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The Smiths Falls Municipal Heritage Committee is proud to announce the return of its annual Heritage Symposium on Monday, October 28 at The Station Theatre (53 Victoria Avenue) from 9am to 3pm.
The Heritage Symposium focuses on expanding the community’s knowledge of heritage preservation and the importance of heritage protection within the community. Each year’s event explores heritage preservation and conservation themes through presentations, discussion, and tours.
“The Symposium is a great way for the Municipal Heritage Committee to share heritage with the community. At this year’s event we will learn how our heritage landscapes and buildings can be a catalyst for community and economic development and help drive the evolution of a community in a way that enhances what makes us unique in the first place,” notes Karl Grenke, Manager of Development Services.
The 12th annual Heritage Symposium, entitled “Saving the Past for the Future”, will feature dynamic speakers such as Andrew Jeanes, Cultural Consultant for the Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism; Meaghan Rivard from Stantec Consulting retained for the Smiths Falls Heritage District Study; and John Fenik, former Mayor from the Town of Perth and current editor/owner of Westport’s Review-Mirror.
“We are excited about this year’s symposium — discussions will centre around the proposed Heritage Conservation District study preliminary findings for Smiths Falls, and how an identified Heritage District has proven beneficial in other areas of the province,” says Dorothy Hudson, Committee Chair.
Registration is $25 ($15 for students). Please register by October 16 by contacting Marie Elmsley at <melmsley@smithsfalls.ca> or 283-4124 x1136.
This year’s Christmas in the Valley Artisan Show takes place on November 2 and 3 from 10am to 4pm at the John Levi Community Centre Arena Upper Hall, located at 182 Bridge Street in Almonte.
You are sure to find gifts with originality, quality and attention to detail. Forgo the gift cards, impersonal box stores and stressful malls and make this your first holiday shopping destination. Over 25 carefully curated artists and crafters will present their original creations in a relaxed, friendly and festive atmosphere.
Christmas in the Valley always strives to bring in lots of new artistic talent, as well as returning favourites, to provide a wide variety of handcrafted items for those hard-to-shop-for folks on your shopping list. There will be great items to put under the tree or add to gift baskets and stockings, plus a few things for yourself too! You’ll find sweet honey in many flavours, chocolates and delicious baked goods, and specialty teas for your health. How about unplugging the devices to read children’s books or play games? Decorate the house with seasonal embellishments like silly gnomes, dried flower arrangements, Christmas runners or felted tree ornaments. There will also be lots of creative gifts made of leather, wood, metal and pottery. Things to keep you warm, to smell, to pamper. The list goes on — you’ll just have to come and see for yourself!
Find details at <valleyartisanshow.blogspot.ca> and see regular updates on Facebook and Instagram @Christmasinthevalleyalmonte. Parking and admission are free, and you can enter for a chance to win a fabulous door prize. The Lanark Animal Welfare Society will be selling raffle tickets, calendars and other items to raise money for their shelter. Please consider bringing something from their wish list, which can be found at <lanarkanimals.ca>.
There are additional reasons to plan a daytrip to Almonte besides the Christmas in the Valley Show. You can take a stroll down the main street with its boutiques, antique stores, Textile Museum and restaurants, and enjoy the views on the winding Riverwalk pathway. For even more “handmade” shopping, there are other crafts sales happening in Almonte that same weekend.
Want to get involved with a great organisation, meet new people and be part of a fantastic local festival? Come learn more about the Almonte Celtfest team. Join us on Thursday October 3 at 7pm for Almonte Celtfest’s Annual General Meeting. We will be gathering at Tea & Cake, located at 19 Bridge Street. Refreshments will be provided. We’re looking for new board members to fill the roles of Co-chair, Volunteer coordinator, Fundraising coordinator and Lil Celtz lead.
We’re also looking for new members to join the sponsorship, social media/promotions, financial and volunteer coordination committees. We hope you can make it!
If you’d like to hear more but can’t attend the AGM, please email us at <almonteceltfest@hotmail.com>.
On Saturday, October 19, the Almonte Civitan Club will host a dinner and dance featuring Eddie and the Stingrays, a popular local rock and roll band that has been entertaining crowds for more than 40 years with their great music from the ’50s and ’60s. All proceeds from the event will go towards the Accessible Family Playground, the Civitan Club’s latest large-scale community project.
This inclusive playground is designed to minimize physical and social barriers to allow fun-filled and imaginative play for all, while encouraging healthy emotional, cognitive, and social skills development. The project also includes a walking track where community members, in particular seniors, can maintain and improve their fitness and mobility in a safe environment. Only a small percentage of existing playgrounds are fully accessible, and the Civitan Club expects that it would be an attractive draw for the community. The playground will be located on the grounds of the Almonte Civitan Community Hall, a well-known local facility.
The project has been a dream of the Almonte Civitan Club for many years, and its members are excited to turn this dream into reality. The Club’s goal is to raise $800,000 in the next two years to complete this project. The Dinner and Dance event is just one of several planned fundraisers in support of the playground. The Civitan expects a sell-out crowd that will enjoy a fajita dinner, prizes, a silent auction, and of course a night of terrific music and dancing!
Get ready for an array of vibrant performances by some of Canada’s finest artists. Rediscover familiar works in a fresh and exhilarating light, explore new repertoire, and marvel at the unexpected.
The 2024-25 Almonte in Concert series opens on October 19 with the trailblazing duo Stick&Bow. Marimbist Krystina Marcoux and cellist Juan Sebastián Delgado present a program of pieces by artists who have tried to make the world a better place through the power of musical expression. Stick&Bow contribute to this social and cultural transformation by commissioning daring yet accessible works from established and emerging composers from different latitudes. Do not miss this compelling evening of music by Marin Marais, Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Dmitri Shostakovich, Violetta Parra, Nina Simone, John Lennon, David Bowie, Claude Vivier, Supertramp, Jean Leloup, Jason Noble and others.
Our annual Christmas concert is always a favourite with audiences. This year, on December 7, celebrated CBC host Tom Allen and harpist Lori Gemmell — creators of a series of shows combining chamber music, storytelling, original song and music history — bring together a versatile cast of musical friends. Featuring pianist Carson Becke, cellist Julia MacLaine, and soprano Meghan Lindsay, the chamber musical J.S. Bach’s Long Walk in the Snow brings to light a little-known period of the composer’s life. At eighteen years of age, in his first job as an organist, and beginning as a composer but already a spectacular performer, the young genius got into such trouble that the only thing he could do was walk away. This show takes us along on that trip: a 400km odyssey to Lübeck, a glittering northern port city with street fights, big business, insight, fulfillment, the father figure he didn’t know he needed, and, quite possibly, love.
On January 26, three distinguished soloists and chamber musicians — violinist Robert Uchida, cellist Cameron Crozman, and pianist cellist Philip Chiu — celebrate their musical friendship in a performance of captivating romantic music with Soir! Matin! by Mel (Mélanie) Bonis, one of the most important female composers from France, and British composer Rebecca Clarke’s striking Piano Trio. Bonis, who was very prolific, with a body of over 300 works, gave herself the pseudonym “Mel” to avoid any feminine connotation in her name. Although famous in her day, by the time Rebecca Clarke died in 1979 very few people knew she had ever been a composer at all. The second half of the program is devoted to folk-inspired music, with Frank Martin’s Trio on Irish Folk Tunes, composed at the request of an Irish American benefactor, and Antonín Dvorák’s Piano Trio No. 4 “Dumky”, which ranks among the most beautiful and enthralling compositions in the piano trio genre.
On March 8, we welcome the JUNO Award-winning New Orford String Quartet. Formed in 2009, this acclaimed ensemble took up the mantle of one of the best-known and most illustrious chamber music ensembles, the Orford String Quartet, which performed more than 2,000 concerts from its inception in 1965 until its final concert in 1991. Comprised of violinists Jonathan Crow and Andrew Wan (respectively concertmasters of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal), the dynamic violist Sharon Wei, and Brian Manker (the OSM’s principal cellist), the New Orford String Quartet promise a memorable musical evening as they perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quartet in D minor, Franz Schubert’s famous Death and the Maiden, and Yume (Dreams) — a new piece commissioned from composer Ian Cusson, who is of Métis (Georgian Bay Métis Community) and French-Canadian descent.
We are thrilled to conclude our season on April 12 with a performance by oboist Caitlin Broms-Jacobs and pianist Madeline Hildebrand, who perform under the name Fierbois. Broms-Jacobs is the principal oboist of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, a position she has held since 2009, and Hildebrand has quickly become a top-pick as a soloist and collaborator. Known for their joyful and electrifying performances, the two have been friends and sharing the stage together since 2014. Their program combines favourites such as Béla Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Spring Waters with sumptuous lyrical pieces by Eastern European and Soviet composers (Mikhail Glinka – Dances from Ruslan and Lyudmila; Gayane Chebotaryan – Six Preludes; Pavel Hass – Suite for Oboe and Piano; Fikret Amirov – Nocturne), and features several of the duo’s own arrangements.
Season passes and single tickets are available from Tickets Please (TicketsPlease.ca, 485–6434). Don’t delay in purchasing yours today!
The 28th annual Crown and Pumpkin Studio Tour takes place on Thanksgiving Weekend, October 12 and 13, from 10am to 4pm daily. It’s become a fall tradition in Mississippi Mills — a chance to see work by the many talented artists and artisans of Almonte, Clayton and Pakenham area and their guests. This year’s tour features over 45 artists working in all aspects of fine art and craft, and fine food and drink.
Check out <crownandpumpkin.com> and decide what you want to see and which places you wish to explore. The tour is GPS-friendly and there is good signage to direct you to the 14 stops. Though the stops are numbered 1 through 14, feel free to visit in any order and see what arouses your interest.
Stop 1 is Hummingbird Chocolate on Ottawa Street, where you can savour award-winning chocolate products, enjoy a rich hot chocolate, and see the work of three artists: Anita Schlarb, photographer; Dennis Vance, painter; and Meredith Kucey, who crafts original silver jewellery.
Stop 2 takes you to the Almonte Potters Guild’s new location on Frank Davis Street, just behind the Independent Grocer. Guild members will have work for sale, and you can see demonstrations and even sign up for classes.
Dairy Distillery, producer of Vodkow vodka, is just around the corner on Industrial Avenue at Stop 3. Three artists will join these makers of fine beverages. Two are new this year: Cindy Bowman with her Stash Hats knitting, and Rri Povey with her blazingly colourful tie-dye clothing. Wendo Van Essen, a fibre-artist and instructor extraordinaire, returns with her felted creations.
Cross Ottawa Street, head down Sadler Drive behind Tim Horton’s and Shoppers Drug Mart, and follow the signs to Stop 4 at 608 Laroque Street, the studio of Murkay Creations where Sandra Allen and Kevin Wilson, along with guest Roxanne Ward, will perform their magic in flame-worked glass. They will be demonstrating this fascinating craft throughout the tour.
The last location in Almonte is Stop 5 — Duffield Design on historic Mill Street — where designer Megan Duffield has her line of elegant and highly wearable clothing. Weavers and fibre artists Jean Down and Roberta Murrant are presenting elegant scarves and shawls that perfectly complement Duffield’s designs.
Heading west out Wolf Grove Road you’ll come to Stop 6, Union Hall, a small traditional country hall that is often a location for the Festival of Small Halls. Artists here include Chris Van Zanten with his colourful blown glass work; potter Clément Hoeck with his beautiful functional pottery; and paintings and sculptures by Auni Milne of Sumack Loft Graphic Design, who designed the tour’s folder and website. Tour favourite Heavenly Honey will be there too, with a full range of honey and related products.
From Union Hall, turn right on to Tatlock Road and head into the village of Clayton. Stop at the General Store for a snack, and head left up Tatlock Road to Stop 7, Humphrey Leatherworks, for finely crafted leather goods. Next is Stop 8, twofourtree Studio, where ceramist Chrissie Young and woodworker Eric Young will welcome guests.
Turning back towards Clayton Village, you can visit two studios just east of the Clayton General Store. At Moondance Gallery (Stop 9) you’ll find the eclectic and ever-surprising work of Robert Pauly, sculptor, quilter and retired hat maker; and his partner, jeweller Barbara Mullally with her unique and often quirky work.
Cross the street to Stop 10, Clayton Clay Works, to see the creations of long-time pottery instructor Saskia Praamsma, who specializes in hand-built ceramic pieces. Saskia’s guest is painter Aino Lutter from Hudson, Québec, whose new bird paintings are hauntingly lovely.
