Shari Tallon knows well the many benefits that youngsters experience when given the opportunity to express themselves creatively in a safe and nurturing environment. Tallon, who is a musician and music teacher, was a former children's entertainer and educational assistant at Granite Ridge Education Centre in Sharbot Lake. With that in mind, she began a special after-school program there this year, which invites students to engage in the dramatic arts.

The program is funded by a grant from Marcel Giroux of W.A. Robinson Asset Management and the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy, and is now in its second installment. It focuses on dynamic, improvisational dramatic play rather than a structured dramatic process. The students are given an opportunity to explore their own creativity while interacting with others, and to express their inner personae without fear of being judged. The experience allows the students to share their ideas, to take risks and develop friendships; to improve their social skills and academics while gaining the acceptance of their peers.

The program encourages the participants to find their own voice through exploring the dramatic arts, media technology, sound effects, and music in a truly spontaneous and collaborative environment. Tallon is a firm believer in the benefits of free-form creative play, something she says is becoming rare in our increasingly structured world, where youngsters are not often enough given the opportunity to let their imaginations run wild. “When you think about school and after-school programs these days, there are not a lot of unstructured programs. This program is open-ended and kids can initiate expressive communication and play in a safe, open, and caring environment. When you offer kids creativity, it is not only fun for them, but through role playing and playing off of others, the students learn problem-solving and social skills. This helps build an inner strength that they can take with them out into the world.”

Similarly, Tallon stressed the positive mental health benefits of this kind of program. “I believe this program is great for kids' mental health because students can express themselves outwardly in a positive way instead of keeping their thoughts inside.” She has witnessed some students who, since joining the program, have slowly come out of their shells. “I have seen some students who, in the beginning, have perhaps concentrated mainly on doing sound effects but as we continued on, have begun to act out roles totally from their own volition. The key here is that students feel they have a safe place to be themselves.”

At each class, the students begin by agreeing on a scenario, which often revolves around a theme like comedy, murder mystery, or fantasy; however, each is given the opportunity to respond and add their own ideas into the mix.

The program also encourages the participants to organize themselves since they have to remember cues, record sound effects, play musical accompaniment and/or film videos of their creations. Currently, the students have been filming their scenarios, which has opened up a whole new world to them. There are plans to start a YouTube channel where the students will share the work they've been doing.

Two assistants in the program, Michelle McCumber and Tabitha Freeman, are also planning to put together a newsletter to keep fans updated on the program's progress.

Some parents of the students said they have seen their children gain confidence since joining the program and, not surprisingly, the students themselves also had good things to say. Will, who is in Grade 7, said he has lots of fun and often plans and writes his ideas at home before coming to school. Draven said that the program “is a once in a lifetime opportunity” and something that he really loves to do. Grade 9 student Aurora said that she loves being able to explore different styles of acting and play multiple characters. “Playing different roles really teaches you empathy, since you have to really think about and try to feel what it would be like to be that person.”

Tallon said she hopes members of the community will also get involved with the program and is hoping to encourage a few volunteers to offer their time. She is also in need of donations, which could include healthy snacks and/or costumes, wigs and props. Anyone who may have something to offer can contact Shari at 613-876-0293.

So, where was the old station? One of the most common questions of visitors to the caboose in Sharbot Lake will soon be answered by one of many new signs which are in the works, after the Railway Heritage Society received funding from the Trillium Foundation for this project.

Twelve signs dotted along the old CP railway line (now part of the Trans-Canada Trail) from the site of the former Road 38 overpass, through the village and on to the wye (the track extension allowing the engine to turn around) will tell of the railway activity which took place in days gone by. This Heritage Trail will tell of the old village site by the beach, how the trains turned around without a turntable, how the old steam trains filled their boilers, where the cattle was loaded onto the trains and much more.

The group has many drafts ready and are working on finalizing the setup but are still open to more good-quality photos or information.

There has been some interest from the community in dedicating one or more signs in memory of family members, with appropriate recognition by way of a plaque, and the group is open to extending this idea to others, (contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). The aim is to have the project completed by the end of the coming summer.

Once completed, along with the new children’s playground structure, and repairs to the recently damaged carts, this new addition to the village should add to visitors' enjoyment of the area and will help achieve the group’s mandate to “Keep alive the railway heritage of the area.”

After a well-attended kick-off in November, Music and Friends, hosted by Feral Five, will be starting up again at The Crossing Pub in Sharbot Lake with a series of musical evenings. The evenings are designed to showcase good quality, local, amateur musicians, and will take place on the 4th Thursday of the month in February, March and April. Entertainment involves the musical antics of Feral Five along with performances by invited guests, and the opportunity to hit the dance floor if the spirit moves you. The evenings run from 7:30 to 10 p.m. keeping in mind that some people need to get up for work the next day.

