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The rule of harmony

The Sutton municipal council approved a resolution in 2005 with the intention of revamping its urbanism plan by producing a planning document covering both municipal territories (town and township) having merged in 2002. After five years of consultations and negotiations, the new by-laws pertaining to urbanism plan no.114-1 have proven to be in conformity with the revised MRC land use management plan and should be effective before 2011.

This overhaul was an opportunity for citizens and the town administration to reflect on the future development of Sutton as a town and more specifically on the social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects of community living. As such, the urbanism plan reflects on the orientation of development and territorial planning for the next 15 to 20 years.

Hence, a normative aspect follows the plan for which details may be found in the zoning (115-2) and subdivision (116-1) by-laws. Neither you nor I will ever memorize or understand in all its detail this 200-plus page document which is why one should always consult the urbanism service prior to undertaking any project. Unfortunately many citizens are made aware of a particular by-law only when they submit their plan for approval and request a permit and this, once the project is well underway. Starting over or modifying the work and incurring extra cost is the result.

The urbanism plan and its by-laws may be consulted (in French only) on the town web site
www.sutton.ca/f_RegUrbaJuin2009etFevrier2010.html

When it isn't because of a normative impediment, a citizen may call upon the Planning Advisory Committee (PAC) which may recommend dispensation regarding the application of certain by-law dispositions without the municipality having to amend it by-laws. The PAC then makes its recommendation to the Council. To learn more about these proceedings, you may consult a guide about urbanism decision-making on the following (French only) web site www.mamrot.gouv.qc.ca/amenagement/outils/amen_outi_avan.asp.

As great as the plan and its by-laws may be, it is imperative that citizens harmonize their vision and their behaviour to those of the plan, otherwise the community objectives will fall way short of expectations. It goes without saying that this also requires good faith. What is to be thought of someone who understands the plan and accepts its objectives, but voluntarily skirts a regulation, content to pay a small fine as he abuses the plan? To cheat is to steal!

Happy reading!

Denis Boulanger

Harmony, the Music of Time

It's 4 am, October 11, and I'm wide awake. Happy Thanksgiving! So I'm trying to write. This Le Tour piece on harmony has been hanging over my head for weeks; I just can't find a way to put it to bed. And I promised to have it to Denis yesterday. I've had little time and a lack of motivation, too. Just how do you write about harmony? Even Dante couldn't do it! After reading Inferno from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, most of us find Purgatorio, or worse yet Paradiso, pretty dull going. I guess writing about harmony has all the same pitfalls as writing about heaven. So here I sit, in a dark room under a single lamp, the clock ticking toward 5 am.

I've been too busy for clear-headed brainstorming, let alone for writing out the result. I should be studying Spanish, which I've resolved repeatedly to learn, but I get to my lessons far too infrequently. I have some paperwork to finish for someone in the States, my car needs a check-up, and I must soon dig out the snow tires for the Nov. 15th deadline. I'm not getting in enough walks, let alone hikes on Mont Sutton, not to mention getting up to Lake Mohawk. And the B&B (Gîte Vert Le Mont) has been overflowing with interesting people all year, the kind of people you're drawn to talk to so long that breakfast isn't over and cleaned up until noon. All this after a spring of renovating the attic, where Lynda and I now sleep—thanks Marty, Steve and Rick!—which took all our waking minutes.

So what did I do since my last article? I became a joiner. I got trained by Rhoda so I could volunteer at Sutton Library as a substitute, which I've done three times now, most recently for Gussy when she was called away suddenly to Ottawa. There's a whole community there dedicated to maintaining a bunch of books so we can all have a good read in our spare time. Spare time?

And I have joined Renée Larouche's Côté Choeur. Well, of course, that is harmony, in the strict musical sense. Roots and major 3rds playing happily with 5ths and minor 7ths, a cappella voices blending, and singers intently sussing out difficult intervals. I haven't done much singing since leaving my beloved Maple Jam to go backpacking in Europe and Asia, so it was a thrill to set up Barbara's loaner-keyboard to learn some new music.

Of course some of the fun of joining Côté Choeur just now is to take part in this fall's filming of La Petite Seduction's Christmas episode, with beautiful Sutton Village as a backdrop and Gregory Charles the object of our charm-offensive. Indeed, that took another evening, as we all piled into the hall at Grace Anglican Church to plan and sign up for the various blocs of the show. (Hmmm. I suspect these other folks are busy too, but there they were, all smiles.) I should be looking over music right now, getting ready for my 5-hour rehearsal today, instead of warming this couch with my sleepless butt!

