Furry, four footed, four wheeled, and 4H are just some of the family-friendly words that brought plenty of smiles and loads of laughter to the participants and guests at one of the oldest old-fashioned fairs in these parts.

With this year's theme of sheep and goats, there was no shortage of four-footed animals to behold with numerous riders, and junior and senior 4H Club members competing in a number of animal classes that included the horse show, as well as calf, sheep, swine, poultry, fowl and rabbits classes.

Not to be missed were the horse and pony pulls and new this year was a special rabbit agility demonstration put on by members of the 4H rabbit club of Lanark under the direction of Bev Sevard, coordinator and rabbit and sheep leader for the 4H Club of Lanark. The demonstration involved the rabbits being led on leashes by their owners through an assortment of ramps, hoops, and teeter-totters. The rabbit owners spent six weeks practicing for the demonstration, which was one of their achievements. 4H beef leader Julie Dawson said the fair gives the young 4H beef members who participated a chance to learn and show their animals and is a reward for the hours and hours of time they put in leading up to the event.

As always the zucchini races were a major attraction for youngsters and oldsters alike. Wayne Wesley, who founded the race, which has been steadily growing in popularity year after year, manned the starting line and said he was thrilled to see the 40 entries this year, the most ever.

A stellar line up of live musical entertainment took place on the outdoor stage, including Hermann Amberger, Tony Leduc, Jessica Wedden, Fiddlers & Friends, and Tony Davy and Cathy Battison. The out buildings on the grounds were overflowing with a colorful bounty of produce, baked goods, comestibles, a huge assortment of arts and crafts comprising hundreds of exhibits. A vendors' alley also showcased many interesting exhibits that included alpacas from Silent Valley Alpaca near Ompah, a petting zoo courtesy of West Wind Petting Farm of Westport, and psychic readings by Marilyn of Kingston. Guests of all ages took part in numerous games. and prizes were awarded to the oldest and youngest guests, the farthest traveled, the longest married couple and more. The owners of the Fall River Restaurant in Maberly prepared the delicious dinner hour meal. Congratulations to the Maberly Agricultural Society and to all the coordinators , volunteers and donors who work so hard to continue to make the Maberly Fair such a treasured and worthwhile event.

Fieldwork is excited to be partnering with the Ottawa International Writers Festival/Perth

Chapter this summer to present a new event called Framework: Words on the Land - coming up on Sunday, August 23 at 3pm. This event will include readings and conversations with ten writers who will have just finished a weekend of writing on the land at Fieldwork.

Participating writers will be Amanda West Lewis, Amanda Jernigan, Phil Hall, Michael Blouin,

Matthew Holmes, Wayne Grady, Merilyn Simonds, Christine Pountney, Jeff Warren, Troy

McClure

For eight years Fieldwork has been broadcasting the seeds of creative endeavours at its location near Maberly. Expanding on its history of presenting three-dimensional visual art in locations around Fieldwork, a window into the imaginations of writers is being added to Fieldwork’s activities.

Over the weekend of August 21-23 ten writers will be asked to respond to individual framed

vantage points with their stories, poems or writing experiments. The writers were invited to bring to Framework a broad diversity of styles and interests – ranging from poetry to prose and from nature writing to explorations of consciousness.

On Sunday afternoon, August 23, the barn across the road from Fieldwork will become the venue for the writers to go public with their writing and their thoughts about this experiment.

Framework is designed to heighten the experience of being inspired by the land. Whatever emerges from this extraordinary weekend experiment is bound to be fresh, imaginative, reflective, spontaneous and fun. After all who doesn't want to hang out with writers and listen to their backstories. We are challenging them and they will no doubt challenge us.

Tickets for the event will be sold only online through the Ottawa International Writers Festival

website at http://www.writersfestival.org/events/spring-2015/framework-words-on-the-land. Note that space in the loft is limited so it is advised that you purchase tickets early to avoid disappointment. Tickets will be sold at the door only if there are any remaining on the day of the

event. Keep your eyes open for our weekly ‘Sneak Peaks’ on our Facebook feeds where we have been highlighting one or two writers each week. (www.facebook.com/fieldworkproject ) and Twitter (twitter.com/artatfieldwork)

FallThanks to the efforts of Sun Country Highway, a Canadian-owned company that is a leader in the electric vehicle movement; a generous donor from Ottawa; and the owners of the Fall River Restaurant in Maberly, electric car owners traveling between Ottawa and Peterborough on Highway 7 will be able to charge up their vehicles at a new EV charging station, which was officially unveiled at the Fall River Restaurant on May 16.

