County and Quinte Living Magazine Winter 2013

WINTER 2013

Solo Ocean Rower

and so much more inside!

PRICELESS - please take a copy home1 COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

Dr. R. Younes

DENTAL CARE FAMILY • COSMETIC & IMPLANT DENTISTRY

Your complete dentistry in one office backed by a warm & caring team Now Accepting New patients Latest Technology in Same Day Dentistry Now Available For Crowns, Bridges & Veneers • Oral Conscious Sedation • Orthodontics (Including invisalign® The Invisible Way to Straighten Your Teeth) • Laser Dentistry • Implants & Full-mouth Reconstruction • Tooth Coloured Fillings • One Hour Whitening • Dentures • Preventive, Gum Disease Therapy • Root Canal Therapy • Same Day Emergency Service •

613-208-0807 96 Division St Trenton

www.younescosmeticdentist.com

FAMILY GAMES NIGHT

WILL NEVER BE THE SAME

www.stlawrencepools.ca Happy families have certain traits in common; communication, togetherness, sharing activities, affection, support, acceptance, and commitment are typical in families that function well.

We have always felt that families that “play” together, stay together.

We don’t just sell products that help build and maintain a strong family dynamic, we promote a lifestyle of health, happiness, togetherness, and many, many, happy memories, that last a lifetime.

KINGSTON

BELLEVILLE

525 Days Road

84 Cannifton Road North

Just west of Gardiners & Bath Rds

off Hwy 37 & 401

613.389.5510

613.962.2545

BROCKVILLE

CORNWALL

144 Waltham Road

1395 Rosemount Avenue

behind Walmart & the Superstore

613.342.5454

613.933.5510 Facebook “f ” Logo

POOLS

x

HOT TUBS

x

FITNESS EQUIPMENT

x

BILLIARDS

x

PATIO FURNITURE

CMYK / .ai

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CMYK / .ai

IN THIS ISSUE

14

RICHARD PAXTON

The Luthier of Bloomfield by Gerry Fraiberg..............................................

24

BATAWA SKI HILL It is all about fun around here! by Jed Devenish.........................................

BY THE NUMBERS The lonliness of the solo ocean rower by John Martinello...........................

BELLEVILLE GENERAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION Grease Gala................................................................................................

THE COUNTY’S FRENCH CONNNECTION Provence in Picton by Catherine Stutt........................................................

THE SCOTTISH HEARTS OF FOGORIG

by Lindi Pierce............................................................................................

TERRACELLO WINERY - CRAFTED BY TWO HANDS

by Cynthia Peters.........................................................................................

THE PLAY’S THE THING

32 42

by Veronica Leonard...................................................................................

TRENTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION GALA A Night on the Orient Express.....................................................................

14 18 24

30 32 42 50 56 64

PETER MENNACHER Carving a Life on South Bay by Gerry Fraiberg .........................................

66 CQL DIRECTORY...................................................................................... 71 SAITARG’S GQ Danielle Crittenden speaks with Alan Gratias.............................................

74

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: Jean-Guy Sauriol practices on the waters of Lake Ontario before a solo row across the Atlantic. Photography by Daniel Vaughan.

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66

EACH ISSUE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT:

www.countyandquinteliving.ca 4

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

2014

613-393-1494 • greengablesbloomfield.com

GROUP PUBLISHER Duncan Weir Duncan.weir@metroland.com PUBLISHER Ron Prins rprins@metroland.com EDITOR Catherine Stutt editor@xplornet.com PHOTO EDITOR Daniel Vaughan daniel@vaughangroup.ca

Closed Xmas & Boxing Day

286 MAIN STREET, BLOOMFIELD, ON OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 10 am - 5 pm

SOMETHING

FOR EVERYONE! Give Your Business a Lift with new web & graphic designs business plans & marketing photography

Daniel Vaughan

Barbara Vaughan

David Vaughan

big city know-how... local prices vaughangroup.ca 6

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

DESIGN & PRODUCTION Kathern Bly and Monica McTaggart Susan K. Bailey Marketing & Design info@skbailey.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jed Devenish Gerry Fraiberg Alan Gratias Veronica Leonard

John Martinello Lindi Pierce Cynthia Peters Catherine Stutt

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Dave Fraser Laura Dawson David Lawler Brad Denoon Bill Murtha Lindi Pierce Daniel Vaughan Gerry Fraiberg ADMINISTRATION Benita Stansel bstansel@metroland.com DISTRIBUTION Kathy Morgan kmorgan@metroland.com

Show it to the World in the Best Light 613-966-9193

ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE Laura Dawson 613.475.0255 x 208 ldawson@metroland.com

County & Quinte Living is published quarterly and is available free of charge through strategic partners, wineries, golf courses, real estate, and chamber of commerce offices, retail outlets, and advertiser locations.

County & Quinte Living may not be reproduced, in part or whole, in any form without prior written consent of the publisher.

Views expressed by contributors are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of County & Quinte Living.

Subscription rate $25 a year. HST included.

County & Quinte Living is a division of Metroland Media Group Ltd.

21 Meade St. P.O. Box 1030 Brighton, ON, K0K 1H0 Canada 613.475.0255 www.countyandquinteliving.ca Find us on Facebook ©2013 Metroland Media Group Ltd. Printed in Ontario Canada

STYLE YOU LOVE. QUALITY YOU CAN COUNT ON.

This November and December

20% OFF ALL SOLID WOOD ONTARIO-MADE BEDROOM FURNITURE MAIN STORE: 1245 Midland Avenue, Kingston • 613-634-1400 • Toll Free 1-888-819-6990 OUTLET STORE: 1478 Unity Road, Glenburnie • 613-547-5445

www.countrytime.ca

Available in many styles, types of wood and finishes.

Building with you for you

For every home built by Hickory Homes, we donate 40 tree seedlings.

t: 613.922.9276 | e: kyle@hickoryhomes.ca | www.hickoryhomes.ca COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

7

’ T

is the season for reflections.

As we send the Winter 2013 issue to press, it is, as always with excitement, relief, and no small amount of trepidation.

When we are immersed in the leading and kerning and captions and credits it can be easy to forget what we do as publishers, editors, photo editors, graphic designers, photographers, and journalists is largely unfamiliar to those about whom we write, and to our readers. When the magazine hits the streets, the construction is in the past, the mechanics hidden behind the presentation.

To us, County and Quinte Living is never just a product; nor is it simply a well-executed business plan. It is an expression of trust – from people sharing their life stories, their dreams, and their very personal journeys with, for the most part, complete strangers.

When asked to describe a journalist’s role, I have finally, after more than 35 years in this calling, landed upon an answer. We go places we have never been to speak with people we have never met, ask questions that may be none of our business, and then explain everything in concise detail with great accuracy to tens of thousands of complete strangers.

8

was even a line on a surveyor’s map and enjoying the appreciation of newcomers enchanted by the culture and landscape gives us a considerable advantage. In our travels throughout the region, we hear about harmony, about the blending of old and new, told against the backdrop of personal histories and shared aspirations.

Just as this region is a collection of personalities, so too is our editorial team and I’m proud to say I have never worked with a more passionate group. There is palpable excitement when one of our writers pitches a story, for they have already taken ownership of it, fiercely protecting the integrity of the article, and more importantly, the trust of those participating. As the idea morphs from pitch to reality to photo shoot, and eventually to layout, it gathers friends, all of us combining our skills and enthusiasm to make this article personal and more importantly something which will instill pride in those about whom we write, those whose image and work we capture in photographs.

At least, that’s the goal and we’re sort of playing with a stacked deck.

Passion, though, is not enough to put together a magazine four times a year. For that, we have help and thank yet another constituency as partners in the process. Without our advertisers, we would probably be a group of disconnected yet talented writers with nice blogs. Advertisers matter. Without ads, these stories would not be told in this format. Advertisers do far more than promote their goods and services – they invest in editorial because they create room to write.

Living in one of the most historic and beautiful areas of the province certainly helps.

Living among a wonderful blend of families whose ancestors homesteaded here before here

Ultimately, it all comes down to you – the reader. Your feedback, ideas, encouragement, and dedication over the last two years are nothing short of overwhelming. When out and

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

about, not a day goes by when someone doesn’t mention a specific article or an issue in general, and walking into homes and offices and seeing the magazine prominently displayed is pretty rewarding.

It’s a sign we’re doing things right, and a demand to continue to follow our path.

As we head into another new year, one unforgettable prevailing ethos remains with our team.

This is about our people, about our community, about those who trust us to tell their story. There can be no greater honour in this calling than to have someone who has lived a gloriously modest life open to their page and be reduced to happy tears. This is why we do what we do.

May your days be merry and bright.

Thanks for turning the page.

from the

Editor’s Desk

Catherine Stutt, Editor, County and Quinte Living editor@xplornet.com

27,974*

$

‡

X-MODE™: Equipped in CVT models only. *MSRP of $25,995 on 2014 Forester 2.5i (EJ1 X0). MSRP excludes Freight & PDI of $1,650. Taxes, license, registration and insurance are extra. $0 securty deposit.

Model shown is 2014 Forester 2.0XT Limited Package (EJ2 XTL) with an MSRP of $35,495. Vehicle shown solely for purposes of illustration, and may not be equipped exactly as shown.

