prince edward county and quinte region...summer 2019 prince edward county and quinte region inside:...

Summer 2019

P R I N C E E D W A R D C O U N T Y A N D Q U I N T E R E G I O N

INSIDe: Lockyer’s Folly, Proctor House museum, Peter and Lisa show up, and so much more.

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4 COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING SUMMER 2019 countyandquinteliving.com

IN THIS ISSUEEach issuE availablE onlinE at: countyandquinteliving.comPRINCE EDWARD COUNTY AND QUINTE REGION

ON THE COVERPaul Kurelek contemplates the effects of a late spring on his crabapple test orchard. Photo by Daniel Vaughan.

8Lockyer’s FoLLyAdventures in restorationby Peter Lockyer

16Peter And LisAJust show Upby Lindi Pierce

26Brighton’s iconic Proctor hoUseby Lindi Pierce

36ALmAriUm soUrs’tiny Apples with a Wild Attitudeby Catherine Stutt

46BeLLeviLLe And gUnPo cityreuniting the sister citiesby Jennifer Shea

52BeLLeviLLe’s WAterFront PoP-UPs by Cindy Duffy

62@ home With ALAn grAtiAs Peni Patrick and victor Lindby Alan Gratias

65signPostsdown in the valleyby Lindi Pierce

66chArLotte grAy’s grAvitAs by Alan Gratias

5countyandquinteliving.com COUNTY & QUINTE LIVING SUMMER 2019

GENERAL MANAGERAdam Milligan

[email protected]

EditoRCatherine Stutt

[email protected]

Photo EditoRdaniel Vaughan

PubLiCAtioN CooRdiNAtoROlivia Rose • 613.532.6661

dESiGN/GRAPhiCS EditoR: Kathern blydESiGN & PRoduCtioN: Monica Mctaggart

SKbailey Marketing & design

CoNtRibutiNG WRitERS

Cindy duffy Lindi PierceAlan Gratias Jennifer Shea

Peter Lockyer Catherine Stutt

CoNtRibutiNG PhotoGRAPhERS

Sandra Foreman Lindi PierceAlan Gratias Mark Rayes RobertsChris King daniel Vaughan

tim McKinney Ryan Williams

hoME dELiVERy SubSCRiPtioNSSharon LaCroix • [email protected]

613.966.2034

diStRibutioN iNquiRiESMitchell Clarke

705.742.8450 • [email protected]

AdVERtiSiNG iNquiRiES613.966.2034 • [email protected] Johnston • Tim Sheppard • Tracey Perry

County & Quinte Living is published quarterly and is complimentary through strategic partners, wineries, golf courses, real estate, and chamber of commerce offices, retail outlets, and advertiser locations.

County & Quinte Living may not be reproduced, in part or whole, in any form without prior written consent of the publisher. Views expressed by contributors are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of County & Quinte Living. Home Delivery Subscription rate $25 a year, HST included. County & Quinte Living is a division of Star Metroland Media Group Ltd.

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Catherine Stutt, Editor, County and Quinte [email protected]

My Uncle Jim. Never Jim. Always Uncle Jim.To Darryl, he’s Mayor Lang. Always. It’s

old-world manners. Even when Darryl was running the detachment, there was a respectful nod to the Mayor of Bracebridge. After Darryl and I became us, Darryl continued the honorific, and it still makes me smile. Dignity, respect, earned.

Uncle Jim is the family archivist. Sort of a legend in the family for recognizing the good stuff and being in the right place at the right time. My Mom’s younger brother, Uncle Jim, and their older brother Joe, inherited the family heating business in Bracebridge from my grandparents. Lang Fuels was a big deal. Propane and heating oil, when most houses still used woodstoves. Uncle Jim has crawled through a lot of basements. He kept his eyes open.

On my father’s side of the family, Uncle Jim looked after my great Aunt May’s furnace. Aunt May had the purse gun my great-grandmother carried when she immigrated from Scotland with her husband in 1870, six children and her mother-in-law in tow, headed for a place called Monck Township, somewhere 50 kilometres north of the last corduroy road at Washago. The first night in Bracebridge, the women and girls stayed in a hotel with few rooms. The men started a long family tradition of spending the night in the jail. At that time, it was voluntary.

Uncle Jim and Aunt May somehow came to an agreement on the pistol, and I cherish it to this day. It doesn’t work, but it’s very cool to

think Great-grandmother Glass had it at her side on the St. David when the brood arrived in Montreal, continued west, and eventually made Muskoka their home. Visitors to the Milford Bay Trout Farm tread the same soil.

Uncle Jim also found a chair, owned by another ancestor who farmed on the St. Lawrence in Mallorytown. Visitors to Brown’s Bay Park and T.G. Guild Marina tread the same soil. The Manors of Mallorytown were equally hardy folk, and the photo of them on the banks of the river with their pumpkins is a family classic.

Uncle Jim also has a letter written to his father, my grandfather. A hotelier in Chicago thanks my grandfather for the “special tire” sent to him, which made the hotelier’s daughter’s wedding very special. Apparently, during prohibition, my grandfather’s garage in Mallorytown specialized in non-pneumatic wedding-enhancing tires.

I never met my grandfather, or the Manors, and I was a baby when Aunt May left us, but my memories of Uncle Jim are filled with joy. He had a Packard and his old truck is in a museum in New Orleans, I think. He could build anything, including a great story. He served his community forever, and the last time I saw him was in 2007 when he helped us with my father’s estate.

A few month’s ago, a cousin passed away and my sister Joanne asked if I would let him know. We hadn’t spoken since 2007, but his voice on the phone, the humour, the warmth, was all there, and the years evaporated.

We spoke of family, but mostly of history, and I mentioned my cousin Henrike and her grandson were visiting in a few days and planning to check out the National Air Force Museum of Canada. “I’d like to see that,” said Uncle Jim. “I hear it’s wonderful.”

It is, and I offered to arrange a tour when he’s feeling up to it. I can’t help but wonder what gems Uncle Jim will find, mementos only he can see, and as my sister says, “You never know what will fall into Uncle Jim’s toolbox.”

As a mechanic, he’ll love the restoration shop. He’ll chat with the volunteers and let them know he has an original Anson propeller, bought at an auction. As a historian, he’ll have tears in his eyes when he sees the Halifax. Who wouldn’t? He’ll make new friends with the RCAF museum guides, and he’ll probably talk his way into places most of us haven’t even noticed.

Chances are, he’ll make new memories, and bring us along on his magnificent adventure.

That’s Uncle Jim. Wherever he goes, history is in his wake. He’s a pretty cool guy.

I hope he likes this issue. I hope you do, too.Thanks for turning the page.

Mr. Underwood, painted by Lynn VanderHerberg

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INSPIRED LIVINGINSPIRED CRAFTSMEN

Lockyer’s F o l l y

. . .Adventures

in restorAtion

Story by Peter LockyerPhotography courtesy Ian Barker

and Sandra Foreman Photography

. . .

In the beginning, it sounded like such a good idea!

As the owner of a small business promoting heritage, it only made marketing sense to develop a strong, iconic brand – like a vintage truck – to shout out to the world we were in the history business. Miraculously, there was such a truck.

Through a relative living north of Winnipeg, we learned there was a GMC farm vehicle purchased new from Carter Motor Sales in Winnipeg in 1952. It had faithfully served it original owner, a grain farmer from Whitemouth, Manitoba for decades until his passing. Now, it was living a rusting retirement in a barn on the property. The farmer’s son was looking to sell it

– for $800. This was fate.I have owned old vehicles before. My first

car was a 1954 Chevrolet purchased for $75 by my Dad, whom I think felt it was a wise investment since it kept me from driving his car.


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It was simply awesome – even if the heater remained on high all year ’round. When it could carry on no longer, and I was asking again for the keys to my Dad’s Buick, he found a 1956 Plymouth, a very sleek, two-tone car. The lower half was painted a kind of snot-green colour. The upper half was a darker shade I called gangrene. Aside from its distinctive looks, the car refused to go into reverse. This required advanced driving skills, as you had to plan your parking spots carefully.

During a spring not so long ago, my life partner and I started driving out west as part holiday and part mission to return this vintage farm vehicle to our hometown of Picton. Some of the trip was made through the northern United States, something possible in the Obama era when Canadians were not considered a national security threat. Within a few days, we arrived at our cousin’s place where the holy grail of trucks rested stately on a front lawn.