Peter Manson of Ottawa originally won the unit in Sun Country Highway's annual Amazing Race, an electric car rally that is held across the country, in which participants can win a number of prizes by collecting points at charging stations en route. Manson and his wife, who own a Tesla Model S, drove across Ontario in October last year in the 2014 race and visited 52 charging stations, which won them a fifth place finish and the charging unit prize. Since the couple already own their own charging unit, they decided to donate the prize to the Fall River restaurant.

The unit was installed at the restaurant free of charge courtesy of Laser Electric in Perth and the station is now up and running. It is the first of several charging stations that Sun Country hopes to see set up along Highway 7.

Therese Steenberghe and Jeroen Kerrebijn, owners of the Fall River Restaurant, celebrated the event with a special dinner following the unveiling. Paul Camiré, regional director of Sun Country Highway for eastern Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, attended the event and said that the company has been partnering with corporations, municipalities and small business owners in efforts to electrify roads and highways across Canada. Currently they are focusing their efforts along Highway 7 from Ottawa to Peterborough so that residents and tourists can travel this popular scenic route as an alternative to driving on the 401. “In doing so we are promoting the use of electric vehicles and empowering Canadians to make the switch to electric cars since they are good for the environment, the economy and cost very little to run”, he said at the unveiling.

Sun Highway Country has been in business for just over three years and in that time has electrified the entire Trans-Canada highway from St. John's, Newfoundland to Victoria, BC. Camiré said that while electric vehicles have been around for a hundred years, they have been slow to catch on because people have been slow to set up charging stations. “It's a chicken and egg kind of thing”, Camiré said, “and we are solving that issue by inviting businesses to install chargers through certain promotions that we are offering.”

Business owners want to offer the service because they see the benefit. Charging an EV vehicle can take a number of hours and people who stop and charge their cars also have time to enjoy a drink or a meal and do a little shopping while they wait.

Jerome and Tess see the station as attracting potential new customers to the restaurant, which they took over last year and re-opened for their 2015 season on April 3. Jerome said that the charger falls in nicely with the green ideology that the restaurant identifies with.

Also present at the event was Keith Kerr, Lanark County warden and reeve of Tay Valley, who said, “It's great that this station is now here; it shows we are going green here in Lanark. It is great for business and tourism in the area and should attract drivers to the area who otherwise might not take this route.”

Those wanting to charge up are welcome to call ahead to the Fall River Restaurant at 613-268-2197. The restaurant is located at 21980 Highway in Maberly. For more information visit www.fallriverrestaurant.ca

There is no better sign of the arrival of fair weather than the opening of Fieldwork, Maberly's outdoor art & sculpture gallery, with its new installations for the 2015 season.

On May 9 over 100 guests attended the opening for the four (soon to be five) new installations. The artists each spoke about their works, which cover a wide range of topics.

Master print maker Franc Van Oort's “Eye Box” shows what a truly renaissance man he is. Van Oort built a huge camera obscura, a centuries-old optical device that led to photography and the photographic camera. It is also used by artists to observe the rules of perspective in drawing and painting. The huge box can easily house 10 people, though a maximum or four are invited in at any one time. Once inside guests can view an amazing upside-down real image of the landscape outside as it appears on the back wall through a small lens opening located on the front wall. Viewers are encouraged to turn a wheel that moves the box, allowing the viewers to observe in increments a 360 degree view of the landscape outside.

Christine Nobel and Brain Barth had the theme of water in mind when they created their work titled “191 Meters”, named for the distance that the field sits above sea level. This Ottawa-based duo imagined the site as it would have been 12,000 years ago when it was covered by a glacial lake. Using thousands of coloured stakes impaled in the ground, the work aims to show the way the last remnants of the lake might have drained from the field. The stakes are arranged like a river alternating in seven different shades of green and blue and appear like a kind of wave invading this now land-locked landscape.