Millennium Parkway, Belleville, Ont. • Tel: 613.968.9559 •32Toll-free: 1.866.968.9559 • baysubaru.com

Bay Subaru

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

9

e c n e i r e p ex

Dea’s Rose 2011

casadeaestates.com

Waupoos Feral Cider

countycider.com

2008 Cuvee Peter F. Huff

huffestates.com

2011 Hillier Blanc 2012 Auxerrois

keint-he.ca

waupooswinery.com 10

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

W

Wines

2009 Pinot Noir

anywhere

GPE

GRANGE OF PRINCE EDWARD

grangeofprinceedward.com

2011 Chardonnay

clossonchase.com

2010 Baco Noir

sandbankswinery.com

2008 Pinot Noir

2011 Pinot Noir

BEAUTY WORKS DAY SPA, BELLEVILLE, ON

hilliercreekestates.com thedevilswishbonewinery.com COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

11

ADVERTISER INDEX

A CCO M M O D AT I O N S The Wexford House ................................................................................. Page 45 ARTS/E VENTS Gleaners Food Bank ................................................................................. Page 70 Quinte Children’s Foundation ........................................................................... Inside Back My Theatre ................................................................................. Page 37 AU T O Bay Subaru ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Page 9 Belleville Toyota .................................................................................. Page 65 Lexus of Kingston .....................................................................................Page 5 BUILDERS/DE V ELOPERS CTC Const. & Project Man. ................................................................................. Page 52 Elliott Sage Design ................................................................................. Page 38 Henderson Developments ................................................................................. Page 29 Hickory Homes .................................................................................... Page 7 Honey Do Contractors ................................................................................. Page 62 Loyalist Contractors ................................................................................. Page 61 Quinte Design ................................................................................. Page 53 RayCon Building & Renovation ................................................................................. Page 64 Renovation Restoration ................................................................................. Page 60 CO M M U N I T Y Belleville DBIA ................................................................................. Page 16 Brighton Page ................................................................................. Page 58 Highland Shores CAS ................................................................................. Page 62 Picton BIA ................................................................................. Page 28 Welcome Wagon .................................................................................. Page64 E D U C AT I O N A L I N S T I T U T I O N Albert College .................................................................................. Page 49 Loyalist College .................................................................................. Page22

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COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

Thomas Estevez Design – Belleville

613.210.2979

395 FRONT ST. BELLEVIL FA S H I O N City Revival .................................................................................. Page28 H.D. Rolf The Jeweller ................................................................................. Page 61 IDesign Optical ................................................................................. Page 13 Miss Priss ................................................................................. Page 16 The Village Shoppe ................................................................................. Page 16 Thomas Estevez Design ................................................................................. Page 16 Quinte Mall ................................................................................. Page 21 F O O D/ D I N I N G / W I N E Dinkle’s ................................................................................. Page 16 Natural Sequence ................................................................................. Page 72 Paulos ................................................................................. Page 16 H O M E D É CO R /G I F T S Countrytime Furniture .................................................................................... Page 7 French Country ................................................................................. Page 41 Green Gables .................................................................................... Page 6 Ruttle Brothers Furniture ................................................................................. Page 54 Ten Thousand Villages ................................................................................. Page 28

LLE

H OM E IMPROV EMEN T/D E SIG N A & B Precast .................................................................................... Page 68 Anderson Equipment Sales .................................................................................... Page 54 At Home Interior Design .................................................................................... Page 23 Fireplace Specialties ..................................................................................... Page 27 Kitchen Creations ..................................................................................... Page 49 Limestone Trail ..................................................................................... Page 35 Moira Glass & Mirror .................................................................................... Page 62 Nhance Wood Renewal ..................................................................................... Page 52 PCI Consultants ..................................................................................... Page 47 Plumbing Plus ..................................................................................... Page 47 Rona ..................................................................................... Page 69 Sidney Inn Carpet One ..................................................................................... Page 53

Lockyers Country Gardens – Picton Sines Flooring .................................................................................... Page 58 St. Lawrence Pools ....................................................................................... Page 3 Tablecraft ..................................................................................... Page 71 The County Fireplace .................................................................................... Page 29 Vanderlaan Building Products .................................................................................... Page 60 VanVark Electric .................................................................................... Page 34 William Design Company ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ Page 59

L A N D S C A P E /G A R D E N Hollandale Landscaping & Garden ......................................................................................Page 41 Lockyers Country Gardens ..................................................................................... Page 26 Scott Wentworth Landscape Group ......................................................................................Page 39 PROFESSIONAL SERVICES DENTAL Dr. Brett’s Family Dentistry .................................................................................... Page 22 Dr. Younes Dental Care ................................................................ Inside Front Cover Riverside Dental ..................................................................................... Page 31 Steinberg Dental Centres ............................................................. Outside Back Cover PROFESSIONAL SERVICES GENERAL H & R Block .................................................................................... Page 36 HelpLegal ..................................................................................... Page 17 IDesign Optical ..................................................................................... Page 13 Mayeski Mathers Lawyers ..................................................................................... Page 12 Ontario Coachways .................................................................................... Page 73 Out in the County .................................................................................... Page 62 Rick Bishop Show Jumping .................................................................................... Page 40 Vaughan Group ....................................................................................... Page 6 Vision & Voice Fraiberg Comm. ..................................................................................... Page 59

PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY WINERIES Casa Dea Closson Chase County Cider Co. Devil’s Wishbone Hillier Creek Estates Huff Estates Keint-he Sandbanks Estates The Grange of PEC Waupoos Winery........... Page 10-11

R E A L E S TAT E Elizabeth Crombie, Royal LePage ..................................................................................... Page 63 Gail Forcht, Chestnut Park Real Estate ..................................................................................... Page 63 W E L L N E S S / F I T N E S S / B E AU T Y Batawa Ski Hill .................................................................................... Page 20 Beauty Works Day Spa ..................................................................................... Page 55 Polish Day Spa .................................................................................... Page 23 The Country Salon .................................................................................... Page 58 Total Wellness Personal Training ..................................................................................... Page 13

Batawa Ski Hill

TOTAL WELLNESS PERSONAL TRAINING

by Kathy 17 years experience, friendly advice, knowledgeable on latest designs and fashion trends.

Seeing never looked so good.

282 Dundas St East Trenton www.idesignsoptical.com

Redefine yourself.

See results, and feel the difference.

Proudly serving Quinte and surrounding area www.totalwellnesspersonaltraining.com

613-922-7914 Kimberlee Ward, CSEP-CPT totalwellnesspersonaltraining@hotmail.com

613.394.5555

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

13

Richard Paxton The Luthier of Bloomfield

A RT ICLE A N D PHOTOGR A PH Y B Y G E R RY F R A I B E R G

F

or Richard Paxton, epiphany came in a London bookstore in 1998. The Dundee, Scotland native - like any lad who has ever played a guitar - wanted a really nice guitar. The reality was he couldn’t afford the high price of a quality instrument like a Martin, so Richard decided to build one. When his Canadian wife Tanya spotted a book on guitar-making in the same bookstore, she handed it to him and he realized that was the moment his life changed.

Now, some 25 guitars later, Richard Paxton lives in Bloomfield, Ontario with his wife and daughters Koa and Mallee. He is a bona fide luthier - a maker of fine, custom acoustic guitars. His guitars have a rich, silky polished finish and produce a sound to match their good looks.

He makes guitar-making look easy, but only because Richard is a craftsman with exceptional woodworking skills, perfected at the famed Peter Freebody wooden boatyard on the River Thames. Freebody & Company is famous for building and restoring wooden boats built from teak, mahogany, and pine.

Paxton did a City & Guilds in Boatbuilding and Design at Falmouth Marine College. He said, “You have to see the solid wood boats to comprehend the fine detail involved in building them.”

In 1997, Richard decided to travel for a year and came to Canada, where he boarded a Vancouver-bound bus in Ottawa. At a stop in Whistler, he met Tanya who offered him a place to live, and they’ve been together since.

They went back to Ottawa, Tanya’s hometown, then travelled the eastern seaboard and ended up in Mexico teaching English. They wanted to stay together, but Richard’s one-year visa stay in Canada was up, and he had to return to Britain, where Tanya joined him.

Richard studied boat building and got the job with Peter Freebody & Co. After four years in England, they decided to come back to Canada because the cost of living was lower, especially in rural Ontario. Richard and Tanya were married in Wakefield, Quebec in 2001 and settled in a small home on Main Street in Bloomfield, where Richard builds his guitars in a basement workshop.

The house is over 100 years old and the basement walls are limestone. Richard is forever sweeping up “that which is not the guitar” from the cement floor - wood shavings and sawdust that didn’t get picked up by vacuum attachments to the various table saws, sanders, and buffers.

It takes about 100 hours to hand craft a Paxton guitar, and Richard says the first one took several months because he had to build the jigs and find the chisels and planes needed to carry out the task. He was a boat builder by day, and only had an hour or two in the evenings. He says it became an obsession, reading guitar-making books and researching the Internet to quench his thirst for knowledge.

Richard’s guitars tend to be modelled after those of famous manufacturers, like the Martin Orchestra Model, introduced in 1929.

It replaced banjos in an orchestra due to its volume, and was the biggest guitar in Martin’s lineup with a 14-fret neck. He favours padauk, an African hardwood for the back and sides.

Richard notes, “It has a nice warm tone.

Brazilian rosewood is the Holy Grail for COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

15

A Paxton guitar sells for $3,000, but aside from the price of raw material, customers are paying for the 100 hours it takes to cut, bend, shape, glue, chisel, plane, sand, and polish the various woods into a beautiful instrument.

Paxton selects the raw, kiln-dried wood at the lumberyard, and then stores it for several months to acclimatize it to his basement workshop environment.

He then mills the wood to within an eighth of an inch of its final dimension.

The sides are bent by hand on an aluminum pipe heated with a propane

torch. The heel and tail block are then glued into the shaped sides. Triangular shaped segmented pieces of wood called kerfing are then applied to the sides; the kerfing allows these pieces to bend around the edge of the guitar. The top and back plates are then braced with Sitka spruce - a light aircraft quality wood. The Sitka braces are carved and sanded to reduce weight, yet retain strength. Richard then checks for tone by holding up the back or top to his ear and tapping it with his finger.

The neck begins as a 24-inch plank of wood. Richard makes a 15 degree cut in one end and uses the off cut to make a headstock. A truss rod goes in the neck to counteract the tension of the strings to give balance to the guitar. The ebony fingerboard glued to the neck, and the Antiques & isBeautiful Furnishings neck is glued to the sound box, made up 52 BRIDGE EAST •sides.

613-968-5612 of the back, STREET top, and

Funk & Grüven A-Z www.funkandgruven.com

“Two Great Restaurants Side by Side”

Dinkels

Restaurant & Courtyard

BellevillE

w w w. re d i s c o v e rd o w n t o w n . c a

rediscover downtown

Paulo’s

R B

Fine Shops

guitars. When you hear a Brazilian rosewood guitar, you can tell there’s something extra going on tonally. You can spend a thousand dollars on a back and side set of Brazilian rosewood, while the same in Padauk will cost you $60 or $70.”

w or

2

•

A s

Entertainment

The guitar pictured is a hybrid classical model, built for a Toronto veterinarian - the second Paxton he’s ordered. It has a steel string body shape, but is braced as a classical and is fitted with nylon strings. The back and sides are made of cherry wood; the neck is mahogany with an ebony fretboard. The binding - the light coloured protective edge on the top - is curly ash. The rosette around the sound hole is padauk. There is a hand engraved mother of pearl inlay of a canoe on the 12th fret, and another inlay of the canoe on the back of the guitar at the heel where the neck joins the body.

