Mending Fences
Written by Norm Foster
Directed by Robert More
Performed by Norm Foster, Heather Hodgson, Derek Ritschel
Victoria Playhouse, Petrolia
May 19 to June 6, 2009

Live! On Stage!
Review by Mary Alderson

You can’t find a better actor than Norm Foster to star in a Norm Foster play, and once again, Director Robert More has done that at Victoria Playhouse. Mending Fences opens the new season in Petrolia.
Foster continues to be Canada’s most prolific playwright, and his comedies are always popular. While the funny dialogue gives us many laughs in Mending Fences, the second act is a little darker than many of Foster’s stories.
Last year, Foster and co-star Heather Hodgson had lead roles in Foster’s The Long Weekend, and More has brought the successful duo together again in Mending Fences, along with Derek Ritschel. The three of them had the same roles in a production of Mending Fences last summer at Port Dover’s Lighthouse Theatre.
Foster plays Harry, a beef farmer wiped out by mad cow disease. His adult son, Drew, (Derek Ritschel) whom he hasn’t seen in 13 years, has come for a visit, and the two obviously have a very strained relationship. Harry’s girlfriend, Gin, (Heather Hodgson) is a regular houseguest, dropping over from her neighbouring ranch.
The first act is a fine example of Foster’s quick-witted writing. Harry trades sarcastic comments with both Gin and Drew, and the audience enjoys the comedy. Then, there are flashbacks as the story unfolds – we see Harry’s wife leaving, taking a young Drew with her. They we go further back to Harry’s childhood, meeting his father and mother. Foster gives us food for thought.
We learn about suicide, alcoholism, adultery, bad parenting and a broken home – not the usual fare of comedies. Yet, Foster has carefully wrapped the dysfunctional revelations with some funny stuff, moving the audience past the tragedy. Just as you think this is almost too true to be funny, he tosses in a laugh.
Foster is of course, a natural for the part of Harry. His deadpan humour and quick barbs provide the laughs. Hodgson is excellent as Gin, but also flips easily into the flashbacks where she capably handles playing Harry’s ex-wife and his mother. Ritschel is perfect as the troubled Drew both at age 29 and as a child.
Credit goes to Director Robert More for balancing the comedy with the darker side, and still providing an entertaining evening. The set is excellent, a typical prairie farm kitchen. The lighting is well done, differentiating between the present and the flashbacks.
For a great study in human relationships, and some humour along with it, Mending Fences is well worth an evening in Petrolia.
Mending Fences continues with eight shows a week at Victoria Playhouse Petrolia until June 6. Call the box office at 1-800-717-7694 or (519) 882-1221 for tickets.

Mary Alderson offers her view of area theatre in this column on a regular basis. As well as being a fan of live theatre, she is a former journalist who is currently employed with the Ontario Association of Community Futures Development Corporations.

Cooks working for one of Canada’s top chefs are peeling potatoes grown in Corbett

