by Pat Asling Another week of seesawing weather, from bitterly cold to spring temps, sometimes all on the same day! But there is hope! As I walk around the yard, I see some flowers with blooms, some unopened but very obvious, and shrubs with big buds but still unopened. Unfortunately, all the work I had planned to do last autumn was curtailed by the early winter arrival, much of that (excuses, excuses!). In fact, I bought an electric trimmer just to do that work, but looking

by Pat Asling So, we suffered through the first day of Spring! I am wondering if someone was trying to be smart and decided to pull an early April Fool’s Day joke on us because it sure wasn’t very Spring-like, at least the kind we were hoping for! Nor does this week past (by the time you read this) seem to be pointing in the right direction either. However, there are some positive signs. Although my crocuses are still snow-covered, I have several hellebores (commonly called C

by Pat Asling So, Mother Nature is playing tricks again! It was sooo nice to see all that snow disappear and then, whammo, to have another 6” dumped on us. At least it was soft and fluffy, and easily moved by the wind as well as by shovels, etc., but we are in mid-March (hard to imagine), so only a couple more months to persevere! Sadly, our little weather prognosticator, Wiarton Willy, passed away in his sleep after predicting an early Spring. For him, it probably did, in gr

by Pat Asling The best news of the week is the warmer weather we enjoyed has melted a great deal of the piles of snow hedging us in, not good news for skiers or outdoor skaters, but for those trying to get around, it sure makes a big difference. Unless, of course, you are faced with a huge puddle in front of your house, or worse, water running into your basement. It seems here though, much of the water is disappearing, and my theory is the ground never really froze because it

by Pat Asling Gone! What happened to February? A short month that seemed even shorter in spite of the extremes of winter weather. We had some nasty storms, but also some lovely days with temperatures above 0 °C, blue skies, and sunshine! Sitting on my front deck, you could have started on your summer tan! Strange that it can change from +6 °C to -12 °C in a matter of hours! Did anyone manage to see the parade of planets supposedly visible after sunset late last week? Unfortun

by Pat Asling Another rather dreary week with the temperatures hovering around 0c most days and snow melting almost as fast as it fell, which happened most days. It was nice though to not be enduring such low temps as we had previously. We are warned though that these conditions will return soon! This week was rather uneventful as people and organizations gear up for more activities as we move into spring. I want to start with something I mentioned before but that is not happ

by Pat Asling A long weekend with a special day on either end! I hope you all had lovely valentines activities and family time together. The weather was warmer which no doubt suited most people but not those skiers and other outdoor sports enthusiasts. Then maybe, they were all inside watching the Olympics! A couple of local events scheduled for Valentine's evening were cancelled. No explanation was given for the cancellation of the RAD dance at the Legion. The dance at the Z

by Pat Asling For many folk, the news of the week was the weather, which affected much of North America! Of course, along with other things Canada got the blame for, that came out of the Arctic, a location much in the news lately for other political reasons. Thankfully, we are more used to this cold than many of the parts of the US to our south. The only thing hot there is the politics, which leaves me colder! I must apologize for no news last week due to a computer glitch. I

By Pat Asling Now that 2026 is underway, things seem to have slowed down a little, but this is likely just a brief pause. After the holiday rush and a bit of overindulgence, people are catching their breath. Before long, lunches, meetings, and events will be back in full swing, and life will feel busy once again. I hope everyone is carrying good memories from the 2025 Christmas season and the start of the new year. Sadly, the world has entered 2026 in a time of great turmoil.

