Artists Gaile and Trevor Bethell at their studio

The Cloyne Studio Tour has been a mainstay in the arts scene in the north when it was founded years ago by Cloyne artists Carla Miedema and the late Ursula Ossenberg.

Joining Carla on the tour this year for the first time were Gaile and Trevor Bethell, long-time cottagers on Kashwakamak Lake whose brand new studio, completed just a year ago, allowed them the perfect venue to show their work.

The Bethells have been married for 48 years and make their permanent home in Richmond Hill. They are both retired teachers and have been involved in the arts, Gaile as a painter and Trevor as a photographer, for decades.

Gaile was educated at Acadia University in Nova Scotia and is a member of the Richmond Group of Artists and the East Central Ontario Art Association. Since retiring in 1997 she has “been able to really focus on her work.” Gaile paints in acrylics, and her whimsical landscapes have a folk artist touch. Her subjects include the scenery surrounding their cottage, split rail fences and buildings she has discovered in their travels. In her own words, she is an interpreter of the visual beauty she finds in the natural environment and is always striving to “capture the play of light and shadow, and the rhythms and music found in the land”. One work, “Reflections”, captures a wilderness scene and took her two years to complete. Sometimes it is her husband Trevor's works that have inspired her paintings like “ Autumn Scene”, and “Birch Reflection”.

Of particular charm are her paintings of trees, which are often done in groupings of three and have a magical, surreal quality reminiscent of the landscapes found in the works of Marc Chagall.

Trevor' s work on the other hand leans more towards realism, though his landscapes shot in early morning light can have an impressionistic feel to them. Trevor received a certificate in photography from the New York Institute of Photography and has been taking photographs seriously since the 1970s. He is currently a member of the Don Mills Camera Club. His favorite subjects include birds, especially those he comes across in the Florida Everglades where he and Gaile spend their winters. Egrets and herons are a passionate subject and in one photo he captures a brown pelican in mid-flight diving headlong into the ocean. Landscapes of Nova Scotia and eastern Ontario are other favorites. His fall photographs capture the deep autumn landscapes in vivid and vibrant colour.

Composition and lighting are Trevor's primary concerns. “I like to show people places they can go to visit so I'm always aiming for realism and I try to make as few changes to the photos after the shot is taken.”

For both Trevor and Gaile, the natural world is an ongoing inspiration and continues to bring them together in their goals to produce works that both challenge and inspire them. In Gaile's own words, the subjects they most love are the ones that “continue to turn us on.”

The Bethells will be displaying their work at the Cloyne Showcase, August 6 to 8. To visit their home studio call them at 613-336-8691

Campers and staff of Land O Lakes Petting Farm near Cloyne

Donna and Barry Smith understand the mutually beneficial relationships that can develop between kids and critters and it was for that reason they opened the Land O’ Lakes Petting Farm earlier this summer on Road 506 just east of Cloyne.

The Smiths purchased the three-acre parcel of land beside their home three years ago, cleared it, built the barn and fenced off the various paddocks that now sit on the property.

The farm has a homey feel and includes a duck pond, a snack bar with picnic tables, a covered outdoor eating/craft area, an outdoor pool, and a playground.

The initial idea to start up a petting farm came as the Smiths were raising their three daughters, Desiree, Chantal and Darian and decided to purchase a few horses for the girls.

Barry grew up on a farm and has a background with horses, and after seeing how his daughters took to the horses the Smiths decided that it would “be great to be able to offer local kids in the area a similar kind of experience.”

The petting farm is open 7 days a week and visitors can drop by free of charge anytime though donations for the animals’ upkeep are always welcome. On site are close to 20 farm animals, each with a name. They include a family of llamas, miniature horses, one Shetland and two Welsh ponies, Mr. Jackson the donkey, Casper the friendly goat, a baby lamb, a cow, chickens, a rooster, ducks, rabbits, of course dogs, cats, and last but not least, Daisy the pot-bellied pig, who does tricks.

Most of the animals are rescue animals that have been taken from some very unpleasant situations. They had been either abandoned or were in dire need of medical attention. The Smiths have worked for two years caring for, and socializing them to ensure their safe interaction with children. Barry credits the animals' quick rehabilitation to their ongoing interaction with children. “The mix of kids and animals is a really great thing- for both. It's therapeutic both for the animals and the kids. The animals adore the kids and both have an opportunity to build lasting relationships. We have one child here with Down syndrome who spent over an hour grooming one of the horses this morning.”

