Applewood Hollow

In the February 12 edition of The Local I took the readers to visit a mountaintop high up in the clouds of St. Catherine, Jamaica with Uton and Linnette Bell. Since that experience in 2008, I have had the privilege…

  The NOTL Local~ Feb 12   It was a golden morning in Spanishtown, Jamaica. The brilliant sunshine and rapturous birdsong erased any memories of the dull winter my friend Jodie Godwin and I had left behind in Niagara. We…

The Niagara on the Lake Local – May 10, 2019  The police officer leaned in closer to the squad car radio, listening in disbelief. Dispatch was requesting backup for a traffic situation. An excited driver had just reported a woolly…

“They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it makes me sad that I’m going to miss mine by just a few days.” ~ Garrison Keiller My father, Ruben Friesen, passed away on Dec.11 at 94 years of…

  NOTL Local – October 31 It’s a balmy evening only a few weeks ago in September and I’m walking with my dog towards a brilliantly hued sunset on Wall Rd. In the distance I can see the headlights of…

  The NOTL Local – Sept.26 September offers a welcome change for those who have been dealing with peach fuzz, long work days, heat and humidity for the past 3 months. For our neighbours on the farms this time of…

  The NOTL Local -August 22 Almost 800 meals served! Music and laughter spilling out of the tent and into the picnic grounds. Friends reunited and friendships kindled. The tantalizing aroma of jerk chicken. Lord Mayor Betty Disero twirling on…

It is a perfect Sunday evening, only a week away from the Peach Pickers Picnic. We’ve been distributing posters and dinner tickets to the 75 plus farms in Niagara on the Lake for about 5 weeks now, averaging 2 farms…

  Niagara Workers Welcome   This week the magic happened. It started with a tiny flicker, a momentary reflection catching my eye in a little pond tucked deep among the ferns. A second tiny flash hovered over the path and…

  It was a beautiful evening in fall and I was enjoying a quiet time puttering about in my front yard when I heard it. It was a muffled crack followed by an onslaught of men’s excited voices, then abruptly…

  In our B and B guest room there is a little basket with a unique contraption tucked in amongst a collection of loose photos. The stereograph was a gift from my husband years ago, a low tech wonder. It…

  It is an early April morning and the sun’s rays are hitting the top of the ridge at Kentish, Jamaica, where the lush green sugar cane is heavy with dew. The sunlight moves slowly, a cascade of gold and…

Dufferin Grove Organic Farmers market – April 3, 2019 In Memory of Debbie Wiecha Our market community grieves the loss of Debbie Wiecha, a long-time vendor famous for her amazing organic peaches and fragrant lavender, and much-loved for her generosity…

The NOTL Local February 6, 2019 by Jane Andres It had all the feels of a long anticipated reunion, the adults hugging and laughing as the children watched with shy smiles, waiting to be introduced. Indeed it was a special kind of…

Harriet’s Legacies: Race, Historical Memory and Futures in Canada Brock University 2015 In May 2005 I was invited to help with the music at a church service for Caribbean workers. CWOP, the Caribbean Workers Outreach Project, was run by Grace United Church…

Harriet’s Legacies: Race, Historical Memory and Futures in Canada Brock University 2015 We live in Niagara-on-the-Lake within walking distance to the shores of Lake Ontario.  If you take the path down into the valley behind our home you will find rich bottom…

A Collection of Foggy Day Rambles The Last Remnants – Ice House and Cemetery This stone structure was the last remnant of the settlement on Palatine Hill. It had been attached to a wooden building which would have originally been…

A Collection of Foggy Day Rambles Whispers from the Past Over two hundred years ago you would have heard the voices of young John, Daniel or Maggie Servos as they played along the banks searching for crayfish or swinging buckets…

A Collection of Foggy Day Rambles The Road to Palatine Hill The only route to Palatine Hill from the town of Niagara on the Lake was via Four Mile Creek Rd. until the mid 1800s when the Lake Rd. bridge was built. Four Mile…

Four Mile Meanderings As the Four Mile Creek nears Lake Ontario it twists and turns through the floodplain, intersecting tender fruit orchards and vineyards. Originally a lake bed, the rich topsoil along the Four Mile watershed is some of the…

A Collection of Foggy Day Rambles Beasts and Birds: A Touch of the Wild                         There still exists a path frequented by deer and coyote from Palatine Hill down…

A Collection of Foggy Day Rambles   If you take a walk down to the Four Mile Creek behind Applewood Hollow you will notice a wooded rise on the opposite bank. On the top of the ridge, nestled in the…