And then there's Lynda. She's far busier than I am, what with buying a new used car, her Friday-afternoon French conversation course, volunteering on the Corpo, all while snagging another baking 1st at the Brome County Fair! Just how is she going to make time to be a First Responder? Then again, 23 others are finding the time. For sure it's a good cause, to band together to become a multi-headed guardian-angel, the beating heart of a village ever vigilant.

Now it's nearly 6 am. (I can drink coffee soon.) Actually, maybe I'm awake from the dual feasts we ate last night - two Thanksgiving invitations from two separate groups of great friends. We just couldn't decide which one to accept, so we accepted them both, back to back, and didn't hold back a bite. That's another time-sink: friends. Yet, you wouldn't want to have it any other way! Sadly, many folks don't have the friends we have. Which reminds me, Lynda has her book group Friday night; maybe I'll see if Eddie wants to have a drink and smoke a cigar with me on the verandah.

Perhaps harmony is all around us, most in evidence though least noticed when we're busy enjoying each other, and in the tasks we undertake together. Sometimes there's tension, but mostly because we all really care; and fatigue, too, like being awake for half the night thinking about this. But when we take up a cause, any cause, and pull together like a team of Ian's percherons, we seem to make Sutton happen, and in a way that is the envy of other towns that just don't work as well. So, you start a tune; I'll do my best to sing harmony. Wow, that sounds nice.

Jay sames
jay.sames@gmail.com

Sutton School in Harmony

Just five years ago I set foot into École Sutton School, wondering what this new beginning as the Grade 6 teacher would bring me. I had worked in many schools and was confident that I could adapt quickly but I was not sure how this unique French/English environment worked.

I had never in all of my years of teaching worked in a school where two different school boards coexisted as one school under one principal. Many of the schools I had previously worked in had French students who struggled to learn English but they belonged to our school board. To have both a French and an English school under one roof sounded next to impossible.

I guess I expected it to be like Massey-Vanier, our local high school, which I attended as a student. There was the French side, and the English side, with separate staffs, separate lunch waves, and weekly fights between the French and the English. I remember feeling like an alien as my friend Catherine and I dared to explore the halls on the French side one morning. We were terrified that the guards would catch us, or that someone might scream, “They're English!” I'm sure the kids on the French side felt the same way if they dared to cross the invisible line onto the English side.

On my first day, I walked into École Sutton School and the first thing I noticed were the English classrooms interspersed with the French. English Kindergarten, Maternelle, First grade, première année, second grade, deuxième année, and so on. I walked into the office, and was greeted by two secretaries – both spoke English to me but I quickly learned that one worked for the French school board, while the other for the English.

The principal, who was fluent in both languages, greeted me. She was quick to show me the school's “code de vie” as we all call it at our school and sure enough, it was aimed at all students of École Sutton School – regardless of language.

When I got outside to do my recess duty, I couldn't tell which students were French or English. Each spoke the other's language and played with the kids with whom they had most in common. I watched my first game of bilingual kickball with kids shouting, “Run! Fast! Fast! Vite! Vite!” accompanied by shouts of, “T'es OUT!”

Staff meetings were held together, with the languages switching back and forth at dizzying speeds, committees were joint as was the governing board. I was amazed.

It's safe to say that life is not always perfect at our school. There are plenty of ups and downs, lots of drama and problems to solve. There are cultural differences too but we believe in “vive la différence”. It's ok for us to have our own way of doing things, it's ok that we often like to sit and chat with our own language group in the staff room. We also tease each about our differences – but through it all, there is a sweet harmony that binds us together as one staff, one student body, and one school.

Our school is a rare gem in the province of Quebec, but I think our school closely resembles the pulse of the village of Sutton. The people of Sutton have always lived in a half-half kind of world. If you walk down the halls of our school or through the aisles of IGA, you'll hear folks switching between French and En-glish without missing a beat.

“Comment ca va?”
“Bien. How about you?”
“Très bien! Have a great day!”

All I can say is – it works. I feel fortunate to be a part of this unique community.

