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The foundation of the art of being

The slightest necessity often provides the spark that ignites the explosive that shatters that which is customary. The result leads to change. But not all change yields discoveries, new tools or improved methods. Intelligence is required and the subconscious also mulls in the background till suddenly, Eureka! a solution emerges from who knows where.

Dunham, Frelighsburg and Sutton are places that distinguish themselves from other regions because at some point, knowledgeable people had the wherewithal to exercise sagacity. Agriculture in the region is particular because individuals developed products adapted to the geographical limits allowing orchards, vineyards, and market gardens that offer healthy, organic and often innovative products. Much is available, from ice cider to bio-baskets, from maple products to organic soaps, from pick-your-own products to guided tours, from outside markets to open air exhibitions. Cultivated fields offer the gorgeous vistas that have become the main attraction for visitors.

One mustn't forget the sagacious entrepreneurs who started businesses of a scope in equilibrium with their reality. At Mont Sutton, fifty years after its inception, glades and narrower winding trails than elsewhere shine more than ever in comparison to the wide, straight and open trails at other Quebec ski areas. Sportsmen have given a direction in their image to outdoor activities such as those of Parc d'environnement naturel de Sutton, Au Diable vert and d'Arbre en arbre. The hiking trails and gravel roads confer a feeling of adventure, tranquility and remoteness although one remains near agglomerations. Nature lovers in the midst of land trusts and conservation organizations are mindful of posterity in order to preserve these natural jewels.

When the tendency shifted towards industrialization, artisans came through with made-to-measure businesses: country bakeries, charming galleries, epicurean cafés, gourmet restaurants, fine chocolate shops, locally roasted coffee, natural food boutiques... each one serving and promoting local products.

The sagacity of people living in a milieu that cultivates a spiritual state conducive to a sustainable art of being is witnessed by these fine examples. An art of living that should be cultivated even further.

Happy reading!

Denis Boulanger

Sagacity in planning

Sagacity in architectural design for one, means knowing the difference between cool passing trends and cool real values that will transcend time. Involved, is a lot of art and going on hunches since even 3-D computer rendering cannot give us the true feel of a completed structure, but mainly architectural design is based on systematic decision-making stemming from tested values and a clear creative design direction.

Speaking very generally, if we look at a house as a whole, the basic design direction establishes itself in large part on the values provided us from the site – taking advantage of the topography, getting the best views, considering privacy from the road or neighbors, getting as much sunlight as possible while getting shade in the summer, taking into account the built surroundings, and in the case of a renovation, considering the existing structure. For example, if a house is to be built on a slope, it's smart to take advantage of the different levels to create interesting light filled spaces on the lower floor. It's always a good idea to put the entrance and all its practical adjacent spaces on the side that is less interesting in terms of views or sunlight, in other words not waste space with a fabulous view on a mudroom and closets. Meanwhile the door itself could have a view through to the mountains or the sun.

If we take a specific room as an example, we could take a look at the values we enjoy in a kitchen – efficiency along with a pleasant ambiance. For efficiency we look for a work triangle (refrigerator-stove top-sink) that is not too big in order to save steps, great storage (exposed and hidden), good task lighting as well as general lighting, quiet but effective range ventilation, an easy connection to an eating space outside, and the use of materials that are very easy to clean are basic principles. Julia Child's kitchen now in the Smithsonian in Washington DC had all these things. The question of a closed kitchen or an open kitchen is one that becomes more personal but there does seem to be a universal emphasis on the option of togetherness – the need for at least a small sitting area in a kitchen be it a counter or a small breakfast nook. Certain things bring people together in a house: Fire, Water (a pool), Entertainment (whether or not we like to admit it - the television for shows and games) and Food. The kitchen of course comes under the food category. If one wants to eat healthfully, food preparation takes a bit of time and can be a great occasion to spend time together if work and school keep us apart all day. In a flexibly designed kitchen the meal prep can become a group project, or be a solitary activity with the chef having the option to chat as she / he works, with someone snacking or doing homework.

Our attitude towards colour can change over the decades (the oft referred to example is the Avocado refrigerator) so that a wise decision is to choose basic materials – steel, limestone, concrete, slate, wood - and the colours that connect with them.

All in all, it's always smart when making decisions to zoom into those practical and esthetic considerations that are closest to deeply rooted common human needs and desires.

