What’s a Repair Cafe? It’s a free meeting place where folks who have a broken item meet with ‘fixers’ who will help them repair it. It’s friendly, fun and free.

The original repair cafe was started by Martine Postma in Amsterdam ten years ago. She wanted to cut down on the amount of waste we produce in our society. We often throw away items that might be fixable because we don’t have the skills or lack the proper tools.

Repair cafes connect people who have broken items with volunteers who have the tools and experience to help fix them. An unravelled seam or hem, a missing button, or a sock with a hole in the heel? Sewing machine no longer works the way it used to? Electrical appliance with a frayed cord, a jammed part? DVD player or record turntable not working? A chair that’s coming apart? A bicycle that doesn’t work the way it should? Damaged crockery, toys, jewelry, etc? Wonder whether grandmother’s oil lamp could still be used? Bring it to the Repair Cafe Frontenac and learn to fix it with the help of an experienced volunteer who will work with you. There is no charge for the repair, the coffee or the cookies.

On Sunday June 2, Bellrock Hall hosted Frontenac’s second Repair Cafe. Fixers were there to help repair sewing machines or electronics, do clothing repairs both by hand or machine, repair bicycles. Seven items were fixed, and some folks from Tamworth are planning to go home and start their own Repair cafe.

Every fourth Sunday of a month from 2-4:30 Repair Cafe Frontenac will be held a church or community hall in Frontenac County. On July 28, it will come Ompah: check on Facebook, or watch for posters for location details.

Repair Cafe Frontenac is organized and plans initial cafe for Sunday, May 26 from 2-4:40pm at St. James Major Catholic Church in Sharbot Lake.

Subsequent cafes are planned for June 23 at the Bellrock Community Hall and July 28 at Perth Road United Church.

One of the organizers, Peter de Bassecourt, said: “we’ll be putting out the call for volunteers shortly.”

He said they’ll always be looking for fixers but also welcomers and guides, who will greet visitors and direct them to the proper table. They are also looking for someone to do some publicity and someone to maintain their new Facebook page www.facebook.com/RepairCafeFrontenac. If you’re interested, contact the organization via Facebook or the new email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Repair Cafe concept was begun in the Netherlands by Martine Postma in 2009. Currently, there are 1,822 Repair Cafes worldwide.

“Repair Cafes are essentially free meeting places and they’re all about repairing things together,” the parent website (repaircafe.org) says. “Visitors bring broken items from home (and) together with the experts, they start making repairs in the cafe.

“It’s an ongoing learning process.

“If you have nothing to repair, you can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee or lend a hand with someone else’s repair job.”

Example items to be repaired include clothing, furniture, electrical appliances, bicycles, crockery, toys. The cafe doesn’t stock a lot of spare parts but volunteers can usually assist in finding out what part is needed and how to go about getting one. Anything you can manage to get there on your own has a good chance of getting properly repaired. If you want to find out if someone will be available to help you mend your broken item, contact them via Facebook or email.

There is no charge but there is a tip jar or piggybank for donations to cover costs.

Repair Cafes do not take donations of broken items. Tools and/or repair products (such as glue) are sometimes accepted.

When you think ‘martial arts,’ chances are your thoughts tend towards the Orient. When weapons are concerned, in particular, swords, the long, curved, slashing blade of the samurai — the katana — usually comes to mind, doesn’t it?

However, there is a long-standing tradition of European martial arts as well and Enterprise’s Robert MacLeod is dedicated to preserving and promoting that tradition.

MacLeod, an anthropologist by trade who teaches at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, is also head instructor at Ironwood Sword School. He runs several classes and is currently beginning an eight-week session at the Bellrock Hall in German Longsword for youths ages 10 and up on Saturday mornings with the motto “Strength, Flexibility, Growth.”

For those unfamiliar with the German martial art, it is a combat system taught during the 1300s by Johannes Liechtenauer.

“There were two schools of longsword, the other being Italian,” MacLeod said. “Actually there was also an English tradition but that wasn’t written down.

“And a big part of what we do is teaching the techniques that come from Liechtenauer and a number of his students. We try to stay close to the historical manuscripts.”

In addition to longsword techniques, MacLeod also includes dagger and wrestling in the Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) tradition.