During the summer months Donna runs a full time day camp at the farm weekdays from 8am-6pm. Children can come for a single day for $50 and she also offers a special weekly rate of $225 for any five days throughout the summer. One day includes two meals- breakfast and lunch plus snacks and a full day of activities that include animal grooming, education and interaction, arts and crafts, sports (badminton, soccer, volleyball and crochet), daily swimming, and nature hikes.

In an effort to promote other businesses in the area the Smiths have partnered with two nearby businesses, Hunter's Creek Golf Course and Sherwood Park. The former provides campers with golf lessons and golfing, and the latter with daily swimming and fishing.

In case of inclement weather campers can retreat indoors to the Smiths’ home where there are movies, and a workout room.

Barry says that after the initial investment and the ongoing expense of caring for their animals, their business may not see profits for a number of years. That, however, does not seem to deter either of them. In Barry's words, “We love what we are doing, specifically two aspects of the business in particular. 1-The care and love of the kids and 2- the care and love of the animals. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a kid come to know and love and really care for an animal.”

All children, including children with special needs, are welcome at the petting farm. For more information please call 613-336-0330; visit www.landolakespettingfarm.ca or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Photo:  A few of the brave souls who removed their rain gear to pose in the mist!

Despite the rain on Sunday, September 12, 44 people and three dogs came out to Bon Echo Provincial Park to show their support for those who have been touched in some way by ovarian cancer. The weather didn’t dampen our spirits and we enjoyed barbecued hotdogs under the picnic shelter after the walk.

The $5,500 raised by the walk and a yard sale held in July will be used by Ovarian Cancer Canada to raise public awareness, provide education and support for women with ovarian cancer and their families, and to fund research that will ultimately lead to a cure.

A very big "Thank you” to everyone who played a part in this important local event.  It truly was a community effort.

It took a special breed to withstand the rigours of the pioneer lumbering days in the Cloyne area and set up a household and raise a family. In 1857, Oris Cole, the son of a school board trustee from Buckingham, Quebec, came to Cloyne with his small, dark-haired immigrant bride of 19 or 20 years of age, hoping she would be up to the challenge.

Oris may or may not have known that his bride, Rhena Pollard, had already overcome some significant challenges in her life; that she had come into contact with the most famous writer of his age and that a character in one of his famous novels may have been based upon her.

Certainly no one in Cloyne seemed to know that Rhena Cole had been a prisoner in Sussex, England, when she was only 14 or so and had ended up as one of about 100 young women who participated in a social experiment/”home” for women in distress called Urania Cottage.

All local records indicate that she lived out her life as a pioneering mother. She raised seven children and joined the Salvation Army at some point in her life. She died in 1899 at the age of 63 and is buried in the Harlowe cemetery. Her great granddaughter, June Gillies of Winnipeg, Manitoba, has a family photograph that includes a severe, slim, dark-haired woman who was likely Rhena Cole.

For Jenny Hartley, a professor of Literature from England who has a particular interest in Charles Dickens and has written a book about Urania Cottage that is called “Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women”, that photograph is golden. It is the most prized artefact she has found in all of the research she has done about the 100 or so women who were taken in by Dickens and his benefactor, the wealthy Miss Burdett Coutts, between 1847 when Urania Cottage opened and 1857 when it closed.

Hartley has a fair bit of definitive information about Rhena Pollard from her days at Urania, from letters between Dickens and Coutts.

She was a particularly difficult girl, described alternately by Dickens as a “slow settler” a “troublemaker” and “audacious”. She rebelled against the strict rules of the house on several occasions, and at least one point she threatened to leave the house in a fit of temper. Dickens reportedly got out the worst, roughest dress that could be found in the cottage, and said he would send her out into the world in it as an “utterly friendless speck.”

She ended up staying, and in a letter from February 9, 1855, Dickens told Miss Burdett Couts that “Rhena Pollard was the subject of an especially good report.”

For Dickens, Urania Cottage had the dual purpose of being an experiment in socialising poor, uneducated women, and giving him an opportunity to experience the way these underclass girls talked and thought, which was particularly useful for someone who created so many famous ‘Dickensian’ characters. Indeed, most of the images of 19th century industrial revolution working-class England that are now burned into the collective consciousness came through the characters he created.

In the mid 1850s, Dickens was writing “Little Dorrit”, and in it there is a character named Tattycoram, a small, dark-haired, stubborn, fearless woman who bears a remarkable resemblance to Dickens’ accounts of Rhena Pollard, according to Jenny Hartley.