Farther up Bellamy Mills Road is Stop 11, where you can see the work of professional painter Kaija Savinainen-Mountain, whose landscapes bring a fresh and vigorous approach to depicting our country, especially the north. You’ll also find Mountain Beauty Soaps here, all made with natural products.
Continue along Bellamy Mills Road to Stop 12, Cochran Lumber, home of Bellamy Mills Maple Products where Meg and John Cochran offer a wide range of maple goodies.
Follow the signs to the 8th concession of Ramsay to find stops 13a and 13b, at the Mississippi Valley Conservation authority’s historic Mill of Kintail. As you enter the property, Stop 13a, the Gatehouse, features five artists: Dave Card, woodworker; Karen Bernard, who specializes in works with paper; Gwen Rousseau, who created fascinating indoor-outdoor sculptures (she also teaches this process); Nadine Sculland, creator of miniature quilts; and Natasha Peterson, children’s author, with her delightful books.
Then head down to the Stop 13b, the Museum, to see ceramic works by Diana Jackson and paintings by Colleen Gray.
Finally, it’s time to head to Stop 14, Cedar Hill Tree Farm, on the 8th concession south of Pakenham. Here’s where you must follow the signs — or use your GPS if in doubt. This location has six artists: Susan Allen, who works with textiles; Jennifer Hoy, a fibre artist and knitter; new artist Pauline Marshall with her flower paintings; Michael Peterson, who will be demonstrating basketry; Colin Redknap, wood-turner; and jeweller Kathryn Stevens with her delicate and colourful pieces crocheted with wire and stone beads.
Don’t miss this wonderful tour that is designed to encourage visitors to shop locally for well-made and quality work that will last and make great gifts. For more information, please call 256–3647 or visit <crownandpumpkin.com>.
Hey, you up there! Yes, you, reading this article! I’m glad you’re here, ’cause I have some exciting news.
Come in, please, join me in the paragraphs, south of the byline. I have something you’re going to want to know about. What? Oh, yes. Mind the bodies; would you care for some wine?
Oh, don’t worry about those gentlemen, they’ll soon be off to Panama. Now listen, I simply must tell you about this exciting play at the Station Theatre.
It runs on the evenings of October 18, 19, 24, 25 and 26 at 7:30pm, and on the afternoons of October 20 and 27 at 2pm. It’s a laugh riot called Arsenic And Old Lace! Hmm? Oh, the wine is elderberry. It’s not so common anymore, but it’s made locally, and it’s just to die for!
Anyway, the play’s about the Brewster family in Brooklyn: the kindly, caring and charitable sisters Abby and Martha, their somewhat eccentric nephew Teddy (who thinks he’s Theodore Roosevelt!), and their rather aloof nephew Mortimer (who thinks he’s a dramatic critic, but only because he’s paid to be one!).
There is another brother, Jonathan; the family talks of him as little as possible, but that’s only because they don’t like him (the feeling is mutual, I assure you!).
That’s not to say they’re lacking for company, oh no! The Brewster sisters almost always have someone over, whether it be fine police officers like Mr. Brophy, Ms. Klein and Mr. O’Hara (on whose beat their manor sits), or their neighbours from across the cemetery — The Rev. Dr. Harper, the episcopal minister of the nearby church, and his charming daughter, Elaine, who just happens to be engaged to Mortimer. Or will be soon, if she and his aunts have anything to say about it.
Not to mention that one of Abby and Martha’s own personal charities sees them advertising a room for rent, just as a way of digging up people to do some good to. All sorts of characters reply, coming in to see the dear sweet ladies. Yes, those funny old gents... Mr. Midgley... Mr. Hoskins... and that Mr. Gibbs is quite the character, let me tell you!
Indeed, the Brewster house can be quite the exciting place to be. Oh! You haven’t tasted the wine yet. Please, don’t let me stop you. Rest assured, one glass is all you’ll need.
Let’s see, what else to tell you…? Well, it’s a delightfully fast-paced classic American farce, and it’s sure to have audiences just dying of laughter.
No, no, by all means, have your glass of wine. Let me just tell you where to find tickets for this masterpiece of theatre. They can be obtained in-person at Special Greetings, located on 8 Russell St. E in Smiths Falls, or at the door, 53 Victoria Ave, also in Smiths Falls, half an hour before showtime (that is, if any tickets remain!). Or you could call 283–2244 or visit <smithsfallstheatre.com>.
The best part? Tickets are only $24 (or even as low as $10, but only for students with ID).
Hm? Yes, that wine is delicious, isn’t it? Why… what’s the matter? Nothing more to say?
Oh, well. You’ll just have to join these fine fellows for their trip down to Panama…
Stephanie de Montigny, owner of Pure Natural Portraits, has put together an exciting event for a great cause. This year’s annual Back to School photography event is in honour of the Mississippi Mills Public Library (MMPL), and children will have the opportunity to be photographed with the antique desk at the Almonte studio, outdoors, or in the stacks of the library, in order to capture their unique personalities and little faces exactly as they are.
“Doing away with late fees to help make the library even more accessible made it an easy decision to convert the annual Back-to-School Portraits event into a fundraiser,” explains Stephanie. “By participating in this event, children get to enjoy an experience that allows them to truly be themselves while also learning about the fun of educational opportunities at the library, and parents have the opportunity to acquire beautiful wall-worthy portraits of their child.”
All proceeds from the registration fee will be donated to MMPL to continue their invaluable work of providing local resources for the community. Additionally, sponsors are working together to create a too-good-to-be-true goodie bag with gift cards for participants to shop locally for supplies and outfits to ensure every dollar raised goes to the library, and to help support local small businesses.
For more information on registration or how to get involved, please contact Stephanie at <hello@purenaturalportraits.com> or 371–4594.
Load up the boxes — the Friends of the Mississippi Mills Public Library gigantic book sale is only a few weeks away, and eager volunteers are awaiting your donations. The rule is “if you wouldn’t buy it, don’t bring it” — no text books, encyclopedias, damaged, dusty or outdated material, and please, no magazines (especially National Geographic). The volunteers handle thousands of books, and want them all to be sold before the two sale weekends end.
Book drop-offs are welcome inside the Rexall Mall on Ottawa Street in Almonte. Please follow the signs, and only leave books in the designated area during mall open hours between October 1 and 17.
Then get ready for the sale! Doors will be open at the Rexall Mall over two weekends, October 18–20, and October 25–26, with shelves refilled continually. You can get a sneak preview on Friday, October 18 and Friday, October 25 from 2–8pm. The sale also runs on Saturday, October 19 from 10am to 4pm, on Sunday the 20th from 11am to 3pm, and on Saturday, October 26 from 10am to 4pm. Check back often and you’re likely to find something new!
Although there are no set prices for your purchases, generous donations will go far in supporting the Friends in this all-important fundraiser that assists the public library. For more information, follow Friends of MM Public Library on Facebook.
Come out to the Smiths Falls Heritage House Museum on October 6 from 11am to 2pm for their annual Fall Fest! Spend some time outdoors in the changing colours, and celebrate the season with family-friendly activities, games and horse-drawn wagon rides. While you’re there, pick up your pumpkin to enter in the community carving contest. Pumpkins have been generously sponsored by Miller’s Farm. Admission to Fall Fest is by donation.
A few weeks later, come back for some thrilling nights of fright as the Museum presents the Haunted Heritage House on October 18, 19, 25 and 26 from 7–9pm. Tiptoe through the corridors of an 1860s home, where actors and ghosts will greet you in unexpected ways. With over 40 volunteers, this event will be sure to scare you straight into the Halloween season. The museum will offer seasonal treats and homemade apple cider, available for purchase.
Tickets for the Haunted Heritage House are $10 per person and are available from <sfhauntedhouse.eventbrite.ca>. Tickets will also be available at the door on a first-come, first-served basis. This event usually sells out and it is strongly encouraged to purchase tickets in advance.
For those who are looking for fewer screams, the museum recommends booking a private Smiths Falls Ghost Tour to discover tales of ghostly rumours and whispers from the area and the museum. Tours are available for $10 per person on October 11 and 12 from 7–9pm, or by appointment.
And everyone is invited to show off your Jack-o-lantern creations in a Community Pumpkin Carving Contest. Entries can be dropped off at the museum on October 17 and will be displayed on the grounds until October 31 for public voting. A voting drop box can be found on-site.
For more information about any of the Museum’s exciting fall line-up, please call 283–6311 or email <heritagehouse@smithsfalls.ca>. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10am to 5pm at 11 Old Slys Road in Smiths Falls.
Choral Evensong is sung in cathedrals and college chapels throughout the English-speaking world. In Canada, this afternoon service is currently sung in major urban churches but, alas, no longer in the countryside.
Except in Perth. Choral Evensong will be sung at St. James the Apostle Church in Perth on Sunday, October 20 at 4pm. The St. James Liturgical Choir will be joined by the Cranmer Singers of Ottawa, directed by Frances Macdonnell, organist emerita of Christ Church Cathedral, forming a substantial sound of about 25 voices.
Evensong is truly a “song”; the Responses, the psalms, the Evening Canticles and the anthem are all sung by the choirs. Several hymns encourage the congregation to join in the song. The evening prayers, both comfortable and comforting, enable one to reflect upon life both here and above.
To find this oasis of peace with fine music, follow Drummond Street to the top of the hill — the church tower overlooks downtown Perth.
As the weather changes, so does the exhibit at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum! Common Threads, Contrasting Cloths: Sue Clark & Judi Miller will be on display from October 12 to December 14. The vernissage will take place on Saturday, October 12 from 2–4pm. Guest curated by Miranda Bouchard, this is an exhibition of works by Judi Miller (Kanata) and the late Sue Clark (Vancouver Island). A virtual curatorial and artist talk with Bouchard and Miller will take place via Zoom on November 16 from 2–4pm.
Miller and Clark were recognized by the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in 2020 with awards for their innovative work in textiles. An exhibit many years in the making, the Museum is pleased to showcase their works and talents, which have grown since 2020. This show brings together a wide variety of Clark’s and Miller’s art, which highlights their mastery of hand stitching and machine embroidery, respectively.
This collection of works offers insight into the everyday beauties appreciated and immortalized in thread and fabric by their creators: moments in time that remind us to pause and appreciate both the grandiosity of the natural world around us and the minute details that comprise it.
“We’re excited to celebrate these gifted artists, and particularly honoured to bring together Sue Clark’s works,” says Michael Rikley-Lancaster, MVTM Executive Director/Curator. “She was a brilliant artist, and her contributions to textile art won’t be forgotten. It was our pleasure to present Clark and Miller with awards for their innovation, and we are eager to see their works displayed alongside each other in the Norah Rosamond Hughes Gallery.”
The MVTM is located at 3 Rosamond Street in Almonte. Find more details at <mvtm.ca>.
Union Hall is pleased to be hosting its fourth annual Community Builders’ Craft Fair, on Saturday, November 2. The hall will be joining forces with other charities and non-profits to raise awareness of their important work and to bring in much-needed cash for their operations. Get a head start on your Christmas shopping while contributing to these community builders!
The Union Hall Community Centre, a registered charity, was erected in 1857 and continues to be the hub of the community that bears its name. Funded through hall and sign rentals, donations and craft sales, with financial assistance from Mississippi Mills and The Hub/Rebound, the Hall is maintained and operated by volunteers. Handcrafted hardwood cutting boards, along with items sewn from re-purposed fabric, such as one-of-a-kind yoga mat bags, tote bags and aprons, will be sold to support ongoing renovations at the hall.
The Hub in Almonte sells gently used merchandise for every shopper at very reasonable prices. All profits are donated to community projects and to our friends and neighbours who need a helping hand. They will be selling jewellery, books, dolls and vintage toys as well as high-quality housewares at this event. The Hub has graciously offered to donate the proceeds from this day’s sale to Union Hall!
Stir It Up Collective is a non-profit organization with the goal of supporting peoples’ recovery from sex trafficking and other forms of sexual exploitation. Partnering with other community agencies and businesses, SIUC offers client-centred wellness supports, focusing on somatic healing practices and employment readiness so that participants can enhance their skills and confidence to move forward with their goals. They will be selling SIUC-labelled whole bean coffee from Equator Coffee Roasters, as well as handmade wooden meditation benches in assorted sizes and styles.