It was green, rusted, and big – much bigger than anticipated. A one-ton rather than a half-ton, a fact that proved to be very significant during our return journey home. And yet, it worked. Pressing on the starter pedal on the floor, with just the slightest touch on the trombone-like choke, and a robust push on the gas pedal, its mighty engine started with a deep, throaty rumble and we were off driving down a dirt side road. Despite the considerable amount of engine exhaust that came up through the floorboards, the hand-cranked windows worked well, and I was in love.

Love – especially in its earliest days – can be oblivious to a great many things. When we were gliding into our relative’s driveway

toward his garage, I overlooked the small matter of brakes that didn’t work. Of course, it wasn’t my garage anyway, but it seemed timely to leave soon after that unfortunate incident, and we loaded this metal behemoth onto a U-Haul rental trailer to head home.

I should state at this point I am not a very mechanical person. I am actually something of a hazard with power tools. I once had a job as an apprentice working in a machine shop. I broke their industrial saw the first day on the job. The next day, my overalls caught fire on the pilot lights for the shop’s welding torches. Later that week, my newly acquired welding expertise turned a small car part into a tiny, red glowing ball of burning metal most likely still attached to a work bench in the shop.

I am hopeful the owner of that car part has mellowed over the intervening years.

When I buy a vehicle, I do look under the hood as it seems expected – part of the etiquette of the purchase. I may gaze intently, and maybe even fiddle with some wiring, but I have no idea what I am looking at. I am quite satisfied to know my car does come with an engine and I’ll let it go at that. I don’t think I am alone in this. I believe there are many men who don’t possess this expected mechanical ability. They just aren’t writing about it.

In loading my prized antique truck onto the U-Haul trailer for the trip back to Ontario, I was oblivious to the great forces that can be unleashed when weight is not sufficiently distributed on the ball of a trailer. This is likely something Isaac Newton wrote about centuries ago, but I never knew the guy. I discovered these great laws of nature for myself as we drove down a steep hill near


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Dryden, Ontario, when the trailer decided it wanted to be the lead vehicle, and we were thrown violently from one side of the road to the other as my F-150, a heavy vehicle in its own right, was simply no match for this pitching trailer and its heavy load.

My partner observed we were on a bridge with a steep ravine below us, and there were transport trucks heading in our direction. She speculated this just might be the end of things. This, of course, was very helpful to know. As a much older and wiser man now, I have learned there is a time to speak up – and a time to say nothing. Somehow in these moments of eerie silence occasionally punctuated with her screams, I did manage to get the trailer back into position and we drove slowly into Dryden. The next morning, the old truck was on its way via commercial transport to its new home in Picton. We enjoyed the rest of our leisurely, stress-free drive home. With meals, gas, and hotels, it had been a bargain adventure for only $4,500.

I decided to have the truck restored. Now, I wouldn’t say you have to be crazy to do this, but it helps. You are about to begin a long and perilous journey into the unknown – the sort of great abyss of restoration.

An early indication of this soon came from the guys at the garage. It turned out there wasn’t a whole lot worth restoring on my 1952 GMC one-ton. Useful parts seemed limited to the side mirrors, a couple of fenders, and the throaty motor. However, it wasn’t all bad news. They knew of another truck that was partially restored – a 1954 Chevrolet half-ton, which I could – and did – purchase for $8,500. The theory at the time was a 1952 GMC one-ton and a 1954 Chevrolet half-ton were highly compatible and could be blended together. As it turned out, this was fake news.

We moved forward. “In for a penny, in for a pound.”

Given my mechanical abilities, the garage guys prudently kept me away from welding torches and the mysterious inner workings of their shop. My job was to make frequent runs to the U.S. and to Bill’s Truck Shop near Oshawa for parts. I also wrote cheques on a regular basis. I’ve forgotten how many. Somewhere along the way, I simply lost track. I focused on the positive – the original $800 purchase price had been a bargain; an absolute steal.

Over the next two years, the spread of innumerable parts on a shop floor gradually evolved into something that looked like a truck. After a few months of intense negotiations with the vehicle licensing department, who were initially not satisfied with a bill of sale, the original VIN registration form, and paperwork documenting the import of the

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Chev truck into Canada in the 1970s, the day finally came when I could legally drive my most prized possession (and retirement fund) onto county roads.

It was awesome – close to a religious experience really. The stick shift on the floor, the rumble of the original GMC engine, the wind through the windows, and the looks of other drivers and pedestrians along the road. At my age, I wouldn’t call the truck a chick magnet, but safe to say it is a senior magnet and draws a crowd wherever I stop.

My only issue that first driving season – really a small concern within the sheer ecstasy of this dream vehicle – was its fuel consumption. After a short 15-minute ride, I needed to fill it up again. Rocket ships get better mileage. Turned out it was a leaking fuel pump. This seemed to cause considerable excitement from the garage guys when I left the truck running outside their establishment. It was somewhat reminiscent of the excitement I caused when I caught fire in the welding shop many years ago.

To be fair, this seems to have been the last of the mechanical issues I have endured. (Of course, it’s early in the season yet, but I am a glass-half-full kind of guy.) I’ll be on the roads of Prince Edward County again this summer. When the touring season ends, and the vehicle goes back into winter storage, I will still love my truck – perhaps even more – as it is so much cheaper to own then.

To learn more about History Lives Here Inc. including their summer walking tours of historic Picton, visit the company’s website at historyliveshere.ca


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“Just show up!” Chat with Lisa Morris and Peter Paylor at their downtown Belleville gallery, or at their market stall, and the words may come up. It’s their challenge to their adopted community, a call to arms to support local theatre, visual artists, musical events, social justice initiatives, new performance venues, and individuals attempting something unique in the arts and culture domain. It’s about turning up, engaging others, generating ideas, making things happen – creativity as a way of life.

Lisa’s business card introduces her as a recyclist, artisan jeweller, sculptor, director, and playwright. Perhaps her jewellery is most well-known, luscious collages created from materials as disparate as family treasures, broken costume jewellery, recycled tin, brass, and copper trays, used copper electrical wire, and yes, bicycle inner tubes. Her earrings and pendants are wearable art, objects with meaning and story, not just things from a shop.

Lisa tends to look, not at what things are, but at what they could become. Recently she started a line of refashioned clothing, cutting up old garments and putting them back together in novel ways. Peter points out the downside, “You can’t just get something, you have to cut it up and make something else! I liked that shirt!” The ideas

showJu

st upLisA And Peter’s cALL to creAtivity


keep coming. With Lisa, wait five minutes and she’ll be doing something else. Peter laughs, “As soon as she arrived today, she made a lamp base out of doll parts.” The woman is fearless, challenging, endlessly energetic; there’s nothing she won’t try.

Lisa ponders where it began. She recalls creating a milk jug bird feeder when she was seven, forfeiting the needed return deposit for the delight she felt when the birds came. She’s a lifelong thrifter. Raising kids on her own with limited means has always meant living by her wits and second-hand stores. Life wasn’t always easy, but this past 10 years in the peaceful non-toxic environment the couple has created has made a difference to Lisa – and to Peter.

Theirs is a creative partnership, synergistic. “I couldn’t do what I do without

Peter.” Their life together has a rhythm, happily solo creative time balanced by periods of intense conversation, ideas sparking. Full-on people time balanced with restorative stillness. This life is challenging. It’s hard work to get things to market, to live on a tight budget, but it works because they love what they are doing, surrounded by people who value and encourage them.

Words are in Peter’s past. There’s a fleeting reference to an English degree, short-story writing, work with a publishing company, lunch with Tiff Findley…

Peter has 10 one-act plays to his credit and more in development. He recalls the ‘why not?’ moment Marvin Tucker mentioned an upcoming one-act play festival. He had a story he wanted to tell, and suddenly – a way to tell it. “The

characters started talking and they wouldn’t shut up!” Lisa remembers being in the next room, hearing him laughing as the characters took over the writing.

Peter wrote that first play in 2015 and had a Neil Simon moment. “This was the place where I would spend my life.” Ordinary happenings inspire dialogue. “I get this look, and someone gives me a piece of paper, because I need to get the words down.” He is well-known not just for his stage plays, but for fostering playwriting and production in the area – and beyond.

“The theatre thing just exploded. I wrote a play; it went to Eastern Ontario Drama League’s (EODL) one-act play festival and that was it.” He recalls the impact of seeing his words come to life on stage.

The Rosewood plays, The Rosewood art society and tales from the tavern, and


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-Lisa ponders where it began.