Johanne Béland, architecte
archfor@acbm.net

The Cooper Union College

Scholar ski trips to Mont Sutton

On a Monday before Thanksgiving in November of 1976 I put up a little sign saying “Ski Trip.” It didn't say when. It didn't say where. But when I came in on Tuesday, 70 people had signed their name to it. I took the sign down and then had to find a location but little did I know, we were going to end up in ski heaven! Cooper Union is raw, sterile, ridiculously competitive, and needed a partner that was civilized, real, north of ordinary, challenging and beautiful. Go North! As Americans and as a culture, we haven't gone north enough! We've done everything west, east, and south. Mont Sutton became the destination because it had received more snow per year than anywhere else in North America but we wanted more.

I researched and, within an athletic vernacular, scouted the skiing world sagaciously for a place Cooper Union students could air it out, literally and figuratively, and get involved in a place with a civilized culture at an affordable price. It was spiritual, and it had to be pure, because for the first time I was taking a trip with a large group of Cooper Union people. We had to go to a place where we could learn and experience something that would last forever.

We knew who we were and we knew that Mont Sutton was ready to embrace us. We knew we were all scholars who had earned a very rare and highly competitive academic scholarship to study Architecture, Art, and Engineering at an outstanding college. The scholars are a combination of the brightest, most competitive people, and both dramatically younger or older than their counterparts at other institutions of Cooper Union's level.

The Cooper Union artists and architects remain a struggling group of scholars combined into one school where the majority of the students have been to at least one other college, art school, or university before entering Cooper Union (CU)! The engineering students have been the brightest since birth and they were “skipped,” a New York term invented in the vernacular, at least once, maybe twice in their academic careers. So they are sometimes 15 or 16 when they start and occasionally 17 or 18 when they finish.

Mont Sutton has always had and always will have a very special identity for many others and me. It's THE environment of excellence in the skiing world. It's a world where you are constantly reminded of the past, and how this past has always been so futuristic. Mont Sutton sends a message to those who seek out and demand the best, that you must first make a contribution to the mountain, and then study it as you enjoy it while encouraging you to be part of the best. Cooper Union and Dean Baker started skiing Mont Sutton 34 years ago. As many as 265 people came skiing for one week, lodging in 62 chalets and thousands more have continued skiing for a week at a time. During the late 80s and early 90s CU brought over 200 people for a week in January. The February ski presidential week grew to over 100 in the 90s.

For the last 10 years the students have also combined playing a basketball game against a ranked Canadian basketball team (CU holds a 6-3 edge). The group leaves Montreal at 1:00 am and gets back to Sutton at 2:30 am and skis at 8:30 am that very same day. We say… “If you want to party with the owls, you have to soar with the hawks.”

The scholars who ski with CU give up spending a week with their family, give up the last week of their winter break, give up their last week of work to earn money, but when they return to school everybody knows where they've been and how Mont Sutton has improved their lives forever. Cooper Union is a small college and Cooper Union's President, George Campbell has publically stated that a very high percentage of the students have gone on ski trips to Mont Sutton and many more will continue to do so.

I had never realized that Baker is Boulanger in French – the Boulanger family being the founders of Mont Sutton. That honor of coincidence has put pressure on me to perform at the highest level to equal that of the Boulangers and Mont Sutton.

I usually say CU later, but at Sutton I prefer to say ski you later!

Dean Baker

4 a.m. Coffee in Places Far and Strange: a Primer

I am an early riser and a coffee drinker. Around 5 a.m., as darkness loses to dawn, I read, coffee in hand. But how to indulge this penchant at a youth hostel in Hungary, or a guesthouse in Morocco? The road imparts its wisdom, a sagacity that suggests a back-to-the-future technique.

I'm not exactly sure when I bought my first jar of Nescafé, but it was before reaching Belarus in 2007. I was CouchSurfing, and I have clear recollections of mixing coffee in Aksana's kitchen, light spreading over Minsk. Then, as now, I double-bag my coffee in re-sealable plastic; a small leak will leave little brown spots on everything in your pack. Aksana donated a tiny stainless-steel spoon, which I slipped between the two bags. But I still required a few things: a stove, clean water, a pot and a mug, I was far from self-sufficient.