The Mississippi Mills Youth Centre is a non-profit organization providing dynamic, educational and supportive programming to local youth, their families, and the community as a whole, to keep youth safely connected to their peers and their community. Featuring a wide variety of handmade crafts created by youth during their Art Night programs, the selection ranges from stunning resin art to beautifully crafted crochet pieces and more. These unique creations showcase the creativity and talent of local youth.
This year we are delighted to welcome MERA (McDonalds Corners and Elphin Recreation and Arts). A non-profit organization promoting community connectivity and involvement, they provide access to various events at the McDonalds Corners Schoolhouse Community Centre. There, people learn and practice skills such as weaving, pottery, textile arts, visual arts, and physical fitness. See the large variety of arts and crafts items available to purchase from talented artisans.
Join us on Saturday, November 2 from 10am until 2pm at Union Hall, which is located at 1984 Wolf Grove Road at the corner of Tatlock Road. There will be a fire in the woodstove to take off the chill, as well as light refreshments and beverages, including Stir It Up coffee.
When I moved to Almonte in 2019, one of the things I missed from “back home” was municipal composting. Having moved from a small town that had a robust composting program, it was disappointing to learn that there were no such options here. As someone who doesn’t garden, backyard composting seemed unnecessary. So, for four years, our food scraps went straight to the garbage, which didn’t sit right with me.
As a certified holistic nutritionist, I try to be mindful of how nutrition impacts not only personal health but also the environment. The idea that we could be doing better with our food waste nagged at me. In 2023, I heard about Just Good Compost, a local composting business offering a subscription-based pick-up service. At first, I hesitated — did I really want to pay to compost? While I debated, I had the opportunity to interview Dan Matsch, Compost Director at Eco-Cycle, for an article I was writing on backyard composting for Outside Online. That conversation changed everything.
Dan explained that composting isn’t just about creating soil for gardening. It’s about diverting organic material from landfills, where it decomposes without oxygen and creates methane — a greenhouse gas 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Composting, even if you’re not a gardener, restores the carbon cycle, reduces methane emissions, and builds healthier soil that holds water and sequesters carbon.
Two days after interviewing Dan I signed up for Just Good Compost, and it’s been over a year since our first pick-up. Every week our family fills two buckets with kitchen scraps, and some weeks we’ve even considered ordering a third!
It’s not just households that are benefiting, either. Just Good Compost has shared that a few local businesses have drastically reduced their garbage output by using the service. For example, Tea & Cake, a café, catering and cake business, only puts a single bag of garbage to the curb each week — an impressive feat in the food industry. Mill St. Crepe Company has gone from putting out one bag of garbage a day to less than one bag per week while easily filling five compost buckets.
Just Good Compost makes it easy. Every week you receive a clean bucket that you fill with your kitchen scraps. On pick-up day, you leave it out on your porch, and they swap it for a fresh one. It’s that simple! They take everything, including things you might not compost at home, such as meat and bones. These items are some of the most methane-producing materials in landfills, making this service a great way to make a real difference.
Since starting, I’ve learned so much about the importance of composting and am thrilled to be a part of this growing community initiative. Just Good Compost is now available to residents and businesses in Carleton Place. If you’re not already composting, I highly recommend giving them a try. You might be surprised at how quickly your scraps add up —and how much of a difference you can make.
If you would like more information, please visit <justgoodcompost.com>.
Stories connect us. This is true especially with children. Every day, my two-year-old walks up with a picture book and angles his way into my lap saying, “read me a story?” Every night after the light goes out, my four-year-old asks me to tell him a scary story (“but not too scary” — I have learned that dinosaurs getting attacked by other dinosaurs is too scary, while monsters under the bed or in the closet are just scary enough). Not long ago, my fourteen-year-old started regularly asking me to tell him our family secrets, in other words, tell him stories that are true. Every one of these moments has presented me with the opportunity to connect with them through storytelling. Maybe someday they’ll each tell their own stories, too.
As an adult, I can think of formative stories that I was read as a child, and I imagine you can as well. Whether we recall a classic children’s story, a beloved picture book or our first chapter book, the spirited, educational and imaginative world of children’s literature is profoundly compelling, gifting children and adults alike with opportunities to learn and grow and reflect and connect with the world in endless ways.
The hope of connection and the magic of telling stories to kids were the catalysts that prompted Almonte Readers & Writers to ask Melissa Baker Nguyen to offer a 4-week course on How to Write Kids’ Books. A skilled illustrator and storyteller who has created three children’s books of her own and illustrated four books for other authors, Melissa is ready to get together for a couple hours each week in October to share what she’s learned about the world of kids’ books, talk through any ideas that participants bring to the table, and in general have a great time imagining how words and images can combine to create fun, profound, educational and stimulating stories for children of all ages.
Interested in learning more but not sure you want to pursue publishing a kids’ story just yet? That’s fine! The goals here are to learn more about story-crafting for kids at different stages of development, and gain some tips on how to use language and images to connect with a child (or children) in your life. You don’t even have to have the seed of an idea yet, just an interest in spending time thinking about what makes a good kids’ story and how you can use (or imagine) pictures to help bring it to life. Or maybe you have had the spark of an idea that you have carryied around for years and just haven’t found a way to begin to tell it… Melissa wants to hear all about the stories you have swirling around in your head and heart. Wherever you are with your idea, she can meet you there and have a great time along the way.
How to Write Kids’ Books runs for two hours each evening on October 8, 15, 22 and 29. The fee is $120, and you can register at Tickets Please (TicketsPlease.ca, 485–6434).
Almonte Readers & Writers is a non-profit organization presenting literary events and programs to audiences in beautiful Mississippi Mills. Visit <almontereadersandwriters.org> for more information.
Renowned comedian Derek Seguin is set to take the stage for two unforgettable shows in Killaloe and Perth this November. Known for his quick wit and relatable humour, Seguin will be performing at the Lion’s Hall in Killaloe on Friday, November 8 at 7:30pm, followed by a show at Studio Theatre Perth on Saturday, November 9 at 8pm. Tickets for the Perth show are available now at Tickets Please (TicketsPlease.ca, 485–6434) for $50, including all fees.
Derek Seguin is one of Canada’s most sought-after stand-up comedians, with a career that has taken him to stages across the globe. A favourite at the prestigious Just For Laughs festival, Seguin has appeared there 11 times, often stealing the show with his unique brand of humour. In fact, GQ Magazine’s Comedy Editor once remarked that Seguin “stole one of the most star-studded gala shows from host Whitney Cummings,” and that his performance at The Nasty Show was equally unforgettable. The Montreal Gazette also praised his act, saying he “earned a standing ovation” and left the audience “gasping for air.”
In addition to his numerous festival appearances, Seguin is well known for his frequent appearances on CBC Radio’s The Debaters, where he has become a fan favourite. He also won Sirius XM’s Canada’s Top Comic competition, a nationwide contest that solidified his status as one of the country’s top comedians. Most recently, Seguin’s album PanDerek – 1st Wave was nominated for a JUNO Award, marking yet another milestone in his illustrious career.
Seguin’s comedy is versatile and appeals to audiences of all backgrounds. Whether he’s talking about the challenges of parenting or poking fun at politics, his material is always delivered with a unique perspective and a touch of childlike wonder. With the ability to perform in both English and French, Seguin’s charm and comedic genius make him a truly captivating performer.
The upcoming shows are presented by Zapp! Productions, a well-known name in the Southern Ontario music scene. Since 1991, Zapp! has been bringing world-class talent to the region, working with notable artists like Blue Rodeo, John Hammond, and Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Their commitment to quality entertainment continues with Derek Seguin’s performances, promising a night of laughter and fun for all attendees.
Don’t miss your chance to see one of Canada’s hottest comedians live in Killaloe and Perth. Get your tickets now and prepare for an evening of non-stop laughter!
Come on out to the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum (MVTM) on Saturday, October 5 and celebrate with a night of fabulous fundraising featuring dynamic drag queens and amazing art! Drag queen hosts and performers Karamilk, Saltina Shaker and Sunshine Glitterchild will keep you movin’, groovin’ and laughin’ throughout the night at the “Queer Up the Neighbourhood Drag and Art Auction”. Bring your wallets, because fantastic art from the impressive collection of Bill Staubi will be auctioned off. With 50 artworks of different sizes, colours and media, many from 2SLGBTQIA+ artists, there’s sure to be something that will catch your eye. All major debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and cash are accepted.
Vodkow cocktails by Dairy Distillery will also be available at this 19+ event. Doors open and bidding begins at 7pm. The performers will take the stage at 8pm, and there will be an intermission for final bids. Tickets are $25 and available online through <mvtm.ca/what’s-on>.
This event is a fundraiser for MVTM programming. This small charity relies on support to continue keeping our shared and diverse history alive. Help unravel history and weave community, all while enjoying some spectacular performances and art!
“We’re honoured that Bill has gifted us with so many beautiful works of art, and even more excited to share these pieces with the community and find them new homes,” says Michael Rikley-Lancaster, MVTM Executive Director/Curator. “The Museum strives to champion 2SLGBTQIA+ voices and experiences, and to be a safe space for all, so we are thrilled to host a fundraising event that centres on the queer community.”
Eat, Play, Love is excited to announce their next immersive theatrical performance — for one night only — on October 19 in support of the Falls Food Hub in Smiths Falls.
Food security is a growing concern for many people in the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark municipalities. Prior to COVID, it was estimated that at least 9.4% of the population was food insecure. Now, that number has risen to almost 15%, or 1 in 7 households.
While community food programs do not “solve” food insecurity, as it can be directly related to inadequate or insecure income, programs such as the Falls Food Hub, a project of The Table Community Food Centre, help alleviate food insecurity and social isolation, ultimately improving the health and wellbeing of residents in Smiths Falls and the surrounding areas.
It costs a lot to operate a Community Food Centre. Providing nutritious meals to over 100 people a week takes a lot of time, volunteers, and money. The Falls Food Hub has been creative in raising additional monies through a number of charitable events, including a recent and very successful online auction and now a very exciting collaborative adventure: Eat, Play, Love.
Eat, Play, Love is a wonderfully creative and unique opportunity to combine the things we love most: good theatre, good food, and giving back to our community. An immersive event, this year’s Eat, Play, Love will have the audience sitting amongst the actors as they perform a play about a high stakes Trivial Pursuit game. Green Cheese, written by award-winning Ottawa playwright Guy Newsham, has Mike and Nora inviting their friends, Olive and Phil, over to play a game of Trivial Pursuit. But this isn’t any ordinary innocent games night — this is the night where Olive has to make a choice between her husband and her best friend.
The play is being produced by local theatre company Ghostlight Productions, and the characters are played by seasoned actors and philanthropists from the area. Lucas Tennant, Grace Poltrak, Shannon Riley and Charles Henderson will keep you on your toes and guessing throughout this hilarious romp!
There will also be a silent auction happening at the back of the venue, with wonderful items for the bidding!
The fabulous food is being created and provided by the Falls Food Hub and their amazing team of volunteers. Beyond a dinner theatre concept, you will not only have the same food (and more!) that the actors will have on stage as part of the play, but you will have 6 courses of delectable delicacies served to you between 7 scenes of the play. This gives you a chance to get up, move about, interact, bid on an auction item or two, and/or quiz each other at your tables with some vintage and new Trivial Pursuit questions.
Come on out and experience a whole new culinary curiosity, try out some green cheese, and help to support your community. This event will also be licensed, so why not make a date night of it!
For more information on the Falls Food Hub, how to support food security, or how to purchase a ticket for this event, please visit <fallsfoodhub.org> or see the ad on this page for the easy access QR code. Tickets are $100 each, and a $50 charitable donation receipt will be provided.
The West Carleton Arts Society (WCAS) is excited to present its signature event, Expressions of Art, taking place on Thanksgiving weekend at the Carp Fairgrounds’ Agricultural Hall. This long-standing tradition, now in its 25th year, will be held on Saturday, October 12 from 8am to 4pm and Sunday, October ?? from ??am to 4pm.
The juried show features 31 booths showcasing a wide array of artwork by talented artists from Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley. The collection spans various media, including oil and acrylic paintings, watercolours, textiles and photography, offering something for art lovers of all tastes.