While most of the young women from Urania Cottage emigrated to Australia or stayed in England, Pollard was one of a very small number who came to Canada. She is also one of only two that Jenny Hartley has been able to trace.

In preparing a CBC Sunday Edition Documentary for airing on the 198th anniversary of Dickens’ birth earlier this year, Karin Wells took up the Rhena Pollard Cole story. Jenny Hartley had traced her to the Cloyne area, and she approached Marg Axford of the Cloyne and District Historical Society for further information. Together, Wells and Axford uncovered the gravestone of Oris and Rhena Cole in the Harlowe cemetery last year.

The historical society has approached North Frontenac Township for permission to put a marker in the cemetery about Rhena Pollard Cole and the township has agreed, so there will be a permanent record of her remarkable journey from Sussex, England, into the company of Charles Dickens and on to the wilds of the land of the Oxen and the Axe.

As a post-script, it appears that Dickens’ life took a less fortuitous turn than Rhena Pollard’s after they parted company. In 1857, at the age of 46, Dickens left his wife and 10 children, which led Miss Burdett Coutts to sever ties with him. Urania Cottage closed as well. Dickens became associated with an actress named Ellen Ternan, who was then 17. He published some of his greatest work in the next two or three years, “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Great Expectations”, but died of a stroke in 1870 at the age of 58.

As Jenny Hartley said in the CBC radio documentary, “Rhena Pollard outlived Dickens by 30 years, but Tattycoram outlived them both.”

(Prepared using material from the podcast of the CBC’s Sunday Edition, February 7, 2010, and the account “Fame Comes to Harlowe” from the Cloyne and District Historical Society Newsletter, The Pioneer Times, Vol. 8, No. 1, April 2010)

At a presentation in Flinton that was hosted by the Land O’ Lakes Tourist Association, representatives from the new Ontario Highlands Tourist Organization (OHTO) introduced themselves to some local tourist operators and outlined some of the first initiatives they will be undertaking.

The Ontario Highlands Region, which is #11 out of 13 Regional Tourism Organizations (RTO) within the province, extends from Pembroke on the Ottawa River, all the way to Bancroft. The Highlands region takes in Renfrew, Lanark, Haliburton and the northern part of Hastings, Lennox and Addington and Frontenac Counties.

As Nicole Whiting, the co-ordinator of the new tourist organization explained, the ambitious goal is to double the annual tourism revenue in RTO #11 within 10 years. “Our office has guaranteed funding from the Ministry of Tourism, $850,000 per year, for two years,” she said.

Other tourist regions in the province, notably those in urban centres such as Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto, have funded some of their marketing activities through a levy charged for overnight accommodation in hotels and lodges, and the possibility of a levy will be considered in the Highlands Region as well.

The new system is not intended to replace the work done by destination marketing organizations, such as the Land O’ Lakes Tourist Association or the Lanark County Tourism Association, but it is not going to be providing any funding support for those organizations either.

As Nicole Whiting explained, the watchword for the OHTO is indeed growth. “Our goal is to grow visitation, grow visitor revenues, grow the number of direct and indirect tourism jobs, grow accommodation occupancy regionally, grow tourism investment, achieve high levels of industry engagement around OHTO activities, and grow customer responses, i.e. purchases.”

The OHTO has hired a consultant, Richard Innes of Brain Trust to assist the fledgling agency with its strategic direction. Innes outlined a process that is already underway as a team audits the tourism resources within the OHTO. The plan is to create what he called a “Premier Ranked Tourist Destination Framework” for the region.

He used an example from Hastings County, the Recreational Geology Project. The Bancroft region is known for the quantity and quality of its rare minerals, and has been the home of an internationally renowned gem show for years. The marketing opportunity was to bring in tourists who are interested in minerals to search the Bancroft region for themselves instead of only attending a two-day gem show.

“This initiative was what I call 'above the line' marketing; it is beyond the marketing that was already being done in Haliburton Highlands, aimed at attracting a different group of tourists,” Innes said.

Over the next two or three months, Innes' company will be completing an audit or inventory of tourism assets. In January that information will be analysed and brought forward to tourism operators to see what kinds of new projects or initiatives would have the greatest impact on the entire region. A final report is due in March.

Even though the process is barely underway, a couple of initiatives have already been identified. Building on the Haliburton County mineral initiative, a mineral map of the entire region is being undertaken, and hospitality training sessions, to be presented by the Disney Corporation, are planned for 2011 as well.