Marcus Koenig, potato grower

As told to Casey Lessard
Photos by Casey Lessard

We had a mixed vegetable, dairy and cash crop farm in Switzerland, very small and very intensive. When we came here, we took over a potato operation that grew roughly 800 acres of potatoes conventionally. I had more and more trouble with chemicals, health-wise. In 2001, it was very bad and I could hardly work. Just by accident, I got a book about a different way to look at the soil from an organic, natural standpoint. That got me started on the organic thing. I needed an eye-opener to see there was another potential way to do it. I couldn’t keep spraying. For us, it was either sell the farm or go organic.
The University of Toronto needed a local (meaning Southwestern Ontario) supplier of potatoes. We are not a large acreage grower, but for an organic grower with 30 to 50 acres of potatoes, we are one of the larger ones. They needed someone who could give them a continuous supply of potatoes. They called me up, and I said they should go to Pfennings, and because they sell my potatoes. They said, “No, we’re not going to do that. When we pay a premium, we want that premium to end up in the producer’s hands. Otherwise, we’re not going to do it.”
I think that’s a very healthy way of thinking, and I was impressed, so we thought maybe we should supply them. They liked our products because we supply them with the varieties they need and we know how each variety behaves in the kitchen. We give them new stuff to try, and if they don’t like it, we don’t supply it. They get what they need and for us, it’s more work because we have to go to Toronto, but we are able to capture the wholesale premium, the delivery premium, and keep it for ourselves. On a long-term basis, we can justify it.
A Toronto farmers’ market focused on bigger volume producers approached us. Most farmers’ markets want people who will supply quarts of apples or quarts of potatoes, but they wanted people who could supply bushels and bigger volumes. I wasn’t really interested in doing it, but they kept asking us if we could come. At exactly the same time, a friend said he would have time to help us part-time on the farm, so we could justify trying it out. We started at the end of September, and we immediately got positive results from it.
The first day, chef Alex Johnston from Jamie Kennedy’s restaurants came and asked what we had. We told him we had potatoes, and he asked how we grow them. We told him we grow organically and use some biodynamic processes. So he took a 50lb. bag home.
The following week he came back to our truck. He’s a very quiet guy and doesn’t talk much. But he was very excited and said, “Hey, we had these potatoes, and these potatoes are awesome. We’re going to buy your potatoes.” We didn’t discuss price. He just said these were the potatoes they were going to buy. That’s it. No discussion.
They take quite a volume, so we gave them our volume discount and that was it. We have done business with them now since last September. I go to his restaurant every week for breakfast and coffee.
We now supply four restaurants in Toronto, including Jamie Kennedy’s chain; we supply all his potatoes. We supply Crush, Cava, and a new restaurant. They’re not all top-end restaurants, but good ones that want to use the potatoes mostly for fries. We have enough sales to justify driving to Toronto on a weekly basis.

A better way of life
I enjoy farming this way better. It’s more independent. In conventional farming, you rely so much on external input. You buy the fertilizer, you buy the chemicals, and the only thing you do is apply the stuff. You supply the land and they take your crop. I never really liked that system because it’s not truly independent. The farmer is the supplier of the soil, but someone else does the managing. It’s going more and more towards that.
Don’t misunderstand me: there are good conventional farmers. This way is more independent because you rely on your own knowledge and your own labour, and you produce your own inputs by composting and animal production. That’s what I enjoy about organic farming.
Also, you have a product that the market wants. I don’t have to go to market and ask, “What will you give me for that?” We are in a strong position: we produce for a market that appreciates our product, and we deal with customers that say, Thank you.
In conventional farming, your customer doesn’t really need you. For them, they are so big worldwide, that one farmer doesn’t make any difference. With organic, you deal with smaller companies that need you, but you also need them. It’s a much healthier relationship between the customer and the producer.
Local food will be way bigger than organic in the future. This is the real way to go. This is going to be the big thing and that will give anybody who produces good stuff on a local level a chance.
Energy has to go that way, too. We should be putting a wind turbine up and one guy can supply our neighbourhood with power from it. The guy who has 1000 pigs should put a manure digester up and produce electricity or natural gas for his neighbourhood. The economic situation now will drive more people to that.
Our so-called leaders talk about how important it is to keep up free trade, but that’s because they’re afraid free trade will collapse. That’s exactly what’s going to happen because it has no future. It gave us all these problems. Worldwide trade and all these products from China gave us the problems we have now. So the solution is to keep going the same way and expect different results? It doesn’t make sense.

Looking for a better future
We as suppliers are not taken very seriously by our suppliers and customers anymore. As a farmer, it is very nice to work with people who appreciate what you are doing. We are not going to get rich quick, but we can survive and increase our wealth slowly. I’m pretty sure I can provide a future for someone down the road.
Every person who lives on this Earth has a purpose, and some people are just born and naturally find their way to that purpose. Some people never find their purpose. I don’t know what my purpose is, but right now, what I could do to bring humanity forward is by supplying good quality food that makes you think straight. Good food, good thoughts; junk food, junk thoughts. It’s that simple.