She recalls creating a milk jug bird feeder when she was seven,

forfeiting the needed return deposit

for the delight she felt

when the birds came.-


later, Where the River Flows (city boy meets country life, and a turn in the road) are rich with Leacock-like observations on small town life and human nature. Promotional materials for Quinte West’s Old Church Theatre and Kingston’s Domino Theatre describe the appeal of Peter’s plays. “Likeable characters in unlikely situations with a fine balance of warmth and humour.” Some of the funniest are to be found in the suite, Four criminal acts. The plays range from hysterically funny, with so-dark-why-am-I-laughing moments, to gently satirical to bittersweet to those satisfying just desserts endings.

Judie Preece, who with friend Kathryn Dalmer, has acted in tea with Roger (Audience Choice at EODL 2017) and The Green Thumb Gang, admires Peter’s writing. It’s ordinary dialogue, gleaned

from keen observation, but always with a twist, wherein lies the humour. Take The Green Thumb Gang ladies. They’re thieves, innocently making up ridiculous excuses when caught. Or his choice of words. Who hasn’t thought of Cheezies as little orange turds? But Peter says it!

Peter first became known around town for his wood carvings. He started carving almost by accident, exploring west coast indigenous designs, and later the stark styling of Lauren Harris’s northland. Many pieces of Peter’s work are in local collections. Just recently he resumed carving, commissioned to produce awards for Belleville’s annual local Docfest winners.

Peter is a great believer things always work out. He recalls having an epiphany some years ago. He was in Toronto, at the

Sorauren Farmer’s Market. He’d just sold a wood carving for $30 when it hit him. If he could just make something every day and sell it for $30, he could live. Only one hitch. Not too many women want to share this $30 life. But Lisa called his bluff – “I’ll take that,” she said. “And it hit me. Wait, if there are two of us, and we each make something for $30 a day…” He shares their secret – the couple’s combined income is below the single person poverty line. And they have created a life they love out of these constraints.

Woodcarving can be blamed for Peter’s settling down in Belleville. Newly back in town, he dropped by the Quinte Arts Council, looking for a writing group. Someone noticed one of Peter’s carvings peeking out of his backpack, and before long Peter was opening a show at the QAC gallery.


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CMYK

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April 7/16 5:30 cf SL/NG

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519.439.8080 866.439.8080 TMD.CATHE MARKETING DEPARTMENT 457 King Street London, Ontario, Canada N6B 1S8

REVISIONS

FNL

VERSION

A-5

North Star has earned an enviable reputation for producing high-quality and energy effi cient windows and doors.Tested and certifi ed by both the Canadian Standards Association and American Architectural Manufacturers Association, all of North Star’s windows and doors not only meet or exceed all industry standards, they meet our own high standards. And we back them with a transferable, limited lifetime warranty to prove it.

A QUALITY GUARANTEE THATLASTS A LIFETIME

DEALER INFORMATION

QUALITY WINDOWS & DOORSGREAT SERVICE. EXCEPTIONAL VALUE.

©2016 North Star Manufacturing (London) Ltd. All rights reserved.

CLIENT

SIZE

Metroland – One-Quarter-V(5.145” x 5.71”)

North Star Windows & DoorsJOB DESCRIPTION

Co-op Print Advertising

– Overall

PRODUCTION NOTES

This ad scales at 88.67% to fi t a 4 column broadsheet size (4 column x 71 agates = 284 lines = 4.5625” x 5.06”)

COLOUR

CMYK

DATE TIME DESIGNER ACCOUNT REP

April 7/16 5:30 cf SL/NG

DOCKET #

129-301

519.439.8080 866.439.8080 TMD.CATHE MARKETING DEPARTMENT 457 King Street London, Ontario, Canada N6B 1S8

REVISIONS

FNL

VERSION

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After that first QAC visit, Peter wandered down to the market, where a vendor invited him to show and carve at his stall. There Peter met Lisa showing her jewellery; on her first day at the market also. Kismet! They were drawn to each other and before long, “it became very clear…he’s finishing my sentences!” A new peaceful life had begun.

The couple started thinking about where to go next. When they realized there was so much they could stir up in Belleville, they decided to stay. “There was this thing and we showed up,” describes their approach. So many events happen for free in a community – gallery openings, New Year’s levees, downtown events. All are places to go, start conversations, begin to make things happen.


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Not satisfied with just writing plays, Peter looked for ways to foster local playwriting, and involve new audiences, with projects aided by grants from the Belleville Community Arts and Culture fund.

In 2017, Peter and Rick Zimmerman created The River and Main Theatre Company, a small, professional not-for-profit theatre company. Contributions from a handful of sponsors covered costs. River and Main productions have appeared on local stages at Belleville’s CORE Centre, Pinnacle Playhouse, Quinte West’s acclaimed Old Church Theatre (OCT), and Belleville Club, as well as Theatre in Back on Front at the couple’s 2017 downtown pop-up gallery.

Peter launched The Quinte Playwriting Collective in 2015 to promote and encourage writing for the stage. Creative contagion ensued. Plays by Collective members were soon appearing at the Sharpen the Acts original one-act play festivals at OCT, and other local stages. The Collective’s coaching role is evident in online calls to actors, directors, and theatre lovers to get involved.

Peter believes playwriting is collaborative work shared by writer, producer, director, actors. Peter, modest as always, admits he


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just writes the words. Within the Collective, playwrights get a chance to hear from actors – and audiences – as their play is in development.

What could be more encouraging to a playwright submitting a script than this notice on the Sharpen the Acts Facebook

site: “Not finished? No worries. Send us what you’ve got. If your play is selected, we’ll help you with that.” Live reading workshops and one-on-one coaching with a dramaturge follow, before opening night.

No small wonder the Quinte area is becoming known for its playwriting prowess.

The Collective also aims to encourage people who’ve never acted to give it a try, and to open up new audiences. Last year the stage adaptation of Orland French’s First World War drama, letters to vimy, produced by River and Main at the CORE Centre, debuted two high-school students with impressive performances as young soldiers. These two will act again.

Peter is not alone in this. Lisa was bitten by the theatre bug at the 2016 EODL One-

Act Play Festival in Perth, with the Belleville Theatre Guild production of This side or the other. She won an award for costume design and shared honours for Best Visual Production. She loves to play dress-up, and knows she’s found her place in the world of theatre.

Since then Lisa has directed several plays, overcoming nerves to challenge herself. In December she will make her directorial debut at Pinnacle Playhouse in the full-length play cliffhanger.

Peter and Lisa are great believers in the power of art to transform lives, to lift people out of homelessness, domestic violence, mental illness, and addiction. Art is egalitarian, not just for an elite. Many of their community projects are geared to artists who can’t afford to put together a show given the costs of materials, framing, and entry fees.

Inspired by a hugely successful storefront art show in Kingston empowering ‘street-involved artists,’ Peter and Lisa, with good friend Kenny Leighton, created artists below the line. The show began in conjunction with

Belleville DocFest 2013, and returns annually.The couple has been active in the creation

of the International Women’s Day art show, Downtown Students’ art show, and These Walls are Yours show, which is open to anyone. All demonstrate a belief in the power of art and art conversation.

And t he conversation continues. For Peter, another play, another stage. For Lisa, the challenge of new media, fresh projects.

Peter and Lisa’s arts activism will continue, also. It’s their response to many challenges. Downtown revitalization? The solution: be downtown, talk to people, find out about things, and get involved, share in the creative process. Need more theatre? Write, produce, act, attend.

Anything’s doable.Just start by showing up.

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What John Edward Saw

Brighton’s iconic Proctor House

Story by Lindi Pierce Photography by Daniel Vaughan

There’s a fine view to be enjoyed on a summer afternoon in Brighton, Ontario. From the rooftop belvedere of a stately Italianate home perched on a hill, a visitor can admire the town, the shore, and the lake beyond, just as John Edward Proctor would once have done. John E. Proctor was a business giant who accumulated significant wealth, power, and prestige in the area during the second half of the 1800s – and a Brighton legend.

J.E. Proctor was a man of vision, from a family of ambitious men. His grandfather Josiah brought the English Puritan family north from Vermont to Cramahe township in 1810. His father Isaac built one of the early stagecoach inns along the Kingston Road, the 1820s Proctor Inn, which still stands west of town. It was John Edward who would rise to prominence in Brighton and leave an important house to tell his story.

It is believed Isaac built an early saltbox house on the property at Concession 1, Lot 1 (later Young Street) about 1853. John and eight siblings grew up here. In 1867 and 1868 John had the house enlarged – adding a two-storey pattern-book Italianate in

red brick, with all the new features: bay windows, bracketed cornice, portico, round-headed windows, and a rooftop belvedere. He named the house Millbank after his mills on the property. At the same time, the early house was raised to two full storeys, its exterior wood trims and windows changed to match the main house.

