Orangeville Blogger alert

Found another Orangeville blogger - Gigi Photography - wonderful photography, musings on parenthood, contests and fresh content. Lovely.

Murray's Mountain

If you grew up in Orangeville, or if you have children now, you most likely know of "Murray's Mountain"...a great little hill situated between Princess Elizabeth and ODSS. Over the winter, the hill gets used as a wicked tobogganing hill, kids and adults whipping down the hill, hoping to catch air. During the summer, it is used for athletes in training, and I've even seen Mommy and Baby Fitness goers parking their strollers at the bottom and making quick sprints up the hill in attempt to regain their pre-pregnancy bodies.
This week, local Banner writer Clare McCarthy, uncovers the man behind the mountain.

Throwdown pics from last year

For those who haven't seen our skate park, I found a little photo gallery that you can check out here.

Maple syrup, candles and skateboards

What a busy weekend! A very crisp forecast had the Optimists not feeling very optimistic about the Maple Syrup festival...early alerts had them worried that they would run out of syrup because it was too cold for the sap to flow. But alas, when I arrived on Saturday with my family in tow, I was happy to see that the optimism was back and that visitors were flowing into the park.

If you haven't been to Island Lake, you must. This is what I think is a 'manageable' park. Nice trails through the woods for young and old to navigate, a little hilly, scenic points to stop and take pictures or look out at the lake. The majority of the picnic tables are still lined up on end like soldiers, waiting for the snow to melt off of them. However, some were dug out for the day, with lots of room for everyone to enjoy a hot pancake and sausage breakfast. It was so nice to see so many local people out enjoying our in-town park.

An unexpected highlight for me was that upon entering the forest, our first tour guide was a well-known Orangevillian, Roger Johnston, a former Chief of Police for Orangeville. Roger led us through the woods, pointing out features like a "maple in training", the stately old maples, woodpecker holes, and the sap buckets. How nice that people who live and work here, stay here. Roger was always a level headed leader in our community and saw Orangeville through the beginning of its growth period. I went to school with one of his sons, who is now digging dino bones out west. What a pleasure to see Roger's smiling face and have a few moments to catch up before moving to the next station where we learned how to tap trees.

Saturday night saw many parts of our area fading to black as businesses and individuals turned off their lights to participate in Earth Hour. In the park behind town hall, candles were provided by the Town of Orangeville and coffee donated by Mochaberry for what I am sure was a pretty celebration. I heard of a lovely evening of food and candlelight - Peter Cellar's pub at the Mono Cliff's Inn always is cosy and warm, but even more so as the lights were turned off and candles adorned tables everywhere, highlighting the stone walls and moody atmosphere. Why not do it every Saturday night?

And finally, a little piece sign of hope that spring may be coming...I saw an impromptu skateboard park set up this weekend on my street - ramp, rails, jumps. The local boarders will have to wait several more weeks to get out in Rotary Park as the public skate park there is still drifted with the white (grey) stuff.

Good morning sunshine

What a great day for a walk. The benefit of the fresh snow is that everything looks clean again. I took this pic heading south on Faulkner Street.

Just as I got to the bottom of the hill, I noticed a new sign on the east side, in front of Mackie's gym. A proposal for the development of a 5-storey, 98 unit senior's residence has been submitted to the town. I looked across to the west side, where the Elizabeth Street medical centre stands - a 3-storey building. The 5-storey building would certainly bring a change to the face of the street. I'm interested to find out more.

Sweet tooth?

Just also wanted to mention that coming up this weekend is the annual Maple Syrup festival at the Island Lake Conservation area. It's a lot of fun and a great chance to get out and see our local conservation area at this time of year. Admission price includes admission to the park for the day, parking, pancake breakfast and a tour of the sugar bush. Hosted by the Optimist Club.

Too much snow to go skiing?

Someone said to me today that he thought there was too much snow to go skiing...doesn't that sound kind of backwards to you? The roads continue to be covered in the white stuff, and the wind was blowing absolutely sideways today as I trudged to Mochaberry to get a soup and bagel. Everyone in line commiserated. It truly is a tired old story, but one that we still have to tell.

Anyways, my friend decided to go skiing after all. As a skier, he's had a great season. As a non-skier, I'm sick to freakin' death of the white stuff.

My plan was to start a little tour of the tree-stump sculptures around town, as encouraged by the mayor's most recent front page question on the Town's website. Personally, I do not love the sculptures, but public art is important and I am impressed that the town has taken steps to make public art a priority. I hope that by taking the tour, I can appreciate the sculptures a little more and decide which is my favourite. However, until the snow stops, I'll sit tight.

Looking for other bloggers

Like attracts like, so I am putting a call out to see if there are any other bloggers in the area. This is who I've found so far. If you know of any others, let me know.

Lilyonthedustbin - looks like this local artist has been blogging since 04 - check out her artistic creations on her Etsy site as well, many created from cast-offs from our local Paws & Claws thrift store
Sheri Smith's Real Estate Blog

That's it for now. Let me know if you know of any others, or of Orangeville news you would like posted.

Live donkey?

I have been making an attempt to be more aware of the signage in Orangeville...and this one caught my eye.

This town obviously still has its quirks.

Dogs, please keep your owner on a leash!