View from the Strip
By Casey Lessard

If you haven’t seen the amazing internet sensation, Susan Boyle, get yourself to YouTube right now and search for her performance on Britain’s Got Talent. Go ahead. I’ll still be here when you get back.
Anjhela and I were among the very first people outside of Britain to see the video (Anjhela remembers there were only 30 views when we watched it last Saturday night, and as the Strip goes to press, there are now a million times that amount). The Scottish woman’s performance of “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Miserables is stunning, even after listening to it 100 times (seriously). It’s no surprise that Ms. Boyle, a single 47-year old woman from southern Scotland, is a global phenomenon.
What should be surprising, but depressingly is not, is how much attention has been paid to her appearance and the fact that she said she has “never been kissed”, which was a self-deprecating comment taken seriously by every media outlet. One went so far as to interview Drew Barrymore, the star of the film, Never Been Kissed, who Boyle should kiss first, like either woman cares about the answer.
Susan Boyle was judged by her looks – called frumpy, dowdy, ugly, plain, simple, and all variety of negative terms by other media – from the moment she took the stage with her freshly curled hair and a gown she bought for her nephew’s wedding. But to her, this is how she wanted to appear in front of the judges, her nation, and now the world. She may not qualify as the top choice for next year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, but neither would 99.99999 per cent of us. Seriously, who are we to judge her looks?
Besides, does that matter? She didn’t go on Britain’s Got Talent to be a model; she went there to sing, and her talent has sent shockwaves through the world wide web. She is an amazing singer, and she has a joyful sense of humour. She is debunking perceptions of how celebrities and regular people should appear in public (she’s disarmingly normal in interviews), and turning the global (especially North American) standard of beauty on its head. She’s not actually that unattractive (physically or especially intrinsically), and would be as welcome at a dinner party as any celebrity I’ve ever met.
More disturbingly is the answer to the following question: would Boyle’s appearance be so heavily criticized had she been a man? Perhaps one wearing a suit from a supermarket with worse teeth? If you look back, the winner of the inaugural Britain’s Got Talent, Paul Potts, fared much better when he meekly presented himself in front of the judges. The fact that he was respected before and after he opened his mouth (although his teeth were heavily debated and eventually fixed) reflects our bias against women who aren’t visually perfect compared to men who present themselves similarly.
The judges and audience never expected an average looking single woman in her late-40s to have any talent or value. It’s shameful, and not only do we need to realize that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (as has been said far too many times this week), but we should also consider that the cover is fine just the way it is.
Love you, Susan.

Parents hope for new jungle gym for kids to monkey around on; need to raise $70,000

Story and photos by Casey Lessard

Concerns about safety and the prospect of a child who uses a wheelchair being unable to enjoy the playground have triggered a push by the Grand Bend Public School’s Home and School Association to fundraise for new playground equipment. With designs by Active Playground Equipment of Point Edward based on wish lists from teachers and parents, the association’s proposed equipment will cost $70,000 to make and install.
While some of the money may come from pending grants, fundraisers expect they will have to find most of it through donations from local businesses, community organizations and fundraisers.
“It’s a lot of money,” says Amy Wiseman, who is on the playground committee. “Half the price goes to making it wheelchair accessible. My hope is to have it by this summer, but it may be 2010.”
Wiseman is hoping a Hydro One grant for $25,000 comes through to excite others in the community.
“I’m hoping the community does step up. These are our kids and we’re doing this for the community.”
“It’s a great idea,” says principal Susan Manz. “The children need it. But it has to be safe and accessible to everybody.”
“There’s a small playground now that is about 15 years old,” Home and School Association president Andrea Matheson says. “The new one will be four times the size and wheelchair accessible. It’s quite an improvement, for sure.”
Currently the equipment services only kindergarten to Grade 3, and Grade 8s do a souvenir photo on the climber at graduation. There are limits to when the equipment may be used and also how long it is open in the fall and spring. The new equipment would extend all of the above, Manz said.
Despite previous reports to the contrary, the board of education will not be matching funds raised. The board’s beautification grant is about $5,000.
So far, fundraisers and requests have raised several thousand dollars, including fundraisers (Little Caesars Pizza Kits, Mabel’s Labels, and Ian’s Kitchen) and donations (Stewart Webb & Sons, and Grand Bend Women’s Institute). Tim Horton’s has committed to donating the proceeds of its Smile Cookie Campaign, Mac’s is putting a donation box on their counter, and Hayter’s Turkeys is donating food for a fundraising barbecue May 16.

