Alfred Austin wrote; ”The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed, not just the body but the soul.” it seems that many people discovered this bit of wisdom during last spring and summer under lockdown because even more are buying seeds, making raised beds, reading “how-to” gardening books and watching videos, of which there is no lack!
Happy birthday wishes go out to Adeline (Addy) Clark on her 12th birthday. Addy is a great help around the farm, loves all the animals and hopes to become a vet. Birthday greeting also to Sharon Doucette, who is Keith’s wife! They don’t live in town but not too far away!
Ann Phillips also celebrated another birthday. Ann is a very busy lady. Along with her job at the Presbyterian Church, she is involved in a number of community activities and keeping up with husband Dave and all his community involvement.
Happy birthday also to Gloria Eng, another very busy lady! When she isn’t keeping time at the car races, she works with the Legion members in their various projects and has been on the executive for some time. She is also executive of the Uxbridge Historical Society. Many happy returns to all these great people!
Deborah Clements had some news that was both happy and sad. Their son Chris has been ministering to a congregation in Fergus. He has recently completed a significantly higher degree. He and his wife and small children will be moving to BC, where he will be teaching at a university, too far to visit with them very often. Congratulations to Chris, and we commiserate with Deborah and Dwight and join in their pride!
Our sympathy to the Smalley family of the potato dynasty in the passing of their patriarch! I didn’t know him personally, but we did get our potatoes from them when we used to have suppers for the church. I know many around who also rely on the family for their supply of spuds.
Driving down Sandford Road, I noticed that the Flummerfelt/Eng farm has been sold. This farm is the site of the old Flummerfelt millpond. The stream that flows through it is where the swans have been making their summer home for many years. I do hope the new owners continue to feed them and protect them as the last residents did.
Sandford Road has seen a few changes in the last couple of years with the cidery now in the old Noble farm, a lady with a Nail Salon business a little further along, the passing of Doreen Van Vught not far along from me. Hopefully, when the pandemic is over, we can make the acquaintance of these new neighbours.
The Pickering Naturalists met via zoom Thursday night for an interesting talk on making the Third Breeding Bird Atlas. Mark Pegg and Emily Rondels were the instructors for the evening. They demonstrated how the structure of the process works all over Ontario.
They are responsible for our grid, which is Region 46. Our own Geoff Carpentier is in charge of much of the organizing.
There is a major project underway for several months now and will continue until the fall. It is called the Poppy Project. It was instigated in Uxbridge by Laura Taylor. She saw a similar project undertaken in Niagara and before that in London, England. People are crocheting or knitting poppies. Patterns are supplied. Laura has several ideas about displaying them in a swath to hang from the Library balcony, around the soldier memorial, on the fence and around Samuel Simpson Sharpe. If you think you might like to contribute to this, you can find details on the Uxbridge Poppy Project Facebook Page.
For those of you who received a Lenten M&S Calendar from me, please finish it off now, and if you wish, send a cheque with your donations to our respective church treasurers. It appears that we will be several months still before we will meet in person. Again we thank Carol O’Neil for producing such thoughtful and insightful services each Sunday and Good Friday this week.