Grace helps stir one of three big pots of stew at the Newtonville Community Hall on Sunday night. The community turned out for lots of food, lots of music, lots of catching up, and to sing Happy 80th Birthday to Ivan Allin. Be sure to visit newtonville.ca for future events.
No doubt everyone has seen or heard about the post made by a woman visiting Orono who, while walking her dog, claimed she came ‘face-to-face with a lion through a chain-link fence’.
After three long years of making do without an in-person celebration of a season’s worth of dancing, the NFC Dancers will be ready to light up the stage at the impressive Hope Fellowship Church venue in Courtice next month.
I did the craziest thing last week. And you know what? I enjoyed it so much, that I did it again, twice. I might just do it more often. I made an actual social – non work related, archaic phone call.
Texting has contributed to the lost art of talking on the phone. Texting is not a conversation. When there is no voice, there is no originality. You can’t copy and paste a telephone conversation. A phone conversation is one of a kind. It is a wildly rare and fabulously distinct jewel shared only by two people.
When there is no talking, there is no listening.
Be honest, do you really read texts. Or just skim them? And does a simple “lol” or “I get that” work as a sufficient response, depending on the gist of the conversation. You can’t skim a phone conversation. When you pay half atten-tion during a phone conversation the person on the other end is quick to call you out. “Are you listening? Okay, then what did I just say?” You won’t have the luxury of scrolling up the screen to find your answer.
Ward 4 has a wide variety of people with a wide variety of talents and interests. The one thing that we all have in common is a natural interest in music. Music draws us together, whether at the symphony or on a porch. We are fortunate to have so much talent here, with about every genre represented.
On Saturday the Orono Horticultural Society held their annual membership drive. This year food items were collected for the Clarington East Food Bank. Board members Andrea Hester, treasurer; Carol Bailey, vice-president; Joan Osmok, Shelley Etmanskie and Aimie Harris, secretary, held samples of the early bird draws with proceeds going to the food bank. This Thursday, March 23 be sure to attend the OHS first meeting of 2023 at the Durham County Senior’s Lodge. There will be different prize baskets and a silent auction in support of the Clarington East Food Bank. Remember to bring your non-perishable food donation. Thank you everyone, the OHS collected 215 pounds of food during Saturday’s membership drive.
As part of The Regional Municipality of Durham’s Long-term Waste Management Plan to mitigate environmental impacts, paper waste collection calendars will no longer be distributed to households. Residents of the Town of Ajax, Municipality of Clarington, City of Pickering, and Townships of Brock, Scugog and Uxbridge are encouraged to download the Durham Region Waste App or access the online collection calendar at durham.ca/waste.
Anne Harrison celebrated her 90th birthday on Saturday at The Snug. She was born on March 17 in Ireland and immigrated to Canada in 1960. Her brother Nigel from Amesbury England arrived in Newcastle to surprise her, as did her son and family from Alberta. Local friends and family gathered for cake and celebrations as Anne was presented with congratulations from Prime Minister Trudeau, Governor General Mary Simon, Premier Ford, and Mayor Adrian Foster.
Though it appears like clockwork each year, it always feels like the most magical of moments. We enthusiastically cast off the heavy, grey cloak of winter. Then we put it back on as we get a chill. But, it’s there, even if just on the periphery – SPRING. She does like to toy with us. One day gracing us with warming sunshine, pools of melted ice, a glimpse of tiny buds pushing through an icy crust, and in the distance, the melodic song of a bird newly returned from southern climes.