As you walk away from the farmers’ market with your canvas bags filled with fresh local produce, plants, organic meats and assorted other delicious goodies, you just can’t help feeling good. Supporting small-scale market farms means voting with your dollars for the option that is easier on the planet than large, mono-crop industrial farms. Having to plan the trip to the market means planning meals, which is a great way to reduce both wasted food and extra trips to the grocery store. Growers at the market are proud of what they sell, and their primary goal is to produce food that tastes great and is full of nutrients, instead of stuff that needs to survive a trip across an ocean and most of a country in a shipping container.
For all those reasons and many more, we put out a call to all of the Farmers’ Markets in our catchment area. Here’s what they have to say about the start of the season!
The Almonte Farmers’ Market is happy to announce our Opening Day will be Saturday, May 22, from 8:30am to 12:30pm in the Library Parking Lot. As of press time the Health Unit is restricting participation to include only farmer vendors at the onset, but we will cross our fingers that we are able to have our other valued vendors back in action as quickly as possible. Until that time, we are grateful to be able to offer goods such transplants, fresh organic produce, organic pork, local honey, maple syrup, preserves and more! Please note that masks will be mandatory, and you will be asked to respect the rules set in place to ensure everyone’s good health. Are we looking forward to seeing the friendly faces of our wonderful patrons at the market? Absolutely! For updated vendor information or our Covid protocol, please visit <almontefarmersmarket.com>.
Everyone is invited to the Carleton Place Farmers’ Market — at the Market Square on the corner of Lake Avenue and Beckwith Street — each Saturday morning from 8:30am to ??:??pm, beginning on May 8. Besides purchasing fresh seasonal produce, baked goods (with gluten-free options), prepared meals and homemade crafts for yourself or as gifts (once restrictions allow), you can feel good about supporting local growers and producers. Come on out and cultivate a relationship with your local producers! Supporting the Carleton Place Farmers’ Market will make you part of a special place that is creating community. Find us on Facebook or Instagram, or check out <cpfarmersmarket.wordpress.com> for current info. Covid restrictions apply.
The Carp Farmers’ Market takes place on Saturdays from 8:30am to ?pm at the Carp Fairgrounds. Our ???? season runs from May ? through to October ??. Complementing the primary produce and meat producers, the market also features bakers and other prepared-food vendors, as well as a range of hand-made craft products of the highest quality. The Carp Farmers’ Market is proud to be a producer-only market, which means that all of the vendors make, bake or grow what they sell! We encourage all of our customers to read over our COVID-19 protocols before attending the market. Please visit <carpfarmersmarket.ca> for more information.
Located on the Tay Basin outside the Crystal Palace, the market is open Saturdays — rain or shine — from 8am to ?pm, from May 8 right through to Thanksgiving weekend. The Farmers’ Market is considered an essential service during lockdown and will have food, plant and producer vendors no matter what. Our market will operate under the guidance of the health unit with health and safety controls in place. For detailed information, visit the market’s website at <perthfarmersmarket.ca> or like us on Facebook and Instagram for updates!
Free Editing Workshops
After offering an Editing Workshop as part of theHumm’s Winterwords initiative, Sarah Reside <editsandrevisions.com> is planning two more free Zoom sessions in May! On May 8 at 7pm, you can learn about The Three Core Types of Editing. This workshop is designed for new authors who have finished the first draft of their manuscript and are looking for the clear next steps in their publishing journey.
Then on May 15 at 7pm, Sarah will dissect the Anatomy of a Memoir. Learn how you can write a compelling memoir by analyzing the conventions used by some of the genre’s bestsellers.
To register, email <sarah@editsandrevisions.com>. Each workshop is limited to only 5 participants, so don’t delay!
Jennifer Anne Kelly — The Glass is Way More than Half-Full
Sally Hansen
Art… and Soul
Last month our featured artist was Inuk jeweller and sculptor Kaajuk Kablalik, and our April cover featured a stunning glass qajaq in addition to his distinctive jewellery. The two-year qajaq project was the result of a fortuitous series of coincidences facilitated by Mississippi Mills glass artist Jennifer Anne Kelly, whom we first featured in October of 2012. When we learned that Kelly will soon be relocating to Ottawa — the “Big City” — we wanted to celebrate her decades of beautiful and innovative contribution to the Valley arts scene, and understand why she was leaving her beloved home and studio on the shore of the Mississippi River.
