The Dorset Recreation Centre has announced a new day for it’s FREE Moms & Tots Playgroup.
The Moms and Tots Playgroup is now meeting on Tuesdays from 10am to 12pm.
All infants, toddlers and preschool-aged children and their caregivers are welcome to to participate in this free weekly program.
Playgroup is a time for some fun and socializing with other kids & adults. Toys, books, crafts and more are provided free of charge by the Dorset Recreation Centre. The Moms and Tots Playgroup is self run so please bring your own beverages and snacks.
For more information, call Cheryl at 705-766-0874.
Dorset Recreation Centre
1051 Main Street, Box 99 Dorset
This is a non-sponsored post done as a community service for the Haliburton Highlands.
Special thanks to the fine folks who author the What’s Happening This Week! newsletter.
Canada's Alexandre Bilodeau competes during men's freestyle skiing moguls qualifying on Cypress Mountain at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, February 14, 2010. Credit: REUTERS/Mike Blake
Family Day unofficially was extended across the country Monday as millions of proud Canadians continue to come together to celebrate the athletic achievement of moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau.
The country remains abuzz after the 22-year-old captured an Olympic gold medal on Sunday night in Vancouver, the first by a Canuck in a Games hosted by Canada in 34 years.
“Bravo Alex Bravo!” speedskater Charles Hamelin, a medal favourite at these Games, said of his Canadian teammate on Twitter. “He is my hero, I am so happy for him! I’m eager to congratulate him in person!”
That could happen Monday as Bilodeau will receive his gold medal at a ceremony in downtown Vancouver.
Also “pumped” for Bilodeau is Brian McKeever, a visually impaired cross-country skier who soon will make history himself as the first Paralympian to compete at a Winter Olympics.
“What a performance to give us the first gold on home soil,” the 30-year-old native of Canmore, Alta., tweeted. “Now maybe the media will focus on something else.”
Proud Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was among the crowd of 60,000-plus at Friday’s opening ceremony under the roof at BC Place Stadium, phoned Bilodeau after his victory and said: “Canadian families across the country are proud of you, Alex.”
A medal contender, Bilodeau nailed his last run, blazing through the slushy moguls to a 23.17-second finish and a score of 26.75 to best defending Olympic champion Dale Begg-Smith, a Vancouver native who now competes for Australia.
Congrats to Canada’s Alexandre Bilodeau on breaking the 34-year Olympic gold-on-home-soil (snow?) drought.
Despite all the noise from the usual suspects about who should have won (ironically, the Australians are saying that the gold should’ve gone to a former Canadian, now Aussie competitor) this a morale boost for all Canadian competitors. The pressure is off all of them in that Alex Bilodeau has “broken the curse.”
And though some are spouting the old, tired complaint that since Alex is a native of Quebec (which last time I googled, was a province in CANADA! Has there ever been a time when both Quebec and the rest of the provinces existed that they did not feud about what constitutes the “real” Canada?!), Canada has not truly won the gold yet, Alexandre Bilodeau will go down in history as the winner of the of Olympic gold medal on Sunday night in Vancouver. Bravo to Alex and to the Canadians who are not nit-picking his victory–just reveling in his wondrous win and the pride felt seeing the gold bestowed upon this phenomenal Canadian athlete.
Miss Canada International 2010 - Canadian Ambassador to the Teddy Bears of Hope Campaign
(February 12, 2010, Haliburton, ON) The County of Haliburton is excited to announce that Bridget Nickerson, Miss Canada International 2010 will be in the Haliburton Highlands this Family Day Weekend!
A native of Nova Scotia, Miss Nickerson is currently touring across Canada. Miss Canada is strong supporter of giving back to her community and as such, she is the Canadian Ambassador to the Teddy Bears of Hope Campaign.
The Teddy Bears of Hope bring smiles and hope to children all over the globe who are lonely, underprivileged and caught in a web of poverty and despair.