To donate or for more information, contact Amy Wiseman at 519-238-1116 or Andrea Matheson at 519-238-1710.

Anne’s Yoga Works – Yoga and Pilates
annesyogaworks.com
info at annesyogaworks.com or 519-243-3552

May 4 to June 29 – Mondays
10:30 to 11:45 a.m. – Port Franks studio
8 weeks $72. Drop in fee $10.
6:45 to 8 p.m. – Port Franks studio
8 weeks $72. Drop in fee $10.
(Drop-in fee allows participant to try one class without committing to whole session)
Classes offered: Yoga Your Way; Beginner Pilates; Teen Yogilates; Trim and Tone Yoga; Restorative Yoga; Yoga/Pilates for Golfers; Private group and Individual Yoga or Pilates classes by appointment only; Two hour Workshops will also be available.

Story and photos by Casey Lessard
In these stressful times, you may be exploring ways to reconnect with your body and slow down. Port Franks yoga teacher Anne Chute believes yoga and Pilates can do both.
“It makes people feel better and sleep better,” Chute says. “It allows the body to heal itself from the inside, and creates a feeling of contentment. It helps you learn how to focus what’s happening in your body.
“For the most part it’s people who already recognize they should slow down,” she says of her typical clientele. “People that push themselves really hard should come, but they tend to be the last people who want to come to a yoga class. The type of yoga I teach is hatha yoga, but I teach on the gentle side.”
Hatha yoga, which Chute teaches, involves a holistic approach that includes physical postures, yogic breathing and meditation. Because of the type of focus needed, Chute says yoga has advantages over other health programs.
“In a lot of facilities, the music is cranked so loud and there’s so much other noise that you can’t focus on what your body is saying,” she says. “Yoga focuses on the abilities of your body and strengthening that.”
Chute has been teaching yoga for five years, and has earned her Yoga 500, which involves doing 500 hours of instruction. It’s a long road that started with watching yoga on TV and discovering the pitfalls of that route.
“It’s hard to do it that way,” she says. “A lot of them (DVDs and books) don’t give you the opportunity to find out what you’re doing wrong.”
Regardless of how you do yoga, Chute sees the value of getting started and staying focused.
“The healing always starts from the inside, even when you cut yourself. Yoga is no different, but it unites the mind, body and spirit. You end up with a better attitude about yourself and your surroundings. You let go of things you don’t need, whether it be ego or money. Yoga says, I’m here right now. I need to enjoy this moment.”

