Celebrate Canada Day!*
Canada Day Celebrations will be held in Gooderham and Dorset on Saturday, June 28th and in Minden, West Guilford and Wilberforce on Tuesday, July 1st.
Canada Day in Dorset
Saturday, June 28
Fireworks will be lighting up the night sky at the Big Trading Bay in Dorset beginning at dusk (approx 9:30). There is no charge, but a boot will be passed around for contributions to offset the costs. All donations will go towards next year’s show. Rain date: Sunday, June 29.
Big Trading Bay, Dorset
The Algonguin Highlands Music Summerfest:
Saturday June 28 2pm - 1am, Ox Narrows Resort, Hwy 35
Roast Pig, Fireworks on the Barge at Dusk, Special Permit Lic,Music, Music 6 Bands, Food, Face Painters, Jumping Castle, Childrens Blues Harmonica Teaching Workshop, Jumping Water Raft and much much more. $20.00 gets you in to see it all (Wristbands and tickets). Proceeds towards Cystic Fibrosis.
Gooderham’s Family Canada Day Celebration
Saturday, June 28, Gooderham Community Center & Park Community Centre Road Gooderham
The Gooderham Committee for Kids will be hosting their third annual Canada Day Celebration Saturday June 28th, 2008 at the Gooderham Community Centre & Park. Starting at 11:00 a.m. until approximately 4:00 p.m. there will be fun games,old fashioned races, face painting, fundraising raffle’s, food, yard sale tables and more. Return at dusk for our spectacular fireworks display. Admission for fireworks by donation only. Fun Day Activities Free!
*Details courtesy of “What’s Happening in the Haliburton Highlands” - Canada Day Special
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Earlier this week I had a nice email exchange with a long-time “Maple Laker,” Mr. Tony Boros.
Besides sounding exactly like the super kind of person who you find on Maple Lake, Mr. Boros is a professional photographer who generously shared some spectacular shots of our beloved Maple Lake. His professional website is Websight 360 where you can enjoy 360 degree panorama images as well as find out more about the process and more about Mr. Boros personally and professionally. I highly recommend a visit.
Hi there!
The good news is that I’ve recently been able to put a few brand new real (not webcam stills) photographs of Maple Lake, Ontario up for all to see. I’m very much looking forward however to adding many more as we move towards the end of next month–when Illinois obligations ease up.
In the meantime, the “not bad, either” news is that I have brand spanking new webshots that I took from a number of locations around Ontario today. Enjoy!
In case you missed: Web Cam shots going back to Winter, 2008~
Mulligans Bay~ Chapleau River~
Ed Huck Marine~ Rockport, Ontario~
Port Carling Indian River Cam~
Silver Lake Resort~
In case you missed: Web Cam shots going back to Winter, 2008
Above: The Art Hive, 10239 Hwy. 118, Haliburton, Ontario. 705-754-0021 ( “B” on map below)
Somehow I missed the opening of The Art Hive last summer (perhaps because we had to delay our visit until late in the summer) even though proximity-wise it’s walking distance from where I stay on Maple Lake. I had sort of pushed Welch’s general store to the back of my mind because it wasn’t Welch’s anymore. For many years the building appeared vacant.
When I was a kid Welch’s was a favoured destination as barefoot, my cousins and I would troupe in (on our best behaviour, mind you) and pick out penny candy, pixie sticks, and the like whilst whichever adult in charge that day picked up a few grocery items.
Welch’s General Store closed years ago and I hadn’t realized that the store was once again vibrant with life. I am looking forward to visiting The Art Hive not only because I truly enjoy art of many kinds but because I’ll get to walk down memory lane.
“The Maple Lake Artisans Collective is a group of Haliburton County multi-disciplinary artists who have come together to share, catalyze, and nurture creative expression and the arts.
The Art Hive is a new and exciting enterprise located in the historical Welch’s General Store. Home base of the Maple Lake Artisans Collective, the business opened in June 2007. Local artisans display and sell quality-crafted pottery, fabric art, music, ironwork, sculpture, jewellery and more. In addition to the gallery and gift shop there are studios on site, creative workshops for both children and adults and an organic fair trade coffee bar.”
THE NEWS: Keep your appointment calendar open for June 28, 2008 because:
There will be a day of festivities at The Art Hive on Highway 118 just east of Carnarvon.
THE ART HIVE TURNS ONE (edited from a County of Haliburton, Department of Economic Development, Tourism & Marketing release.)
“Between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm The Art Hive will be celebrating its first year in business with free custom-made cake, art demonstrations, live music, hands-on sculpture, drumming, barbecued food and a special members’ exhibit, to name only some of what is planned for the day. “It has been an amazing year,” notes potter Lisa Barry. “The local community has been very supportive over the past 12 months, donating goods, services and historical items as well as participating in our events and programs. So now we want folks to come out on June 28 and have a good time.”
Here’s where to go on June 28: (directions above post)
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Black Flies.
We brought back a number of souvenirs from Maple Lake but besides buttertarts the ones that made the biggest impression are the many black fly bites that all three of us–plus our little dog Raven are still showing evidence of.
Poor little Raven’s (she’s a 12 lb. Schipperke) stomach was covered in bites and it was too late to avoid them once we realized that a morning walk in the newly-mowed back field was not a great idea. The person who walked her in those early morning hours also sustained a goodly number of bites and is glad to show them off to anyone who might take an interest (there really haven’t been any takers). Spouse also took a number of hits when he unwisely mowed the grass wearing nothing but shorts and gym shoes. His torso got eaten up pretty badly as well as his legs.