Catherine Canzani

The Search for Harmony in Architecture

Let's travel back in time 2,500 years to the Greek island of Samos. A mathematician is investigating musical intervals and harmonics by tuning a single-string instrument, the monochord. He discovers that if the string length is reduced by half, its pitch is exactly one octave higher. Certain ratios such as 2:3 and 3:4 produce pleasing sounds, others create irritating disharmony. Pythagoras (570 - 495 BCE) had discovered the mathematics of consonance and dissonance, the foundation of musical harmony.

Ever since that brilliant insight, Pythagoras and others speculated on the existence of a similar mathematical basis for harmony, proportion and beauty in art and architecture. We all remember the Pythagorean Theorem explained by the familiar triangle with sides of 3 and 4 and hypotenuse of 5 units. Could there be geometry as simple as that for aesthetic coherence and harmony? Pythagoras is said to have advanced the Golden Section, a 1.618 to 1 ratio which corresponds to certain fundamental proportions of the human body. The regular pentagram, which also contains that ratio, became the Pythagoreans' symbol.

For centuries researchers have superimposed Golden Sections over building plans to prove that architectural beauty is derived from invisible regulating lines. The Roman architect Vitruvius (80-15 BCE) encouraged a more holistic approach: harmonious design must consider multiple factors: the building, site, orientation, wind, light, shade, elevation and materials. Vitruvius was also fascinated by architectural units and numbers. He documented the proportions of the classical orders: the height of a Tuscan column was 7 times its lower diameter; Doric 8; Ionic 9. Vitruvius saw the human figure as the ultimate inspiration for proportional design systems just as it had generated dimensional units since the time of the Egyptians: the palm equals 4 fingers; the foot is 4 palms; the cubit six palms; the man's height 4 cubits.

Fast-forward 12 centuries: mathematician Fibonacci (1170-1250) introduces his famous number series (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc.) which approaches the Golden Ratio. It has the added advantage of being expressed as an attractive spiral within the Golden Rectangle. Later, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) in-vestigates human anatomy directly, through dissections of cadavers, and sketches the Vitruvian Man to illustrate his discussion of symmetry and harmony in temple architecture. Alberti looks to the human frame to inspire his system of proportions, and Pacioli describes the "divine" properties of the Golden Ratio, which had already gathered mystical connotations.

For many centuries, harmony and beauty in a building were judged by how carefully the architect followed the classical Vitruvian rules which had evolved into a sophisticated proportional system. But with the 20th Century came the revolutionary new ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) who rejected the past and developed his own "organic" architecture with proportions, ornament and forms inspired by landscape and plant life.

Le Corbusier (1887-1965) went further, stripping away all ornament on his white stucco villas perched on stilts. But this did not mark the end of "magic" ratios. In 1948 Le Corbusier published his own proportional system based on the body, summing it up as "a range of harmonious measurements to suit the human scale, universally applicable to architecture." This radical Swiss Modernist felt compelled to pursue a mathematical basis for architecture and he obsessively traced Golden Rectangles to guide his design decisions.

In the late 1870s, with the railroad coming to Frelighsburg, the visionary Mayor Joseph Landsberg decided to build what would be for a time the finest imported goods store in eastern Canada. The masons laid up the thick brick walls using a foolproof geometry worthy of the Greeks - the building was 80 by 60 feet in plan, forming a perfect 3/4/5 triangle with a convenient 100 foot hypotenuse. Perhaps more surprisingly, the main facade also measures 60 feet to the top of the cupola. This sturdy tribute to Pythagoras still sits proudly on rue Principale!

Most architects would say that harmony is not based on numbers but on design intuition, or simply having a "good eye" for form, materials, colours and context. But architects and master builders have always found it hard to resist a juicy mathematical ratio. If you look carefully, you'll find 1.618 to 1 proportions in the oddest places, from Toronto's CN Tower to small town commercial facades. Check out the older buildings on your own Main Street and see how many ancient Golden Sections are hiding in plain sight!

Eden Greig Muir, Architect
www.ateliermuir.ca

Harmony between past and present

A first-time client came in last week, sat down in the ugly but very comfortable lazyboy I use for consultations and asked just what I intended to do to his brain. Curious, I asked how he came to the conclusion that I could “do” anything “to” his brain. “I saw Mesmer perform Friday night and now I'm not so sure I want to go through with this,” he said. I groaned inwardly. Stage hypnotists in general haven't given hypnotherapists an overly positive reputation. They've contributed to the popular belief that hypnosis knows no limits and the human mind can be controlled in seconds by a skilled hand.