Kimberly Edgar, a Dawson City, Yukon-based artist whose work focuses on lino cuts, placed a number of her wheat-based bird cut outs throughout the deciduous forest on the site. The work titled “Bird Memories” recalls her younger days of bird watching with her grandmother in Ontario. Her birds are lively, colourful and playful and she has stuck them on a number of trees and rocks in and around the deciduous forest, making for a fun and impromptu game of hide and seek.

Annette Hegel's work titled “Two Guiding Principles” invokes her more politically minded concerns as an artist. This dwarf-sized town, which appears both unnaturally unrooted to its landscape and devoid of life, is comprised of roughly 50 identical cookie cutter houses, each painted a bland blue with grey roofs and set amidst barren sandy roads and muddy patches of ground. It speak of dryness, desolation with no colour and no signs of human life. The two principles Hegel is addressing in this work are the James Bay Hydro-electric project and the Quebec government “supposedly respecting Indigenous ways of life”.

Missing from the show was a fifth work by Gayle Young and Reinhard Reitzenstein titled “Castorimba Suspended”, which will be installed at a later date and is sure to add another interesting dimension to the site.

Also in attendance at the show were students from The Brooke Valley School with their work titled “Ornithology 101”. The group project involved the 13 students painting a number of birdhouses scattered throughout the area. Each student chose a different cavity-dwelling bird to represent and created displays about their bird of choice.

If you have yet to visit, Fieldwork it is well worth the trip and guests can enjoy numerous past installations still standing on site. For more information visit fieldworkproject.com. Fieldwork is generously supported by the Ontario Arts council and is free of charge.

Over 100 lively pancake lovers filled the Maberly hall for the Maberly Agricultural Society's annual Maple Festival/Pancake Brunch fundraiser on April 18. Diners enjoyed home-made maple baked beans, sausages, and pancakes made from a secret family recipe that organizers have been using since the fundraiser began over two decades ago. Proceeds from the event go towards supporting the annual Maberly Fair, which this year will take place on Saturday, August 29 at the fairgrounds. The theme for this year's fair is “sheep and goats” which should make the fair parade extra special and one to remember. Gord Patterson, who donated the maple syrup for the event, was also on hand selling his maple syrup products. Paul Pospisil, past president and current board member of the Agricultural Society, who also directs the horticulture division of the fair, had cleaned out his library earlier in the morning and donated a number of gardening books to the event.

The next fundraiser for the society will be their annual “Pie in the Sky” event, which will take place on Saturday, July 4 at the fairgrounds. Home-made pies will be up for grabs and the society's current president, Fred Barrett, will be on hand with one of his telescopes set up. He will be inviting guests to take a peek into the celestial spheres.

by Marily Seitz

The Tay Valley Community Choir presents "Here's to Singing!", a celebration of music and friendship. This year's spring concert will take place in the Maberly hall on Saturday, April 25 at 7pm. As is their custom, the choir welcomes local musicians to join them on stage. The audience will help round out the evening of joy-filled entertainment with several sing-a-long songs.

In the true spirit of a community choir, this group of choristers gathers weekly for the joy of friendship, and sing for the joy of song. Under the inspired direction of Rebecca Worden and the inspiring accompaniment of Rachelle Reinhart, the choir has prepared an eclectic set of songs sure to appeal to all types of music lovers.

During the intermission concert-goers and choir members will be invited to bid on silent auction items to raise some needed funds for choir activities. Items donated by choir members include a print of Barron Canyon, a painting of a musician, locally crafted jewelry, an hour of reflexology treatment, an hour of Shiatsu therapy, and dinner for four.