Thursday, February 25 will feature TRXTRS: the husband and wife team of Jerrard and Diana Smith. The repertoire of this dynamic duo consists of rootsy country tunes mixed with blues, some old standards and even some reggae. The audience is sure to enjoy Jerrard's resonant voice and instrumental work coupled with Diana's melodic vocals. A $5 cover charge will be collected at the door with seating limited to 85. Drinks are available from the bar. Anyone interested in a meal before the music starts should make reservations at the Sharbot Lake Country Inn (613-279-2198) in advance.

Other guest performers include The Bedhead Buskers (Gabby White & Nathan Paul) on Thursday, March 24, whose music is a mixture of East Coast, Folk and Bluegrass tunes sung to the accompaniment of guitar, fiddle and mandolin. We certainly look forward to hearing the efforts of this new duo. Thursday, April 28 brings Julia Schall and Shawn Savoie back to our stage. Julia and her endearing musical talents accompanied by Shawn on stand-up bass are always entertaining, but, as an added feature, they will also be joined by Amy Gillan (vocals and mandolin) and Bruce McConnell (vocals and banjo).

So if you're looking for something to do over the cold, dark winter evenings, join us for Music and Friends. You won't be disappointed.

Performers are storytellers at heart. One way or another every song tells a story of some kind. Performers also tell stories between songs, and often develop a kind of patter that works for them as they travel from town to town.

It seems that singer songwriters who, like Matthew Hornell, are from the Maritimes, also like to tell funny and heartfelt stories between the songs. The stories help to cement the relationship between the performer and the audience. They tend to have an off-the-cuff feel even if the same story is told night after night on tour.

In Hornell's case, at least on Friday night, he would begin stories, then digress to another story, then shift to a different location at a different time in his life, and then say, “Don't worry, we'll get back to the story eventually.”

I'm pretty sure he always did, and it was a fun ride along the way. His songs have some of the melancholy edge from the East Coast, and a musicality and zip that comes from the mix of east coast Celtic and bluegrass influences. Hornell has been touring with dobro player Andrew Sneddon, but as he kicked off a mini-tour of eastern Ontario that continues in Picton, Wakefield, Ottawa and Peterborough, he performed solo, as Sneddon has backed out of the tour because of a family matter.

Hornell was more than capable of performing solo. His guitar work, singing voice, original songs and a few covers had enough variety to keep the evening flowing with no let up. He also paid tribute to the late Newfoundland songwriter Ron Hynes, the first performer ever to grace the Crossing Pub stage, with a tune during each set.

Near the end of the second set, local fiddle and mandolin partners, Gabrielle White and Nate Paul, joined Hornell on stage, and a different side of Hornell was shown, as a singer and player who loves to share the stage, on both Celtic and bluegrass-tinged numbers.

The concert of Baroque music at the Cardinal Café on Saturday night was the first of a planned series of concerts there. Edwin Huizinga, who is one of a few people in the world who play the Baroque repertoire on a period instrument on a full-time basis, said at the beginning that Baroque music was often played, not in concert halls, but in small cafes in Vienna and the surrounding region almost 300 years ago.

The cafe is located in the lovingly renovated, former Sharbot Lake Catholic Church. Although the cultural references in the music are lost on most modern Frontenac and Lanark County residents, the music had such energy and musicality in the hands of the two musicians, and the church has such great acoustics that it sounded like genuinely modern music.

This is a testament, not only to the unique talent of J. S. Bach, the composer who wrote most of the music performed on Saturday night, but also to the contemporary sensibility of the performers.

The first piece of the evening was for solo violin, Bach's Partita in E Major. The first thing that was apparent, apart from Huizinga's personal presence, was the acoustics in the cafe. The sound filled the hall completely, as if it were springing off the violin, Huizinga's breathing providing a bit of a counterpoint. Then the music itself took hold, the themes playing with each other, back and forth, the pace changing and changing again; the clarity of sound creating an unexpected emotionally punch, from exhilaration to tears in equal measure.

The next piece introduced Philip Fournier and the harpsichord, the Bach B Minor Obbligato Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord.

After the solo violin piece it took a minute or two to get used to the sound of the two instruments playing together. In the hands of the two players, the interplay between the two added more and more depth and by the end of the Sonata the audience was buzzing with enthusiasm.

The second half of the concert started with a sonata by Jean Marie Leclair, followed by a Bach Prelude and Fugue played by Fournier alone on Harpsichord. As good as the two were as a duo, there was something special about the solo pieces, a chance to focus, as a listener, on a single instrument played with facility and sensitivity. Fournier's solo performance was as satisfying as Huizinga's had been at the start of the concert.