However, nothing could be further from the truth. What spectators don't see is a selection process that singles out volunteers who want to let go of their inhibitions and believe whatever they are told by someone they think has special powers. It's a perfect escape from reality for those who feel a desire to participate in a show on a grand scale. In reality, participants will never do something they are morally or ethically against - their subconscious minds won't allow it. Of course, none of this is explained or even witnessed by the general audience as it would detract from the whole atmosphere of mystique.

Therapeutic hypnosis is a wholly different experience. You become more inwardly aware and in greater control of your thoughts. The advantages of having full access to your unconscious mind and its various programs quickly become apparent to you.

To put it simply, imagine your brain is like a road map. When you're a child, certain roads (synapses or communications between neurons) are established according to your environment. If you grew up in a family where there was little love and affection, “roads” are built accordingly and reinforced by what you perceive. The grid becomes more and more complex and sometimes changes directions as you grow. By the time you're an adult, you have a large network of roads that act as familiar points of reference for your brain, which will actively seek out people and experiences that comply with what it already knows. In other words, even if an experience from the past was a negative one your brain will try to repeat it because it's familiar. This is where mental blockages come in to play.

Hypnotherapy can help you discover ways to foray into uncharted territory – experiences you would have stopped yourself from enjoying before – and aid you in establishing new networks between neurons (i.e., roads) by finding out where and why limiting thoughts originated. Discovering the root of an emotional pattern offers perspective on its functionality in your present day-to-day life. More often than not, a pattern that began when you were five years old no longer applies when you're forty-five and yet your brain will continue to use it. Perspectives gained through hypnotherapy allow you to let go of former structures and update your brain's programming. Once new ideas have been established, a new network of thought processes take hold and former ones are left to die – old roads are left to crumble and new ones are constructed.

Therefore, although both stage hypnotists and hypnotherapists make use of hypnotic trance (a fancy word for deep relaxation); a session with a hypnotherapist and stepping onto a hypnotist's stage are as different as night and day. As is the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy: hypnosis uses mental programming as a means to an end and doesn't address the underlying cause of a given problem – it's like planting seeds without first weeding the garden. Therefore, be sure to ask professionals what their preferred approach is before making an appointment. Consider a consultation involving therapy in conjunction with hypnosis in order to expect the most rapid, permanent results. The final outcome will leave you feeling calm, in control of your life and in harmony with the people around you. It's well worth the road trip!

Robyn Jaquays
Hypnotherapist
http://www.hypnosesutton.com

HARMONY

How can I teach my kids about music if I can't carry a tune?

Singing a song in a ‘round' (a song like ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat' or ‘Frère Jacques', for example) gives young kids a taste of how easy it is to carry a well-crafted harmony... and touches upon basic literacy too. Simple notes and rhythms are counted, and then clapped out, and the lyrics added to the melody. Going to a live concert and watching the musicians as they weave their individual parts into a melodious whole is the best way for anyone to understand and appreciate how music harmony works. When performers play the same melody in different keys, they help their listeners to understand that the harmonic relationship between the notes remains the same.

There are countless events in our region where kids are welcome (or sometimes just tolerated!) to sit in and experience what may be their first live music event, without travelling too far: intimate concerts at the small church perched on the hill in West Brome and presented by Brome Beaux Arts, performances by La Chorale Pot-Pourri, circles of traditional (folk) music in Cowansville and in Dunham, and a bluegrass music society in Waterloo.

Sisters Katryna and Nerissa Nields from Western Massachusetts have been singing together all their lives, and recording as a duo since 2001. They have released 3 albums and 1 DVD for families, called “Organic Farm.” Nerissa recently posted this conversation between her daughter and their violin teacher on the band's blog:
“Do you know why we practice?"
“No.”
“To make it easier.”

Other beautiful women who sing in harmony: the three women who make up The Be Good Tanyas come from Vancouver, BC, and take the folk, country and bluesy roots of American music to make a blend of harmonies that is sweet—but not too sweet! Their song “The Littlest Birds” (which I first heard on the Putumayo compilation, ‘Animal Playground') always brings a smile.