In addition to promoting local artists, Expressions of Art supports young creatives through a bursary to the West Carleton High School Arts Program. This initiative is funded in part by the Silent Auction, where visitors can bid on 12x12 artworks. The funds help recognize a deserving student selected by their art teacher for outstanding work. Local high school students also contribute to the event by volunteering their time.
Visitors are invited to come meet the artists, enjoy refreshments, and browse the stunning artworks. There’s also a chance to win door prizes, generously donated by participating artists.
Don’t miss this vibrant event that celebrates both seasoned and emerging talent in the local arts scene!
The stroke of a brush, the click of a camera, the sound of the wheel as a form is shaped in clay — all evoke the effort and passion that go into the creative process. It’s about commitment to an art form or fine craft, to learning and growing and to finding one’s voice — what one wants to share with the world around them. It’s about the process as much as the final piece.
This is the benefit of studio tours, which have become so popular because they offer a window into what is behind the canvas, the photograph or the beautifully detailed ceramic bowl, by allowing visitors to see and experience the creative process of artists and craftspeople. In doing so, the story of that final piece becomes richer and more meaningful.
The artists and artisans of the Red Trillium Studio Tour are thus pleased to invite you to join them on October 19 and 20 for the Fall edition of this long-standing juried and artist-run studio tour, one that has been taking place in rural West Carleton twice a year — in June and October — for the last 26 years.
Visit the studios of talented local artists and fine craftspeople who are passionate about glass, pottery, illustration, painting, fibre arts, photography and more. See the incredible work of several artists who work in these and other artistic media (such as copper/metalwork, fine jewellery, and woodwork) from around the Ottawa region, who will be guests at each of the participating studios.
If you love pottery, you will want to see the beautiful slip-trailed pottery of Teresa Wingar at Studio 8, and Jill Spear and her hand-built embossed pottery at Studio 2. Marlene Othmer’s stained glass art can be discovered at Studio 5, and Chris Van Zanten (a tour favourite) will join Teresa at Studio 8 with his incredible blown glass art and metal work. Roxanne Ward will once again be sharing her passion for glass with her one-of-a-kind glass art and jewellery at Studio 6. And don’t miss the joyful illustrations of Barbi Defazio at Studio 1. These are just a few of the many exceptional artists who have been part of the Red Trillium Studio Tour for a number of years.
The tour is pleased to welcome back a number of newer participants, including Vicki Jasperse (Studio 1) and Veronica Moore (Studio 7), both silversmiths who create one-of-a-kind jewellery. Wendy Clement is also joining the tour for the second time with her nature-inspired cyanotype/sun photography at Studio 2.
And finally, organizers are always thrilled to include new talent on the Red Trillium Studio Tour and are fortunate to have seven new artists this fall! At Studio 3, Connie Burchell will be introducing tour visitors to her lovely fibre arts. She will be joined by Elizabeth Baechlin with her acrylic paintings and finely crafted jewellery. Nicholas Adam Wojtas, a photographic artist, will be at Studio 4, while Maureen Bennett, a painter and mixed media artist, and Brent McGillivray, a photorealist painter, will be at Studio 5. Cheryl Ann Beillard will show her paintings and printmaking celebrating nature at Studio 7, and Timothy Booth, whose love of nature is similarly expressed in his handmade wood creations, will be at Studio 8.
Follow the map to the nine studio stops located in the vibrant communities of Dunrobin, Kinburn, Constance Bay, Buckhams’ Bay, Woodlawn and Carp, or create your own route — a benefit of this free, self-guided two-day tour.
Don’t miss this opportunity to visit with local artists in their personal spaces and learn about the creative processes of all 31 participating artists and fine craftspeople while enjoying the fall weather and the meandering back roads of rural West Ottawa. The drive is guaranteed to be as lovely and inspiring as the various studio stops along the way.
To learn more about the tour, including the route map, accessibility information, studios, and participating artists and their work, please visit <redtrilliumst.com>. The e-brochure can be found on the website and print copies will be available at local businesses throughout the Ottawa region as well as at each studio location during the tour weekend.
Studios are open to visitors from 10am to 4pm each day, and there will be signs along the way to help guide you. Don’t forget to stop in at some of West Carleton’s local eateries too, which are conveniently identified on the tour map.
At 2pm on Sunday, October 20, St. Paul’s United Church in Perth will be the site of a concert in memory of Ann McMahon. She was respected and cherished by many in Perth because of her contributions to the music scene. Ann passed away last June, and while she was no longer young, her death seemed too soon, too early and too sudden.
The concert will be a fundraiser for The Hospice Hub, a community-led initiative serving Perth, Smiths Falls, Portland, Westport and surrounding areas, providing comprehensive, compassionate and integrated services to support anyone at end-of-life and bereavement, including their family and caregivers.
Born Catherine Ann Willis, Ann was raised in Flin Flon, Manitoba. She was a musician who believed her music was a gift to be shared with all. After graduating from the University of Saskatchewan and after attaining her teacher’s degree at the University of British Columbia, she moved to Perth with her husband, Peter, in 1968. Ann taught music in several local elementary schools: North Elmsley, Drummond Centre, Queen Elizabeth, and The Stewart School. Her many school musical productions, involving hundreds of children over the years, were memorable. She shared her gift of music at Lanark Lodge, St. John’s Church, and most recently at Boyd’s United Church.
Ann had the ability to lead but also to collaborate, cooperate and support others. She led the Perth Ecumenical Choir which evolved into The Perth Community Choir (PCC) in 1981, performing musical theatre productions. Over her many years with the PCC, Ann played the roles of choral director, rehearsal accompanist, orchestra member and vocal coach. A shared toast with a tiny sip of sherry was always the opening night tradition when Ann was involved.
Ann’s welcoming home was always open to her many friends, neighbours and former students.
Ann conducted the Tay Valley Choir for many years, and was the beloved conductor of The Bells of St. Paul’s (handbell choir) for over two decades. Even though she was not well, with great determination she managed to conduct The Bells in a concert just a few short weeks before she died.
People in Perth can thank Ann for her huge contribution to this area’s strong music tradition.
Entitled “For the Love of Music”, the concert on October 20 will feature several of Ann’s musical friends including The Bells of St. Paul’s, Brad Mills, Don McLean, Patti Greer, Joel LeBlanc, Grace Armstrong, Tom McMahon and Val Leavitt.
St. Paul’s is located at 25 Gore St. West in Perth. Admission is by freewill offering in support of The Hospice Hub <thehospicehub.ca>. Come out to celebrate her life with many others who remember and honour Ann, and to support a good cause.
The Artisan Village at the Falls in Smiths Falls is quickly becoming a key cultural hub, offering a space where local artisans and small businesses can thrive. This beautifully restored historical building at the corner of Maple and William Streets provides a welcoming environment where creativity meets community. The Artisan Village is home to a diverse group of Creative Residents who bring their unique talents and offerings to the local arts scene, creating a destination for art lovers, shoppers, and anyone who appreciates artistic and creative goods.
The Creative Residents represent a broad spectrum of artistry, craftsmanship, and small business ventures. Current residents include:
Ascend Jewelry – Jeweller Veronica Moore’s hand-crafted Argentium silver jewelry offers versatile, timeless style, perfect for any occasion.
Folk Music Ontario – Canada’s largest provincial organization devoted to the folk, roots, and traditional music community.
PBR Art Gallery – A showcase for both established and emerging artists, PBR Art Gallery offers a rotating collection of fine art that captures the beauty of the region and beyond.
Frank Fenn – A professional photographer offering profile headshots, personal branding, and magazine-style contemporary portraits
Robert L. Gibbins – An artist who creates representational landscapes in oil, capturing cherished places from his memory, blending personal sketches and photos, and offering a unique perspective shaped by his colour blindness.
Edsgn Automation – Specializing in providing cutting-edge solutions for any industrial automation needs.
Fran Gibbins – An artist whose mixed-media and fluid art capture the chaos of life, where planned outcomes give way to unexpected, emotion-filled interpretations unique to each viewer.
Two new residents have recently joined the roster:
The Makers Loft – A cozy makerspace where creativity knows no bounds, The Makers Loft provides a space for artisans and hobbyists alike to work on their craft, experiment with new ideas, and collaborate with fellow makers.
The Book’s Better Bookshop – This independent bookshop offers a curated selection of new books, gifts, and a sprinkle of used books. It’s a perfect spot for book lovers to discover their next great read or find the perfect literary-themed gift.
In addition to its vibrant artistic community, Artisan Village at the Falls is also home to The Wellness Centre, a serene sanctuary designed for massage therapists, Reiki practitioners, and other wellness professionals seeking a tranquil space to serve their clients. The Wellness Centre offers a peaceful and calming environment, allowing practitioners to provide their services in a setting that promotes relaxation and healing. This addition to the Village complements the creative energy, offering visitors not only artistic inspiration but also a place to focus on their wellbeing.
The Creative Residents embody the spirit of Artisan Village at the Falls — bringing creativity, innovation, and passion to everything they do. Whether you’re looking for a unique piece of art, handcrafted jewellery, or simply a cozy space to explore your creative side, Artisan Village offers something for everyone.
The Artisan Village is always looking to expand, welcoming new tenants and creative minds to join this growing community. With flexible rental options and a collaborative environment, it’s the perfect space for artisans, makers, and small businesses to thrive.
As Artisan Village continues to grow, plans are underway to host workshops, events, and other community initiatives, further establishing its role as a cultural destination in Smiths Falls. Whether you’re a regular visitor or discovering the Village for the first time, each visit promises new inspirations and a deeper connection with the incredible local talent.
Visit online at <artisanvillagesmithsfalls.com>, or in-person at 10 Maple Street in Smiths Falls.
Kris Kristoffersen said, “If God’s got a favourite songwriter, I think it’s John Prine.” After five sold-out shows since they decided to strike up the band last year, The Maywoods are throwing a John Prine Birthday Party on Thursday, October 10 at the Almonte Civitan Hall.
A birthday show honouring Prine’s songwriting genius is now an annual Nashville tradition, so the Lanark County quartet of Vicki Brittle, Tyler Craig, Nathan Sloniowski and Jessica Winskell have decided to bring a little Nashville home with their rich harmonies and multi-guitar arrangements, along with stories behind Prine’s sing-along classics as well as lesser-known deep cuts. The band is named after the legendary recording artist’s hometown of Maywood, Illinois.
According to Rolling Stone, Prine started writing songs at age 14, and “wrote for working people, sad people, old people and lost people. His style, inspired by John Steinbeck, was deceptively simple. Many emulated it, but only he could do it.”
Prine received a lifetime achievement award at the 2020 Grammys. Struggling with health issues throughout his life, he passed away from complications caused by COVID-19 that same year, leaving a songwriting legacy that Bob Dylan praised as “pure Proustian existentialism,” and “Midwestern mind trips to the nth degree.”
Enduring songs like Angel from Montgomery, Sam Stone and Hello in There earned the enduring admiration of not just Dylan, but also Bonnie Raitt, Gordon Lightfoot, Elvis Costello, and loyal fans around the world.
Tickets to The Maywoods’ John Prine Birthday Party are available at Tickets Please (TicketsPlease.ca, 485–6434). Doors open at 7pm with the licensed event running from 7:30–9:30 including an intermission. General admission tickets are $25 plus processing fees. A limited number of tickets may also be available at the door, but the band usually sells out its shows, so online purchases are recommended.
Two one-act comedies at Perth’s Studio Theatre in October are set in an apartment’s smallest room. But it’s definitely not all bathroom humour.
Laugh Out Loud comprises two short plays by Canadian playwright Richard Turtle.
The Lunatic from Number 7 begins during an argument, with Deb storming out of the apartment and her partner Simon going into the bathroom, slamming the door, and promptly getting stuck there.
Search and Rescue, which takes place in the same bathroom, albeit at another time, introduces us to Sam, a lady plumber. Her customer Dave refers to her as “a chick” and spends the rest of the play apologizing for his faux pas and falling in love. And he’s likely not that upset when the same door gets stuck again.
Both plays will be presented as Studio Theatre’s entries into this year’s Eastern Ontario Drama League (EODL) one-act play festival, which is being held this fall in Perth. The festival will feature nine short plays in all.
In Lunatic, Simon is played by Josh Gallant, who returns to the Perth stage after performing last year in 39 Steps and more recently in Perils of Persephone. Lunatic is essentially a one-man play; the role of Simon has a lot of lines with no other actors.
“It is difficult without those prompts, but there is actually a lot of internal conversation, with his absent girlfriend and with himself,” says Josh. “That makes it as bit easier.”
