The duo Ennis, which features sisters Maureen and Karen Ennis from Newfoundland, had a good time performing to a packed house at the Sharbot Lake Country Inn last year and they decided to include a return gig when they were planning a Canadian tour for this summer. Their audience was waiting for them, none more so than 99-year-old Annie Cahill.

In fact at the break between the two sets they performed last Wednesday (July 2), Annie dragged her two daughters up to the bar, not for a drink but to buy CDs.

Annie, whose great grand-daughter Cadence works at the Country Inn, went to see Ennis last year, partly because her grandfather was an Ennis and so she has roots in the same family. Annie was born and raised on the Wilmer Road near Perth Road Village. She moved to Perth Road proper when she grew up, married and had eight children. She enjoyed the show last year

“Around Christmas time I got a call from Annie. She asked me if the Ennis sisters were coming back any time in the coming year. As it happens they had already booked July 2 , so Annie told me to reserve her a ticket,” said Sandra White of the Country Inn.

The show was a bit of an early birthday outing for Annie, who lives in a seniors' home in Napanee. She turns 100 in September. She said she really enjoyed herself.

When she was introduced to the band, Annie said, “My grandfather was an Ennis.”

“Then we must be related,” said Karen Ennis, “without a doubt.”

Those who may have missed the 7th annual Garden Party and Open Studio event in Arden on June 28, have no fear. A talented trio of Arden artisans are open for business all summer long (and throughout the year with certain exceptions) and they all love to welcome visitors to their picturesque showrooms and studio spaces.

The trio of Arden artists are painter Judith Versavel of Gallery on the Bay, potter Joanne Pickett of Arden Pottery and Sarah Hale of Arden Batik. The artists enjoy receiving visitors into their creative spaces, educating them about the work they do and showing them around the studios where they create their unique work.

Sarah Hale has been making art using the wax-resist technique, batik, for over 40 years and opened her studio decades ago. Hale's colorful artworks focus primarily on local natural landscape and wildlife and her recent new works include subjects inspired by a trip to Columbia where she attended the annual Carnival festival. She also creates themed pieces for special events. In her studio she stocks other unique Ontario crafts as well a number of fair trade gift items from around the globe.

Judith Versavel is a multi-media artist who offers up a wide variety of creative works in various mediums at her lakefront home studio. Painting is Judith's primary focus and her subject matter includes landscapes, local buildings, still lifes and portraits. Judith stocks a wide selection of her own cards as well as her own line of jewelry and also stocks a variety of art and craft items made by other local artists, including woodturned objects, photography and posters.

Potter Joanne Pickett has been making wheel-thrown functional stoneware and decorative pottery for decades and her beautiful home front showroom is a testament to her prowess as a master potter. She offers up a wide array of highly functional home and kitchen items including mugs, bowls, vases, serving dishes and much more. Her forms are precise, pleasing and decorative, lovely to hold and use and come in a wide of variety of high-fired glaze finishes. Joanne does not limit her talents to the wheel; she also enjoys venturing into the sculptural realm of her medium and creates intriguing pieces to decorate the garden and other outdoor spaces.

Art lovers seeking that perfect, unique, hand-crafted gift should look no further than Arden.

Arden Batik is located at 1029 Elm Tree Road (phone 613-335-2073), Arden Pottery, 1040 Big Clear Lane (613-335-2763) and Gallery on the Bay, 1010 Willett Lane (613-335-2032). The studios are open regular business hours throughout the summer, and all year long with other specified hours but to be sure, call in advance.

Music lovers will be happy to know that the Verona Community Associations free summer concert series has returned for another season at McMullen beach in Verona. Famed flautist Anne Archer who also plays locally with opened the season with the first concert in the series that took place on June 29 on a hot and windy day at the beach where she was joined on her flute and tin whistle by two members of the Celtic Kitchen Party's Andrew Vanhorn of Kingston on lead vocals and guitar and Ted Hsu also a Kingstonian on fiddle.

