.on.ca.

NOW – FEB 28 : ALL DRESSED UP WITH SOMEWHERE TO GO Highlights of the

Region of Peel textile museum. Museum hours/admission. Peel Heritage Complex, 9 Wellington St E, Brampton. 905-7914055; maureen.couse@peelregion.ca.

NOV 14 & 15 : SIMPLY FRIENDS ARTISANS’ CHRISTMAS SHOW & SALE

Handmade crafts & seasonal gifts.

10am-5pm. Food bank donations appreciated. Monora Park Pavilion, 633220 Hwy 10, Orangeville.

519-927-3976; bclark.pei@primus.ca.

NOV 19 – DEC 31 : MADE BY HAND

Show and sale of handcrafted items by local artisans. Museum hours/admission.

Peel Heritage Complex, 9 Wellington St E, Brampton. 905-791-4055; www.peelheritagecomplex.org.

NOV 20 : MAKE A CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT Create memories/gifts

for the family at Orangeville’s

NOV 25 : CACY ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Caledon Arts and Crafts for

Youth AGM. 6:30-8pm. Robert F. Hall CSS, Caledon East. 905-584-1979; kathleen@cacy.ca.

NOV 26 : MAKE BABY GIFTS WITH POTTERY Noinkees’ open house.

Paint baby mugs, bowls, divider plates, piggy banks & more. 2-4pm & 6-8pm.

From $15. Noinkees, 168B Broadway, Orangeville. 519-942-9022; tanya@potterypartiesinthehills.com.

NOV 28 : MAKE FAMILY GIFTS FOR CHRISTMAS Make cereal bowls, mugs

or plates. Microwave & dishwasher safe.

10am-noon & 1-3pm. Alder Street Recreation Centre, Orangeville.

519-942-9022; tanya@potteryparties inthehills.com.

DEC 1 – JAN 9 : BEAUX-ARTS EXHIBITS Dec 1-31: Helen Duplaissie.

Dec 8-Jan 9: Christmas Show. Jan 5-30: Gwen Tooth. Feb 16-27: Youth Heritage art show & competition. Free. Beaux-Arts Brampton, 70 Main St N. 905-454-5677; beauxart1@bellnet.ca.

DEC 3 : LADIES’ NIGHT PAINTING CERAMICS Make holiday gifts, goblets,

dishes and more. 6-8pm. From $15.

White Truffle, Broadway, Orangeville.

519-942-9022; tanya@potteryparties inthehills.com.

DEC 5 : PMPS ANNUAL CRAFT FAIR

Annual fundraiser with crafters, baked goods, kids’ activities and gift basket auction. 9am-3pm. Princess Margaret Public School, 51 Wellington St, Orangeville. 519-941-3731.

DEC 5 – 18 : TWELVE MONTHS Peter

Adams’s exhibit features oil paintings of urban landscapes and portraits.

Opening Dec 5, 2-5pm. Mad and Noisy Gallery, Creemore. 705-466-5555; www.madandnoisy.com.

DEC 6 : MERLE HARSTONE STUDIO

Assemblage of protrusions, light refractions, shadows, collage and colour.

Noon-4pm. Silvercreek Studios, 16797 Kennedy Rd, Caledon. 519-927-5894; merle@silvercreekstudios.ca.

JAN 14 – FEB 21 : CLAUDIO GHIRARDO

“Neo-Humanism” figurative works explore the body’s expression in action.

Peel Heritage Complex, 9 Wellington St E, Brampton. 905-791-4055; www.peelheritagecomplex.org.

NOW – DEC 31 : GLITZ, KITSCH, FUNKY AND FUN Laugh, be dazzled

and amazed. Celebrates 15th anniversary.

Museum hours/admission. Dufferin County Museum and Archives, Hwy 89 & Airport Rd. 1-877-941-7787; events@dufferinmuseum.com.

NOV 15 : HOSPICE DUFFERIN CHRISTMAS SHOWCASE Crafts,

children’s shopping, silent auction.

Proceeds to hospice. 10am-3:30pm.

Free; vendors $50. Orangeville Agricultural Fairgrounds, 5 Siderd Mono, E off Hockley Rd. 519-942-3313; mriedler@hospicedufferin.com.

NOV 16 – 21 : GIGANTIC BOOK SALE

Come early for the best selection. Regular library hours. Bake sale Nov 21. Grand Valley Public Library, 4 Amaranth St E. 519-928-5622; shannleighton@primus.ca.

NOV 19 : WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS – CALEDON/BRAMPTON

community YEAR-ROUND (THURSDAYS) : ADJUSTMENTS AFTER BIRTH

Support group for mothers following birth or adoption. Childcare provided.

1:30-3:30pm. Free, register. Caledon Parent-Child Centre/Ontario Early Years, 150 Queen St S, Bolton. 905-857-0090; earlyyears@cp-cc.org.

NOW – NOV 21 : GRAND VALLEY PUBLIC LIBRARY SILENT AUCTION

Browse and bid during regular library hours. Grand Valley Public Library, 4 Amaranth St E, Grand Valley.

519-928-5622; www.grandvalley.org.

NOW – DEC 20 : DCMA QUILT SHOW

40 of DCMA’s extensive quilt collection, plus quilts from the Dufferin Piecemakers Quilting Guild. Museum hours/admission.

Dufferin County Museum and Archives.

Hwy 89 & Airport Rd. 1-877-941-7787; events@dufferinmuseum.com.

Honours women who excel in their field.

Proceeds to Wellspring Chinguacousy Cancer Support Centre and Bethell House Hospice, Caledon. 6:30pm. $85, reserve. The Pearson Convention Centre 2638 Steeles Ave, Brampton.

905-866-6616.

The Olympic Flame is coming to Bolton, December 18 Erin, December 28 Alton, December 28 Orangeville, December 28 (Tony Rose Memorial Sports Centre)

VANCOUVER2010.COM/TORCHRELAY

NOV 19 & 20 : THE COALITION CHRISTMAS BAZAAR Local artisans in an

old-fashioned country setting. Presented by the Caledon Coalition for Concerned Citizens. Thurs: with food/drink, 5-9pm, $45. Fri: 11am-5pm, free. The Historic Alton Mill, 1402 Queen St W. 905-8383042; info@coalitioncaledon.com.