The Land O' Lakes Tourist Association is a stakeholder in both the Ontario Highlands Tourist Organization (RTO 11) and the St. Lawrence Tourist Association (RTO 12) which encompasses South Frontenac Township.

Students at NAEC are working hard to help the local Food Bank again this year, with a repeat of the Empty Bowls Project. The Empty Bowls Project will culminate in a supper on November 19 at the Northern Highlights craft show, combining bowls and food produced by NAEC students and sold for $6. All proceeds will be donated to the Food Bank.

Grade 9, 11 and 12 Art students are making bowls in an array of styles and shapes. While each bowl is clearly individual, students have made an effort to keep the sizes comparable. They are decorating them in a variety of glazes, to make them even more unique works of art. It is estimated that there will be 50 of these one-of-a-kind bowls available.

Meanwhile, members of the Grade 12 Hospitality class are roasting, chopping and simmering to produce soup to go into the bowls. There is a choice of French Onion or Turkey Noodle soup. In addition to the bowl of hearty soup, diners will have a student-made dinner roll as an accompaniment, to make a satisfying fall dinner.

Last time this project ran at NAEC (in 2011), over $250 was donated to the Food Bank as a result of the community’s generosity. As previously, the bowls will be on display at the school in advance, so that interested community members can pre-purchase their bowls.

Principal Angela Salmond is proud of the students’ efforts. “It is always so encouraging to see classes collaborating together on projects,” she said. “It is so much more satisfying when they are doing so for the good of the community. NAEC has a history of helping with the Food Bank, and this continues that tradition.”

Colin Edwards, a long time staff member at the North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne, was not someone who craved the limelight.

However, to this day, he has been remembered as someone who lived his life to the beat of his own drum while also putting NAEC students front and center. It was with that in mind that a special school-wide ceremony was held at NAEC on October 23, naming the school's new Outdoor Education Centre in his honour.

Edwards, who succumbed to cancer in 2006, began teaching at NAEC in 1973. He later became vice principal, but then he asked to go back to the classroom since it was teaching that most inspired him.

The special ceremony was led by Sarah Sproule, lead student success teacher at the school, and included words from school principal Angela Salmond, who summed up the opening of the center as the final culmination of an innovative outdoor education project called “Learning From Our Roots”.

Seed funding from provincial government paid for some of the construction materials for the building. Over the years though, most of the funding required to complete the project came from numerous and very generous donations from the local community and the ongoing fund-raising efforts by students and staff at the school.

The project, which got underway several years ago, included the planting of seedlings on school property; the purchase of numerous outdoor learning materials such as camping equipment, top of the line archery equipment; and finally, the construction of the outdoor education centre. The centre is a one and a half storey post and beam structure that is just under 400 square feet. It which was designed and constructed by former NAEC teacher Mr. Rasenberg and his construction students with the help of Ms. Sproule and Mr. Sissons.

It is now the hub of the school's outdoor education program, housing houses all of the school's brand new camping and archery equipment, and it is where receive instruction prior to heading out into the great outdoors.

A sign in front of the building has a loon, a maple leaf and the Bon Echo rock - three things that Ms. Sproule said she felt Edwards would have appreciated and been proud of.

Principal Salmond said that the school's outdoor education program enables all students at the school to access “not only the 80 plus acres of the school property but also the multitude of lakes and other outdoor learning opportunities in the area.”

She spoke of Colin Edwards as a “teacher, colleague and a friend, someone who believed in tapping into students' interests so that they could reach their full potential, while also providing opportunities and second chances to students that extended beyond the classroom.”

Colin's widow, Grace Edwards, also spoke at the event and expressed her gratitude and surprise at the honour. “This school meant so much to that man,” she said. “He lived and worked in the area and he gave back to the area. He always felt that if you wanted to make a change you had to do so from the inside out and in education, that meant not forcing a square peg into a round hole.”

NAEC students Amey Sauvageau, Jared Salmond, and Taylor Salmond spoke about their own personal growth as a result of the outdoor education at the school. Student Lucas Parks-Delya read the testimonial of a younger student involved in the school's archery program. It is one of the best archery programs in the country and NAEC is the first school in Ontario to become a part of it. Following the ceremony, an official ribbon cutting at the new building. Conservationists of Frontenac Addington President Ron Pethick and grade eight student Tim Shire performed the honours. Following that, a number of students demonstrated their prowess with bow and arrow.

Ms. Sproule, along with fellow teacher Mr. Sissons, raised $7,000 for the project and she was also instrumental in bringing the national archery program to the school. She said she is thrilled to have the new center up and running.