Chrystine Williams, who may be familiar to Studio Theatre audiences as an actor, takes on a new role as director. “I’ve done almost everything else in the theatre and now it’s directing” she says. Because there is only one actor, she doesn’t have to worry about cast dynamics, or how people interact with each other. “In this environment, the door and the mirror become characters”.
Like Chrystine, Joseph Nieforth is taking on a director’s role for the first time with Search and Rescue. He started at the Studio helping with Front of House, 50/50 ticket sales, lighting, painting sets and even acting. “I’m starting to find the balance and am enjoying the collaboration,” he says. “Fortunately, I have a great cast who are really good to work with.”
Two Studio Theatre stalwarts, Joanna McAuley Treffers and Martin Treffers, share the stage for Search and Rescue. “I have been on stage with Joanna in a few other productions, but never in a part where we interact much,” notes Martin. “So my role is special to me because I get to play opposite her and we’re the only people on stage. It’s like being married to her, which I am, but meeting her for the first time again! It makes it fun and challenging at the same time.”
Jane Stott, who has been directing plays for more than ten years, takes on the role of producer while also mentoring Chrystine and Joseph. The Studio Theatre plays an active role in assisting its members to develop their theatre skills, and this is part of that work. “Mentoring is a great opportunity to pass on some of my knowledge of directing a play and working on a production with all the people I know so well,” says Jane, who has taken several plays to the EODL festival, winning numerous awards for the theatre.
“As a mentor, I sit in quietly on rehearsals and pass on suggestions or answer questions if needed,” she adds. “If I have anything to critique, I send out an email after the rehearsal. I also steer the new directors towards meetings with set designers and builders, the promo team, the tech team, etc., and will often sit in on the meetings as well.”
Katherine Hooton is stage managing both plays, while Bev Christy is assistant stage manager and is providing the props for both plays.
To kick off the evening, a few of our Studio Theatre Youth Players will be presenting a radio play titled The Noisemaker — a quick 10-minute play about actors about to do a dramatic radio play when they suddenly learn that their foley guy is sick and can’t make it! Wrangling whoever is at hand, they get the janitor to fill in at the last minute to make all the sound effects. But can he keep up? This will be great fun, so come out and see our Youth Players in action!
Laugh Out Loud runs from October 17–20 with Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening performances starting at 7:30pm, and Saturday and Sunday matinees beginning at 2pm. Tickets can be purchased from Tickets Please (TicketsPlease.ca, 485–6434) or at the door if still available. For more information, please visit <studiotheatreperth.com>. As an opening night special, pay what you will (at the door only). Tickets are just $15, and as always youth are half-price.
Art… and Soul
Sometimes fate steps in and moulds the rest of your life. As she was graduating from Ontario College of Art (now OCADU), and contemplating a future in the arts, Linda Hynes accepted an invitation that has resulted in her spending a vast portion of her life turning clay into beautiful functional pottery. Linda was selected to be an apprentice to Jack Herman, a renowned potter and Canadian icon. (One of his studio visitors was Margaret Atwood, and one of his eight-inch plates is currently listed on Etsy for $195.)
Linda joined Jack and his wife Lorraine in their historical white schoolhouse near Kleinburg, Ontario, and started honing her throwing skills, learning how to make glazes, load kilns; eventually she started selling her own spice jars and other functional pieces. Just as importantly, she was introduced to the business side of becoming a professional potter, including marketing, seeking retail outlets, and putting on studio shows. She worked with Jack Herman for seven years until moving to Eastern Ontario, having met Bill Dobson. He was an antique dealer, she was an antique collector, and in 1983 she moved to his farm between Smiths Falls and Merrickville.
There Jack Herman and Ken Cumberland, a well-known potter in Perth, helped her build a gas kiln in a small, barnlike building on the edge of a little creek across the road from their house. For fifteen years at that studio location, Linda participated in the annual Merrickville Artist Tour, the first artist tour in Eastern Ontario. She was also putting on her own Christmas pottery shows and participating in the annual Ottawa Christmas Craft Show at Lansdowne Park and the One-of-a-Kind show in Toronto. In 2005 Linda was one of thirteen Merrickville artists who opened the Grotto Artworks in Merrickville, a cooperative gallery where they showcased their arts and crafts until its closure in 2020.
Merrickville Arts Guild Studio Tour
On October 5 and 6, from 10am to 5pm, Linda Hynes’ Pottery Studio at 1105 Matheson Drive in Smiths Falls will be Stop 11 on the MAG 2024 Studio Tour. In addition to her wide selection of beautifully crafted, durable, functional and decorative pottery, her studio will also be host to eclectic works by Herman Ruhland, painter and maker of assemblages of found objects and formal sculptures.
Pottery truly is Linda’s calling. Twenty-four years ago she relocated into a wonderful new two-storey log cabin studio and showroom on the family farm, and she still gets excited each time she loads her large gas kiln. From each freshly made collection of stoneware and porcelain pieces that she has carefully glazed, she selects pieces on the basis of which will work best in different sections of her kiln. From years of experience and experimentation, she knows that certain combinations of specific glazes on stoneware or porcelain will respond differently in cooler or hotter kiln spots. Then she spends two days after the firing waiting for the kiln to cool down before she can see the results. It is slow work, but the results never fail to inspire her to start on her next burst of creativity.
As a long-time collector of functional pottery, I am impressed with the range and quality of Linda’s pieces. Her years of practice forming different shapes in a wide range of sizes, coupled with her inexhaustible appetite to experiment with glazes, provide collectors with a cornucopia of choice. Some pieces are carved and then covered with particular glazes that enhance that technique. Other pieces are created using a wax resist technique featuring overlapping glazes. She works with both stoneware and porcelain; the former with a coarser texture and more rustic look and finish, and the latter with a finer grain and smoother texture. Both are heat resistant and durable, and equally decorative in the hands of such a talented and artistic potter.
Pottery may be her passion, but antiques continued to play a large role in her life, especially when Bill purchased an antiques trade paper, The Upper Canadian, in 1987. For eighteen years Linda worked extensively with him to produce the bimonthly (a useless adjective; in this case it means every two months) publication until he sold it in 2005. Together they were heavily involved in the antiques business, organizing and participating in numerous antiques shows in Ontario. The shows were sold as Bill became active in local politics and Linda was busy running the Grotto Artworks. Bill and partner Jan Bos still organize the Kingston Winter Antiques Show in February. Bill also has an antiques museum on their rural property, and continues to participate in the antiques shows he used to run.
Why Is There a Sheep On this Plate?
Ever since she was about nine years old, Linda’s daughter Caitlin (Cait) has added a touch of adorableness to some of her mother’s pieces. The animal magnetism of Cait’s sheep, turtles, and other decorative touches is guaranteed to put a smile on your face if not a piece of pottery in your possession. Today Cait and her husband Kyle White are the proud proprietors of Milkhouse Farm & Dairy, located adjacent to Linda’s and Bill’s home, Linda Hynes’ Pottery Studio, and Bill Dobson’s Montague Farm Museum.
Annual Milkhouse Farm Tour
This amazing amalgam of family business ventures can be experienced during their annual fall farm tour this year. From 10am to 3pm on two consecutive Saturdays (October 19 and 26) you can visit Linda Hynes’ ideal log cabin pottery studio/showroom, and contemplate her current collection of superb functional pottery. Joining Linda at her studio will be Urban Woodworks — woodturner Stephane Gendron — with a selection of his fine turned wooden pieces.
You can also wander around Caitlin’s and Kyle’s farm, meet their sheep and their llama Archie, visit their milking barn, and agonize over their selection of delicious raw sheep’s milk cheeses, wool duvets, and grass-fed lamb available for sale. And last (but definitely not least, depending on your interests), you can drop in at Bill Dobson’s collection of antique farming equipment and speculate on the function of some of his fascinating 19th century agricultural tools.
As always, the back of Linda’s Artist Trading Card at the top right corner of this page makes it easy for you to keep track of her coordinates and follow up on Facebook to learn about more opportunities to enjoy her exceptionally attractive and well-made functional pottery.
Artist Trading Card
WHO Linda Hynes
WHAT Potter
WHERE Her studio/showroom at 1105 Matheson Dr., Smiths Falls, <hynesdobson@gmail.com>, <facebook.com/linda.hynes.798>, Instagram: @lindahynespottery
WHEN Oct. 5 & 6, 10am–5pm, Merrickville Arts Guild Studio Tour, Stop 11, 1105 Matheson Dr., Smiths Falls, <mag-artists.ca>; Oct. 19 & 26, 10am –3pm, Milkhouse Farm Tour, 805 Rosedale Rd S, Smiths Falls, <milkhouse.ca/farm-tour>
WHY “A master potter offered me an apprenticeship and I’m still grateful decades later.”
What a gorgeous autumn! September could not have been more beautiful, warm and balmy, making summer last longer. It makes it hard to focus on preparing for winter, nevermind preparing for the ravages of extreme weather resulting from the climate crisis.
But that’s what we were doing at CNL, preparing for our upcoming Electrify Lanark Workshop on Residential Resilience and Adaptation.
Thankfully, Resilience and Adaptation is now something that Lanark County is working on. They have a Climate Adaptation Plan in the works, and the various Emergency Management Coordinators in the municipalities are now starting to engage with the issue of climate change (finally!). Of course, the insurance industry (or at least the re-insurers — the companies that insure the insurance companies) have been on it for decades. We’re now starting to see more communications from insurance companies directly to us about protective actions we can take. The INTACT Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo has been supported by the insurance sector, and has some excellent residential information at <intactcentreclimateadaptation.ca>. So does the Insurance Bureau of Canada, especially on the contentious issue of overland flood insurance: <ibc.ca/issues-and-advocacy/climate>.
There’s a lot to learn, and we’re only now starting to get a handle on adaptation. In fact, the federal government only released its National Adaptation Strategy this summer.
Bearing all that in mind, we’re going take advantage of the space that theHumm is generously providing us to list some actions you can take, or be thinking of taking, to make your house more resilient.
Keeping Your Cool
By a few estimates, one of the harshest climate results we must face here in Lanark County and region is extreme heat. We’ve already dealt with some extreme heat waves, but we should expect more and longer and stronger ones. Heat resulting from the climate crisis has already killed Canadians, more than 600 in BC in 2021, and hundreds of others in Quebec, which is one of the few provinces to measure death by heat.
With such heat, one naturally thinks of cooling. Some things we should always practice in warm temperatures are to stay hydrated, to close up your windows and drapes during the day against the sun and open them at night to take advantage of natural cooling, to minimize your use of heat-producing appliances such as stoves and ovens, to use a dehumidifier to remove moisture from the air and make it feel cooler, and to use fans to evaporate moisture from your skin to make you feel cooler. Consider installing an electric heat pump, or mini-split heat pumps — if not for the whole house, then for one room or area. They are much more efficient than standard air conditioners, so their operating costs are less. Much like your refrigerator, they use refrigerants to transfer heat from inside your home to the outdoors. Using them instead of an air conditioner means using less electricity, which means generating fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
(By the way, we received the great news that Lanark County has taken our advice, and with a nudge from the federal government in return for funds, is retrofitting numerous social housing units in the County with low-temperature heat pumps. Tenants won’t have to deal with heat extremes, and the environment benefits as this will cut greenhouse gas emissions and cut natural gas use by 75%.)
For long-term cooling strategies, improve your home’s insulation and air tightness so that it doesn’t get warm quickly and keeps the cool inside longer. Install windows and doors with a low Solar Heat Gain Coefficient. Plant and maintain deciduous shade trees along the south, east, and west-facing walls. Make sure than any coniferous trees you plant are outside the 10m distance as a wildfire precaution. Convert paved areas to vegetation to absorb less heat and increase water absorption. When you reroof, consider a light-coloured and/or reflective roof. Outdoor shutters and awnings are very effective at blocking out the sun. And finally, know where your local cooling centres are located. Most municipalities now have a designated building for that purpose, so check their websites.
Ice and Floods
Other weather extremes we have experienced in Lanark County are ice storms and flooding — and the two can frequently happen together. Protect against flooding by elevating electrical appliances and utilities above expected flood levels, and installing energy-efficient and battery back-up sump pumps and drainage systems to manage excess water. Keep an extra sump pump on hand in case your main one fails. On urban water systems, install a backwater valve as recommended by your municipality. Monitor weather conditions and flood risks. Use landscaping techniques to manage water runoff and reduce the impact of flooding. Incorporate features such as rain gardens, permeable paving, and swales to direct and absorb rainwater. (If anyone knows of a company in Lanark County that does permeable paving, please let us know at the CNL website contact page.)