The final piece of the night was also by J.S. Bach, the G Major Sonata. It was a show stopper, literally, as the audience broke into a standing ovation after the first movement, leading Huizinga, somewhat sheepishly, to inform the crowd after they stopped clapping that “there are four more movements, but maybe we can think of them as four short encores.”

Jonas Bonnetta, who organized the show, said he hopes to put another one on, likely jazz next time, in May. He said that as a way of tying the series together, tickets to the next concert might come with a recording of this one. The Cardinal Café will be closed for February and re-open on March 1.

Frontenac Heritage Festival organisers have issued a gentle challenge to businesses and not-for-profits in Central Frontenac. Any demonstration of festival spirit will make the businesses eligible for one of two prizes and will help to publicize the festival and their role in it.

The festival’s organising committee chair, Janet Gutowski, who set up the contest, said she doesn't want businesses to see this as anything that is difficult or a bother to do.

“They do not need to dress up in period costume if they don’t want to, although even if they do, it need not be from 150 years ago. For instance, perhaps the Royal Bank first came to Sharbot Lake in the 1920s. The staff could dress in flapper style and be celebrating their heritage,” said Gutowski.

She said that restaurants could put special dishes on the menu, and stores could put certain products on display. “As long as the establishments are feeling festive they can enter” she said.

And, she added, any kind of enterprise can enter. The not-for-profits, home-based businesses, even trades people, can enter.

In order to register, participants need only send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. saying that they will participate.

The judges, who will be in full costume, will be coming around on Friday Feb. 12, the opening day of the festival. Winners will be announced by Mayor Frances Smith after the opening ceremony, which is set for 6:45 pm at the foyer of Granite Ridge Education Centre. The ceremony will be followed by the annual Variety Show at 7pm.

*Please note – there were errors in the festival insert in the Central Frontenac tax bills. Contrary to what the insert says, there will be no fireworks on the opening night of the festival, and there is no photo contest.

Jerome Thomson was the first owner, followed by his son Harold, Mr. Hearty, the M & M chain, owned and operated by Barry Eady, then by John Lee, first as the Red & White and later as the Valumart. John sold the store and business in 1993 to Bret Harvey. In 2006 Chuck Belcher became the new franchise owner of the store, which became a Freshmart.

Finally, in 2013, the store became Mike Dean's Super Food Store.
Jerome Thomson and family moved to Sharbot Lake and bought out a Mr. Heaslip. Beatrice Millikin worked in the office of Thomson & Avery's store and she and Percy met there while both were employed there.

Leverne Barker said that the framework for the first Barker Store on # 38 came from the timbers from the garage of the Thomson's store.
Thomson's store was such a landmark and quite the centre of town, that for years after the store was sold and the Thomsons were no longer connected with it, it was still known as "Thomson's".
Thomson's epitomized all that we remember about a Country General Store. It was more than a store ... it was a meeting place, a place to catch up on "gossip", both from men & women. A visit there could be for groceries, to pick up your mail, have a game of checkers or chess, leave a message, buy furniture, to buy small farm equipment or even a coffin. In the early days coffins were stored upstairs along with the furniture.

Zoe Emily Lianga’s work will be on display for the month of February in Dean Hall at the MERA Schoolhouse in McDonalds Corners. There will also be an exhibit opening and vernissage on Friday, February 5 from 7 - 10pm, with refreshments. This showcase highlights the merging of her separate paths as a designer, felt maker, and fibre artist. Her work will include wall hangings and quilts, clothing, accessories, bags, and home decor.

Her wearable, felted clothing and accessories, made from luxurious fibres (such as camel, yak, merino, and silk), impart a softness that is without parallel. Each design is developed in its own characteristic way, involving a process of much precision, tactility and organic spontaneity.

Zoe’s tailored clothes are built off classic lines, sewn from original patterns and made with 100% recycled fabrics. Her background in study at the Richard Robinson Academy of Fashion Design, focusing on Pattern Making and Haute Couture Sewing, has helped her to design, draft and make her intricately tailored visions. Her creativity takes on a different form in her art pieces and wall hangings, both demonstrating her level of workmanship, plus the overall diversity of fibre arts and felt making.

Zoe has taught several wet felting workshops at the MERA Schoolhouse, where her work is on display during the entire month of February.

Come share in a fun-filled evening, and see where three years of devotion to fibre arts and felt making has taken this local fibre artist.

The Sharbot Lake Country Inn is kicking off another year of dinners and music next Friday, January 29, with a folk/bluegrass show by Newfoundlander Matthew Hornell, accompanied by Nova Scotian Andrew Sneddon.

