Country Roads Winter 2012

C O V E R I N G T H E A R T S , O U T D O O R S , H I S T O R Y, P E O P L E A N D P L A C E S

W I N T E R 2 0 1 2 / 2 0 1 3

Country Roadsdiscovering hastings county

Country Roads

discovering hastings county

Country Roads


Country Roads


RC

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4 I Country Roads • Winter 2012/2013

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 4, WINTER 2012/2013

Contents8 16

2722

F E A T U R E S

8 LARGER THAN LIFE Maynooth barn a source of

scientific wonders

16 PARADISE FOUND Conservation Areas preserve

nature’s treasure

22 STILL STANDING Sam the Record Man lives on in

Belleville

D E P A R T M E N T S

6 EDITORIAL

6 CONTRIBUTORS

7 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

15 JUST SAYING Snowing Donuts

21 HASTINGS TASTINGS Winter Classics

26 TELLING TALES Winter Reads

27 CROSSROADS

28 COUNTRY CALENDAR

29 MARKETPLACE

30 BACK ROADS Lumber Kings

SCAN TO VISIT COUNTRY ROADS WEB SITE FORCURRENT STORIES, WEB CONTENT, BACK ISSUES, EVENTS LISTINGS, AND MORE.

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5Winter 2012/2013 • Country Roads I


Country Roads


Country Roads


Country Roads


RCCO-PUBLISHER & EDITORNancy Hopkins613 395-0499

CO-PUBLISHER & EDITORJohn Hopkins613 395-0499

SALES DEPARTMENT Jennifer Richardson

[email protected] 613 922-2135

ART DIRECTORJozef VanVeenen

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSOrland French Angela Hawn

Gary MagwoodLindi Pierce

Michelle Annette TremblaySarah Vance

Shelley Wildgen

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERSLen Holmes

Jozef VanVeenen

HOW TO CONTACT US

Telephone: 613 395-0499Facsimile: 613 395-0903

E-mail: [email protected]: www.countryroadshastings.ca

For written enquiries you can reach us at: PenWord Communications Inc.

P.O. Box 423, Stirling, ON K0K 3E0

COUNTRY ROADS, Discovering Hasting County is published four times a year by PenWord Communications Inc. Copies are distributed to select locations throughout Hastings

County including the communities of Bancroft, Bel-leville, Madoc, Marmora, Stirling and Tweed.

Copies are also delivered to select homes within southern Ontario.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 1 year: $14.69 2 years: $27.13 3 years: $35.03

All prices include H.S.T.

The contents of this publication are protected by copy-right. Reproduction of this publication in whole or

in part without prior written permission of PenWord Communications Inc. is prohibited.

The advertising deadline for the Spring 2013 issue is February 22, 2013.

COVER PHOTO: Photo by Len Holmes

Made possible with the support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation


Statistics concerning Hastings County came to our attention recently. We believe they tell a story; the story of this community and the people that are part of it.

Two in particular stood out:– employment in the arts, entertainment, and recreation sectors has increased

by almost 57% since 2001.– there are 172 more businesses operating in Hastings County this year than

there were in 2010 and that doesn’t include Quinte West and Belleville. Hmm! Very interesting! Put them together and what do you get? Well, kind

of a synopsis of this issue of COUNTRY ROADS. The work of Maynooth artist, sculpture, taxidermist Kevin Hockley will blow your mind. What we

wouldn’t have paid to see his gigantic Titanoboa snake model travelling on an open trailer through the Hastings Highlands. But alas our story will have to suffice.

Sam the Record Man Belleville isn’t a new business. They’ve been here since 1979 but are now ‘The Last Sam Standing’. What a wonderful accomplishment. We are so grateful they’re here to support music for all who visit their Quinte Mall store.

The outstanding recreational spaces around us are preserved and protected by regional conservation au-thorities. Visit the terrain they watch and you will know why the land that is Hastings County is not only big but beautiful.

And speaking of the arts, IANA Theatre is a home grown troupe that has much to offer for future audi-ences. More arts, the homestead of poet Al Purdy has been preserved.

This being our Winter issue we must give a well deserved nod to the 35th presentation of the Marmora SnoFest. Let it snow, let it snow …

So, it looks like the stats don’t lie. We are alive with arts, entertainment, recreation and a stable of very admirable entrepreneurs. Aren’t we lucky!•Nancy & John Hopkins

Phot

o: H

aley

Ash

ford

e d i t o r i a l

c o n t r i b u t o r s

Lindi Pierce, of Prince Edward County UEL stock, enjoyed life in Vancouver, Grand Forks, BC and North Bay before settling on Hastings County as her adoptive home.

Lindi compensates for her deficits in local history by volunteer work at Glanmore Na-tional Historic Site and at the Community Archives of Hastings County. She indulges her passion for heritage architecture with her blog at ancestralroofs.blogspot.ca and by writing and photographing for ‘Country Roads’, Hastings County Historical Society’s ‘Outlook’ and other local publications.

In her spare time, this nature-nut joins her husband Denis, a vintage motorcycle frame designer/builder, on their camping, hiking and cycling expeditions, always on the lookout for another good house to snap.

With over twenty-five years experience in graphic design, Joe VanVeenen has garnered an impressive portfolio of achievements in his field. In addition to Country Roads, Joe is the Art Director for three other quarterly, national and international publications. His creativ-ity and flair are evident in the design awards he has won. Passionate about his work, Joe always endeavours to ensure that his design makes for a visual and pleasurable reading experience.

Angela Hawn thanks her lucky stars for landing in Hastings County after years of an ‘on the road’ lifestyle teaching ESL in Asia, Europe and the Canadian Arctic. Although she loves to travel, some chance meetings here with a few people in the publishing business finally allowed her to put to use a few things learned long ago at Carleton University’s journalism school.

When not writing or travelling, Angela enjoys the inspiration and humour consistent-ly delivered by the nine- and 10-year-olds seen in her day job as an elementary school teacher.

Her dream job? Why, travel writer, of course. Interested parties take note: for the right assignment, she’d work cheap. Closer to home, Angela seeks editorial advice and often, just plain old validation, from fellow travelling companions, husband, Mike, and their two incredible daughters, Maddie and Isobel.

Sarah Vance is a member of the Board of Directors for the Art Gallery of Bancroft and an active supporter of the Bancroft & Hastings Highlands Blues and Jazz Festival. She is an el-ementary teacher with the Hastings Prince Edward School Board and a member of the York River Public School Council, in Bancroft, where she works and where her children study. Sar-ah and her husband live in L’Amable, with their three children.

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Dear Country RoadsAs always, we thoroughly enjoyed the latest edi-tion of Country Roads. The article on The Tweed News (Aging Gracefully, Fall 2012) particularly caught our attention as it reminded us of how much we appreciate our own local paper.

Independently owned since it was established in 1894, The Bancroft Times has served the com-munity under that single name for 118 years. Owners Dave & Dean Walker are third genera-tion at The Times, having started in the 1960s. In this era of “enormous, multi-paper conglomer-ates” moving into every market, it is heartening to see the independents still contributing to their communities.

With a subscription price of less than the cost of a donut per week, we are always surprised that not everyone supports an institution that would be sorely missed after more than a century of ser-vice, especially considering the emphasis placed on our local history and heritage these days.

In another seven years we hope to see both The Bancroft Times and Country Roads still go-ing strong. Perhaps we’ll even see a story on an-other milestone, this time celebrating the 125th anniversary of our own paper here ‘north of 7’.

Gary & Lillian PattisonOrmsby

Dear Country RoadsI was very pleased to read the article on the res-toration and long term development of the CN station at Bancroft (All Aboard!, Fall 2012).

As a young brakeman on the mixed train from Trenton to Bancroft one December evening, in the midst of a light snowfall, looking at the brightly lit and decorated town it was as beauti-ful as any Christmas card.

On those few occasions I had to work on that train I enjoyed the trip.

Thanks for a very well written and attractive story.

Tom AllisonBelleville

Dear Country RoadsI especially enjoyed Michelle Annette Tremblay’s article All Aboard! about the restoration of the Bancroft Train Station.

The photo “Way Bills 1938” was impressive. The article would be a great addition to the his-torical archives of the Bancroft Train Station.

Sharon MisenerBancroft

Dear Country RoadsWhat a great addition Lindi Pierce is to your con-tributors! She’s knowledgeable and passionate about heritage architecture and she has the most engaging and pleasing writing style.

Hope to see many more articles from her.

Brenda SkinnerMadoc

Dear Country RoadsI love your magazine. I was reading the fall is-sue last night before bed...nice pictures, great stories, and makes you want to live forever in North Hastings...or move here like I did!

Moxie, Revival GalleryBancroft

Dear Country RoadsI read for the very first time the Fall 2012 edi-tion of Country Roads and was pleasantly sur-prised with the whole magazine from front to back cover.

It was tremendously interesting and I would like to sign up for a one-year subscription.

C. HealeyBelleville

,


Larger than lifeMaynooth barn a source of scientific wonders

BY SARAH VANCEPHOTOS COURTESY SARAH VANCE AND HOCKLEY STUDIOS


Dr. Jonathon Bloch, a paleontologist with the Smithsonian Institute of Tropical Research, describes his role in discovering the world’s largest

snake as “definitely a once-in-a-lifetime event.” In May 2012, when I accepted an assignment to photograph the unveiling of the deadly Titanoboa replica in New York’s Grand Central Station, I felt as if I was embarking on an experience of this kind.

The Titanoboa that would be put on display was a synthetic model fabricated by Hockley Studios, located in Maynooth, as a commission project for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The unveiling was being launched in conjunction with the documentary, ‘Titanoboa: Monster Snake,’ produced by the Smithsonian Channel and which is now available for viewing

There are some experiences that are characterized as “once-in-a-lifetime.” They defy our understanding and

require that we re-visit what we know.

by the Canadian public on the History Channel. During my assignment, I would document Kev-

in Hockley as he worked alongside a production company to stage and assemble the replica that he constructed from a simple prehistoric verte-bra fossil.

