The Occurrence

 Something occurred in my tiny village recently that many people have not discovered yet. I only found out about it because of a message I got from a long-time cyber buddy who lives in Bancroft. 

Those who live here are aware of a construction project on the north side of the river that has been underway for several years now. While a couple of units have occupants the rest of the building remained empty and even had a broken window. The west end of the building now contains a puzzle factory and shop.

When I found out about this, I went to explore the shop. The puzzles are bright and beautiful, and the owner is delightful.

Brigitte Gall and Michael J Bainsbridge got this idea to create puzzles in 2018 while living through a cold snap in Haliburton. Michael is an award-winning mineral photographer so they picked out some of his photos and had their new business up and running just before the pandemic hit.  I'd call that perfect timing. He now works at the Museum of Nature so they moved in this direction and settled in Kemptville. While looking for a suitable place to set up the factory and shop they found this spot in Merrickville  at 105 West Broadway Street. 

I was lucky enough to be shown how the puzzles were made and packaged up, as they do everything right there on the premises.  The pictures, glued to their backing, are placed on a sturdy foam rubber and run through a press that exerts 7000 pounds of pressure. This compresses the foam, allowing precision steel blades to cut the picture into puzzle pieces. It only takes seconds. The pieces are then manually scooped up, bagged, and boxed. Only high-quality materials are used and a total of 150 puzzles can be produced in a day. 

The company states its goal is to appeal to fellow science nerds and like-minded art geeks. They not only have puzzles made from photos taken by Michael, but they also have some fascinating ones representing various towns. Multimedia artist, Alice Hinther has produced pieces containing a conglomeration of recognizable buildings. There are puzzles representing Perth and Westport, for instance.  Rumour has it there will be one of Merrickville soon too.

And just in case you would like to make a puzzle out of art of your own, they do that too.

The new business is called The Occurrence and they are having their grand opening on July 27. Go check it out!

Art Taught Me a Life Lesson

Urban sketchers are people who draw on location, wherever they happen to be. They document the real world as they find it. Nothing is arranged. This has become such a trend that there is an actual organization for urban sketchers. Their motto is to meet, sketch and share.

Photo by Leyna Sanger

Saturday, 29 July, 2017 was the 56th World Wide Sketch Crawl. People all over the world were taking part in this event. In Ottawa there were three locations listed and times to go there, but I couldn't get there so I took part by going to one of my favorite local spots and trying to capture what I saw. I found two other members of the local Sketch Night in Merrickville group drawing in the same area that day. Actually, the spot was prearranged and it was hoped more of the current 59 members would take part.

I'm finding people are intimidated by drawing where others can see, and even more intimidated by the idea of posting their work online. I frequently post my urban sketches to that group, and others, in hopes that they will see that such sketches don't have to be photo realistic in order to capture the spirit of the place. Many members of this group are very  artistically talented, while I am still struggling to learn. Or, as my grandson said recently, "You can't draw, Nana, but you can sketch."  It is my hope that by sharing my less than perfect renderings some of the others will think, "if she can do it, so can I," and start sharing what they draw too. I know it would only give them more confidence as that's what is happening with me. More confidence means I am likely to draw more often, and the more often I draw, the better I'll get....or so I'm told.

Sketch Night in Merrickville is a new group that formed about a month ago. They gather every Tuesday evening between 7 and 9 pm, usually in the Blockhouse Park. I never would have had the nerve to even think about joining such a group before this year so I'm definitely moving forward.

I first learned about Urban Sketching while taking the online Exploring course through Sketchbook Skool earlier this year. After completing my first assignment along those lines, I was totally hooked. It's very relaxing to just sit somewhere and make my  marks try to line up with what is in front of you. I've learned it's important not to stress over perfection and now I always use a pen to draw with and then I add colour to hopefully distract the eye from my mistakes.  I have recently signed up for another five week course at Sketchbook Skool. This time it's entirely on Urban Sketching. Since I'm having so much fun I want to learn more about the process.

The first lesson was posted Monday morning and one of the points made was that we should find things we don't do well and just get out there and do them anyway. It isn't important if you aren't good at it. It's more important that you are doing it. So many people stop themselves from doing things they believe they aren't good at, even if they really wish they could do them. They will never learn to do those things that interest them if they don't get out there and try. What do you want to do that you have been holding back on.  Go do it! Have some fun!

Soupfest 2015 - Sold Out

It's been a hard winter with so many funerals in the family, but a group of us recently found a much better reason to get together.  The annual Soupfest, in support of the TLC Ministries,  took place in Kemptville on Saturday March 7th. This year it drew a record breaking crowd.  Every ticket was sold, and we were glad we were even able to find a place to sit. 