The groups performed their celtic flavoured repertoire that included a number of beloved singalong tunes including The Irish Rover, Farewell to Nova Scotia, Rattlin' Bog, and Dirty Old Town brought out the Irish in many listeners who sang along on many tunes. The trio played two sets and their laid back charm and their perfect blend made for a memorable day of high quality music at the beach. Members of the Verona Community Association offers up a canteen at the concerts where hot dogs and cold beverages are available as well as free train rides for kids on the VCA's Cattail express. The series' two upcoming concerts include Chuckwagon Express who will be performing their repertoire of classic and traditional country music on Sunday July 20. Rock and rollers The Monarchs will performing classic rock from the 1960's- 1980's at the final concert in the series that will take place on Sunday August 17.

The concerts take place at in Verona at McMullen beach from 1:00-3:00Pm and in case of heavy rain or thunderstorms will be moved to the Verona Lions hall on Verona Sand Road. For those who missed the first concert of the VCA series, Anne Archer will also be performing with her classical group CACCIA at the Mill Street Cafe in Sydenham on Saturday July 5 from 11:45 AM-1:45PM and again with her four piece flute quartet Toute Ensemble for an afternoon of music and poetry at The Book Store in Tamworth on Sunday July 6 at 2:00PM.

Those interested in looking into the lives and times of local pioneers in and around the Cloyne area will be happy to know that the Cloyne Pioneer Museum and Archives is now open for visitors. The museum, which was expanded last year, held their official season opening on June 21 and guests were treated to a barbeque lunch and old time musical favorites courtesy of a local band, Pickled Chicken.

J.J (Red) Emond, president of the Cloyne and District Historical Society (CDHS), highlighted the society’s many accomplishments this past year, which included hiring new staff at the museum, placing two new museum signs on Highway 41, the completion of the new 2015 calendars that are available for sale at $15 a piece, the installation of new display cases in the museum, and the posting of photographs from the museum and society on the photo-sharing site Flickr.

He spoke of the success of the recent bus tour to War Museum in Ottawa Red, thanked all of the board members and volunteers for their ongoing work, and congratulated CDHS member Ian Brumell for being honored with the June Callwood Outstanding Achievement Award for Voluntarism earlier this year.

Emond also highlighted the society’s goals for this year, which include increasing membership, completing the landscaping around the museum grounds, completing more interviews with locals in the area, and planning for the society’s annual events such as the Robbie Burns Supper, the historical bus tour and the annual toonie party.

Marg Axford, the curator and archivist at the museum, mingled with the guests as they perused the many new displays. These include a special World War 1 section with photos of young men from the area, many of whom fought and were killed in the war, plus a number of WW 1 artifacts including a tin hat, a bayonet and newspaper clippings. Other new displays include the paintings by the late local artist, Wini Gutsell, and a new display highlighting a portion of Skootamatta Lake that was settled by the Obornes, a local family. Other permanent displays include various artifacts and documents from the 1850s onwards that focus on settlement, mining, logging, tourism and other local history in the CDHS catchment area, which runs along the Highway 41 corridor south to Kaladar, north Denbigh, west to Flinton and east to Harlowe.

For those who have yet to visit the Cloyne Pioneer Museum and Archives, it is well worth a trip. The museum is open daily until September 2 and is located at 14235 Highway 41 in Cloyne. Regular monthly meetings of the CDHS take place at the Barrie Hall in Cloyne at 1pm on every third Monday beginning again in September.

The cream of Sharbot Lake society (and some others) were decked out in their finest evening wear for the premiere screening of seven short films by Jesse Mills profiling some new and not so new-comers to Central Frontenac. The films provide an insight into the lives of those who were willing to share their homes and their thoughts about where they live, work, and play. They also are meant to serve as promotional videos for Central Frontenac as a place to move to.

Mayor Janet Gutowski came up with the idea for the videos, and Jesse Mills, a young, locally raised videographer who has been interning with the township for four months, conducted the interviews and did the filming and editing.

The films, which are each about 5 minutes in length, feature some stunning landscapes and descriptions by the subjects. They are available for viewing on the township's website centralfrontenac.com.