While once-in-a-lifetime experiences are fan-tastical, they are not improbable, and it is a se-ries of accomplishments that culminate towards their end. Jorge Moreno-Bernal, the intern who found the Titanoboa vertebra fossil in Cerrejón, Columbia, was not in the region by chance. Cer-rejon, a desert outback and coal mining town, is the place to be if you are a paleontologist. It’s a hub of discovery because it contains the larg-est fossil deposit known on our planet and it is the only ancient tropical ecosystem that time has preserved.

Bernal was working in partnership with the University of Florida, the University of Nebras-ka-Lincoln, and the Smithsonian Tropical Re-search Institute. Together this team, led by Dr. Bloch, Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontol-ogy at Florida, and Dr. Jason Head, a professor at Nebraska-Lincoln University, would discover the paleontologist’s equivalent of a “holy grail.” This discovery was built upon a foundation of exper-tise and it was made by some of North America’s most pre-eminent leaders in paleontology.

Titanoboa was controversial from the outset. And it would take the Smithsonian team the bet-ter part of three years to mathematically define its proportions and to conceptualize the habitat required to support it.

Just how big is Titanoboa? As wide as a door frame and longer than a New York City bus, this

(Facing page) Life size Titanoboa on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. (Above) Hockley Studios has been commissioned to make another Titanoboa for Science North, in Sudbury. This one is designed to be a crawl-through providing

an up close and personal look at the anatomy of the snake. The project is scheduled for completion in January 2013.


snake could weigh upwards of one and a half tonnes. It could open its mouth 180 degrees to take down and swallow prey the size of a Harley-Davidson. And that’s just the juvenile di-mensions.

After defining its mag-nitude, the Smithsonian’s next step would be to bring Titanoboa to life for the public. A designer with the expertise to develop a model of this snake would be essential. The anatomy would need to be comprised of six separate interlocking structures that behaved like pieces of a massive three-dimensional puzzle. This was necessary because the Titanoboa would be a mobile exhibit travelling to destinations across the United States. So the repli-ca needed a design that was streamlined, transportable and able to be assembled and deconstructed by dif-ferent on-site crews. It had to be as tough as nails, and above all, it had to be terrifying. It would require six crates and two 18-wheeler trucks to transport it. This was not a task for an amateur. This was a job for the best of the best.

So where does one find an artist with the talents for this task? Reputation goes a long way and, for the Smithsonian team, the recruitment process was a simple one. They went to Hockley Studios.

Located on the Hass Road, in the Hastings Highlands between Maynooth and Lake St. Pe-ter, Hockley Studios is known internationally as a source for natural history exhibit fabrica-tions and wildlife sculptures. Charles Poe of the Smithsonian Channel has been quoted as say-ing, “Kevin seemed like a natural choice. He had experience making museum-quality replicas, and even more important, he’d created some that seem larger than life. When you’re recreating the largest snake in world history it helps to have a background in the fantastical.”

Hockley describes Titanoboa as an “artist’s dream” and, like the fossil discovery in Colum-bia, it was a culmination of achievements and his established position in the field that made Hock-ley a “natural choice” for this assignment. Spe-cializing in wildlife themes, Hockley Studios has fabricated many of the models, dioramas, habi-tats and ecosystem replicas that comprise per-manent collections in institutions across North America. With over 30 years in the business, 12 as a Senior Taxidermist with the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto, Hockley’s instal-lations set the standard for cultural and natural history representations. The “larger than life” replicas that Poe refers to include synthetic mod-els of a giant spider crab and a squid that loom over spectators from the ceiling of the ROM’s Schad Gallery of Biodiversity.

Hockley dreams big. He has a repertoire of skills in his trade and an impeccable curriculum vitae. More importantly, he has provided North

America with a cultural ar-chive that is both compre-hensive and fantastical.

Operating from rural Hastings Highlands has never been an obstacle for Hockley.

“Work just comes to us,” he says. “I maintain a com-prehensive portfolio on my website (www.hockleystu-dios.ca) and since our cli-ent base is international, location has never been an issue. Many of our sup-pliers are located in urban centres so it is necessary to anticipate our needs well in advance and to stock up as necessary.”

The Municipali ty of Hastings Highlands, where Hockley Studios operates, is a hub of creative and cultural economies. The arts are at the essence of this region and interwoven into its landscape. In the 1930’s artists such as A.J. Casson, A.Y. Jackson and David Milne situated the

Highlands culturally in some of their most cel-ebrated paintings. Artists like Hockley continue to put it on the map. Spread out over 500km between Bancroft and Algonquin Park, Hastings Highlands is a habitat of painters, weavers, pot-ters, sculptors, musicians and writers. Hockley often requires large teams of people to complete his projects and working with local artists is how he gets the job done. Creative by nature, it is not a coincidence that Hockley Studios is set amidst festivals, farmers markets and the performing arts. Hockley’s work is inseparable from his environment, and as paleontologists flock to Cerrejone, so Hockley finds a muse in the Highlands.

Hockley came to the region in 1990 when he was seconded from the Royal Ontario Museum to build the permanent collection at a newly built Visitors’ Centre in Algonquin Park. While he was working on this project Hockley stayed in staff housing, near the East Gate of the Park in Whitney.

Hockley describes Titanoboa as an “artist’s dream” and, like the fossil discovery in Columbia, it was a culmination of achievements and his established position in the field that

made Hockley a “natural choice” for this assignment.

Dr. Jonathon Bloch (l) of the Smithsonian Institute and Dr. Jason Head (r) from Nebraska-Lincoln University led the team that discovered the Titanoboa vertebra fossil.

They are joined by Kevin Hockley as they get their first look at the finished model.


Photos clockwise from top left: Hockley seated in-side his creation during taping of the Smithsonian documentary at his barn in Maynooth; Hockley’s right hand person Kelly Ohlschlager helping to carve the Titanoboa model; Hockley promotes the ‘Titanoboa: Monster Snake,’ documentary in New York City; with the help of a large team Grand Central Station’s Vanderbilt Hall was transformed into a prehistoric habitat, and the 48-foot replica was assembled; an image from the making of ‘Titanoboa: Monster Snake,’ which can be seen on the History Channel.


Algonquin Park is also where Kevin met his wife Sharon and where she con-tinues her work today as a manager at the Friends of Algonquin Park Book Store. Together Kevin and Sharon provide leadership in the community, work-ing closely with school councils, the Maynooth Business Association, the North Hastings Communi-ty Fish Hatchery, the On-tario Stewardship Council and as the organizers of the Maynooth Team Penning Competition.

It is not easy to pinpoint whether Hockley is a sci-entist, an artist, a sculptor or a taxidermist, as all of these disciplines are at play in his work. Hockley is a quiet man who understates his accomplishments.

When I asked him to discuss how he develops a project from the idea stage to the point of installation, he had a unique way of deflating my question like an elephant.

“Napkin doodles!” he exclaimed. “That’s how most masterpieces begin. Many of my artistic concepts are developed over coffee and conversa-tion. I’m conducting a lot of meetings by Skype lately, but a pencil is the quickest device for de-scribing an idea as it unfolds”.

But there is a notable difference between “a napkin doodle” and a 48-foot prehistoric model. And it doesn’t take an artist to know that.

“But what do you do with the napkin after you have finished doodling on it?” I asked.

He paused for a moment, and then he looked me straight in the eyes and said, “I wipe my runny nose with it!”

While Hockley has no problems building his industry out of the Highlands, he acknowledges that, “location is one of the greatest challenges faced by museums.” The task of situating cul-tural legacies in a manner that is barrier-less and

engaging to the public is not easy. How do mu-seums get the everyday man to walk inside their doors and invest in cultural heritage?

The Smithsonian answered that question by placing the museum at the hub of one of the busiest consumer centres in the world -- Grand Central Station, New York City. This was a gutsy and an expensive move, which would cost over $25,000 for the two-day rental of Vanderbilt Hall alone. With over 500,000 people streaming through its doors every day, Grand Central was also a strategic target for situating one of big-gest scientific discoveries of our time. It doesn’t get any more central than Grand Central, and it doesn’t get any bigger than Titanoboa.

I landed at New York City’s LaGuardia air-port at 1:30am with just enough time to make my way through security and take a taxi to 42nd Street. The installation was scheduled to begin at 3:00am, which would leave Hockley and the pro-duction company a meagre three hours to trans-

I landed at New York City’s LaGuardia airport at 1:30am with just enough time to make my way through security and

take a taxi to 42nd Street.

form Vanderbilt Hall into a prehistoric habitat, and to assemble the 48-foot repli-ca against the backdrop of the New York City morning commute.

I arrived at Grand Cen-tral Station to find pas-sage onto 42nd Street al-most completely blocked by 18-wheelers. At the rear of one transport a group of 10 men, five on each side, were locked in an embrace with a crate in an attempt to hoist it out of the cabin. The sidewalk was a mess of synthetic trees, plant replicas, stage footings and television monitors. New York City canine units nav-igated through the activi-ties opening and inspecting the trucks. Inside Vander-bilt Hall the pace was mov-ing at double time. There was motion and flashes of light from every direction. Scaffolding reached the

height of the 40-foot ceiling and lined the pe-rimeter of the 12,000 square-foot room. Above my head, teams of electricians were installing projection monitors and track lighting, alongside five gold chandeliers that illuminated the hall. In the centre of the room a stage was being built.

I looked around for Hockley and found him standing inside a giant crate lifting out pieces of the Titanoboa model.

“Look!” a voice exclaimed. “It’s the tail!” A hush fell over the crowd followed by whis-

pers of confusion, as another technician ex-claimed, “No, it’s the head. There’s a crocodile inside its mouth!”

“That’s gruesome,” added an on-looker.Only one of six crates was opened and already

fear head been instilled.The first time I saw the Titanoboa model was

at the Army, Navy Air Force barn in Maynooth, a facility a quarter the size of Vanderbilt Hall. Hockley had transported the structure from his

This Mastodon sculpted from styrofoam with synthetic fur can be found at the Indiana State Museum.


Hockley Studios creates a wide variety of natural history exhibits and sculptures.

