Line Pujos sits in the basement of a centuryold stone church by Maple Lake and scribbles in a notebook.

It’s a great space to create, replete with stone walls, a stained-glass window, and light pouring in through other portals to the outside world.

St. Peter’s, Maple Lake is the gathering place for the Algonquin Highlands Writers’ Group. It’s been going for about 20 years, and Pujos wants to ensure it remains for a long time to come.

“Look at the place,” Pujos says. “It’s the ideal place to meet. It’s quiet.”

She joined about two years ago, but says there are people in the group who have been around since its inception. Brenda Peddigrew started it all, “for people to feel comfortable reading stories or poetry and not feel that they were going to get blasted,” Pujos said. “There’s no critiquing.”

She jokes she is a “lousy writer” but her peers provide positive reinforcement.

The group now has a core of seven to eight people but they would like to see that grow.

“It’s a solid group. I really want to save it,” Pujos said. While numbers are stable, it does not take much for them to dwindle; someone travelling south for the winter, illness or injury, and bad winter weather.

“I think if we can add a couple of new members; I think anyone who’d like to write would benefit a lot from joining us because you are exposed to different styles.

I wouldn’t be writing this much if it wasn’t for them. It’s forcing me to write every two weeks; a story, I’m just sitting here and writing four or five pages.”

They meet every second Saturday – the next gathering is June 28, from 9:30noon. From 9:30-10 a.m., they talk about “writerly” news, things such as Bookapalooza, and the Arts Council Haliburton Highlands, which had a poetry jam at the Dominion Hotel in Minden recently. From 10-10:40 a.m., they write if so inclined, and then from 10:40 a.m. to noon, they share their writing. Some people write by hand, others with laptops or iPad.

Pujos stressed people should not be intimidated about coming. “This is garbage,” she says of the contents of one of her notebooks. “I tell them every two weeks ‘this is what I vomited today on four pages’. It doesn’t matter. It’s for the sheer fun of writing stories. I’m not in it to write something pretty, flowery, and beautiful.” She said what she pens is humorous, so she has unintentionally become the “cut up” of the group.

It’s also a fun way to start a writing journey, “because we’re not judgemental. There’s no right or wrong in the creative process. We’re about loving life, loving nature, being accepting and having a positive attitude.”

For more information, or to register, contact Line at writewaywritetime@gmail. com

Ian Macnab says there’s a new craze sweeping across Haliburton County, one that he hopes will bolster Canadian spirit and pride.

Since March, the Haliburton village resident has been handing out free pins emblazoned with the Canadian flag. There’s no catch or hidden agenda he told The Highlander during a recent interview, only a desire for people to appreciate what they have living this side of the 49th parallel.

“As Canadians, we’re pretty low-key people… known for being very polite, always saying sorry, but we’ll stand up and push back when we have to,” Macnab said of his inspiration. “This whole business around Canada becoming the 51st state – everybody thinks it’s just an old man kidding around… but this is an opportunity for us to stand tall, take pride in who we are and say, collectively, that we are Canadian and darn proud of it.”

The pins first appeared during a trip to Mexico – wanting something that distinguished him as Canadian, not American, Macnab ordered a pack of 35 from Amazon. He and wife, Jane, each took one, with the pair handing some more out while on the trip.

After returning home, Macnab didn’t really have a plan for what to do with the rest. He didn’t want to leave them sitting in a box gathering dust, so started offering them to friends and family.

“They all thought it was great, saying I should keep doing it. So, I ordered even more,” Macnab said.

The new red-and-white movement landed in Haliburton village over the spring. Whether you’re shopping at Foodland, Rexall, or Home Hardware, visiting the bank, or enjoying a leisurely stroll along Highland Street, Macnab wagers his pins won’t be hard to find.

He figures he’s given about 300 away so far, with no plans to stop.

“If I’m in line with somebody I might tap them on the shoulder, strike up conversation and offer them a pin. It’s all about spreading positivity,” he said. “People are usually pretty surprised, taken aback, but once they realize it really is just a pin with the Canadian flag, they’re fine. I do warn people though, mostly staff at these places, that I do checkins!”

Anytime Macnab leaves home he makes sure to have a dozen or so pins in his pocket. He recently took some to his daughter in Prescott, a town of just over 4,000 people on the St. Lawrence River about 350 kilometres southeast of Haliburton.

“We took the kids out for ice cream, and I gave one to the lady at the shop. I gave some more to the kids to give to their teachers and friends,” Macnab said. “This isn’t a Haliburton thing, it’s a thing I’m doing anywhere I go.”

Haliburton’s Greg Gillespie has added four more world championship ribbons to his collection, earning a trio of top three finishes at the 54th annual Ward Wildfowl Carving Competition in Ocean City, Maryland.

The wood sculptor entered six original pieces into this year’s event, which ran April 25 to 27. He’s been a regular since 2008, competing against other top-class carvers from around the world. The Ward competition was established in 1968 and is one of the most prestigious on the circuit, Gillespie said.

There are five different categories – levelled competition, the Lem and Steve Ward competition, the Danner Frazer Youth award, special submissions, and the official world championships.