Viewers of the long-running Victorian crime drama Murdoch Mysteries will have had a glance around the Proctor House and property. In Season 10, Episode 12, when the house doubled for the estate of a Toronto lady in distress, viewers attended a garden party on the Proctor lawn among giant maples while detectives followed the shady lane to a suspected crime scene. Emotional interviews in the parlour provided glimpses of the dark wallpaper, rich woodwork, furnishings, paintings, and lamps of Proctor House.

The impressive house and its rich interior were the expression of John E. Proctor’s wealth and position in society. He’d done well. He started out as keeper of a general store in 1845, adding a flour mill and saw mills to his portfolio – close to home and further north at Hilton and Orland. It was

the lumber boom era; the forests of Northumberland County were there to be harvested and converted into wealth. In 1858, J.E. Proctor purchased a wharf at Gosport, built two ships and purchased three more, erected warehouses, and started a shipping business between Montreal, Oswego, and Rochester. He shipped grain, lumber, and potash, and brought in salt, sugar, tea and tobacco, glass and candles. John was also a moneylender and shrewd businessman. He amassed more than 2,000 acres of property, donated land for an Anglican church, and served in municipal office.

But change was to come. In 1887 a block of Proctor buildings burned; in 1890 several uninsured ships were lost in a storm. Farms were mortgaged to meet payments. The Proctor herd of purebred Hereford cattle was shipped to the west. The 1890 McKinley Tariffs ended the boom days of shipping grain to the U.S. and the railway put an end to ship commerce.

Wife Adelaide (nee Weller) of Carrying Place bore 10 children, raised nine to adulthood. The children were educated in private schools or entered business. Life gravitated


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toward their Toronto connections. In later years, daughter Stella remained in the house with another spinster sister, and then alone until her death in 1960. Contents of the house were sold at auction, correspondence, and valuable documents misplaced. The house began to deteriorate and was once thought lost.

It was J.E. Proctor’s vision which built the family home and fortune, but it was the vision of a group of phenomenally dedicated volunteers who ensured the survival of Proctor House. Local Lions Club stalwart Dr. Fred Dunnett stepped up, negotiating an agreement with Proctor heirs in 1966 to develop the house and property as a recreation area. Sadly, despite Herculean efforts, the playground and ski hill developed by the Lions succumbed to vandalism, and the project was abandoned.

When town council could not be induced to take over the property, the club again contacted the heirs who eventually agreed to deed the property to the Lower Trent Region Conservation Authority. Hopes for repurposing the house as offices were dashed when a prohibitive cost survey was completed: the house was to be demolished. Its roof had failed, water had damaged brickwork and interior plaster. A corner of the foundation had collapsed. Windows were smashed. Only the most optimistic history-minded citizen would take this one on.

Fortunately, Brighton has history types in abundance. After an eleventh-hour reprieve a citizen’s committee sprang into action and in 1972 SOHO (Save


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Our Heritage Organization) was formed. SOHO bought the house for a dollar with the stipulation exterior restoration take place within five years, interior refurbishment in 10. It would take heroic action. Luckily, there were heroes to be had. The charter members list reads like a who’s who of civic-minded Brightonians.

Government grants were obtained for labour, all materials costs were covered by exhaustive fundraising. SOHO volunteers did everything: strawberry socials, sales of memberships, and everything imaginable, donation campaigns, and participation in every community event. With all the energy put into fundraising these many years, Proctor House should glow in the dark. (Perhaps that’s the origin of the ghostly light myth?)

Volunteers put their shoulders to the wheel. Committees undertook construction jobs, cleaned and painted, hunted down furniture and decorative objects, documented house history, and planned the opening. Exterior restoration involved roof replacement, restoration of rotting eaves and window surrounds, rebuilding of collapsed foundation walls, repairing of damaged brick, and application of gallons of bright white paint.

Inside, drywall replaced ruined plaster, the house was rewired, a furnace installed. Faux oak graining was reinstated on interior wood trims, the house was furnished and ready.

In 1976, under torrents of summer rain (this was never going to be easy) 800 souls attended the opening. Dignitaries

Robert Peister displays the functional and elegant ruby glass doors of Proctor House.


unveiled a plaque dedicating the house and park to the people of Brighton, in memory of the pioneer Proctors and two sons lost in the Second World War. Grassroots heritage activism had brought into being a worthy community museum.

Proctor House museum portrays the lifestyle of a well-to-do mid-nineteenth century merchant. Many Proctor family items, and hundreds more donated, loaned, and carefully selected period pieces fill the rooms. In 2017, a Proctor descendant in Victoria repatriated the elegant dining room suite, miscellaneous furniture, and items associated with Stella: a huge collection of her hand-painted china, and a silver candelabra presented to her by local Anglicans. The prairie Proctors visit occasionally; it’s nice to have a museum in the family.

Drive north from the centre of Brighton and take the jog onto Young Street. At the top

of the hill, enter the parking lot, and another era. Everything evokes the past: the house and flower gardens, fields and woods beyond, the shaded lane and creek where mills once stood. Follow the plank walkway to the white-painted portico and enter 1867.

Inside the spacious front hall, costumed guides welcome museum-goers and point out intriguing details in every room. The front hall boasts costly original red flash glass above the entry doors. To the left, the parlour impresses guests with reproduction wallpaper and elegant furniture, including a parlour grand piano rescued from a Presqu’ile Point cottage. To the right, the bright morning room features the home’s only fireplace, of white marble said to have originated with family in Proctor, Vermont.

The principal rooms could be closed off with unique pocket/folding doors or opened to the central hall to create a ballroom for large fundraising and church events – the

Puritan Proctors were not given to lavish entertaining.

In the office down the hall, John E. conducted business and collected rents on his many Brighton properties. The window was formerly a door, to keep the hoi-polloi out of the grand house.

Staircases are a recurring theme.The steep staircase rising from the foyer

and curving up to the second-floor landing sports a structural anomaly; the stairs were an afterthought, a must-have John purchased while travelling. A sharp-eyed visitor may spot the offending detail.

The upper hall provides a dizzying Escher-like view down the stairs and upwards to the rooftop belvedere. There’s a sun-warmed seating area for the ladies beneath the tall arched windows overlooking the town and the lake. Next door, a Proctor cradle occupies


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the master bedroom where John E. died, and a guest bedroom displays clothing and textiles.

A hall leads back to the old section of the house, an interconnected series of rooms and slip-rooms for servants and children. The precipitous stairs with a tight turn at the bottom leading back to the kitchen must have collected many tumbling Proctor offspring.

The two wings of Proctor House, built at different times, allow for the interpretation of the wealthy family’s lifestyle, the below stairs life of servants and seen but not heard children, and the day-to-day work of the farm. Visitors are treated to a huge collection of housekeeping artifacts, from a primitive dry sink and hand pump to the wood cookstove moved each year to the summer kitchen for the hot work of canning and pickling. Off the kitchen, three slip-rooms contain more stories.

Out back, a summer kitchen, woodshed with arched wagon doors, and a two-storey convenience complete the tour.

There’s more. In 1973 the Proctor barn was deemed unsafe, and demolished. Volunteers once again sprang into action. The circa 1850 Simpson barn (Isaac’s wife was a Simpson) was donated, dismantled, moved, and reassembled down the slope from the house,

overlooking the former farm, now Proctor Park.

Not content with providing historic atmosphere, the weathered structure opened in 2002 as the Brighton Barn Theatre, the sole source of support for the operation of Proctor House, but for an annual municipal grant which covers insurance. Volunteers do it all

– production, acting, singing, and dancing. This year, the theatre features two comedies and the popular annual Christmas at the Barn.

Proctor House was built by a man of vision and rescued by citizens with matching energy and vision. Proctor House museum has been operating for 43 years. It’s a heritage project supported by Save our Heritage Organization and the Lower Trent Region Conservation Authority.

Proctor House invites your support. Volunteer. Become a member. Make a donation. Attend the Barn Theatre.

This summer, pay a visit.Climb the stairs to the rooftop belvedere.See what J.E. Proctor saw.See what SOHO and the Brighton

community saw.See Proctor House for yourself.


Story by Catherine StuttPhotography by Daniel Vaughan

A unique new product available at farmers markets and specialty stores throughout the County and Quinte region is gathering momentum and writing exciting new chapters on the area’s historic apple industry. While Almarium Sours’ Pomarium Renaissance crabapple products are a very welcome new addition to the taste buds, its very essence stems from ancient forests, trade routes, and one couple’s mission over almost three decades of dedication to the small wild apple.

