“We are at a critical juncture in Ontario — the proverbial fork in the road,” reads the sign-up sheet for Power in the Climate Era, part of Wintergreen Studios’ summer series Healing Earth. “Our hydro prices are amongst the highest in Canada (and we’re feeling it).
“Furthermore, we’re sourcing more than 60 per cent of our electricity from aging nuclear reactors (and) our three nuclear stations are all coming to the end of their lives in the next decade.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to Ontario onto a 100 per cent renewable grid. But is this even possible?”

That’s one of the questions they attempted to answer last Saturday along with the help of featured speakers Angela Bischoff, environmental writer Paul McKay and St. Lawrence College’s Energy Systems Engineering Technology professor Steve Lapp.
“Rena (Wintergreen founding president Upitis) invited me and I came to help generate discussion,” said Bischoff, who has a long history in the environmental movement, currently with the Ontario Clean Air Alliance.
“She almost single-handedly ended coal as a source of electricity generation,” said Upitis.

“It started with phasing out coal,” Bischoff said. “But the provincial energy policy should be about 100 per cent renewable energy rather than rebuilding eight of 10 aging nuclear reactors.”
Bischoff advocates all forms of renewable energy, including wind, water, solar, geothermal and biomass electricity generation.

“We have a 59 per cent surplus on the Ontario energy grid,” she said. “We don’t need aging nuclear facilities.”

In particular, she’d like to close the Pickering nuclear facility, the fifth largest station in North America with six working reactors.
“Pickering was designed to last 30 years,” she said. “It is now 46 and its licence ends in 2018.
“Better options are natural gas, conservation and water power from Quebec.”

Perhaps the busiest place in Frontenac County was Wintergreen Studios on Canoe Lake Road as the wilderness retreat played host to Land Art BioBlitz 2017, a five-day series of workshops and species count featuring a variety of activities and visiting instructors.

Workshops featured Matt Ellerbeck, the Salamander Man, professional naturalist Richard Aaron, composer and Carleton University music professor Jesse Stewart, naturalist Bronwyn Harkness and organic vegetable farmer/environmental activist Marie Bencze.

This was Wintergreen’s third BioBlitz, however it was the first to be held over five days. The first two were one-day events.

“This year is very different,” said program director Monica Capovilla. “Instead of being a race to identifying as many organisms as possible in a 24-hour period, the idea is to mirror and honour the Slow Food movement, giving everyone a chance to form a deeper connection with the natural world.

“This is more than just species identification, it’s all about learning what’s out there and creating a better understanding of why biodiversity is so important.”

To that end, there was a steady stream of buses coming in bringing a range of classrooms from public schools in Verona and Kingston.

“For many of these kids, this is a very different space from what they’re used to,” said Capovilla, a teacher herself. “It’s about teaching them a greater respect for insects, animals, trees — and to give them a better understanding for where they fit in with it all.”

She said they hope there will be a “ripple effect” from this event resulting in more people getting interested

‘Travelling BioBlitzer’ Jason Crockwell from Pittsfield, Mass. said he made a special effort to come this year.

“Even though I’ve been living in my Jeep, and I’ve never been out of the U.S. before, I wanted something different and this certainly is it,” he said.

BioBlitz 2017 was free to the public because the support of TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, Capovilla said.

They’re already planning next year’s BioBlitz on a similar theme and it’s tentatively scheduled for the last weekend in May/first weekend in June.

Wintergreen Studios is a year-round, off-grid, art/wilderness/education retreat on a 204-acre property with mixed habitats.

They have a number of events scheduled for the summer with the next one being a medicine walk/salve-making forum with Mary Ann Spencer. See their website for details.

Engage in citizen science and learn more about what’s living in your backyard!

Between May 24th and 28th, Wintergreen Studios will be holding its 3rd annual Land Art BioBlitz where participants will have the opportunity to identity wildlife, explore the outdoors, and participate in workshops ranging from music jams to salamander and dragonfly identification. Help celebrate Canada 150 by exploring its natural heritage and learning to love its amazing diversity!

Want to learn more about wildlife identification and spend the day (or night) outdoors exploring? Want to get up close and personal with slime mold? Want to create a cacophony of nature sounds inside a geodesic dome? You can do all of these things and more at the Land Art BioBlitz! BioBlitzes bring together expert and amateur naturalists to identify as many species as possible, creating an inventory of living things used to observe future changes.