In levelled competition, competitors are separated into novice, intermediate, advanced and masters.

Gillespie submitted two interpretive bird carvings and one decorative life-size songbird carving into the masters levelled competition, where he earned one of his ribbons. In Open Level-Bench of the Lem and Steve Ward competition, his walnut paddle finished tops in the division; a recreation of a common flicker feather in the special competition placed third. Another interpretive piece for the official world championship competition failed to place.

He was chasing a second-ever ribbon at the world championship level, after earning bronze in 2016.

“I didn’t quite get it – from talking with the judges, I have a feeling I came in fourth, which is the worst possible place to come in,” Gillespie said, noting there were 12 entries.

He spends months crafting each piece. The three interpretive pieces he estimates took between 300 and 350 hours to finish, the paddle took about 200 hours, and the flicker feather, which he painted with acrylics, about 30 hours.

They’re perfected in his Haliburton village home workshop, using mostly Ontario-sourced materials. Gillespie has become known for his trademark – black walnut.

“I don’t think I can hide my work anymore. These competitions, it’s supposed to be anonymous until the judging is done, so nobody knows who did what. But usually, when people see my pieces, they go ‘oh, that’s one of Greg’s’,” Gillespie said.

He always starts with large dark slabs, free-handing most of his designs.

“I don’t make many notes and I’m not a very good drawer – I’ll do some crude sketches of what I hope the final thing will look like, but the sculpture always changes and develops as I work,” Gillespie said. “I’ve been known to pivot completely part way through a project – that’s just how creativity works sometimes.”

The warmer months are typically spent outdoors, with Gillespie drawing inspiration from the Highlands’ natural landscape. He enjoys hiking, camping, and canoeing, and rarely returns home from an outing without a new idea. He then hibernates in his workshop over the winter, perfecting his ideas.

Gillespie has been carving since 1982, when a friend and fellow woodworker, the late Weldon Tracey, took him to his first Ward World Championship. While it took Gillespie some time to compete at the event, he’s been a regular for the past 17 years. He’s hoping to win a world championship before he hangs things up for good, but said he’s unsure when he’ll next compete.

“With the way the political climate is now, I was a little worried about going to the U.S. I last went in 2023, but had to go this year because I needed to pick up one of my older carvings that failed to sell at auction,” Gillespie said. “I probably won’t go down again now as long as Trump is in power. I don’t really want to support the U.S at this time.”

Sadie Snell, a recently-graduated research student from Trent University, believes the Highlands is ripe for an agri-tourism boom, with figureheads from Harvest Haliburton saying the non-profit is working to bring key industry stakeholders together.

Authoring the 42-page report Harvest Haliburton: Unveiling Haliburton’s Bounty Through Agri-Tourism, Snell identified ways County farmers and those with agricultural interests can improve their businesses, while also outlining existing roadblocks hindering the local economy.

The project was inspired by Apple Tree Identification Project (ATIP) Haliburton founder Luba Cargill, who last year suggested U-Links partner with a student researcher to investigate ways to bolster agri-tourism. Snell connected with U-Links last summer, taking on the project in September. She spent the first couple of months cultivating contacts, interviewing 14 people to come up with a list of priorities.

“Prominent findings include a community interest in organized farm tours and other coordinated events, a need for community-building and improved communication and collaboration between agri-tourism industry actors, and a need to address the obstacles faced by the agricultural sector in order to develop a strong foundation for agritourism,” Snell said.

Participants said they’d like to see an agricultural-themed event that runs like Hike Haliburton or The Studio Tour, where multiple locations band together and the public is free to come-and-go.

Need for overarching organization to bring producers together

“Something like that has the potential to connect several small producers and provides people a glimpse into different aspects of Haliburton’s agriculture, geography, and history,” Snell noted, saying the last time something like that was organized locally was by SIRCH Community Services in 2012.

There was an interest in staging more workshops with stakeholders eager to demonstrate skills such as cheese-making and sheep shearing, teaching people about plant biology and how to conduct soil analysis, and broaden the public’s understanding of beekeeping, maple syrup production, and forestry.

In terms of problems to overcome, Snell said most of the people she spoke to felt isolated from others in the sector. Concerns were also raised about a perceived lack of municipal support for agricultural events and issues, and “tedious” provincial regulations.

Stepping up

Through it all, Snell said one thing was clear – there is a need for an overarching organization that can bring all producers together.

Enter Harvest Haliburton. The organization, founded in 2012, has been revived recently following a yearslong pause initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-chair, Barrie Martin, told The Highlander that he could see the group stepping up to the plate.

Martin was one of the 14 people Snell interviewed for her report.

“I’m glad someone decided to look into this because it’s not obvious there’s an agri-tourism potential here. The type of things that can happen is maybe a little bit different than you’d find elsewhere in southern Ontario, which makes us unique,” Martin said, noting the Highlands’ topography being on the Canadian shield, and focus on maple syrup production and wild edibles.

He said Harvest Haliburton is investigating how to develop a local sustainable food system. Collaborating with entities like Abbey Gardens, the Haliburton County Farmers Market, and Haliburton County Farmers Association on programming is key, Martin added.