“I am very passionate about outdoor education and believe that students should spend as much time as possible outside. I really believe that some students do not necessarily learn best in a conventional classroom and the goal here is to reach out especially to those students. These programs give, especially to those students, a reason to come to school and something that they can be successful at.”

Staff also hope to purchase snowshoes in the near future.

Received for Information

When a township council wants to reject a request for money or support, or ignore the recommendation of a consultant, government body or even a member of their own staff, they have a polite way of doing so.

They simply ignore whatever the request for action is, and receive the correspondence “For Information”.

In response to an email from an outfit called the Dimestore Fisherman asking for a cash donation and five days’ free accommodation in order to have a TV show filmed in Addington Highlands, Councilor Bill Cox said “Motion to receive for information” and everyone put up their hand.

To a request for support for a meeting with the Ministry of Natural Resources to address a lack of enforcement of hunting and fishing violations, it was Councilor Helen Yanch’s to turn to make a motion to “receive the request for information”, which council did.

Council also received for information a supplemental report from a consultant after they had complained that the consultant’s report on recycling in the township had overstated the costs of their program and misunderstood the way it works.

“He said he made some changes to the report, but it doesn’t look like he did much of anything,” said Henry Hogg after the report was received.

Township will not clean up other people’s messes – A motion to have the public works department clean up a large amount of garbage, including chesterfields, tires and other large items on a dead end road that is a boundary road with North Frontenac, was defeated.

Denbigh Waste site - still waiting for Certificate of Approval - Works Manager Royce Rosenblath reported that work has been completed on a leachate pond at the Denbigh waste site. “We have done everything that the Ministry of the Environment has asked us to do, and we will wait for them to either find something else they want us to do or give us our certificate so we can proceed.”

New tendering plan - The township is planning to go to tender early in 2012 to find vendors of record for specific kinds of smaller jobs, so when jobs need to be completed as quickly as possible, they can simply hire the vendor instead of having to wait through a tendering process.

Library work to commence – The township has received the cheque for $72,000 from the Trillium Foundation, and renovation work at the new Denbigh Recreation Centre to accommodate the library’s move to the centre will commence in January.

(Editor’s Note: Addington Highlands Council will be meeting on January 3 at 1pm at the Flinton Recreation Centre, during the News’ hiatus, and we will not have a report from that meeting).

In 1965 Gwen Leroux started working in the administration office at North Addington High School. She was still there when the school was renovated and opened up as North Addington Education Centre. A couple of years later she had a child and quit her job.

“I thought that was the end of my working life at North Addington,” she recalls.

But after a year went by she came back to work on a part-time basis, and eventually went back full-time. She’s still working at North Addington, and for a long time she has been the secretary in the Student Services Office, which is located exactly where the administration office was located when she first came to the school.

After 46 years, she is one of the longest serving employees in the Limestone, or any other school board in Ontario.

Last spring her colleagues at NAEC decided to nominate her for a Barry O’Connor Support Staff award and in June she found out that she was the winner for 2011.

She was celebrated at the NAEC commencement services in June, and this week she formally received her award at a meeting of the Limestone Board of Trustees in Kingston on Wednesday night, November 9.

In describing Gwen’s work at NAEC, Principal Angela Salmond wrote the following: “Gwen is known for her humble, gentle manner and her belief that her incomparable contributions are merely ‘part of her job’.  The ‘job’ that Gwen Leroux has performed for the last forty-six years with dignity and grace has allowed and promoted student, teacher andadministrator success and it is with great pride that we congratulate her on this achievement.”

The day after receiving the award Gwen was likely back at her office, carrying out her duties. She said that she has no plans to retire.

The Outdoor Learning Centre Project at North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne, which received funding commitments from North Frontenac and Addington Highlands Council during the summer, has continued to gather financial support. COFA (Conservationists of Frontenac Addington) has donated $2,000, and an application has gone in for a four-year commitment from the Limestone Learning Foundation. The Frontenac Trapper’s Council has been approached as well, as have local businesses.

Meanwhile at the school, Grade 9 students were taken for a two-day canoeing trip to Bon Echo in September and attended a session at RKY camp in late September as well. Both trips were related to the kinds of programming that will be offered at the Learning Centre, which will be located in the forested acreage behind NAEC.

Anyone seeking more information about the Learning Centre is invited to contact Darryl Sissons or Sarah Sproule at NAEC (613-336-8991)