If you live in a rural area, as many of us in this area do, you’ll maybe know the old saying, “the (insert name fruit or vegetable here) want picking.” Well, I’ve got rows of beans that “want picking,” and hundreds of pounds of potatoes virtually crying out from underground to, “please, please, please dig us up soon or heaven knows what we’ll do.” Continue reading
Author: findinghopeness
Shipping Radioactive Waste Through the Great Lakes
The apparent lack of public concern about the proposed shipment of huge amounts of radioactive waste scrap metal from the Bruce Nuclear Plant from the Port of Owen Sound, through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway and on to Sweden for recycling is unfortunate. Continue reading
Hopeness forest gorillas and those that overreacted during G20 are 2 totally different kinds of beasts
Just a few kilometres down our road here in the resurgent wilderness of Hope Ness on the Bruce Peninsula is perhaps one of the strangest, and certainly one of the most unexpected sights one would expect to find here of all places.
Just where the road passes through the deepest, darkest, most mysterious section of the Hope Ness-Hope Bay forest there’s been for many years a large group of jungle animals hanging on the tree trunks and branches on either side.
Get liberal, Liberals
There’s a tall, mature maple tree about 100 metres off to one side and behind the house here at Hope Ness.
Underneath it is a large area of rough ground covered with wild grass and underbrush, and a thin layer of soil and moss. Only by venturing in, pushing aside the many small branches, would you discover the old rock pile. We started digging there for rocks last week to make a border for the new flower garden beside the house and discovered buried treasure.
I wonder if it takes a certain inclination of mind, and even spirit, to see what interesting things rocks are, each one in its own way. Did the Greigs and the Butcharts, the pioneer homestead families that cleared this land many years ago, stop as we did to marvel at the different patterns and textures? Continue reading
New provincial legislation to curb violence at work
The wheels and gears of government often grind and turn exceedingly slow in response to pressing socio-economic problems.
Anyone who has been in the workforce and worked at different jobs for many years, as I did, has more than likely experienced workplace harassment and violence in its various forms either directly or indirectly. I had a warehouse boss once who liked to squeeze buttocks as probationary workers stood beside his desk and he pointed out mistakes they had made. Back in those days, nobody complained, for fear of “not making” their probation. He had developed the habit during the war years when most of the workers in the automotive parts warehouse were women; and it simply carried on after the war when it became an all-male staff again, as it still was when I worked there from the mid-60s into the mid-70s. Continue reading
Ovid Jackson a nice, friendly person, like so many others in the area
The news that Ovid Jackson is to be named to the Order of Ontario got me thinking about nice people this week.
Those of us who are students of history and close followers of current events at home in Canada, and abroad, could be forgiven for thinking nice people are few and far between; indeed, if all you do is read history books and newspapers or surf the Internet for that sort of thing and otherwise don’t get out much it’s not hard to understand why ivory-tower academics devote lifetimes of deep thinking to the study of human nature. I mean, are we good or evil beings? Are we God’s children or the devil’s spawn? Continue reading
Progressive Conservatives Likely to Win in Fall 2011
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario stands a pretty good chance of winning the next provincial election in the fall of 2011. It’s relatively new leader, Tim Hudak, will therefore be Premier. Continue reading
Parliament Passes First Reading of a Bill to Amend the Firearms Act
If you know the woods, you likely also know deer hunting season is a good time to stay out of them. I was tempted to put on my bright red toque and cut some firewood anyway last week, the weather being ideal and all, but thought better of it. No matter what, I certainly wouldn’t have taken the dogs with me, especially after what I saw Thursday of that week. Continue reading
People Both For and Against Wind Energy Should Take a Deep Breath
Just when I thought I was maybe morphing into a bear (stay out of sight, avoid contact with humans, get lots of rest), along comes this wind turbine thing on the Bruce Peninsula. Continue reading
Opening adoption records sparks memories
Ontario’s new Adoption Records Act, which makes adoption information more accessible, opens up some interesting possibilities for the children of adopted parents.
Both my parents were adopted many years ago. My elderly mother who is still alive was adopted by her maternal grandparents. Largely because of that she knows a lot about her Scottish-English ancestral background, especially on her maternal side. Continue reading
Finding Hope Ness 