Ensure that downspouts are directing water 2 metres (8 feet) away from your foundation. Help your drains stay open by not pouring fats, oils and grease down them. Reduce home water use during and immediately after heavy rainfalls. Ensure proper lot grading, and if possible, build up the ground around your house so that water will drain away from basement walls. Keep water out of window wells and snow away from the foundation. Clean and maintain downspouts and eavestroughs at least once a year.
We cover so much more in the Electrify Lanark Resilience Workshop, including high winds, tornadoes, and wildfire risks. Our PowerPoint slides are available at <climatenetworklanark.ca>, along with presentations and videos from other workshops such as Residential Solar, EVs, Heat Pumps, Hot Water Heat Pumps, and our fabulous Electrify Lanark Forum that brought in some top-notch speakers who talked about the innovative ways we will create, produce, and store the electricity we need to transition off fossil fuels — and in short order!
Once again, a shout-out to the Perth and District Community Foundation and the Gilgan Foundation for funding these projects. We couldn’t do it without their partnerships!
Emergency Kits
Another great way to prepare is to create an emergency kit that will serve your needs for 72 hours. It should contain essential supplies such as non-perishable food, water, medications, flashlights, batteries, and a first aid kit. Ensure that the kit is easily accessible and check your municipality’s website for information on recommended Emergency Kits.
Once a church, The Pews is now an inclusive, multi-generational “third space” that’s roaring onto the scene in the village of Merrickville.
“If your first space is home, and your second space is work, what is your third space? Netflix keeps us at home and on our couches. We’re losing that third space, so we want to be a place where you can come and hang out, be entertained or learn something new,” says Anne Barr, chair of the Pews Co-operative <thepews.ca>.
It appears the community agrees, and The Pews, formerly the United Church, is that emerging hang-out. The stunning interior with its domed ceiling and stained-glass windows now boasts a lobby, a bar, a performance/event hall, offices, a community kitchen, a large activity room, a music room and an artist’s studio.
“It’s been really neat to watch it develop into a multi-generational space, there are just so many different uses for different age groups and times of day,” says Kate Folk, social media volunteer with The Pews.
Officially and formally launched in June of this year, The Pews is garnering tremendous support from community groups and members. There are already two rented offices and a tattoo studio in residence, filling what were once Sunday School alcoves around the perimeter of the lobby.
“The Pews is available for rent for weddings, meetings, and conferences. There’s communal space downstairs that right now sees use six days a week, between exercise classes, yoga, Kung Fu and theatre, and we’re in the final stages of getting our community kitchen inspected so that it will become available for rent as a commercial kitchen. It will be a local Health Unit-inspected kitchen,” adds Barr.
Newans Hall (what was once the sanctuary) has hosted numerous entertainers including musicians, magicians and storytellers, and is gaining a reputation as an excellent performance venue.
“It was really great to perform at The Pews — it’s a beautiful building, and a beautiful space with great acoustics,” says Nathan Smith, singer-songwriter and fiddle player with The Barrel Boys, who performed at The Pews earlier this year and will be returning around Christmas time.
The striking building is deeply rooted in the community. Originally built entirely of local materials by area craftsmen in 1890, even the wooden pews were crafted on the premises, curving around the sanctuary and sloping gently down to the front of the auditorium. The cast-iron ends supporting the pews were made at the Percival Plough Foundry, still in existence as the Alloy Foundry.
Today Newans Hall is equipped with deep cushions and small tables scattered along the pews, providing a handy surface to park drinks while being entertained. The bar, available for special occasions, is located in the lobby and surrounded by comfortable seating that invites small gatherings.
Upcoming Events
Come and check it out in person by booking your tickets for October 17, when Kingston singer-songwriter Anthea Feaver will be at The Pews along with Nathan Smith. “I’m going to be playing songs from my newest album Summer Morning as part of my album release tour and telling stories about the songs,” says Feaver. “Nathan will be opening for me and joining on the fiddle, and we might do a couple of traditional songs at the end.” Tickets are $20 from Tickets Please (TicketsPlease.ca, 485–6434), or $25 at the door.
Shortly after Feaver’s concert, the Lion’s Club is launching Thursday Night at the Movies, after successfully securing a New Horizons for Seniors Grant.
“With that fund we purchased a projector and sound system, along with a 16-foot screen, because we wanted to bring movies to isolated seniors as well as the rest of the community,” explains Lion’s Club project lead Sarah Telford. “We’ll be showing the first movie on October 24.”
The contract doesn’t allow them to disclose the title of the movie through media outlets, but they will be posting it on the both The Pews and the Merrickville Lion’s Club website.
Friday, October 25 provides a learning opportunity with a workshop on Sustaining a Sustainable Lifestyle. This is part of The Pews regular “Smarty Pants” series of lectures and workshops chosen to appeal to the community’s wide interests.
Then on Sunday the 27th Theatre Night in Merrickville (TNIM) will be showcasing two one-act plays. The local theatre group is competing at the Eastern Ontario Drama League Festival in Perth come November, and approached The Pews in order to provide the actors with a live audience before competition. “It’s a great venue and a nice space to showcase some of our talent when we’re not doing a full production,” says TNIM president Helen Steenburgh.
The beauty of The Pews is that it offers more than one space for performers. TNIM will be using the “dance floor” in front of the stage because they need the additional room to move their sets on and off.
“It’s a versatile, accessible and inclusive space and we want to see it used extensively by all age groups,” concludes Barr. Find more details at <thepews.ca> or email <hello@thepews.ca>.
If politicians listened to people like Diana Beresford-Kroeger, we would have a healthy planet in maybe 15 years.
It’s possible. But nature needs our help.
In Our Green Heart: The Soul and Science of Forests, Beresford-Kroeger — a world-renowned scientist in the fields of medical biochemistry, botany and medicine — shares and interprets the science of how this can be done in simple terms, so that someone like me, who has only the most rudimentary knowledge of trees and forests, can understand.
Interpreting the science of trees, with an ancient holistic attitude, has been a substantial and vital part of Beresford-Kroeger’s life’s work.
She makes things clear from the book’s opening sentences: “Outside our bodies, there is another pulse that keeps us alive,” she writes. “It is the green of the living landscape. The trees of the forest offer oxygen and our lungs receive it. In and out, back and forth, beat, beat, beat, we are made and remade from the breath of trees, with sprinkles of stardust from the solar system and beyond.”
In order to save us from climate change — “the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced,” she writes — we need to protect, establish, and preserve the forests of the world. To do this, she argues, all of us need to dig deeper into the science of forests and the ways they quite naturally and cleverly breathe life into our planet — and then do our part to plant and protect them.
When you “bottom line” it, it’s really quite simple: the trees of the forest offer oxygen and our lungs receive it.
Our Green Heart is a “reminder of all trees do for us,” she writes. “It is a reminder of their central role in the healthy functioning of this planet and everything — everything — that lives upon it… And it is a reminder that the only way out of this mess we have made is to protect the forests and plant new ones.”
If this message sounds at all preachy, I assure it’s not. Beresford-Kroeger’s writing, her voice, reminds me of the brilliant cosmologist Carl Sagan’s, in that it is infused with a studied and reverent knowledge of scientific facts, but it’s also imbued with wonder and charm and hope, and a sort of sacred belief in the inherent goodness and extraordinary value of nature’s fundamental truths.
In simpler terms, she is charming and incredibly clever. And like Sagan, she’s extremely likeable. This matters, I think. After all, we tend to learn best from teachers we like.
I love the way she describes the basic science of why forests are essential to a living planet. Here’s a brief example: “On a normal day, oxygen drives the engine of life. The gas enters the lungs of every living animal on Earth and exits as carbon dioxide,” she writes. Then she tells us, “A tree, any tree, is fully equipped to efficiently handle oxygen and carbon dioxide; a forest even more so.”
It’s easy, after reading this, to understand the importance of healthy forests. They are an incredible gift. Trees make our air breathable, our planet livable. Healthy forests are tantamount to a healthy planet.
That’s the built-in good part.
The awful part is that more trees are being cut down as you read this, and as the molecular machinery of forests is being removed, the temperature of the air increases (it already has, destructively) — the Earth’s climate gets warmer.
“We must stop this monster in its tracks,” Beresford-Kroeger warns. “We may not understand the process and the solutions in all their complexity, but the trees and the forests do. We must replant them. We must stop cutting. Today.”
It’s a bitter pill we must swallow whole, she believes. We must not candy-coat things.
However, Our Green Heart offers hope. And possible solutions.
One key to the solution, Beresford-Kroeger, makes clear, is planting the right trees in the right places. “Native trees are bespoke for their own habitats,” she writes, “customized to fit perfectly, like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle.” However, planting the wrong trees in the wrong places, as global temperatures rise, can “exacerbate these volatile situations and produce dire consequences.”
But nature, without human interference, can manage to deal quite nicely with these problems, she points out. “Many of the treasury of trees native to the California seaboard are fire-resistant,” she writes, siting the Monterey pine as a valuable example — a tree that has modified itself, remarkably, to withstand fire and protect itself from flames for nearly four thousand years. Such trees acted as a green firewall, until they began to come down.
“Native forests can be repaired by planting the right kind of seed with the right genetic provenance in the place where it belongs,” she writes.
She also reminds us that nature can repair itself. And that we can help, but only by acting in an intelligent, scientifically-informed way.
Beresford-Kroeger’s solution to climate change, which she calls “The Bioplan,” is based on the idea that every one of us on this Earth can do at least a little in the face of the coming global catastrophe. First and foremost, she says, “we must protect the ancient virgin forest, the remaining trees that grace this planet.”
Second, each of us must do our “little bit” to reduce the carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. Specifically, she says each of us must plant a native tree — “one tree per person per year for the next six years.”
“Third comes education,” Beresford-Kroeger writes. “The urban populations of the world need to be reminded that forests were in everyone’s past. People must go outdoors and meet the trees standing in nearby parks and forests. They must also go to the library and examine a guidebook about trees.”
When planting native trees, it’s essential to learn about local native species. Learn how to collect seeds from them, Beresford-Kroeger says. Learn the tricks of germination and growth. Introduce these ideas into local schools. Ask a farmer or a gardener for help.
“The Bioplan” might at first appear simple. And if it is, all the better, because Beresford-Kroeger has “seen so many people discouraged by the scope of climate change — sometimes pushed into complete apathy, inaction and depression.”
She wisely reminds us of a famous line she has always liked from eighteenth-century philosopher Edmund Burke: “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing when he could do only a little.”
Our Green Heart is an illuminating, inspiring, indispensable little book. I truly think you’ll enjoy it and feel called to do all you can to protect and nurture our one precious Earth. It’s available at a wonderful local bookshop near you.
Editor’s Note: As we go to press, Mill Street Books and the Almonte Library are looking into hosting an event with Diana Beresford-Kroeger some time in early November. Keep an eye on <facebook.com/millstreetbooks> for details.
In 1968, a group of free-spirited visionaries moved onto what had once been the Brennan farm, west of Perth, and created the vibrant alternative community of Brooke Valley. Their dream of a sustainable and cooperative lifestyle, together with the natural beauty of the area, soon drew others, many of whom, not surprisingly, were craftspeople.
In 1993, twenty-five years after the farm was first settled, a collection of local artisans established the first Perth Autumn Studio Tour and laid the foundation for one of the area’s finest and best-attended studio tours. We are a non-profit artist-run tour whose core values have remained unchanged since those beginning days. We wish to connect people to the artists living among us, spur conversations, and make human connections through diverse artistic media.
Come experience the high-calibre original art and traditional craft that will be on display. This is an opportunity for our artisans to shine, share their love for their craft, and invite visitors to view, discuss, and purchase something from their unique collections.
Our tour is known for its wide array of media and this year is no exception. This year’s roster will feature 23 artists at four stops, as well as a fabulous lunch at Brooke Valley School. It takes place over the Thanksgiving weekend on Saturday, October 12 and Sunday, October 13, from 10am to 5pm each day.
You can find us @perthstudiotour on Instagram and Facebook to follow along and see each of our artists featured as we lead up to the big event. You can also find more information and download your Tour Map at <perthstudiotour.com>.