The tables were set up for 8 people at each, but we needed 10 chairs this year. The number of cousins in this family gathering together for this event reached an all time high. One branch had three generations present. With two children at our table, Brad the Balloon Guy stopped by to work his magic, just proving that Soupfest is fun for all ages.

Seventeen restaurants took part in the event this year.  There were a couple of new ones from Merrickville.  Both the Sugar Belle Bake Shoppe (their table pictured here) and Cha Tea House are new to the village this winter and decided Soupfest would be a great way for people to become acquainted with them.  Smiths Falls representation was conspicuously absent this year. Some of my favorite soups have come from Smiths Falls entrants in the past, so I hope they come back next year.

This year's judges were Executive Chef Michael Blackie, Chef Jocelyn Myre, Executive Chef Jhonatan J Gonzales and Nutritional Columnist, Heather Westendorp. They chose their three favorite soups of the day, and the people got to vote for their favorites also. The only soup chosen by both the people and the judges was the Sweet Potato and Cabbage Soup, topped with pancetta from the Brigadoon in Oxford Mills.  The people put it in Second place while the judges gave it a First.  The judges awarded Second place to the Merrickville's Yellow Canoe and gave Third place to Brewed Awakenings of Kemptville.

The people chose The Crusty Baker from Kemptville in Third place, Brigadoon in Second, and gave top  honours to The New Rideau for it's Butternut Squash with Maple Cream.  That was a little too sweet for me, but the rest of my table just loved it. That, of course, is the fun of Soupfest. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and it's great fun to discover that the people sitting with you disagree with your choices, and vice versa. Some pretty lively discussions come about by comparing opinions on the offerings.

The various establishments hope to call attention to themselves, and while some managed to do that by letting us know they had great soup, others, like the Crusty Baker will be getting my business in the future, not only because I loved their Potato Stilton Soup, but also because they gave us a hot cross bun, which was one of the best I've ever tasted.  I'll be checking out more of their baked goods in the future, even though I'll have to travel to Kemptville to do that.

We all had a great time and are already looking forward to next year's Soupfest. It's a much more enjoyable reason to gather than another funeral.




 

All Souped Up

Soupfest is an annual event that I really enjoy.  Restaurants from all over the region gather to offer up samples of their soups for us to taste and we decide among ourselves which soup is the best.  There are official judges too, and they also make their own choices. It's interesting because they don't always pick the same soups as the people do.  The official judges may know about when some especially innovated combination has been put together, but we, the people, just know what we like. To me winning the people's choice awards are actually more valuable. It's the general public that the restaurants have to please, or they won't come back.  The chefs can get as fancy as they like, and that that may impress the official judges, but if the people don't like what is being offered, they aren't going to buy it.

There is a certain establishment in Smiths Falls where I often go for soup.  You never know, when you walk through the door, of the Good Life Bistro what their soup that day will be, but I can tell you that I've never had a bad one there.  I mentioned to them recently that they should get in on Soupfest. They had never heard of it, but looked it up on the internet while I had my lunch, and by the time we were ready to leave, I was told they had managed to sign up.  And this weekend they not only discovered how much fun the experience can be, they won first place for one of the categories with their Squash Pear Bisque with maple cinnamon cream.

Another restaurant, The New Rideau near Kemptville, had only just opened under new management three weeks ago. They placed in two categories with a Cream of Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cheddar soup, so now I'm interested in going there for lunch some day too.

Soupfest is good for getting new customers for businesses some didn't know existed.  We were first introduced to the Basket Case in Morrisburg though their participation in Soupfest.  We've been there several times since then, and highly recommend it.  They were not present at the event this year though, and I missed those fun filled ladies.

One of our local businesses did very well too. The Goose and Gridiron in Merrickville put forth a very colourful Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup.  If that soup is on their menu, I'll be dropping in there more often in the future.  I had a hard time deciding if I was going to choose it for my second or third place vote. In the end, it came in third, both for me and the rest of the public, but placed first with the official judges.

My personal favorite of the day was the Silken Scallop with Crisp Pancetta by the Black Dog Bistro in Manotick.  My nine year old grandson agreed with that choice, and even went back for more.

"Thrillusionist," Michael Bourada was on hand to entertain this year, and he worked the room, one table at a time. Of course, when he got to us, he zeroed in on the only child at the table.  It was such fun to watch them interact.