Alternative View
By Lance Crossley

Shakespeare once wisely wrote: “Neither a borrower not a lender be”.
But in 2009, it’s clear that it is better to be a lender. If there is one thing the global economic crisis has shown, it is that the world is run by creditors. The reality is so obscene that it is a wonder why incidents that happened at the G20 summit in London, where protesters stormed the banks, are not happening more often. Instead of paying for their crimes – promoting predatory loans and exotic securities that fueled the housing bubble and subsequent economic collapse – banks are cashing in on the current crisis on the backs of taxpayers.
In the United States, the government recently announced a so-called “public-private” partnership to rid the banks of the toxic assets they created. Under this plan, the government will lend investors 92 per cent of the money to buy these worthless pieces of paper. Investors only have to put up eight per cent of the costs. If the assets end up losing money (which they probably will), the 92 per cent “loan” is guaranteed by the taxpayer. If they miraculously gain money, the public gets only 50 per cent of the gains. The financial elite have everything to gain and nothing to lose: banks rid themselves of toxic assets and way above market price, investors risk nothing, and the tab is picked up by your average hard-working citizen.
In Canada, the Harper government bailed-out our banks to the tune of $75 billion in the fall, supposedly to get the banks lending again. That much money could have fixed healthcare, poverty, and raised the standard of living for First Nations in one fell swoop. The government framed it as a “market transaction”, not a bailout, so it was barely covered by the press. If our banks are the healthiest in the world, as Harper is so fond of saying, why do our banks require a cash injection that, on a per capita basis, is equal to the $700 billion dollar bailout in the U.S. that caused so much controversy? Another steal for the banks.
The same power dynamics are taking place on the world stage. Take Iceland, for example, which is on the verge of becoming a third-world country thanks to the current crisis. International creditors knowingly loaded Iceland with debts they knew could never be repaid. The idea is to keep collecting on the interest until the country is tapped and then forced – by institutions like the IMF and World Bank – to start stripping its public assets. Sell off the country bit by bit to the private sector and create a whole new slew of borrowers for the banks. The problem is that this is leaving the country in ruin. This is familiar story to the developing world, but a new one for a country like Iceland.
Today, we live in a world where the only wealth being generated is through the extraction of debt.
It’s a world where only a privileged few are benefiting and an awful lot are suffering.

Advice from Mom
By Rita Lessard

Thanks to my sister Joan, I was the happy recipient of a very leisurely holiday in Punta Cana for 10 days.
I don’t know about Joan, but for me, it was a very pleasant vacation and a much needed rest with plenty of sunshine – a respite from the frigid weather that you unfortunate souls had to endure the last part of March and the first week of April. I was quite surprised to see snow when I came back, but now as I look out it is sunny and warm. Hopefully we’ve seen the last of the white stuff.
The secret to a successful trip is preparation before you leave. For instance, the most important thing is getting your passport. When I renew my passport in two years, I will be on my fourth application. Still, It doesn’t matter how many times you apply: the government will still put you through the same crap. Even though these jokers know that my mother’s maiden name will never change, or that my birth month, day and year will never change, they still insist I give them the same information every time I deal with them. I know they know who I am: over the years, I’ve had a social insurance card, birth certificate, and filled out income tax forms, etc. You can see why I’m surprised I have to go through so much to convince these people who I am.
I suppose it’s quite a cash grab, though; when I first applied forty years ago, the passport cost me $5. Now they’ve raised the stakes, so be sure you save some extra vacation money for the passport.
In the past, you could smile when you got your passport picture taken, but not today. No smiling! If you don’t look like a criminal, you can’t leave the country! I supposed they figure you’re ticked off after all the bull they’ve put you through.

Speaking of which, this vacation was my first time encountering the dreaded Montezuma’s Revenge, or as some people call it, the tiki trots; in plain English, diarrhea. For the first week or so, it was a stop and go situation. In case the reading public is ever plagued with this condition, here are some helpful hints:
- Drink plenty of fluids.
- Eat foods like mashed carrots, chicken broth, crackers, dry toast, bananas, Jell-O, apple sauce.
- Stay away from dairy, except yogurt.
- Also avoid explosives like beans, cabbage and Brussels sprouts.
- Try to maintain a bland diet until your condition passes (maybe that’s a bad way to say it. Correction: until you’re relieved of the ring around the bowl).
If you are lucky enough to be able to travel outside Canada and unlucky enough to encounter the Katmandu Quick Stop, take comfort in something like Imodium, or as some people will say, “put a plug in it.”