The inlays are modeled after the customer’s canoe and are made with the same wood.

T

Italian Trattoria

267 FRONT STREET • 613.968.2242

•ARTWALK•

The

Antiques & Beautiful Furnishings

“Two Great Restaurants Side by Side”

Dinkels

Restaurant & Courtyard

Bridal Salon

286 Front St. Downtown Belleville 613.969.1677

Paulo’s Italian Trattoria

16

44 BRIDGE STREET EAST

38 BRIDGE STREET EAST

An explosion of art in restaurants, shops and galleries • Sept. 10th

Entertainment

Village Shoppe and

52 BRIDGE STREET EAST • 613-968-5612 www.funkandgruven.com

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013 613-966-2556 613-966-6542

THIS FALL AT:

613.210.2979

The Village Shoppe

215 Front St., Belleville, On. (613) 969-9994

Stephen Licence Ltd

Accessories

272 FRONT STREET • 613.968.7979 www.capers.ca

286 FRONT STREET • 613.969.1677

with

Sports & Hobbies

Thomas Estevez Design Attitude!

395 FRONT ST. BELLEVILLE

AND BRIDAL SALON

38 BRIDGE STREET EAST 613-966-6542

silver & stone jewellery Best Prices in the Province!

Miss Priss 288 FRONT STREET • Boutique 613.966.6900 395 FRONT STREET • 613.210.2979 www.thomasestevezdesign.com

Farmers Market

Funk & Grüven A-Z

or visit us at the BDIA office

Professional Services

Fine Shops

Rediscover Downtown

STUNNING Belleville on Video at GOWNS w w w . r e d i s c o v e r d o w n t o w n . c a

Restaurants

44 BRIDGE STREET EAST 613-966-2556

A

Richard has also filled orders from as far away as Vancouver, as well as for local guitarists Kelly Valleau and Robert Keyes. Being featured in an episode of Guitar Picks, which airs on HiFi HDTV - has been great for business. The show is produced by Whistlestop Productions, located in Picton and Richard says the show generated orders.

In the segment, Wayne McFaul was highly complimentary of Paxton guitars, calling them the best he’s ever heard, and he has heard some of the best in the business. McFaul has been Technical Director for The Empire Theatre since it opened 10 years ago, and former owner of Harmony Music in Belleville.

Richard Paxton says guitar building is a difficult business, but it is starting to pay off after six years. He has orders to fill and build, and is busy with repair work. CQL Paxton Guitars is located at 127 Main Street in Bloomfield. www.paxtonguitars.com

Got Time?

Looking for something to see or do?

Check out these great websites for current events! www.insidebelleville.com www.bayofquinte.ca www.princeedwardcounty.ca COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

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Batawa Ski Hill It is all about fun around here!

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COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

BY J E D D E V E N I S H PHOTOGRAPHY B Y D AV E F R A S E R

N

estled between Trenton and Frankford along the Trent River lies a natural landmark of the Quinte region.

Bursting up out of the ground almost 200 feet as it overlooks the surrounding community is the Batawa Ski Hill. To understand the history of the hill is to learn the history of the community and the family it is named after, as they truly are one and the same.

Thomas Bata was born and raised in Czechoslovakia where he built one of the world’s largest footwear manufacturing companies in the early 1900s. In 1932, Thomas Bata died in a plane crash, and his son, Thomas J. Bata, made an oath at his father’s grave to live up to his legacy, and soon after assumed his father’s position atop the corporation.

In 1939 the Nazis marched across Eastern Europe and threatened Thomas J. Bata’s homeland and livelihood, forcing the young shoe manufacturer to relocate his enterprise abroad, choosing Canada as his destination.

With determination and an ability to overcome many hurdles, Thomas J. Bata and 120 of his workers established a shoe manufacturing operation in a former paper mill in Frankford. Czech workers trained COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

19

their Canadian counterparts on how to work in the main factory, which was under construction in what is now Batawa.

Eventually, the factory was completed and each day in its early existence of operations two buses would transport workers to and from the factory from their homes in a 30-kilometer radius free of charge. The Bata factory temporarily halted shoe production to assist in the war effort, making weapons and munitions. The plant offered a perfect location, secluded and secretive, and was manned by the wives of the many Royal Canadian Air Force officers serving at Canadian Forces Base Trenton.

Thomas J. Bata and his family set out to develop a community that mirrored his hometown of Zlin, Czechoslovakia and found the perfect location along the Trent River north of Trenton. The community would centre around the shoe factory and

• NEW LED LIGHTS for night skiing • The only winter activity the whole family can enjoy • Terrain suited for all skill levels • Day and night skiing • Lessons & programs for kids and adults

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COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

in 1940 the name Batawa was selected.

The factory would revive a surrounding community still feeling the repercussions of the Great Depression.

In 1946, Thomas married Sonja Wettstein, who would be both a loving wife and acute business partner, helping Bata Industries remain a successful corporation for many decades.

The Bata family, in conjunction with the workers in their factory, would eventually develop a close knit and thriving community, building churches, schools, a post office, fire hall, and a ski hill.

Established in 1959, the Batawa Ski Hill has been a fixture of outdoor winter recreation in the Quinte region. It was founded by the employees of the Bata Shoe Factory, who worked to clear trees and install a handmade tow rope to scale the hill

and enjoy the breathtaking view that waited above. Twenty years later a two-storey chalet was built, named in honour of Sonja Bata, who still continues to be influential in the current development of the Batawa community, including the ski hill.

The Batawa Ski Hill currently offers nine runs from beginner to expert difficulty, including a terrain park where skiers and snowboarders can practice tricks with assorted rails, boxes, jibs, and jumps. Three lifts, including chair, t-bar, and handle tow, a number of programs aimed at a variety of groups, a newly renovated day lodge, rental shop and guest services area, and newly installed track lights for enhanced night skiing are just some of the highlights of the Batawa Ski Hill.

“It is fantastic to be able to offer what we do at Batawa, considering our smaller size,” explained Andrew Rusynyk, General

The only ski hill within an hour of the Quinte area! Open Wednesday night to Sunday afternoon 613.398.6568 www.batawaskihill.com

Manager of the ski hill. “The smaller size also brings an intimacy at the hill, a personal connection that goes beyond being just a customer, but feeling a part of a small community.”

lo Sa n You

SEARS

Andrew Rusynyk has been in the ski industry all his life, and knows a thing or two about the joys of the sport.

Ricki’s

R OO

TS

BECKER SHOES

C

La Vie En Rose

Shoppers Drug Mart Goodlife Fitness

e Danier L

Starbucks

LE O

“There has been a refocus at Batawa and this refocus is simply on ensuring everything we do revolves around fun. I started skiing when I was three because it was so much fun. It is the mandate of all the individuals connected with this hill to create the same fun and hopefully love of the sport we all share,” he added.

La Senza

CHAPTERS

Eddie OISHII SU SHI Bauer Sirens Bath & Body Works

Le Château Call it

Peoples The Diamond Store

Costa Blanca

s s Sh o e s Quilts Etc.

OLD NAVY

LC BO

IAMON CHARM D

D CENTRE

rs Northern Reflections

HomeSense

Sport Chek

GAP Factory Store

Green Earth

Payle

Lenscrafte

For competitive skiers and snowboarders, the Batawa Ski Hill has a strong racing program. Many racers, some as young as six, participate in a race program that has them not only racing down the slopes of Batawa but slopes all over the province. “Our steepness is great training,” stated Andrew, who grew up downhill racing in highly competitive venues all over North America.

“Again the goal here at Batawa is fun, and for many that fun can be found in competitive racing and we are lucky to have a strong relationship with the Batawa Ski Hill Racing Club.”

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“The training park is an area where young children can practice in an enclosed area near the main facility. This way parents can participate alongside their son or daughter or enjoy watching them from inside the heated chalet while sipping a delicious hot chocolate,” joked Danny MacDuffie, Outside Operations Manager at the hill, who grew up near Collingwood and began working at Blue Mountain with his father when he was 13 years old.

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Batawa Ski Hill offers many ways to enjoy what the hill has to offer for all ages and levels of skier or snowboarder. Beginners can take advantage of the training park as well as fully certified snow schools.

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Activities and programs run throughout the season. Batawa Ski Hill is a proud participant of the Ontario Track 3 Ski Program, which teaches children and youth with disabilities to downhill ski and snowboard. The hill also incorporates a number of special activities throughout the season, including family and military days, and special events during holidays and weekends.

The hill will attempt to open in early December but with many outdoor winter activities the weather must cooperate. “Our winter calendar is being populated as we speak. We have many exciting things happening this year, all aimed at a variety of individuals, all with a focus around fun,” outlined Andrew.

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There have also been a number of capital investments to the facility, which is the only ski hill within a 100-km radius to the Quinte and County regions. The Batawa Ski Hill is a not-forprofit corporation that falls under the umbrella of the Batawa Development Corporation (BDC), the foundation responsible for the development of the Batawa community. While there are ongoing renovations to the chalet, management recently announced upgrades to the tracks by installing cutting edge LED lights. It marks one of the hill’s biggest investments since the installation of the state-of-the-art North Star Quad Chairlift.

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COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

“The Batawa Ski Hill is focused on utilizing leading edge design and quality, and these new lights are indicative of that focus,” explained Andrew. “The BDC challenged us with the task of finding the lights used in the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and we are pleased to announce we are bringing those same lights to the ski hill.”

Night skiing remains one of Batawa’s most popular activities and the new lights will allow the hill to offer every run at all hours of operation, particularly their beginner slope – Boomerang – which until now was unavailable at night.

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“The lights will provide improved illumination with fewer shadows and far more efficiency than traditional lights,” claimed Danny.

“Now everyone will be able to ski under the new lights during those long winter nights, and it makes the hill more accessible for everyone, particularly by making it more family friendly with the illumination of our beginner run,” added Andrew.

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As the Batawa Ski Hill awaits its season opening, the staff is hard at work ensuring everything is ready to go. Safety measures and inspections are being completed, renovations are underway, lights installed, activities coordinated, and events promoted.

Fun is the main theme at the Batawa Ski Hill and everything undertaken is to maximize their customers’ enjoyment. Soon, all that will be left is for Mother Nature to cooperate, and even technology has minimized that need. Once the weather hits the right temperature staff will begin making snow and grooming each run to perfection.