In Kazakhstan, a forest grows, at one time tens of thousands of acres of wild fruit trees, even now, thousands of acres remain, although threatened and reduced by encroaching development. Growing for centuries, millennia, so remote and inaccessible in its mountainside it was not discovered by a westerner until the 1830s. Wild fruit growing, surviving, evolving.

From this forest near the Chinese border, closer still to ancient trade routes, the fruits travelled. There is a theory birds dropped the original seeds, and the orchards grew from there. The Tien Shan brown bear developed a taste for the apples, and inadvertently became the orchard-keepers. The bears clamoured through the trees, breaking branches on the way (an early form of pruning) finding what they like best. Bears doing what bears do in the woods, the seeds found themselves back in the rich forests, delivered with fertilizer. It was a very efficient consumer to compost to cultivation situation.

As trade routes developed, horses and other pack animals and their human guides ate the fruit and spread the seeds. Eventually, the seeds arrived in what is now Europe, and spread to the New World. The DNA of ubiquitous commercially available apples comes

ALmArium sours’ PomArium renAissAnce Tiny apples wiTh a wild aTTiTude. . .


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from these orchards, tracing back to the Malus sieversii, still thriving in the Kazakh forests in the foothills of remote mountains.

So entrenched are apples in the Kazakh culture, the former capital of Kazakhstan is Almaty. The city of apples.

The language of apples fascinates, and admittedly at times frustrates Anne Varangu, who with her husband Paul Kurelek has spent more than three decades experimenting with their crabapples.

Anne is comfortable parsing words in and out of context, and deconstructing languages and ideas. Anne’s roots are in Estonia, and her surname is relatively new. When Estonia acquired independence for the first time, there was a solid movement to repatriate names to Estonian. Her grandfather switched from a common Scandinavian name to Varangu, paying extra to limit its use – to keep it unique to his family. “We don’t know where it came from,”

laughed Anne. “We’re sure it had meaning to him, but that secret is his. He was a big celebrator of independence.” Varangu is a geological formation, Vikings are known as Varangians and of course Trekkies will bond with the name, and there’s a tree in India called a varangu. “The etymologies are diverse,” Anne continued.

The Varangu family from Estonia, and the Kurelek family from Bukovina (now divided between Ukraine and Romania) followed much the same path as the apple seeds, starting in the far reaches of Europe, finding their way to North America.

Anne’s parents were refugees, fleeing Estonia as Germany and the Soviet Union fought over the small northern European country during the Second World War. As


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bombing advanced behind them, they left by boat, heading for Sweden, where they lived for seven years before emigrating to Canada around 1950. “Niagara Falls was a dream destination for Europeans and my parents wanted to put distance between them and Europe.”

Anne’s father worked as a research chemist and her mother broke cultural taboos by working outside the home as a secretary. They adjusted quickly. “Estonia had an advanced education system and my parents were also fluent in Swedish, German, and English. My father spoke English with a pronounced British accent because that’s how he learned.”

Niagara Falls was home for Anne, and she attended Brock University so she could continue living with her parents. Anne and her parents spoke only Estonian at home.

“Estonian is who my parents were,” she explains. “They weren’t embarrassed by their country – they left because others took it over and they didn’t know how long the Cold War would last. I still speak with my Mom in Estonian. It wouldn’t feel natural to speak anything else.”

Anne studied at Brock, earning an undergraduate and master’s degree in politics, followed by another master’s degree in philosophy. She then earned a PhD in planning at the University of Waterloo. “It was logical to go into planning – the merger of politics and philosophy.” Her dissertation was on values.

During her doctoral studies, she was invited to speak at a NATO conference in Kraków and took the long way via Estonia. “Growing up, Estonia was a fairy tale language. It wasn’t something we could use in business or outside the house but being there in Estonia make me realize it was a functional language.


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It also put it in context. Although I was fluent in the language, all my experience and perspectives were from a totally different framework.”

Doctorate in hand, Anne realized she loved teaching but couldn’t bear to be inside all day. “Farming isn’t a career; it’s a life.” By this time, Anne and Paul were settled on their farm in Stoney Creek, and their business – Paul Kurelek Terrascapes – was thriving. Anne studied at Waterloo during the day and joined Paul at work after her return commute. In addition to the design and installation work, Paul and Anne also grew nursery stock for the landscape industry. Growing ornamental and fruit trees was in Paul’s blood. For years, he had collected crabapples on his many trips to visit relatives

on the Prairies. “He spent a lot of time in the west and crabapples are big there. Selected varieties thrive in the cold of the Prairies,” shared Anne. “He’d bring the crabs home and plant them, learning what he loved about some, what he didn’t like about others.”

As a landscaper, Paul understood the aesthetic value of ornamental crabapple. Mostly, he loved the taste of the wild crabapples. The smaller the apple, the higher the ratio of peel-to-flesh, and the nutrients are in the peel. The phytochemicals give the flavour, so the smaller the mature fruit, the more flavour and nutrition.

As Paul collected more crabapples, he brought them home to the orchard and planted the seeds. Through trial and error and patience, they selected flavour components

and found the small-fruited, wild-flavoured seedlings were an excellent match. For the first time, crabapple seedlings were selected for their fruit rather than ornamental value.

It was the way of the North American settlers, who didn’t like the continent’s one native apple Malus coronaria, so they imported more from Europe, finding a perfect blend. At that time, apples were primarily grown for cider. Eventually they crossed varieties and came up with a domestic eating apple.

Just as the Kazakh forests full of wild fruit and the apple orchards established by settlers around the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley are sources of origin, Anne and Paul’s test orchards fit that category as well.

They continue to experiment and are delighted with the results. “We learned years ago no two trees grown from seed are alike. We’re in the business of growing snowflakes,” laughed Anne. “Millions and millions of snowflakes in our orchards.”

They remain intrigued with terminology. “A crabapple is defined as any apple less than two inches in diameter. The definition has nothing to do with taste or acidity, just size.” Fluent in several languages, Anne finds the name a challenge, too. “Crabapple is an English term and difficult to translate,” explained Anne. “Internationally they are forest apples or wild apples, just as they are in the wild forests of Kazakhstan. We think of large mono-culture orchards but there’s a sharp divide between what we know as apples and their origin.”


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Perfectionists, Paul and Anne are approaching this passion in an entirely different way, doing what the settlers did with small test orchards, going for tiny apples with lots of flavour, not growing apples for the fresh market or crabapple trees for ornamental value. “No one planted the first fruit trees in Kazakhstan and we’re mimicking that, letting our seedlings grow wild and pollinate naturally. This is biodiversity at its best and easiest. They’re wild. That’s something to celebrate. We look at our experimental

orchard and see such diversity. Some trees are columnar, some have a fern leaf, and they are all different.”

Again, the discussion turns to terminology.“We grow our fruit in an orchard, so how

can we call our fruit wild? There isn’t much of a precedent to guide how we should describe the wild features of our fruit. It is naturally wild-flavoured. It is wild-sourced. Can something that is grown deliberately, cultivated, still be described as wild?”

Michael Pollan thinks so. He wrote in his New York Times 1998 essay, breaking Ground: The call of the Wild apple, “Luckily for us, wildness can be cultivated, can thrive even in the straight lines and right angles of an apple orchard.”

Anne concurs. “We plant from seed, we wait several years until the trees are productive, study the characteristics, and then graft what we like. Instead of searching out fruit with a tamer flavour or breeding new varieties to eliminate the wild flavour, we continue to

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search for the best wild flavours that can be blended together into a very complex taste experience.”

The orchards now are populated with thousands of trees representing several hundred varieties. It is Anne and Paul’s very own mini source of origin. Some trees are very young, and many finally produced a harvest. After three years on their Grafton-area property, they made their first wild-sourced crabapple juice in 2018, and it was met with rave reviews.

Anne and Paul breathed a sigh of relief. “We needed to know if others would see it as special and different.” The market responded

enthusiastically. There is nothing else like it. Pomarium Renaissance intrigued people in taste tests. “They had a hard time identifying it because the flavour prolife is unique; the most common guess was strawberry. It’s not the colour of apple juice, it’s a totally different experience.”

Anne started with the Codrington Farmers’ Market, then attended the Wellington Farmers’ Market on Canada Day. “That blew us away,” recalled Anne. “It was the first time we had jelly for sale. A couple returning home to France fell in love with the juice and wanted to take some home, but they were concerned about the liquid. They took the jelly instead and loved it.”

A Turkish couple had an orchard and wanted Anne and Paul to help them rejuvenate it with their trees. Iconic Canadian celebrity chef Jamie Kennedy mixed Pomarium Renaissance with soda water and sold it with his fries.“The input and enthusiasm were so

important to us. The couples from Turkey and France thought we were emblematic of Canadian produce. They didn’t know we were just trying to see if people liked it. We’d been building to this point for 30 years and it’s time to share and recoup some of that effort.”

