With the Summer break over, it was back to ‘work’ for the Society members. President Colleen Green kicked off the meeting by welcoming over thirty members, and introducing Marvin Chapman who was the judge for the Rose Show. Colleen took the opportunity to tell members about the upcoming grand opening of Marvin’s new store location on Main Street. Marvin followed with a quick rundown of the ‘green’ initiatives and recycling of materials he had embodied in his new store and advised members of some specials.

Colleen introduced the featured speaker for the meeting – Terry Sprague – and his topic ‘Nearby and Natural’.

Terry began by explaining his definition of ‘nearby’ as the Quinte Area – Belleville-Napanee – and points North towards Highway 7 (more or less). Terry’s definition of ‘natural’ includes conservation areas, nature reserves, provincial parks, national wildlife areas, hiking trails, wetlands, ANSIs (areas of natural science interest), and conservation reserves. All in all, there’s plenty of natural of all varieties and lots of ‘nearby’.

There are about fifty (!) conservation areas in the Quinte area ranging from a few acres to the much larger such as Depot Lakes. Terry’s slide show provided some images of trips in the Depot Lakes that illustrated the natural diversity and the meteorological diversity (which occasionally made the hikers very, very, wet).

Among the nearby/natural and remarkable, Terry included the Ameliasburgh Inlier (in PEC on Victoria Road south of Belleville) where a mazsive outcrop from the Canadian Shield – normally many hundreds of feet below ground in S. Ontario) can be seen. And sure enough, true to its Canadian shield origins, the area supports many varieties and northern plants rather than the more usual PEC varieties. Sandbanks was another wonder Terry mentioned, telling the story of the Antlion and the traps laid on the dunes for prey. Prince Edward Point has had more than 320 species of bird recorded at and near the banding station.

And even closer to home is the Millennium Trail from Carrying Place to Picton to close out the many opportunities to see rare and unusual plants, remarkable geologic features, and much more.

Terry’s closing advice was “look around you” and admire the natural and nearby we have here.

For more from Terry, visit his web site at Naturestuff.net

Mini-Show

The September mini-show was the Society’s traditional Rose Show.  Entries were judged by Marvin (Flowers by Marvin) Chapman.

Results
Red / Red Blends – 1st: Pat Stuckey
Pink / Pink Blends – 1st: Sheila Simmonds   2nd: Veronica Mitchell
White – 1st: Veronica Mitchell
Other colours – 1st: Sheila Simmonds   2nd: Pat Stuckey
Floating Rose – 1st: Veronica Mitchell
Arrangement of at least 3 roses in container – 1st: Sandra Dowds   2nd: Pat Stuckey

Most Fragrant Rose – Veronica Mitchell
Best Rose in Show – Veronica Mitchell

Click the images to see larger versions.

Photo-credit: Bert Jenkins