“Everyone on staff will ensure everything is just right for the season to begin,” said Andrew. “I have been a skier since I was three because I really love it. I know I sound like a broken record but it is really all about fun around here and we hope our customers feel the same when they visit.” CQL

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By the Numbers

The Loneliness of the Solo Ocean Rower

BY J O H N M A RT I N E L L O P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y D A N I E L VA U G H A N

24

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

556 Clif Bar energy bars 720 PowerBar energy bars 270 dehydrated meals 270 packs of flapjacks 20 packs of liquid fuel energy drink 4 cans of peaches 0 pairs of underwear 1 pair of pants, 6 long sleeve shirts 1 windbreaker jacket 3 hats, 2 toques 6 bottles of sunscreen 1 small pharmacy 2 pairs of sunglasses, 2 pairs of prescription eyeglasses 2 toothbrushes, 3 tubes of toothpaste 3 bottles of Listerine 2 cameras 18 flares 3 pairs of carbon fibre oars 1 life jacket, 1 survival suit, 1 safety lanyard, 1 life raft 1 sea anchor 1 emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) 1 personal locator beacon (PLB) 2 global positioning systems (GPS) 1 automatic identification system (AIS) 2 compasses 1 manual freshwater maker, 1 electric freshwater maker 2 gas cooker stoves, 2 satellite phones 2,600 nautical miles of open ocean 1,000,000 oar strokes and 1 rowboat.

One man.

Rowing 10 to 12 hours per day, from 6 in the morning to 11 at night, at 20 strokes per minute.

Two hours on, one hour off. Slow across the Atlantic Ocean. In a rowboat 6.3 metres long and 1.67 metres wide packed with everything needed to survive a solo ocean voyage.

If all goes well, Jean-Guy Sauriol will spend his 60th birthday somewhere midway between Puerto de Mogan on Gran Canaria (one of the Canary Islands) and Port Saint Charles, Barbados.

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Sitting face to face with this man in his beautiful waterfront home, a man who in less than two months will row by himself across the Atlantic, floods the mind with many questions. How will he do it? Does he fear dying? What will he miss when he is all alone, in a very big out there, surrounded by nothing but water and the sound of wind and waves?

But the biggest question is why? Why would this son of Lachine, Quebec, this career actuary and founder of the successful

completed the voyage in 65 days. One year later, Dr. Lindemann paddled and sailed, solo and unassisted, a 5.2 metre long folding kayak (made of rubberized canvas stretched over a plywood frame) from Las Palmas to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. He completed that trip in 76 days.

my life.” As the founder and owner of seclonLogic, he will return to his clients when he finishes his transatlantic voyage.

Second, at 60, he will be the oldest Canadian, and the third or fourth oldest person in the world to complete a solo rowboat crossing of the Atlantic.

Jean-Guy makes it clear he is rowing across the Atlantic, “Because it is doable.

It looks like it is absolutely impossible, but it is doable. I have never questioned my desire to do it.” Alone at Sea triggered

How does he prepare to cross the Atlantic in a rowboat? Train, read, and spend money.

Jean-Guy could not have known it, but his training might have started in 1988 when he braved the blistering lava barrens of the island of Hawaii to complete the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon in 14 hours and 45 minutes.

It might have started in 2008 when he paddled a solo kayak in the Yukon River Quest - the entire 715-kilometre length of the Yukon River, from Whitehorse to Dawson City, in 68 hours and 40 minutes.

The name of Jean-Guy’s team is something you might expect from an actuary: 1234.

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Toronto Internet financial management services provider seclonLogic inc. risk his life rowing solo across the Atlantic?

It all boils down to a book he read at age 50 - a book called Alone at Sea by a German physician and Second World War veteran, Hannes Lindemann.

his fascination with crossing an ocean in a human powered vessel. It was the 2010 story of 23-year-old Katie Spotz who rowed from Senegal to Guyana in 70 days, and became the youngest woman to ever row solo across the Atlantic, that told Jean-Guy how it could be done.

Dr. Lindemann had just finished working as a contract plantation doctor for the Firestone Rubber Company in Liberia when he paddled and sailed, solo and unassisted, a 7.8-metre long mahogany dugout canoe from Las Palmas, Canary Islands to St. Croix, Virgin Islands. He

Two more answers to the question why fall from Jean-Guy’s realization that rowing across the Atlantic was doable.

First, he wants to do it before he is too old, but this will not be a swansong for his working life. As Jean-Guy puts it, “I am not living a dream; I am just living

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

There is no doubt training for the Atlantic crossing became serious in 2012 when Jean-Guy converted a 16foot Kevlar canoe into a rowing shell and started rowing on Presqu’ile Bay. It would be reasonable to think Jean-Guy would row as long as he could in the worst storms he could find on Lake Ontario, but that is not the case. Instead, he rows twice a day, one session of 1.5 hours, the other of one hour, five or six days per week. When ice covers Presqu’ile Bay he rows on a rowing machine. This speaks to one of the misconceptions of an ocean crossing such as Jean-Guy`s. Rowing will not be the primary propulsion for his rowboat. JeanGuy will use his oars to guide his boat into

positions to best use the ocean winds and waves that will propel him to Barbados.

Jean-Guy follows a light weight-training regimen, but does not run. Instead he frequently, but irregularly, does elliptical machine sessions in front of the television.

In 2010, Jean Guy took rowing lessons at the River Breeze Rowing Camp on the Susquehanna River in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. This speaks to another misconception; he has to be a waterman to row across an ocean. Until he was 50 years old and training for the Yukon River Quest, Jean-Guy had no particular interest in boats.

In addition to his physical training, in January 2013 at Teignmouth, England, Jean-Guy took ocean-rowing courses consisting of one week of ocean navigation training, one day of first aid training, one day of sea survival training, and one day of very high frequency radio training.

Jean-Guy estimates he has read 15 books in preparation for his crossing - mostly books about the experiences of others who

have accidentally or intentionally drifted or paddled across oceans. Books such as Across the Savage Sea by Maud Fontenoy; Rowing the Atlantic: Lessons Learned on the Open Ocean by Roz Savage, and A Pearl in the Storm by Tori Murden.

How else does he prepare to row solo across the Atlantic? Spend money. Spend money having a brand new rowboat built by one of the best boat builders in the world - Jamie Fabrizio of Global Boat Works in England. Spend money travelling, to England to test row the new boat; to the Canary Islands to get an idea of what the launch site will look like; to Pennsylvania to learn how to row and to England again to trailer the rowboat across France to Cadiz, Spain to take a ferry to the Canary Islands. Spend money to buy equipment and food. Jean-Guy doesn’t say how much money he will spend, but for him it is worth every penny. “I would rather tell my grandkid sitting in my lap that I had rowed across the Atlantic than tell him I had owned a Porsche.”

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Interviewing a person who is about to cross the Atlantic, by himself, in a very small boat brings to mind all kinds of horrific images.

Images of the 6.3-metre-long fibreglass speck that is a rowboat suspended on the top of a water column as deep as 8.5 kilometres; a water column lurking with sharks and jellyfish, drifting sea containers, and other hazards.

Images of hearing, but not seeing, the roaring swoosh of water as the bow of a large ocean freighter bears down on the fibreglass speck.

Images of the fibreglass speck tumbling down the face of waves that can reach 20 metres high.

Jean-Guy has imagined himself, thrown into the water, clinging desperately to the side of his rowboat, and this points to an anomalous circumstance. From amongst all the high-tech construction and unsinkableness of his rowboat and all the electronic wizardry of the GPSs, satellite phones, PLB, EPIRBs, and AIS he carries, his survival could come down to a very low-tech, three-metre-long nylon mesh safety lanyard that keeps Jean-Guy attached to his rowboat. Jean-Guy knows if he ever became separated from his rowboat, he would be in trouble - big trouble. He knows the wind and waves propelling him across the Atlantic would push his rowboat faster than he could swim and he would watch his rowboat drift away.

Almost inevitably, these images lead to questions about dying. Jean-Guy does think about it, “Not in a dramatic way. I know there could be a huge price to pay to do this but despite appearances, this is not a dangerous sport, certainly less so than going up Everest. I would rather regret having gone than regret not having tried.” Even though rowing solo across the Atlantic would raise any number of fears in

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most people, it is not the ocean Jean-Guy most fears. His biggest fear is, “Being afraid to the point where I lose myself. That is when things will start to unravel.”

Interviewing someone who is about to row across the Atlantic by himself also brings to mind images of loneliness, of being surrounded by nothing but the sounds of the wind and ocean and his own thoughts. Although loneliness will be there, Jean-Guy’s life will be very busy.

A typical day will start at daybreak with an energy bar and a two-hour rowing session.

Then he will check his messages; possibly get a weather and navigation update from Tony Humphreys, his land-based technical advisor.

Shortly thereafter, he will fire up his gas stove to boil water for a rehydrated breakfast of 500 calories of high protein oatmeal. After breakfast Jean-Guy will brush his teeth and then go back to rowing for another two hours, followed by a one-hour break. He will repeat this cycle five times a day. Throughout the day, he will nibble continuously on snacks and energy bars taking in 200 to 300 calories every hour. For supper, he will fire up the cooker once more to rehydrate an expedition ration of 800 calories. After each meal, he will rinse his mouth out with Listerine to break away all the fat that accumulates in his mouth from eating rehydrated meals.

During his one-hour breaks Jean-Guy might nap or tend to blistered hands or broken equipment. At one point during the crossing, he will jump over the side of his rowboat to scrape off all the barnacles on the bottom of the hull.

Hopefully, he won’t have to do this more than once or twice. Every day Jean-Guy will also call his wife Lucie by satellite phone.

If the winds and current are favourable he will crawl through the hatch of his shelter at the stern of the rowboat, seal the hatch, and sleep on a 0.6 metre by two-metre sleeping pad. Surrounded by the AIS to notify him of passing ships, the VHF to call passing ships in case of emergency, and the GPS to check his progress over the ocean, Jean-Guy will fall asleep listening to stand-up comics on his iPod or iPad. If the winds and currents are carrying him east instead of west, Jean-Guy will deploy the sea anchor, a kind of underwater parachute, to slow his backward motion. That is on a good day.