Miss Canada International will attend the Haliburton Highlands Dog Sled Derby at the Pinestone Resort & Conference Centre on Sunday, February 14 where she will be available for media interviews and photos between 10 am and noon. She will also attend the Blue Line Charity Auction at McKeck’s on Sunday from 4 to 6pm. On Monday, she will enjoy some of the great winter activities the Haliburton Highlands has to offer before continuing her journey across Canada.
Thanks to the County of Haliburton, Department of Economic Development, Tourism & Marketing!
This is a non-paid post in support of the County of Haliburton and the Haliburton Highlands.
The Scary Sacred Dark – Vigil of light for Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change
On Sunday, December 13, at 10:30 am please consider being part of a global “moment of hope.”
This event is part of the weekly Gaia Gatherings at the Blue Sky Studio with the theme this weekend The Scary Sacred Dark. Despite it’s light-hearted-sounding name, The Scary Sacred Dark is being offered in support of the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change.
What happens at this “vigil of light’?
First off, you will hear a story about the “scary and sacred dark,” then candles will be lit to symbolize sending light to where it is needed both in the world and in our lives. This also is a gesture in joining with those around the globe who have made a commitment to help restore our climate.
Closing out this Sunday’s Gaia gathering will entail going outdoors and ringing bells 350 times. Bells have historically been used especially in spiritual communities to signal imminent danger and to call out to the people of the community.
“350″ is indicative of 350 carbon parts per million which is the upper limit our atmosphere can tolerate.
When measured 200 years ago the earth’s atmosphere’s carbon parts per million was 275. It is now 390!
It is imperative that we push back that number to at least 350.
Be heard. Bring Dinner bells, Christmas bells, Cow bells, Jingle Bells and join in supporting a return to a more healthful planet.
Where: Blue Sky Studio at Haliburton Chiropractic Clinic, 18 Dysart Street Visit Website for more info:
Contact: Gaia Centre Tel: 754-2427
Email: info@gaiacentre.org
This is a non-paid post in support of informing the Community of events of interest in and around the Haliburton Highlands.
In reading the Haliburton “What’s Happening This Week” newsletter I came across mention of the Gaia Centre. I had not heard of it previously so I clicked through and read about this not-for-profit organization. They have philosophy that I believe we each could and should strive for. I would love to participate in one of their workshops or events. I’m certainly going to check their website before I return to Maple Lake. The link above will take you to their site where they explain about their mission and philosophy as well as providing a calendar of current and future events that you may be interested in participating in.
TheGaia Centreis a not-for-profit organization committed to nurturing the human spirit through advancing understanding, appreciation and love for Mother Earth. The Gaia Centre’s aim is to provide the Highlands community a space to help find and celebrate our place within Nature. By creating a common awareness of the environmental, social and spiritual benefits of sustainable living within Earth’s means, a path is created to making a minimal impact upon the environment.
Gaia Center wishes to facilitate our living and working within Nature’s means through programs in earth-based spirituality, ecology, sustainability, reinvention of work, and the arts as meditation.
The leaders of Gaia Centre are selected because of their expertise and commitment to educate for change. Every Gaia Centre program is offered for its ability to awaken us to earth-consciousness, with the goal being learning for transformation.
Gaia Centre teaches that it is necessary at this time in human history to experience, protect and revere the natural world and all beings.
The Gaia Centre is committed to bringing important local, national, and international teachers to Ontario and welcomes invitations from communities of any kind.
This is my dad and mum at Maple Lake during the summer of their courtship.
Photographs preserve moments in time, many of them precious.
My father is now the patriarch of the family. He carries his father’s name, James McCrackan, and his son–my only sibling carries the same name. It is my last name too after giving it up for 6 years and then getting the name legally returned to me decades ago. I’m taking it to my urn (no grave for me).
I don’t think my grandfather had any time for pettiness, jealousies, vindictiveness–certainly none for gossip. My father is very much like his father and I learned from him at his knee that these traits are highly undesirable.
After a truly awful experience at Maple Lake of which I”m not sure what the end result will be ( though unless addressed in an honest way the repercussions will go on for years) I was astonished to hear of a genuine kindness that was extended towards my spouse on Labour Day. I shan’t name the person–it was “persons” actually, but one in particular who sat aside what might have got in the way of being a good neighbour, a decent person and just helped. It meant a lot even if it wasn’t intended that way. For all the snark that flew past this summer, one person managed to adjust the sails and set a course correction.