NOV 20 : MOONLIGHT MAGIC

Christmas tree lighting 7pm. Tractor Parade of Lights on Broadway about 7:30pm. Visit Santa at Town Hall 8-10pm. Free gift wrapping 7-9pm.

Downtown Orangeville. 519-942-0087; info@discoverbroadway.ca.

NOV 21 : KINSMEN SANTA CLAUS PARADE Orangeville’s first evening

parade: “’Twas the Light before Christmas”. Dusk (approx 5pm). Paraders registration $35. Starts at First & Hansen.

519-941-8278; wesfellows@rogers.com.

NOV 21 : COME TO THE STABLE

Community display of nativity scenes.

Bethlehem bazaar, bake sale and auction.

Bells of Westminster performance.

9am-4pm. Westminster United Church, 247 Broadway, Orangeville. 519-941-0381; westminster@westminsterorangeville.ca.

NOV 21 : CHRISTMAS CRAFT SALE

Breakfast, penny draw, bake table and crafters. 9am-3pm. 15738 Airport Rd, across from Foodland. 905-584-5757; fimueller@sympatico.ca. continued on next page IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

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continued from page 69 NOV 25 : BUSINESS AND THE LAW

Orangeville and Area Small Business Enterprise Centre and Carters Professional Corporation deliver legal aspects of business. 6:30-8:30pm.

Free, register. Alder Street Recreation Centre, Orangeville. 519-941-0440 x286; sbec@orangeville.ca.

COUNTRY

Thursday Evening November 26th, 7pm Chateau Windrush

NOV 27 – DEC 31 : OPERATION RED NOSE – CALEDON Volunteer-run

3030 Concession 3 Adjala in Hockley Valley

designated-driver service for motorists who have been drinking, or who do not feel fit to drive their own vehicle.

Presented by Rotary Clubs, proceeds to local youth programs. 9pm-2am.

Free, donations. 905-880-0804; www.rotaryclubofpalgrave.com.

Hot cider, mulled wine and festive tastings alongside a warm fire and the company of friends Enjoy the voice of soprano Rosalind Fu and join in caroling For holiday giving, choose from 3000 ‘Children for Peace’ original greeting cards created by local children

NOV 28 : HEADWATERS AUXILIARY CANDY CANE FAIR Photos with Santa,

Your $75 per person donation helps DAREarts empower at-risk children

bake & craft sale, kids’ dollar store, entertainers. 9:30-3:30pm; Santa 9:30am-noon & 1-3pm. Free parking.

Headwaters Health Care Centre, 100 Rolling Hills Dr, Orangeville. 519941-2410; www.headwatershealth.ca.

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NOV 28 : HILLSBURGH CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING Sponsored by

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Hillsburgh Lions Club. Free refreshments, public skating at Hillsburgh Community Centre. Tree lighting 6pm; visits with Santa 6:15pm. 519-855-4403; www.erin.ca.

NOV 28 : ERIN SANTA CLAUS PARADE Floats and bands, theme “The

North Star,” Main Street. Santa visits the children at Erin Fire Hall after the parade.

Sponsored by the Erin Lions Club.

1:30-4pm. 519-855-4407; www.erin.ca.

NOV 28 : HOLIDAY HOME TOUR

Self-guided tour of Shelburne area homes: estate lot, restored 1901 Georgian revival, and 2-storey Christmas Wonderland. 10am-4pm, lunch 11am-2pm (Trinity United Church). $25, incl lunch. Tickets at Shelburne Library. 519-925-6567.

NOV 28 – DEC 12 : SANTA PHOTOS WITH FAMILIES & PETS Sit with Santa.

Great for Christmas cards or gifts.

Proceeds to SPCA Orangeville & Adoption Centre. $30 (5 photos).

Book at Global Pet Foods. MacMaster Pontiac Buick, Hwy 9. 519-925-3471; lirvine@ospca.on.ca.

DEC 1 – 12 : TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS – WREATH AUCTION

Festive fundraiser for the Yellow Briar Chapter of IODE’s Read for Life program. Orangeville Library and other locations in town. 519-941-2883; caitlin@spiralmoondancer.com.

The Globe Restaurant Fine dining in 19th century surroundings

*****

Lunches • Teas • Dinners Sandra Cranston-Corradini www.sandrasellshomes.ca scranstoncorradini@trebnet.com 705-440-7098 416-635-1232 Sales Representative

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(Closed Tuesdays)

*****

Reservations (705) 435-6981 In Rosemont, Hwy. 89, east of Airport Rd. www.thegloberestaurant.ca

DEC 5 : SANTA IS COMING TO BOLTON Parade theme “Songs of

Christmas.” Route runs on Queen St (Hwy 50) from Queensgate to Centennial Drive. 11am to about 12:30pm. Presented

by Bolton Kinsmen. 416-986-8507. www.boltonkin.com.

DEC 5 : PALGRAVE ROTARY CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING Carol

singing, wagon rides and hot drinks from the Rotary Chuck Wagon. 5:30-7pm.

H A P P E N I N G S

Stations Park, Hwy 50, Palgrave. 905-8804200; paulbonnici_rotary@rogers.com.

DEC 12 – 31 : CHRISTMAS IN THE PARK Lights, nativity and displays by

local businesses. Presented by Optimists Club of Orangeville. Opening Dec 12, 7pm. Refreshments at weekends. 7-10pm.

Free, donations appreciated. KayCee Gardens, 26 Bythia St, Orangeville. 519942-3233; www.orangevilleoptimists.ca/ xmasinthepark.htm.

DEC 13 : CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL

Traditional refreshments, family crafts, activities, entertainment and Santa. A nod to the history and delight of the Christmas Cookie. Noon-4pm. $2.

Wellington County Museum & Archives, 0536 Wellington Cty Rd 18, btw Fergus & Elora. 519-846-0916; info@wcm.on.ca.

Replace: DEC 18 : OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY IN BOLTON Time and details of relay route t.b.a. Free public skate, hot chocolate and more at Albion Bolton Community Centre, 4:30-7pm.

905-584-2272; www.caledon.ca.

DEC 21 – JAN 3 : HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE Self-guided tour of art gallery and

museum at the Peel Heritage Complex.

Hands-on activities for kids. Free. Peel Heritage Complex, 9 Wellington St E, Brampton. 905-791-4055; hcprograms@ peelregion.ca.