Searching for magic. Conjuring with glass. Providing celebrations of nature in sculpture. This is how she describes her artistic journey. But there is an ironic twist to her love of the outdoors.
Now Jennifer has had to become indomitable, invincible and indefatigable. After two years of unremitting pain and fatigue and fear, she persists in conquering the ravages of a medical misdiagnosis. Following a teaching trip to the U.K. two years ago, she returned to her idyllic riverside home near Almonte only to experience an onslaught of mysterious and debilitating health concerns.
May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month
It took two years of intense personal research, unremitting battles with the Canadian medical system, and thousands of dollars to finally receive word in January from a diagnostic lab in Germany that she had Lyme disease. Her Canadian tests had been inaccurate. (Current research suggests that up to 50% of Lyme tests both here and in the U.S. are inaccurate!) As Kelly puts it, “If I hadn’t had resources (e.g., personal research skills and contacts and a supportive husband and enough money to pursue alternative medical opinions), I would still be struggling to understand what was happening to me.” As it is, she now is pursuing drug options from the U.S. because the protocol and the drugs she needs for treating late-stage Lyme disease are not available in Canada. Her medical condition leaves her unable to navigate the multi-level home they love in Mississippi Mills. During Lyme Disease Awareness month, her advice to anyone suffering from undiagnosed chronic pain is that they should insist on Lyme disease testing outside of Canada.
The Magic of Glass Kiln Flow
Jennifer’s relationship with her glass art has only grown stronger throughout this ordeal. Her “search for magic” through this mesmerizing and precariously malleable medium is her salvation. As many other artists testify, being “in the flow” transcends worries, obliterates pain, and feeds the soul. Her art grows increasingly elegant as she pursues her gravity-defying experiments in sculpting nature’s exquisite small gifts. Mushrooms, snails, pinecones, feathers — no detail is too challenging as she pursues her fascination with her chosen medium. Although Lyme disease “makes for a very complicated relationship with our natural environment,” nature remains Kelly’s inspiration and salvation.
This is how she describes it: “The common glass thread through all my work is the contemplation on the human experience in our natural world. Humans have always had a deeply emotional relationship with the world around us. We interpret metaphors in these scenes. We struggle at times to relate and at other times feel a profound interconnectedness with the universe. I create in glass as one would write a poem. It is at once deeply personal and yearning to be shared. When someone views my creation and has a deep connection, I am overjoyed.”
An Unexpected Bonus
In her typically upbeat manner, Jennifer has repurposed the Covid-19 pandemic as a motivator to reinvent the way she teaches glass sculpting. She was always stymied by the architectural constraints that made her country studio/workshop inaccessible to students with special needs. But, as she puts it, “It’s amazing what we can come up with when life hands us challenges.” In typical “can do” Kelly fashion, the forced Covid closure of her workshop led to the development of a glass kit delivery service — you can take the project home and work at your own pace. The kits come with all the glass and tools and the cutting mat and absolutely everything needed for the do-it-yourself-at-home project. She provides basic “how-to” videos augmented by written instructions. When the student completes their composition, Kelly picks it up, fires it in her kiln, and the neophyte glass artist becomes the proud recipient of their first artwork. The take-home kits are a good business response to compensate for not being able to teach, and the improved accessibility is a huge bonus for everyone. Jennifer intends to expand the kits as a permanent offering at her new studio in Ottawa while still servicing the rural areas. You can see some of the impressive results by first-time glass artists at <glasskits.ca>.
Believe it or not, Jennifer has found an upside to the daunting combination of long-term Lyme disease coupled with prolonged Covid pandemic restraints. Her cheerful demeanor and infectious laugh seem at odds with her situation, and her explanation is classic Kelly. She credits the double whammy with having forced her to reevaluate her previous fixation with “how much I could accomplish in a day.” She has shifted her mood and her focus on to more meaningful pursuits, like working with a documentary artist on a “rewilding in glass” proposal…
A Brief Backstory
Jennifer Anne Kelly was born in Ottawa to a journalist father and a mother who was a skilled creator and a nurse. Jen completed her formal education with a degree in literature from Carleton University, and began following in her mother’s creative footsteps as the result of a stained-glass course at the age of 22. After raising two kids and partnering with her husband Patrick in their real estate company (now @kellysuccessrealestate), she gradually grew into fulltime glass sculpting, taking advanced courses at Corning Glass Studio, Pittsburgh Glass School, Urban Glass in New York, and Bullseye Glass Studio in Portland OR. In 2013 she was hired to create glass pieces for Cirque du Soleil and began to pursue her glass creativity as a fulltime occupation. Since leaving Cirque a few years ago, her time has been incredibly well spent in creating stunning and impossibly intricate glass tributes to the natural world with which we are so inextricably entwined. She has also been invited to teach her own techniques in places like Nova Scotia and Bristol, England.
