Friday evening drew a crowd to enjoy the opening reception with Christmas goodies, music by The Blackbirds, and a wide selection of artful possibilities for Christmas gift-giving.
The St. Thomas-Elgin Artists' Guild presented their 5th Annual pre-Christmas Art Show & Sale November 18th to 20th. 'Twas the Art Before Christmas filled the CASO Railway Station with recent works by thirty-four members of the guild. Friday evening drew a crowd to enjoy the opening reception with Christmas goodies, music by The Blackbirds, and a wide selection of artful possibilities for Christmas gift-giving. Congratulations to the St. Thomas Downtown Development Board for bringing the feeling of Christmas to Talbot Street downtown. The city hall tree sprang to life at their annual Tree Lighting event on the evening of November 18th, creating the centrepiece for a street long show of snowflakes. The new decorations shimmer impressively from the glow of the globe lighting that lines Talbot - beautiful! I 'm dreaming of a snowflake stroll downtown, stopping along the way for some Christmas shopping and a coffee.
The Village Crier Gallery welcomed visitors to their Christmas Open House November 17th to 20th with a display of Jenny Phillips' latest paintings and the introduction of Jonathon Phillips' photography. The Gallery is one of the western Elgin locations on the recently launched Elgin Arts Trail. Jenny is known for her often vibrant rural watercolour landscapes and images. Jonathon photographs both urban and rural scenes, often preferring to capture the mood in black and white. The gallery and framing shop is located in a century old building with elaborate copper-coloured tin ceiling, exposed brick wall and wide pine plank floor. On Thursday evening, lovely background music was supplied by local entertainer Rebekah Brayton. This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
St. Thomas Horton Market Manager Shawn DeVree sends out her last update of the 2011 Horton Market Season, see below. And also below Shawn's message you will find a little slide show from way back on the first market day of the season, May 7. The Horton Farmers Market is thrilled to host it's first ever Christmas Market this weekend. We're hosting many of your favourite vendors from Pizza to Thai Food, Farmgate to Frisa Farms, you'll be covered. Rumor has it Farmgate will be making an apple cinnamon breakfast sandwich variation, hungry already? Regardless of the frosty nights we have plenty of vendors bring local lovely produce. Apples, cider, squash and goodies! The Timken Community Centre opened in October 2005 with two NHL size rinks, rubberized fitness track and multi-use facility. Over the past six years it has been, at times, bursting with hockey and other activities. However, without on-going programming to make use of the facility throughout the day and week, the community investment was not living up to its full potential. That changed this past summer, when St. Thomas Parks and Recreation brought on board Program Coordinator Kaitlyn Koning. Her mission was to coordinate and introduce programming for all of the Parks & Recreation Facilities throughout the city (including The Timken Centre, Memorial Arena, parks and trails) with an eye to providing affordable recreation opportunities for families, youth, teens and adults, and to promoting facility use. Women interested in how the War of 1812 affected this area have been researching the history and interpreting the women’s stories through the arts. A quilt design is complete and they are moving on to the next steps: stitching the quilt and painting the barn quilts. A meeting is being held at the Melbourne Community Hall November 23rd at 7 p.m. to start the next phase of the Longwoods Barn Quilt Trail Joan Hilhorst says that “the project needs experienced quilters to stitch the individual blocks. Our committee is asking quilters and local quilting groups to call me and request a block.” Joan is located in Mt. Brydges at her quilt shop “Sew Creative” (519) 264-2177. A First Nations story quilt is also in the design phase and Freda Henry is a contact: (519) 264-2989. Pauline Grondin While the quilters are quilting, the barn quilts can move into production. Local service clubs, schools, and community organizations are invited to paint the large colourful wooden panels as a fundraiser. It is hoped that a community group or team will take on at least 5 blocks and they will be paid $200 per finished block. The group is required to find volunteers and a warm clean place to paint. The project will arrange for materials and training. The contact is Denise Corneil at (519) 693-7002 denisecorneil@creative-communities.ca Anyone can install their own barn quilt on their property and one of the aims of this project is to inspire heritage barn owners across Middlesex County to highlight their farmstead’s history with outdoor art. This particular War of 1812 project is a community project involving many groups and individuals. Students from the six high schools in Elgin County met on Monday with four of the eighteen renowned Canadian authors who have written about twenty Canadians with their entries in the Extraordinary Canadians Biographies Series. Most of the students present had jumped at the chance to read one of the books which had been distributed earlier at their schools, and at the rare opportunity to hear and meet the author in person. The Extraordinary Canadians event was made possible by funding from the estate of Dorothy Palmer. As executor of her estate, Andrew Gunn has looked for ways to offer opportunities for young people in Elgin County, in keeping with Dorothy Palmer’s life-long interest in education. To date, donations from the estate have also been announced for the introduction of a Renewable Energies Technician Program at Fanshawe College’s St. Thomas Campus and for bringing the first two years of Algoma’s Bachelor of Arts program to St. Thomas in the former Wellington Street Public School. The County of Elgin also sponsored the event and facilitated getting students to the St. Thomas Golf and Country Club to hear and meet the authors. The first of local Remembrance Day events took place on November 6, 2011 with the Southwold Service at the Keystone Complex in Shedden. It is an important community commemoration of Southwold and all Canadian veterans. Displays lining the outside of the complex included photos and memorabilia representing the efforts of several of the surrounding communities and their veterans. Speaking to a capacity gathering, author Ted Barris who has spoken at several of the past services in Shedden noted that the gathering seems to grow each year. Barris was awarded a commendation this past summer by the Minister of Veterans Affairs for Canada. The award is traditionally presented to veterans who have contributed to the care and well-being of veterans – Barris made brief mention of the honour as being important to him because he was chosen by veterans. November 5th & 6th brought sunny skies and signs of the changing seasons as clocks were set back to Eastern Standard Time. The Belmont Corn Maze ended their maze season with the Pumpkin Smash, a cool event to get rid of your Halloween pumpkins and send them for composting. St. Thomas Golf & Country Club was in fine fall form for late-season golf and the Art Show on Saturday and Sunday. The first Christmas Open Houses, including one at Cobblestone Gallery got people thinking of the holiday season. Shelley McVittie was joined by Amber Wakeling of Bake Me Biscuits with her Peanut Butter Pumpkin additive-free, home-made dog biscuits. Many farmers spent long hours in the fields harvesting crops while the weather was fine. The Annual Purple Steeple Antique Show set up shop in a new location this year, the CASO Railway Station. Wares from yesteryear looked great set up in the historic building. Kenny Iguanas in St. Thomas had a busy weekend. The restaurant introduced their Friday night Prime Rib dinner (a delicious deal at $19.95) and featured cool jazz entertainment for their Sunday brunch. They were packed for a Fleetwood Mac Tribute show on Saturday evening. Check out some photos from the weekend, below. The St. Thomas Elgin Public Art Centre’s art auction, held Friday November 4th, was a success once again this year. The auction is a signature annual fund-raiser for the centre, raising money to help facilitate educational programs, exhibitions and preservation of a permanent collection. Volunteers, the Women’s Committee, sponsors, art donators, and art gallery staff work together to create a fun event whose highlight is a live auction of over 60 original Canadian artworks. See some scenes from just before the 2011 Art Auction is about to begin in the slideshow below. |
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