DEC 28 : ORANGEVILLE CELEBRATES THE OLYMPIC FLAME The town hosts a

two-hour extravanganza to celebrate the arrival of the Olympic Flame with bands, choirs, dancing, skating, skydivers, snowmobile “ballet” and more. Time of celebrations & details of relay route t.b.a.

Tony Rose Memorial Sports Complex.

519-940-0440; www.orangeville.ca.

DEC 28 : OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY IN ALTON & ERIN Time and details of relay

route t.b.a. 905-584-2272; www.town. caledon.on.ca. 519-855-4407; www.erin.ca.

DEC 31 : NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY/ RODEO/FIREWORKS Rodeo mid-

afternoon, dinner and dance follow.

Fireworks at midnight. 8pm-1am. $85 from OAS & BookLore. Orangeville Agricultural Building, 247090 5 Siderd Mono, off Hockley Rd. 519-942-9597; fair@orangevillefairgrounds.ca.

NOV 20 : BRUCE TRAIL HIKE Moderate

to strenuous 20.5km (5.75 hr) hike, hilly terrain. No dogs, refreshments after.

9:30am. Bruce Trail parking area, 5 Siderd Mono, E of Airport Rd. 905642-2408; www.caledonbrucetrail.org.

NOV 24 : EDIBLE & MEDICINAL PLANTS Alexis Burnett talks about

JAN 1 : POLAR BEAR DIP Take a dip in

the Grand River. Your pledges raise money for community projects.

Sponsored by Grand Valley Lions Club.

1pm. Pledge sheets and info at www. gvpolardip.com.

JAN 10 : WINTERFEST Caledon mayor

and council invite families for free activities and games, including swimming and skating. 1-4pm. Mayfield Arena, 12087 Bramalea Rd, Caledon.

905-584-2272; www.caledon.ca.

JAN 17 : MONO TREE-CHIPPING WINTERFEST Bring your tree, take home

chippings, or town uses them for trails.

Kids’ activities, snowshoeing, skating, cross-country skiing. Refreshments.

Free, donations to food bank appreciated.

Mono Community Centre, 754483 Mono Centre Rd. 519-951-3599; judyk@townofmono.com.

identifying, harvesting and preparing wild plants. 7:30pm. Presented by Upper Credit Field Naturalists. Free, donations appreciated. Orangeville & District Senior Centre, 26 Bythia St. 519-925-3968; javison@rogers.com.

DEC 5 – 20 (WEEKENDS) : BRUCE TRAIL CHRISTMAS TREES Scotch Pine,

cut-your-own. Proceeds to Caledon Hills Bruce Trail Club for conservation work.

9am-5pm. $30. Hockleycrest Farm, 933445 Airport Rd, Mono. 416-245-8662; www.caledonbrucetrail.org.

DEC 11 : CHRISTMAS POTLUCK DINNER Hillsburgh Garden Club dinner.

Bring your favourite dish and a toonie for the food bank. 6:30pm. Non-members $2. St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 81 Main St, Hillsburgh. 519-855-6101.

FEB 13 : VALENTINE CONCERT & CHOCOLATE AUCTION Bring your

sweetheart to an evening of music, laughs and chocolate. 7:30pm. $10, from church office or Kids Can Do. Westminster United Church, 247 Broadway, Orangeville. 519-941-0381; westminster@westminsterorangeville.ca.

FEB 21 & 22 : HERITAGE DAY & FAMILY DAY Open House. Explore the museum

and art gallery. Hands-on exhibitions.

Sun noon-4:30pm, Mon 10am-4:30pm.

Free. Peel Heritage Complex, 9 Wellington St E, Brampton. 905791-4055; hcresearch@peelregion.ca.

MAR – MAY : DPSN PARENTING WORKSHOPS Aimed at supporting

parents of school-aged children, include discipline, communication, healthy anger, stress management and more. 7-9pm.

Schedule on website. Free, register.

Orangeville. Dufferin Parent Support Network, 519-940-8678; www.dpsn.ca.

outdoors+ environment NOV 17 : PREDATOR AND PREY Find out

who snacks on whom! Presentation by Dave Taylor, author and wildlife photographer. 7-8:30pm. Regular park admission. Terra Cotta Conservation Area, 14452 Winston Churchill Blvd. 905-6701615; education@creditvalleyca.ca.

NOV 18 : BOLTON & DISTRICT HORTICULTURE SOCIETY AGM & Paul

Zammit speaks on New and Amazing Plants. 7-9pm. $3. Albion Bolton Community Centre, 50 Queen St, Bolton.

905-857-0321; www.boltonhort.info.

JAN 1 – MAR 1 : CROSS-COUNTRY SKI

Non-competitive, gradually paced cross-country lessons for all levels.

Includes equipment & instruction.

Ages 10 & up. 9:30am-3pm. $20-$40, trail fee extra. Albion Hills Conservation Area, 16500 Peel Rd 50. 519-842-4652; skiforlife@execulink.com.

JAN 12 : ORANGEVILLE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY Peonies

presented by Carolyn Milne. 7:30-9:30pm.

Orangeville Seniors Centre, 26 Bythia. j-cutter@sympatico.ca.

Fine Dining Casual Atmosphere Live local jazz Saturday nights We are now taking early bookings for Christmas 307388 Hockley Rd • Orangeville 519 938 2333

JAN 13, FEB 10, MAR 10 : HILLSBURGH GARDEN CLUB Jan: AGM, craft workshop

on terrariums by Stephanie Burke.

Feb: Kyla Dixon-Muir on extending the growing season with coldframes.

Mar: Donna Zarundy presents Pruning 101 and designing your garden room.

7:30pm. Non-members $2. St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 81 Main St (Trafalgar Rd), Hillsburgh. 519-855-6101.

JAN 26 : REINTRODUCTION OF SALMON IN THE HEADWATERS Talk by

Mark Heaton. 7:30-9:15pm. Presented by Upper Credit Field Naturalists. Free, donation appreciated. Orangeville & District Senior Centre, 26 Bythia St. 519-925-3968; javison@rogers.com. continued on next page IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

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continued from page 71 MAR 24 : FROGS AND SALAMANDERS

Talk by Don Scallen on local frog and salamander species. 7:30-9:15pm.