Clockwise from top left: This Poison Arrow Frog, the size of a Labrador retriever, resides at the Toronto Metropolitan Zoo where kids can climb over him; another reconstruc-tion of a prehistoric creature is the Puijila –which looks like an otter but is its prehistoric ancestor which can be found at the Canadian Museum of Nature; this life size Cari-bou – cast in bronze lives outside the visitor centre at Lake Superior Provincial Park; this taxidermy mount of a Caribou calf was done for the Ministry of Natural Resources; fiberglass was used to sculpt this horse which is part of a display at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon; Hockley works on one of four life size soldiers that have been deployed to Fort Henry in Kingston.


Now a mobile exhibit circulating with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES),

Hockley’s model makes it permissible to rethink our understanding of a species.

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studio in Lake St. Peter to the May-nooth Barn on an open trailer. While he was transporting the replica in order to develop promotional materials for the Smithsonian, Hockley acknowledg-es that, for an on looker, “just seeing a monster snake strapped to a trailer would create a rural legend.” Gauging from the reactions from the technicians, it was apparent that Titanoboa was as terrifying in Grand Central as it was at the Maynooth Barn.

It was now just a few hours before the unveiling, and the pressure was on. Ti-tanoboa was unpacked and Hockley was placing interlocking pieces on the stage. He worked behind the veil of curtains, while the production company created a diorama around him. Within an hour Hockley had assembled his monster snake, with its colossal form sprawling in a prehistoric climate from 60,000,000 years ago. A video screen projected scenes from the documentary and cast a range of shadows and noises through this strange ecosystem.

There are few entities brave enough to get in the middle of the New York City commute. But, backed by research, scientists, and in front of a

global media, Titanoboa managed to stop it in its tracks. By 10:00am headlines in the Huffing-ton Post read, “Massive Snake invades Grand Central.”

Now a mobile exhibit circulating with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition

Service (SITES), Hockley’s model makes it permissible to rethink our understanding of a species. It is also allowing the Smithsonian to place scientific discovery at the foreground of commerce and along international stages.

Success stories travel quickly, and within weeks of returning from New York I received a telephone call from Hockley.

“There is a second Titanoboa mod-el in the works,” he announced. “This time it is a commission project for Sci-ence North and the Science of Ripley’s Believe it or Not.”

Like any professional at the top of his game, Hockley has no need to ele-vate his accomplishments. He has cap-italized on his region and developed it into his unique and personal brand. As he creates a second Titanoboa for

Science North, and a third for the Smithsonian Institute of Tropical Research, it is apparent that Hockley is not only the beneficiary of once-in-a-lifetime experiences, he is also in the business of making them.

If you can envision it, he can create it. •

This 28 foot long squid hangs in the Royal Ontario Museum’s Schad Gallery of Biodiver-sity in Toronto. The styrofoam core is covered with fiberglass. Halved grapes and cherry tomatoes were used to cast the tentacle-like suckers.


JUST SAYINGBY SHELLEY WILDGEN

A few years ago, I happened upon a heartwarm-ing story in a magazine. First, there was a pic-ture of a golden beignet. Tasty, fried beignets were brought to Louisiana by French colonists...but dough-lore aside, the magazine piece was really about a fantastic, impromptu party.

In the story, the hostess greeted winter by serving hot chocolate and beignets on the day of the first snowfall. No invitations were sent. She simply let her neighbours and friends know of her plans. When the first flakes ap-peared, they’d all bustle to her house for a time of fellowship and the aforementioned decadent snack. Think of it. That snowfall could occur at any time and when it started, the hostess would start her wintry party. Oh, what a sense of community and coziness it evoked. How many similar scenes had I envi-sioned while devouring my plethora of home decorating magazines!

Truth is, I have been imitating the lives of others forever. I’d target a walk, a talk -- the cadence of someone’s voice. My mother would cringe as I’d sachet over to the stove in hand-me-down slingbacks and ask ‘mama’ what was for ‘tea’, a la my friend Colleen’s eccentric sister, Beverly; or obsessively en-case my school projects in a shiny veneer of scotch tape while donning a too high hairband over my too high forehead, trying to duplicate the grade four style of Heather J. She wore very unbecoming zipper up stretchy jumpsuits but her efficiency and shiny cover pages filled me with wonder and determination.

As an adult this aping has moved into my home décor. I see it or read it and try to cre-ate the exact same mood in my own house. A peculiarity, at the very least, but it’s real and sometimes happy accidents occur as a result. So, with years of successful copycat ventures to draw from, my first Snowfall Party plans were in the offing.

The leaves had just recently fallen and time was awasting. I felt compelled to share my spontaneous party intentions with everyone I knew, including the bored, heavily mascara’d teenager at the corner store.

“Soooo”, I prattled to all, “I won’t remind you on the day. Just tuck it away and hope-fully, you’ll remember the invitation when the day arrives, wherever you are, whatev-er you’re doing, get it? Whoever shows up, shows up!” And then I’d smile expectantly while each politely asserted that they’d try to be there. At the time, my brother was liv-ing with us. I told him too. Without changing expression, he said the idea was good, but could we do away with the inviting of the people? My brother and I share a love of all things doughy, but that would be where our similarities end.

After googling ‘beignet’, I rummaged for the dry ingredients, then lined up the fixings on the kitchen counter like little fat-fortified soldiers waiting to charge at my midriff.

In the magazine story, the party plans unfolded organically. The writer/hostess dreamed up the idea, the snow fell shortly afterward and the magical snowy afternoon erupted into a day of Norman Rockwell pro-portions. First a friend from her work arrived, kicking off her shoes and declaring that she’d hoped all day that the icy skies would spit snow so she could knock off early and come over for the yeasty treats. A little girl from next door poked her head in the door. Was there really going to be an instant party at

the first sign of snow? Her face opened with joy as the hostess offered a big ol’ cup of co-coa. A splayed retriever provided a perfect backrest on the floor near the fire. The little girl’s dad trudged in the side door carrying a bundle of wood. The mail lady arrived. So did the couple who just moved in down the road. Someone brought a guitar. The entire home filled with a glorious blend of Christ-mas carols and sugary beignets. From time to time, the dog raised his sleepy head for donut droppings. Stories were shared, many of the writer’s friends and neighbours finding they knew people in common. Even those who’d never met felt blessed in their conspiratorial sharing of this random gathering.

In my story, none of that happened. The snow dribbled down about three weeks after my invitations. I mixed my batter and flared up my cinnamon candles. I poofed up the couch pillows, lit the fire and let my husband and brother know that today was the day. Who would arrive first?

Wet, speckly, falling first snow. My kitchen became my workshop as I mixed and rolled amidst my own blizzard of flour and sugar. The beignets were born. One by one, I ladled them out of their greasy bath, plunked them on a towel and dusted their little backs. I waited. Then waited some more. My brother sauntered through the kitchen and asked when he could officially have one. Without bother-ing with hot chocolate, we shared the plate.

Six years later, no one has asked about the First Snowfall Party they missed. Three weeks is a long time as it turns out. Lives are busy, and if you don’t text your plans 15 minutes before onset, or create the event on Facebook, well then it is a non-event. Gone are the days of ‘Come As You Are’ parties. Everyone can come as they are online, any-time at all…

Still, I wonder about the inspiring lady in the magazine feature. Did she make up all that bustling merriment just for the story?

It was a good story. I wish it was mine. •

Snowing Donuts

In the magazine story, the party plans unfolded

organically. The writer/host-ess dreamed up the idea, the

snow fell shortly afterward and the magical snowy afternoon erupted into a day of Norman

Rockwell proportions.


Among my treasures is my mother’s 1986 MNR Conservation Areas Guide. The little black and white booklet contains conservation area

features, two-colour maps, black and white pho-tos. Mom’s marginal notes from her and dad’s regular outings: “muddy in spring…nice…picnic with Merle and Cliff,” remind me that we kids learned to love the outdoors through our parents’ enjoyment of conservation areas. Not for us the nature deficit disorder described by Dr. Richard Louv in ‘Lost Child in the Woods’. Nature, Louv proposes, is good for kids, promoting healthy de-velopment, physical and emotional health. And it’s not just the child’s health, but that of the en-

vironment he will grow up in. For what we know, we come to love, what we love we will protect.

Today I have the colourful informative 2008 Conservation Ontario Guide, with the same con-tent and new features - geocaching, world bio-sphere reserves, species at risk, forest stewardship - plus the ontarioconservationareas.ca website and those of individual Conservation Authorities to help me plan my visit to Mother Nature.

Conservation Areas are the public face of the province’s 36 Conservation Authorities, self-governing corporations established within On-tario’s watersheds. Conservation Authorities be-gan in the 1940’s when concerns surfaced about flooding, erosion and water supply, all stemming

from rapid development. Their mandate is flood control, regulation, environmental expertise and leadership, and education. Education is vital; an informed public will make good decisions about protecting the environment.

Conservation Authority boundaries are de-fined by watersheds. A watershed is an area of land drained by a river and its tributaries, which empties into a larger body of water – in Hast-ings County it’s the Bay of Quinte. Watersheds are no respecters of political boundaries. With-in Hastings we have three watersheds managed by three Conservation Authorities. Quinte Con-servation oversees the health of the watersheds of the Moira, Napanee and Salmon Rivers, and

Conservation Areas preserve nature’s treasures

Paradise foundBY LINDI PIERCE


Prince Edward County. Crowe Valley Conser-vation Authority, based in Marmora, tends the Crowe River and its tributaries. Lower Trent Conservation is the steward of the Trent system and its exit to the Bay of Quinte. We do, indeed, all live downstream.

Ontario’s more than 250 Conservation Areas are natural areas owned and managed by Conser-vation Authorities. These public lands conserve and protect unique habitats: moraines, escarp-ments, woodland and wetland, and the plants and animals that live there. Conservation areas provide free family outdoor recreation, special events and environmental education. Their ob-jective is to foster healthy environments and healthy people.

A passion for nature and a drive to protect and share it with the public is a common theme across Conservation Authorities, the public and private funders, and the volunteers who work so hard to maintain conservation areas. A visit to Sager CA (Lower Trent Conservation), Frink Centre CA (Quinte Conservation) and Mc-Geachie CA (Crowe Valley CA) tells the tale.