The weekend weather forecast for the Haliburton Highlands is the best so far this summer!
It’s truly gorgeous–sunny, clear, humidity is tolerable. And it’s going to be nice on Sunday, too! Can you believe it? I need to pinch myself ‘cos it’s been so long since Maple Lake has had an entire weekend that was this nice.
My weekender neighbours are quite fortunate since they just need to pack an overnight bag and in a snap they can be in paradise. Not quite as fortunate are folks like my immediate family who left today to return to the States.
Turning quite serious, folks, we are all on the same page on global warming now, right? We acknowledge it; it is happening right now. We have used and abused our poor planet and it does not have to be reflected as “warming” in certain spots. Here in the Haliburton Highlands, it’s been really cold and wet until this week. Pay attention to the excessive precipitation, especially.
Maple Lake, to be frank, has given me an eye infection simply by using lake water to wash my face. I know this because I wear goggles in the lake as I am unable to see without my contact lenses. The waters of Maple Lake have spewed up all kinds of garbage this summer–literally all kinds of plastic, coke cans. I’ve not ever seen it like this and it makes me really sad.
I’m sure I’m not the first but I feel that the year-rounders, the permanent residents should move forward to protect the lakes of Haliburton County. Obviously, we cannot change how Mother Nature is behaving right now but we can change human behaviour. Impose restrictions to protect our lakes and all nature that depend on the ecosystem, as people haven’t shown willingness to “reign it in” on their own.
First, I would like to see the obvious pollutants removed from the Lake. I would like to see a ban on motorboats that leak gasoline into the lakes and nearly drown swimmers like me with their huge waves (not kidding– HUGE waves).
Truly, I hate the noise too, but it’s the pollution that is sickening me. The boats are getting more powerful, ridiculously fast, and burning petrol at a time when I thought we were supposed to be practicing conservation. Our lakes are what make this area the paradise that it is. And we are doing our damnedest to destroy paradise.
Please, Haliburton Highland year-rounders, restrict the use of motorboats to the weekend and otherwise allow all the the other nonpolluting boats free and unfettered any time. The beautiful sailboats, the rowboats, canoes, paddleboats—all of them wind/man-powered and not harmful to our dying lakes.
If we don’t start reigning in our excesses and our abuse of the lakes of Cottage Country there is no doubt in my mind that we shall lose them. Nothing would be sadder if our unquenchable need for “things” and need to have the biggest, fastest motorboats and personal motorized vehicles hastened the death of our lakes–leaving nothing left for anyone.
I can only hope that the fine people that live year-round on Maple Lake and in the Maple Lake area take action this winter and next summer to deal with the craziness that breaks out every weekend here with ridiculous amount of polluting watercraft on what was what was once a clean lake. It’s not just here but throughout Cottage Country.
Also, as related to a lesser pollution, what the heck is with the unrestricted use of fireworks on Maple Lake every single weekend? Hey, I LOVE fireworks. They can be really special–but every weekend?! WTH? My poor dog is terrified. She shakes and glues herself to her people.
Ban fireworks on Maple Lake except for Canada Day, period. Stop the insanity, please.
/end preachy rant
Here’s the rest of the weather. If you can, stay up an extra day as Monday will still be beautiful:
As for the bugs, it has warmed up, they like warm, there are lots of them. Stay in the lake and otherwise slather on your insect repellent of choice.
Sometimes life just does not cooperate the way one would like it to. Basically my heart failure led us as a family from being comfortably middle class income to with one full time and 2 part time jobs clinging to the thin line between lower mid and middle middle class. That the car that was to carry most of our “stuff” for a 3-week stay at Maple Lake cannot be trusted to endure the rigors of the road trip is just one more thing. I’m not terribly upset about it when, on the balance we are darn lucky to have a cottage to go to, that my spouse’s company, despite cutting back in so many other ways (promotions, bonuses, co-pay on medical getting crazy high) he still gets a goodly amount of paid time off. It’s just really annoying and frustrating and inconvenient but none of that carries the gravity of ill health or losing a job or a home or the dog dying, for that matter. And all those things are not happening to us . (To clarify: I am stable though considered disabled from heart disease–I feel good! )
We are grappling with none of those, just that we are going to have to make 2 trips up to the Lake and two trips home because our good car is a Mustang GT in which we cannot cram everyone and all our stuff. We pulled it off before but our now almost-17 y.o. son is 6′3″ and cannot fold himself into what is only a token gesture of a back seat.