Presented by Upper Credit Field Naturalists. Free, donation appreciated.

Orangeville & District Senior Centre, 26 Bythia St. 519-925-3968; javison@ rogers.com.

kids+youth NOW – JUN (FRIDAYS) : STORY TIME

Stories and crafts for ages 2-5.

10:30-11:30am. Shelburne Public Library, 201 Owen Sound St. 519-925-2168.

NOV 28 : MUSIC TOGETHER OF CALEDON Free sample class. Songs,

movement and rhythm instruments.

Infants to age 4. 11:15am. Albion Bolton Community Centre, 150 Queen St S. 416-831-1623; janetclare@sympatico.ca.

DEC 5 : BREAKFAST WITH SANTA

Pancakes, ham and a visit with Santa.

8:30-11am. $5; $20 family, at church office or Kids Can Do. Westminster United Church, 247 Broadway, Orangeville.

519-941-0381; westminster@ westminsterorangeville.ca.

H A P P E N I N G S

Anglican Church, 6029 Old Church Rd, Caledon East. 905-880-2445; caledonchamberconcerts@sympatico.ca.

NOV 27 : DOUBLE TAKE A retrospective of past favourites and new music by Shelburne Stage Band. 8pm. $12; seniors $10. Grace Tipling Hall, Shelburne. info@shelburnestageband.ca.

NOV 28, 29, DEC 6 : CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD Achill Choral

Society and director A. Dale Wood present choral traditions of different countries. 8pm. $20; children 13 & under, $10, at BookLore, Jelly Craft Bakery & elsewhere. Nov 28: Westminster United Church, 247 Broadway, Orangeville.

Nov 29: St James RC Church, 2118 AdjalaTecumseth Townline, Colgan. Dec 6: Holy Family RC Church, 60 Allan Dr, Bolton. 905-729-4527; www.achill.ca.

DEC 3 – DEC 19 : ORANGEVILLE COMMUNITY BAND CHRISTMAS CONCERTS Dec 3: Centre Dufferin

District High School, Shelburne, 7pm.

Dec 10: Avalon Retirement Centre, 355 Broadway, Orangeville, 7pm. Dec 12: Orangeville Mall, 11am-1pm. Dec 13: New Hope Community Church, 690 Riddell Rd, Orangeville, 7:30pm. Dec 19: Lord Dufferin Centre, 32 First St, Orangeville, 7pm. Free, donation appreciated.

519-938-9355 x256.

DEC 6 : CHRISTMAS CONCERT

A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR!

At Erskine’s, our team of highly trained technicians and service advisors use the most up-to-date diagnostic tools, for all makes and models. We welcome your questions!

Authorized new vehicle maintenance • Shuttle service

Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm 15 Robb Blvd., Orangeville

519-941-3440

YOUR BEST STOP TO KEEP GOING!

An independent, family business trusted by our customers in the Orangeville area since 1962

OIL CHANGES • TUNE-UPS DIAGNOSTIC SERVICE TIRE SALES & SERVICE WHEEL ALIGNMENTS EXHAUST SYSTEMS • COOLING & HEATING • SHOCKS & STRUTS BRAKE SERVICE • ENGINES TRANSMISSIONS SAFETY INSPECTIONS • DRIVE CLEAN REPAIR • AND MORE!

WANTED • Spas • Pool Sales • Chemicals • Accessories • Service

308 Broadway, Orangeville

519•942•2722

72

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

Seasonal music performed by the Quartet Plus One in Historical Corbetton Church.

Reception, yuletide goodies follow. 2pm.

Advance $8; door $10. Historic Corbetton Church, Dufferin County Museum and Archives, Airport Rd & Hwy 89. 1-877941-7787; events@dufferinmuseum.com.

7 HOMES THAT NEED ROOFING

7 Homes in your area will be given the opportunity of having an INTERLOCK metal roofing system installed on their home at a very reasonable cost. This lifetime product is capturing the interest of homeowners across the country who want to know this will be the last time they will have to re-roof their home. Environmentally friendly, lifetime transferable warranty, excellent choice of colours and styles. Your home can be a show place in your neighbourhood and we will make it worth your while if we can use your home. Greg Wright: www.yournextroof.ca

1-866-733-5810

DEC 13 : RELESSEY CHRISTMAS OLDE FASHIONED CAROL SERVICE

music NOW – MAR (THURSDAYS) : ORANGEVILLE COMMUNITY BAND

Bring your favourite instrument for an evening of band music. New members welcome. Orangeville Community Band meets each Thursday. 7-9pm. Orangeville District Secondary School, 58 Faulkner St. 519-938-9355 x256.

NOV 18 – DEC 21 : LIVE MUSIC AT ROSE THEATRE Nov 18: Fathead popular roots

music. 8pm. $30-$50. Nov 19: The Fab Four. 8pm. $45-$65. Nov 22: Barrage musical show. 8pm. $45-$65. Dec 2: John McDermott. 8pm, $45-$65. Dec 6: Handel’s Messiah, Brampton Festival Singers, 7:30pm, $15-$30. Dec 7: Dianne Reeves, Christmas Is Here, 8pm, $50-$70.

Dec 21: The Canadian Tenors, 8pm. $55-$75. Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre Lane. 905-874-2800; www.rosetheatre.ca.

NOV 22 : HANDEL’S MESSIAH

Authentic Baroque performance with period instruments. Caledon Chamber Concerts. 3pm. $30; 16 & under, $15.

Howard the Butcher, BookLore, Forster’s Book Garden and online. St James’

Enjoy carols and fellowship. Hot cider and goodies follow. 2:30pm. Relessey Church, Mono Centre Rd. 519-941-1100.

DEC 19 : A CELEBRATION OF CHRISTMAS MUSIC Singer/songwriter

Karolina Ingleton with traditional, contemporary and original holiday songs.

2pm & 7pm. $23. Century Church Theatre, Hillsburgh. 519-855-4586; jophenix@sympatico.ca.

FEB 5 : JOE SEALY AND THE JAZZBIRDS

Traditional jazz by award-winning pianist and composer, and three female vocalists. Presented by Orangeville Concert Association. 8pm. $30; students $15. Town Hall Opera House, 87 Broadway, Orangeville. 519-942-3423; www.orangevilleconcerts.ca.