Admission is by donation at the door with refreshments and conversation to follow. Here's to time spent with friends and song!

by Cindy McCall

Maberly Hall will be filled with fiddlers and their friends on Sunday, May 3. The Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra is holding a fundraising Jam-a-thon with an open invitation to any local musician to come and play. And it’s not just for fiddlers; guitars, cello, viola, mandolin, penny whistles and the like are all welcome to join in the fun. Players obtain sponsors, collect the funds and bring them to the hall on May 3. Participants can drop in and join the jam circle anytime during the day between 1 and 6pm. Participants will have the opportunity to choose tunes (or songs) for all in the circle to play (or sing). Refreshments will be available for players throughout the day. The Jam-a-thon aim is to provide a relaxed opportunity for local musicians to have fun as they play together while raising funds for the fiddle orchestra. Supporting the orchestra will help to keep amateur music alive in the community and assist in making it affordable for anyone to learn to play the fiddle and join in the fun. To obtain a sponsor sheet contact Cindy at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 613-278-2448.

Against all odds the annual Blue Skies in the Community “Little Christmas” concert went on at the Maberly hall on January 4 thanks to a courageous bunch of community fiddlers, their two fearless leaders and an enthusiastic group of listeners, who once again made the concert a huge success.

It was touch and go in the hours leading up to the show after the year's first fierce snow/ice storm made a mess of roads and left a number of participants housebound, including scheduled emcee Linda Grenier, who was graciously replaced by Linda Tranter.

The concert featured performances by the Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra led by conductor Cindy McCall and the Celtic Heritage Fiddle Orchestra led by Carolyn Stewart. The show opened with two numbers by the Blue Skies Community Prep orchestra made up of beginner players of all ages who demonstrated in "The First Noel" and "My Darling Asleep" what they have mastered in just three months time.

New to this year's show was a performance by the newly formed youth ensemble, The Unspoken Rests, comprised of six young players who are also part of the larger community orchestra. They played six impressive numbers under the direction of McCall for what was just their second performance since they formed in September. Highlights of their set included the P.E.I. tune "Fairies at Monticello" by Bill MacDonald and the Nova Scotia favorite "Val's Dream". Look out you fiddling oldsters; these young players might just have a thing of two to teach you. The Celtic Heritage Fiddle Orchestra was up next and played a number of inspiring tunes, each introduced by different members of the group, many of whom have been playing together under the direction of Carolyn Stewart for 14 years.

They opened with "Logging Camp", a soulful sing-along and their impressive and diverse repertoire also included "Cape Breton Lullabye", and "The Grand Etang", a march that was especially spirited and punchy.

Following an intermission it was the Blue Skies Community Orchestra's time to shine. They performed a number of their favorite jigs and reels, opening with "Pigeon on the Gate", which was followed by another PEI tune called "Joe Kearney's Reel". They performed a number of classics like "Wedding Gift" and "Debbie's Waltz" plus a new tune titled "Pig Alley Rip".

The audience was lively and their thunderous applause following one especially spirited number managed to shake loose the ice and snow from the hall's roof, which added to the infectious merriment.

Come this summer members of the BSCFO hope to travel to PEI where they will have a chance to experience first hand some of the stellar fiddling talent and teachers there. They also plan to attend the annual Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival. The orchestra is currently half way to meeting their fundraising mark of $25,000, which will pay for the traveling and other expenses for the trip. A number of special fundraising events have taken place already this past year with others planned for 2015. A newly printed cook book titled “Fiddlin' in the Kitchen”, which features favorite recipes from orchestra members, is now available for $15, with over half of the proceeds going towards the planned PEI trip. Anyone wishing to purchase a cook book can contact any member of the BSCFO or call Kate Turner at 613-335-2782.

The annual Christmas concert by the Tay Valley Community has long been a musical highlight of the holiday season. This year’s concert was no exception and the Maberly hall as always was full for the concert, which took place on December 7. Under the direction of their new fearless leader, Rebecca Worden of Perth, the close to 40 singers who make up this four-part choir performed a refreshing and modern seasonal repertoire that included a number of favorite sing-along carols plus some well known but not often performed songs from a variety of musical genres. Highlights included the 1965 Peanuts favorite “Christmas Time is Here”, the long-time classic “Carol of the Bells” and the gorgeous “Do You Hear What I Hear”, each of which demonstrated the fine harmonies that these singers are capable of. Accompanied on piano by the talented Rachelle Reinhart, the choir ventured into some new and interesting musical ground and they performed Paul McCartney's well known “Wonderful Christmas Time”. There was a welcome by Santa (Paddy O'Connor), a fabulous solo performance by Virginia Beckett, and a comical tongue and cheek take on The 12 Days Of Christmas performed by Lyndal Neelin and John Coombs that focused on the logistical nightmare that receiving all those gifts can bring. The choir’s offerings were divided up by a performance by Fiddlers and Friends who played a number of their favorite tunes that included “The Hummingbird Waltz”, “The First Noel”, and “Snow Deer”, which showcased the talents of Lois Webster and her dancing partner Maybelle. The Grinch also made a special appearance and following the concert guests were invited to meet and greet the fiddlers and members of the choir and to share in a number of refreshments that they had prepared. The annual concert is a favorite for music lovers in the area and this year’s offerings made for a very memorable and enjoyable one.