Renting a car came to mind. The cost of doing so has skyrocketed. And doing so one way, say to Buffalo or Niagara Falls to do a swap, zipping back and forth the few hours from the Lake is a no-go because the rental cars peeps do not want to play ball with us (“no cars available”).
So I’m trying to put on a happy face now that this trip is turning into what hopefully won’t be a logistical nightmare.
The upside is, by the time we get everyone to the Lake it appears as if the crap weather will cease at least for a bit. Wish I had a crystal ball. Been wishing for one of those for as long as I can remember.
It’s difficult to put into words the feelings one has when about to embark on a trip that will keep them from home for the better part of a month. I have a to-do list in my head which I really should transfer to text–if I could find the time.
Last year I burnt up quite a bit of time at the Lake by working. Cottage County installed the base station for internet at (on, actually) our cottage so even though I swore I’d take a week off from work, I never did.
This year is decidedly different in that work has changed considerably. I’m doing more work independently but with that comes more juggling of saying “stop!” to it for the duration. As much as Canada doesn’t seem like a foreign country as far as mail service it is. Certainly in terms of internet access to a number of United States-based websites it is. Both these restrictions may prove either incentives to work less or work more.
Trying to find a workaround for them could consume large chunks of time and may ultimately prove fruitless. If I just say “no” to work completely then I won’t have to fret about getting access to the websites which provides a good deal of substance which I transform into content (I create content for put simply, things I like). I suppose it would be smart to find out just “how ” restrictive using the Canadian internet will be . (Is there such a thing? It’s probably using the Internet in Canada, right?). I hear so much about China and North Korea and other countries being crazy restrictive. I suppose I’ll find out soon enough.
I can keep my freelancing gigs to a point but there’s also a point where I’m defeating the purpose of vacation. Ten days to go and I’m juggling so much that I’m not even worried about the weather.
Guess it just proves that old saying about everything being relative. I do hope we get some good weather though. I’ve been watching the forecast for Maple Lake and right now, I see the first couple days of vacation ( should I say “holiday”?) look good temperature-wise though there is rain one day. The upside of regular rain is less fire hazard (though one must always be cautious–we are in the woods after all). The downside besides literally putting a damper on things is the bugs! My cure for too many bugs generally has been to stay in the Lake but not in the rain. See? Fret. Fret. Fret. Always wanted to be a Type “B” personality–never got there.
And where are all the people on Maple Lake who were supposed to sign up for Internet so our fee could go down? Don’t you know you can get television, too? No separate service, simply be slightly savvy and you can find your programs through the Internet and since it’s high-speed and since if you live on the Lake you cannot be far from us–the base station–your reception should be good. What are you waiting for? I’ll come over and show you the ropes as I’ve already –with son and spouse– gone through it. I’m seriously concerned that if people don’t sign up I’ll lose my service because I cannot see paying for 12 mos. of service and using it for barely one month. OK. I’d say I’ve fulfilled my fretting requirement for one day. Have a good one!
Spouse did the opening this year as things on the home front are a bit busy. We have a son who is a high school junior and things are already heating up for the year following graduation (pick a university, etc.) And the end of the year projects all coming due. An adult needed to be here and so I was — but I missed out!
We still have that family of bats in the wood-burning stove (which was taken out) chimney but spouse has them sealed out of the cottage, which is good.
Except for the rocks on the bank, things seemed to have stood up well over the winter and the Internet is working great–but still there’s “stuff” to be taken care of here. I’ll make sure I spend weeks on the lake this summer–at a minimum.
My spirit needs it to recharge.
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