The back of Jennifer Anne Kelly’s Artist’s Trading Card on the next page provides the coordinates that lead to a fuller appreciation of this amazing woman’s artistic talents. She has been accepted as a participant in the now online Toronto Outdoor Art Fair from July 2–11 and is represented in private collections and at several Canadian galleries.
And please be vigilant for tick bites! Your Intrepid Arts Reporter has just been bitten by a Black Legged Deer Tick in her garden…
Local Libraries are Flourishing!
— Karen DeLuca is the CEO / Head Librarian at the Arnprior Library
A new international study on the impact of public libraries speaks to the current state of libraries in our region: we are flourishing!
Longstanding library card holders are getting their books, DVDs and magazines via curbside service in record numbers. Many residents are discovering, or re-discovering, the depth of resources available in their communities — whether digital or tangible.
Partnerships are key components of this success. Sometimes it’s the local service clubs that offer financial and/or volunteer support. Other collaborations provide expertise and talent to assist in the key areas of community building which include perspective and creativity.
To that end, the Arnprior Public Library is proud to partner on two major community endeavours this month.
On May 15, singer/songwriter Craig Cardiff <craigcardiff.com> will be releasing his new studio album with True North Records. The library is a co-presenter of this event, with 50% of ticket sales directly supporting the library. Tickets for the live-streamed concert with this Juno- and CFMA-nominated talent are available now at Eventbrite and <arnpriorlibrary.ca>.
The library is also thrilled to continue its partnership with The Ottawa Valley Creative Arts Open Studio <ov-caos.org>. Its mandate is to promote the integration of visual arts, music, drama and other creative arts into the lives of individuals, families and communities in the Ottawa Valley.
Starting this month, OV-CAOS will be facilitating the community creation of Book Art. Participating libraries will be offering creative kits assembled by three talented staff members of the Arnprior Public Library. The completed works will be on display in October at nine participating libraries including Renfrew, Perth and Arnprior. The kits provide all the components and instructions for three themed projects:
Installation 1: Welcome to my World. Participants will create a miniature world diorama box that shares their inner world with the outer world.
Installation 2: Building Community. Participants will create little houses, trees and people that explore ideas of how to build healthy communities.
Installation 3: Taking Flight. Participants will create little birds that will be suspended from branches mounted overhead in Ottawa Valley libraries. Taking Flight explores ideas of emerging from isolation, venturing out into the world and looking into the future.
Additionally, the Arnprior Public Library will host a variety of exhibits between May 2021 and November 2022 as part of its ongoing partnership with the OV-CAOS.
Lockdown Scavenger Hunt:Food Foraging with Kids
Sarah Kerr
Lockdown has been an interesting experiment (that’s the nice way of saying it) for our family who travelled a lot pre-pandemic. Our kids collected a patchwork of stamps on their passports in their short lives — being toted along for work and leisure. But with that luxury screeching to a halt over 14 months ago, we’ve channelled this creative energy into our own backyard. Like many of our neighbours, our homesteading game is now strong — the kids are collecting eggs each morning and checking the garden for snow pea sprouts. Our spring chicks are nearly teenage birds, and the girls (aged 3 and 6) are teaching me bird names from their daily birdfeeder visits. And of course, we jumped on the pandemic puppy bandwagon to round out the farm. Some might say we’re clucking right along at friendly town mirco-farm!
Just Dandy: Dandelion Syrup
But despite the lengths we’ve gone to build garden beds and chicken coops, our girls really get excited about the magic of nature unfolding around us, naturally — case in point, the new dandelion sprouts! Now, you might think we’ve lost it as you’re battling back these weeds in your lawn (and you may be right), but we love them! We give our kids a bowl and send them out to the lawn to “harvest” these pretty flowers. In fact, we found a recipe last year from a Scandinavian blog that created a vegan honey using 50 dandelion flowers (yellow part only), 3 green apples, the juice of a lemon and a stalk of rhubarb (optional). Boil in 1 litre of water for half an hour and strain. Then add 500g of sugar, bring back up to a boil to thicken, and voilà — dandelion syrup! A perfect sweet treat to top your yogurt, pancakes, tea or lattes.