The term “BioBlitz” was coined during the first 24-hour identification event, which took place at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, Washington, DC, in 1996. Early BioBlitzes were held to measure the biodiversity of a site, which gives insight into the health and productivity of an ecosystem. Now many BioBlitzes include nature-themed programs such as ID workshops, guided hikes, and family-friendly activities to teach and excite the public about biodiversity. A combination of scientific survey and environmental education make for a fun, enriching outdoor experience.

So, what makes the Wintergreen BioBlitz different? This year, instead of it being a race to identify as many living organisms as possible in a 24-hour period, we’re planning a “slow” BioBlitz, to be held over five days. The idea is to mirror and honour the Slow Food Movement, giving everyone a chance to form a deeper connection with the natural world. It will challenge us to be more mindful and take the time to enjoy all the area and atmosphere has to offer.

Has anyone ever told you to take a hike? Well now you can, guided by an experienced naturalist! Wintergreen has lined up an amazing cast of instructors and many exciting nature and arts workshops for this year’s BioBlitz. “What makes this BioBlitz unique is that it’s way more than just species identification,” says Kate Belmore, BioBlitz 2017 co-chair. “It’s all about learning what’s out there, creating a better understanding of why biodiversity is so important, and learning how the arts both honour and extend the beauty and complexities of the natural world.”

The BioBlitz will also be host to many exciting workshops this year. Join Jesse Stewart, composer, percussionist, artist, and educator, for an impromptu music jam and a multitude of interactive musical workshops, taking us behind the scenes of our natural soundscape. Stewart will also be creating land art installations made from natural materials, to be left on-site for all to admire and eventually returning back to the earth. Richard Aaron, professional naturalist from Toronto, will transport us into the wonderful world of wildlife – exploring birding for beginners; dragonflies and damselflies, our aerial acrobats and hunters; slime moulds, half animal, half plant; and a peek at some of our rarely seen nocturnal moth species. Matt Ellerbeck, aka The Salamander Man, will be back with his crew of slimy amphibians to educate participants on the conservation of salamanders. Marie Bencze, organic vegetable farmer and founder of Rad Kids, will be showing participants how to forage the land in search of wild edibles and teach us the importance of our endangered pollinators. Bronwyn Harkness, passionate naturalist and Masters student in biology at Queen’s University, will help us look and listen for some of the local birds and learn what they’re singing about.

“There are serious environmental challenges facing our world, and loss of biodiversity is one of them,” says Monica Capovilla, BioBlitz Program Director. “We marvel at iconic species in other parts of the world, yet many of us are much less familiar with the sheer magnitude of diversity of living things that share our common spaces and the habitats that support them.

BioBlitzes are designed to raise awareness about our  current status of biodiversity and to motivate people to consider environmentally respectful practices. Every small step matters and taking the time to educate the next generation of naturalists and scientists is how change can take place down the line.”

Come for an hour, for a day, or for the entire 5-day stretch! Join us for this free, family-friendly, outdoor and environmental education retreat. Come explore the stunning land, help identify species, meet other like-minded people, and learn something new from one of the many nature and arts workshops. Day or night, you can explore the grandiosity that makes up the natural world and discover many new things about our precious planet during this extraordinary event.
About Wintergreen Studios

Wintergreen Studios is a non-profit organization and year-round, off-grid arts and wilderness educational retreat centre, located in the heart of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve, in South Frontenac, ON. It boasts a stunning and richly diverse 204-acre property featuring a network of over a dozen hiking trails through mixed forests and meadows, granite outcroppings, ponds, marshes, and even a glacier carved lake. It is home to a wide range of plant and wildlife, which makes it a perfect host for a BioBlitz.

Contact – Monica Capovilla 613-539-2842 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

“We weren't sure what to expect,” said Rena Upitis, the director of Wintergreen Studios on Saturday, June 4, as she was entering species onto a log sheet on her computer.

“But this is fantastic, isn't it!” she continued as she looked out over a building full of mostly young people who were listening to and watching the Salamander Man, Matt Ellerbeck, as he showed them some of the salamanders in his collection and talked about the salamanders that can be found in the woods, fields, and water at Wintergreen.

Last year the Kingston Field Naturalists held a 24-hour BioBlitz at Wintergreen and they identified over 1,000 species of plants, insects, and animals on the property.

When they indicated they were not going to come back this year, Upitis thought that maybe there was a way to put on a different kind of BioBlitz.