There could be days when the ocean is so rough and the winds so strong Jean-Guy stays sealed inside his shelter, staring at the sky through the 50-centimetre-square hatch directly above his head, at the mercy of waves and wind, hoping for the best, maybe remembering what he said during the interview for this story. “You have to be patient. You have to take what the ocean gives you.” Thinking about what he misses most - his wife and son.

To much fanfare, on December 19, 2012, Chris Hadfield and two other astronauts blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to dock with the International Space Station; an almost unimaginable feat of engineering and scientific wizardry in an unimaginably hostile environment.

For the next 145 days, Colonel Hadfield lived and worked with five other astronauts in a space the equivalent area of a five-bedroom house, whizzing 200 nautical miles above the surface of the earth at a mind-boggling speed of 14,950 nautical miles per hour.

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Sometime after November 23, 2013, when ocean winds and waves allow it, Jean-Guy Sauriol will depart the shores of Gran Canaria in a very modern adaptation of a very ancient craft - a rowboat. There might be a crowd of one or two people to witness his departure. His wife Lucie and son will not be there, having said goodbye in Toronto on November 14.

If all goes well, Jean-Guy will spend the following 75 days in an unimaginably hostile environment living and working, by himself, in a space approximately the size of two large kitchen tables. At the middle of his voyage he will be 1,300 nautical miles from the nearest dry earth crawling along at about 1.7 nautical miles per hour.

There is a large distance between Colonel Hadfield and his high-speed voyage on the International Space Station and Jean-Guy’s low-speed ocean voyage on a rowboat, but when Jean-Guy looks out of that small hatch in his shelter on the fibreglass speck, he will see the same billions of stars Chris Hadfield gazed upon from the International Space Station.

On a calm night, sitting on the open deck and watching those stars, Jean-Guy will listen to Rachmaninoff’s Symphony Number 2. At that point, the numbers won’t matter. It will be all about the overwhelming feeling of being born free. In silence, he will thank his wife Lucie for having the strength to let him go and giving him the will to want to come back. CQL

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The County’s French Connection Provence in Picton

BY C AT H E R I N E S T U T T PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIEL VAUGHAN

The charming red brick century home sits a few blocks off of Picton’s main street, amid other equally historic dwellings. While it is substantial, it is not the largest in the neighbourhood, and although the gardens are tended and imaginative, they complement rather than overwhelm the corner house. The front porch is not a huge wrap-around veranda; instead it is simple and proportionate.

The home is simple and lovely, beautifully located, and lovingly crafted on its plot of Picton land. There is something fetching about it, though, something making this house catch the eye a little longer, something more than the sum of its appealing parts.

There is a charisma, evident from the street, drawing a visitor across the porch, through the subtle front door, where a glorious world of French Country decorating awaits.

When Viola Jull purchased the house eight months ago, she was already a content County dweller, shamelessly admitting to love at first sight. “While still living in Toronto, I was visiting a friend in Cressy for the first time. As soon as I crossed the bridge to the County, I felt special, and it felt like home. I was infatuated with the beauty and energy of the area.”

Vi’s journey to the Picton is far from a straight line from Toronto. She enjoyed a long and successful career as a freelance food and prop stylist, creating an atmosphere with her special touch for Canadian Living and Chatelaine’s print publications as well as for commercials and feature-length movies. Using many of her own props, along with others rented from prop warehouses, her natural flair for decorating combined with an innate ability to anticipate a client’s needs were assets in this demanding career.

“I learned I had to have everything right there and available and to never, ever, ever leave them waiting,” she stressed, remembering the often tense pace of the work. She honed another skill – one she continues to invoke for new clients.

“I had to take myself out of the mix and flip into another mindset – it was and is always about what the client wanted.

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

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Vi’s career as a stylist continued and flourished in Toronto, throughout the successes of her work, and a time when she found herself looking for a house where she and her two young children could start a different personal journey. “The first house was a big dump on the fringe of Rosedale,” she laughed with characteristic honesty and zero false modesty. “Under no circumstances could it be considered one of the grand Rosedale mansions. It

While Karen attended The American School of Paris, Rob headed off to Burgundy to work in a vineyard, where he developed a keen interest in the wine industry. Experience led to confidence and confidence led to Rob walking into Fortnam and Mason in London, England asking for a job in the prestigious company’s wine and spirits shop, where he was immediately hired.

was part of the other Rosedale of the time, one not so polished and fancy.”

Rob now runs a wine services company, importing fine wines, and creating wine collections and designing cellars for private clients.

Eight years later, after transforming the old house into an impressive home, Vi sold. “The old place made everything possible. It was hard work, but it presented so many opportunities. For the first time in my life I had the means to follow my dreams.”

She thought about what she wanted to do and a lifelong dream of living in Paris – one long dormant – resurfaced.

With her 20-year-old son Rob and 16-yearold daughter Karen in tow, the new adventure began, launching several new directions for the family.

While Karen finished high school and Rob studied at wineries, Vi continued her education as well. She visited flea markets and shops, travelling throughout Paris and to the south of France. “That’s when I started collecting French lace and linens,” she confessed. “I found charming shops in the south and found shows where artisans replicated traditional patterns.”

There was, as there always is with the artistic yet practical Vi, a purpose. “I worked hard all of my life and always, in

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the back of my mind, percolated the idea of opening a shop. I started buying with the thought this would build my inventory.”

When Vi returned to Toronto, she realized her dream of opening a store – one with a decidedly strong French influence. Eschewing the imposing heavier European styles, Vi stayed true to her love of rustic French elegance with a healthy dose of whimsy and romance.

It was a winning formula, and over the next 12 years Vi catered to a growing and appreciative clientele, many of whom continue to shop at her Picton store, and an increasing number who are choosing to build a vacation home or retire in Prince Edward County.

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At the time, home decorating magazines were creating an awareness of international design and French Country décor was a perennial favourite. It was traditional, yet flexible enough to remain fresh through unique and varied incarnations.

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“It is the essence of French Country design, and also very personal.”

Before the County connections, though, there was that fateful trip to visit her friend Joanie in Cressy.

The social visit quickly transformed into a session with realtors and a day spent looking at listings ended at 5 Catherine Street – a gutted home. “I walked in and knew it was mine,” she declared. “The neighbours became fast friends, with coffee together every morning at 7 a.m.

They must have looked at me askance at first and wondered what I was doing here, but they helped me see the County from a totally different perspective.”

The renovations went smoothly, with Vi using local contractors whenever possible.

Through this process she developed a sincere and lasting appreciation for their craftsmanship.

Her next round of introductions led to the women who now work with her at French Country in Picton, and another level of admiration quickly developed. “There is such a down-to-earth sophistication here,” she observed. “People are welcoming; the girls and I just clicked and learned trust through our actions. All of these people combine to make me truly feel part of the fabric of the County.”

After almost three years on Catherine Street, Vi realized it was time for a new

conquest. “I like the house a lot, but we’d had our run together.”

Moving out of Picton was not a consideration. “It’s so easy to live here. I miss live opera, but the Regent offers so many options, and I have my friends, my store, and I love entertaining.”

Vi learned about a home for sale just north of Main Street and visited. “I walked in and loved it, mainly because of the young man who restored it,” she admitted.

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

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The owner – Kyle Richmond – was the catalyst. “You could tell he loved the house and poured his personality into the renovations. I haven’t made many changes – just some painting upstairs.”

Vi’s touches are throughout the home, using Kyle’s colour palette as her canvas.

The large bright kitchen features imported French tile as a backsplash above the range, bracketed by two exterior sconces draped with ivy. It is technically an eat-in

kitchen, but only by the strictest definition.

It is in reality a gathering place for Vi’s closest friends.

so inviting and comfortable. I love coming down here in the morning. This room is perfect.”

The dining table is intimate and always ready for company, separated from the cooking area by a muted island, which serves as another canvas for Vi’s eclectic refinement. “I have small dinner parties and we laugh and never seem to get out of the kitchen. We have to force ourselves to go into the livingroom, because this is

This casual elegance, this homey atmosphere, all created from a love of symmetry, soft patterns, simple elegance, and décor as an approach to live comes naturally to this world traveller. “My passion makes it very satisfying,” noted Vi. “It is the essence of French Country design, and also very personal. If people

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look at what I do, how I decorate my space, and if they like it, that’s great. I hope it makes them happy, I hope it makes them feel comfortable and welcome.”

The formula transitions seamlessly from sophisticated dinner parties to family visits. While friends congregate in the airy and elegance kitchen, other rooms are equally appreciated by family members. Vi’s young grandsons visit and love going to Sandbanks and the skateboard park. Back at the house, they claim a loveseat in an alcove facing the fireplace and settle in for the evening. A recent declaration confirmed Vi’s thoughts.

“Grandma, this is the best house yet.”

Vi smiled at the memory, with a dreamy look in her eyes. “I love it here. Still, I’d really like to do a barn as a home, even if I have to built it from the ground up; maybe a loft bedroom with an open interior,” she said, followed by an unconvincing reality check. “Realtors think I’m hallucinating, but there’s this lot nearby and maybe…”

Whatever project this dynamo undertakes next, two things are certain. It will reflect Vi’s love of the French countryside and way of life, and it will be near Picton.

“The future is so bright in Picton, with so many people moving here. I’m here because I love it, not because I want to change it. To make everything work and to achieve success we need to respect the traditions and history and embrace new opportunities.” CQL

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The Scottish hearts of

Fogorig

BY L I N D I P I E RC E

PHOTO COURTESY OF BILL MURTHA

T

here’s something about the old place that makes the passerby look twice.

On a rise along County Road 8 just west of Hoard’s Station between Stirling and Campbellford sits a dignified aging Ontario Gothic stone farmhouse, surrounded by trees, with a tall frame barn to the west. What catches the eye is a long stone building with a slate roof and an unusual tall brick chimney.

It is reminiscent of an early Scottish woollen mill or other industrial building.

It will come as no surprise to learn this is Fogorig, since 1834 a hub of the Scottish community in Seymour Township, the life’s work of a transplanted Scottish visionary and landowner. The homestead has a story to tell, and is blessed with several passionate historians who help with the recounting.

In 1834, Thomas Allan of Berwickshire, Scotland - recently retired from the Royal Navy - took up his 200-acre Crown grant in the wilderness that became Seymour Township. An ambitious man, he added another 900 acres to his holding and began his life as a landed gentleman. Thomas married in his 60s, mindful of the need for heirs for his estate. Unfortunately, his bride Elizabeth Bonner did not share his enthusiasm for Upper Canada, and remained stalwart in Scotland, two sons attesting to Thomas’ occasional visits to the old country. Elizabeth forbade the sons to leave for Canada, although in the way of youth everywhere, they did one day break their vow, and went on to became successful surgeons in North America.

