Three years ago.

In 2013 Jan Miller published Dear George, a book about her experiences as a counsellor using Neuro-Linguistic Therapy. A the time she said the key to all the work she did was communication.

Three years later, now retired as a therapist more or less, Miller has published a new book, a mediation on her long-standing, recurring relationship that is called Wilfred and Me.

Miller met Wilfred at her first job as a Councillor. Wilfred was a deaf man in his early 20's who had recently been released from Rideau Regional Institution. He was few years younger than her, and he had no language. He did not know sign language and had not been taught any other way of communicating other than some basic gestures.

“Wilfred knew nothing about deaf culture, nor did I, and we both learned from some people from Gallaudet University, but we both remained outsiders to the deaf community.”

Years later, when she moved to Kingston she sw Wilfred again. He had also ended up in Kingston. She helped him get settled into a job at Shoppers Drug Mart, where he has worked for 16 years.

She was working with a program that helped people maintain their employment and worked with Wilfred. Over the years they have become friends and she eventually realised that she has learned a lot from Wilfred.

“The book started because he was having a difficult time. He has only bad stories in his life. So since he is an artist I said id he drew some pictures I would tell a better story about him than he had in his head, and it kind of took off.”

She said that the process of working on the book has been positive for Wilfred, and now that is complete it is time to celebrate.

Two events are planned for next week in Kingston, a book signing at Chapters at 2376 Princess Street on Thursday, November 24 from 1-4 pm, and a reading at Physiotherapy Kingston at 1469 Princess on Saturday, Novemer 26 from 1-4 pm. Readings will take place at 2pm and 3pm. Wilfred and Me will be available at Nicole's Gifts in Verona, Novel Idea and Woodpecker Lane Press in Kingston, and through Amazon and JanMiller.com.

Craig Godfrey never thought he was going to write a musical, but a series of events conspired to make Turtle Crossings his first effort as a playwright and songwriter.

“The Little Theatre used the cafeteria of Sharbot Lake High School for all of their productions, and when it closed and the new school was coming in, I approached the executive with the idea of writing a local musical as a collective for the first production in the theatre at Granite Ridge. My first idea was to do a play about a High School band that reunites for the opening of a new school, just as the music teacher is about to retire,” he said, when interviewed this week as the first ever production of Turtle Crossings is just a week away. Opening night is Thursday, November 24.

It turned out that the Little Theatre Executive was headed in another direction, and put on Music Man as the first musical in the new space. In the meantime Godfrey looked at the notes he had prepared for Turtle Crossings and realised he only had a shell to work from.

“I decided that what I should do is write a short story in order to flesh out the characters and add some depth.”

The story that he wrote was about a girl who spent her summers at a cottage in the 1970s, right through her teenage years. There is a major rift between her and the local community as well as her parents and she leaves, only to return 20 years later. In the musical adaptation of the short story, all of this is revealed through a series of flashbacks. The play opens in 1993, at an open mic night in a bar in a big city, just after the protagonist, Tessa Carter, a music teacher, has performed on stage. She tells her friends about a letter she has just received from her estranged father, offering to give her the family cottage. That, and the fact that the job of music teacher at the high school near the cottage is coming up, provides the plot mechanism around which the rest of the play unfolds.

Godfrey ended up writing songs for the play as well, and has been working with director Brian Robertson on changes to the music and script as the production has been developing. Although the play is Godfrey's creation, he has taken a back seat to Robertson during the production. As actors and musicians have come on board to work on the play, he feels the spirit of collaboration, that he originally wanted to see in the writing, has taken hold in rehearsals.

“Turtle Crossings”,will be an exciting and widely anticipated presentation for the entire community.

Craig Godfrey never thought he was going to write a musical, but a series of events conspired to make Turtle Crossings his first effort as a playwright and songwriter.

“The Little Theatre used the cafeteria of Sharbot Lake High School for all of their productions, and when it closed and the new school was coming in, I approached the executive with the idea of writing a local musical as a collective for the first production in the theatre at Granite Ridge. My first idea was to do a play about a High School band that reunites for the opening of a new school, just as the music teacher is about to retire,” he said, when interviewed this week as the first ever production of Turtle Crossings is just a week away. Opening night is Thursday, November 24.

It turned out that the Little Theatre Executive was headed in another direction, and put on Music Man as the first musical in the new space. In the meantime Godfrey looked at the notes he had prepared for Turtle Crossings and realised he only had a shell to work from.

“I decided that what I should do is write a short story in order to flesh out the characters and add some depth.”