“The field naturalists are experts, and they had a scientific focus to their blitz. I wondered if there was a way to put the focus on youth and education. So I put up a poster at Queen's in late March looking for students to co-ordinate an event.” Upitis is a professor at Queen's in the faculty of education.

As part of the Queen's education program, student teachers are required to do one “alternative practicum”, a teaching opportunity outside of the normal school environment.

Two students in the department took the bait, and their three-week 'alt-practicum' turned into a three-month project. Kate Belmore and Monica Capovilla did not seem to mind, however, as they shifted gears easily from greeting and registering participants of all ages and darting about the Wintergreen property, gathering materials and supporting the presenters of the many workshops that were given during the two-day blitz.

Over 50 participants showed up on Saturday, and even with the overnight rain a total of more than 80 people spent at least part of the weekend scouring the property, looking for species and attending workshops.

Belmore and Capovilla are about to graduate from Queen's and the experience they have had organizing, promoting and executing the BioBlitz has been a highlight of their time in university.

“This kind of education is something I want to pursue, now that I've seen it in action,” said Belmore. “It might have ruined me for classroom teaching.”

In addition to the salamander workshop, there were workshops on pond life, wildflowers, even a presentation of peregrine falcons from Quebec, all spread out over the two days.

Rena Upitis took the place of Dr. Graham Whitelaw, who had been scheduled to provide a tour of the 20 metre x 20 metre bio-diversity plot at Wintergreen. He had been monitoring the plot but was not able to make it to the event.

The plot is fully inventoried, with tags on all the trees that are more than 10 cm wide as part of an effort to monitor changes over time.

There are plots throughout Canada and the one at Wintergreen includes a number of mature Butternut trees, some that have been somewhat resistant to the Butternut canker, which has devastated the population of Butternuts in Eastern Canada.

There were about 500 species identified at Wintergreen over the weekend, about half as many as in 2015. The identification of species was not the ultimate goal of this year's event, however. Sparking an interest in ecology and biodiversity in 80 people took precedence.

Last month the Kingston Field Naturalists held their 17th annual BioBlitz at Wintergreen Studios on Canoe Lake Road.

The purpose of a BioBlitz is to list as many different species as possible in a 24-hour period, thus giving a snapshot of the biodiversity of the site.

Sixty-six field observers spread over the property from 3pm on Friday, June 12 to 3pm Saturday, June 13, collecting information on everything from night time moths to early morning birds and from beautiful dragonflies to forest ferns. Participants included Kingston Field Naturalists, fellow naturalists from further afield, professionals, neighbours and youth. The public was invited.

Guided walks were held on a variety of natural history topics for those wishing to participate and learn about the ecology of the area. Topics included bird watching, and pond dipping as well as moth identification and dragonfly and butterfly listing and a plant identification walk. A couple of canoes were available to explore some wetland habitats. Other participants waded up to their waists to access the bog mat for different species. This year our non-species-listing activity was a sketching nature workshop.

All observed species were noted - from those that are very common to those on the endangered end of the scale. Plants varying in size from plankton in the pond to ferns, grasses and all herbaceous and woody plants were added to the tally. Spore-bearing species including fungi were included. All identified invertebrates including insects (butterflies, damsel and dragonflies, moths, flies, beetles, bees) and non-insect species (including spiders, ticks, centipedes, millipedes, slugs and snails), that were observed were also added to the tally. All vertebrate species (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish) were noted.

The minnow traps left in the water overnight with bait and light sticks to attract species were well filled by morning. Observations enjoyed by participants included several Grey Ratsnakes, Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies pollinating Wood Lilies, an Arrow Spiketail (a lifer dragonfly for a professional naturalist), Luna Moth, Giant Leopard Moth and a Clearwing Moth. The Daisyleaf Moonwort and Rattlesnake Fern were new species for many. Three species of hawk were seen soaring about the same time. They were Red-shouldered, Broad-winged and Sharp-shinned Hawks. Active nests of Red-eyed Vireo and Rose-breasted Grosbeak were noted. Several special sightings of unusual or species-at-risk or of particular interest were added to the tally. A patch of 50 Showy Orchids was found, just past flowering. Several endangered Butternut trees were seen. A Fisher, a mid-sized mammal, was observed in the late evening. A Five-lined Skink (our only lizard) was an exciting find: a species of special concern. One Whip-poor-will, a threatened species, was heard calling.