Red Clover Tabouleh
Another perennial spring green that pops up all over our lawn, for free, is red clover. This is not just fun for St. Patty’s Day! Yes, you can get the kids hunting for a 4-leaf leprechaun clover (which should buy you enough time for a cup of coffee). But you can also get them to pluck the fresh clover to throw into salads or make into a Red Clover Tabouleh, a recipe you can find on the “permacrafters” YouTube page. They do caution that too much red clover is not good for you and this is not a recipe for toddlers, nursing mothers or pregnant women due to the phytoestrogen content. But it does have traditional properties that make it good for menopause symptoms and is an anti-inflammatory. Just mix 2 cloves of garlic, juice of half a lemon, 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt with 1 heaped handful of washed and chopped clover leaves. Add to 4 tbsp of couscous, a quarter of a red pepper and half an onion. Let it sit for 15 minutes, and enjoy!
Spruce Tea with Honey
Now if you’re looking for something a bit easier, I suggest trying a good old-fashioned spruce tea. This tea is just hanging out in your backyard, and is filled with immune-boosting properties. Just snip 1–2 tbsp of needles and add to 1 cup of freshly boiled filtered water. Add honey (or dandelion syrup) to taste, and enjoy! You can also find recipes for spruce jelly or cookies if you really get into this.
As the season unfolds, the free food in our yard continues to pop up — we have wild strawberries that are the most tedious tiny berries to harvest, but when you have small hands they’re perfect for fairy tea parties. And if you’re lucky enough to live close to a berry bush, you might be able to find some raspberries (check along the rail trail) or blueberries. You can get really into this and search out the famous Valley fiddleheads that you can fry up with butter and a pinch of salt. I hope you get out into nature and find a little snack hiding in plain sight that you maybe never noticed before. And if you do, I would love to hear about your favourite food foraging treats and your secret spots!
Stay sane, families.
Yours in solidarity,
Masks and Art at MERA
Spring is here, summer is coming, and MERA is optimistically planning another outdoor art show for May 22. This is a call for local artists and artisans to join the outdoor show.
A special event will be the “cruise and reuse show” by the MERA art circle. They have made art using found objects from the reuse.
Another special feature will be the optional “masquerade”. Visitors and exhibitors will be invited to come to the exhibition wearing a mask. It can be large or small, a face or head covering, but it must conform to the health rules and cover the mouth and nose.
There is also a children’s event planned, to paint a large mural.
MERA will comply with all health rules and social distancing. If the lockdown is continued after May 22, this event will be postponed until June. For more information about the exhibition, and how to register please visit <meraschoolhouse.org>.
MVTM Wants to Exhibit Your Textile Crafts!
During the pandemic, an unprecedented amount of crafting has occurred. From the first lockdown in March 2020, uncertainty, anxiety, and a whole lot more time at home has inspired many of us to turn to crafting as a soothing balm for our minds.
The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum wants to see the textile projects that you completed in 2020 or are working on in 2021. “Though it’s been a while since we’ve seen you, we know that you’re making loads of things at home,” says Melanie Girdwood-Brunton. “We have recently launched a virtual gallery on our website, and we’d like to show your textile work. Whether you are a keen textile newbie, picking up a long-forgotten project, or making crafts with the kids — no matter! Any project, big or small, with a textile or fibre element to it is great.”
Please send in a maximum of three of your best pictures of your textile craft project (they are a textile museum, after all!), with a short description of the work. Pictures with your name and description will be posted on their new virtual exhibit page at <mvtm.ca/virtual-exhibits/>. They will do their best to post all work submitted, however submissions will be selected for clarity and relevance.
Crafters are asked to include the maker’s name and location (e.g. Jane Smith, Almonte ON) and the type of textile project (e.g. finger knitted scarf) with their submission. Please also describe what you have enjoyed about making it, and how crafting has helped you during this time (2–3 sentences only please). Save all pictures and the text together as one PDF document, and name the file: YOUR LAST NAME.FIRST INITIAL.Covid crafts.PDF. Please submit questions and files to Melanie Girdwood-Brunton at <m.girdwood@mvtm.ca> by September 1, 2021.