The story that he wrote was about a girl who spent her summers at a cottage in the 1970s, right through her teenage years. There is a major rift between her and the local community as well as her parents and she leaves, only to return 20 years later. In the musical adaptation of the short story, all of this is revealed through a series of flashbacks. The play opens in 1993, at an open mic night in a bar in a big city, just after the protagonist, Tessa Carter, a music teacher, has performed on stage. She tells her friends about a letter she has just received from her estranged father, offering to give her the family cottage. That, and the fact that the job of music teacher at the high school near the cottage is coming up, provides the plot mechanism around which the rest of the play unfolds.

Godfrey ended up writing songs for the play as well, and has been working with director Brian Robertson on changes to the music and script as the production has been developing. Although the play is Godfrey's creation, he has taken a back seat to Robertson during the production. As actors and musicians have come on board to work on the play, he feels the spirit of collaboration, that he originally wanted to see in the writing, has taken hold in rehearsals.

“Turtle Crossings”,will be an exciting and widely anticipated presentation for the entire community.

On October 27, a packed bus left NAEC early in the morning for a trip to Toronto. Students started their program with a visit to the Royal Ontario Museum. There, they saw the work of Dale Chihuly, a famous artist who works in blown glass. Students saw boats filled with huge glass globes, a landscape of glass including creatures from above and below the sea, various vessels, and some installations called “Persians”, inspired by the patterns in Persian Rugs.

As well as seeing the Chihuly exhibit, students visited other areas of the ROM, including the dinosaur exhibit, the Chinese exhibit, the bat cave, and the rock exhibit.

The group split into two for the next part of the day. Photos are not available for this part of the day, because one group was in the pitch dark, while the other was in an art gallery (a traditional “no-photo” zone).

Ms. Dunphy and Ms. Shepherd accompanied students to “Onoir”. This is a restaurant where the food is consumed in total darkness. The premise behind this is that all the diners’ senses are concentrated on their food, rather than being distracted by their surroundings. Students and staff reported having a delicious meal, and said it was a lot of fun to eat in the dark. Many said they would like to go again.

Ms. Allan and Ms. Harnden took their group to the Art Gallery of Ontario to see the “Mystical Landscapes” exhibit. This featured an international array of different landscape artists, such as Van Gogh, Gaugiun, Monet and Georgia O’Keefe. There was also a good representation of Canadian artists, including Emily Carr, Tom Thompson and the Group of Seven. The focus of the exhibit was the concentration of artists on the soothing effects of the natural world in times of upheaval. Students were pleased when they recognized the works of artists they knew, but also enjoyed seeing the works of artists th  

Excitement is growing as rehearsals in the Granite Ridge Education Centre (GREC) auditorium are getting closer and closer together, and cast and crew are getting very close to pulling all the aspects of their upcoming presentation of “TURTLE CROSSINGS” together. This is a brand new musical play that was written by one of NFLT’s and Sharbot Lake’s very own long-time members and residents, Craig Godfrey.

Craig relocated to Kingston a few years ago, but has a family property and cottage he has been spending March thru Novembers at for over 60 years. He taught in area schools while living and raising his family in Sharbot Lake for over 25 years.

As a dedicated member of NFLT from almost the beginning, he has been both a performer and has been involved in the production of too many performances to count over the years. Craig received the North Frontenac Little Theatre lifetime recognition award in 2014 for his efforts. He decided to take a turn at writing on his own, and three years ago started to work on his novel “The Custodian of Turtle Crossings”. He has now adapted it to the musical presentation we are all going to have the pleasure of seeing at the end of November.

The play revolves around Tesah Carter, a single 39-year-old high school music teacher and part-time singer in a band. While singing at an open mic night with her friends, Tesah shares her plans for the future and in so doing, travels back in time to her childhood cottage years. Tesah relives some cherished, and some not so cherished, memories of cottage days when she was young. Through her sharing, we revisit a young teen’s life as she grows up at the lake, and we witness the powerful bond she develops with Billy, the older boy next door, who used to look after her.

Tesah looked up to Billy as her guardian angel, or custodian, but on prom night her pastoral cottage life comes crashing down around her. Years later Tesah cannot escape the deep internal longing to get back to the peace and serenity the lake of her childhood and her “Guardian” used to offer her. Turning to prayer, we see how a spiritual re-awakening and the caring love of her “Guardian” combine to bring an unforeseen joy into her world as Tesah finally garners the strength to face her past and return to her family cottage.

“TURTLE CROSSINGS” has a number of returning NFLT regular performers, including Pam Giroux, John Stephen, Danielle Quenneville, Ken Fisher, Dick Miller and Martina Field, but there are going to be a lot of new faces from Sharbot Lake and surrounding areas as well.

It is very exciting to welcome new talent to NFLT’s productions, including several students (and two former students) from GREC, as well as several people from the Arden area – and of course brand new talent and singers to add even more to this original show and its original musical numbers.

The show is being presented November 24 – November 27, and tickets are available from cast & crew members, or at Sharbot Lake Pharmacy, Godfrey General Store, and Verona Hardware RONA. Make sure to get your tickets early because this is sure to be a fun one!