How many species were found? The final tally is not in but we are hoping for about 600. We do know so far we have seven mammal species, 58 birds, three reptiles and four amphibians. Within the invertebrates 22 dragon and damsel flies, 16 butterflies and roughly 50 species of moth were recorded. The final tally of plants including seed and spore bearers is well over 200 including 11 species of fern and 24 sedge species.

Nature has forever been one of the key muses for poets through the ages. It's no wonder that a mixed group of close to 30 accomplished and aspiring poets and poetry lovers gathered at Wintergreen Studios, the off-grid educational retreat centre that opened in 2008 near Burridge, for a special reading by award winning Canadian poet Lorna Crozier. Crozier. Crozier, who is soon to be a recipient of an honorary doctorate degree from McGill University, has published 17 books to date and is no stranger to Wintergreen Studios. She has returned there almost every year since 2010.

Most recently she led a five-day workshop from May 17 to 23 for 11 poets who came from across Canada and the United States, all at various stages in their careers, to gain some insight from her. Rena Upitus, owner and operator of Wintergreen Studios, said Crozier is“an incredibly inspiring and gifted poet and a very generous person whose workshops fill up as soon as they are posted”.

Midway through Crozier's workshop, Wintergreen opened its doors to local poetry lovers, who for the $40 ticket price enjoyed a scrumptious home cooked meal, courtesy of Louise Cooper (Wintergreen's in-house chef) followed by Crozier who read poems from her brand new book, The Wrong Cat (2015, McClelland and Stewart).

She is indeed a unique talent with a wide ranging sensibility for the comic, the perplexing, and the purely imagined. She writes poems that cover the entire range of unbridled human emotions, and is also a gifted reader with an expressive, vibrant and precise voice able to pierce her listeners' hearts and minds.

She began her reading with a number of short poems from her new book. She read a poem highlighting different imagined points of view of animals towards humans. Crozier said animlas likely “don't think much of human beings since we have done them a lot of wrong and go on doing so.” From “Crows Take On Man” she read, “They don't know their shadows have blood in them...their souls build nests of sticks to hold the shiny things they can't get by without.”

She read a series of short poems that under the overall heading - Notes for a Small Pocket. One of them, “Spider” includes the following: “So what if there is no money in our wallets. How joyous the spider is though her eight feet have no shoes.”

In “Game” she tells of three raccoons playing “paper, scissors, rock” by a pond and in another, about moths, “Call and Response” she observes how “A moth's single thought is light" and in the next line, she wonders “is that enough philosophy to get by on?”

She read a poem from the new book that is the favourite of her poet husband, Patrick Lane, “A Common Life”, a longer poem that tells of the relationship between a woman and a man as reealed by the woman in hindsight, who describes the man as one who “didn't want her when he was younger and now he does”, who “claims his first affair which made everything go wrong, his flame with a flamenco dancer was a big mistake”. The dancer was “the daughter of a hotel keeper in Barcelona, the man who counted them among his foreign friends” and how she “saw them through the smeared glass of the green house, the girl in her red skirt,” and later on in the poem, how “what she remembers, twenty years later, is the skirt, its flame and flair, how it looked as if their pale torsos rose from the skins of large splayed animals she'd weep for in her dreams.”

One of her funniest was “Moose Poem” which she introduced with the words, “To be a true Canadian poet, you have to write a poem about a moose.” It showcased her delight in language. “A moose knows it's the most orbicular, the biggest nose of our country's ungulates mimicking as much as anything a crook necked squash, the one that won the ribbon at the country fair.”

She describes the animal as “so powerful, its singular is plural” and with a nose so funny that when you come across it, “its nose relaxes you and makes you laugh as if the craftsman assigned to the task had never made a nose before.”

Crozier no doubt inspired the workshop participants and she described her method of teaching the students as “a call and response technique where I give them nudges or a call and they come back the next day with a response.” She added, “We're just all thriving on each other's energy and love of language and poetry and it's been a fantastic time here at Wintergreen.”

Upcoming events at Wintergreen inlcude a community drumming circle on Saturday, July 25 with Lorrie Jorgensen; a Bio Blitz on Friday, June 12 and Saturday June 13; in October, a Buddhist psychology workshop; and in November a workshop on death and preparing for the end of life with Julie Vachon and Dr. Brian Goldman, the host of CBC Radio's White Coat, Black Art.