FEB 6 : FEBRUARY BLUES AND JAZZ BASH Orangeville Blues & Jazz Festival

fundraiser presents big band jazz ensemble and blues. 7pm. $30 at door; $25 advance from BookLore, Broadway Musical. Best Western Hotel, Orangeville. 519-941-9041; gordmcwilliams@sympatico.ca; www.orangevilleblues andjazz.ca.

FEB 7 : CATHEDRAL COMPOSITIONS

Georgetown Bach Chorale in a concert of choral music accompanied by cello, harpsichord and organ. 3pm. $30;

students 16 & under $15, from Howard the Butcher, BookLore, Forster’s Book Garden. St James’ Anglican Church, 6029 Old Church Rd, Caledon East. 905880-2445; caledonchamberconcerts @sympatico.ca.

Orangeville. 519-942-3423; www.orangevilleconcerts.ca.

theatre+film

MAR 6 : CATHERINE WILSON, PIANO

NOV 21 : DEFENDING THE CAVEMAN

Classical music piano recital. 8pm. $30; children 16 & under, $15. BookLore, Howard the Butcher, Forster’s Book Garden. St James’ Anglican Church, Old Church Rd, Caledon East. 905-880-2445; www.caledonchamberconcerts.com.

Hilariously insightful comedy. 8pm. $35-$55. Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre Lane. 905-874-2800; rosetheatre@brampton.ca.

MAR 26 : ELMER ISELER SINGERS

Twenty-voice chamber choir conducted

by Lydia Adams. Presented by Orangeville Concert Assoc. 8pm. $30; students $15.

Town Hall Opera House, 87 Broadway,

NOV 25 – 29, DEC 4 – 6, 10 – 12 : DEAR SANTA Comedy by Norm Foster.

8:15pm; matinee 2:15pm, Nov 29 & Dec 6. $17; preview, senior $13. Black Horse Theatre, 17272 Mount Wolfe Rd, Caledon.

905-880-5002; www.blackhorse.ca.

NOV 26 – DEC 20 : A CHRISTMAS STORY A nine-year-old dreams of owning

a Red Rider BB gun. Wed & Sun 2pm, Thurs & Fri 8pm, Sat 3pm & 8pm.

Fri/Sat $35.60; Thurs $32.45; preview, matinees $29.30. Town Hall Opera House, 87 Broadway, Orangeville. 519942-3423; www.theatreorangeville.com.

NOV 27 & 28 : GIRLS’ NIGHT: THE MUSICAL Hilarious and bursting with

energy. 8pm, matinee Sat 2pm. $50-$70.

Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre Lane.

905-874-2800; rosetheatre@brampton.ca. continued on next page

P U Z Z L I N G

S O L U T I O N S

Mining the Hamlets It’s a tie, at 34 words each from Kilgorie and Peepabun. But there may be some we didn’t find. If you find any more, please send them to us at info@inthehills.ca.

Kilgorie – ego, el, elk, erg, ergo, gel, girl, go, gore, ilk, ire, irk, keg, kilo, leg, lei, lie, liger, like, lo, log, loge, logier, lore, ogle, ogre, oil, or, ore, re, rig, rile, roil, role Peepabun – a, an, ape, ban, bane, be, bean, been, bee, beep, bun, nab, nap, nape, neap, neb, nub, pa, pan, pane, pap, pea, pean, pee, peen, peep, pen, pep, pub, pun, pup, pupa, pupae, up The Phony Insurance Claim No tractor-trailer combination has 24 tires. There are four tires per axle except for the front one which has two, thereby making tire totals of 10, 14, 18, 22, 26 and so on.

(Count for yourself on the highway!)

Finding Zeb in Shelburne If the middle triplet is Zeb, he will say so truthfully, so the middle one is not Zeb. Since the one on the right says the middle triplet is Zeb (he’s not) then the one on the right is a liar like the middle triplet. Thus Zeb is the one on the left. (The middle triplet is Reb, as the truthful Zeb says, and the one on the right therefore is Jeb.) Another Puzzle from the Rafters

+ +

+

+

=

from page 78

A Dots and Lines Challenge

Transfer to DVD

Flying Low Over King Road

289 + 7 64 1 05 3 Correction There was an error in the solution to the puzzle titled “Between Hillsburgh and Erin” in the fall issue. As the questions states, the drainage pipe can empty the reservoir in 3 hours, that is, 1/3 of the reservoir (not 1/12, as the solution showed) in 1 hour.

Therefore, the correct equation to show the hourly rate at which water flows into and out of the reservoir is 1/6 + 1/4 - 1/3 = 1/12, i.e., it will take 12 hours to fill the reservoir. It will be full by 1 a.m. the next day. Thanks to Dave Pounds and others for their sharp eyes on this one!

8mm, Super-8, 16mm Film, Video tape, Slides Audio tape, Restore LP & 78 RPM ★ Custom DVD-movies ★ www.ADD-duplications.com

519-928-2604

CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS • BUSINESS ADVISORS • TAX CONSULTANTS

369 King Street West Bolton, Ontario L7E 5T3

Tel. 905.951.3280 Fax. 905.951.0773

email. jason.monteith@wsmca.com

www.wsmca.com IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

73

A

C A L E N D A R

O F

W I N T E R

Bed&Breakfast

FEB 8 : DEPARTURES – MONDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES (Japan – 14A)

A man thinks he is applying for a job in a travel agency, but ‘the departed’ in the job ad meant the deceased. 4:30pm, 7pm and 9:20pm. $8 from BookLore.

Galaxy Cinema, Orangeville. 519-941-5146; www.mondaynightmovies.ca.

D•I•R•E•C•T•O•R•Y

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 $99; Doubles $110-175. Don and Lynne Laverty 519-941-2826 www.untothehills.ca d.laverty@sympatico.ca

FEB 11 – 27 : THE CEMETERY CLUB

continued from page 73 NOV 27 – DEC 6 : RED RIDING HOOD

Traditional English pantomime. Romance, music, dancing, zany comedy, audience participation. Fri & Sat 7pm, Sat & Sun, 2pm. $10 from Erin & Hillsburgh libraries; $12 by phone. Century Church Theatre, Trafalgar Rd, Hillsburgh. 519-855-4586; jophenix@sympatico.ca.