One Magic Summer The Academy for Musical Theatre’s Safe & Interactive Summer Camp Experience
Heidi Stepanek is a professional and experienced musician, stage director and drama educator who has built a career out of her love of working with children, and her passion for musical theatre. 24 years ago she founded the Perth Academy of Musical Theatre (PAMT), which has since transitioned into The Academy for Musical Theatre <musictheatre.ca> and now operates in both Perth and Ottawa. This summer, The Academy is offering a creative and Covid-safe summer musical theatre experience for young people.
theHumm: I’ve checked out the One Magic Summer programs on your website, and I can’t get over how many activities and features are packed into six weeks. Can you give our readers a quick overview of what participants can expect — from the time the “special delivery package” arrives at their home right through to the final performance?
Absolutely! As it’s been a difficult year for all, but especially for our young people who desperately need music, creativity and connection in their lives right now, our goal is to create not just a camp but a full experience, to ensure that our children know that there is still lots of magic in the world, and to have a chance to experience it firsthand.
So, firstly, a very special package will be hand-delivered to each cast member’s door in early June, which will include the scripts, sheet music, materials for creating costumes and props, as well as some very special surprises (we don’t want to give any spoilers here!) for four different exciting productions. Each student will have the chance to peruse the scripts and scores, and prepare a (fun — not scary!) individual audition to perform in person, at either the Gladstone Theatre in Ottawa, or at Code’s Mill on the Park in Perth (with Covid protocols in place), or, alternatively, on video if in-person is not possible, in early July. Each student will receive detailed positive feedback on their audition (to boost their confidence and to assist them in preparing for similar audition experiences, should they choose to pursue theatre in the future), and each will be cast as a lead role (one of their three top choices) in the production of their choice! We firmly believe that every child is a star, and so each one of them is considered a valued leader in the cast and will have at least one singing solo and several lines. Each student will also be a chorus member in the other three productions, so that they have a chance to experience how important — and fun — it is to perform powerfully as a team.
Once the shows are cast, the exciting rehearsal process will take place through July and August in a series of professionally recorded videos by our talented staff, teaching the choreography, vocals, scene blocking, and how to make costumes and props at home from the package materials. These videos will be available to our cast members on-demand and can be watched and practiced with whenever is convenient and as often as they wish. Also, each week we will have a live Zoom vocal technique class, as well as a dance technique class, and each Wednesday evening will be live Zoom rehearsals with our casts of each show to have fun performing together! These Zoom “mini performances” will also be recorded and will become a part of the final video later.
The culmination of the summer will be our final performance, which will take place on the stage of the beautiful Gladstone Theatre. As we don’t anticipate being able to have an audience or a full cast gathered together indoors (due to Covid safety regulations), cast members will be scheduled for their final performance in small groups, with full Covid precautions in place. However, it will be truly magical, with cast members in full costumes with lights, sound, makeup, sets and props on the stage of the gorgeous Gladstone! The performance will be filmed by a professional videographer, and then edited together with the Zoom performances to create a beautiful final video that students and their families can have for years to come as a memory of this “magic summer!”
We also hope to have an epic final cast party — outdoors at a park in Ottawa, in accordance with Covid regulations of the time — to celebrate our summer together and the connections we have made.
I’m so excited already — it’s going to be a truly magical time together.
What shows will be featured in this summer’s performance, and how do you go about choosing your shows?
We always try to pick shows that will excite and inspire our cast members, that include positive messages, powerful music and large casts, so that every student has the chance to be a star and play a lead role. We always try to balance a diverse repertoire so that there is something for everyone to get excited about, and also attempt a balance between newer material and classics, though this season is certainly a lot more on the “newer” side of that spectrum!
When choosing shows for this special summer, we knew that we would be condensing and combining four shows together into one “compilation” production for all of our students, rather than our usual format of offering one full-length production per workshop. We had to take into consideration which shows we would be able to secure copyrights to in a condensed form, but also wanted to ensure that they were topical and exciting! We were very lucky this year that we were able to negotiate royalty contracts for four incredible shows — we can’t wait to share them with you! They are (insert drumroll here…)
Hamilton. The Greatest Showman. Wicked. Frozen 2. (mic drop.)
We are so excited to be able to offer such an all-star lineup of shows, and we can’t wait to get started!
Aside from learning to sing and dance, what are some other skills that you and your staff try to foster through your programs?
Our number one mandate at the Academy has always been to build confidence in our students. In this uncertain world, being able to have strength and take pride in your abilities and true self is of utmost importance, and we attempt to foster this in all our young stars. Public speaking and performing in front of a crowd is documented as being the number one fear for most people, and we strive to help our young students learn how to put their best and true self forward in a safe and supportive space. The huge sense of accomplishment that comes with successfully and passionately rehearsing and performing a role is incomparable to any other experience, and we are so full of joy when we see our young stars shine with the knowledge that they are capable, and can excel, at this!