Thomas Allan’s holdings were destined to become a hub in the early Scottish community of the area; he had aspirations for a village named Allandale which were not fully realized. A community needed a mill, but Allan’s property did not have a river for a water-powered mill. From Berwickshire he imported the idea, and the equipment, for a steam-powered mill, which explains the presence of the 60-foottall brick chimney and the low profile of the building which seems odd to millwatchers expecting the more iconic tall mill building.

The mill was powered by a steam engine in an adjacent powerhouse, its wood-burning boiler and massive eightfoot flywheel producing power which was transmitted by way of belts, pulleys, and gears to turn the two grinding stones on the second floor, where sheaves of grain were threshed and transformed into flour.

Thomas Allan settled on the name Fogorig for his holdings. Fogo was the name of his home village in Scotland. Rig is a Scottish word for a narrow strip of cultivated land, associated with a form of communal land tenure in use by the Scottish clans before the Highland clearances of the 1700s.

One would be forgiven for wondering if Thomas Allan had thoughts of setting up his own fiefdom. He was not a farmer; he hired 30 men to clear the virgin forest. His plan was to sell 200-acre farms and build a self-sufficient community. Perhaps he had a vision of himself as a Scottish laird – for he did have an observation deck built onto his roof so he could keep a close eye on his workers.

Thomas Allan was an ambitious and driven man. He was also devout, a characteristic shared within the Scottish community. Early church services were held in his general store, across the road from Fogorig. Dr. Neil, the area’s first Presbyterian minister was inducted in this store, a packing crate for a dais.

Thomas Allan died in 1889 and is buried in the Church of Scotland cemetery at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, known locally as Burnbrae Church.

In late September 2013, just days before new owners took possession of the old place, Allan Kerr escorted visitors around Fogorig. Allan grew up here; his father farmed the place from 1948 on, milking a fine herd of Ayrshire cattle. The house, empty for some years, retains its dignity with dressed stone façade, ashlar quoins, its chimneys, and precise centre gable. A step inside reveals deep-set windows with interior shutters, sound plasterwork, five fireplaces with granite hearths in the public rooms, a unique cast-iron kitchen stove made in Edinburgh, a built-in bookcase, and other refinements.

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COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

The majestic stone gristmill, finished in 1867, with its imported green slate roof has stood for 146 years; the fieldstone walls are still absolutely true. When Allan was a boy, the stone barn was his father’s workshop.

The unique multi-paned sliding door was rescued from a garage in Campbellford in the 1950s. “Every time I walk here I find a memory; 65 years on a place…” Allan’s voice trails off. He draws attention to a 10-inch nail in the doorframe, driven in to hang a water pail. “I remember when I was 10, my dad standing here arguing with a

welder about the shortest distance around the barn.”

The powerhouse where the wood-fired steam engine sat on its massive stone base is in a fieldstone wing behind the mill. Ceiling beams cut during the 1840s clearing of the land still wear their bark, recalling Thomas Allan’s virgin forest. The belts and gears which powered the grinding wheels are gone, but one of the mill wheels basks in retirement against a sunny stone wall outside. Overhead rises the tall brick

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The daughters of Fogorig - sisters Doris Potts and Florence Chatten

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID LAWLER

chimney, intact until hit by lightning in recent years. Allan recalls when hundreds of swifts would circle the chimney at dusk, and disappear for the night into its warm depths.

From the doorway of the powerhouse, the eye travels down the gentle sloping pasture with its sleepy black and white heifers, up again to the wooded hillside on the distant ridge. Thomas Allan would have stood here, watching his men at work, seeing the Grand Junction steam train cross his land, where today the TransCanada Trail ambles.

The 1878 Belden’s Atlas shows a bone mill on the property. In a strange link to the historic destruction of the vast buffalo herds 46

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

on the Canadian prairie, bleached bones were shipped to Allan’s mill to be ground into bone meal for chicken feed.

A walkabout yields other stories. Farm implements are stored in the horse shed from Burnbrae Church – another link to the Scottish community from which Fogorig sprang. The acre in front of the mill building is planted with 116 different varieties of lilacs. Allan betrays his passion and expertise as he picks a rare late bloom for his visitor. “Lilacs will get their feet wet, but they won’t swim.” Allan points out the stone plaque Thomas Allan of the Royal Navy placed high up on the mill’s stone wall: “Fogorig – Built by TA- RN – Acquired A.D. 1834.”

The original inhabitants still maintain a presence at Fogorig. Thomas Allan’s ghost is believed by some to inhabit the interior of the house; a ghostly dog has been witnessed circling the house outside. It seems to fit.

Allan was said to have died of complications arising from a dog bite. Not surprisingly, the ghost of a woman believed to be Elizabeth Bonner has been sensed outside the house, still staunchly refusing to enter the home built for her.

Allan has done a lot of research on Fogorig, and was delighted to find the ‘right’ new owners in Dale and Laura Smith. He’s sad to leave, but it is time to pass on the stewardship to folks with youth and energy and a new vision for the farm.

Fogorig’s Seasons

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As one of their final projects before the sale, Allan and wife Carol held an open house at Fogorig in May, when the lilacs were at their aromatic best. The community was invited to tour the old place, to revisit scenes and memories from past associations.

Two of the visitors were Florence Chatten and Doris Potts.

Their one visit turned into several, and the acquaintance has become a friendship.

Florence and Doris were born and raised at Fogorig – their family, the Rannies, owned the place for 59 years until Allan Kerr’s father Ross purchased it from them in 1948. Another layer of Fogorig’s history is revealed, linking the original owner with the present day.

Scottish immigrant Alexander Rannie purchased the property in 1889 and later passed it on to his son Edward. On this farm Edward Rannie and his wife raised three children, Oscar, born

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1909, Doris, born 1913, and Florence, born 1923. The two daughters, now 100 and 90, form an astonishing connection to the history of Fogorig.

A visit with Florence Chatten is an opportunity to snuggle down with a fascinating and entertaining human book yielding tales of local history, geography, and social, farm, and community life. An opportunity to spend an afternoon with Florence and her sister Doris is like a visit to a splendid local history library.

from Scotland to Canada. William’s son Alexander purchased Fogorig from Thomas Allan in 1889.

Florence and Doris have completely different memories of growing up at Fogorig because of the 10-year gap in their ages.

Doris and her cousin would trek to the Trent River. “Indians would come down in the summer from Roseneath and put up their tents,” recalls Doris. “The men would trap muskrats, the women made bark

“Now why isn’t everybody interested in history?” puzzles Florence. “I’m 90, you know,” she confides, spry and enthusiastic.

She seems as surprised and delighted as her listener at the fact.

Between them, the sisters have an immense knowledge of local history, and a passion to share it; both of them have been active for decades in local groups and Florence Chatten and Allan Kerr at Fogorig projects. They came PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDI PIERCE to it naturally via a father who shared the history bug with his daughters. baskets with quillwork. I remember gypsies.

They travelled in covered wagons, and set Florence, Doris, and their friend Shirley, up camp in what is now Sharp’s Market in who shares their Scottish heritage, sit Campbellford. There were tramps in the around the dining room table in Florence’s 1930s. The railway tracks ran through our comfortable country home, overlooking farm, mother never let them go without rolling fields of drying corn and oak something to eat.” forest turning to copper. They chat about family, neighbours, and their community; Doris became a teacher in 1933 and their observations are humorous and continued to teach school in Northumberland philosophical. The women browse through and Hastings counties for the next 38 years. old photos, family historical accounts, and In 1946 she and her husband Frank bought memorabilia. “We’re soaked in history in an 1858 general store in the hamlet of Menie; our family,” admits Doris.

Frank minded the store until 1967 when the couple donated it to Lang Pioneer Village.

Florence inspects a copy of the manifest That passion for history was a constant. from the 1842 sailing of the ship Glen Anderson on which great grandfather Florence was the family bookworm. She William Rannie and family travelled recalls fondly the built-in bookcase in the 48

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

parlour, where she spent hours immersed in Robbie Burns and Sir Walter Scott. “I learned to read before I went to school,” she confesses. It has served her well.

In addition to teaching at local oneroom schools, Florence contributed to two books about the Brighton area, including Orland French’s 2000 Rolling Hills of Northumberland. In 2009 she published the popular Brighton Township, a local history collection. Florence attributes people’s willingness to share stories to the popularity of her late husband Roy Chatten, active in township and county politics for 30 years, and to rural folks’ willingness to open their doors and invite people in.

It is Florence’s gift for listening to people and telling their story which is remarkable; she listens intently, eyes sparkling with curiosity, ready with the next question, conveying genuine interest.

At the dining room table, Doris and Florence study old black and white photos. In one image, their mother prepares to drive off in the buggy parked beside the stone mill. That very buggy resided in the stable at Fogorig where today an aging democrat and a cutter take their ease.

Another faded photo shows their mother in front of the stone house, with a very young Doris and brother Oscar. They study the photo. “Our mother always wore an apron. There were always nieces and nephews around; her sister had lots of kids.”

The sisters wonder if the new owners will restore the veranda.

The new owners of Fogorig will have this photo for reference, and all the stories, should they ask. So much Fogorig history to pass on. Those Rannie girls are waiting. CQL

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Crafted by two hands

BY C Y N T H I A P E T E R S PHOTOGRAPHY B Y D A N I E L VA U G H A N

W

hen it comes to building a winery, it usually takes more than two hands.

In the case of TerraCello, one of Prince Edward County’s newest wineries, it has redefined the phrase, “A labour of love.”

Owners Daniela and Anthony Auciello had a dream and in merely seven years, they created an Italian inspired winery from the ground up. All crafted by the hands of Anthony, the winery is truly a masterpiece in construction, design, and the art of repurposing salvaged materials.

The winery was originally a drive shed.

With the help of architect Ernie Margetson, Anthony transformed it into quite the new old building. Anthony’s father was a master stonemason (who helped build Casa Loma in Toronto) and taught him the skills to create impressive brick structures on the property – a cozy fireplace in the tasting room and an outdoor cucina with a vinecovered pergola evocative of Italy.