People love it. “We learned people will pay wine-bottle prices for wine-bottle sizes. There is a hole in the market for a sophisticated non-alcoholic drink,” explained Anne. It’s small-batch, incredibly hands-on, artisan, local, wild-sourced, and unique. Most of all, it is delicious.

Now in the second year of production, Anne and Paul are developing new products with their Pomarium Renaissance. There is jelly, and Anne is taking that a step further, making a natural candy, an upscale take on pâte de fruit, plain, sugared, or chocolate covered. They are working on a cider vinegar, aiming for a thicker consistency similar to an aged Balsamic. They are in discussions with a local distiller, a brewer, and most recently were approached by a cidery owner who is stuck on the idea of making cider from wild-sourced crabapples.

Demand is increasing, which is both heartening and hard work. The trees are grafted and planted by hand; the fruit is hand-picked. “We harvest when the crabs are at their peak,” explained Anne. “Timing of picking is critical in order to get maximum flavour. Peak flavour does not always coincide with how easily the fruit can be shaken from the tree.” Family is often recruited to help.

The apples go from tree to deep freeze immediately, and that stops all activity. The fruit is cold pressed, resulting in a very clear unfiltered nectar. Nothing is added. Nothing is taken away. It is still slush before it goes into the vat. The only time it is heated is very briefly when it is pasteurized and bottled.

Anne is grateful for the help she receives from the Ontario Agri-Food Venture Centre in nearby Colborne. Only minutes from the orchard, Anne and Paul rely on the facility staff’s expertise. “Neil Horner is a world-class food processing specialist. We bought here in part because of its proximity. We’re so fortunate to have it so close; people drive for hours. It’s a big deal for us because when we process there, we know the quality control is excellent. It opens new markets.”

Wholesaling is another growth point for the company. Pomarium Renaissance is available at the Sunflower Health Shop in


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Brighton, The Natural in Warkworth, and The Agrarian Market in Picton. A Toronto retail location is pending.

Anne and Paul value the interaction and feedback on a personal level. This season, they attend four farmers markets each week. Anne starts the week at Codrington on Sundays, Port Hope on Wednesdays, and Wellington on Saturdays. This year, they were offered a coveted spot at the Brick Works Saturday Market, which Paul attends.

Chatting with market visitors, the couple takes time to explain their journey, the apples, the health benefits of peel-to-flesh ratio, the influence of phytonutrients on the flavour, and offer free samples. Anne will often find a way to mix her love of teaching with her life of farming, heading back into the language discussion.

The product name was carefully chosen. Pomarium is old Latin for orchard. At one time, most fruits were called apples, just as all grains were called corn. In Kazakhstan,

alma means apple; in romance languages it means spirit or soul. The Apple computer store in Budapest is called Almarium-Pro.

Then there is Almaty, the City of Apples, near the wild orchards of Kazakhstan. The original source of origin, the ancestor of the tiny wild apples growing in a Grafton orchard, and lovingly crafted into this elegant beverage.

Terviseks, Anne and Paul.

From the left: Councillor Chris Malette, Mayor Mitch Panciuk, Simon Kang, Councillor Ryan Williams, Councillor Bill Sandison, Tim McKinney and Chris King

Story by Jennifer SheaPhotos Courtesy Chris King, Tim McKinney

and Ryan Williams

The City of Belleville and Gunpo City (Gunpo) in South Korea are two very different places. Apart from the language and cultural dissimilarities, Gunpo, as a satellite city of Seoul, has a population of close to 300,000 people. Most of its residents live and work in high-rise buildings due to the lack of flat land in the mountainous region. The country is always on active alert for war. The one thing the two cities have in common, however, is a 23-year friendship as sister cities.

A delegation of 12 Belleville politicians, economic development representatives, media, and residents recently returned from a visit to Gunpo. This was one of several mutual visits over the years, designed to share cultural exchanges and discuss business opportunities.

Mayor Mitch Panciuk felt it was particularly important to go to Gunpo this year as there have been two Belleville visits by Gunpo officials without reciprocation. “Their relationships are very, very important,” he says. “They want to be able to see a person face-to-face and they also want to feel follow-up happens quickly. A little different than some of us in North America, where we feel an email is sufficient. That doesn’t even get you in the door there. For them, relationships are important, and you can’t have that if you don’t show up.”

The Mayor was particularly struck by the density of South Korea’s population. “South Korea is about the size of Newfoundland and they have 51 million people. Every inch of available flat space is developed. Even when you

Talking Business and sharing CulTure in Belleville’s souTh korean sisTer CiTy

. . .


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go into rural South Korea, there are high-rise buildings. That was really staggering to see that difference. It is very mountainous; the mountains there look like thimbles all over the place. Where it is flat, all the land is developed.”

The delegation noted how clean and neat the South Korean communities were. There are few garbage cans, but residents simply don’t litter. They take personal responsibility for their garbage and don’t drop it in public places. “It’s significant to see that difference,” said Mayor Panciuk. “There are no cigarette butts around like we see here. No fast food coffee cups or wrappers. It’s all cleaned up.”“I was also amazed by the park system, which

makes sense in a country so concentrated with people. They don’t have a lot of space,

but they do a very, very good job with the space they have. They also understand quality of life means having municipal services for recreation purposes.”

Mayor Panciuk noted the Belleville visitors were warmly received and a traditional exchange of gifts was one of the first items on the delegation’s agenda in Gunpo. “We presented photos and a team jacket to Mayor Han and we presented ice wine and maple syrup to members of their exchange committee and their counsellors. I received back from them a top set that is quite beautiful and a plate that, in ancient times, was used to determine whether the food was poisonous. I also received a ginseng set.”

“The greatest gift they gave us was the hospitality they showed us for the entire time we were there.”

South Korea represents an attractive, competitive market, and a key focus of the Belleville delegation’s visit was export opportunities. Korea represents the 11th largest economy globally and is the world’s sixth largest importer.

Chris King, Chief Executive Officer of the Quinte Economic Development Commission, was part of the Belleville delegation. This was his second trip to Korea, the first 12 years ago. He felt this visit had a greater focus on business. “They’re very export-focused, trade-focused. They import a lot of food and consumer goods and other products. We see opportunities to export products from this

region into South Korea, and there’s also an opportunity for foreign direct investment. Canada and Korea have a free trade agreement. I’m a firm believer in investment following trade, so to be front and centre and be on their radar is important.”

Belleville already has one Korean manufacturer located in the city’s industrial park: Hanon Systems Canada Inc. The company has two manufacturing facilities here providing 700 jobs. Mando Corporation was founded in Gunpo and chose Belleville as its first non-Korean venture back in 1989. The company name was later changed to Halla Climate Controls and more recently, Hanon Systems Canada Inc. Hanon Systems

manufactures climate control systems, which regulate temperature in cars, trucks, and other vehicles. The systems are provided to auto plants in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

In recognition of the company’s 30-year investment in Belleville, the Mayor and others met with the President & COO of Hanon Systems at his offices in Seoul. “We asked if there was anything that we could do, either municipally or regionally, to help,” said Mayor Panciuk. “He was very pleased with their (Belleville) plant. He’s coming personally in June for the 30th anniversary and ironically, he was a plant manager here in Belleville in the 1980s. He knew about Belleville, is familiar with it, and wanted to talk about the changes in the city.”

Asked about the value of taking a delegation to Korea, the Mayor noted all Ontario municipalities are currently struggling to deliver required basic services, so other avenues must be explored. “If we simply rely on our current tax base or the provincial government, we’re really limited. For us to be able to offer more means we must go out and get more. Getting more means bringing businesses. The Hanon contribution over the last 30 years has allowed us to have a better quality of life because they have been here in Belleville. This trip was about recognizing that, appreciating it, and trying to take it to the next level.”

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If you’re suffering from nerve problems in the arms and legs, you must read about a clinical study that shows an answer for pain relief.

Numbness, tingling, and pain is an extremely annoying problem.

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MORE PILLS ARE NOT THE SOLUTIONA common treatment for many nerve problems is the ‘take some pills and wait and see’ method.

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THE LIKELY CAUSE OF YOUR PROBLEMChiropractic has been helping people with neuropathy and nerve problems for more than 100 years.

Often neuropathy is caused by a degenerating spine pressing on the nerve roots. This can happen in any of the vertebral joints from the neck all the way down to the tail bone.

The good news is that chiropractic treatments have proven effective in helping to remove the pressure on the nerves.