McGeachie Conservation Area

David Golem, Reeve of Limerick township, is a big fan of the McGeachie Conservation Area. We met in the parking lot across the road from

sparkling Steenburg Lake on a cool fall afternoon of pale sunshine.

As we strolled, the sun came out as if to assist David to show off the 500 acres of mixed for-est, marsh, creek and highlands, and the Drink-water homestead. The cottage with its tall stone chimney, on a rise beneath tall pines and cedars is ‘the Drinkwater cabin’, one of the original log homesteads from 150 years ago. In its lifetime, the Old Hastings Road opened (1854), Quinton Johnson surveyed the townships (1857) and the Gilmour Logging Company cut the virgin pine (around 1858).

David began the tour by telling me about the McGeachie family. Jack and Ethel, who pur-chased the property in 1940, lived here full-time after Jack retired from Bell in 1971. Jack cre-ated trails and built bridges; even today the hill in the middle of the property is called ‘Jack’s Mountain.’ Jack always had a vision for the edu-cational potential of the place, and even built a classroom building which Dave hopes to put to use soon. In 1995 Jack and Ethel donated the 385 acre property to CVCA; their sons later added another 100 acres or so.

A lot of community pride has gone into this place. Golem had an idea for the trails, CVCA contributed and they obtained funds through grants, local businesses and individuals. They hired Terry Bradt, a former MNR forester with a prodigious knowledge of natural history to de-

sign McGeachie’s 8km of well-marked trails of varying difficulty levels. Terry and wife Crystal designed McGeachie’s informative trail guide; Terry still conducts guided walks and has labeled trees and plants along the trails. The Friends of McGeachie group pitches in with fundraising and trail and boardwalk maintenance. Trail clearing is expensive and it’s hard work. Dave always carries a folding saw in his knapsack to deal with dead-falls, but CVCA helps with large downed trees. New projects are planned: a yurt tucked away on a quiet island, a 120-foot bridge of recycled hy-dro poles to cross the creek and swampy margin.

Funding is an ongoing concern: a Federal fit-ness grant, Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance, TD Friends of the Environment and others have been invaluable. The generosity of local businesses and individuals, and donations from trail users all help to keep McGeachie going. Labour is donated. North Hastings High School teacher Stephan Richer and his students built the steel gates at the western trail entrance.

McGeachie CA is Canadian Shield topogra-phy. Massive trees, at least 100 years old in plac-es, were last logged in the original logging of the pine in the 1850’s. On the high elevations stand oak, maple, pine and basswood, in the damp low-lands are old growth cedar and hemlock. Slow-moving Bass Creek, beaver meadows with their marsh hay once scythed and gathered by settlers, marshes with their teeming ecosystem of plants,

McGeachie Conservation Area (Crowe Valley Conservation Authority)Photos clockwise from top left: Limerick Township Reeve David Golem sets off on a tour of McGeachie Lake Conservation Area with writer Lindi Pierce; the conservation area is made up of 500 acres of mixed forest, marsh, creek and highlands; a resident woodpecker has been busy; the original log homestead known as Drinkwater Cabin is 150 years old, seen here in the 1980s, 1941, and 1920’s; a garter snake surveys the land.Photos: Lindi Pierce, Drinkwater Cabin photos courtesy: David Golem


birds and animals – this place is a wild paradise. Bear, deer, moose and the occasional elk, wolves, coyotes, otter, and snowshoe hares make track-ing exciting in all seasons. Winter cross-country skiing and snowshoeing give way to summer hiking and mountain biking.

It’s clear that McGeachie is a big conservation area with an even bigger heart. CVCA staffers Vicki Woolfrey and Lou Young were generous in their acknowledgement of others’ contributions. Marnie Guindon, Geographic Information Sys-tems technician worked with Golem early on to create the trail map found in the yellow trail guide, a fascinating exercise which involved David hik-ing the trails and providing GPS information of likely trail routes, and Marnie plotting the infor-mation on maps. Young, who works on fund-rais-ing for the McGeachie Foundation, acknowledges the earlier work done by Nicola Lupton begin-ning in 2010, as she presses ahead obtaining funds from TD Bank Friends of the Environment and Shell’s Fuelling Change grant program.

Jesse’s Way, one of the CA’s marked trails, is close to Lou’s heart; it was named in honour of her lost son, and dedicated to outdoor education. Lou makes “a personal effort to make it some-thing for everyone to enjoy,” said Vicki. Are there issues with hunters or ATV’s? “People are very respectful of plant species, some very rare, and animals at McGeachie” the women assure me. “A lot of heart goes into it from a lot of people

making it happen. Of all the things we work on at CVCA, the conservation area brings the most satisfaction.”

Sager Conservation Area

I visited Sager Conservation Area on the kind of autumn day poets write about. Mist softened the farms, the city and the river valley in the far dis-tance. Sager’s 47 acres preserve a unique topo-graphic feature called a drumlin, a whale-back hill produced by glacial activity. The drumlin is one of the highest viewpoints in the countryside; the tower at the top yields astonishing views well worth the climb. Below, two short hiking trails through oaks and a pine plantation, picnic shelter and toilets pro-vide all the ingredients for a family outing.

Lower Trent Conservation purchased the John Sager farm in 1971, acquiring a property of natu-ral heritage significance to fulfill its conserva-tion and education mandate. In 1976 a wooden viewing tower was constructed; in 2012 a new taller structure replaced the failing wood model. The 30-foot tall steel and recycled plastic lumber structure is fitted with interpretive signage at all four points of the compass, giving “a sense of the landscape, settlement, history and natural heri-tage,” explains Marilyn Bucholtz, Communica-tions Coordinator at Lower Trent Conservation. Colourful panels explain glacial history and fea-

tures like drumlins and moraines, Bay of Quinte rehabilitation, UEL history and the area’s wealth of birds, insects, trees and animals.

Marilyn explains Sager’s expectations of its visitors. “We encourage visitors to be respect-ful of other users, we want to protect the natural heritage values and provide a safe environment for all.” There are no statistics on usage, but the number of people using Sager during the Thanks-giving weekend after the new tower opened was estimated at 2000.

Funding partners Trenval, the Parrott Founda-tion, the RBC Foundation, TD Friends of the En-vironment, the municipalities of Stirling Rawdon and the City of Quinte West provided a needed boost to the LTC operational budget for the tower project. The conservation areas are free to visi-tors, but they do cost money to run. Donations are encouraged, and where else can we enjoy this for nothing? “Conservation areas are little jewels, they become personal to people. We are thrilled with the feedback on the work we’ve done,” concludes Bucholtz.

Frink Centre Conservation Area

I spent two late October days at the Frink Centre Conservation Area, bucolic warm soft fall days stolen from the grasp of advancing winter. One day I was alone but for a few walkers. The next

Sager Conservation Area (Lower Trent Conservation)Photos clockwise from top left: A new 30-foot tower and trail were recently completed with the support of numerous partners; the conservation area is situated on a drumlin - a high point of land excellent for viewing surrounding countryside including part of the Trent River valley; today you can hike a short trail carved from John Sager’s farm purchased by Lower Trent Conservation in 1971; wild turkeys crossing the road en route to a stand of nearby oak trees.Photos: Lindi Pierce


day two bus-loads of excited students animated the place by 9:00am.

The Frink Centre Conservation Area (once known as Plainfield CA), 341 acres of decidu-ous forest, cedar groves and silver maple swamp, ponds and riverside paths, hilly drumlin terrain and a provincially significant wetland, is criss-crossed by 13km of trails and boardwalks. The Frink Centre was created by the Moira River Con-servation Authority (now Quinte Conservation) in 1958 on farmland and bush formerly owned by the Hoskin family. Early on the land was home to First Nations; the original Crown patent was awarded to Nicholas Simmons in 1802.

This place is alive - constant flits and squeaks of chickadees, nuthatches and blue jays at the feeding station, a silent heron skimming the shoreline, scores of frogs leaping into the riv-er like competition divers as I make my way along the path, a beaver nibbling tender branches as we watch. “They know they’re safe here, so they come out during the day,” explains a woman walking with a delighted little girl.

Across Thrasher Road from the main en-trance is a network of trails - Survival, Bound-ary, Horsetail. Along Beaver Trail the rugged old snake fence piled with boulders recalls the pioneer story. A lichen-crusted viewing platform overlooking the wetland there reminds me how long the Friends of the Frink Centre have been interpreting the Frink ecosystem. Old nesting

boxes and sponsor signage, the aging half-kilo-metre long boardwalk with its patina of weath-ered silver wood are the legacy of countless volunteer work parties, sponsorship donation drives, and construction projects organized by high school shop teachers. This provincially sig-nificant wetland, a flat monochrome landscape of shallow pond studded with stumps, bordered by cattails, animated by beaver, birds, aquatic plants and animals will always need our support.

The Frink Centre Conservation Area is home to the H.R.Fink Outdoor Education Centre, estab-lished in 1972 by the Hastings County Board of Education and the Moira River Conservation Au-thority. Operated collaboratively by the two lo-cal school boards, the centre is named for Her-bert Frink, a Belleville educator with a life-long commitment to outdoor education. The Outdoor

Education Centre offers programs to all school-aged groups in three portables, the outstanding new Outdoor Education Pavilion (funded by the Parrott Foundation and built by Centre Hastings Secondary School students), and the great outdoors.

Evidence of children’s interaction with na-ture is everywhere. Brightly painted birds line the trails, instruction sheets decorate trees and posts at outdoor activity stations. I spoke with a Harry J. Clarke school grandfather volunteer, his excited granddaughter and her Grade 4 chum. “We’ve been coming here since we were little,” they announced. It was clear that the outdoor educators’ planning for the day was yielding results. “I’m not really a nature person, but I like coming here…the Frink Centre helps you if you get lost in the woods.” The girls explained a simulation activity: “we were rabbits…we had to survive bad weather, humans, foxes (the foxes had pinnies on)…In spring we learn about maple syrup, we fish in the pond with nets…and put things back,” her friend added. “Frink is good for families and kids” the girls pronounced wisely.