Why Nescafé, you ask? For much of the world Nescafé means premium coffee, which means too that they charge you handsomely to serve it. It's often the best they have. In India, even on a train, you can get chai for 5 Rs and heavily sweetened “coffee black” for 10 Rs. A cup of Nescafé will cost upwards of 35 Rs, whereas a whole jar can be had for only 100 Rs, about $2. You can mix your own strength, and you won't pay extra for having no sugar. It's not that I don't like better coffee; I'll visit a Starbucks in Kuala Lumpur when I can, or a Café Coffee Day in Mumbai. But at 4:30 a.m. on a beach in Mexico, that's not an option.

The following year I made small refinements, nothing major. I acquired a flexible plastic mug in Kiev that I used until recently. Before India I bought a SteriPen, an ultraviolet wand that renders a liter of water intestinally harmless in about a minute. You save the planet a lot of plastic bottles, and you can purify about 50 liters with one $10 set of batteries. It does not, however, improve the taste or smell of water, so in India it was less useful than I had hoped. Lastly, I traded Aksana's 10-gram spoon for a child's plastic spoon weighing just 5 grams.

Thus was the state of my coffee kit until November, at a hostel in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico. The kitchen and showers were deprived of propane between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., so no hot showers, and worse, no coffee water until about 6:30 a.m. Every morning a boy connected propane to each of the water heaters, lit the pilot lights (one at a time, in the rain!) all before connecting the kitchen stove. “How to boil my own water?” I mused.

I remembered that in college (Nixon was president!) there were little cup heaters, a simple coil attached by a cord to a plug. My memory was hazy, since I'd never owned one and hadn't seen one since. It was in one of those stores designed for westerners (overpriced cigars, ersatz Victorinox knives, etc.) that I found a #4 “Calentador,” a too-big version of just that cup heater. There was nothing smaller, say, a #1, but I then had hopes of finding one. Later that week, still in San Cristóbal, I saw another #4 on a display outside an electrical supply store. Three minutes and 21 pesos later (about $1.70) I had a new #1 “Calentador” in my pocket!

My test later that afternoon revealed the dual precaution of keeping the coil submerged (so it doesn't over-heat) while at the same time preventing it from touching the soft inside of my plastic mug, so it didn't melt a hole through it. I maintained this equipoise by carefully holding the coil just submerged and just off the bottom of the cup, this for the entire four minutes it took to boil. Tedious, but it worked!

The next morning, in that same propane-deprived kitchen, I made my morning coffee. Thirty minutes later, coffee in hand, I greeted water-heater boy, and I saw him check that the kitchen propane had not been tampered with! Hah! For the next 10 days, at San Cristóbal, and in Guatemala, at Lago Aticlan, Antigua and Xela, I enjoyed my new system.

Now, while I was always careful, and always wore shoes, the thought of safety had crept in. I was holding my coil suspended in water while twice reaching for the plug with my other hand. Something was bound to go wrong eventually, especially with concrete floors and the poorly grounded circuits prevalent in some countries. I needed a tin mug, which would allow me to leave it heating unattended.

I had seen white enamel mugs in the markets, both in Mexico and Guatemala, but they were all too small for my coil to stay submerged. It took another week before, in Xela, I found the next size up, big brother to that ubiquitous mug. It was all mine for just 6 quetzales, about 70¢! Now I could submerge my coil, set the mug on a counter, and only then plug it in. Safe and sound!

I was in business! Muy bueno! In Puerto Angel (Mexico), on a rooftop terrace, I read Thomas Mann, con café, to the morning cacophony of roosters. At neighboring Zipolite beach I sat in the sand at 4:30 a.m. with my cup of jo, a full moon overhead, watching the sunrise. Still later, in Oaxaca, I listened to the city come alive around me, coffee in hand.

I still need electricity, and further, it needs to be 110 voltage. There are still limitations. But whether I wake voluntarily, or am awakened by something untoward, I can enjoy it, or endure it, better with a cup of hot coffee, albeit Nescafé. For now, that will have to do.

Jay Sames
jay.sames@gmail.com

LESSONS IN SAGACITY

Learning from and about the past

Musical traditions and making music open windows onto history, and help us learn from the past.

With gigs at such unlikely places as public libraries and children's museums across the United States, the Brooklyn, NY-based 4-piece band called The Deedle Deedle Dees produces and performs history-themed rock music, designed to get kids and families moving - and curious.