The opening, which included a red carpet, wine and cheese, was organized by Mayor Gutowski and the staff at the St. Lawrence Employment Centre next door, in particular the center's manager Karen McGregor. The Oso Hall was full for the showing, and the audience response was overwhelmingly positive.

Wintergreen Studios, the eco-lodge/educational retreat on Canoe Lake Road near Godfrey, birthed a new and separate business in November 2012. The Wintergreen Renewable Energy Co-op was founded following a community energy retreat that was held at the lodge that summer. The idea to form the co-op came about in June 2012 and its mission, according to its president and founding director David Hahn, is to “promote and develop renewable energy projects in the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington region; offer investment opportunities; and educate people about the value of renewable energy.”

Those and other topics were the focus of this year’s Community Energy Retreat, which took place at Wintergreen on June 13. Members of the co-op and their partner, SolarShare, were on hand to discuss their recent partnership.

Since its founding, the Wintergreen Renewable Energy Co-op had engaged TREC (the project incubator of SolarShare) to do work for the co-op on a contractual basis. The work included evaluating one of the co-op’s potential projects and acting as their back office once members of the co-op began investing. Hahn said that once the co-op began focusing on three potential large scale solar projects in the Kingston area and after speaking with an EPC (an engineering procurement and construction company) about the projects, it became clear that the co-op “needed certainty about our being able to raise the funds to a level of security required by the EPC to purchase the potential project(s).”

It was then that that the co-op entered into a partnership with SolarShare, who was able to provide the additional financial security that the EPC required. “At that point we realized that we could not give them [the EPC] the certainty that we would be able to buy the project if they developed it, so we started talking to SolarShare and have since developed an agreement with them,” Hahn said.

SolarShare is currently the largest renewable energy co-op in Canada and develops commercial-scale solar electricity installations, offering investors the opportunity to “invest ethically and with impact, with 100% of the invested funds directly financing solar projects and helping to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.” The non-profit co-op offers investors Solar Bonds, which pay a fixed 5% annual return on a minimum investment of $1,000 for a 5-year term. The co-op, which to date has developed 23 solar projects in Ontario totaling 1.2 MW of capacity, generates revenue by selling the electricity they produce. The bonds are backed by 20-year power purchase agreements with the Ontario Power Authority.

Under the new partnership, Wintergreen and SolarShare will continue to explore projects to develop in the Kingston area. Wintergreen will also encourage their own members to invest in Solar Bonds and SolarShare will pay a fee directly back to Wintergreen Co-op to cover the costs of operations.

The partnership was discussed at length at the June 13 retreat with presentations by David Hahn, by SolarShare president Mike Brigham, and by Julie Leach, the company's community investment and marketing manager. There were also keynote presentations by Kristina Inrig of the Community Energy Network of Eastern Ontario, who also spoke on sustainable investing, and Paul McKay, who spoke about renewable energy developments. Following lunch was a workshop on SolarShare's Solar Bonds.

For investors wanting to go green, with a fixed 5% annual return, the Wintergreen Renewable Energy Co-op and Solar Bonds seem well worth looking into. For more information visit www.wintergreencoop.com.

“I'm eager to paint where my co-habitants live because all depend on a natural place to survive.” Those are the words of Hartington artist Nicole McGrath, the painter whose 50 landscape paintings graced the walls of the Blueroof Farm near Bellrock on June 7 and 8.

Blueroof Farm is the home of award-winning Canadian artist Kim Ondaatje, who invited Nicole to show her work at Blueroof. The farm is the perfect backdrop to McGrath's richly colored and expressive works, which focus on the natural beauty of the Frontenac Arch. The works are small in scale, most measuring 8x10 inches, and at first glance are reminiscent of the small preliminary landscape sketches made by many members of the Group of Seven. However, unlike the latter, which were used as studies for much larger works, McGrath's small paintings are resolved and complete unto themselves. They are bright, colorful and fresh, each projecting a quiet, interior, meditative feel that invites the viewer to relax into each unique scene.