On a related note, we want to ensure that all youth who wish to join us at the Academy are able to do so, and are not impeded by financial constraints, especially during these economically tough times. We have established a sponsorship program supported by local families and businesses who believe in the Academy programs — if you wish to learn more, please do contact us. We also encourage anyone wishing to donate to the sponsorship program to help a child have a magical experience this summer to contact us at <musictheatre.info@gmail.com>.
One Magic Summer runs from July 2 to August 14. The All-Ages Program includes ages 6–16, and the Advanced Teen Program (offering a higher level of instruction for students who have had considerable musical theatre experience, and who would like a greater challenge) is for ages 12–18. Registrations should be submitted by the end of May at the latest, so that each student’s special delivery package arrives in early June. All details can be found at <musictheatre.ca>.
Protecting Our Pollinators CNL Youth Group for Climate Action Devises an Inspiring Community Project
Chandler Swain
As our Ottawa Valley spring moves into high gear, May is the month for us to enthusiastically embrace our short, sweet growing season. When the pandemic began changing our world last year, we started realizing what was most essential, and found it around our homes and throughout our communities. All activities related to being out in nature took off wildly!
My first awakening to how widespread this trend was came when I couldn’t find so much as a package of lettuce seed to start my little kitchen garden. Even online seed suppliers were sold out everywhere. You could hardly find a bicycle to buy either — our collective desire to connect with nature had been awakened! We wanted to be outside, and we began noticing the quiet from less traffic; we were hearing the birds! We saw things we usually were too busy to notice. In this second year of being relegated to local, home-bound activity, my hope is that we are ready for a deeper understanding of how to help our precious planet that has been a source of healing in our collective soul.
One thing that is increasingly on many gardeners’ minds is how we can enhance our growing spaces to help all the pollinators that we rely on.
Some research into the issue reveals that climate change, pesticide use and habitat loss around the world have caused a large percentage of pollinators to be wiped out. Since a majority of the world’s plants need pollinators to reproduce — and without them we would have no fruits, vegetables, or seeds — we’ve had to become aware of what they need to thrive and bounce back.
One increasingly popular remedy is purposely creating special gardens to support pollinators with native plants they are drawn to. So it’s great to know that there is a dedicated local team who are planning to roll out a project — with the community’s help — to grow these special gardens.
Let me introduce Grace Hill, Jordan-Anne Rich and Clara Misener, members of Climate Network Lanark’s Youth for Climate Action Group (for background on this group, see the CNL Article in the February 2021 issue of theHumm). These youth are now also Butterflyway Rangers through The David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway Project. They are joining with many others across Canada to promote and grow pollinator-enhancing places in our community and raise awareness of the importance of this issue.
Jordan-Anne, who is passionate about protecting nature, tells me she saw the Butterflyway Project as a chance to contribute in a meaningful way to the environment and to connect with like-minded individuals in the community.
Clara learned to garden with her Grandpa, who had magnificent gardens filled with all kinds of insects and birds. When she learned about the declining populations of these species, it became a passion of hers to help promote the expansion of the habitat these pollinators need.
Grace grew up spending a lot of time in nature and helping in her mother’s garden. She learned early that pollinators were vital to a healthy planet, and felt that becoming a Butterflyway Ranger would be an effective way to protect them and grow awareness of their importance in the community.
Together, these local Butterflyway Rangers have devised a project that the whole community can support. All ages are welcome to participate and volunteer in a number of ways.
Buy One, Plant Two!
Their goal is to facilitate the planting of thirty-six 4?x4? pollinator patches spread across the communities of Perth and Mississippi Mills.
Supporters can participate in a “Buy one, Plant two” program. This donation program puts a pollinator patch on your property and allows us to fund and plant another garden in the community — at a school or a park, for example. Participants receive a 4?x4? pollinator patch prepared and planted by the rangers, consisting of three native plant varieties, a bee habitat feature, a handmade wooden pollinator garden sign, and care instructions.
If you would like to participate or if you have native plants or seeds to donate, please email <lanarkclimate@gmail.com>.
And for further information on pollinator habitat, check out this link to read about how Lanark County has partnered with the Canadian Wildlife Federation to increase pollinator habitats on rights-of-way corridors: <cwf-fcf.org/en/news/releases/2020/great-canadian-pollinator.html>.