A visit to the home-based shop/studio of local chocolatier, Ludwig Ratzinger, feels a bit like winning one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets. An experienced chocolatier, Ludwig recently set up his studio in the new straw bale home he designed and helped to build near Maberly. The studio is located in the basement of the home, where Ludwig works full time and on average produces from half to three-quaters of a tonne of chocolate per year.

When I visited his studio early last week a brand new semi-automatic tempering machine, which Ludwig purchased thanks to a grant from the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation, was in full operation. Its fly wheel was spinning up a fresh, warm, velvety batch of sweet-smelling chocolate and pouring it from a spout, where Ludwig was filling a series of intricate, feather-shaped bar molds.

Made from “single origin noble grade cocoa beans” from South America, Ludwig’s bars are premium quality and are not your average chocolate bar. The process involves first creating batches of chocolate from raw blocks and pellets, which Ludwig imports from a Swiss company that offers South American cocoa farmers 50% more than other Fair Trade rates. Ludwig explained that as a result of the way the pods are harvested the raw beans are a higher grade than those used by commercial chocolate producers. “Each pod is first picked and left to sit in its pulp, where it ferments for a day and then is sun dried, which gives the cocoa its unique high quality flavour.” The pods are then bagged and shipped directly to Switzerland (sans middle man), where they are refined and then purchased by a host of premiere chocolatiers, of which Ludwig is one.

In his studio Ludwig mixes these imported raw batches in his special tempering machine, sometimes adding flavors of lime or mint. He explained that the tempering process allows the chocolate to go through the necessary crystallization process, which gives the chocolates their ideal colour, texture and density, and their bright, crisp-sounding “snap” when a piece is broken off the bar.

Once crystallization has occurred, the temperature of the mix is then raised to 32 degrees Celsius and the liquid chocolate is poured into a series of decorative plastic molds and left to cool. Prior to cooling, additional ingredients can be added; Ludwig incorporates high quality sea salt, caramelized cocoa nibs or barberries to create interesting and unusual flavors.

Later the individual bars are removed from the molds and packaged as either single or double bar offerings. Packaging is another area where Ludwig excels and he designed some of his own packaging. “I figured, since I am producing a premium product why not also make an effort to package it right?” The smaller sized 40 gram bars ($4.50-$5.50) are wrapped more simply, and the 100 gram double bars ($13-$15) are wrapped in silver/gold metal foil and encased in an aesthetically pleasing heavy paper pull sleeve and come with an explanation of the ingredients, the production process and suggested wine pairings.

A fourth generation pastry chef who hails from Bavaria, Germany, Ludwig came to chocolate making in 2006 after a successful eight-year stint as pastry chef at the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa. “I decided to focus at home on chocolate making because it is a simpler, more immediate undertaking that requires less space and less equipment, and I have a lot more control over the production process.”

Ludwig has future plans for his chocolate products and is hoping to talk to a local brewery about making beer truffles. Ludwig sells his premium chocolate bars at Foodsmiths in Perth, Peches et Poivre in Almonte, Mrs. McGarrigles in Merrickville, Read's Book Shop in Carleton Place and at Seed to Sausage's brand new store in Ottawa at 729 Gladstone Ave. Local chocolate lovers can find Ludwig and his sweet offerings this Thanksgiving weekend on October 11, 12 &13 at the Perth Autumn Studio Tour. He will be a guest at studio # 7, the Brent Kirkham Studio located at 2486 Christie Lake Road and will be there each day from 10am-5pm.