With their production of Love Letters over the past weekend, the West Elgin Dramatic Society brought to the stage a Pulitzer nominated play and two of the actors who were founding members of WEDS, Barry and Monica Snow.  

Love Letters by A.R. Gurney is, perhaps, not truly a play – the two characters, Andy and Melissa, are seated for the entire performance at their separated desks, and read the letters, cards and notes that have made up their correspondence to each other starting from grade two and continuing on for the next fifty years. Though the action is completely static, the letters reveal two lifetimes – the joys, disappointments, sorrows, triumphs and failings – connected over the years almost entirely through the written word.

Elgin County Levees Welcome The New Year
 
Annual New Year’s Levees were held by the Elgin Regiment and Legions across the county, as they invited military and civilian guests to welcome in 2013. Below are photos from a few of the January 1 events.  

There’s a wonderland in Port Stanley again this year. Thousands have seen it, many making repeat visits. For a first-timer, the 291 Selbourne Drive Port Stanley Christmas Lights are truly oooohhh-inspiring. You may find your mouth dropping open as you enter the back yard, and then perhaps you will be able to settle into a smiling sense of wonder.

The Arts & Cookery Bank ended their Twelve Days of Christmas events this year with a “Sweet Endings Long Lunch” celebrating of the sweet potato. It was a salute to locally grown food and the versatility of the sweet potato, with tasty treats consisting of sweet potato soup, fries, twice baked potato, and pie. 

Local growers, Monika and Leo Rastapkevicius supplied the sweet potatoes from their R-Grow farm near West Lorne and stopped in to sample the sweet creations. They also grow sweet corn, muskmelons, seeded and seedless watermelons, ornamental pumpkins and gourds and cash crops.

The HMCS Ojibwa is spending her first Christmas in Elgin County. Last Friday she was decorated for the holidays and received a Christmas present in the form of a cheque from the estate of John and Dorothy Palmer. 

The “Lighting of the Boat” ceremony is in keeping with the tradition of the Royal Canadian Navy to decorate its boats and ships for Christmas. It’s perhaps the first of many naval and marine traditions which will come to the area along with the HMCS Ojibwa submarine.

Home for Christmas

The Western Elgin Home for Christmas Event runs November 23rd to December 7th with more than fifty businesses in Dutton, Wallacetown, Rodney, West Lorne and surrounding areas offering  special "Home for Christmas" draws. Photos below are from four of the participating businesses, The Arts & Cookery Bank and Alley Kat Music in West Lorne, and Country Seat Upholstery and Lavender Sense in Wallacetown.

The Midtown Tavern proved it could morph quite nicely into a Christmas concert venue on Sunday, as Meg McTaggart performed a release concert for her brand new cd, Winter Songs. She covered all of the songs from the album, plus a few more, accompanied by Don Baker during packed 4 and 8pm concerts.

From Larry Jeffery around noon today: This is the progress of Port Burwell’s submarine/museum as of noon today, Wed. It is about 1/4 the way up the hill to it’s final destination. In the 3rd photo, the workers are laying mats in front of the wheels.  They [SPMTs] have 42 axles each with 4 tires per axle.

From Larry Jeffery around noon today as Ojibwa wheels are starting to come off the barge. "This was the scene at Port Burwell as of 12 noon today as the Ojibwa is taken off the barge.  As you can see, the engineers have about 8 wheels off the ramp (about 40 to go).  The wheels will swivel independently as required, and are computerized to remain level. One can see how the next few wheels have risen to allow for the ramp. The ‘Handles’ on the sub were welded on in Hamilton to allow it to be carried by the wheel trains, and (I believe) will be removed later.   Watching was slightly more interesting than seeing paint dry. The operation had to be slow because the barge had to have water added to the rear and removed from the front to allow for the weight shift as the sub is removed.  I think it will take another hour or two to get it completely off the barge. Unfortunately I had to leave at this point. The sub will eventually be rolled about 4 football fields up a slight hill to it’s final museum destination."

Helmut Ostermann treated a capacity crowd to over 100 years of railway images at the CASO Railway Station on Tuesday evening. The slide-show presentation, entitled “Whatever Happened to St. Thomas?” is an important documentation of a period of time that is of interest to railway enthusiasts and historians. It is also a remarkable collection from an artistic point of view, including many stunning night-time photos taken by Ostermann.