Anthony’s roots were where the dream began, inspired by his father’s hometown in Anzano di Puglia, Italy. The family’s latest acquisition in the early 1990s was a plot purchased to harvest grapes. The land turned out unsuitable for the task, so in 2005 Anthony looked to Canada’s newest wine region as the answer and began his search for the right piece of land. TerraCello Winery now proudly sits just down the road from Huff’s Estate Winery.

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The total package makes this new winery a destination - handcrafted wines in the traditional Italian ways, the setting, and the Neapolitan style pizza. The genuine hospitality is immediately evident, and there is always a smiling face to greet visitors.

Anthony and Daniela make everyone feel like part of their extended family.

This boutique winery has created a space of comfort and authenticity. The outdoor pergola and kitchen are reminiscent of many Italian backyards. The wood-burning oven, stoked with cherry wood is the key to turning out the great pizza pies according to Anthony. Also important are the Italian ingredients (with some local items in the mix), and his nonna’s (grandmother) recipes.

The traditional Neapolitan pizza includes buffalo mozzarella, tomato sauce, and basil with optional anchovies. Calabrese has sausage, sundried tomatoes, black olives, and regular mozzarella. Pugliese pizza, inspired by his late father, is made with caciocavallo cheese (similar to an aged provolone), and tomato sauce. There is the traditional Margherita with tomato sauce,

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mozzarella, and basil. All are made with the Italian 00 fine flour (Doppio zero), which has less gluten and creates a thin crisp crust.

Cooking the pizza is also an art. Anthony learned the craft from another family member - his brother-in-law who owns an Italian restaurant in Toronto. These authentic pizzas are slated to be on the menu and available on the weekends staring in April when the winery reopens.

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Early success has its rewards and challanges. The winery was so popular this summer it sold out and is taking a hiatus for the winter. Yet to be released, TerraCello’s Baco Noir will be a hit this spring. Fruit forward and smooth to the palette, this red will be a perfect pairing with meat and tomato Italian dishes.

The wines of TerraCello range from a fruity and elegant Vidal, a dry Riesling to a nicely balanced Pinot Noir. All grapes are handpicked, gravity filtered, and aged in small batches. Anthony’s philosophy is to use as many traditional methods as possible. He proudly displays his grandfather’s old wine press in the garden as a tribute to his heritage.

Other vintage pieces and photos are scattered throughout the winery giving the ambience an old-world feel. Salvaged materials have also been repurposed and make up the majority of the materials used in building the tasting room, winery, and viewing room, currently used as a small art gallery. Large plush living room couches complete the area with Pavarotti playing in the background. The effect is equal to stepping into an old Italian wine fattoria (factory).

It is evident as one strolls and sips through the winery that this is a special place; built from hours of hard work and craftsmanship.

This impressive young couple has created a little Tuscan oasis for everyone to enjoy right here in Prince Edward County.

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The Play’s the Thing 56

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“All the World’s a stage and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and entrances and one man in his time plays many parts.”

William Shakespeare

BY V E RO N I C A L E O N A R D

S

hakespeare may have been speaking metaphorically but in this part of Ontario the reference is quite literal. One would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t trod the boards in any of the local amateur theatres or at least been part of the multitude of backstage volunteers who work on production, sets, costumes, and house.

They are all around: the barista who rocked the house with her performance as an uncoordinated stripper in Bedtime Stories; the financial advisor who turned up in drag as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest; the doctor who pulled at the heart strings as a virginal Irish fisherman in Sea Marks.

Even respected theatre critic Jack Evans occasionally abandons his objectivity as a spectator and succumbs to the lure of the grease paint, most recently as Matthew Cuthbert in Anne of Green Gables.

Marysburgh Mummers production of Fiddler on the Roof PHOTO COURTESY OF BRUCE DOWDELL.

According to Jack, “There is no greater addiction than an appreciative audience.”

Jack noted many people go from show to show in both acting and production roles despite the fact each require a time commitment of three to four nights a week for up to four months. They develop a strong sense of family and it becomes part of their lifeblood.

Steve Forrester, a veteran actor and director with the Belleville Theatre Guild explains his love of theatre. “You meet COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

57

many interesting people from different backgrounds whom you might not have known otherwise. It’s very democratic and a lot of fun.”

Finding the audience can be a challenge.

are 36 youths taking part in acting and behind the scenes in stage management, set design, and costumes. It’s a wonderful experience for all involved.

Liz Marshall of Belleville Theatre Guild remembers “When we started we were in our 30s and so were our audiences.

They’ve aged with us, but today’s young adults have so many options for entertainment, and plays aren’t their first choice. Because our theatres need ticket revenue to pay the bills, we try to present seasons our audiences will really enjoy, including offering something challenging to hopefully attract new people. It’s a balancing act.”

The local theatre culture begins at an early age. Most high schools have an annual production that often draws from the middle school students as well. The two local professional theatre companies - Stirling Festival Players and the Festival Players of Prince Edward County - offer student drama courses each summer and there are summer theatre camps at Pinnacle Playhouse in Belleville and Mount Tabor in Marysburgh. Many of the local theatre groups also have a musical production each year open to young participants.

Belleville Theatre Guild

Bruce Dowdell, president of the Marysburgh Mummers, says the secret to their success is large-scale community involvement. “If someone comes out to a production, we try to get them involved in some capacity and we have a lot of families taking part. Our productions have a great reputation so we usually pack the place and they all have fun.

Four-year-old Emma Pinchin made her stage debut as tiny Princess Noy one the children in The King and I - at the Pinnacle Playhouse last spring. Her mother, Valerie Pinchin said Emma loved being a princess and was delighted to suddenly have stage brothers and sisters like Cameron Jardine and Alex Pordham who at 12 were both in their fourth major production.

Now in its 62nd year, Belleville Theatre Guild is the oldest of the local amateur theatre groups. Since the 1970s it has made its home in the Pinnacle Playhouse leased from the city. The playhouse has tiered seating for 120 and an elevator for accessibility, It is an actor’s dream with a large backstage area, a loft for musicians, changing rooms, kitchen, and a large green room where the audience mingles before the play and actors can escape to when not on stage.

The Velveteen Rabbit directed by Lise Lindenberg this Christmas put on by the Pinnacle Young Players under the auspices of the Belleville Theatre Guild is part of a move to attract younger audiences. There

It has built a solid core of actors, directors, production specialists, and

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The 2013 to 2014 season began in October with The Foursome, and The Velveteen Rabbit at Christmas.

Upcoming this winter and spring are Leading Ladies in February, Enchanted April in April and its closing musical Into the Woods in June.

The Bay of Quinte Community Players Active on and off since the 1950s, the Bay of Quinte Community Players is now permanently based in the former Trenton

Town Hall, operating in conjunction with the Trenton Historical Society. The upstairs playhouse named My Theatre was recently renovated to reflect its historic identity in the 1920s when Trenton’s film industry was booming and it was considered Hollywood North.

It has raised seating for 75 and a new lighting and sound system.

Brighton Barn Theatre

Bev Roy, the new Artistic Director who replaced Len Hirst said now that the audience is comfortable, they are working to improve the backstage conditions for the actors who have to remain in the narrow corridor behind the sets for the entire play without access to a change room or a washroom. Despite these drawbacks, there is no shortage of enthusiastic actors coming from Belleville, Cobourg, Warkworth, and Trenton.

Brighton’s Barn Theatre is also a partnership with a local historical society. Theatre enthusiasts relocated the 1850s Simpson barn which had been scheduled for demolition - to the Proctor House Museum property and turned it into a theatre to provide ongoing revenue for the heritage site. The transformation is impressive, while retaining a comfortable, climate controlled rustic atmosphere. The former cattle stalls now serve as the green room in the basement, the haymow has been converted into a stage, and there is seating for 100 in the former granary and machinery area.

This year’s line up started with a riotous comedy Out of Order in October and includes A Canadian Christmas, Love, Sex and the IRS in February and will finish up with Steel Magnolias in June.

Blythe Spirit was the first show of this season, followed by a Christmas show of music and skits. The Chalk Garden will be performed in May. The charming location draws actors from Cobourg, Trenton, Belleville, and Carrying Place.

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venue for other local theatre companies including Festival Players, musical performers, and community groups.

The Marysburgh Mummers In Prince Edward County, theatre was a means to an end for a group of six women in Milford their 1985 effort to save the deconsecrated Mount Tabor United Church from falling down. Only Bev Walker and Alice Miller are still alive of the original six, but the Marysburgh Mummers which they founded is still going strong. Every year the troupe puts on a musical involving as many local people as possible as well as drawing from the surrounding area. This year’s Peter Pan has actors coming from as far away as Trenton and Napanee. Profits help maintain the building and support community projects.

The Mount Tabor Theatre has seating capacity for 125 and is rented as a

Prince Edward Community Theatre

The County Theatre Group The County Theatre Group has been operating in Picton for the last ten years putting on a major musical extravaganza one year followed by a smaller production the next. According to Phil Dowling, the new president, the County Theatre Group is currently going through a transition as it has recently enlisted some very talented new members and is planning to expand to three productions this season.

Blood Brothers was the fall musical at the Regent Theatre. In February it will stage 100 years of Broadway at the Waring House and the group is currently considering a third play for the end of May.

Prince Edward Community Theatre, which was started six years ago by Lynne Fennel is the only one of the County’s theatre groups registered in the Eastern Ontario Drama League. As the other County groups primarily focus on musicals, Lynne wanted to provide a wider variety of theatre with a bit more edge, performing mainly out of the Mount Tabor theatre in Milford.

The 2013 to 2014 season began with Trying in October; The Odd Couple (the female version) is scheduled for two weekends in February. God of Carnage will be their entry into the Drama Festival in 2014 and will be staged at Huff Estate Winery over two weekends ending with a dinner theatre performance catered by Huff’s Chef Michael Hoy. The season will end with the comic thriller Death Trap in May. CQL

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AsFostering we observe Child Abuse Prevention Month and National Foster is a rewarding experience.

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This spectacular Colonial American historical home originally stood as an inn on Highway 2, five miles east of Cobourg. It was completely dismantled, labelled and reconstructed to today’s standards. The log tail was also dismantled and rebuilt as the modern kitchen spanning twothirds of the width of the house. Remarkable details of the home include central chimney, narrow clapboard siding and pilastered front entrance with five-pane transom light; inside are five Rumford fireplaces and a boxed entrance hall. Near the house on the 12 acres, stands the former St. Paul’s Anglican Church, a wonderful example of Neo Classical architecture. This church was relocated from Adolphustown in Lennox and Addington County. Settled into the landscape the views are carefully framed and arranged with an eye to privacy.