Judging from the Bug Forecast for Maple Lake it still quite thick with Black Flies and the weather that is forecasted doesn’t seem like it will helps matters much.
Hopefully, July will bring some good news.
Long range weather forecast for the Haliburton area:
Amy Brohm, the Tourism Marketing Co-ordinator for the County of Haliburton, Ontario is a font of information about the Haliburton Highlands. I’ve included her newsletter sign-up addy below along with her contact info:
705-286-1777; 1-800-461-7677
abrohm@county.haliburton.on.ca
She sends out a newsletter weekly that is just jammed-packed with every happening you could possibly imagine–and it’s all right in the Highlands. Click the link that follows this sentence to get on the email mailing list:
What’s Happening In The Haliburton Highlands This Week
I cannot wait to get back up there. I will be pouring over what is going on every week. This is the year that I rediscover the Haliburton Highlands. My mom duties are keeping me here and that’s OK. One truly neat thing is when I do return, shortly thereafter my son and spouse and little dog Raven will join me. 
My son is currently taking Driver’s Education classes that he will have completed upon coming to the Lake. But he’ll be far from done. He must put in hundreds of hours over a nine-month period before our state will grant him a driver’s license. Until then he will drive using a learner’s permit and with an adult driver in the car with him. This will give us all the more reason to venture out beyond our little Maple Lake paradise.
Ms. Brohm has also included some great links in this week’s newsletter that I thought I’d share with you:
Haliburton Holidays
Haliburton County
Experience Haliburton
This is a photo of my dad and me (taken by my mom). He is being quite brave because he’s taking an infant camping. I hope it’s only Ontario because I would have been really hesitant to venture much further away from our home in Toronto but he and mom may have felt adventurous and we could have landed somewhere in Michigan.
Regardless, my dad was and is a great dad. He was and continues to be a strong presence in my life and for that I thank you, Dad.
love, Cindy
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It’s great to be home from Maple Lake–but I want to go back!
The break was needed despite the grueling 14-hr. (13 on the way back–we flew) car trips.
The Haliburton Highlands are beautiful this time of year! I’d forgotten as it’s been 30 years (!) since I’d been there in early June. We taken vacation later in the summer each year but this year we’re starting earlier and wrapping it up in September which effectively gives me especially, a 4- month spread to enjoy it!
I know! I’m lucky.
!
We had a great visit. The weather though it’s been harsh, “behaved” for us. With warm air temperatures the 65- degree lake felt just fine, though I admit, I like it a bit warmer as a rule.
The cottage looked great.
There was a bat or perhaps bat family that really wanted to break through the end part of a stove pipe from a wood-burning stove that was removed due to fire code changes. It’s not been fully sealed up yet so those little guys made quite a fuss and finally one popped his tiny head through. Spouse put together a metal-bottomed contraption, wrapping it on with lots of duct tape and I don’t think there will be any further “activity” for a while but I would like to cap the pipe off completely at some point.
There wasn’t much time for pics so some today and some next time and proably the time after that.
Cheers!
C.
Rockport, Ontario, Thousand Islands~ 06.05.08~ Ed Huck Marine Cam
After sitting alone for nine months our cottage will once again be inhabited by mid-day Saturday. Keeping in mind that we’ll need to put in the water and of course, clean a place that sometimes becomes a haven for little creatures, I hope we travel at a fast clip and get there with enough time to get all the kinks worked out before sundown. We have reservations in Ann Arbor, Michigan to stop on the way there as younger son has school on Friday (his final, final exam).
So big excitement. I’m very much in need of letting go of the accelerated pace I’ve been keeping since the Google shake-up last year. When I think about it I’ve been going full-throttle for 6 months–working 12-14 days usually 7-days a week and I cannot wait to make this trip despite not bringing the baby (the Mustang GT) because we need to pack stuff for our next trip–our official vacation starting in July. If the satellite Internet install goes as planned I may drive ahead of son and spouse in July–maybe two weeks before them, and then I will take the Mustang. Woot! (I just need to trust that they can get by without me for two weeks!) 
Both guys have commitments here–spouse’s work that you can only take so many weeks-off of and he’s taking 2 long weekends and three weeks at the Lake this year and son–who can only fit Driver’s Ed. into his schedule by taking it during summer school. Three-hundred fifty dollars and a trip to the DMV later and he is ready for the first day of school on June 11th.
The weather forecast has in some ways changed for the better for us. Now we have warmer temps and less rain (see below) but the bug report is looking a bit scary as the temp is forecasted to soar to 30C at Maple Lake on Saturday. Unless Maple Lake is sealed by ice nothing is keeping me out of that Lake on Saturday.
(Above) Maple Lake Sunrise After Storm ~
The long-range Ontario weather forecast has been revised so for the 2.5 days we’ll be in Canada the forecast says now will be mostly no rain and good temperatures. Supposedly the “no-see-ums” count will be at “low,” too. Every good things helps, even a lack of things you can barely see. Hopefully for Maple Lake, Ontario and the Haliburton Highlands area the forecast won’t change too much more between now and Saturday.
Here’s the revised weather and bug forecast for West Guilford (Central Ontario) for the first half of June, 2008.
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