Friends of the Frink Centre, established 1993 is a volunteer-run registered charitable organi-zation that supports the work of the Frink Cen-tre Conservation Area and Outdoor Education Centre by providing funding and willing work-ers. It’s a dedicated group; two charter members, Beate Heissler and Dave Chambers are still ac-tive. “Without Beate Heissler the boardwalk,

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A group snowshoe the McGeachie Conservation Area. Photo courtesy: David Golem


trails and bridges people take for granted would not be there,” ex-plains Neville Burroughs, chair of the 35-member group. The Friends also offer outdoor educational op-portunities such as the spring sugar bush demonstrations at builder/do-nor Richard Bird’s sugar shanty. Activities once organized by the Friends are coordinated through Mary Thiessen at the Centre, on request. Quinte Conservation’s Ed-ucation Coordinator Maya Navrot maintains the FOF website, which contains information about upcom-ing events such as the AGM.

A “Beehive of Donors” located just inside the main entrance to the CA acknowledges the effort devoted to fund-raising, and the generosity of corporate and private contributions to the work of the Friends of the Frink Centre. Ducks Unlimited just added 150 acres of wet-land to the Frink’s holdings. The Bass Masters group contributes an annual workparty. “A lot of threads knit together to make things happen,” Neil comments.

The Friends of the Frink Centre mobilized over 120 community sponsors for a massive 2004-2006 initiative, the Sustainability Dem-onstration site and washroom facility. The site highlights alternative approaches to building, energy and water use; detailed interpretive pan-els surrounded by beds of native plants pro-

vide a mini-course in sustainable building and living.

Recently the Friends group partnered with the Hastings Stew-ardship Council and Quinte Con-servation to produce new inter-pretive signs; more trail signage is planned for 2013, designed by Quinte Conservation and funded by Friends. And the Friends do some light housekeeping; Quinte area naturalist Terry Sprague still main-tains some of the trails south of the road, manhandling his rotary brush mower through roots and dust, and he confesses to be “crowding 70.”

This quote attributed to Alexan-der Graham Bell, and printed on the cover of the McGeachie CA trail

guide seems to sum up the Conservation Areas’ advice to us all:

“Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods.

Every time you do you will be certain to find something you have never seen before”. •

Frink Centre Conservation Area (Quinte Conservation) Photos clockwise from top left; visitors are encouraged to explore acres of deciduous forest and cedar groves; waterways, including silver maple swamps and ponds are an integral part of the centre; the Frink Centre is provincially significant wetland; the waterways attract nature’s busiest and most ambitious visitors; trees sprouting brightly coloured birds are the work of area school children and the centre’s outdoor education program. Photos: Lindi Pierce

Hastings County conservation areas are the place to sit back, reflect, and enjoy nature at its finest. Photos: Lindi Pierce


Winter ClassicsHASTINGS TASTINGS

Mediterranean Barley and Brown Rice Bake-Nancy Hopkins, Co-Publisher

1/2 cup brown rice1/3 cup tomato paste1/2 cup pearl or pot barley 1 clove garlic, minced2 -1/2 cups water1 tsp dried basil or oregano3 cups sliced zucchini 1/2 tsp sugar2/3 cup chopped onion 1 large tomato, sliced2/3 cup water1 sweet green or yellow pepper, cut in strips3/4 cup shredded part skim mozzarella or Cheddar cheese

• Rinse rice and barley under cold water. In saucepan, bring water to boil; stir in rice and barley. Cover and reduce heat; simmer for 40 minutes or until water is absorbed and rice is tender.

• Spray 11 x 7 (2L) baking dish with nonstick vegetable coating; spread rice mixture in bottom.• In saucepan with small amount of boiling water, cook zucchini, onion and sweet pepper for 2

to 3 minutes or until tender-crisp; drain. Spread over rice mixture.• In small bowl, combine water, tomato paste, garlic, basil and sugar; pour over vegetables. • Arrange tomato slices on top. Cover and bake in 325˚ (160˚ C) oven for 25 minutes, • Sprinkle with cheese; bake, uncovered, for 5 minutes until cheese melts.

A healthy side dish for a mess of John’s ribs.

Want to know about local food & products? Harvest Hastings is your source for information on what’s in season, farmers & artisans, what to buy and where to buy it. Everything from

farmers’ markets, cheese factories, abattoirs, farm stores, restaurants, caterers and other places to purchase local food will help you know your farmer, and know your food. The County of Hastings runs over 100 miles from the Bay of Quinte to North Algonquin Park.

www.harvesthastings.ca

Christmas Morning While the Presents are Being Ripped Apart Casserole-Shelley Wildgen, Contributing Writer

1 bag mini croissants1/2 pound thinly sliced ham or prosciutto (omitting this is fine as well) 4 cups various cheeses cubed (anything left on the cheese tray from the night before – Brie is great!)1 dozen eggs (a few less is fine)1/2 cup milk or cream Salt & pepper to taste

• Lay the croissants in a large, deep casserole dish. Lay the ham or prosciutto and cheese cubes in between crois-sants. Whip up the eggs, milk, salt and pepper – pour over everything. Bake at 350 degrees approximately 1/2 an hour or until puffy and golden.

• Serve with fruit salad!

Spicy Red Lentils with Spinach – Lindi Pierce, Contributing Writer(modified ever so slightly from Nutrition Action Healthletter, January/February 2008)

8 cloves Railway Creek Farms (or other really good local) garlic1 tsp red chili flakes4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided2 cups red lentils, rinsed1 cup orange juice (I’ve used mango, also)3 cups water280 g. baby spinach, rinsed and drained1/2 tsp. saltFreshly ground black pepper

• In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, sauté the garlic and chili flakes in 2 tbsp of the olive oil until fragrant, 1 – 2 minutes.

• Increase the heat to medium-high and stir in the orange juice and water.• Simmer until the lentils are tender, about 15 minutes (I leave the lid on, slightly ajar).• Stir in the spinach (don’t worry, it will all fit) and continue to simmer until its tender,

about 2 minutes (or a bit more) Season with 1/2 tsp. of salt and pepper to taste.• Serve in warmed earthenware bowls from your favourite potter, with ciabatta bread

and/or warmed naan bread. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the individual portions.• Serves 6 - but not at our house. Reheats well.

Slow Cooker Fall-Off-the-Bone Honey Mustard Ribs-John Hopkins, Co-Publisher

3 lb (1.35 kg) pork back ribs1/4 cup dijon mustard1/4cup grainy mustard2 tbsp liquid honey2 tbsp cider vinegar3 cloves garlic, mincedSalt & pepper to taste

• Place ribs in slow cooker. Mix sauce ingredients and pour over ribs. Cook on low for about 6 hours. Tastes best while enjoying televised sporting events on a lazy Sunday.

Country Roads really cooks! And to prove it we are sharing a few of our favourite winter dishes. These treats are designed to keep you warm in the frosty months ahead.


Ever visit Sam the Record Man’s flag-ship store on Toronto’s Yonge Street? Remember Sam’s awesome music col-lection and that feeling of satisfaction

when you discovered some recording you just couldn’t find anywhere else? A younger crowd might at least recall the storefront’s elaborate sig-nage, giant neon discs designed to mimic spinning records. If you’ve never been and were still hoping to make the pilgrimage, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. Bought by Ryerson University in 2008, the building is still there, but that famous sign, de-clared a heritage element prior to purchase, was dismantled and put into storage. No one really seems to know when or where it will reappear. And the music stopped playing a while ago.

Worse, Sam himself is gone now, too. The leg-endary Sam Sniderman, shrewd entrepreneur and unflagging champion of Canadian music passed away last September at the respectable age of 92. The business went a little sooner, closing its

Sam the Record Man lives on in Belleville

doors to bankruptcy in 2001, though the original Sam store stayed open another six years. Some 140 stores strong in the 1980’s, the Sam chain once blanketed Canadian retail music sales coast to coast. But times changed and keeping up was tough. Along came competition from big box and other music store chains, followed by internet download sites like Napster and i-Tunes. Soon nearly all the Sam franchises started playing their own swan song.

Yet, there is some good news. Out of that 140, there’s still one store left and it’s right here in Hastings County. If you’re a boomer hanker-ing for a little Sam nostalgia, or considerably younger and just looking to browse the latest retail goods on offer, head to the Quinte Mall in Belleville.

“We’re the last Sam standing,” declares store owner, Spencer Destun, “Who would have thought we’d outlive Ottawa and Sudbury and all the rest?”

Spencer’s story is a cautionary tale of evolu-tion under threat of constant extinction. Worried whatever he says will sound self-serving, Spen-cer declines to pinpoint the exact magic behind the Belleville Sam’s survival when all others fell. But the fact they’re still here when others are not speaks for itself.

Spencer’s wife Holly gets a little more specific. Working with Spencer since Sam’s early Belleville days she still puts in 40 hour plus weeks, especially during the windup to the Christmas season when extended mall hours make retail life hectic.

According to Holly, Sam’s extensive stock fills store shelves from floor to ceiling and they carry items that appeal to all. Looking for Frank Sina-tra, Vera Lynn or Max Bygraves? Sam’s loyal senior customers know where to find what they want. How about Taylor Swift, Dustin Lynch or Tim McGraw? The Destun family took note of this area’s affinity for country music a long time ago and always has a large selection on hand.

Still StandingBY ANGELA HAWN

Sam the Record Man in Belleville operated out of several downtown locations before settling in the Quinte Mall. Photo: Angela Hawn


“We’ve got old music, old movies, DVDs, CDs,” Holly ticks off just a few of Sam’s retail goods. They’ve even started carrying vinyl again. At 180 grams, it’s thicker and more durable than the vinyl of old and therefore, more warp-resis-tant. Can’t find a turntable to go with that LP? You’re in luck - Sam sells them, too.

Spencer’s son Krystofer points to his family’s willingness to modernize the operation in the

face of changing times. When other Sam stores stuck with paper records, the Destun family moved to computerized inventory. Krystofer believes greater speed accepting the inevitable might have helped keep other Sam franchises afloat. A high school science and technology teacher, he still makes time in a busy schedule to spend a couple of evenings a week plus Sat-urdays in the store. Much of his work goes on

behind the scenes as resident ‘IT guy,’ making sure the business stays tapped into technology’s latest offerings.