Not to worry, though; I’m back in good stead, and just in time to congratulate Casey for winning his newspaper awards. You’re the best, signed your prejudiced mother.

Keeping the Peace
By Tom Lessard

With Rita away in the sunny Dominican Republic, I was reminded of my trip to the Middle East when I was 19. There I was in January 1957, debarking from an aircraft carrier in Port Said, Egypt and embarking on a new experience. We boarded trucks to travel down the Suez Canal during the crisis that had started months earlier. We were headed to Ismailia and the junction of the Sweet Water Canal, which runs to Cairo and the Nile River.
About 30 miles along the Sweet Water is the village of Abu Sueir, which has an air force base. This is where we spent the first couple months of our tour. What was left of the Egyptian army had a unit station on the air base, and we camped on the other side of a fenced-in area.
One night when I was on fire picket, I happened to come to a gate along the fence line that separated our camp from that of the Egyptian air base. As I turned the corner to check the other side, I startled an Egyptian sentry, who lowered his rifle – with bayonet fixed – and walked right into me, stabbing me in the stomach. Luckily, I was wearing my great coat because it stopped most of the thrust and I suffered only a slight wound. I was able to continue my patrol, and when I passed my tent, I stopped for a few minutes to clean the wound and put a bandage on it before continuing the duty. The potential for an international incident meant there was no way I was about to report that goof-up.
This mission was where we were introduced to Stella. The beer, that is, in quart bottles. They came in wooden cases like the old Coca-Cola ones, and sat outside in the heat with no coolers to chill them. The beer was skunky, but because it was all we could get, we had to put up with it. It took about a week or so to get accustomed to it, but by then it started to taste pretty good.
Our opportunity at playing tourist saw us take a bus tour to Cairo. Driving by bus along the canal and seeing the way people lived was like stepping back in time to the days of the Pharaohs. The Egyptians used the canal to wash their clothes, bathe, and brush their teeth using their fingers. We passed a prison with the chain gangs working outside. We also saw 15 men pulling a dhow (a single-masted sailboat) up the river. The dhows are loaded off freighters in the Suez Canal at Ismailia. These men walked along the bank pulling the dhow to Cairo – against the current.
When we reached Cairo, as we stepped off the bus we were met by a woman trying to sell us her baby for about $0.50; she said should couldn’t afford to feed the baby and herself. We sure didn’t need a baby, so we all chipped in and gave her some money to buy what she needed and went on our way.
Because of the war, Cairo was very quiet. Very few people or vehicles were about, nor were boats traveling down the river.
As all tourists do, we went for a camel ride around the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, and watched a man run up and down the pyramid. These monuments are amazing pieces of construction. The blocks are so immense, it makes you wonder how people could move them and place them into position. I realize it took years and incredible manpower, but it’s still hard to fathom.
Our next tour was to Mount Sinai. We traveled south on the Sinai desert by Jeep, stopping at small oases to rest and refresh ourselves. There is a lot of history at Mount Sinai, where Moses was said to have received the Ten Commandments. It is a very hot and dry area in the desert, and leaves me pondering how the Jews survived all their years wandering here. We were met by monks who gave us a choice of going up the side of the mountain by basket or making the long climb to the monastery itself.Being in good physical condition, most of us chose to climb while a few of the older (and obese) men rode the basket. This mode of transportation involves a basket secured by a long rope attached to a pulley situated at an opening in the monastery wall and operated by monks inside. It was pulled up and brought inside so that intruders couldn’t use it when raiding.

Children in Crediton recently celebrated another Christian tradition, with the annual Easter egg hunt held Saturday. Seven hundred eggs were strewn across the ball diamond and park areas. Some of the eggs had papers with numbers on them inside. If you found one of these, each represented a correspondingly numbered prize. Every child received a hot dog and other treats, and super weather meant a great turnout.