By using gentle techniques, we are able to release the pressure that has built up on the nerve. This allows the nerve to heal and the symptoms to go away.

COULD THIS BE YOUR SOLUTION?It’s time for you to find out if chiropractic will be your neuropathy solution.

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WHY NOT GET HELP BY THOSE TRAINED TO CORRECT THE MAJOR CAUSE OF PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY.See the chiropractic clinics below offering this nerve evaluation.

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Belleville officials met with the Canadian embassy in Seoul at the beginning of their trip. It was a helpful meeting to better understand the economic development opportunities from South Korea, as well as the potential challenges. “Embedded within the embassy is an Ontario representative from the provincial government,” said Chris.

“We had a chance to meet with her as well. You have to be there, kind of fly the flag and say, ‘We’re here. We’re open for business.’” Chris noted relationships with countries like South Korea are very important and taking the time to help trade commissioners understand what Belleville has to offer can lead to future investments in the community.

The relationship between Belleville and Gunpo began with a Belleville resident. George Kang was the owner of Victoria Convenience in Belleville in the 1990s. He was friends with Gunpo’s Mayor Cho, who told him Gunpo was interested in establishing twin city partnerships with international communities. George spoke with Belleville’s Mayor at the time, George Zegouras, who embraced the idea. Unfortunately, Mr. Kang passed away in 1996, before the sister city partnership was established. His son, Simon Kang, took over and worked with the city to finish what his father had started. Simon and his wife have


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been involved since. “I work with the City of Belleville as City Ambassador and then I work for Gunpo City as Twinning Advisor,” said Simon. “When we go to Gunpo, I do translation. When they come to Belleville, I act as an ambassador.” There have been eight exchange visits in total since 1996.“Without Simon, we would not have had

as good a trip,” said Mayor Panciuk. “He understands the protocol. He understands the language, obviously, so he was a great translator. He also made sure that the appropriate gifts were at all the different places. It really was essential.”“I think Simon’s greatest fear was that,

with so many people, we were going to get lost,” added the Mayor. “I think he was very relieved at the end of the trip that no one had gotten lost, no one had gotten into any trouble. We were all good.”

Mayor Panciuk said the next get-together with Gunpo officials will happen in the Quinte region. “I already verbally made an invitation to Mayor Han for a delegation to come next year. We’re just finalizing a range of dates. I’m expecting we will have a visit from them early June 2020, where we get to showcase some of our wonderful services and our industry and some of our cultural differences.”

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The City of Belleville’s Pop-Ups on the Bay got off to a rocky start with its launch date delayed by a late spring, and flooding forcing an eleventh hour location change, but in a serendipitous turn of events the outcome is a perfect combination of seasonal pop-up businesses the City hopes will attract more people to Belleville’s parks and waterfront trails.

Pop-ups are businesses that go up quickly and usually for a limited time, explains Elisha Purchase, Development and Tourism Assistant with the Economic and Strategic Initiatives department for the City of Belleville. She says Pop-Ups on the Bay fits right in with the City’s development priorities.

Story by Cindy DuffyPhotography by Daniel Vaughan & City of Belleville

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“The idea came around as a short-term fix to activating our waterfront, as waterfront development is a priority for the City long term. This is a way to generate activity right away, to encourage business interest at the waterfront, and to get more people down there.”

Victoria Park was the first choice location for Phase 1 of the pop-ups project, a popular fishing spot for locals, home to Ontario’s second oldest yacht club, the popular Belleville Dragon Boat Club, and the Victoria docks. It was already a hub of water-based activities and easily accessible from the downtown core. Water levels beyond any local control – the International Lake Ontario St. Lawrence River board determines outflows from the lake determining Bay of Quinte Water levels and levels all the way down the St. Lawrence – meant launch delays, and flooding eventually forced a last minute change of location from Victoria Park to West Riverside Park on Moira Street East.

Fortunately for three of the four pop-up businesses, the busy Riverside Park location is still a good fit. The Brick Oven Pizza’s new truck will feature traditional stone fired gourmet pizza, pastas, desserts, and non-

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alcoholic beverages. The Golden Scoop, owned and operated by local dairy farmer and athlete Jackie Jarrell, will serve up Canadian made and locally produced ice cream, as well as protein and energy products. Visitors can burn off the treats and explore the area by renting a bike from the Doug’s Bicycles pop-up. In the business of selling and repairing bikes for more than 40 years and run by a group of avid cyclists, the pop-up expands their business with its new rental venue. The Riverside location is great for cyclists. “You can connect from the Riverside Trail to the Parrot Riverside Trail which takes you down to the waterfront and Victoria Park,” says Elisha. “If you’re really ambitious you can continue on to the Kiwanis Bayshore trail.”

The pop-ups offer a “nice mix,” continues Elisha, with something for just about everyone, whether you want to grab a bite to eat, get some exercise, or just relax and watch the river run.

The fourth pop-up, unfortunately, was dependent on the Victoria Park location with its Bay of Quinte access. Cruising Canoes is a Belleville-based adventure tour company. They had hoped their pop-up would expand their business by offering pontoon boat tours launched from Victoria Park, partnering with the downtown to incorporate a historical tour before getting on the boat. They had also

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planned to be running day camps and renting kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards from this location. “Although we have been unable to secure

a location for Cruising Canoes suitable and safe for (pop-up) operations, the City will continue to promote all events and activities activated by Cruising Canoes as the season progresses,” says Elisha.

Besides working on their own businesses, the pop-up vendors are working together on ideas to attract more people, “We’re talking about all kinds of things like park games, giant Jenga, and live music throughout the season. It’s really going to be a hub of activity, a fun spot to go to in the summertime.”

The pop-ups will be able to take debit or credit. “We’re investing in better infrastructure at the site, and we have modems to allow transactions to happen electronically and adequate Wi-Fi in the park. It’s a big part of our budget because it’s very difficult for businesses to operate without that kind of infrastructure in place. They could potentially be missing out on sales and we don’t want that to happen.”

The pop-up vendors pay $300 per month to the City to lease the space to offset some of the project costs. Just by doing business they will be collecting valuable data for the City to help with future planning.

Elisha says the success of Pop-Ups on the Bay this year should help to raise the project profile for next year. “My hope is Phase One will present a good opportunity to get the word out and create some brand identity for the project. When we launch Phase 2, we’ll have that many more people understanding what kind of activity is happening and what the opportunities for businesses are. I think it’s a great opportunity for students, so hopefully we’ll see some interest from that demographic moving forward.”

Along with the support from City Council, the project has had a great deal of interest from the broader community as well. “They are excited about it, and we’ve had great support. The Belleville Downtown Improvement Area, our local Chamber of Commerce, Bay of Quinte Regional Marketing Board, Trenval Business Development Corporation, and City Council are unanimously supportive of this project.”

City council has already approved the $150,000 budget for Phase 1 and Phase 2 of Pop-Ups on the Bay. The pre-approved budget for next year means City planners have the luxury of a year to plan for Phase 2.

Of course, no one can predict the weather, but Belleville’s waterfront pop-ups make even a rainy day a fun adventure.




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At home with CQL’s Alan Gratias Peni and Victor

Photography by Alan Gratias

The invitation from Peni was simple. “Come for vodka tonics in the shade under the big maple tree. I will put out the wicker furniture.” The winter has been mean, far too long, and brutish. Now spring is playing tricks so the prospect of cocktails at the water’s edge with Peni Patrick and her husband, Victor Lind, gives us a jolt of optimism – that invigorating fever Canadians feel at the turn of seasons. Like us, Victor and Peni have returned from a month in the Low Country in South Carolina and are disappointed in winter’s reluctance to bid adieu. Joanie and I are cheered by the idea of drinks in early May, longer days, early buds, spreading green in the hedgerows, and ice in our cocktails instead of Picton Bay. We don’t have to drive far from Glenora along the Loyalist Parkway to the Patrick/Lind residence outside of Picton, where the bay opens to a view of Long Reach. A painted frog with bulging eyes on the signpost announces both the house and the studio of the artist, one Peni Patrick.

Victor greets Joanie and me at the front door of the former schoolhouse tucked into the shoreline. Dressed casually, he is a big man – think rugby halfback – with a physicality that would be intimidating without the soft voice and gentle manner. But make no mistake about the passionate point of view. He gives us a tour of the rambling home, very English and cosy, with unexpected nooks and corners,

room after room, all chockablock with art, antiques, and mementos of two lives and careers. The view from the windows over the water is exhilarating, bringing to mind the precept that long views and distant perspectives induce tranquility, hope, and deep thinking.