NOV 28 : VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS

ANGEL HOUSE Situated on a mature treed half acre lot, just off Creemore’s main street, this c1890 home offers an eclectic range of accommodations with antique and contemporary furnishings. Extremely comfortable Eurotop beds, spa robes, slippers and amenities are provided. Wireless internet café, cable TV/DVD/VCR available. Relax in the garden, curl up with a good book in the guest parlour, or stroll to the quaint village shops, art gallery, brewery and restaurants of Creemore. We offer the charm of yesterday with the comforts of today.

Single from $70; Doubles from $80-150, private and shared baths.

Kate and Darryl Ceccarelli, Pat Steer 705-466-6505 or 1-877-842-4438 www.angelhouse.ca angelhouse@rogers.com

A gala fundraiser for Theatre Orangeville.

5:30pm. $125. Best Western, Orangeville.

519-942-3423; www.theatreorangeville.ca.

DEC 4 – 6 : THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD Family show about the

comic adventures of Robin Hood. Fri 7pm, Sat & Sun 2pm. $15 from Town of Shelburne, IDA Drugs, Holmes Music.

Grace Tipling Hall, 103 Main St, Shelburne. 519-925-2600 x252; jodijones@rogers.com.

DEC 9 – 11 : THE GROUP OF SEVEN NUTCRACKER Canadian winter story

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

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 john@streambb.com

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

74

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

H A P P E N I N G S

by Ballet Jörgen, landscapes by artists Franklin Carmichael, Tom Thomson & L.L. FitzGerald. 7pm. $30-$50. Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre Lane. 905874-2800; rosetheatre@brampton.ca.

DEC 16 – 20 : SCROOGE! Musical adaptation features all the familiar characters. 7pm, matinee 2pm Sat & Sun. $30-$50. Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre Lane. 905-874-2800; rosetheatre@brampton.ca.

DEC 22 : THE AMAZING KRESKIN

Feats of mind-boggling mind power and concentration. 8pm. $30-$50. Rose Theatre Brampton, 1 Theatre Lane. 905874-2800; rosetheatre@brampton.ca.

JAN 11, FEB 22, MAR 8 : MONDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES Upcoming movie titles

t.b.c. Check the website. 3 screenings: 4:30, 7 & 9:20pm. $8 from BookLore.

Galaxy Cinema, Orangeville. 519-9415146; www.mondaynightmovies.ca.

Three mature Jewish widows visit the cemetery monthly. Touching comedy by I. Minchell. 8:15pm. Feb 11: 7:30pm. $15.

Feb 13: dinner/show Knox United Church, 6:30pm, $28; Feb 27: matinee 2:15pm, $12. Caledon Townhall Players, 18365 Hurontario St, Caledon Village.

519-927-5460 (leave a message); www.caledontownhallplayers.com.

FEB 13 : MURDER MYSTERY DINNER

Cocktails (cash bar) and dinner interlaced with murder aboard a luxury cruise ship.

Entertainment by The Brampton Music Theatre. 6-10pm. Black tie. $40; couple $75, available from Jan 5, 2010. St James Anglican Church, 6025 Old Church Rd, Caledon East. 905-584-9635; office@ stjamescaledoneast.ca.

FEB 18 – MAR 7 : FREEDOM 85

Sybil and Kate plot the ultimate nursing home escape. Wed & Sun 2pm, Thur & Fri 8pm, Sat 3 & 8pm. Fri/Sat $35.60; Thurs $32.45; preview, Wed & matinees $29.30. Town Hall Opera House, 87 Broadway, Orangeville. 519-942-3423; www.theatreorangeville.ca.

MAR 18 – 27 : MY GIDDY AUNT – COMEDY A riotous romp about Lady

Eppingham, her sister and nephews.

Directed by Nick Holmes. Comedy by Ray Cooney & John Chapman. Thurs-Sat 8pm, $18; Sat Mar 27, 2:30pm, $15.

Century Church Theatre, Trafalgar Rd, Hillsburgh. 519-855-4586; www.centurychurchtheatre.com.

List your community, arts or entertainment event free of charge.

Spring deadline: February 4, 2010.

Please submit your event using the on-line form at www.whatson.ca.

Event information is supplied by Alison Hird, admin@whatson.ca, 519-940-4877 (evg). Visit What’s On Ontario to see up-to-the-minute details of these and other local events.

JAN 25 : LES DOIGTS CROCHES (STICKY FINGERS) – MONDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES (Canada/Argentina –

14A) Smalltime crooks attempt to carry out the crime of the century. 4:30pm, 7pm and 9:20pm. $8 from BookLore.

Galaxy Cinema, Orangeville. 519-9415146; www.mondaynightmovies.ca.

FEB 3, 5 – 7, 12 – 14, 18 – 20 : AFTER-PLAY Dramatic comedy set in a

Manhattan restaurant by Anne Meara, directed by Margaret Phillips. 8:15pm; matinee 2:15pm, Feb 7, 14. $17; senior, preview $13. Black Horse Theatre, 17272 Mount Wolfe Rd, Caledon. 905-880-5002; www.blackhorse.ca

www.whatson.ca – your local resource for events!

MARKETPLACE ALPACAS

C AT E R I N G

CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

ALPACA CENTRAL & BLOOD MOON ALPACAS

B. A. WOOD MASONRY

QUALITY ALPACA PRODUCTS AND SERVICES Visit our new store to complete your Christmas shopping list and be tempted by the luxurious Alpaca products

Specializing in Stone & Restoration Work Brick • Block

www.alpacacentral.ca 519-928-2890

Brian Wood

ART & CRAFT

Alpaca Socks = Warm Feet!

Heed Farm Alpacas has alpaca socks!

Kai-Liis McInnes Kai-Liis Art Studio & Heed Farm Alpacas 836100 4th Line Mulmur 519-925-0421 kai-liis@sympatico.ca

(cont’d)

519-941-5396

CLEANING SERVICES

GreenLeaf

Housecleaning Services Using toxic-free products for your family’s health www.greenleafclean.com 416-573-3436

CALEDON STRUCTURAL CONSULTING Professional Engineering Service New Building Design • Structural Alteration Building Expansion Residential-Commercial-Industrial Architectural Services Available Barry Kozluk, P.Eng. • Consulting Engineer Caledon East cell: 416 561 6432

COOKING ADVICE For handy entertaining tips, terrific recipes and the latest trends and products from the culinary world, delivered directly to your inbox, sign up at

Unique Coach Homes in Caledon East • quiet cul-de-sac • escarpment views • Energy Star homes 519-938-8417 Show Home located at 19 Valewood Dr., Caledon East Sat/Sun & holidays, noon - 4:30

www.kitchentotable.com

• Artwork in various media • Specializing in animals and rural scenes

CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

ALL-MONT LTD.