His dad agrees wholeheartedly with this mindset. According to Spencer, you can either embrace technology or run from it and if you choose to run, you might as well close up shop. He marvels at how much business improved when the store got its first fax machine in the

The sign outside Sam’s downtown Toronto location was a beacon for music enthusiasts from the late 1960’s until the store’s closing in 2007. Photo: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons

Spencer Destun and his family have owned and oper-ated the Sam the Record Man store in Belleville since 1979. Photo courtesy: Destun Family

Sam the Record Man in Belleville is a strong supporter of the local music scene. Area singer/songwriter Jeanette Arsenault has been selling her CDs through the store for 10 years. Photo courtesy: Jeanette Arsenault

Krystofer Destun still spends a couple of nights a week and Saturdays at the family run store. The resident IT guy, Krystofer has kept the store up to date with tech-nology including the soon to be launched website. Photo: Angela Hawn

A commitment to catering to a broad range of musical tastes and keeping up with the latest trends and technologies has helped the Belleville Sam’s carve out a strong cus-tomer base among area shoppers. Photo: Angela Hawn


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1980’s. The 72-year-old sees change as a posi-tive, claiming it keeps him young.

And Spencer has seen a lot of change. Start-ing out as a teacher with the Hastings County Board of Education, Spencer pioneered one of the province’s first cooperative education pro-grams in the mid-70’s. With the focus on market-ing, students spent half their time in a classroom in downtown Century Place. The other half was spent gaining practical experience ‘on the job’ with various local businesses.

Around the same time Spencer began formu-lating plans to start up his own company. Origi-nally thinking shoe retail, he abruptly changed direction when government changes to tariff regulations got in the way. Fortunately, a news-paper advertisement outlining Sam’s franchise

application process caught Spencer’s eye and provided a new avenue for his entrepreneurial ambitions. He responded to the ad and the rest is history. Sam the Record Man arrived in Bel-leville in 1979, taking up residence in a series of different downtown locations before settling into its current home at the mall.

“Whatever we’re doing, we’re doing it well,” Spencer concedes, though he’s quick to give credit to the local community, too.

“I think it’s a feather in our collective cap that the last Sam standing is in Belleville,” Spencer says, noting the city seems to appreciate what the store offers and declaring Sam’s feels the same way about them.

So how did the original Sam influence Spen-cer? Recalling a long ago story from a fran-

chising conference, Spencer explains how Sniderman’s business ideals resonated for him personally. Spencer remembers a fellow store owner’s complaint about pricing and Snider-man’s hallmark reply. Sam told his franchisees good business sense wasn’t always about having the lowest prices in town. The key lay in selec-tion and service. Give that to the customer and the rest would take care of itself.

Krystofer seconds that advice, noting how en-thusiastically his family has always embraced Sam’s business philosophy. Like the original Sam, they aim to price competitively. Some-times you beat the other stores, sometimes you don’t. Regardless of trends, prices are always fair, according to Krystofer. But giving people what they want remains the goal and that still revolves around Sam’s steady reputation for se-lection and service.

Savvy business sense aside, Spencer insists Sniderman’s real legacy lives on in his steady pro-motion of Canadian musicians. He recalls how Sniderman always reached out, ready to give a hand to homegrown talent. Spencer rhymes off names like Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot, Glenn Gould and Burton Cummings. When some-one with claim to 35 percent of the music retail market carries your records in exchange for a per-centage of the sales and foregoes the usual racking fees, you’ve automatically got a leg up.

“A band like Lighthouse is suddenly in a hun-dred stores across the country and people are buying their music,” exclaims Spencer.

In his own small way, Spencer tries to carry on this kind of ideal, stocking CDs for local bands free of charge. He even goes one step further than Sam. The bands get 100 percent of the profit from music sales. At any given time, the store might carry 30 to 50 CDs for local musicians like Andy Forgie, Jeanette Arsenault, Freddy Vette or Acadian music artist Elly Kelly.

How important is this to musicians? Just ask Forgie. Children’s musician and lead singer for

Andy Forgie, lead singer of the Beatles style band, ‘All You Need is Love,’ has had his music promoted and sold through both the iconic Toronto Sam the Record Man location and the surviving Belleville store. The band performed at The Em-pire Theatre this past October. Photo courtesy: Andy Forgie

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“Being the last Sam standing is an honour,” states Krystofer simply. “It’s surprising and it’s humbling. On the one hand you feel you’ve done something right to be here and it’s humbling be-cause you’re the only one left of what was once a great record franchise.”

OK, so there might be only one left, but it re-ally only takes one to carry on the great Sam tra-dition. And despite the Belleville Sam’s penchant for change, they seem to know what works and plan to stick with Sniderman’s original vision: choice, service, support of homegrown musi-cians. Sounds like a recipe for continued suc-cess. Wouldn’t Sam be proud. •


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the Beatles style band, ‘All You Need is Love,’ Forgie can claim “bragging rights” to something very special: his music has sold both in the Bel-leville Sam’s and, in the 1980’s, Sniderman’s flagship Toronto store.

“Back in the day, Sam’s used to have their weekly sale of new albums or albums on sale. I still have the cut-out of the ad from the Toronto Star with our album underneath the Sam the Re-cord Man logo,” reminisces Forgie.

Back then he performed in a band called Pho-tograph, hitting the road with fellow band mates John Paul Murphy and Mark Rashotte, owner of Belleville’s Empire Theatre. Working alongside Rashotte as the Empire’s marketing manager, For-gie now spends much of his time helping bring world renowned musical groups to the area. The Empire crew has played host to a wide variety of acts, booking performers as diverse as Peter Frampton, the Smothers Brothers and the up and coming Vancouver band Mother Mother.

Amidst all this, Forgie still makes time for his own musical career, playing at festivals cele-brating Beatles’ music across Europe and North America. And the Sam store still carries his children’s CDs. In fact, Forgie says he doesn’t even bother selling them at shows anymore. He simply tells customers they can find his music at Sam’s.

“Spencer and Holly are great people,” Forgie declares. “They’ve been very supportive of all the local musicians in this region. To be able to display and sell your wares is a big thing.”

Local singer/songwriter Arsenault agrees. She’s been selling her CDs at Sam’s for 10 years and has nothing but good things to say about the people there.

“They showcased my CD when I did my CD launch back in September 2010,” she tells me. “They never take commission. They give you nothing but enthusiastic encouragement. I re-ally feel validated as an artist when I work with Sam’s.”

But these performers enjoy a fair bit of fame in Hastings County. Could any band ask Sam’s to carry their music?

“We never say no,” Spencer assures me. This kind of open-minded attitude no doubt

looms large in Sam’s ability to surf the wave of change constantly flooding the industry. Over the years, they’ve voluntarily undertaken nearly a dozen new configurations, seeking to stay at least one step ahead of customer needs. Swinging from vinyl to eight tracks to DAT tapes (Digital Audio Tapes), CDs, laser discs and back to vinyl again, they’ve stayed on top, always ready for the next move. Twenty years ago, the store started stocking movies and now movie sales make up 50 percent of the business.

“Our sales continue to go up every year,” Spencer reports proudly. Every time the market turns a corner, the Sam store reinvents itself to keep pace. They even carry novelty items now, including a t-shirt emblazoned with the words, “The Last Sam Standing.”

So where will the next wave take them? Get ready for Sam.com, Sam’s new online order service. In the works for a couple of years, Krystofer expected the system to be up and run-ning by the end of October, welcome news to Sam’s many long distance customers who fre-quently tell the Destun family they wish they could visit more often.

“We have customers come from as far away as Cobourg, Port Hope, Cornwall, Bancroft, even the Toronto area,” explains Krystofer. “In a couple of extreme cases, people come and spend the night here, just so that they can shop in the store.”

The online service will show everything the store has in stock, plus a whole lot that’s not. In fact, customers will have access to anything Sam can get from its suppliers. And that reputa-tion for personal service? Just like the Belleville store, it’s still standing. If internet customers have questions, they can still get hold of one of Sam’s knowledgeable staff by email or phone.

You can celebrate The Last Sam Standing with your own t- shirt. Photo: Angela Hawn


Winter ReadsTELLING TALES

Northern LightBy Roy MacGregorPublished by Vintage CanadaSC $22.00

There are probably few peo-ple in Canada more quali-fied to explore the enigma that is Tom Thomson than Roy MacGregor. The cele-brated journalist and author

grew up in the Algonquin Park area where the art-ist produced his most famous work and died under mysterious circumstances.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Northern Light is an exhaustive analysis of the life and death of Thomson, who died on Canoe Lake, in the heart of Algonquin Park, in the summer of 1917. Although the death of the celebrated painter was treated as an accidental drowning at the time, there have long been suggestions that foul play was involved. Mac-Gregor sifts through the evidence and produces some new revelations to offer his own opinions on what might lie behind the Thomson tragedy.

Tied into the controversy surrounding Thomson’s death is the burial of his body. Although originally interred at Canoe Lake, Thomson’s family had ar-ranged to have his remains returned to the family plot in Owen Sound. Did Thomson’s body ever leave Algonquin Park? MacGregor sheds new light on this mystery as well.

MacGregor’s research into Thomson’s life and death is exhaustive. He revisits some aspects of the story two or three times, which can make it seem a little repetitive, although given the complexity of the subject matter, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

The book also gives tremendous insight into Thomson’s gift as an artist, and explores in detail his impact on the artistic scene and his ability to carve out a uniquely Canadian voice.

This is a book that explores Canada’s cultural growth as much as the bizarre death of Thomson on Canoe Lake. To treat it simply as a true life mystery story is to sell it short. This is a book that captures the essence of this country.

Canadians With CusterBy Mary ThomasPublished by DundurnSC $24.99

The United States has often been seen as a land of op-portunity and adventure for restless Canadians, and ap-parently the lure dates as far back as the 1860s.