Take a listen to their albums: ‘Freedom in a Box' or the newest ‘American History + Rock-n-Roll = The Deedle Deedle Dees,' and you'll certainly learn something about an important and engaging moment or figure in U.S. history. A song like ‘Henry Box Brown' is an excellent illustration of the band's strengths. In the summer of 2007, an audience of Sutton area families sang along, and watched lead singer and bass player Lloyd Miller (a.k.a. “Ulysses S. Dee”) as he got down on the floor, hugged his knees, and sang, “This side up!” telling the true story of a slave who “mailed himself to freedom...”

That warm July day, the audience learned a lot about people like Henry ‘Box' Brown, Nelly Bly, and Theodore Roosevelt, and the kids played their parents like drum kits... also learning about the process of making music, and the joy in it. Following the concert, the band members opened up the piano, to show its hammers and strings, and invited the kids to explore their instruments and express their curiosity.

Since then, I've often wondered what Québecois historical figure or local character would make an engaging subject for a kid's song? Could the daily reality of the bilingualism of Sutton's elementary school be translated into a story, a rap, or a poem that could be an inspiration for other communities? Wouldn't it be cool to take some aspect of the life of those who settled our area, find the elements which would make it real to today's listeners, and make it into a fun story?

Living history: it's closer than you think

The Mississquoi Museum in Stanbridge East, the Richford Historical Society, and Sutton's own Communications & History Museum... these organizations give us the chance to step right into history, and get a sense of how past generations shaped the landscape we live in. Recent exhibits at the museum here in Sutton have included the youngest members of the community: of course, groups of young hockey fans lined up to see the Stanley Cup last year and shake hands with former Canadiens; a special Hallowe'en activity got local kids' creativity flowing; and the current ski exhibit shows off the fashions of yesteryear on the slopes! Some of the museum's most impressive artifacts are the stove which used to warm Abercorn's general store, and the early telephone switchboard. These pieces are (literally!) solid reminders of how quickly technology changes the way we live, and the tools we use. The museum's exhibits are brimming with lessons about the past: it would be worthwhile to develop a sturdy collection of materials and stories aimed at bringing in groups of kids and families, and making history real for them. In an age of DSi and iPhones, a rotary phone holds a certain fascination for a young museum visitor. (In January this year, Canada Post launched a series of new stamps featuring historical watermills: one of them is the Mississquoi Museum! Read about it on the Museum's website.)

Kelli-Ann Ferrigan

Links:
http://museeduski.blogspot.com/
http://www.thedeedledeedledees.com/
http://vermonthistory.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=226&Itemid=123
http://www.museemissisquoi.ca/

Keep on Rollin'- Get Tough With Tires

By Stephan Marcoux

‘Fssssst', is a familiar sound in spring, if you're a cyclist. You don't need to fear flats however, if you've taken some simple precautionary measures. Cyclists tend to use their old tires in the early spring, which can prove disastrous because older tires already have nicks and cracks in them, making them more vulnerable on messy spring roads.

Some people go to the other extreme and put on brand new, expensive, lightweight, high performance tires like the Michelin Pro Race Three's on their bike. This is another mistake because these rubber tires are made to grip and when brand new, the really soft rubber makes all the springtime debris on the road, mixed with wetness, adhere to the tire and perforate it.

I don't know if you've ever had to change a flat tire in the beginning of April, but let me tell you in two words…frost bites. This can be both frustrating and painful at the same time. The same wet sticky mess that caused the flat will get in between your tube and tire as you attempt to change it causing yet another flat.

Here's a solution to prevent all of these problems. Invest in specific tires that will stand up to the messiness of early spring. The perfect recipe that has worked for me for the past 12 years has been to put Specialized Armadillo tires on my bike. These tires are practically bullet proof. Although they won't win a prize for smoothness and rolling resistance, they'll keep you rolling along at a steady pace. I use these tires from late February to mid-to-late May. Although purchasing Armadillos will cost you – they are worthwhile because they are so durable and will last up to four spring seasons.

Continental Gator Skin is also a good company who makes fairly excellent puncture-resistant tires for early spring. Customers have tried them with great success.

Another tried-and-true method is to add an extra lining inside your tire called, “Mr. Tuffy”. This rubberized lining goes between the tire and tube to add cushioning, thereby reducing the possibility of flats although it does add quite a bit of weight to your wheels.