Local Author Arlene Stafford-Wilson has done it again: given us a nostalgic glimpse of our own past with her latest book, Lanark County Classrooms. Like her other explorations of Lanark County history, this is a treasury of memories that harken back to one-room schools that still stand today, many as houses that surely resonate with the voices of children. Stafford-Wilson has interviewed nearly 50 students and teachers who attended these schools, and nearly all remember them with fondness.
The outstanding feature in each story is the dedication of the teachers to making sure their students received the best instruction they could while handling several grades at one time. Talk about organization!
In an era when school buses were not an option, students recall looking out for each other on long walks on country roads with no hovering parental supervision in sight. Games were impromptu with minimal equipment, kids made their own school yard entertainment, and teachers were likely glad when recess time came and children were free to play.
Some universal themes run throughout these memories: the wood stoves that needed constant tending, the brass school bells that tolled out the school hours, and the visits by superintendents, for instance.
For Lanark natives, this compendium will bring back memories of school days perhaps forgotten, of families and friends many remember, and of times together in their youth that remain as vivid today as yesterday. For others, it will jog memories of their own school days, whether in similar classrooms or not.
I would suggest that this book be required reading for present day students, if for no other reason than to make them appreciate the advantages they now enjoy and take for granted. I doubt many young lads of 13 would be enamoured with getting up at 6:30am to make sure the stove was lit, the room was tidy, and the snow was shovelled. Nor would they likely want to stay until 4pm to start their long trek home.
Stafford-Wilson’s Lanark County Classrooms would make a welcome fall read as school days are in full swing. Put this on your Christmas wish list, and make it an addition to your collection of Lanark County memories. The book is available at Mill Street Books in Almonte, The Book Nook in Perth, and other local bookstores.
This fall, Rural Root Theatre is back with Sex Please, We’re Sixty, a lighthearted comedy by Michael and Susan Parker that promises to leave audiences in stitches. Directed by Charlene Gardner and Carolyn Walsh, the show runs from November 5–10 at the Constance and Buckham’s Bay Community Centre.
Sex Please, We’re Sixty is a cheerful romp set in a quaint bed-and-breakfast run by the charming Mrs. Stancliffe, where things are normally quiet — until the inn’s flirtatious neighbour, “Bud the Stud,” stirs things up. Bud spends his days trying to seduce the bed-and-breakfast’s female guests, certain that his charm and good looks are irresistible. However, his shenanigans take a hilarious turn when the ladies decide to give him a taste of his own medicine. With Bud’s well-laid plans quickly unraveling, the result is a series of comical situations that will have the audience laughing out loud from start to finish.
This production marks Charlene Gardner’s directorial début, and her fresh perspective, combined with Carolyn Walsh’s experience, promises to bring a unique energy to the show. The two directors have worked closely with the cast to ensure that each comedic moment shines, creating a performance filled with humour and heart. This fall’s production also boasts a mix of familiar faces and new talent, with four returning actors who are sure to captivate audiences once again, and two newcomers to Rural Root adding creative zest and talent to the ensemble.
Evening performances run from Tuesday through Friday at 7:30pm, with 2pm matinées on Saturday and Sunday, offering multiple opportunities to enjoy the show. In addition to the regular performances, Rural Root Theatre is offering a special dinner option on Thursday and Friday evenings at 6pm, making for a perfect night out. The dinner, catered by local Chef Kevin, adds a gourmet touch to the experience and is expected to be a popular choice, so early booking is recommended.
Tickets for Sex Please, We’re Sixty, and the dinner option, are available from <TicketsPlease.ca> or by calling 485–6434. With a talented cast, a sharp and witty script, and the chance to enjoy a delicious meal before the show, this fall production promises to be a hit.
Whether you’re a long-time fan of Rural Root Theatre or a newcomer, Sex Please, We’re Sixty is sure to provide an evening full of laughter, surprises, and memorable moments. Don’t miss your chance to see this charming comedy — grab your tickets now and get ready for a night of fun this November!
Studio Theatre will resonate with melodies both heartfelt and inspiring on October 5 as the Linden Housing Co-operative presents its major fundraiser, “Songs for Stability”. This two-concert event offers an auditory feast aimed at bolstering Linden’s mission to provide affordable, community-focused housing.
The 1pm show features local legends Joey Wright and Jenny Whiteley. Both Joey and Jenny are renowned for their musical prowess and have a rich history of captivating audiences with their soul-stirring performances. Jenny is a two-time JUNO winner in the category of Best Roots & Traditional Album of the Year for her albums Jenny Whiteley and Hopetown. Guitarist, mandolinist and songwriter Joey Wright has toured and recorded with legions of artists including Sarah Harmer, Amy Millan, and David Corley. In addition to his musical talents, Joey contributes to the community with his culinary skills as a chef at The Table Community Food Centre in Perth.
The 7pm concert will spotlight the extraordinary multiple JUNO award-winning instrumental ensemble Esmerine. The audience will be treated to an immersive experience as the band performs selections from their acclaimed evocative and boundary-pushing compositions. Formed in Montreal in 2003, Esmerine has garnered acclaim for their unique fusion of diverse musical traditions and contemporary influences. Their work has been praised for its emotional depth and innovative approach, earning them a dedicated following and critical acclaim across the globe.
Tickets to both concerts are available from Tickets Please (TicketsPlease.ca, 485–6434).
Linden Housing Co-operative <lindencoop.ca> was founded with a vision to establish a supportive and sustainable living environment. Its mission is to cultivate a community that thrives on cooperation and mutual support. The co-operative model emphasizes affordability and inclusivity, ensuring that members have access to a place they can truly call home.
Maggie Stewart’s life and art have been shaped by her deep connection to her Indigenous roots. Growing up in Kashechewan First Nations, she was immersed in a community rich with tradition, culture and the arts. From a young age, Stewart was introduced to beadwork by her aunties, mother, and kookum (grandmother). This early exposure to Indigenous crafts instilled in her artistic skills and the importance of preserving her heritage. “Every bead, every stitch carried a story,” Stewart recalls, reflecting on how these practices helped her honour her cultural identity.
However, Stewart’s life took a turn in 2000 when she moved to Newboro, Ontario, after marrying an artist and teacher. While raising two children, she began to feel disconnected from her roots. She missed the familiar sights and sounds of Kashechewan, family closeness, and the cultural traditions she had grown up with. In response, she turned to her craft — beadwork, moccasin-making, and mitten-making — to stay connected to her heritage. These crafts became a bridge to the past, helping her express her Indigenous identity even while far from home.
Despite participating in local shows and fairs, Stewart often felt isolated in her identity as an Indigenous artist. It wasn’t until she began selling her work at powwows that she felt connected again. Powwows offered more than just a place to showcase her art — they became spaces to share stories, celebrate traditions, and reconnect with her people. For Stewart, these experiences reaffirmed that her art wasn’t just about creating objects — it was about finding a more profound sense of belonging.
In 2020, Stewart had a chance encounter that would profoundly change the direction of her work. She met Molly, a child of the Sixties Scoop, a painful chapter in Canadian history where Indigenous children were separated from their families and culture. Searching for a way to reconnect with her heritage, Molly found herself on a shared path with Stewart. Together they worked on beadwork, moccasin, and mitten-making, transforming their collaboration into a healing journey. Each stitch became a way for Molly to reconnect with her lost culture, and for Stewart, it became clear how powerful traditional arts could be in helping others heal.
This experience inspired Stewart to broaden her mission. She envisioned creating a space where displaced Indigenous women could come together to learn traditional crafts and rediscover their roots, just as Molly had. Although the project is still in its early stages, Stewart is committed to helping other women heal through the same arts that shaped her own journey.
Today, Maggie Stewart continues her work through a weekly beading group session in Portland, Ontario, and the creation of the Three Sisters Market. She also gives workshops at venues like Stone Manor Studios and Poplars Resort. Her upcoming sessions in October and November include beaded jewellery-making, beaded hide notions bags, beading on the loom, hide mitten-making and beaded moccasin-making in Newboro at Stone Manor Studios. These workshops allow participants to create beautiful items and engage with the cultural significance behind each craft.
Stewart’s workshops aren’t only for Indigenous people; they also offer non-Indigenous participants the opportunity to appreciate and respect the traditions she’s dedicated to preserving. She is building bridges of understanding and openness through her teaching, fostering a space where shared experiences in art lead to meaningful connections. The hands-on nature of her workshops allows non-Indigenous participants to immerse themselves in the beauty and symbolism of traditional crafts, offering them a way to engage deeply with Indigenous culture.
In this way, Stewart’s art becomes a tool for strengthening community and fostering a better society. By sharing her work’s cultural and historical context, she creates moments of mutual learning and respect. Her workshops become small but powerful examples of how art can help create empathy, build stronger communities, and inspire openness across different cultures. Stewart’s ultimate goal is to foster a space where Indigenous people and allies alike can reconnect with tradition, heal, and grow together through the transformative power of art.
I recently had the opportunity to ask Maggie more about her journey. Here’s what she shared with me:
Kim Lulashnyk: When did you begin beading?
Maggie Stewart: The earliest I could remember beading was when I went to see my kookum. She would wait for her grandchildren to come along. She always had a pile of beads ready for someone to come by. When I was five years old, she got me stringing her beads to make a braid or something. She would make me a cup of tea, and I would string the beads.
What role did your community play in shaping your passion for beading, and how has that connection influenced your artistic journey?
Oh, up North, everybody was beading. They’ve been beading forever. I think I really got into it because of my Aunt Scotty (she was my favourite Auntie). I would see her when she was beading, and she was having fun doing it, so I decided to sit with her. You know, she’s gone now, but I think of her all the time.
What was it like for you to move south to Newboro with your young family?
When I moved to Newboro (it was such a long trip) I felt for a long, long time that there was no one here to talk to. It took me twenty years to find an Indigenous woman around the area! I really missed home, and when I went home, I realized how much I missed the food! That’s what I miss. I miss the fish. The bannock. The moose meat and the rabbit. When I came to Newboro, I had to try all kinds of things I never tried before. It was hard in the beginning.
Did you start a beading practice when you arrived in Newboro?
No, I didn’t. I raised the kids, and I worked as an archaeological technician with my husband Ted. I beaded at home, and I taught my daughter how to bead. Once in a while I would take my beads with me on a dig and work during breaks, but only as a professional later. I worked in archaeology for about twelve years.
Can you share more about your time with Molly, what happened during that period, and how it continues to impact you today?
I met Molly five years ago. I didn’t know anything about her, and I didn’t really know anything about the children caught up in the Sixties Scoop. I just heard about it here and there. But when I first met her, what struck me was everything she had gone through. She lost all her culture, you know? She was taken away and grew up in a white family. She was happy, yeah, but there was something missing — she was missing her. She was missing her own identity. I’m Northern Cree, and she’s from Saskatchewan and is Cree as well. But we are still different. She wanted to learn, and I wanted to teach her. That’s how we connected. I think she was searching for more of herself, and I’m so glad I met her. She’s like a sister to me now. I started something for her, with her, and it’s growing. Molly wants to learn everything — making things, reconnecting with her culture. We’ve made mittens, earrings, porcupine quillwork. The more she learns, the more she wants to know. And the more she wants to learn, the more I want to teach her. And there are other women too. Now I know six other Indigenous women and I want to meet more. We bead and make things once a week in Portland, and we have non-Indigenous women who want to learn too. We meet every Wednesday in Portland at 5 o’clock if anybody wants to come and join us.
You also started an Indigenous woman’s market called the Three Sisters Market, which sprung out of the group you created.
It actually all started during our beading group sessions. We all agreed to do it, and an Indigenous woman made up a beautiful banner for us, with three Indigenous women in ribbon skirts, and now we sell our work along with other vendors who join in. I’ve been thinking about making my bannock to sell, so the other women can sell their jewellery and hide goods. We do this every Saturday in Portland from 9am to noon — so come out and visit us! It’s a great time and it has been good to do something else for the Indigenous women in the area.
How did raising your children Lee and Heather influence their paths as artists, and what role did creativity play in your family life?
Yes, my son, he’s a painter, used to do graffiti in Ottawa — that’s where he went to school, but he’s not doing that anymore. He does his oil paintings and shows at galleries in and around Kingston and he works with Indigenous themes. His work is very sought after. And my daughter, she lives in Peterborough now. She has three boys and she’s doing her beading too. I started teaching her when she was five years old, back when we lived up north. We’d bead together, something simple to start with since she was so young, but now she’s really come into her own with it. She’s doing so well. She only sells her work at powwows or online through her Etsy store. She’s got that all set up now and sells to people all over the world.