In her latest book, Cana-dians With Custer, Belleville author Mary Thom-as introduces the reader to the 17 Canadians who

fought alongside General George A. Custer during his military campaigns in the American west, culmi-nating with his defeat and death at Little Big Horn, Montana, in 1876.

Thomas’s painstaking analysis and in-depth re-search help paint vivid descriptions of the Canadians who fought with Custer. The challenges of living on the American frontier and life in the military are presented in sometimes stark detail. As the book builds to the climax of the battle at Little Big Horn, the action moves quickly.

Thomas presents a full picture of Custer, with par-ticular attention paid to his showmanship and hubris, which in many ways led to his downfall. The discus-sion of his court martial early in the book could be a little shorter, however, without losing its impact.

It is interesting and revealing to see the U.S. per-spective on handling the Native element in their country. In some cases the similarities to Canada’s own experiences are striking, in others the differ-ences are alarming.

Maps of the areas detailed in the story would also be helpful – perhaps something to incorporate in later editions?

Overall, Canadians With Custer is an engaging book that would entertain anyone with even a pass-ing interest in North American history.

Laura Secord, Heroine of the War of 1812By Peggy Dymond LeaveyPublished by DundurnSC $19.99

The War of 1812 has been getting a lot of attention in this, the 200th anniversary of its outbreak, so the ap-pearance of Peggy Dymond Leavey’s book about Laura

Secord could not be better timed.Secord was the Niagara-area woman who caught

wind of an impending American attack on British forces in the summer of 1813 and made a daunting 30km trek from her home to warn British Lieuten-ant James FitzGibbon.

In fact, Secord’s walk forms only a small part of Dymond Leavey’s book, which is not a bad thing. The Trenton-based author spends considerable time looking at Secord’s family roots (Laura was actu-ally born in the United States) and the wider subject of the War of 1812. As a result, Dymond Leavey provides a vivid picture of life for settlers in Upper Canada in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Of particular interest is the detail on Laura Sec-ord’s life after the war, including the financial strug-gles of her family and her efforts to gain recognition for the service she performed.

This book is packed with detail but does not feel burdensome. It moves along briskly and pro-

vides a clear and compelling overview of the War of 1812.

Laura Secord, Heroine of the War of 1812 is part of Dundurn’s Quest Biography series, an initiative started by publisher Dundurn in 2001 that has pro-duced more than 30 books on influential Canadian figures.

Books reviewed by John Hopkins

Writer Spotlight: Peggy Dymond Leavey

Trenton-based writer Peggy Dymond Leavey has pro-duced magazine and news-paper articles, short stories for children’s publications, and been a contributing edi-

tor for three books of local history.She was born in Toronto but, with her father in

the RCAF, spent her early years moving across Canada.

Her novels for young readers have been nomi-nated for the Silver Birch Award, Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award, Arthur Ellis Award, and the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award.

Most recently, her novel Growing Up Ivy was a starred selection in the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Best Books for Kids & Teens 2011. Her most recent book is Mary Pickford: Canada’s Si-lent Siren; America’s Sweetheart, a Quest Biogra-phy that was published in 2011.

Dymond Leavey retired in 2006 after a 17-year career as a librarian in Prince Edward County.

Writer Spotlight: Mary Thomas

Belleville’s Mary Thomas has enjoyed a varied career as a journalist and broad-caster. She has travelled to Bosnia, Honduras, South

Korea and the Canadian High Arctic. For over three decades she has been a reporter for Quinte Broadcasting, where she covers local news and hosts the program newsmaker Sunday on CJBQ in Belleville.

Canadians With Custer is Thomas’s fourth book. Her previous efforts include Behind En-emy Lines, which discusses the experiences of her brother as an airman trapped behind enemy lines in the Second World War, and David’s War, the story of a Canadian soldier’s life in the First World War. Turning Point is an account of the 1837 rebellion in Upper Canada. •


C r o s s r o a d s

New life for Purdy A-Frame

Noted Canadian poet George Bowering (r) shares a lighthearted moment with Al Purdy during an early visit to the A-Frame. Photo: Courtesy Eurithe Purdy

The A-frame home built in Ameliasburgh in 1957 by the late Al Purdy, one of Canada’s greatest po-ets, and his wife, Eurithe, has been assured of pres-ervation and a continued vocation as a place for writers to gather and work.

Thanks to the generosity of Eurithe Purdy, who dramatically reduced the asking price for the proper-ty, and donors from across Canada, the A-frame was acquired on October 9 by the Al Purdy A-frame As-sociation, a newly incorporated national non-profit organization with a mandate to promote Canadian literature and Canadian writers. A major benefit is planned for Koerner Hall in Toronto on February 6 to continue the restoration of the A-frame.

“Now we can turn our attention to the next phase of this effort,” said Jean Baird, president of the as-sociation. “It’s not only a celebration of Al Purdy’s legacy, but a mission to educate today’s students on the value and worth of Canadian literature, and to preserve the Purdy home as a retreat for future generations of Canadian writers.”

Purdy was born in Wooler and raised in Trenton.The A-frame, a lakeside cottage in Prince Ed-

ward County, was the centre of Purdy’s writing universe and one of the most important cross-roads on Canada’s literary map. In their 43 years residing there, the Purdys hosted a who’s who of Canadian authors: Margaret Laurence, Milton Acorn, H.R. Percy, Michael Ondaatje and hun-dreds of others.

The association plans to begin work on upgrad-ing the property immediately, and hopes to have its first writer-in-residence installed next summer and working in local schools by fall 2013.

The association gratefully acknowledges the generosity of all donors to the project to date, in-cluding writers, poets, publishers, academics, stu-dents, booksellers, librarians, lovers of literature and, especially, Eurithe Purdy, who was crucial to the success of this effort.

Special thanks are extended to major donors ($5,000 to $40,000): The Good Foundation, Avie Bennett, George Galt, The Chawkers Foundation, The Glasswaters Foundation, The Metcalf Founda-tion, Michael Audain, Jeff Mooney and Suzanne Bolton, Leonard Cohen, Rosemary Tannock, Tom and Helen Galt, and Josef Wosk.

For a full list of donors, go to www.alpurdy.ca.Fundraising efforts continue and are critical to

the next stage of this project—upgrades on the property are required and the association will be building an endowment. Online donations are be-ing accepted through PayPal at www.alpurdy.ca, or cheques may be sent to: The Al Purdy A-frame Association, 4403 West 11th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6R 2M2.

IANA takes a break

Nathan Carroll and Amanda Struthman on the set of ‘Tweed, A New Canadian Musical,’ which gave the IANA Theatre Company great success in Toronto.Photo: Courtesy IANA Theatre Company

After a busy four years of producing musicals in Hastings County, the Tweed-based IANA Theatre Company has elected to take a one-year break.

“We here at IANA have been going hard and fast since we started four years ago to create a vi-brant, compelling and successful theatre company, and we get closer and closer every season,” said a statement on IANA’s website. “However, in the best interest of our work, of our passion, and of our creative juices, we have decided that the best thing for the company will be to take a one year hiatus while we all go back out into the world and live some new experiences, rest, rejuvenate, and come back inspired invigorated and excited in a little bit.

“This is definitely a temporary hiatus and we can’t wait to be back at it at the Marble Church, but the entire team here is confident and excited about the opportunity to refresh our creativity and come back better than ever.”

Founded by 26-year-old Tweed native Tim Porter, the IANA Theatre Company has enjoyed rapid suc-cess since its launch in 2007. Its production ‘Tweed, A New Canadian Musical’, co-written by Porter and fellow Stirling Festival Theatre alum Andre Mo-rin, enjoyed a successful run at Toronto’s Papermill Theatre. This past summer the company produced ‘Godspell’ at the Marble Church Arts Centre in Ac-tinolite and another original production, ‘Aleck Bell, A Canadian Pop Rock Musical’ in Stirling.

“Our mandate is to produce original Canadian work,” said Porter in an interview with Country Roads last summer. “We want to continue to grow and improve our productions. There’s very little Canadian musical theatre and I think people are excited.”

Marmora SnoFest reaches milestone

Dog sled races have been an integral part of Marmora SnoFest since its inception.Photo: Courtesy Marmora SnoFest

In the fall of 1978 Dennis Fitzgerald of the Arctic Sled Dog Club of Ontario convinced the residents of Marmora that their community would be the ideal location for a long distance dog sled race. Within days Marmora SnoFest was born.

Thirty-five years later Marmora SnoFest is still going strong, and the milestone 35th anniversary event will be held February 1-3. Event chairman Zaid Mohammed, who took on his position last July, hopes to continue to broaden the appeal of Marmora SnoFest throughout Ontario and even beyond.

“We want to tie together the community and the event,” he explained. “Encouraging more tourism is better for the township and people can see what Marmora is like. We may have return visitors who use our hotels, motels and restaurants.”

A key focus for the 35th edition of SnoFest is bringing in more interactive activities that will draw in younger children and expand the interest beyond the dog sled races.

“SnoFest has the best dog sled races you and your family will experience,” Mohammed said, “and so many more interactive activities will en-courage involvement with the younger generation.”

In late November Marmora SnoFest unveiled the official 2013 event buttons, which feature Gatineau, Que. sled dog musher Bob Sabourin. Sabourin has been part of every edition of SnoFest, and started in the sport in 1964. The buttons sell for $4 at a variety of area locations.

“For only $4 these buttons make a great stocking stuffer for families,” said Acting Events Coordina-tor Lucas Wales. “There are also two draws for cash prizes, and the buttons give you access to SnoFest on the first weekend in February. It’s really a gift that keeps on giving.”

Keep up to date on plans for Marmora SnoFest by visiting www.marmorasnofest.ca. •


Things to see and do in and around Hastings County.To submit your event listing email [email protected] or call us at 613 395-0499.

C o u n t r y C a l e n d a r

ART GALLERIES/EXHIBITIONS

Art Gallery of Bancroft, 10 Flint Av-enue, Bancroft, 613-332-1542 www.agb.weebly.com Jan 4 – 28 - Tracey Lee Green,

painter, and Marg Gurr, sculptor. Feb 1 – March 3 - “Grace” Eliza-

beth Kusinski, painter. March 7 – 31 - “Michal Manson

Memorial” – 22nd High School Student Exhibition. Featuring the works from NHHS, HHSS, CHHS, & MVDHS.