Once the roads have been cleaned, you can start thinking about decking out your ride with high performance, colourful, slick tires. So come on by Velo Zoom in Abercorn and I will set you up with your perfect spring solution. Get out there nice and early knowing that what meets the road will take you all the way. Happy Riding.

Stephan Marcoux
VeloZoom 450 538-8293
www.velo-zoom.com

SAGACITY, Slyness, Relationships, Lust and Mt-Olympus

Caesar once said to Cleopatra: “A little sagacity will lead you nowhere”. How wrong can you get? Well that's just about how I felt after finishing this article. Once again I learned that an exceptionally and seemingly cryptic word could hold the power of universal energy. Ladies and gents: “Vox populi, Vox Dei” or so say the people of Sutton.

I choose to state that Ma Dame Rozie Barnes is like a beacon to bewildered souls. Last year she came back to Sutton after having spent many moons in that ultimate anglo-intellectual oven called NDG. On January 1st of this year the lady opened the first page to her 60th yearbook. In numerology this adds up to the number 17 or the major Arcanum of energy. Being of Jewish descent, Rozie loves to refer to the Kabala. On the side she will gladly give you a Tarot reading and quote from Pythagoras.

For Rozie, an air of slyness hovers over the word sagacity. Mind you, intent is what really counts. If someone is being sagacious towards you, your power of discernment must then prevail. A wolf may use sheep's clothing but our survival instincts may sometimes oblige us to create the opposite illusion. If ever in doubt, remember this one: ‘Moths come to the light!'

Shannon Bayne and Malcolm Johnston are quite ‘the' couple. Over the years, they have nurtured a beautiful and fascinating relationship. From past experience, I tried my best to interview them separately but as I knew would happen, it's like being in a restaurant where there are no condiments on your table - ever tried getting just the peppershaker?

So be it, this show must go on. True to her nature, Shannon is the first to engage. After having stated just one of her many thoughts, Shannon stares at Malcolm and says: ‘Honey, you're much better at these things than I am, why don't you continue?' Reply: ‘Oh but sweetheart, you are so much more at ease at expressing meanings than I will ever possibly be'. Re-Reply: ‘Dear, your understanding is much deeper than mine'…Come on already…! How sagacious can they get?

Finally the ball starts ‘a-rollin'. Malcolm insists that as an example of sagacity I must mention the time when Shannon got stuck in the elevator while on duty at the Foyer. Instinctively she did not panic but got on the emergency phone, rallied the troops and the whole situation was dealt with in less than 10 minutes. Hey! It's all in a day's work.

Then came a few more ‘Well, he/she is much more sagacious than me'. We eventually settled on a circumscription of sagacity having to do with: open-mindedness, keen awareness and ‘sagesse'.

Actually Shannon had started this chat with the following punch. Sagacity is a pansexual place in Victoria BC, where folks who enjoy BDSM gather to talk, laugh, socialize, share and learn. Sometimes they even have play parties… Boy, did I have to defend the honor of my editor on that one.

Richard Packer is the type that everyone instantly recognizes; yet not that many people really know him. Of course, he is not that much of an extrovert himself. Get him just a bit passionate and what do you get? … ‘Open up Sesame!' Man! This guy has a lot to say. His passions run through a kaleidoscope of interests. If ever you bump in to him, ask a generic question on music, science, history, dogs, religion, life in the country, outer space, studio equipment, or electronics. Hey! Why don't you just ask him his opinion on anything?

When I asked him about sagacity, Richard remarked that it is like that first whiff we sense of a person or a situation. Using his own sagacious scent, he visua-lizes a lot of confused and upset people in today's world. They are not happy with their lives and very afraid that they can't do anything about it.

Richard believes in having projects and dreams. Right now he is just practicing at the Mont Sutton ski resort. Being that outer space is the next frontier, he wants to be the first bus boy to work at Mt-Olympus on Mars: ‘The Biggest Ski Hill in the universe'.

At this time I feel the urge to butt in. Nobody ever asks me for my opinion. I am mostly put aside like a broken toy (A Father Graham saying).

Through all my research, I must admit that Richard hit it on the nose, so to say. Originally, sagacity is of Latin origin. It had to do with people who had a keen sense for subtle aromas. You can imagine that back then this was a life saving quality. It was also a much-sought out talent in regards to medicinal herbs. Over the centuries the adjective sagacious became more prominent and it's different meanings transformed in to shades of subtlety.