“Knives were actually my first love, I started collecting them when I was younger, and then in university I joined the fencing club and started doing sabre,” he said. “But soon after I joined, it went electric and good, clean cuts became flicks in order to score.”

As a young boy, he had taken judo classes and so returned to the Eastern martial arts traditions to study tae-kwon do for several years.

“But then, my son bought a collectable sword and my wife said ‘if he’s going to have it, he should know how to use it,’” MacLeod said. “So, in 2008, we found a group of guys in the park playing with swords and we discovered HEMA.”

That led him to join a local study group working in the German longsword tradition and he was hooked.

“A lot of people really don’t know the longsword,” he said. “It’s a lot lighter than you might think — less than three pounds and just under three feet (blade).

“And it’s a cutting weapon a lot more like a katana than it is like a club, which it often portrayed as in movies.”

MacLeod said he has no problem teaching beginners and has all the equipment needed for novice level students. All the beginners have to have is loose, comfortable clothes (no shorts), flat-soled, non-marking shoes and a pair of thin leather gloves.

The Bellrock classes begin this Saturday (there was actually a class last Saturday but he’s prepared to start again because of the weather issues last week). It’s $100 for an eight-week term, which should take most students through the novice rank to the scholar rank.

While the Bellrock classes are specifically for youths, MacLeod said he’s happy to start a class for adults anywhere in the area if there are four willing students.

Contact MacLeod at 613-358-9642 or www.irnwood.ca for more information.

“Swords are cool,” he said.

Robert MacLeod runs Benjamin and Anna Tucker through a series of thrusts and parries at the Bellrock Hall, as part of his ongoing series of German longsword classes. Photo/Craig Bakay

When you think ‘martial arts,’ chances are your thoughts tend towards the Orient. When weapons are concerned, in particular, swords, the long, curved, slashing blade of the samurai — the katana — usually comes to mind, doesn’t it?

However, there is a long-standing tradition of European martial arts as well and Enterprise’s Robert MacLeod is dedicated to preserving and promoting that tradition.

MacLeod, an anthropologist by trade who teaches at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, is also head instructor at Ironwood Sword School. He runs several classes and is currently beginning an eight-week session at the Bellrock Hall in German Longsword for youths ages 10 and up on Saturday mornings with the motto “Strength, Flexibility, Growth.”

For those unfamiliar with the German martial art, it is a combat system taught during the 1300s by Johannes Liechtenauer.

“There were two schools of longsword, the other being Italian,” MacLeod said. “Actually there was also an English tradition but that wasn’t written down.

“And a big part of what we do is teaching the techniques that come from Liechtenauer and a number of his students. We try to stay close to the historical manuscripts.”

In addition to longsword techniques, MacLeod also includes dagger and wrestling in the Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) tradition.

“Knives were actually my first love, I started collecting them when I was younger, and then in university I joined the fencing club and started doing sabre,” he said. “But soon after I joined, it went electric and good, clean cuts became flicks in order to score.”

As a young boy, he had taken judo classes and so returned to the Eastern martial arts traditions to study tae-kwon do for several years.

“But then, my son bought a collectable sword and my wife said ‘if he’s going to have it, he should know how to use it,’” MacLeod said. “So, in 2008, we found a group of guys in the park playing with swords and we discovered HEMA.”

That led him to join a local study group working in the German longsword tradition and he was hooked.

“A lot of people really don’t know the longsword,” he said. “It’s a lot lighter than you might think — less than three pounds and just under three feet (blade).

“And it’s a cutting weapon a lot more like a katana than it is like a club, which it often portrayed as in movies.”

MacLeod said he has no problem teaching beginners and has all the equipment needed for novice level students. All the beginners have to have is loose, comfortable clothes (no shorts), flat-soled, non-marking shoes and a pair of thin leather gloves.

The Bellrock classes begin this Saturday (there was actually a class last Saturday but he’s prepared to start again because of the weather issues last week). It’s $100 for an eight-week term, which should take most students through the novice rank to the scholar rank.

While the Bellrock classes are specifically for youths, MacLeod said he’s happy to start a class for adults anywhere in the area if there are four willing students.

Contact MacLeod at 613-358-9642 or www.irnwood.ca for more information.

“Swords are cool,” he said.

