It's March 11th, and the first Spring Home Show is under my belt.  Not a roaring success, but a pleasant weekend spent at the Tribute Centre in Oshawa meeting old friends and having some good conversations.

This photo appears to be a little lop-sided.  Never said I was a good photographer.
Ajax Home Show and Clarington Home Show still to go - looking forward to it, too!  Always lots to see and do at these events.


While I am hunting for photos, I might as well post a photo of my booth at the Mayor's Gala for the Arts, held recently at Bowma

A great event in support of the Arts in Clarington.  Proceeds are divided between the Visual Arts Centre in Bowmanville, and A Gift of Art in Newcastle.  I work with A Gift of Art   Here is a photo of my booth at the Gala.  The library was transformed with drapes and clothes all black and gold, so I modelled my table the same way and sprinkled a few gold sequins all over it.  Looked good, even in the dark.

Speaking of working with A Gift of Art, I am getting a bunch of people together to write their memoirs about emigrating to Canada.  They are all members of the Dutch community and come in all ages and with all sorts of memories.  Other people in the community will be asked to join in too with their memories of growing up in Newcastle.  When all is said and done, others, likely young people, will take these memoirs and write play(s).  Young and old will get parts in these plays.  Young and old will help build the sets and gather props.  And everyone else in the town will be asked to come and see the play(s).

Big undetaking.  It will take all year to put it together, but we'll do it.  I'll keep you all posted as to how we are coming along.

Report Day

I guess this is report day.... Firstly, the 1st Annual Cornish Heritage Day here in Clarington on March 4th, went very well.  As I said in my opening remarks that afternoon, "When you plan something like this you never know if anyone will come."  Well, 32 people came!  Whooppee!

We all ate pasties and saffron cake.  Had to fill the teapots (2) twice!

In the accompanying photo I'm the one way up at the front welcoming everyone.  Ten more people came in shortly after this photo was taken.

We called it the 1st Annual in the hope there would be others.  Everyone who attended enjoyed themselves and said YES to doing it again next year.
I think we have a winner here!  2nd Annual coming soon!
This year we ordered pasties from the Great British Pie and Pasty Company at Arnprior (near Ottawa).  They won the pasty competition last year at Eden in Cornwall, UK, so it was only natural that we'd want award winning pasties at our event.  I hate to say so, but they weren't all that good.  Oh, they had all the right ingredients, and right crimp (this is currently under dispute) but they just weren't right, if you know what I mean.

The next day we raised the Cornish (St. Piran's) flag on the town flagstaff in honour of St. Piran, Cornwall's patron saint.  St. Piran's Day is celebrated every March 5th.

In this photo we are out at the cenotaph (where the flag pole is located) watching it being raised.  I am on the far right end with the Mayor next, then councillors Hooper and Woo.  The lady in the back is the SNAP'D photographer and the gent in the very back is one of our attendees from the previous day who came back for the flag raising.

All in all, we had a proper good time this St. Piran's Day.  Now, if only  we could get some St. Austell ale for the occasion.... (some Sleeman's would do!)
For anyone with Cornish ancestry you might be interested in the website I started for The Cornish in Clarington.