“The Original Ones” Linda McLaren, Orangeville 519-925-6040

M E R L E H A RSTO N E ST U D I O Silvercreek Studios 16797 Kennedy Road, Caledon

519 927 5894 www.silvercreekstudios.ca

Garage Doors & Electric Operators Residential • Commercial Industrial Sales • Installation • Service Visit our showroom 48 Centennial Rd, #20 Orangeville

519-942-1956

Gallery open first Sunday monthly noon to 4pm - or by appointment

Forrest Custom Carpentry Established 1986

Authentic Antiquewoods Ltd

BIRD FEEDING

• Genuine wide plank antique flooring

5

• Installations

• Floor refinishing

Caledon Mountain Wildlife Supplies

Design, Build, Install Wall Units, Bars, Home Offices Call Gary for a Free Estimate 519-323-1121/1-877-454-9522 www.forrestcustomcarpentry.com

• Old floor restorations

• Wild Birdseed / Feeders / Nesting Boxes • Pet Food & Supplies / Wildlife Feeds • Crafts / Books / Nature Accessories “We’re here to help you help nature.”

S P R AY F O A M I N S U L AT I O N

www.authenticantiquewoods.com

905-869-5358

18371 Hurontario Caledon Village Tel 519-927-3212 Fax 519-927-9186 Brian Thayer

MARKETPLACE: CLASSIFIEDS DON’T GET ANY CLASSIER For Spring Issue Call by February 5, 2010

Original Barn Boards & Hand Hewn Beams woodlands_house@sympatico.ca 519-942-0753

TO PLACE AN AD, CALL 519-942-8401 OR EMAIL INFO@INTHEHILLS.CA IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

75

MARKETPLACE CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

(cont’d)

CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

(cont’d)

FURNITURE

ZOLTAN POTOVSZKY

MASONRY

BRICK • BLOCK • CONCRETE • FIREPLACES • STONE Serving Dufferin County & Creemore Area

(705) 434-3285

Insured and Licensed

E C O - F R I E N D LY P R O D U C T S Eco-Friendly Products & Gift Ideas!

NEILSON CABINET WORKS 9603 17th Sideroad - 3, Erin, On N0B 1T0 519-833-9694

834263 4th Line EHS 2.5km N of Hockley Rd

519-943-1490 Open by Appointment

neilsoncabinetworks@sympatico.ca NeilsonCabinetWorks.com

R&M Stucco Superior quality & service Interior/exterior plaster/stucco finishing

100% Bamboo Bedding Canadian-made Down Duvets & Feather Beds Lavender Products & Beeswax Candles Premade & Custom Gift Baskets/Eco Gift Wrap Christmas Ornaments & Décor & More!

See Our Website for Upcoming Events & Workshops

www.VisionsInTheWoods.com

EQUESTRIAN SERVICES 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

Marco or Rose Mary Andreozzi

705-434-0248 Saxon~Manor Flooring & Home

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

CPR TRAINING For Healthcare Providers, Business, Personal Daniel Fracassi, BCLS Instructor “May the Beat be with you” 519.942.9944 daniel.fracassi@sympatico.ca

FOOD

Quality installations of Wood Floors & Trim Wide-plank & Reclaimed Wood Floor Refinishing Floor & Wall Tile

705.434.8181

The Gingerbread Lady The quintessential gingerbread cookie Yummy taste, whimsically decorated www.thegingerbreadlady.info

School of Miracles

To place your own special order call 519-927-0574 or email thegingerbreadlady@rogers.com NOT JUST ANOTHER PRETTY COOKIE!

- meditation - reiki healing - psychic development - readings Heather Scavetta, R.N. Reiki Master, teacher info@schoolofmiracles.ca 519.927.3387 www.schoolofmiracles.ca

Tony Calabrese Stone Mason

workshops & classes

JEWELLERY

Flagstone Patios & Walkways Drystone Retaining Walls • Stone Facing Fireplaces • Repairs & Restoration

905 456-9964 Brampton

DAVE’S BUTCHER SHOP Beef, pork, veal, lamb, chicken, fish - Sauces, rubs, marinades Alder Street Mews, 75 Alder St, Unit 4, Orangeville www.davesbutchershop.ca 519-415-MEAT (6328)

MARKETPLACE: CLASSIFIEDS DON’T GET ANY CLASSIER For Spring Issue Call by February 5, 2010

TO PLACE AN AD, CALL 519-942-8401 OR EMAIL INFO@INTHEHILLS.CA 76

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

MARKETPLACE LANDSCAPING

PARTIES

(cont’d) 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 Lisa 519-925-0896 Jennifer 519-925-1165 www.partysafari.ca

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 • 1-800-893-0830 www.once-a-tree.ca

PEST CONTROL

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Karen Thompson-Harry B.A. L.L.B.

Barrister & Solicitor Collaborative Family Lawyer/Mediator/Arbitrator Practising in: Equine and Family Law/Divorce

519-833-0040 www.kthlaw.ca

LAND SURVEYING P.J. Williams Ontario Land Surveyor

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

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

PET SUPPLIES & SERVICE

SEPTIC SERVICES

These are signs that your pet’s current food needs to be looked at:

MUSIC LESSONS

• 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

Guitar lessons in the Hockley Valley Folk classical fingerstyle 25 years experience Beginners welcome 519-941-9319 dlabrash@sympatico.ca

(cont’d)

47 Broadway, Orangeville 519-942-8187 113 Victoria St W, Alliston 705-434-3311 226 First Ave E, Shelburne 519-925-3471

PAINTING

PAINTER PETE Residential & Commercial Interior & Exteriors FREE ESTIMATES

Orangeville & Surrounding Area Seniors Discount always applies

PET Portraits in watercolour

References provided from happy customers!

by J.Gray

action Satisf ANTEED R A U G

519.927.3454 or 416.690.7262 joan@grayterartservices.com

Peter McMahon 519-938-7144 painter.pete1@gmail.com

TREE SERVICE Charles Emerson Tree Service ISA Certified Arborist

Free Estimates & Consultation Tree Removal & Pruning P Bucket Truck Service Emergency Work P Year Round Service Clean & Reliable Workmanship Fully Insured

905-801-5891

charlesemersontreeservice@hotmail.com

DOG BOARDING ~ GROOMING

PARTIES

Pottery Parties in the Hills Art parties for Birthdays, Schools, Corporate Events, Ladies’ Nights, Showers and Fundraisers.