Robert MacLeod runs Benjamin and Anna Tucker through a series of thrusts and parries at the Bellrock Hall, as part of his ongoing series of German longsword classes. Photo/Craig Bakay

The Frontenac County Economic Development wants to know how residents feel about allowing motorized off-road vehicles to access the K & P Trail at the planned Bellrock Road Trailhead among other things and as such held an Open House information gathering session Monday night at the Lions Hall in Verona.

“We’re here to listen,” said Richard Allen, the County’s manager of economic development. “Not to create a debate ground.

“There is a proposal for allowing (off-road vehicle) user access (but) we don’t have a proposal design.

“We’re getting people’s ideas.”

To that end, the County provided aerial maps where community members were invited to draw on their ideas, and a display where people were invited to write their thoughts about the potential off-road vehicle use.

Currently, off-road vehicles are not allowed on the trail south of Craig Road. However, there is precious little parking there and while off-roaders could access the businesses in Verona by taking to Road 38, there is little incentive for them to do so. Also, there has been damage to gates and the surrounding forest as some motorized users circumvent the measures used to prevent their access south of Craig Road. Thus the idea of extending the off-road permission to the larger Bellrock Road area at the south end of Verona was proposed.

For the record (and granted the comments hadn’t all been read) the tally of sticky notes at the end of the evening was 36 agreeing with the proposal to extend off-road use to Bellrock Road, 3 neutral and 13 disagreeing with the idea.

“Again, we’re not making any decisions tonight, this is a workshop,” Allen said.

Although ATVs seemed to be the dominating discussion topic for the evening amongst the sizable crowd, it wasn’t the only thing the organizers wanted to hear about.

There were also discussions about parking, benches, garbage receptacles, washrooms, signage and fencing.

For those who were unable to attend Monday’s Open House, there is an online survey at the www.infrontenac.ca website where residents can voice their opinions on all the above topics.

The survey is open until Dec. 1 and Allen said they’ve received 100 responses so far.

“I think it’s great that the community has been given this opportunity to voice their opinions,” said Warden and South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal.

While the major renovations at Bellrock Hall have been completed for some time now, there are still things to be done and plans in the works. So, with the bands After The News and Crimson River set to rock out the stage, a fundraiser barbecue was in order last Sunday.

“There’s always ongoing maintenance and repair,” said chair Sarah Robideaux. “We’re going to paint starting this week (and) there’s a drop ceiling under discussion.

“And we’re looking at roll-out chair racks which were planned after the last renovation started.”

And then they have ideas about the park behind the hall.

“It needs some TLC, as does the old play structure,” she said. “But it helps to have a contractor on hand.”
And they’ve also been looking at some kind of awning which would help towards holding more summer events outside, she said.
For such a small community, the Bellrock Hall tends to be a fairly busy place with yoga, sword training, the VON and euchre on a regular basis.

“We’re staying open all winter,” Robideaux said. “We’re going to start monthly pot lucks on Oct. 13 and there’s a concert/silent auction Dec. 10 and a gospel concert scheduled for Februrary.
“The plan is to have one nice thing each month.”

“Yoga is accessible for everybody and every body,” says Jackie Adams, who began her yoga practice “many years ago.

“It was in the ’70s and I liked the clothes they were wearing.”

Adams had her own yoga studio in Kingston where she taught classes for many years.

These days, she’s more into bringing yoga to people in many communities and last Saturday was at Bellrock Hall for a session focused on families.

“People ask me ‘can I come even if I don’t have kids?’” she said. “I tell them ‘no, get some kids.’”

She’s chuckling a bit as she says that but she is serious about it being a family activity.

“We’ll see what happens (as to yoga in Bellrock), what the ladies here want,” she said. “This is a lovely hall, a small community and there’s lots of kids.”

She admits it takes a bit of doing to keep a wide range of ages focused, but that’s OK, she’s been working on it for quite some time.

“You have to look after the 4-year-olds and the 50-year-olds,” she said. “They have different attention spans.

“In a non-family setting, you might hold poses longer and work in more philosophy but I think it’s still important to understand why you’re doing the pose.”

Adams is big on the health benefits of yoga.

“I had serious health issues of my own and yoga has helped with that,” she said. “All yoga is about keeping the joints squishy and the body functioning better.

“You know a sedentary lifestyle leads to stress issues.”

But the obvious physical health benefits aside, Adams said that the mental benefits are equally as important.