The Garden Calendar
David Hinks
During the second week of April, daily high temperatures were averaging 20 degrees and more — folks on Facebook were clamouring to get out in their gardens and plant — I even saw questions about planting tomatoes in the garden. Fast forward to snow on April 21 and folks were asking if they need to cover up their spring bulbs. Certainly one hallmark of spring weather is its volatility.
It seems to me that this year is an indicator that the timing of many of the things that we observe in our gardens is changing. Phenology (not to be confused with phrenology) is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate. Examples include the date of emergence of leaves and flowers, the first flight of butterflies, the first appearance of migratory birds, the date of leaf colouring and fall in deciduous trees, and the dates of egg-laying of birds. Observations by citizen scientists help track these changes and relate them to climate change — your observations are important particularly if they have been made over many years.
Much as we gardeners would like to think that climate change will bring more benign growing conditions, the reality is much more likely to be more extreme temperature swings and volatility, and a higher probability of drought. Facing these challenges, it is almost impossible to overstate the importance of trying to match the growing requirements of plants with the expected weather conditions in the growing season.
The first concept to master is that some vegetables prefer cool conditions and have resistance to frost while others need hot conditions and are very vulnerable to frost. For cool-loving plants think greens, the onion family, and cabbage and its many relatives. For heat-loving think tomatoes, peppers, and vine crops such as squash and cucumbers.
Another very important consideration is soil moisture. Virtually all vegetables require a minimum of an inch of moisture a week. I may well be proven wrong, but I like to think that root crops in particular planted early in spring are better able to capitalize on spring melt and not be as vulnerable to mid-summer droughts.
For all you Royalists, I regret to report that Victoria Day is not sacred and you should not hold off and plant all of your garden on the May 2–4 weekend! In fact, long before Victoria Day over half of my vegetable garden is planted. By then I am even harvesting and eating some of the early crops such as lettuce, radish and spinach.
The Victoria Day rule for planting the garden in our area is still an important one for heat-loving and frost-sensitive plants such as peppers, eggplant, basil, pumpkins, melons and cucumbers. However, there are a large number of vegetables that can be planted in the garden as early as the first week of April. Some years I have planted peas, onions, lettuce and spinach as early as the last week of March. This year I planted carrots April 13, onion sets April 14, and potatoes April 17.
An early start is essential for plants that do not tolerate heat. Our Ottawa Valley spring can be incredibly short, with snow still on the ground at the end of April and 30-degree temperatures by late May. Some plants such as peas, broccoli, cabbage and turnip grow quickly in cool temperatures and practically stop growing in the heat of the summer. Lettuce and spinach will “bolt” — that is, produce flowers — when temperatures climb above 20°C, resulting in bitter unpalatable leaves.
Onions and garlic are a special case. They need cool weather to produce the foliage which will provide energy for the bulbs that start forming when day length begins to shorten in late June. Garlic is very hardy, and I plant it in mid-to-late October for the next year’s crop — it emerges in mid-April and grows rapidly in cooler weather. For their early growth, onions prefer cool weather conditions and plenty of moisture.
Frost-hardy vegetables such as lettuce, onions, peas and spinach can be planted outdoors as soon as the ground can be worked, often by mid-April in the Ottawa Valley. Semi-frost-hardy vegetables such as beets, carrots, chard and potatoes are best planted in late April or early May as they germinate slowly in cold soil. This year I am taking a chance with carrots and potatoes as the very warm weather in early April warmed the soil considerably. An extremely early crop of carrots and potatoes is of much more value to me than a late crop when commercial growers are practically giving them away.
So, what happens if the weather turns really nasty? Onions, peas and spinach take frost and snow in their stride as do our spring blooms — no need to cover them.
Within our yards the spot where the snow melts first may well be a favourable micro-climate and a great spot for a super-early start. Raised beds and well-drained soil assist an early start by warming up much faster. In order to determine if soil is workable, take a handful and squeeze — if it stays together in a ball it is still too wet; if it crumbles it is ready. Time to get out and get planting!
The LovelyLook of Spring
Glenda Jones
In the fall, when we were on the cusp of nothingness (much like we are again now), I decided to go through the closet, haul out all my “good clothes” that I would normally have worn to lectures, concerts, and occasions when I didn’t want to look like I’d been dragged through a knothole backwards, and I’d alternate them every day, wearing something nice just because I could. This simple exercise boosted my morale no end. Besides that, I found sweaters at the bottom of the drawer that I hadn’t worn in ages.
