One-Tank Trip for Jan. 25/20
(c) By Jim Fox
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| See and smell the crocuses in bloom. |
Fast forward to
spring with a splash of colour and the scent of fresh blooms.
Put a little spring
and summer into your winter at “Come Bloom with Us,” the Drumbo Agricultural
Society’s popular flower show.
It takes place next
Sunday (Feb. 2) at the Drumbo Agricultural Hall in the village east of Woodstock
and south of Highway 401at exit 250.
Then, warm up at the Woodstock Museum’s new
exhibit exploring rural life in the winter.
It asks: “Isn’t winter supposed to be
cold? Or are Canadians just obsessed with the weather?”
The garden show, meanwhile, offers
“something for every gardener” and those with a green thumb or two, said the
society’s Catharine Bechard.
“When you walk in
the door, the smell of hyacinths reminds us that spring is really coming,” she
said.
Upon arrival,
guests are offered coffee and tea and mini-muffins before starting a day of
“everything to do with gardening.”
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| Everything a gardener would need is at the flower show.. |
There are door
prizes, vendors, a silent auction, guest speakers and an included hot lunch
provided by Kennedy’s Restaurant & Catering of St. Agatha.
In its eighth year,
the show attracts people “from all around the area – Burlington, Cambridge, Brantford,
Innerkip, Woodstock, London and beyond.”
Gardening experts
making presentations are:
- Rodger Tschanz of
the Ontario Agricultural College, University of Guelph, who created and manages
the University Trial Gardens. He also judges the annual and perennial entries
of the All American Selection organization at the university.
- Bruce Peart, horticulturist
for Gelderman Landscape Services and previously the Royal Botanical Gardens in
Burlington as head gardener at Hendrie Park and later curator of the renowned
lilac collection.
- Robert Pavlis,
owner of Aspen Grove Gardens, a botanical garden in Guelph with 3,000 plant
species, and author of two books and publisher of gardening blogs GardenMyths.com and GardenFundamentals.com
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| Gardening inspiration |
Among the food
offerings are the show’s famous scones, the recipe for which “will never be
shared,” Bechard said.
If you go
The show is at the Drumbo
Agricultural Hall, 42 Centre St., from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. (doors open 8:30
a.m.).
Tickets cost $45
($50 after Jan. 25) and must be bought prior to the event, with no ticket sales
at the door.
For more information
and tickets (PayPal), go to drumbofair.com
Bundle up
As Canadians hunker down in the middle
of a cold winter, a cool new exhibit at the Woodstock Museum National Historic
Site (466 Dundas St.) looks back at how people in rural communities have learned to survive
in our northern climate.
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| The Blackburn family sleighs down the street in 1910. (Woodstock Museum National Historic Site Collection) |
Keeping Warm, on now until April 25, traces
rural life in the winter from the earliest settlers to today.
It explores the development of home heating,
textiles, transportation and cooking technology.
The exhibit features photographs and
artifacts from the museum’s collection, including a selection of century-old
quilts and coverlets.
“Many of the people who first settled in
Woodstock and Oxford County were unprepared for the extreme cold they faced in
Canada,” said Karen Houston, manager of culture and museum curator.
“Historically, as well as today, Canadians
came from many different places and held many different views, but we’ve always
been able to bond over the shared experience of winter,” she added. cityofwoodstock.ca/en/live-and-play/woodstock-museum.aspx
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Jim Fox can be reached at onetanktrips@hotmail.com
For more One-Tank Trips: http://1tanktrips.blogspot.ca
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