What upcoming projects or initiatives are you most excited about in your work as a teacher and cultural leader?
I’ve got some work coming up teaching moccasin and mitten-making, as well as beading and beading on the loom, and I can’t wait to get started. I’ve got everything ready — just need to get going. I’m excited to meet new people, share something new with them. It’s going to be fun.
When I’m teaching, whether it’s Indigenous or non-Indigenous people, it’s like we’re halfway through the journey together. I can see it in their faces — how happy they get when they finish their piece. It makes me happy, too. Seeing them complete their work, whatever it is, and that joy they feel, it makes me feel good inside. It’s something special to be part of that.
Information about Maggie’s upcoming workshops on hide mittens, moccasins, and jewellery using traditional materials and techniques can be found at <stonemanorstudios.ca>. Heather Stewart is on Instagram, and you can find her store at <etsy.com/market/sweetgrass_by_heather_stewart>. You can see Lee Stewart’s work at <studio22.ca/artist/lee-stewart>, and find Ted Stewart’s art at <facebook.com/p/Ted-Stewart-Art>
Call me crazy, but I like this time of year. The mosquitoes are supposed to be gone — NOT! — and we should be settling into a new set of activities. There’s still garden work to do, but it’s the routine cutting back, heaping the compost pile, throwing in some fertilizer, and maybe watering the shrubs for the last time. There’s anticipation in the air as fall explodes in masses of colour that we all know will soon fade.
Before the last hurrah of summer dies out, it’s good to take a break from our “busy busy all the time” and try for a little relaxation, an afternoon of contemplation and calm. My dear friend and I had just such a day sitting above the grapevines at Kin Vineyard, enjoying a quiet lunch with solitude and only the sound of the birds above us. Sunshine on fields, blue sky, and a small tipple of wine made the afternoon feel like a full week’s Tuscan holiday.
You could sit by the river at the Mill of Kintail or Gemmill Park, or a hundred other soothing places and get the same repose. Your dog at your side, a picnic lunch — what could be more restorative than that?
Before fall closes our favourite haunts, we should buy ice cream once or twice, and try to carry that flavour through to next spring. Savour too the scent of fresh mown fields, corn in a silo, even manure being spread. Walk in a pumpkin patch; visit a fair with barn animals; indulge the senses with the abundance of fresh produce: squash, peppers, dill. Buy fresh apples and taste the fall goodness.
When the wood is gathered in and the hot tub is closed for the season, when there is little left to do but put on the winter tires and ready the snow shovels, we’ll enjoy country drives on sunny days until indoor activities are inevitable.
Then it’s time to get out the jigsaw puzzles. There’s a pursuit that can use up hours in no time flat. And what do we have to show for that? A lovely finished picture is returned to its box the very next day. There’s also the knitting that’s lain dormant for several months. I don’t know if I even remember where I left off. At least when I get back to it, I’ll have one more pair of socks in the drawer.
For the time being, I want to enjoy October and all it offers. I will go outside and rake leaves just for the pleasure of the crisp air and geese overhead. I’ll stand in the woods and listen to the squirrels dropping acorns while the jays argue about whose cache that should be. The one thing I won’t abide is the hole the chipmunk is once again carving in the yard. I thought I’d won that battle, but he moved locale.
Our hummingbirds have left, a sure sign that soon the robins will be gone too, along with the sparrows and warblers. The chickadees are moving back to the house area, and the jays are insisting I should be filling the feeder. Squirrels that were deep in the woods for the summer are bouncing across the yard, and hoping there will be peanuts this year.
Before long all the glory of the season will be over, and we’ll be into the fall and winter routine, looking forward once again to spring. In the meantime, we need to stop the bustle and enjoy each day for what it brings us. I love having seasons that change, and we all know that change is the only constant. We need to embrace it instead of always wishing we were in another season, another month. On the cusp of winter, remember the beauty of summer and fall, and then look forward to the beauty of winter. It’s there if we look.
“When I took drama in high school, it was life-changing for me,” says Adam Pelletier, Stage Manager for Humm Team Productions’ upcoming show The Wizard is… Odd!? “To become involved in something so collaborative was… well… I can’t really describe it. There’s nothing quite like theatre,” Adam is at a loss for words at one point during our conversation.
At the ripe old age of thirty-two, Adam has been active in community theatre for nearly fourteen years. He has worked on and off stage in numerous productions with multiple theatre companies in Ottawa and environs. Most recently, he starred in Mauritius at Kanata Theatre, and in Hilda’s Yard at The Ottawa Little Theatre (I saw him perform in the latter and was hugely impressed). He has also directed shows such as Guys and Dolls, Candle on the Table, and Clue. Now he’s trying his hand at stage managing for The Wizard Is… Odd!? Here’s what he has to say about that: “There’s something really special about this show. Folks always seem to be in a good mood at rehearsals and it’s infectious. Everyone is upbeat when they come through the door — the stress of the day lifts off your shoulders and you just have fun.”
The show’s Musical Director, Ian Guenette, agrees the production is special. “Most community theatre companies put on big shows that have already proven to be successful — things like The Sound of Music, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, or something Shakespearian,” Ian says. “But this show is totally original. The script is original, and incredibly, so is the music. Everything has been built from scratch by local talent.”
Ian, who has accompanied local choirs and theatrical productions, is well-loved and well-respected in our musical community despite his relative youth — he’s only twenty-eight. He trained formally at McGill university and is now attending the University of Ottawa with the goal of attaining a bachelor of education degree and becoming a high school music teacher. (It strikes me that community theatre might a good practice ground for that career choice!)
“It’s been interesting and fun to collaborate on the music and to see both the score and the lyrics evolve over the past six months,” Ian reflects. “Mike McCormick, who is an amazing songwriter, composed the core tunes, and several of us jointly wrote the rest. The songs are catchy and the cast love them. I think our audiences will too.”
Other members of the production team may be a little longer in the tooth (like me!), but they are equally passionate about the project.
“My job is to create the visual world of the play,” says Kairiin Bright, who designed the set for The Wizard is…Odd!?
Kairiin holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of British Columbia and is a member of Associated Designers of Canada. She has worked in theatres across Canada designing sets, lights and costumes and has taught stage design at Concordia University in Montreal. During her years in Quebec, she designed both English and French language productions. She now lives in Smiths Falls where she produces short films and online courses that help teach how to combat financial crime.
“From the actors’ and audiences’ perspective, The Wizard of Oz is a relatively minor element—this show is really about the emotional roller coaster that goes along with mounting a community theatre production. For the set designer though, all of the scenic elements come from The Wizard of Oz,” Kairiin explains.
“It’s been a lot of fun discovering the Oz-like world of this show and working with such an enthusiastic and cooperative production team,” she adds. You can see more about Kairiin’s design process for this project on The Wizard is… Odd!? Facebook page.
In contrast to Musical Director and wannabe teacher Ian, Director Kris Riendeau left teaching twenty-five years ago to become co-owner (along with her husband Rob) of our arts and entertainment monthly theHumm, which you happen to be reading right now! “I’ve always been interested in community theatre, and in fact I met both my husband and Mike McCormick when I was doing theatrical productions at Queen’s back in the day,” Kris says. “But I got hooked on locally-created shows when I started directing musicals by Fern Martin about a decade ago. Then in 2019, Rob and I wrote and produced Who Stole Christmas from Mississippi Mills, which starred Mike as the Grinch and featured one of his original songs.”
“The cast and crew were amazing, we had a fabulous time rehearsing, and the audiences absolutely loved the show,” Kris recollects. “And then there was Sketchy Santa in 2022, and Spinning Yarns a year ago, both of which were really well received by the community.”
“I think audiences will love this show too,” Kris says. “It’s our love letter to community theatre, as well as to small communities in general and the quirky folks who make them special. The play is fun and funny. People will laugh a lot and maybe cry a little too, because we’re digging into what it means to be — or not be — a welcoming community. Most importantly, they’ll be entertained by the songs, the amazing performances, and the energy they experience when they come to a show. I can’t wait!”
As publicist, I’ve had the pleasure of attending all the rehearsals and watching the show take shape. It’s going to be a cracker, believe me. See you in November.
The Wizard is… Odd!? runs on November 8 and 15 at 7:30pm, with 2pm matinées on November 9, 10, 16 and 17. Tickets are $32 for adults and $22 for youth under 18, and are available from Tickets Please (TicketsPlease.ca, 485–6434).
I don’t have to tell my readers that we got a boatload of rain this summer. A quick review of Environment Canada weather records as well as my own calendar notations reveal that rainfall for the months of June and July was in the range of 12 to 14 inches (most vegetable crops require about an inch of rain a week). Locally, many fields were flooded for several weeks — there can be a huge amount of variability in locations that are only a few kilometres apart.
A relatively normal May allowed us to plant virtually all of the Food Bank Garden at Blakeney. And then the deluge began and lasted through June and July. The abundance of water certainly did not affect all vegetable crops equally. In our two-acre garden we had a precipitous drop in the yields of tomatoes and potatoes. On the other hand, we had amazing crops of carrots, cabbages, beans, onions, garlic, sweet corn and squash. However, the moist hot conditions were great for the spread of disease. Cucumbers and zucchini started out strong but eventually met an early demise. Curiously, some vegetables such as squash, pumpkins, Bok choi and some lettuces suffered very poor germination and had to be replanted. On the other hand, carrots, which can be notoriously hard to germinate, sprang out of the ground almost as soon as the seed kissed the soil.
Global climate change is indeed a reality, but we are more likely to see more pronounced fluctuations rather than steady change. Gardeners and farmers have to be ready for just about anything. The best approach I have been able to come up with is to grow a diversity of vegetables.
This has been the fourth year of growing vegetables in our two-acre garden at Blakeney. The project began in 2021 with the donation of the use of a field and barn by generous land-owners The land is a small irregularly-shaped parcel squeezed between a county road and a 30-foot-deep ravine. Federal grant money paid for a large rototiller, a lawn tractor, a yard cart, hand tools, three large water tanks, work benches, a work shed, a large quantity of organic straw, seeds, seedlings and an irrigation system. In the first three years, 45,000 pounds of produce was grown for Food Bank clients.
2024 has been the first year that we had water lying in the garden for extended periods of time. Unfortunately, the water covered a large part of our potato patch and tomato patch — vegetables that definitely do not appreciate wet feet. Needless to say, harvests of potatoes and tomatoes were greatly reduced from previous years. After suffering endless deluges of rain, by mid-July we decided we had to do something about it. It was pretty clear that we had two areas where the water was not draining away.
We decided that it would be very worthwhile to try to drain these areas. Many possibilities were discussed. A buried drainage tile won out over an open ditch. The question then was how to dig a trench to bury the tile. There was a decided preference for a backhoe until a particularly robust and determined volunteer started digging. It seemed like human power could do it!
Not being a drainage expert, I went to our local Home Hardware store and described what I needed — minutes later I had purchased two 100-foot rolls of Drainage Tile. I was a bit non-plussed when I was asked if I wanted a ‘sock’ on it but readily agreed. Apparently in clay soil it helps keep the tile from filling with soil. The final product was two 100-foot tiles running from the low point over to our ravine. The whole exercise took less than a week.
An unexpected benefit of digging the ditch and installing the tile was the reaction of volunteers. They actually seemed to enjoy the back-breaking labour and bonded with their workmates. I couldn’t get them to sing old protest songs as they worked, but there really was a spirit of camaraderie as each shift tried to outdo the others.
Central to the success of the Blakeney Project is a large roster of volunteers. We encourage volunteers to commit to a three-hour shift once a week over the growing season, generally May to October. Many volunteers are keen to follow the development of the garden from planting to weeding to harvest and final clean-up. We currently have over 40 volunteers who show up faithfully every week for their shift (okay, we do allow them to take a few weeks off for holidays). We also have volunteers who are not keen on weeding and killing bugs in the hot sun, and they get involved in planning and other short-term projects. We are really excited to see volunteers coming back for a third or fourth season! If you are interested in being part of our project in the future, please phone the Lanark County Food Bank (the Hunger Stop) at 257–8546 or email them at <lcfb.thehungerstop@gmail.com>.