Haley Bonar, a young singer from the States, also released a short kids' album this year called “Sing with me.” She uses harmony in her very, very simple songs, and they are captivating. At the end of this article you will find a link to a video clip of Haley singing her song “Beautiful You” live in a small studio: lovely, just her voice and guitar.

In a whole different register, the Québecois ensemble Galant, tu perds ton temps takes songs from the traditional repertoire of Québecois and Acadian culture, featuring five female a capella voices and one (male) percussionist. The band has been nominated in three categories for the upcoming ADISQ awards.

There are many examples of artists who have changed their careers to accommodate their family life: Robert Burke Warren performs as Uncle Rock, with his 11-year-old son Jack rocking out on backing vocals. Frances England's début album, Fascinating Creatures, was intended as a fundraiser for her son's preschool and, this past spring here in Sutton, local families were lucky to attend a multi-media presentation by Morgan Taylor and his unique creation, Gustafer Yellowgold. Morgan's wife, Rachel, and their son, Harvey, are an important part of Gustafer's life on the road!

There are lots of other activities to do with your family, things that take different elements to make a harmonious whole - things that unfold in time, with a definite beginning, middle and end. Planting seeds and taking care of the plants that grow from them; planning and putting together a recipe for muffins or chocolate cake to eat together, after school!

Kelli Ann Ferrigan

Links:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6210205_teach-music-harmony-children.html
http://www.zooglobble.com/archives/2010/01/video_beautiful_you_live_haley_bona.html
http://www.haleybonar.com/
http://www.galanttuperdstontemps.ca/

All for one and one for all!

The phone rings here at Vert Le Mont B&B. It's Bertin, one of the two new owners of the beautifully renovated Le Plea-sant Hotel (the former St-Amour) asking if I have an available room for the night for some people they cannot accommodate.

The doorbell rings. It's a couple who also need a room for that night, this time sent over by Stacey at Domaine Bresee. The phone rings again. It's a potential client wanting to make a reservation for my room with twin beds. I explain that it is already booked for the nights in question but I give them the phone numbers of Auberge des Appalaches and B&B Bonne Nuit Beaux Rêves, both of which I know have one or more rooms with two beds.

From the outside, you might imagine that all the businesses here in Sutton are in fierce competition and they are – but not with each other. Tourism is a tough business. Margins are small. Good staff is hard to find. Customers are fickle. If the weather is bad they don't come at all. If the weather is nice they book, but at the last minute. If the forecast changes, they may even try to cancel. There is a lot of competition, many destinations offering just what we offer here in Sutton: outdoor and cultural activities, boutiques, restaurants and lodging. So I thank my lucky stars that I live in a place where people have, for a long time, realised that by working together we will ALL do much better than by going it alone.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the not-for-profit organization that nowadays is the C.D.E.S., la Corporation de développement économique de Sutton, popularly known as “the Corpo”. The funding comes in very large part from the Municipality and everyone who pays a business tax is a member. Members vote amongst themselves for category representatives who are willing to volunteer as Board members. This group, in turn, is responsible for the Tourist Office, for the paid staff headed by Liane Bruneau, and a wide range of activities including marketing Sutton to encourage tourism, the industry which underpins our entire economy. Individual members also give generously of their time – Micheline Côté masterminds our presence at the Salon National Tourisme Plein Air in Montreal, Julie Zeilinger and I help Jennifer Davidson and Marie Amyot with the infoSutton.com website (originally entirely funded by Corpo members) which receives over 5,000 visitors a month. When those visitors arrive here for real, yes, we advise them on what to do, and where to go, eat and sleep.

Here in Sutton, by working together we make a whole experience that is far greater than the sum of its parts. We know that people could go anywhere, so once visitors arrive it is the job of everyone of us to ensure they have a great time and to make them want to come back again and again.

Lynda Graham
info@bbsutton.com

Harmony in a Small Town

Heather Darch – Missisquoi Museum

According to local 19th century teacher and writer Seraph Amanda Comstock Morgan, the small historic village of Stanbridge East, Quebec was “a centre of harmony for the presentation of the arts and for cultural pursuits.” That lovely description of the village may surprise its current residents but beginning in the 1850s until the early 20th century, the community had an extremely active and diverse artistic, musical and theatrical subculture.