This was the first year we have taken one of the grandsons with us. I told him he was going to get to taste all the soups, and he didn't have to like them, just judge them. He gave them scores from one to ten, and was far more adventurous than I expected.  I think he only missed 3 or 4 of the 16 offerings, and that was likely because he was full by then.  Oh, but not too full for the great big chocolate covered rice crispy square he picked for dessert.  He already has told us he wants to come with us again next year.  I'm looking forward to that already.

 

 

Vendors Everywhere I Go

Sunday we spent a few minutes at Merrickville's Canalfest.  There were the usual craft vendors, silent auction, Voyageur Canoe Race and, of course, musical entertainment. 

One thing I notice, at all the craft fair events, is that there are an over abundance of jewelry makers out there this year.  The only interest I have in those stalls is to see if anybody has come up with something different that I might like to try making myself.

A few of them sell interesting beads and pendants, as well as jewelry. It's just a good thing I have enough stuff around the house waiting to be strung up as it is, as I've seen some interesting ones over the past few days. I have been able to resist, however.  Next year, when I'm looking for such things, there won't likely be any.

It was too hot to stay long, and I had grocery shopping to do, so we set off to Kemptville.

First stop on a Sunday is always the Kemptville Farmer's Market.  There are a lot of different farmer's markets in the area, and I like to visit them, when I can.  I think the Kemptville one is the best though.  There is always a wide variety of vendors there, and there seems to be a lot of good sampling to be had too.  I experienced pickled jalapeno peppers (I saw "Pickle" and it was green, so I got a surprise when I tasted that!), a couple of different shortbreads (I liked the one with the toffee bits), and a few different kinds of strange looking cucumbers and tomatoes.

The highlight of this market trip was these interesting vegetables are grown in Oxford Mills by Luke Swale.  I was told that they plan to grow something new and different every year.  Check out their website at http://www.earthsharvestfarm.ca/ . Personally, I'm bookmarking that one.

I came home with a nice loaf of bread and an assortment of freshly dug potatoes.  I likely should have made off with a few of those cute cucumbers too.  Oh well, maybe next time.....

A Different Kind of Treasure Hunt...No GPS Needed.

Today was the day of the annual village wide yard sale in Merrickville. You could not have asked for better weather.

The streets become extremely busy as there are sales in every block. This year the traffic didn’t nearly as bad as people seemed to park their cars when they found a place, and then walk around the area to check out the loot, before moving on to another area a little further along the way..

I started my day by taking in the United Church Breakfast. For just $5 there was scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, baked beans and toast, juice, plus coffee and tea. There were also fresh raspberries, and an assortment of interesting toppings for your toast, if you wanted them.

After that, I certainly needed to walk, so I went up one street and down the next and picked up a couple of things along the way. I decided to take my purchases home, and get my bike as I needed to go across town to one of the schools. We hold our karate classes in that school and last night I had spotted something I wanted to purchase. I zipped over on my bike and picked it up and then proceeded to check out what I could find on that side of town. The bike became more of a nuisance as it kept me from getting close to some of the tables, so I went back home again, and got rid of it along with my second set of treasures.

There was still a whole section of town I had not been near, so I set off again on foot and yes, I found more things to bring home. Now, it sounds like I spent a lot, but I didn’t. I start days like this with usually $10 in my pocket, but I wasn’t sure how much the item I spotted at the school was going to cost me, and I did want it, so today I took $15 with me. I came home with change even though I also came home with 9 item.....and a bonus.

Here’s what I got.

9 items in total, plus the bonus I'll show you later.












Let’s take a closer look.


These vases are tiny.  The ring has an amathyst and diamond look, but of course, it isn't that.  But still, it's nice bling for when I go Red Hatting.











I do remember the year the gnomes went missing around here, but I had no idea there was a book about it.  There are lots of local references in this little children's book, and since I doubt there were a great many printed, I think this is quite a good treasure to have found.













I picked up this frame, not for the picture that was in it, though that's not bad either, but because it's a nice frame in good shape, and has a couple of useable mats in it as well.  I, as some of you may know, like to paint, and it's good if I don't have to go broke when it comes to framing the results.












 Now, I don't know what it is about wooden boxes, but without meaning to, I seem to be collecting them.  I just can't pass up a decent box if the price isn't something outragious.  This, I think, is number 14 in my "collection."









And here's where the bonus part comes in.  I was offered this box for the great big sum of 50 cents, contents included.


 Inside the box, at no extra charge, were 5 pairs of earrings. While I won’t likely wear them, I’m sure I can make some interesting necklaces out of a couple of pair of them.









Of course, after a day like this, I have to bring  home something to share with the hubby, right?
I'm sure he will enjoy this little treat.  They sure smell delicious!