“You know, when I first started yoga, I liked the way the yogis treated each other,” she said. “It calms the mind and for a little bit, you’re not thinking about anything else.

“All the chatter in the mind drives us crazy.”

Adams is a practitioner of the the classic Hatha yoga.

For more information about her classes in Bellrock, Verona and elsewhere, contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 613-358-9642.

“I’m really happy to show up to deliver yoga,” she said.

Good food,  great music, and the company of friends. What could be more fun on a Friday night?

The BellRock hall presents Tapas and Tenors, featuring the combined efforts of professional chef Jack Francis and the singing trio the Kingstown Tenors.

Tapas are the Spanish version of what we in Canada commonly call appetizers—a selection of delicious finger foods that are a skillful blend of flavours and textures, both savoury and sweet.   In Mexico, similar dishes are called Botanas. Jack, whose alias is “Happy Chef”,  is preparing these for your enjoyment during the concert.  And as a bonus, he can sing, too!

The Kingstown Tenors are something really special.  Talent abounds in this fun, local group.  Vocalists Tim Togerson and Danny Young are the other two tenors in the trio.   Presenting a wide range of styles, and carefully stitched-together vocal interpretations of familiar tenor classics, pop, rock and folk-rock, all three singers have terrific voices and they know how to harmonise them perfectly.   They are backed by a versatile four-piece band which easily switches musical styles to match the choice of songs.

You may have heard them perfom at local festivals .  According to others who have heard them, the jokes and banter that accompany this gang are just as good as the songs.

The concert is scheduled for  Friday May 5 at 7pm. Tickets are $15 per person; $25 per couple. Tickets available at Food Less Travelled in Verona Nicole's Gifts in Verona, Asselstine Hardware in Verona, and Sydenham Pet & Farm Supply in Sydenham
Gina Ritchie 6133295749

Bellrock Hall at 6034 Leveque Rd. www.bellrockhall.ca for more information and directions.

The Bellrock Community Hall Association raised funds for new washrooms, a new front entrance and a walkway to the Bellrock Community Hall, all of which were completed in accordance with the building standards for accessibility. The hall can now accommodate everyone wishing to attend the very active community programs, most of which are attended by seniors.

It was a full house at Bellrock Hall as the Frontenac Women’s Chorus held their annual Christmas Concert on Saturday night.

The event was held by donation and guests were asked to bring along an item for the food bank.

The chorus sang a wide array of holiday classics including favourites like “Let it Snow,” “Winter Wonderland” and “Sleigh Ride.” They also covered a number of less known but equally charming classics like the traditional Jewish folk song, “Mi ze Hidlik.”

Special guests, Toute Ensemble (Anne Archer, Debbie Twiddy and Melanie Fyfe) and Val Hamilton took the stage for a few special songs throughout the night.

The audience was even encouraged to get involved at times and sing along to a few popular holiday classics. Lyrics to songs like “Frosty the Snowman” were provided in the night’s program for audience members to refer to as they participated in the fun.

The beautifully decorated hall made for a cheerful, warm place for the audience to enjoy their favourite holiday tunes.

Many of the performers even stuck around after the show to enjoy refreshments and conversation with the audience.

The Frontenac Women’s Chorus celebrated their 20-year anniversary around a year and a half ago.

Director Patty Smith has been with the chorus since last September. She took over the position from Betty Wagner who had previously directed the chorus for approximately 15 years.

When accompanist, Kate Van Allen approached her about the directing position, Smith jumped on the opportunity.

She had taken directing workshops in Toronto and was looking to branch out and further widen her music career. “They have been really patient with me,” she says.

Smith has been involved with music for most of her life. She grew up with her father playing all different types of music. She started singing lessons at 19 and has been fairly involved in the music community ever since.

“I started enjoying choir music as I got older,” she says. “I don’t have as much of a need to be the star performer anymore so it’s kind of fun to just work with a bunch of voices and work to blend them together.”

“It’s like being a sculptor… you’re making an aural sculpture out of [the voices],” says Smith.

The chorus is made up of many incredibly talented women. There is a lot of time and effort put into creating the perfect harmony with their voices to make successful shows like this possible.

The group gets together every Monday night at 7:00 p.m. at Trinity United Church in Verona to rehearse. They encourage anyone with a passion for singing and the ability to sing in tune to come out to rehearsal.