Hornell began his musical career in the singer/songwriter vein, with the Newfoundland sense of story telling serving him well. However, he moved to Halifax for a few years, and he blames Halifax, as well as Sneddon, for his detour into Bluegrass.

“Once you hear a sound you like, whatever it is, even if it’s the birds singing in the morning, it just kind of takes over,” he told a St. John's newspaper in advance of a tour of the province with Sneddon last summer.

As a duo with Sneddon, a multi-instrumentalist who specializes in the Dobro, there is almost an Appalachian/melancholic feel to the originals and cover tunes that Hornell plays, an influence that plays well off the East Coast traditions that they both wear like old clothing.

These influences lead to the kind of intimate show that fits perfectly for a winter night at the Sharbot Lake County Inn and should make a good start to a season of shows that is planned.

Dinner starts at 6 pm and the show starts at 8pm. It is $50 for the dinner and show and $20 for the show only.

Other shows coming up include 2015 East Coast Music Awards Roots Traditional Recording of the Year winner, Irish Mythen; the Scots, Irish, Cape Breton fusion band The Outside Track; Oh Suzanna; Carlos Junco; the Slocan Ramblers; and more. Later in February, the Feral Five & Friends will be back as well.

In order to encourage local residents to share their unique experiences of local history, members of the Cloyne & District Historical Society have begun inviting area residents and society members to speak at the group’s regular meetings, which take place every third Monday of the month at the Barrie hall in Cloyne.

The talks take the form of an interview, with society president Red Emond leading the questions before opening up the floor to queries and additional personal offerings from guests.

On January 18, Evelyn Petzold was the group’s special guest and she spoke about her unique childhood growing up in Denbigh and the Mazinaw Lake area, where her parents Gene (Pettifer) Brown and Irven Brown owned Brown's General Store at the head of Mazinaw Lake. Petzold spoke of many fond childhood memories when she helped out with chores around the store: pumping gas, hauling ice, packing groceries and other tasks. She recalled the busy Fridays that were always special and memorable since that was the day that the weekly delivery of Foster's Ice Cream arrived by truck, packed and smoking with the dry ice used to keep it from melting. “It was the best ice cream you could imagine and I remember that kids would be waiting around the store on those days to buy a cone, which at that time cost about five cents.”

The store was especially busy in the summer months because of tourists and locals arriving to cash cheques and buy their groceries, which Evelyn's mother Gene would order in.

Evelyn's father Irven also worked at a local saw mill, guided hunters in the fall and ran trap lines in the winter months. When the store required moving years later, Evelyn's father and Cole Cummings built a second store in 1947 and ran it until 1971 before selling it to Ron Pethick.

Petzold recalled spending much of her summers at the beach and in the water and that back in 1949 Denbigh was a much busier place than it is now.

She and her husband William lived in Denbigh where William worked in construction and logging, and she recalled what a huge undertaking it was when they needed a bigger home and property because of their growing family of nine children. “William came up with the bright idea of moving our entire house.”

So William, with the help of a mover who had experience moving homes on the St. Lawrence River, together moved the entire home with all its contents from a corner lot in the village of Denbigh to a property three miles out of town. “They brought in a truck with three large timbers on it and jacked the house up off its foundation. .loaded it onto the truck and drove the entire house, intact, three miles down the road. I remember there was a guy standing on top of the house as it was being moved, whose job it was to raise the hydro lines with a long stick as the house passed underneath them.”

She recalled that a glass of water sitting on a table inside the house remained undisturbed for the entire trip and that the event attracted more onlookers than the local Denbigh fair.

Petzold spoke of long walks to school and later of an army truck that took her to high school. “The truck was wired closed at the back where you could see the snow coming in.”

Following her talk, Shirley Pettifer Miller, a cousin of Evelyn's, presented her with a collection of stories, yarns, songs and poems put together by Evelyn's mother Gene titled “Old Logs Leave Good Memories Sometimes”, which tells of the history of Denbigh and the many local events that took place there. “To me this is very valuable and for that reason I copied it all and will include it in a book that I am making of our family's history and memories”, Miller said when she presented the collection to Petzold.

Tales of local history tend to attract outsiders looking for information about their own family histories and that was the case for one Belleville resident who made a special trip to Cloyne for the talk. Dwight Malcolm heard about the event through his daughter-in-law and came out to find out more about his grandparents, John and Alice Malcolm, who he thinks settled in the Denbigh area in the 1870s. Following the talk Malcolm joined the society and said that he plans to come back to learn more about the history of the area.

Coming up at the society’s next regular meeting will be an interview with Glenn Davison, who will be speaking about early life in Flinton on Monday, February 15 at 1pm. Anyone interested in joining or learning more about the society can visit pioneer.mazinaw.on.ca or call Red Emond at 613-336-8011.