Belleville Art Association Gallery, 392 Front Street, Belleville. 613-968-8632 - www.bellevilleart.ca Open 10am – 4 pm Tue-Sat Nov & Dec - Small Works Sale of

art in a variety of media all priced under $50.00

Dec 11- Jan 15 - Celebrate, a show highlighting the joys of the season through original art works in a variety of art media.

Jan 15- Feb 9 - Artist Choice Show and Sale. Original art in a wide variety of media.

John M. Parrott Art Gallery, Bel-leville Public Library, 254 Pinnacle Street, Belleville, 613-968-6731, ext. 2240, www.bellevillelibrary.com Galleries One and Two Dec 6 – Jan 3 - On Looking Back,

a retrospective show representing Joan Reive including works in fibre, paint and mixed media.

Dec 6 – Jan 3 - Claws, Paws and Talons, wildlife photographer Bill Bickle’s exhibition featuring images of his expedition to photograph the Grizzlies of Khutzeymateen.

Jan 10 – 31 - “Back to Basics” - Weavers Unlimited is a group com-mitted to the continued evolution and refinement of Handweaving.

Feb 7 – 28 - Brighton Arts Council exhibition.

March 7 – 30 – Airola, an exhibi-tion of the work of artist and teach-er Paavo Airola and his students, on loan from collector Terri Lipman.

THEATRE/LIVE ENTERTAINMENT

Belleville’s Downtown Docfest March 1- 3 – Three days of films

that celebrate life and human dignity around the world and right here at home. Featuring films from the World Community Film Festival. www.downtowndocfest.ca

Gary Magwood, 613 477 1264

Belleville Theatre Guild, 613-967-1442 www.bellevilletheatreguild.ca Nov 29 – Dec 15 – Sea Marks by

Gardner McKay 7 – 23 – Bedtime Stories by

Norm Foster

My Theatre Bay of Quinte Com-munity Players, Trenton Town Hall, 55 King Street,Trenton 613-392-8844 OR 1 800-930-3255. [email protected] www.my-theatre.ca Dec 15 & 16 - Charles Dickens A

Christmas Carol read by Colin Griffiths.

Before our “Dickens” tells his tale be treated to traditional Victorian refreshments. Music. Come dressed in your best Victorian Bib and Tucker. Tickets: $ 15

Stirling Festival Theatre, West Front St., Stirling 613-395-2100 1-877-312-1162 www.stirlingfestivaltheatre.com Nov 30 – Dec. 31 - Alice in Won-

derland - annual laugh-a-minute panto in both Family and Naughty versions.

The Regent Theatre – 224 Main St. Picton 613-476-8416 www.theregenttheatre.org Dec 7 & 8 - A Christmas Carol

– w/County Theatre Group 7:30pm & 2pm matinee

Dec 9 - A Swingin’ Christmas w/The Toronto All-Star Big Band 2pm

Dec 10 - The Nutcracker – w/ The County School of Dance 11:30am & 7pm

Dec 15 - Aida - MET via HD 1pm Dec 23 - The Pharaoh’s Daugh-

ter – Bolshoi Royal Ballet via HD 1pm

Jan 5 - Les Troyens – MET via HD 12pm

Jan 7 – History Lives Here 7pm Jan 19 - Maria Stuarda – MET

via HD 1pm Feb 4 – History Lives Here 7pm Feb 16 - Rigoletto – MET via HD

1pm Feb 17 - Move to Move –

Bolshoi via HD 1pm Mar 2 - Parsifal – MET via HD

12pm Mar 4 – History Lives Here 7pm

EVENTS

Dec 4, 11 and 18 - Noon Hour Advent Recitals at Bridge Street United Church, 60 Bridge St. E., Bel-leville – Free - enjoy a half hour of seasonal music – all begin at 12:15 pm A free-will offering and food do-nations for the Gleaner’s Food Bank.

Dec 5 - Christmas in the Village House Tour, 5-9pm, featuring five beautiful homes in the Village of Tweed. Tickets at Quinn’s of Tweed Fine Art Gallery, The Food Company, The Old Cheese Factory, Bush Furni-ture, Municipal Office, and the Wine Barrel (Madoc).

Dec 7 - Wine, Women and Song featuring Jane Bunnett, Suzie Vinnick and the Kirk Losell Quar-tet at 580 Club, 168 Hastings St. N., Bancroft. 7:30 pm – 1 am. Wine tast-ing from the Moon Shadow Estate Winery, chocolate tasting from the Chocolate Rabbit and Cheese Tasting. Cash bar and nibbles. Tickets at the Art Gallery of Bancroft.

Dec 9 – Christmas in Prince Ed-ward County – tour wonderful old/new homes decked out for the holidays. Self-guided tour, 1 – 6 pm. Tickets $20.00 at Books & Co, 289 Main St, & Royal LePage, 104 Main St, Picton. Call 613-476-7310.

Dec. 9 & 11 - An Evening of Gen-eral & Seasonal Music presented by the Hastings & Prince Edward Region-al Chorus. 7 pm, St. Thomas Church, 201 Church St. Belleville. Tickets $20, 12 & under $5, at Quinte Arts Council, St. Thomas Church and at the door. www.hpechildrenschorus.ca [email protected]

Dec 16 - An English Christmas at Bridge Street United Church - 7 pm. The Bridge Street Choir and Bridge Street Ringers. A free-will offering will be taken during the con-cert. 60 Bridge St. E., Belleville.

Dec 24 - Christmas Eve at Bridge Street Church –7 pm and 10:30 pm (Northwest corner of Bridge and Church Streets at 60 Bridge St. E., Bel-leville)

Jan 6 - Unveiled Bridal Event -Quinte’s only Boutique Bridal Event with luxurious mini pampering for the brides, mini fashion shows & seminars plus and bridal exhibitors. 1 Alhambra Sq., Belleville, 10am - 4pm, www.unveiledbridalevent.ca

Jan 15 - Hastings County Histori-cal Society Presents Major John Grodzinski, CD, PhD, Assistant Pro-fessor at Royal Military College, Kingston, on the War of 1812 – specifically, events near Quinte, and along Lake Ontario. 7:30 pm, Quinte Living Centre, 370 Front Street (north-east corner door). Belleville. www.hastingshistory.ca

Jan 28 - Birds and Flora of Belize presented by Quinte Field Naturalists. Retired teacher, Donna Fano. Sills Au-ditorium, Bridge Street United Church, 7:30pm. Free.

Feb 19 - Hastings County Histori-cal Society Presents Local author, Paul Kirby, speaking on his new book, Mary Aylward. In Dec 1862, young catholic settlers, Mary and Richard Aylward, were hanged side-by-side at Belleville, for the murder of a North Hastings neighbour, leav-ing three infants, orphans. 7:30 pm, Quinte Living Centre, 370 Front Street (northeast corner door), Belleville www.hastingshistory.ca

Feb 25 - Beyond the Beech with Terry Sprague. Quinte Field Natural-ists’ present this speaker for a enter-taining and educational survey of the critters, big and small, that inhabit lo-cal woodlots. Sills Auditorium, Bridge Street

March 19 - Hastings County His-torical Society Presents: Histori-cal author, journalist and broad-caster, Mary Thomas, sharing details from her book, Canadians with Custer. 7:30 pm, Quinte Living Centre, 370 Front Street (northeast corner door), Belleville. www.hastingshistory.ca

REGULAR MEETINGS

The PEC Horticultural Society meets the last Wednesday of the month at the Picton Town Hall above the Fire Station. (Elevator available). 7pm. Free refreshments, lending li-brary & judged flower show. www.pechorticultural.org

Queensborough Community Centre Events, Queensborough. Elaine Kapusta 613 473-1458 - Anne Barry 613 473-1488Each Tue –Yoga 9:30 - 10:30 am . Lud & Elaine Kapusta 613 473-1458

Jan 20 - Skating Party on the Mill-pond, 1 pm. Ann Brooks 613 473-4550

Feb 17– Potluck Supper - Eat at 4 pm. Anne Barry 613 473-1488

March & April – Treats On The Black River - High water on the Black River signals the beginning of White-water Kayaking and the beginning of great treats for sale at the rivers’ edge in Queensborough each weekend. Come and watch the fun and support the Queensborough Community Cen-tre. Lud & Elaine Kapusta 613 473-1458

Maynooth

Bancroft

MarmoraMadoc

Tweed

Stirling

WellingtonBloomfield

Picton

Deseronto

NapaneeKingstonCampbellford

Brighton

CobourgPort Hope

Trenton

Belleville

Trenton

Belleville


Country Roads


Country Roads


Country Roads


RC

TO BOOKYOUR

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[email protected]


TOLL FREE AT: 1.866.717.9295


[email protected]


TOLL FREE AT: 1.866.717.9295

2011 2011


HAVE COUNTRY ROADS DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR YEAR ROUNDSubscriptions (4 issues per year):

1 year $14.69 • 2 year $27.13 • 3 year $35.03 (prices include HST)Mail cheque or money order to: COUNTRY ROADS, Box 423, Stirling, ON K0K 3E0

SCAN QR CODE TO JOIN US ON FACEBOOK.


Lumber Kings

Lumbering has a long history in Hastings County. An 1807 map denotes that North Hastings was home to immense forests and companies such as Gilmour and Rathbun once provided hundreds of local jobs. Methods of lumbering changed over the years but clearing the forests in

the early 1900’s was a combination of horsepower and manpower. This is Joseph Stringer’s bush team near Whitney.

Photo courtesy: Hastings County Historical Society HC 2056

Back Roads

Alive with entertainment, first class shopping, and dining.

BANCROFTCOME VISIT

SOON!

Bancroft Theatre District

Flowers & GiFts

Joseph Ribkoff,

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muCh moRe.

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CHOOSE WISELY.Madoc 613.473.2142Deseronto 613.396.2974Web steinbergdental.comTwitter @SDCDentalCentre

Country Roads Winter 2012

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Transcript of Country Roads Winter 2012