Faulkner Street is a funny street - it has a little bit of everything from the nicest houses in Orangeville, to garages for rent, to Mackie's gym, to "The Professional Building". And of course ODSS. It's a mixed bag, and always busy.

However, it was a little quieter this week because of March Break. Nice and calm. Until, a lovely middle-aged woman started screeching at her two dogs. One happy collie had lolly-gagged after a car, giving a few requisite barks as dogs do. This dog was not on a leash, so naturally, it was interested in all of the smells and movements of the morning. The woman absolutely started freaking, "GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW YOU BAD, BAD DOG!" ugh, yuck. Who wants to hear this dog getting told off for doing what is natural to do if you are part of the dog world? Her other dog took this chance to sneak over and have a sniff of the garbage bins. "YOU GET OVER HERE YOU BAD DOG, BAD, BAD DOGS!"

Needless to say, I wanted to yell at *her*, she was making a scene that no doubt a number of people were disturbed by.

There is an easy solution to this problem. Keep your dog on a leash so that you do not have to have a tirade in quiet neighbourhoods early in the morning.

Stick to it

Walking down Second Street towards Broadway this morning (sounds wrong to me as you walk *up* the hill if you are going in this direction), I passed a man with a walking stick. He was very properly attired for his walk: a fedora, a nice backpack, scarf and carrying a wooden stick with a bend in the middle. He seemed very dedicated to his walk by his turn-out, and was very polite when he let me go through the narrow sidewalk pass first. As he headed north, down the hill, he would probably use his stick as he negotiated through the pools that had turned to icey patches.

His stick reminded me of a program that I heard about a while ago, that I was really impressed by. The Town of Mono recently announced a program that would give away 500 walking sticks made in the community to those folks who were interested and dedicated to walking and healthy living. The walking sticks are free on a first-come, first-serve basis, and become yours to keep. They were designed by the people at Dufferin Community Living. Each year, you can earn a decal for participating in a community walk. You can get your walking stick by visiting the Town of Mono offices at 347209 Mono Centre Road, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.

fields of diamonds

I walk to work. It's been a dream of mine to do so, and now I can.

This morning, it was a crisp -22 degrees, and the open spaces sparkled like fields of diamonds. After our weekend snowfall, everything was crisp and white again.

I passed only 3 people on the street: a man walking his little dog (that gave me a bark and then a quick jump up to sniff me out), a smoker outside of his apartment on Broadway, and the fellow from Citrus City Tattoo out clearing the sidewalk in front of his store. It is march break, so I suspect that many people are still hunkered down inside, maybe even serving up pancakes for their kids.

My walk is about a kilometre and a half, about 10-15 minutes depending on the weather. The snow lately has of course slowed me down. There has been a lot of snow this winter, but the effort to clear snow from sidewalks has not increased relatively. It has been an ongoing debate in Orangeville, I know, with the Town taking responsibility for the main thoroughfares and individuals to take care of the rest. Why can't we hold up our part of the deal? It seems that there are some areas on a regular basis that never get cleared.

If you know of an elderly person, or maybe just a lazy person, why not help them get the job done? You will be helping your neighbours and the other residents of Orangeville who choose to walk. I am blessed that in my neighbourhood, the neighbours are very friendly and helpful and will even come and clear my driveway if I am a little behind schedule! We in turn will help out if needed. It is this kind of "Be Nice, Clear Your Ice" attitude that I wish there was more of in Orangeville when it comes to our public spaces like sidewalks.

signs, signs, everywhere signs...

Have you noticed the hand painted sign in the laneway behind One99? Take notice the next time you walk by; it always makes me smile.
Someone else recently noticed some signage in Orangeville.

welcome to orangevillespaces

For a long time, I have thought about starting this blog. Welcome to orangevillespaces.

I am inspired by Spacing magazine and how they began and grew from mattb's acute observations in his comic strip on life in TO, to an award-winning, politically charged and influential magazine.

There is a dearth of information about our culture as Orangevillians. Where can we hear casual observations that reinforce, question and relay who we are? (for instance, are we "Orangevillians"? "Orangevillites"?) I want to share what I see, question why things are the way they are and open up the discussions that need to take place as Orangeville continues to grow and morph, always changing.

Orangevillespaces, I think, I hope, will be a place for observations and discussions, photos, poetry, who knows what else. Open your eyes, ears, smell the smells. What do you see? What do you like? (medians, anyone?) and what could you do without? (medians, anyone?) If you are listening (well, reading), then let me know. I will remain anonymous, and perhaps you will enjoy my ramblings, my reminiscing. Please let me know by responding - good and bad.

I grew up "in the Orangeville area", attended ODSS, and to date myself just a little bit, I worked for the Preuss' at a Tim Horton's that no longer exists. I remember Mary Browns, Pizza Delight and the Uptown, especially on $2.50 Tuesdays when the line-up stretched to the corner. The Grand Hotel and the Paradise. The original Harvey's location.

After a number of years studying and working south of here, I moved back in 2001 when it was time to buy real estate and work my way out of the rat race. I hoped to renew links to old friends, and that things would be the same as they used to be. They weren't. For many reasons.

For me, coming back to Orangeville after so many years has been eye opening on many levels. I hope you will come with me as I share my thoughts through orangevillespaces.