As Canada’s 150th Birthday is approaching, a 19th century quilt is in order. The Canada 150 Committee is putting out a challenge for all quilters to prepare one 12” block representing that era. They need the blocks
by December 31, 2016 for preparation to complete the quilt. The quilt will be displayed all year for a raffle at the New Year’s Eve Ball on December 31, 2017. If you are up to the challenge please call Rosemarie Bowick
613-279-3341 or Ann Howitt 613-697-4030.

From October 15 to 17, Lene Rasmussen, a master basketmaker from Wainfleet, Ont., gave two workshops on weaving with natural, unprocessed willow at the MERA (McDonalds Corners/Elphin Recreation and Arts) schoolhouse in McDonalds Corners. Rasmussen taught a two-day workshop on making a willow purse/handbag on Saturday and Sunday, and a one-day workshop to make garden globes on Monday. She grew all the willow that was used in the workshops and the participants were especially excited by the range of colors that were available for them to incorporate into their baskets. No dyes were used; the colors are all natural and come from the different varieties of willow.

For many of the students it was their first ever attempt at making a willow basket and it was a testament to Rasmussen’s ability as a teacher that they all left with finished baskets, complete with leather straps.

Rasmussen is dedicated to “re-introducing a very old craft”, the craft of willow basketry, which she finds both exciting and satisfying. She has established a business named Lakeshore Willows, where she grows about 30 different varieties of the plant and gives workshops, not only in making baskets but also in making structures such as living willow fences, huts, play tunnels etc.

For more information visit www.lakeshorewillows.com

CD release concert set for Saturday, October 22

Logan Murray is a gadfly, a sometimes politician, a cabinet-maker, musician and music lover. He has lived on a farm on Elm Tree Road near the far western edge of Frontenac County with his wife, Andrea Jones, since the early 1970s. There, he built a recording studio and over the years has recorded musicians from near and far. He has also been jamming and practising harmonica and guitar and playing and writing songs.

With the encouragement of friends and neighbours he decided to put his skills and musical journey together to record a CD of his own songs, and that idea has become reality in “Ninety Five Acres”, which is being released this month.

Murray describes the 10-song CD as “eclectic roots music”. It features some tunes that can be described as country, with some rockabilly, barrel-house blues, rock & roll and honky tonk thrown in. So calling it Americana or eclectic roots music is pretty accurate.

The first song is the title track, a country song that is rooted in the location that has been at the core of Murray's life for all these years.

From there the CD meanders from a rockabilly sound (Gadget) to Blues (Plain Talk, Occupy), southern rock (Play with Fire), Chicago Blues ($100 or The Strange Relative of Human Endeavour and Snake Charge), and Honky Tonk with the cheeky (Cell Phone Blues).

There are echoes of early Rolling Stones blues songs, Bob Dylan and the Band, and even Lynyrd Skynyrd in Ninety Five Acres. Murray's voice has a gravelly sweetness that works for the styles of music on the album.

In addition to clearing brush, cutting wood and doing all the things people have to do when living on marginal rural land, Logan Murray took an early interest in the Internet, seeing it as a way to connect with the world without having to drive all the time.

He has become connected with sound engineers on a couple of websites over the years, many of whom have been working in the music industry at a high level and are top-notch musicians as well. When he decided to do a recording, they wanted to participate.

Much of the music on Ninety Five acres was recorded in studios around North America and beyond and sent back electronically to be mixed at Murray's own studio. Local musicians were involved as well and that's why the band credit on the record is “Logan Murray and the International Bandits”.

The result is an album with a lot of variety, as the songs were written over a long time and Murray is not bound by genres. The music is all high-tempo; it rocks quite a bit, and the lyrics often feature a turn of phrase that surprises.

Here are two examples. From $100 or The Strange Relative of Human Endeavour - “I had a ‘49 Mercury, boys that was a cherry ride, 'til some yuppy with a Lexis, ran into the passenger side. A hundred dollars ain’t gonna fix that stuff.”

And from Cell Phone Blues, which was inspired by the lineup at a Tim Horton's – “LOL, you’re such a clown, you can't seem to put that gadget down. OMG, WTF, nobody’s got any privacy left.”

Now that the record is complete, Murray has put together a show featuring two bands to encompass its breadth at a release party at the Tamworth Legion on October 22.

One of the bands features mostly local musicians, and the other features musicians from the Peterborough area.

Tickets for the show are $20, which includes a CD of the album. For more information and to purchase tickets or CDs, go to Loganmurray.net, phone 335-2599, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

(Note - in the paper version of this article the date of the cd release in Tamworth was listed as October 24)

For the past five years or so the Kennebec Recreation Committee has organized a successful and fun-filled Italian experience in Arden.

