Budding Artist Goes Touring

As some of you may know, J.J. Clarke is the CTV Ottawa weatherman who often presents the art work of children from around the region.  It seems that my 7 year old grandson's Grade 2 teacher sent in one of his pictures, and it was chosen from among 50 others to appear on TV last week.  Unfortunately I didn't see that broadcast, but my brother did, and so did his other grandmother.  Thanks to social media and a little help from one of my grandson's great aunts, I was able to track down this particular art display.

Sunday was Grandparents Day, or so I learned on the internet.  So, when the above mentioned grandson phoned and wanted to come spend some time with us, it was hard to say no.  We had plans though, to go on an artist studio tour. I told him that, and he informed me, "I like art," so we picked him up on our way through his town. 

At our first stop, he took a good look at some of the watercolours, telling me which ones he liked.  I pointed out a simpler one, with just layers of land and sky and suggested he could try something like that with my watercolours sometime.  He said he didn't like that one.  Didn't "get it at all" was more like the phrase used., which once again proves art appreciation is an individual thing.

He was thrilled to be allowed to enter the draw though, and took the time to fill out the entry form himself. Everyone on the tour could fill out a form at each of the locations they visited, and have a chance for a $50 certificate to buy something from any of the artists along the way.  I think, by the end of the day, he had decided it would be nice to have one of those soft fluffy bears from the Magpie Hill Alpaca farm.  We only found where to fill the entries out at a couple of locations though.  I'm not sure if that cut down on our chances, or increased them. If others had as  much trouble finding the draw slips, there won't be much competition.

I think the highlight of the day, and a big surprise,  was walking through Herman Ruhland's Enchanted Gnome Forest.  The man has gone to a lot of work clearing trails, hanging rocks and sticks from trees, setting up stone mushrooms and gnome homes and populating the forest with hundreds of little gnomes and fairies, and even fish in the "underwater garden in the shade" (which isn't  underwater, but has some mermaids and singing fish). 

Our budding artist had a good day seeing what others do.  He learned you could make statues using wire and t-shirts, that alpaca wool is very soft, and so is deer hide. He saw how moccasins are cut out and stitched together, and how a block of stone can be filed into a bear.  He declared that he'd like to paint but never gets to do that, so I promised that next time he comes to visit, he could. 

To top off the day, we stopped in North Gower at Steven's Creek Country Market and had some absolutely marvelous ice cream.  The lady said it comes from Tracy's Dairy in Renfrew.  While we frequently come to the North Gower Farmer's Market, which is just across the street from this location, we now have another reason to make a little trip out that way.

Visiting Celebrity

After watching Max Keeping on TV for the past 40 years, I finally got to see him in person this week. Though he has retired from the news desk at CJOH, he has continued to act as the station's ambassador and still makes a good many public appearances.  On this occasion he came to talk to a seniors group in my area, though he arrived close to an hour later than expected.  He did phone to say he was running 20 minutes late, but then he got lost and couldn't find the village where the event was to take place.  Mind you, he's always had a driver until recently, so though he got around to a lot of places, he didn't have to pay particular attention to how to find his way.

All week I wondered what the subject of his talk would be.  Actually, he didn't have a subject, and you could tell the talk was not preplanned.  He came in and apologized for being late, then told us what he had done so far that day, and why it was he arrived later than expected.   He wasn't making excuses, just telling the story.  He then proceeded to tell us what a typical day in his life was like. That led to how he came to be parenting a teenage boy at this stage of life. Then Max told us a bit about CJOH and the people there.  There were a few cute stories about things like how they did the first live broadcasts from railway stations across the area by hooking up to the fibre optics that ran beneath the railway lines, and how poor J.J. Clarke almost drowned in the Saint Lawrence River during a weather forecast in Brockville.  That's not funny, but the way Max told it, we couldn't help but laugh. 

Max touched on his upbringing on The Rock and how, in the boonies, it's necessary for everyone to pull together as a community to look after everyone else. This is why it seems so natural for him to always be involved in so many charities. He's helped raise over 100 million dollars so far, and has even established a charity in his own name, to help out those who would normally fall through the cracks. 

He was finished his talk, and was asked if he would stay for refreshments. He said he had spotted the goodies at the back of the room and had not grown to this size (patting his belly) by turning down desserts.  I'm not at all sure he got any though, as people kept trying to talk to him.  In fact they managed to keep him at the front of the room for several more minutes answering questions. He wears rings on every finger and it took a few minutes just to explain what each of them were. The best one was like an old fashioned TV set, with a diamond embedded on the screen. 

Newfoundlanders are known to be great story tellers, and Max Keeping is no exception.