The non-profit is planning a food-themed forum in October. Martin said about 80 stakeholders attended one in 2019.

“We thought it’d be a good idea to bring organizations and operators together to hear where they’re at, what problems or challenges they’re facing,” Martin said. “It’s not going to be quite an action plan thing, that might be something we do later.”

Martin liked Snell’s report, saying it’s helping to spark conversation among stakeholders.

“If it can get people to explore new ideas, that would be great. There’s lots of energy in the community, it’s just a matter of finding those people and supporting them as much as possible,” he said.

Health unit officials will be keeping a close eye on Rotary Beach in Haliburton village this summer as annual beach water monitoring starts up across the Highlands, Kawartha Lakes and Northumberland County.

Kicking off June 16, the program will see inspectors from the local unit work with Public Health Ontario staff to monitor and test water quality at 54 public beaches – including 19 in Haliburton County. Samples are tested for bacteria such as E. coli, which can cause severe illness.

Bernie Mayer, manager of health protection with the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge district health unit (HKPR), said Rotary Beach was one of the few problem areas found in the County during last year’s testing.

“There was a problem at Rotary Beach – by the end of the season, we actually got some pretty high counts there,” Mayer said, though results weren’t concerning enough to trigger a warning or closure.

All beach locations are tested weekly and, based on results, are assigned one of three risk levels – low-risk (green), which is safe for swimming; moderate-risk (yellow), where swimming is not recommended; or highrisk (red), where it’s closed off to the public. Results are posted online at hkpr.on.ca/BeachCheck.

Mayer said swimming in contaminated water can expose people to harmful bacteria and viruses that can cause gastrointestinal illness, skin rashes, eye or ear infections, and other health issues. Beaches can be contaminated by wildlife, stormwater runoff, or sewage leaks.

“Regular testing allows us to identify potential risks early and keep the public informed so they can enjoy the beach with confidence,” he said.

At least five samples are collected from different points of each beach, with each one tested for the number of bacteria per 100 millilitres of water. This allows the health unit to consider any outliers before announcing an average result for that beach. Results are typically available within 24 hours and posted online immediately.

While E. coli can lead to issues with blue-green algae, a hot-button topic in Haliburton County, Mayer said the health unit does not test potential blooms. He recommended anyone who suspects a bloom may be forming on their lake to contact the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP).

There were no beach closures in Haliburton County last year, Mayer noted.

“Generally, the beaches up there are quite good. There are some beaches where, because we have a long-standing history of exceptional water quality, we only sample once per month – most of those are located in Haliburton County,” he said.

Mayer encouraged anyone planning a beach outing to first check the health unit’s digital map to make sure it’s in good condition. A recent HKPR survey revealed 69 per cent of beachgoers did not check water quality results before swimming.

County councillors, at their May 28 meeting, got an update on how the ‘Testing the Waters’ program is going in the Highlands.

Andrew Gordon, director of U-Links, and Jim Prince, co-chair of U-Links and chair of Woodlands & Waterways EcoWatch made a presentation to the meeting.

U-Links Centre for Community-Based Research has been working on various projects in the County since 1999; bringing together Highlands’ organizations with students and faculty from mainly Trent University and Fleming College – much of it environmental.

The two said water quality is one of the primary contributors to our enjoyment of fishing, boating and swimming, property values, and the economy, especially tourism. They noted Watersheds Canada picked Haliburton for its national conference in early May.

The biggest threats, they said, are general lake health, including drinking water and fish populations, septic systems, shoreline vegetation removal, invasive species, microplastics, and the impact from watercraft.

Gordon and Prince also talked about blue-green algae, noting “a significant increase in reported blue-green algae blooms in the last eight to 10 years.”

They entered into a fee for service agreement with the County a couple of seasons ago to provide an overview of the physical and chemical indicators for water quality. They started in 2022-23 with 10 lake associations, and in 2024-25 have grown to 25 lake associations, across 39 lakes, and 61 sites.

The two said while there are four other testing programs in the County (Lake Partner Program, MECP trout lake monitoring, MNRF broad scale monitoring and Kennisis Lake Cottage Owners Association with the LPP), Testing the Waters samples three times a year, including winter ice-on sampling, the only one to do that. They monitor clarity, total phosphorous, ammonia-nitrogen, nitrate+nitrate – Nitrogen, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, sulphate, pH, total alkalinity, conductivity, hardness, dissolved oxygen and temperature.

In producing their reports for lake associations, Gordon and Prince said the focus is on what waterfront property owners can do to sustain good water quality, such as managing septic systems properly, and keeping shorelines natural.

The two said the program works, providing an example of a septic problem on Little Kennisis Lake discovered when doing the testing. Dysart’s septic inspection program, which found one third of systems damaged – then fixed or replaced – has improved phosphorous numbers. The two said it is only though building a sampling database that trends can be identified, and hopefully rectified.

“We’re almost at a point where we can take a snapshot of the County and tell you ‘this lake looks like a hotspot area right here, we’ve got some problems going on, this area over here is clear’ and with that we’ll be able to make some management recommendations as to what you might be able to do to improve the water quality in that particular area.”