Yo! I can even make myself look smart…not bad!

Rolland Potvin

Her family calls Greta von Schmedlapp's extra ‘uncle' Sagacity!

Imagine my surprise when Aurelien told me just before the holidays that the next issue of Le TOUR would have as its theme the fascinating word saga-city! As you dear readers might remember, the last issue of my favorite local Townships newspaper included a rather long introduction of Aurelien Guillory and me Greta, his Muse! Well, my dears, here we are after the Winter Solstice, recovering from too much gourmandise, and from visiting various friends and families to celebrate “The Shortest Day.” All of our party noise has again scared away the demons and we are seeing daylight lengthening – the harbinger of spring and summer with those long blue twilights that we love so much!

Truly, my dear old adopted “extra” uncle was called Sagacity when he uttered too many wise and perceptive things at family gatherings. His real name Abel, was not his favorite, and, since he was a physician, Doc was his best name, except when he told special stories at the family gatherings, when he was called Sagacity. I will not go on about this, as I do have a tendency - suffice it to say that I did have an early exposure to the concept and personification of the word. Aurel says that it is not only wisdom and education, but discernment allied with experience.

How does it apply to the field of Interior Design? He has seen the imprint and style of many designers, as well as the myriad of new “How-To” television shows that DO NOT illustrate any understanding of the word. I have often heard him muttering when he sees their projects that he knows they are “super” for photos found in design magazines, or dazzling on TV but he always asks me, “Who lives there, what is special or unique here? Will it last?”

So dear design friends – or fiends, if you will, Aurel and I always ask our new clients questions about their life, family and general approaches to living to really understand their needs. I remember thinking this once with a new client in Upper “uppity” Westmount, as we made our initial tour of their home. Later, as we were sipping some lovely Darjeeling with the couple, Aurel told them that they must like birds as we had noticed many paintings, porcelains, small carvings and sculptures of birds here and there. The couple was completely surprised, and concurred. At the final stages of our work, we arranged them all above the large sofa in the “Music/ Media” room providing a superb impact! The family and friends loved the effect and the husband especially appreciated the fact that the design budget was not over-reached with the re-framing and cleaning of the artifacts. The clients SAGACITY was brought to the fore with Aurel's quick eye and many years of experience!

Aurel and I have been here on a weekend basis for over 25 years now, tho' now we are trying to spend more of our time out of Montreal. We enjoy working with the local residents and through our speaking presentations, we get a good feel of the cultural climate by visiting the local art galleries and discovering related suppliers of arts and crafts.

We are very fortunate to have here in Sutton, Dunham and Frelighsburg an unusually high offering of art galleries and studios. Just the fact that we have two Art festivals of many years standing is really impressive. I find that there is a superb collection of quality shops that supply the framing and craft needs for the local and visiting clients where the zeal and love of the owners for their métier is very evident. Two of note are the prominent Image Encadrement on Sutton's Main Street where the keen the eye of Melissa Flanders is reflected in every chosen object in her shop. “People often comment that they find different things in my shop that they don't see anywhere else.” The fact that several local prominent artists have her frame their work with her selection of Quebec-made frames is a real compliment to her SAGACITY! Nearby on Pine Street, around the corner from the oldest Dépanneur on the area, we find the “Crafty” lady Jocelyne Bonneau and her fascinating Le Cotillon – a treasure trove of craft and artist supplies for every creative type in the area. Just chat a few moments with either of these shop owners, and you will understand what Aurel and I are talking about when, we say, ‘zeal and sagacity'.

Before I conclude, I must remind you dear readers, about three other Sutton citizens who possess a great deal of the “word of the season”. I am talking about the occupants of the old School House at the entrance of town here in Sutton. Ilya Kavoukis, the dancer of the dance, who Aurel and I have known for many years both through her mum's antique shop in Montreal, and her Dance & Massotherapy Studio happily thriving above the Sports Sutton gym and its owners J.F. Beaudet and partner Marie-Josée. When they were up-grading the whole building these last few years they consulted Aurel knowing of his obsession with color and its effects. I am so pleased to hear that the clients of both spots have responded very posi-tively to Aurel's choice of colours that bring sun and energy to their spaces. Off-white is not the answer!