Paint Ceramics & Play with Clay.

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

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

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

Cakes & loot bags available.

www.potterypartiesinthehills.com

519.942.9022

MARKETPLACE: CLASSIFIEDS DON’T GET ANY CLASSIER For Spring Issue Call by February 5, 2010

WELL DRILLING

McCauley WELL DRILLING New and Cleaned • Pump Sales and Service 519-217-0331 Licenced Technicians Free Estimates

TO PLACE AN AD, CALL 519-942-8401 OR EMAIL INFO@INTHEHILLS.CA IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

77

a Puzzling Conclusion A N

I N

T H E

H I L L S

by Ken Weber

M I N I - M Y S T E R Y

Mining the Hamlets

The Case of the Phony Insurance Claim

Finding Zeb in Shelburne

Without signs at the side of the road to help, it’s not easy to know just when you are passing through the hamlet of Kilgorie in Mulmur Township, and even harder to know when you are in Peepabun, a hamlet which once graced the southwest corner of East Luther Grand Valley.

Help raise the profile of these community names with this anagram competition. In the letters of Kilgorie you can find words such as like, ore and go. In Peepabun there words like beep, nub and an. Each of these hamlet names can be mined for more than thirty words apiece.

Without looking up from his desk, Aiden waved his assistant into the office. “Is this about the vandalized tractor-trailer?” he asked as she slid into the only chair clear of files and papers. “The one on Airport Road near Glen Haffy?”

Erina put a laptop on Aiden’s desk. “Yes and no,” she said. “The vandalizing was near Glen Haffy all right, but it happened on Highway 9.” Aiden looked up with a frown on his face as she continued. “There’s more. According to the driver, he was going west, almost into Mono Mills when the truck broke down. Got a ride to Orangeville and rode back with the service call. Seems by this time it was dark, but the problem was easy to fix and he got going again almost right away.”

“So what’s dark got to do with it?” Aiden wanted to know.

“Everything,” Erina replied. “First of all, because it was dark nobody noticed all the graffiti on the sides and back of the trailer.

See?” Erina opened the laptop and brought up photos of some very gaudy paintings. “The transport company says the truck was clean before. And – again, this is according to the driver – because it was dark he didn’t know his tires were slashed. It wasn’t till he turned the corner onto Airport Road and was picking up speed toward Caledon East that he realized a tire or two had gone down.

Turns out when he checked that every single tire was slashed, both on the tractor and on the trailer.”

Aiden rolled the images up and down. “So they’re claiming replacement of all the tires?” he said. “And a paint job on the trailer?” He clicked on one of the attached photos. “This is a really big vehicle!”

“Here.” Erina handed him a fax she’d been holding in her hand. “See for yourself. They’re claiming every tire. Twenty-four.

To replace the originals is $65o apiece before tax. And there are a couple of repainting estimates there too. About a fifteen hundred dollar spread between them.”

For the first time Aiden looked directly at his assistant. “Do you think they just made a mistake? Or is this a clumsy scam?

When the police got a telegram from the stationmaster at Melville Junction about three strange characters jumping onto a northbound freight, they suspected the notorious Triplet Gang was heading for Shelburne. All three of the gang, Zeb, Jeb and Reb, were wanted for questioning and the police had a particular interest in Zeb, so a pair of constables immediately set out for Shelburne. With no trouble at all ou d the t e brothers b ot e s sitting s tt g idly d y side s de by they found side on a bench in the railway station.

The competition: Which hamlet’s name has the largest number of real words used in our language today?

(Slang doesn’t count!)

A Dots and Lines Challenge The design below is made of seven dots and five straight lines, with each line connecting three dots.

Your challenge is to add two dots to the design so that you can add five more straight lines, each connecting three dots.

Wha What is there in the insurance claim that causes c Aiden to ask this question?

Right away, the constables knew which one was Zeb. How?

Flying Low Over King Road Flyi

Another Puzzle from the Rafters at S.S. #15 in Alton

The pilot of a small aircraft en route to the Brampton Flying Club was amused by what looked like a hectare-wide arithmetic problem in the snow cover of a large field between Bolton and Sandhill. Two youngsters tired of playing pond hockey had stamped out an addition problem in the field, complete with the answer, using every number from o to 9 once.

However, by the time the pilot saw the result from the air, snow had drifted across some of the numbers so what he actually saw was this.

Thirty adults were presented this challenge as part of a research project. The fastest correct solution time was seven seconds; the slowest was sixty-eight seconds; the average for the group was nineteen seconds.

Can you beat the average?

78

IN THE HILLS WINTER 2009

The appearance and the behaviour of the triplets were utterly identical in every way but one: Zeb always told the truth while his two brothers always lied. Knowing that, and because Zeb was the one they really wanted, the constables approached the three and asked the obvious question: “Which one of you is Zeb?” The triplet on the left answered first.

“This here’s my brother, Reb,” he said, pointing to the man in the middle, who laughed and shook his head and said, “No, no. I’m Jeb.” Then the one on the right spoke. “You can’t believe what these guys say. You’re lookin’ for Zeb? He’s right here beside me.”

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7 64 1 053 Restore the addition problem in case the pilot returns.

Which numbers from 0 to 9 have been covered by snow drift, and exactly where do they fit in the problem?

All by itself, the number 1 (one) is just that: 1. But it is a very accommodating numeral. Put another 1 beside it, for example, and the resulting number increases by 1o: (11). A third 1 in the line increases the result by 1oo (111), a fourth moves it up a thousand (1,111) and a fifth number 1 jumps things by thousands (11,111)!

See if you can turn a bunch of 1’s into a small number for a change.

Make six 1’s equal 15. solutions on page 73

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