“This schoolhouse was attached to the Loyal True Blue Orphanage which sat over there,” Victor says pointing to an area immediately west of their home. “The Loyal True Blue Orphans’ Home was opened with great fanfare in 1899 and was a recognizable landmark in the County for years. We have the first class list.” The orphanage was later converted to Picton Manor, a hotel, and burned down in 1941. Victor stops in front of a hand-painted fabric banner, fraying at the edges, with the slogan, “We protect our orphans.” Victor retrieved this from the Loyal True Blue Lodge Enniskillen #4 (Picton) when it closed

a few years ago. “The love of history runs strong and deep in my family.”

Peni is waiting for us through the dining room in an all-window room that might be called a conservatory. She is an attractive woman who exudes warmth and embrace and always exudes charm and good humour. Her paintings, portraits, still lifes, and landscapes, figurative in style with a hint of abstraction, are everywhere, on the walls, on the floor, filling the space with colour and memory. After earning a degree in psychology at McMaster, Peni had a career

in Special Education, both teaching and as the Ontario Director for the Canadian Association for Young Children. She points out and she should know, “most things you need to understand about life, you can learn from four- and five-year-olds in kindergarten.”

Peni became serious about painting when she retired. “I always wanted to paint as a child. Fred Varley, one of the Group of Seven, was my art teacher in the evening at his home. AY Jackson used to come over and wait for the class to finish so he and Fred could have a glass of wine.” Judging from the splendour of the art around me, including a portrait of Peni’s mother she did for her teacher, Varley would be proud of his young student. The works are both expressionistic, and impressionistic. “My focus is on energy,” she says. “I pay more


attention to light and dark than getting an exact likeness.”

Victor was raised in Oakville and graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in Urban Planning. His had his own consulting practice specializing in land development and was licenced as a commercial real estate agent. We know a lot about Victor’s family from a memoir his sister, Plum Johnson wrote about growing up in Point O’View, their rambling 22 room home on the water in Oakville. They left us Everything is a heartfelt story about what parents leave behind. The memoir, which features a cover of a family photo including Victor as the youngest of five children, won the RBC Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction.

“That was my sister’s take on the family,” Victor explains. “Mine is different.”

Victor and Peni were married at Point O’View nine years ago, the last family occasion in the house before it was sold. They discovered the County a few years later, buying the schoolhouse property within hours of seeing it. Between them they have four grown children living in Toronto, three sons and a daughter, from their first marriages, all launched and independent. Just as Peni has reinvented herself as an artist, Victor is leading the charge on several

environmental issues, like Save Picton Bay, to keep the waters of the harbour clean and navigable for everyone in the County. He is also a skilled woodworker with the tools, shop, and inventory to prove it. He made an imaginative product for everyone on his Christmas list this year – elegant toaster-tongs to retrieve toast from toasters. “Please make one for me,” I plead, feeling the burn in my finger from this morning’s dig for a deep-set slice.

We move to the leafing maple with tumblers in hand where Peni has arrayed the white wicker furniture. The late afternoon light is the colour of champagne and equally intoxicating. We morph into a zone of calm and well-being. “This is our summer ritual,” Peni says. “Every day, 5 p.m., bay side with vodka tonics.” There is much to look

forward to. Peni is going to Avignon, France on a painting course and Victor is planning another motorcycle road trip with his biking pals. They motorcycled Croatia last fall. I ask my favourite question, the one about the secret to a successful relationship. Peni jumps in. “Honest communication and ensuring your partner feels loved.” Victor adds. “Trust. Complete trust.” We clink glasses. “And separate holidays,” Peni toasts.

Photo courtesy Alan Gratias

Take a Closer

Look


signpostsDown in the Valley

Story by Lindi PiercePhotography by Catherine Stutt

Down in the ValleyThere’s something about Cherry

Valley that makes a person want to slow down – and it’s not just the Please Slow Down sign or the swooping curve of the road through ‘downtown.’ It’s just a Sleepy Hollow kind of spot.

One would expect a hamlet with a historic cemetery at its heart to be a fine and quiet place. It’s an old cemetery where, “one’s people, on both sides of the family” can lie companionably forever, 20 paces apart across a grassy lane. Names on old headstones are household words; so many folks are family, after generations in the small county.

County Road 18 descends into town from the tourist lands of the west and rises again on the way to Picton. A dictionary would define a valley as a cleft created by a river’s course; Cherry Valley’s river is a tree-shaded cattail creek meandering out to East Lake. In early days, a dam, millpond, and sawmill made the hollow a livelier place. Over the years, two general stores, a blacksmith, carriage and harness maker, shoemaker and tailor, post office, temperance hotel, cheese factory, and canneries came and went.

Cherry Valley has a cozy old-fashioned feel. It sits on a gentle

northwest-facing slope, bisected by the road. Old trees shade tastefully restored circa 19th century homes; new builds respect the scale of the place. There’s an absence of faux vintage subdivisions and wine bars. The 1862 red brick Methodist church and Athol Township hall (1870) form the beating heart of the village.

The Dip is the reason for Cherry Valley’s charm. Just past the hall, a gentle S-curve descends into the valley, and rises again. Buildings in the former commercial core sit companionably close to the road, their board and batten and dark-stained siding evocative of simpler times. Like the vintage Texaco garage under the trees, they are lived in, and loved.

Nostalgia explains the name, like those of many local spots. Cherry Valley was likely christened not for the area’s fruit trees, but because of a resemblance to its counterpart in northern New York state. Credit founder Alva Stephens, who arrived around 1812.

So, do like Alva Stephens. Don’t speed through this summer. Settle for a while. Park at the hall (there’s Scrabble) and stroll through Cherry Valley.

About Charlotte Charlotte Gray is one of Canada’s best-known biographers and writers of popular history. Her 11th book, Murdered Midas; a Millionaire, his Gold Mine, and a strange Death on an island Paradise will be published in September. Her ability to provide intriguing entry points into Canadian history has earned her a large readership. She was the celebrity advocate for Sir John A. Macdonald on CBC’s Who is the Greatest canadian?sisters in the Wilderness, which Charlotte published in 1999, was named as one of the 25 most influential Canadian books of the past 25 years by the literary Review of canada. It was made into a CBC docudrama. She has frequently served on Writers Trust committees, as well as being a juror for the Cundill History prize, Scotiabank Giller Prize, the RBC Taylor Prize.Born in Sheffield, and a graduate of Oxford University and the London School of Economics, Charlotte came to Canada in 1978. She worked as a political commentator, book reviewer, and magazine columnist before she turned to biography and popular history. An adjunct research professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, she holds five honorary degrees and is a member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She and her husband George Anderson live in Ottawa, have a cottage in the Rideau Lakes region, and frequently visit the County.When I ask her one last question, what secret of a successful marriage would she like to share, Charlotte is quick to reply. “Plenty of space.”

Sa itarg’SG r a v i t a s Q u o t i e n tG r a v i t a s Q u o t i e n t i s a m e a s u r e o f o n e ’ s r e s e r v e s o f i n n e r w i s d o m .

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Discover your Gravitas Quotient at www.gravitasthegame.com

By Alan Gratias

Q&ACharlotte Gray answers 17 Gravitas

questions with alan Gratias

Name oNe uNiversal rule of frieNdship?avoid backbiting.

What are you goiNg to do about groWiNg old?imitate my mother.

What makes your heart staNd still?My granddaughter’s smile.

if you kNeW the truth, hoW Would you reveal it?sparingly.

We all hope there Will be oNe more time. oNe more time for What? improving my net play at tennis.

What do you Wish your mother uNderstood about you?i’m just not a hairband kind of person.

Name oNe secret you do Not WaNt to discover before you die?the world is fluffy.

if you Were goiNg to lauNch a NeW prohibitioN, What Would you outlaW?Hand guns. and the nra.

hoW Would you like to reWire your braiN?i would like the language-learning synapses strengthened so i might become instantly bilingual.

if you Were to ask for diviNe iNterveNtioN, What Would it be for?to eliminate religious extremism.

Why do We sometimes crave chaos?to escape boredom.

Why should We haNg oNto our illusioNs?they are as good as the next person’s.

WheN do reality aNd faNtasy merge?When i read my reviews on Goodreads.

What is the best Way to get liceNsed as aN adult?Produce a child.

hoW caN We escape the trap liNe of our oWN obsessioNs? By reading good books – fiction and non-fiction –that expand our horizons.

hoW do you shake thiNgs up? By ignoring the emperor’s new clothes.

What is the best Way to deal With coNfusioN? to drink a glass of chilled Prosecco on the deck of our cottage.

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beautiful for years to come. For details, visit sansin.com or timbertopstore.ca

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