by Pat Asling
Well, we are getting back into the swing of things again! The holidays are over and the decorations away, trees gone to recycling etc and we are back planning for upcoming activities as most of the groups will be meeting on normal schedules and it is already mid month. The only group I belong to that is not meeting for awhile is the horticultural group. Until April members will be planning and dreaming of their gardens. The Genealogy Group will meet Jan. 16 on zoom this time, 7 pm. If you wish to join please contact the group through their website. Unfortunately I have a conflict as the Friends of the Foster group also meet that evening. The North Durham Nature group will meet on the 28th at Scugog Library, 7pm. Various members will be talking about some of their special activities, always interesting. The Christmas Bird count was a success with 70 people taking part, in the field and at their birdfeeders. Other years the average number of species seen was 48 but was surpassed this year with a count of 56 and 11,000 individual birds.those who participated in the field count met at the home of Alan and Anne Wells for a potluck supper in the evening!
Dwight and Deborah Clements had a busy Christmas week as their daughter Rachel, her husband and 2 young daughters from Kitchener were with them for several days. They were also very happy to have their son, John, from BC visit with them for several days. In between they managed to get in some cross country skiing! Congratulations to the Zephyr Scott Lions Club on holding another successful spaghetti supper on Friday 10th. I guess this is a monthly special now! The Community Care group met once more for a delicious lunch at the Villa last week. Guest speaker was Jonathan VanBilsen, author, travel writer, TV host etc. I was lucky enough to win one of his books entitled “Port Perry Past and Present”.
A number of people seem to be caught up will various illnesses and we know that experts are telling us the numbers are already high in hospitals. Best wishes to those not feeling well, as well as our sympathies to several who have lost family and friends over the holiday season, a particularly tough time to face those losses.
Last week I mentioned that Ruth Cordingley Bachellier had a birthday but I have since been informed that Ruth passed away a year ago. Ruth grew up with 3 birth brothers and 2 more adopted by her parents Jean and Roy. Ruth made headlines in the Uxbridge news when, as a young teenager with a physical disability, she saves a boy from drowning in Elgin Park! Birthdays this week include Erin Smith, wife to Les and mother of three. Les was born in Sandford but the family live in Sunderland. Wilma Bakelaar also celebrated again. She and husband John came to Uxbridge many years ago now when her parent opened a clothing store and then a shoe store. They now live in Kitchener, enjoying their retirement! Jeff Steward enjoyed another birthday. Jeff keeps busy with his computer business while his wife Arlene has been very busy crocheting many articles for her mother-in-law Doris. They have a small farm north of here! A somewhat younger man, Brad Clark celerated a birthday later in the week. I am sure his wife Marcie and 4 lovely daughters treated him to a very special day. He would have a tough time farming without these 5 ladies by his side! Another gentleman, somewhat older enjoyed his birthday in his second home. Ted Meyers is particularly busy in his retirement as he is very responsible for the planned construction of the building replacing Trinity United Church and was also the go-to for our SandfordZephyr amalgamation. He and wife Marion still manage to get in golf games! I have to mention one special lady, to me, Marie Simpson Wilson. Marie’s family lived not far from where I grew up and when she married her husband Earl, they were right next door on the farm and lived there most of my growing up years. This doesn’t happen much anymore it seems! Marie is 95! A very happy year ahead to all these good folks and to any celebrating anniversaries or other special activities! Sad to note that a lovely lady, Joan Fritz is now living at Butternut Manor.
I mentioned my amaryllis last week and what pleasure they brought as other flowers, Christmas cacti etc, have finished blooming. My brilliant red one is finished but 2 more will open this week and another in a couple of weeks. Several friends are also enjoying their blooms!
On one of those cold nights last week, before going to bed, I stepped outside for a bit and saw something I hadn’t seen for awhile. It was -14C but the sky was filled with stars which the moon, at 3/4 full of brightness, could not dim. I dislike the cold weather immensely ( a hang over from my 18 years in the Caribbean no doubt) but it brings clear skies where the warmer nights of winter usually bring clouds and snow, and the threat of storms. Once more it seems that clouds will hide the super full moon and the 7 planets that astronomers say can be seen arranged in a row for our convenience! The writer of the poem talks about feeling so free and we Canadians, even though we do have problems of several varieties, freedom is something we have in abundance and will not surrender, even under threats! One of those threats is against our natural resources and ongoing climate change denial. In the last few weeks as winter arrived we here in Ontario, the prairies and Maritimes were under a polar vortex where masses of cold air swept down from the arctic, not only bringing very cold temperatures and many feet of snow to friends a bit further north, while California, home of the rich and famous, burns relentlessly, destroying thousands of homes and businesses and countless acres of land and several lives because of drought and ignorance about climate change being a real thing!
Church this week was lead by our own Adele Boy and focused around the reason for the baptism of Jesus by John in the river Jordon. As we saw in our trip there in 2019, the Jordan River is a muddy creek now but was larger and cleaner 2000 years ago. Both Ruth and the congregation learned a new song, which now keeps going round in my head “learning to colour outside the lines”!
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