This year the Italian Night was held on Sept. 24 and with the hall decorated in the “Italian” theme, the committee welcomed the guests. Thanks to Kathy Barr and her team of volunteers, salad and garlic bread were served at the tables, and the pasta was ready to be consumed. Throughout dinner, the sweet lilts of Italian music filled the hall. Bartender, Dave Moore, kept the wine flowing while guests finished their dinner and prepared for the tiramisu and fruit.

As dinner was ending and the band was preparing, Master of Ceremonies, Jim Duthie, told a few Italian ditties, some funny and some groaners. The band of the evening was Carleton Place’s own “Diplomats” led by Gary O'Meara, a nice east coast guy. After introducing themselves and their guest singers, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, the audience was entertained with a number of standards as well as some sing-alongs.

As the evening progressed, a Kennebec Rec Committee member and dancer extraordinaire, Jeff Matson, could no longer remain seated. Not only was he dancing, but he got others up off their chairs as well.

Another guest band, Mexican I think, made an appearance and after some samba music led the audience in a Conga line. Not to be outdone there was also a visit from a member of the armed services and tributes to our forces. The lone commando visited the audience and not only introduced himself, but his horse as well.

With the evening drawing to a close, the band helped with some door prizes and the chair thanked everyone who participated in the evening.

The Kennebec Recreation Committee leads the way in offering many physical and mental exercises in the community. Line dancing, Tai Chi, Fit & Fun and seniors’ baseball encourage all to get off their sofa and move, while Euchre provides mental exercise. The group is most proud of their sponsorship of the Kids Klub organized here in Arden. Supervised by Connie and Boyd Tryan, the children have an organized and safe place to get together for reading, crafts and sing-a-longs. The Victoria Day fireworks are another of the sponsored events.

The Kennebec Recreation Committee is a committee of Central Frontenac Council and enjoys their interaction with all residents. You can support the committee in many ways. You can join into one of the many sponsored exercise programs, purchase a ticket to one of the fundraising events or make a donation, for which you will receive a tax receipt. You could also share some of your ideas with the committee by coming out and joining the group. We’d be happy to have you join in any way you wish! Thanks to all!

Jim Bryson is an acclaimed Canadian singer/songwriter who has toured and recorded with many other top-drawer Canadian artists such as Kathleen Edwards, Oh Susanna, the Weakerthans, and even the now legendary Tragically Hip.

He has recorded five albums of his own and has traveled around the country and beyond playing music for years.

So, you would think a Festival of Small Halls show at the Agricultural Hall in McDonalds Corners on Sept. 30 would be a minor event on his calendar.

That was not the case, however, for a couple of reasons.

For one thing, Jim Bryson, like all performers, draws on the energy of the crowd, and the audience last Friday was drawn into the groove he created from the songs on his latest album, Somewhere We Will Find Our Place, as performed by his crack four-piece band, featuring guitarist Blair Hogan.

With the small dance floor next to the stage filled by the time he was halfway through his third song, and the rest of the crowd listening intently and bopping in their chairs, Bryson seemed genuinely moved by the response.

Perhaps it was because things had not gone as well for him a few nights earlier in Owen Sound, where he said the crowd sat as far back as possible and seemed to be more interested in anything but the music.

Bryson's music does not fit neatly into categories, although Alt-Pop seems to be as good a fit as any. There is wry Canadian-style self-deprecating insecurity to his lyrics and his persona on stage.

However as was demonstrated by the audience reaction, it is as easy to sit back and listen to the songs and absorb the lyrics as it is to shimmy, sway or jump on the dance floor. The lyrics were sharp and unpredictable; the guitar work by Bryson and Hogan was melodic and rocking in turn; and the drums and bass provided the necessary driving force.

Melwood Cutlery, who lives in nearby Gen Tay, was the opening act for Bryson.

It was a rare opportunity to see Melwood Cutlery perform locally, and he sang a number of the perfect songs that he has written over the years, including There's a Loon on the Lake, Big City, Jimmy's Room, 2 Lane Highway. Accompanying himself on guitar and sometimes harmonica, he alternated between the gravelly low and sweet high ranges in his vocals, with the odd yodel thrown in for good measure.

Thanks to Melwood Cutlery, the crowd at the 'Corners was primed and ready for Jim Bryson and his band and the Ag Hall rocked that night.

Before any of the music, the Agricultural Society served a beef dinner followed by a selection of the best pies of the season: lemon meringue, coconut cream, butterscotch, cherry, blueberry, and more.

In its second season this year, the Festival of Small Halls has continued to be a success, filling venues in small and tuny communities alike. By providing the funding to bring top-notch acts to the halls, and putting together a good marketing campaign thanks to a very enthusiastic team under the auspices of Bluesfest productions, the result has been memorable evenings that demonstrate the vibrancy of the local communities and the halls that have been at their center, sometimes for 100 years or more.