I got so proficient at sorting out something new every day that I needed to strip out the whole closet and assess everything. Thus, the purple sweater that did nothing for me anymore got thrown in the Hub bag along with the red and black harlequin number that I’d had for years. A couple of others that I’d bought on a whim went as well. No use keeping things that I was sifting to the bottom of the pile regularly.
After Christmas, when I didn’t need anything more fashionable than fresh jeans and the sweater with a bit of sparkle, I decided to get rid of any shoes with heels, since obviously I wasn’t going to be needing those either. A good pair of flats, two pairs of Birkenstocks, my runners and my slippers were essential, so they all stayed.
Now, the problem with doing this closet thing is that there are empty hangers, but I steeled myself — for a whole month — until Judy Joannou’s email landed in my inbox. She presents the most cheerful exciting videos, done by her son no less, that lure me in to her shop every time. And were we all ready for an in-store experience by the end of February? Her videos make me think that if I only had that one gorgeous new item, my life would be glamorous and exciting, just like Judy promises. One look at her windows, and spring was beckoning — I was carried away to the LaLaLand of colour and charm.
I launched into spring with this heady idea that this year would be different than last. I’d had a haircut, I had succumbed to a couple of bright new spring garments, and I was ready! Not to be, it seems. Once again, my hair looks like everyone else’s, a little shaggy around the edges, our complexions are not rosy but rather hidden behind these masks, our wardrobes are lurking between spring and the chill that remains on many mornings, and I’m still not feeling the true spring love thing yet.
So bring on May, I say! I’ve washed the winter gear and refuse to even look at it again until next November. No more worn cuffs, doggy-chewed boots, holey mitts and toques, absolute fashion heartbreakers that don’t belong to spring. I want the colour, the sparkle, the lilt in the air that signals renewal and sunshine, lollipops and roses, or whatever passes for raised spirits.
I’m done with whining about the weather, and want the lovely look of spring. My daffodils surpass everything right now, plus we’re marvelling at the trilliums and trout lilies, and everything green and crisp.
And don’t forget our May melody: “The first of May, the first of May, naked gardening starts today.” With thanks to my sister who never fails to remind me of this little ditty!
A Poem to Carry us Through the Dark
Every day we have a choice:
Will we be happy, will we be grumpy?
Will we serve others, or demand they serve us?
Will we use our minds, or stagnate in sloth,
Will we put on a smile, put our pain in our pocket, put up with the foibles we can’t control, put our best foot forward and
Dance the dance of life to the best of our ability,
Picking up partners to laugh and sing along?
What will your choice be today?
Little did we know the dark would last so long!
Tickets PleaseKeeps on Humming!
Rob and Kris Riendeau (publishers of theHumm), along with Ann Hawthorne (former owner of Tickets Please), are delighted to announce that Tickets Please — the Ottawa Valley’s favourite local ticketing platform — will emerge from the pandemic ready to promote the heck out of our soon-to-be-vibrant arts and entertainment scene!
After successfully running the Perth-based business for the past ten years, Ann decided that she was ready to step back. When Rob and Kris approached her about taking over the business, she was delighted that area venues and events would continue to have a local ticketing outlet. Since theHumm has long been promoting many of the events that sell tickets through Tickets Please, it didn’t take long for all parties to realize this would be a great fit. “I have no doubt that you have excellent relationships with all these people and many more,” Ann told theHumm, “and they will all be thrilled if you can add ticket sales to your already amazing services.”
For their part, Rob and Kris are honoured to be associated with the business that Ann has built over the past decade. “We will continue to provide online and by-phone ticket sales,” Rob notes, “coupled with additional promotion in the print and online versions of theHumm, in our weekly ‘Hummail’ e-newsletter, and via social media.”
The Humm team is excited about forging new relations with venues and event organizers throughout the Valley, and helping to connect patrons with events again as soon as it is safe to do so. “Local theatres, music venues and performers have faced tremendous challenges over the past year, and we can’t wait to help them come roaring back,” Kris explains. “This aligns so well with everything theHumm has been doing for the past 22 years, and Ann has been extremely generous with her time in helping us get set up.”
Tickets Please will continue to operate under the same name and with the same phone number (613–485–6434). The newly updated website <ticketsplease.ca> officially launches on May 1.
Art in the Garden
Tickets Please is delighted to announce that they will be selling tickets to Kiwi Gardens’ annual Art in the Garden event, taking place this year on June 18–21 and 25–28. Tickets will be available in mid-May!