McGrath says that painting out of doors is an integral part of her practice and she enjoys the quiet contemplative feeling that the natural surroundings bring. “I found that painting from photos never gave enough information that I needed so I took an en-plein-air class and began painting out of doors. I found that I could see much more clearly what I was trying to paint.” McGrath said that being in nature puts in her in a place where she is "better able to function as an artist”. She adds that the movement of en-plein-air gave painters in France (where it began) the freedom to be outside and paint landscapes in their real, natural light. “I love to look at the light as it is on objects and how it's almost always changing. It's a beautiful space to be in your mind.”

McGrath paints in oil and her landscapes include forests, hills, shorelines and watersheds painted in each of the four seasons. The colors are often vibrant and eye catching, as when subtle purples and mauves are outlined and put side by side with striking red lines. Some works are painted in a more impressionistic style with visible brush strokes made apparent on the surface and others are more smooth and blended. “I try to let the landscape I am painting tell me how it wants to be painted. Sometimes it looks more impressionistic and sometimes more like the Group of Seven but I never set out to paint in a certain way.”

Asked about the challenges of painting outdoors she said you have to paint fast. “The light and shadows are always changing, faster or slower depending on the season and the time of day so you have to be prepared and work quickly to get what you want on the canvas before things change. I really don't have much time to think things out and plan the paintings; I just quickly compose the piece, focusing immediately on the color and the placement of things to the point where it seems I am almost working from the subconscious.”

In fact it is due to the quickly changing color and light that outdoor painters learn to paint the foreground first whereas in studio painting, the background is often painted first. Plein-air also requires practical preparation. Having the right clothing and equipment is key. Multiple layers and a waterproof shell are key in the winter months, when McGrath says she often sits in the snow. Similarly two types of gloves, fingerless and not, come in handy, the first for better dexterity while painting and the second for warming up.

Summer offers its own challenges where heat and rain are factors though one can be out working for much longer periods of time. McGrath said she will soon be traveling to Peru where she looks forward to painting the rain forests. Hopefully we will have a chance to view some of her new works on her return.

On June 8 the ABC Hall was transformed into a Victorian era tea house for a special first time fundraiser. Over 60 guests, many in fancy dress, hats and fascinators sat at white lace-lined tables that boasted fancy china tea cups, silver serving sets and fresh cut flowers. Close to 15 volunteers, many dressed in Victorian era costumes, served up an exceptional array of tea party snacks on fancy three-tiered serving trays and poured out tea from silver tea pots. The menu included dainty sandwiches of gravlax, fancy cheeses and beef tenderloin and for dessert an assortment of fancy cookies, squares plus scones with fresh cream and preserves.

The tea, which was organized by Pat Hough, the events coordinator at the hall, included live music courtesy of harpist Judi Longstreet of Portland. Numerous door prizes were given out including bouquets of fresh cut flowers, gift baskets and free tickets to the next Friday night Bolingbroke Café in September. Guests could also enter a competition for the best hat/fascinator.

Sharon Turner opened the event with a brief history of Queen Victoria, who was born at Kensington Palace in London on May 24, 1819 and became Queen in 1837 at the age of 18. Known for her “warm-hearted and lively nature" she was also known to have a gift for painting and drawing and was an avid diarist. Throughout her life she kept a journal. She married Prince Albert in 1840 and together they had nine children. Her reign is associated with a time of great industrial expansion and economic progress and the British empire expanded greatly during her reign. Her husband died at age 42 in 1861, which it is thought to have sunk the Queen into a deep depression. After that she became increasingly reclusive and continued her reign wearing only black. She survived seven assassination attempts on her life between 1840 and 1882, and died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight on January 22, 1901 after a reign that lasted 64 years.

The Victorian tea party fundraiser was such a success that organizers are considering making it an annual event. There will be more fundraisers this month at the hall. Coming up on Sunday June 22 at 2pm, Chris Murphy and Jon McLurg of Crooked Wood will be performing Celtic and old time gospel tunes in support of the Althorpe-Bolingbroke United Church. On Saturday June 28 at 6pm there will be a roast beef dinner and dance with musical guests Red Rose Express. The popular Bolingbroke Cafe series, which takes place on the first Friday of every month, will be taking a summer hiatus and will commence again in September.

The ABC Hall is located at 3166 Bolingbroke Road