Aurel and I will be back next issue with more design anecdotes that will again try to illustrate and exemplify our brilliant editor's fascinating Seasonal Thematic Words. In the meantime, please do send your comments and questions to us at: aurelien@colorsbyauelien.com.

P.S. We are still looking for the best martini in the area…any clues? Please advise us. Hugs, your Greta von Schmedlapp.

The Sagacity of Hannah Selby

"Beware of the D's -- Dirt, Debt and the Devil". Hannah Selby 1883

There was a practicality of thought when Hannah Selby sat down on a winter's day in November 1883 and wrote on the front leaf of her new diary in tidy and confident handwriting “Pickings and Gleanings”. No doubt it was her goal to fill her new journal with its lovely marbled paper cover with maxims for everyday life, solutions to household problems, recipes and general thoughts that came across her mind.

Hannah Pettinger Lee was born September 24, 1849 and married Benjamin Selby in 1868. Together they made a home in Dunham, Quebec where they raised a family of five children. Hannah would have been 34 years of age when she began her journal and had just given birth to her fourth child. Only the first day of the diary's use was dated but the 50 pages that followed were likely filled over the course of several years with information that Hannah found to be thoughtful and advantageous to her household.

On the very first page for example, Hannah not only detailed the weekly routine of household work that she may have endeavoured to follow including laundry, making pies and cakes, mending clothes, counting knives, forks and spoons “to see that all was right”; baking bread and examining pickles, preserves and pork in brine, but it also advised how to relieve “choked cattle”. A lump of lard “about the size of a hen's egg and a spoonful of powder put on the tongue and thrown into the throat, would relieve the beast in about one minute”.

Sound instruction in matters of good health pepper the journal and include eating asparagus frequently to help with chest and lung afflictions, leaving a bedroom window open while sleeping in both summer and winter, and to ensure a clear mind, strong muscles and quiet nerves one must avoid all drinks but water. In an era where infant mortality was high, she also had many directives for the care and well being of children. “Life long discomfort, disease and sudden death often come to children through the inattention, ignorance or carelessness of the parents of the child who should never be allowed to go to sleep with cold feet…the neglect of this has often resulted in a dangerous attack of croup, diphtheria or fatal sore throat.” Presumably Hannah's children all went to bed with their socks on!

The gleanings of Hannah's diary were far ranging in their subject matter. Facing baldness? Hannah recommended a pomade of beef suet, tincture of cantharides, origanum and bergamot”. Fluctuating waistline? “A black dress diminishes the figure; a foot looks much smaller in a black boot and a hand in a dark glove”. Hannah “positively asserted” that the “effects of poison ivy can be cured by eating a few of the small green leaves of the pine”. Wild deer may have been a problem in her garden as she recommended “washing trees with tobacco water to keep deer from gnawing at them”.

The journal also included personal treasures such as Aunt Charlotte's lemon custard and Emily Sanborn's plum pudding and numerous recipes for jams, jellies, vinegars and cordials. Interspersed among the recipes were instructions for caring for spring lambs, riding horses, feeding cattle, curing horn distemper, tending vegetables, and white washing barns. Her thoughts were certainly random as they were varied as one can find a cure for warts, a recipe for tomato ketchup, and a cure for scarlet fever and advice for pruning trees all on one page.

The most inspirational of her notes are perhaps the rules for life. She had copious quotations from scholars of her age about how to live a good life and be a better person. Certainly reflective of the times were the quotations on how to care for a husband. Under her “Advice to Wives” Hannah wrote: Men frequently forget what they have said but seldom what is uttered by their wives therefore women must not be tempted to say anything sarcastic and violent in retaliation”. Pages later her quote “How to treat a man” provided a comment a little more reflective: “Men are too often just what they are assumed to be; treat them as men of honour, such they will be, treat them as knaves, such also will they be.”

Sound judgements or maxims for everyday life have been passed down through the ages by great thinkers and grandparents alike. They were always meant to inform, inspire and guide a younger generation on their life's path. Hannah perhaps inspired her own daughters Emily and Annice as they both recorded their own pickings and gleanings from the turn-of-the-century until the late 1970s. Hannah Selby's thoughts and instructions were indeed sagacious; one can only wonder if she followed them as keenly as she recorded them!

Sources: Selby Family Diary Collection 1883-1978, Missisquoi Historical Society Collections

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