Living in Balance
By Jenipher Appleton

Our children have a vested interest in their collective future. In my experience, they are not only interested in how their future will play out, but also care enough to try to make a difference in the outcome.
My students at East Williams Public School range in age from 10 to 12 years. They have embraced the environmental studies curriculum right from the start. Tell a child they are going to do a research project on an endangered animal and they jump in with both feet! They have enthusiastically adopted the theory that ‘if each one of us is prepared to make small changes toward conservation, the ultimate impact will be enormous’. Hence, each student has made the decision to reduce his/her personal ecological footprint.
Knowledge is power. One of our major projects this year has been to increase the awareness within the school and community that disposable water bottles are extremely harmful to the environment. Following several shared reading sessions on the facts about plastic water bottles, my students were shocked, even angered, about their negative impact. Did you know that:

• it takes millions of barrels of oil annually to manufacture plastic bottles? (and the CO2 emissions to go with it?)
• it takes 3L of water in the filling process for 1L of bottled water?
• 15% of bottles get recycled; the rest end up in the landfill or ocean?
• bottled water is rarely tested, whereas tap water is regularly and stringently tested?
• it takes 82 years for a plastic bottle to biodegrade?

As a result of this newfound knowledge, the children learned how to write a meaningful business letter. They expressed their thoughts intelligently and their letters were then sent to Thames Valley District School Board Trustee Peggy Sattler, who has been lobbying against the bottles for some time. In spite of her efforts, the Thames Valley Board has compromised by encouraging the “reduction” of bottled water in our schools. My students think that is simply not good enough. And so, they chose to ban water bottles in our classroom and to spread the message to others within their reach. Most of them now own stainless steel re-usable water bottles. Bravo!
When the students were asked how they had recently reduced their personal ecological footprint, they responded decisively. Here is what some of them had to say:

• We got in the van, stopped at ditches and picked up litter. (Michael Beattie)
• Last weekend I used a china plate when everyone else was using styrofoam. (Matthew Grace)
• I walk or bike to school instead of being driven. (Sara Doerr)
• I asked my Mom not to buy plastic water bottles. Now I have a 500 mL re-usable bottle on my desk. (Daryn O’Neilll)
• I unplug the Play Station and VCR. (Kyle Hemming)
• I had a second hot chocolate and asked the waiter to fill up the old paper cup. (Taylor Davies)
• I turned off computers, lights and TVs. (Kody Munn)
• Last weekend we went with my cousins to Toronto. We carpooled. (Jordan Van Dyk)
• When I have to feed the pigs at the other barn, I bike there. (Matt Bannister)
• My mom told my brother and sister to get a plastic water bottle for gymnastics. I told them to get a reusable one. (Maddy Cocksworth)

So…listen to the children. The future of Planet Earth may well depend upon it.

Eye for Design
By Lorette Mawson

As I sit here listening to rain and howling wind, I am reminded of the beautiful afternoon I recently spent raking. Considering everyone is ready to get outside and enjoy the outdoors, adding curb appeal can be a great project if you are thinking about selling your home or if you just want to perk things up a notch.
I always start by walking around the property, looking for peeling paint on windows, railings, fences, etc., and making sure all of these are still safe. Once that is done, I stand back and take a look at the front door: is it tired looking? How about light fixtures: are they in good condition or could they use sprucing up? New paint and light fixtures are great ways to start amping up your curb appeal. Other ideas include replacing door hardware and numbers if they have seen better days.
Now time for the fun. Consider adding a wreath to your door and maybe some planters. If watering is not your cup of tea, the selection of artificial shrubs you’ll find these days is stunning, and by adding mini-lights at Christmas, they can become a focal point year-round with no work required.
Another quick and easy way to add curb appeal is using window boxes. One of my favourite things is to change them with the seasons.
Finally, illuminating the walkway to your front door with solar lights will lead your guests or potential buyers directly to that newly painted front door. Let’s hope the weather cooperates so we can all get outside and enjoy this beautiful season.