Rena Upitis said that along with their intensive arts and eco educational workshops, much of their upcoming programming includes eco/spiritual workshops which “seem to be drawing a lot of interest and showing us that people are definitely needing to process some of their own personal stuff.”

For more information about upcoming events at Wintergreen, visit www.wintergreenstudios.com.

 

Wintergreen Studios, the eco-lodge/educational retreat on Canoe Lake Road near Godfrey, birthed a new and separate business in November 2012. The Wintergreen Renewable Energy Co-op was founded following a community energy retreat that was held at the lodge that summer. The idea to form the co-op came about in June 2012 and its mission, according to its president and founding director David Hahn, is to “promote and develop renewable energy projects in the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington region; offer investment opportunities; and educate people about the value of renewable energy.”

Those and other topics were the focus of this year’s Community Energy Retreat, which took place at Wintergreen on June 13. Members of the co-op and their partner, SolarShare, were on hand to discuss their recent partnership.

Since its founding, the Wintergreen Renewable Energy Co-op had engaged TREC (the project incubator of SolarShare) to do work for the co-op on a contractual basis. The work included evaluating one of the co-op’s potential projects and acting as their back office once members of the co-op began investing. Hahn said that once the co-op began focusing on three potential large scale solar projects in the Kingston area and after speaking with an EPC (an engineering procurement and construction company) about the projects, it became clear that the co-op “needed certainty about our being able to raise the funds to a level of security required by the EPC to purchase the potential project(s).”

It was then that that the co-op entered into a partnership with SolarShare, who was able to provide the additional financial security that the EPC required. “At that point we realized that we could not give them [the EPC] the certainty that we would be able to buy the project if they developed it, so we started talking to SolarShare and have since developed an agreement with them,” Hahn said.

SolarShare is currently the largest renewable energy co-op in Canada and develops commercial-scale solar electricity installations, offering investors the opportunity to “invest ethically and with impact, with 100% of the invested funds directly financing solar projects and helping to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.” The non-profit co-op offers investors Solar Bonds, which pay a fixed 5% annual return on a minimum investment of $1,000 for a 5-year term. The co-op, which to date has developed 23 solar projects in Ontario totaling 1.2 MW of capacity, generates revenue by selling the electricity they produce. The bonds are backed by 20-year power purchase agreements with the Ontario Power Authority.

Under the new partnership, Wintergreen and SolarShare will continue to explore projects to develop in the Kingston area. Wintergreen will also encourage their own members to invest in Solar Bonds and SolarShare will pay a fee directly back to Wintergreen Co-op to cover the costs of operations.

The partnership was discussed at length at the June 13 retreat with presentations by David Hahn, by SolarShare president Mike Brigham, and by Julie Leach, the company's community investment and marketing manager. There were also keynote presentations by Kristina Inrig of the Community Energy Network of Eastern Ontario, who also spoke on sustainable investing, and Paul McKay, who spoke about renewable energy developments. Following lunch was a workshop on SolarShare's Solar Bonds.

For investors wanting to go green, with a fixed 5% annual return, the Wintergreen Renewable Energy Co-op and Solar Bonds seem well worth looking into. For more information visit www.wintergreencoop.com.

Back to HomeFeature Article - July 16, 2009 Making eco-art at an eco-lodgeBy Julie Druker

Mixed media artist Holly Dean (4th from the right) teaches recycled book making at Wintergreen Studios. The painting behind is one of her originals.

Wintergreen Studios, the not quite one-year-old eco-lodge located on Canoe Lake Road near Fermoy, recently launched its first summer season of workshops in the fine and domestic arts.

The off the grid, straw-built, eco-friendly lodge designed and owned by Rena Upitus is run as a not-for-profit educational facility and retreat. It offers ample space in a natural, rural setting for artists to explore what Rena describes as the "lost arts".

Holly Dean, a mixed media artist from Merrickville held a workshop in recycled book making at the lodge this past Thursday. A self taught, full time artist with a background in calligraphy, Holly is perhaps best known for the paintings and objects she is presently making in association with the well-known Cirque du Soleil.

She described her art as “consisting of layers of painting, images and words. It’s very abstract, often medieval in mood. I’m very interested in ruins, myths and legends like King Arthur.”

For this workshop participants incorporated recycled materials from Holly’s own personal creations which she has been “stashing away for years” in her studio.

Gathered around work tables in the lodge’s “great room”, participants had just completed the construction of their books. Using recycled sheets of paper with existing patterns, motifs, and calligraphy created by Holly, participants gathered together four separate sections, which they then folded, marked, and hole punched.