Wealthy businessman and patron of the arts Mr. J.C. “Penny” Baker established the first bank in Stanbridge East in the 1850s. This astute financier and leading member of the community maintained an art gallery in his home which was located next door to the bank bearing his name. In his gallery he encouraged local talent by exhibiting their work to the public and financially supported their studies. The young portrait artist Wyatt Eaton (1849-1896) of Philipsburg QC, later to be recognized as a prominent “American portrait painter” held the first exhibitions of his art in Mr. Baker's gallery. So too did landscape painter Aaron Allan Edson (1846-1888) of Stanbridge East QC whose studies were underwritten by Mr. Baker and who later was considered one of the foremost Canadian landscape artists.

Music long played an important role in the cultural life of the village. Both the Anglican and Methodist churches had large choirs that practiced on a regular basis, presented anthems each Sunday and performed special concerts for the community. John Corey, choir master for St. James' Church, tuned his choir with a tuning fork to establish the

correct pitch and Squire Whitman accompanied the choir with his bass viola. Charlotte Briggs was the first organist of the Methodist church and also the first bride to be married in the chapel in 1869.

In the Stanbridge East Academy built in 1855, teachers taught singing, recitation and piano to the students. The students in turn offered their talents to the public in various halls throughout the community. The village had an unusually large number of stages on which plays and musical entertainment could be presented. The Goodfellows Hall, the Parochial Hall, the American House stage and the Memorial Hall were all located in the village proper and the Thomas Baker house located in Puddledock just north of the village was actually fitted for dramatic presentations including a stage and dressing rooms. All of the stages were utilised by members of the community for performing plays and oral speaking competitions, sing-songs, dramatic readings and debates. John Corey led a glee club with his beautiful tenor voice along with Irving Briggs and Benjamin Allen. Favourite songs of the club included “Happy are we tonight boys” and “Nelly was a Lady”. Perhaps they even broke into song as they walked down the main street of the village!

In addition to the local talent, numerous travelling musical troupes graced the stages of the village. The Missisquoi Museum has an interesting collection of playbills from the various musical acts that came to town. Malcolm Sager of Pigeon Hill QC and his wonderful bass viola was a frequent guest at the American House stage. In the early 1860s, child prodigy Marie-Louise-Emma-Cécile Lajeunesse (1847-1930) of Chambly QC came and sang in the Goodfellows Hall. Later known by her stage name of Dame Emma Albani, this young opera singer became the leading soprano of the 19th century and the first Canadian singer to become an international star.

Surprisingly, at one point in the mid 1860s so many plays and performances occurred in the town that Hobart Butler, the director of the Academy felt obliged to call a halt to all of the performing for a season as he felt that the entertainment level in the village had reached such a height that it interfered with the children's studies. The quality of the artistic and musical education was very high in the Academy so it is not surprising that the school favoured the arts over all subjects. Teacher Jane Rosenberger for example was a talented vocalist who left her position in 1868 to sing soprano with the acclaimed Handel-Hayden Society in Boston Massachusetts.

Poetry and debating also received “due prominence” in the community. The preceptors of the Academy led the students carefully through poetry lessons and established a debating society. Some local writers even rose to fame including poet Erastus Chandler who had a selection of essays and poems published in 1877 and Seraph Morgan who wrote about the charms of the Pike River.

In the 1890s the Stanbridge East Dramatic Club was formed by young women of the community. Bertha Baker, Jessie Corey, Janet Gilmour, Lizzie Hall and Adelaide Gardner were quite exceptional in their theatrical productions. They ordered plays by mail and together along with various young men from the community, presented very professional stage productions. Stage props, elaborate costumes, musical accompaniment and even sound effects could be expected from the drama club.

Interestingly one of the great benefactors to the performing arts in Montreal, Charles Sandwith Campbell (1858-1923), lived for a time in Stanbridge East on the Ridge Road. He gave to the City of Montreal the “Campbell Concerts” which are still responsible for the lively outdoor concert schedule held at Lafontaine Park each summer. Unfortunately, he was unaware of the artistic harmony that once existed in his small rural village. By the 1920s, most of the stages were no longer used and the Academy had shut its doors. Today the village has not yet revisited the zenith of artistic and musical accomplishment that it had in the 1860s but a strong undercurrent of the arts still exists in the community. Through talented artisans, artists and musicians perhaps wishing for one of those old Stanbridge stages, a “centre of harmony” can still be found.