by Pat Asling Here we are, one week into a new year! Do you feel any different? The last couple of weeks of December have brought us back to old-time winters in regard to snow. There is a song which says, “as high as an elephant's eye,” but the snow drifts have been as high as the corn left in the field! Personally, I am tired of shovelling or thinking about shovelling, and this is early yet. At least we did have some melt and more forecast for this week. Snowmobiles and skie

by Pat Asling In church today, the candle of Joy was lit! It’s hard to be joyful when so many horrible things are happening around the world and suffering is so great. It is hard to be joyful when your friend had died, another is diagnosed with a stroke, or has only a short time to live as diagnosed by doctors, an unbelievable number of countries around the world are war-torn, hundreds driven from their home by war, floods and other catastrophic natural disasters, all created

by Pat Asling By the time you read this it will be getting close to the middle of the month. There is lots of excitement with buying presents, preparing food, listening to Christmas music and so many events happening. For sure nobody in our area can complain that it doesn’t look like Christmas because we certainly have plenty of the white stuff and it keeps coming! I am still working on that first big dump. Did you see the last, biggest closest full moon? It looked beautiful

by Pat Asling The big news this week would have to be the amount of snow our area received over the past weekend. Yes, we have had some snow before, but this dump hit hard and fast for those hoping for Indian summer and a few more days to finish up outdoor work. Saturday morning was a winter wonderland to look at and photograph with snow like thick icing on all the fir trees and everything else capable of holding it. The birds were in a panic, fluttering around trying to get

by Patricia Asling What a rather dreary month this has been! Either too cold or too damp to do the many things outside that need to be finished up. My “to do” list never gets any shorter, since anything I manage to scratch off immediately gets replaced by something else. It’s been a slow week, socially speaking, compared to some. The main event was the full turkey lunch for Seniors on Tuesday. Kudos to Mary’s Country Kitchen and staff for a great meal! The guest speaker was J

by Pat Asling Can you believe more than half of November has passed? Unfortunately I have little to show for it since the weather has been so unpredictable and unfavourable for work outside. Like many gardeners I was hoping for a few days of “Indian summer”. I wonder where that phrase originated? I know it has been a long awaited period of autumn which many look forward to. Weather forecasts do not look all that promising! Did anyone see the spectacular phenomenons in the sky

by Stuart Beaudoin UXBRIDGE: On Sunday, November 30th, at 7 p.m., St Paul’s Anglican Church in Uxbridge, Music at St Paul’s, will host a performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. The performance will be in English. The Cantorei sine Nomine choir and Orpheus Symphonietta orchestra under the direction of Stuart Beaudoin along with soloists, Leslie Higgins, Shannon Coates, Benjamin Done and Sebastien Belcourt will sing this marvelous setting of the Christmas story. Director Stu

by Pat Asling On Saturday morning, a short Indigenous Remembrance Day service was held at the Uxbridge Cenotaph. Rev. Karen Croxall opened the ceremony, and a wreath was placed by Jim Franklin, an 87-year-old, partially disabled, full Indigenous Veteran. Following this, each participant was given a pinch of tobacco, which they then placed on the wreath. Following up on this theme, at Sandford Zephyr United Church on Sunday morning, we had a short service of readings, includin

by Pat Asling Its Sunday night, the night of the morning of time change so everything is a little strange again. I hate getting up in the dark but don’t like it dark before the afternoon is half over. At least when I lived in the Caribbean it was pretty much the same both ends of the day, no switching about. Living in the north it’s going to be dark either end no matter what we do. Of course, since I lived in Jamaica for 2 years I was very concerned about my friends there. Fo

by Pat Asling Since last week's news was written on Thursday, this is a longer piece to cover, and it has been an exceptionally emotional time for various reasons. We start out happy, as Saturday evening, St. Paul’s Anglican hosted a presentation by John Haines, assisted by 3 other musical friends and a wonderful pianist, who recreated what it would have been like to attend the “silent” movies. The movie itself was silent but was accompanied by a pianist who endeavoured to pl

by Pat Asling Well, this is a very short week since Monday was the Thanksgiving holiday, and this is being written on Thursday evening! I hope everyone has recovered from all the Thanksgiving eating! There are beautiful colours in the trees just now, but a lot of trees have not started losing many of their leaves yet, so looking at a large bush is very satisfying with the various colours. We know it is autumn, though. Even when the sun shines brightly during the day, the cold