Next, with a needle and waxed linen thread the sections were sewn together. A separate patterned piece was used for the cover and each participant designed a decorative cover band made from silver duct tape that they embossed and later painted with alcohol-based inks.

Once their books were constructed, participants set to work filling them with various designs, images and ideas, incorporating various decorating techniques and tools that Holly brought with her and demonstrated.

Using foil candy wrappers, acrylic paints, inks, decorative papers, gesso, markers, pencils and water soluble crayons, participants let their creative juices flow.

Rena Upitus prepared the food for this workshop from fresh produce from the studio's gardens.

Rena met Holly at Queens University in Kingston when Holly was an artist educator there and fell in love with her work. A large painting by Holly hangs in the great room at the lodge. According to Rena, “Wintergreen is about seeing in new ways and about putting thoughts and ideas and objects together that you might not have thought about before and Holly’s workshops are all about this.”

Holly is planning a second workshop in mixed media miniatures and decorative boxes on August 18 & 19.

Other future workshops include cordwood building, watercolour painting, fused glass, digital sounds capes, African drumming and many more. Visit wintergreenstudios.com or call 613-273-8745.

Back to HomeFeature Article - March 5, 2009 New eco-lodge offers nature and the lost artsBy Julie Druker

Rena Upitis and one of the guest cabins

Back in April 2007, Rena Upitis, artist and professor of art education at Queen’s University, was in downtown Chicago attending a conference when the idea struck her.

Surrounded by the traffic, noise and bustle of Michigan Avenue for four straight days, she recalled feeling totally disconnected from nature but was comforted by the thought that soon she would be “back on the land”.

Realizing that most people do not share this privilege, she decided to design and build a not for profit eco-lodge, an off the grid facility committed to environmentally responsible practices. The lodge would function as a year-round education and retreat centre.

She would build it on a gorgeous 204-acre parcel of land that she has owned for 20 years, located off the Westport Road near Fermoy, on Canoe Lake Road.

She recalls her impetus: “I thought that this would give people a chance to see what a different part of the world is like. It is an offering so that people can connect with the land and what I call the lost arts”.

Once the decision was made, things happened quickly. Upitis gathered together a group of supporters and interested participants and spent the next 14 months negotiating her way through all the legal red tape. “The legal stuff took way longer than actually building the place,” she said, in an interview at the studios last weekend.

By June 8, 2008 Wintergreen Studios had became incorporated, the land was rezoned from rural to community institutional and a building permit was obtained.

Designed by Rena Upitis herself, Wintergreen Studios’ main lodge was constructed in the next 6 months and officially opened in December 2008. It was built with the help of four companies: the Anglin Group, Camel’s Back Construction, Peter van Bruinessen, who built the roof, and Quantum Renewable Energy, the designers of the solar panel system. They were joined by a slew of 200 interested participants and volunteers aged 7-83 years, including close friends, neighbours and family members.

The lodge they built is an impressive sight to behold.

“I really love the building,” Rena said

And it is no wonder. From the outside, mustard-colored parging covers the straw bale construction. Even the straw was sourced locally. Ample windows provide passive solar heat and lots of natural indoor light inside the 2300 square foot building. Twelve solar panels sit on the roof powering the lodge and heating its water.

Inside, one enters into the "great room", a large, kitchen/dining lounge area that can accommodate 40 individuals. Throughout the interior there is radiant floor heating under stone patterned cement floor panels.

Many of the furnishings are hand made from recycled materials and those that have been purchased are environmentally sustainable.

“Everything we use is as natural as possible. No VOC paints. Right now I’m oiling this counter top with hemp oil. The paint on the plaster of the straw bales is milk paint. It comes in powder form and you mix it in a blender. It’s made from milk and crushed berries and minerals,” Rena said.

“I’m principled but I’m not pure,” she said to explain the few small exceptions she made along the way. “Probably 90% of the materials we have used are eco-friendly.”

Recycled barn beams have been incorporated in the lodge’s interior construction and broken ceramic dishes add colour to the mosaic backsplash in the kitchen. Other indoor architectural accents such as baseboards and mirrors have been purchased at stores that sell architectural salvage. All of the appliances are among the most energy efficient available. Local foods are used in the kitchen as much as possible and staff are hired from the local community.