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Trenton Memorial Hospital Foundation Gala P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y G E R RY F R A I B E R G

Through the generous donations of a grateful community and more than 240 patrons, the Orient Express Gala on October 30 raised more than $300,000 for the hospital’s Medical Day Clinic and equipment.

“Everyone can take great pride in knowing that they are helping to save lives, each and every day, through their support of this event.” says Wendy Warner, Executive Director of the TMH Foundation.

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Peter Mennacher Carving a life on South Bay

ARTICLE AND PHOTOGRAPHY

BY GERRY FRAIBERG

F

rom a distance, it looks like a rug woven from various shades of brown fibre. Up close, it is apparent this 154-centimetresquare work is actually made up of small, pencil-like whittled pieces of various types of wood.

One day, German born artist Peter Mennacher was sitting outside the barn that houses his Blizzmax Gallery on South Bay in Prince Edward County. He had a scrap of wood in his hand and started whittling with a utility knife. A childhood memory of whittling sticks with his first pocket knife flashed in his mind. As he sat intrigued, he decided to put together a few whittled sticks, and liked the pattern he made. He then decided he needed several hundred to put a sculptural piece together. After working on it for quite a few years, Peter ended up with a 10,000-piece sculpture, which he had in a show 10 years ago. After it hung on a wall in the house designed by his architect wife Alice for a few years, he felt it had to 66

COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

be larger and started whittling again, adding another 12,000 pieces. By August of 2013, he felt it was finished. All 22,000 pieces, carefully glued together. Peter figured he worked on it for 1,200 hours. Entitled Retro Focus, it is made up of one whittled piece of wood for every day of his life.

The 400-pound variegated sculpture has every type of wood he could find: maple, oak, white cedar, red cedar, tulipwood, pine, spruce, bass wood, tamarack, Douglas fir, mahogany, ash, different types of tropical wood, and black ebony. Peter explained he sawed the wood into 22-centimetre strips and after whittling both ends to a thickness of one square centimetre he cut the strips in half, and then pieced them together.

It’s a long way from Munich to Prince Edward County, but the route Peter Mennacher took is even longer than the 6,000 kilometres. He first came to Canada as a young lawyer for six months in 1970, when he articled at a Montreal law firm.

While there, he went on a blind date and became friends with Alice Goodfellow, but they parted ways in November of that year when he had to return to Germany. He

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finished university, wrote his second bar exam, got married in 1972, and went to work in the law department of a big auditing company, specializing in art and tax. He had a lot of art clients, and was hired by the Association of German Artists in Bonn to run tax seminars for artists. He even travelled to the former East Germany twice after the wall fell to teach several hundred East German artists about the basics of bookkeeping and income tax. Among his clients was a famous art professor, Nikolai Sarafov, who taught him the art of etching.

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Peter’s life was marred by tragedy when his wife died in a car accident in 1980, leaving him to raise their two sons alone. One day, two years later, his mother called after finding a cache of cards and letters from his former Montreal girlfriend. He looked at them, and decided to send a postcard to Alice at her old Montreal address. The COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

69

Gleaners Food Bank Presents:

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postcard was forwarded to her in Vancouver where she had been living for 10 years. She wrote back saying she would be travelling to Italy.

Peter’s German family had a house in northern Italy, and he picked her up at the train station in Verona at 1 a.m. on June 19th, 1982. Peter brought Alice to the house, introduced her to his two boys, and a week later they decided to get married. “She never left,” he said with a laugh.

After living together in Europe for 10 years, Peter and Alice decided to move to Canada. Peter was 50 and decided he had enough of law and wanted to do something different. They chose Ontario over Quebec - as the boys were bilingual - but in German and English. They spoke no French. They drove from Montreal, where Alice’s family lives, to the Thousand Islands in search of a waterfront property, but they found it wasn’t rural enough for them. Kingston was too big, so they kept driving and ended up crossing on the Glenora Ferry into Prince Edward County. After looking at 20 properties, they decided on 3071 County Road 13 - mainly because of the big old barn, which they converted into Blizzmax Gallery in 1993. The gallery celebrated its 20th anniversary in the summer of 2013.

They moved to Canada in 1992 with all their worldly possessions in a 13-metre shipping container, including a 350-kilogram etching press made by the German art supply company Gerstaecker. For 30 years, Peter has done all kinds of print techniques, mainly etching, woodcuts, and linocuts.

Aside from establishing Blizzmax Gallery, Peter and Alice were among the pioneer grape growers in The County, planting their first vines in 1999. They had a vineyard until 2008, consisting of about 5,000 Chardonnay and 3,000 Pinot Noir vines. They realized it wasn’t a romantic enterprise, but hard work. They didn’t build a winery, instead selling their grapes to Huff Estates, who made award-winning wines.

When their three children refused to have anything to do with growing grapes, they decided to sell the vineyard in 2008.

Peter remembered their early days in Prince Edward County it was a real rural community and they had to drive to Kingston to buy balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and good meat. Now he noted there are very good restaurants and grocery stores in the County as well as high quality meat and fresh produce in summer. On the downside, he said some very wealthy people have come to the area, built terrible monster homes, and then left after a year. The proposed wind turbines are something else he and Alice are not happy with, “But what’s refreshing is the County attracts a lot of artistic people,” Peter remarked. “There’s a really vibrant art scene here and the quality of life is enormous.”

There’s another installation of whittled wood pieces in the works.

Plein Soleil is now 112 centimeters in diameter. It has about 10,000 pieces, to which Peter plans to add another 8,000, enlarging it to 150 centimeters. He expects it to be hanging on the wall in 2014.

Lawyer, grape grower, artist - Peter Mennacher said he wouldn’t have done anything differently. He and Alice are avid skiers and have done a lot of skiing in the Rockies and although they’ve seen a lot of Canada, he said he wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

Peter is especially happy sitting and whittling in his favourite spot - at the end of his dock on South Bay. CQL

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COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING AUTUMN 2013

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1478 Unity Road Glenburnie ON

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SAITARG’S GQ Gravitas Quotient is a measure of one’s reserves of inner wisdom.

Discover your Gravitas Quotient at www.gravitasthegame.com

Danielle Crittenden answers 28 Gravitas Questions Born in Toronto, Danielle Crittenden is the daughter of Max Crittenden, a former editor with the now-defunct Toronto Telegram and journalist and book critic Yvonne Crittenden. Her stepfather was Peter Worthington, the award-winning Canadian journalist with the Toronto Telegram and founder and former editor of the Toronto Sun. Danielle was an assignment reporter and feature writer at the Toronto Sun and freelanced for magazines and newspapers.

Danielle is currently the managing editor of blogs for Huffington Post Canada and is a long-time contributor to Huffington Post U.S. Her numerous articles and essays have appeared in leading newspapers and magazines throughout North America.

A former columnist for the New York Post, she has appeared on NBC’s Today show, The O’Reilly Factor, ABC’s 20/20 and Nightline, as well as numerous programs for CTV, CBC, C-SPAN, MSNBC, PBS, CNN, Fox, and NPR. She is co-author of the cookbook, From a Polish Country House Kitchen, with Pulitzerprize winning historian Anne Applebaum.

She is the author of three previous books: her non-fiction book What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman resulted in a Vanity Fair feature describing Crittenden as, “One of the most important new thinkers about women and family.”

Danielle has also written two works of fiction - The President’s Secret IMs, originally published on the Huffington Post, and Amanda Bright @ Home, the first novel ever to be serialized by the Wall Street Journal.

From 1994 to 1996, Danielle created and was editor of The Women’s Quarterly, published by the Independent Women’s Forum.

She is married to journalist and author David Frum, a former special assistant and speechwriter to President George W. Bush. They have three children and live in Washington, D.C. and Prince Edward County.

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COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING WINTER 2013

Name one universal rule of friendship.

Genuine happiness for another’s success.

What are you going to do about growing old?

Spend more money on pointless face creams.

What have you not got from your life so far that you hope to get?

Longevity What makes your heart stand still?

The sight of my husband.

What recipe for a successful home life do you want to share?

My pot roast. (Available in my next book!)

Why do we sometimes crave chaos?

I don’t. I spend most of my time trying to organize it.

If you knew the truth, how would you reveal it?

I already did! In my first book, “What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us.”

What would your stepfather make of you now?

I hope he would recognize how much he made me.

We all hope there will be one more time. One more time for what?

To be with my late stepfather.

What is the best way to get licensed as an adult?

Fake ID.

What do you wish your mother understood about you?

That I am, actually, always right.

Name one secret you do not want to discover before you die?

What people say behind my back.

How would you like to rewire your brain?

With enhanced RAM to process more things at once, and at least another terabyte of memory capacity.

Give one example of life’s absurdities?

The LCBO.

What do you wish you understood about the workings of the universe?

The assurance that earth is not about to be invaded by giant cricket-like cannibals.

How do we get to the authentic self?

By avoiding plastic surgery.

What is your favourite recipe for unhappiness?

Anything with offal.

What increases your sense of reverence?

The view of Lake Ontario at every hour, in every season.

2014 GUARDIAN ANGEL Patricia Guernsey, QCF Board of Directors Chairperson, Peter & Vicki Smith, Aleesha Camp, Gala Chairperson

PLEASE JOIN US IN HONOURING

Photo Courtesy of Lola Reid

QUINTE CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION 2014 GUARDIAN ANGEL

PETER SMITH SATURDAY MARCH 1, 2014 AT SEARS ATRIUM, BELLEVILLE TICKETS $150 EACH LIVE AUCTION ~ ENTERTAINMENT VISIT www.quintechildrensfoundation.com to purchase tickets or call 613.962.9292 for more information

THE ONE THING WE CAN’T FIX IS YOUR PRIDE. LET’S FACE IT. ACCIDENTS DO HAPPEN. Whether you’re in need of emergency surgery, cosmetic rehabilitation, dental implants or even wisdom tooth extractions - our “A”-Team of Dental Professionals are ready to assist you.

Tougher on the ice, than off? No problem, we offer Nitrous and IV Sedation. Just ask us.

Madoc 613.473.2142 | Deseronto 613.396.2974 | Web: steinbergdental.com | Twitter: @SDCDentalCentre