Picton Gazette Express Vol. 1 No. 32

Wassail Special Issue

November 14, 2024

Village A

The First of Base31’s Constellation of Villages is on the Horizon.

A rendering of Village A’s central park by Norm Li. For planning purposes only, no approvals are implied.

Each of six proposed villages will offer a distinct design. In “Village A,” front porches are a focal point throughout, with driveways and garages tucked in behind, putting cars and parking out of sight. The emphasis is on a coherent, walkable community, punctuated with green spaces and laneways.

The Dacombe family donates 60 acres along the South Shore to the NCC for permanent conservation.

Protected land along the County’s fabled South Shore

The South Shore, with 15,000 inland acres and 54,000 along the shore, boasts globally significant, biodiverse, and rare communities. It also includes the last undeveloped stretch of public land on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario. 

NCC is a private, non-profit organization that acquires undeveloped land to restore and manage. Its team of staff, board members, and volunteers already steward two parcels on the South Shore, the Hudgin-Rose and MapleCross reserves.

Laurie Gruer captures the warmth and intimacy of seasonal harvest festival.

Broken Stone Winery offers a Warm Wassail Welcome, while at Loch Mor and County Cider, Wassail is right at home, among the apple trees.

Seasonal festivals restore us to cyclical, circular, time. The changing of the seasons is predictable and perpetual, like the slow turning of the constellations in the night sky, the phases of the moon, the coming and going of the tides — all recall the ebbs and flows of life itself. The eternal returns of cyclical time challenge modern, western ideas, in which time is nothing if not a progress, a perpetual improvement — an ascent.

The Weekend Ticket

Andara Gallery hosts its fifth annual Holiday Photo in the Barn. November 16- December 8.

Lynne Grist launches “Treasure at Long Point,” the second book in the local history KEY TO TIME series, at the Picton Branch Library Children’s Room, Saturday at 1pm.

The Great Canadian Comedy Caravan tour rolls into the Regent Theatre Saturday November 16th! Proceeds benefit The Children’s Foundation. Come enjoy television and film writers, actors, and Just for Laughs veterans.

Oeno Gallery presents Layers and Light, to January 26. Featuring artists Milly Ristvedt, John Paul Robinson, Otto Rogers, David Sorensen, Pat Service, and many more.

Closson Road Chrismas Crawl is November 16. So is the Picton Night Market, sponsored from the Picton BIA, Saturday evening 6-9pm, all the shops are open late and there are bonfires in the streets.

PEC Wine’s Wassail opens this weekend.

The Quinte Field Naturalists give a talk on the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s efforts to preserve and protect natural areas within the region. Monday 18 November 7 pm, at the Maranatha Church, 100 College St West in Belleville. Free and open to all.