Not seen to the naked eye is an “Ecoflow” system for sewage treatment and management. Low flow toilets and water saver faucets were installed as well.

Five guest rooms, each offering picturesque views, lie off the main building and provide sleeping quarters for up to 14 guests. “There is no true north anywhere in the lodge so all of the rooms get sun,” explained Upitis.

The linens are all made from bamboo. The lodge has a south-western, New Mexico feel, which Upitis credits to a student volunteer from Arizona who helped with the project for 3 months and contributed to the overall colour and texture of the lodge's interior.

It is surrounded by ponds, marshes, forests, streams, rocky outcrops and foot bridges with over 20 hand groomed trails, all broken by Upitis and her family. A glacier carved lake borders the far end of the property. Also outside are 4 tent platforms for camping and a functional outdoor kitchen and smoke house. .

Two rustic, cozy rental cabins also built by Upitis and looking like they belong in a children’s fairy tale book lie at the end of a 15 minute walk further into the property. Both cabins sleep two and are heated by wood and powered by propane.

Two pilot workshops offered last year were a rousing success. Upitis recalled, “People were overwhelmed and joyful.”

Upitis is excited about the lodge’s upcoming one and two day workshops. They include a variety of short courses in the fine and domestic arts by local crafts people and artisans. Courses in drumming and drum making, fused glass, slow food and food smoking, book and box making choral singing, wool felting and knitting and building a root cellar are some that are on offer.

Wintergreen Studios also is available as a year round meeting place and retreat to groups and individuals seeking a relaxing and inspiring stay in the great outdoors.

Thanks to Rena Upitis and her army of supporters Wintergreen offers an opportunity to enjoy the natural beauty that surrounds us in a sustainable responsible way.

For more information on year round workshops, rates and to view the facility please go to www.wintergreenstudios.com or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 613-273-8745.

Photo: Lynn Miles at Wintergreen StudiosMusic lovers looking for some inspiration this Easter weekend were not let down as Lynn Miles took to Wintergreen Studios' stage for an intimate night of song. The show was the third in Wintergreen’s 2011 dinner/entertainment series, and not surprisingly, it was sold out. Guests were treated to a fine meal of East Indian cuisine and delicious desserts, and then they hunkered down to listen to one of Canada's finest singer/songwriters. Miles, who is a master at turning life's trials and tribulations into perfect songs of love, loss, beauty and hope, seemed the ideal choice for an early spring concert on Easter weekend – a time that tends to make one to yearn for new beginnings.

Lynn did not disappoint and treated the over 40 guests to an evening of some of her most recent and best. Accompanying herself on acoustic guitar and harmonica, Lynn played a number of tunes from her most recent recording, the Juno-nominated “Fall for Beauty”. The recording is her seventh to date and was released in 2010 on True North records. She opened with “Fearless Heart”, where she yearned for “a quiet mind, sweet old time and a pair of wings.” In “Cracked and Broken” she mused on the pitfalls of being lost and left in love. As always, her playing was high caliber, but her forte by far is both her aerobatic voice, which covers a huge tonal and emotional range, and her truthful, heart-felt lyrics, which taken together make her one of the best singer/songwriters around.

Lynn's talent lies in the precision she brings to every note and word. She has the uncanny ability to cut to the chase, transforming her life experiences into meaty, revealing and deeply-felt poetic musical offerings. Her version of “Black Flowers” was a soulful, sombre lament, an example of what she is best known for, but she was also quick to demonstrate how she is equally adept at the rosier end of the rainbow. She played a number of upbeat, hopeful tunes like the prettily plucked “Love Doesn't Hurt”, inspired by an Oprah show on abuse. In that same hopeful vein was “Let the Sun Have Its Day”, which was also likely the most recognized tune from her new album “Something Beautiful” where she sings that even though we live in a world where “everything is broken or about to break”, we still crave “bells to ring and banners waving in a clear blue sky.” Indeed.

Owner of Wintergreen Studios, Rena Upitis, who hosted the evening, is excited to be offering Wintergreen’s second series of dinner and entertainment evenings. “It's a very diverse series and we are always looking to attract superb artists from near and far. This year we have everything from classical musicians to poets and singer/songwriters and in these nine evenings there is really something for everyone.” Upcoming at Wintergreen are poet Lorna Crozier, writer James King, author Helen Humphreys, harpist Scott Hughes and the Triola string trio. For more information, or to reserve tickets, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 613-273-8745. Visit www.wintergreenstudios.com.