Sources: Then and Now in Missisquoi, vol. 10, Missisquoi Historical Society 1967; With Heart and Hand and Voices, Phyllis Hamilton 1996; G. H. Montgomery, “Missisquoi Bay” (Philipsburg, Que. 1950); Stanbridge East Centennial, 1990; Academy Days in Old Missisquoi by J.H. Bugeia & T. Cornell-Moore 1910.

Musée Missisquoi Museum
2 rue River, Stanbridge East Qc J0J 2H0
(450) 248-3153
info@museemissisquoi.ca
www.missisquoimuseum.ca

GRETA FINDS (AND DEFINES) HARMONY…

Bonjour and hello fellow Town-shippers! Aurelien Guillory, my partner in crime and I, Greta von Schmedlapp, design sleuth, are primed to give you our view-point on this issue's theme: HARMONY. As we always return to our design roots when we are writing, we must begin with the key word related to Harmony: BALANCE or EQUILIBRIUM, another form of harmony.

A few years ago, Aurel and I were asked to meet prospective clients at their newly-acquired home. When we arrived, we found a 70's split-level style home with most the original interiors - complete with olive green shag carpeting! As we walked around, the clients showed us photos of the formal furniture in their previous home, a traditional French style, with centre hall and well disposed rooms on either side. The idea of using this furniture in a modern setting was giving us both headaches. Aurel and I were as diplomatic as could be under the jarring circumstances as we tried to convince the couple that it was virtually impossible to adjust the proportions of the house to the forma-lity of the elegant and somewhat baroque furniture. We regretfully declined the project, as there could be very little harmony there, no matter how liberal the budget.

Harmony is related also to function – the raison d'être of the room. For instance, a sparse, clinical kitchen is not harmonious in a clapboard country home. One aspect of harmony in home design is attention to the details – the style or quality of line continues from the structure of the building down to the small details such as door knobs.

There are several famous architects Aurel wants to mention because they are known for a consistency of vision. They are worth looking up on Internet for more info than we have space for. They are Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, I.M.Pei, Charles Rennie McIntosh, Wil-liam Morris, Eileen Grey, and Canadians Arthur Ericsson, and Frank Ghery. Once you have seen examples of their work, you will understand how harmonious it is. The illustrious Mies is reputed to have said: ``God is in the details.” Surely with this, my favorites list, you'll note that they all follow the example of multi- layered harmonious concepts – from basic structure to all details.

From theory to reality, please find ‘Image Encadrement' the marvelous shop at 12 rue Principal Nord, right next to the Post Office. It epitomizes the old adage that says,

“You can't tell a book by its cover.” There is a serious contrast between the exterior of the building, with its pinky-peachy paint peeling off like some form of psoriasis and the charming and cozy interior. The lovely and totally bilingual proprietor, Ms. Melissa Flanders has a totally harmonious shop of rather varied items. She always has some original artwork displayed and she has a coterie of devoted clients for her skills as a framer. Her eye for colour nuance for creative framing is as focused as the selection of her stock. We found the perfect stuffed toy for a newly-adopted nephew and Aurel has his eye on an unusual glass and copper hummingbird feeder. Melissa has created a special collection of hand-made and unusual gifts that all have a special look with a certain patina and mellowness. A bit nostalgic and amusing - I only wish the building's neglected façade in the centre of our town would be fixed by its owner. The shop's windows do however distract from the flaking paint and the rotten centre board over the door – which are best ignored…

To continue with the theme of harmony, I met one of our local town beautifiers last week, and talked about the photo of her taken in the La Boheme Project. Solange – (and her family name should be “ la Jardinière, Par Excellence”), has been busy creating an harmonious look for Sutton's main street with 40 bales of hay as well as lots of flowers and scarecrow dolls from her jam-packed pick-up truck. She had completed the decorations in time for Thanksgiving and the Fall season. Their placement in various nooks and crannies truly makes for a harmonious atmosphere – and the set in front of Ms. Flanders' shop is no exception.

Aurel and I ask that you keep us in the know about interesting things in the LE TOUR region at aurelien@colorsbyaurelien.com and we wish you a lovely and harmonious Autumn. Oh! I must tell you that Aurel has started a weekly radio show – ‘LIVING COLOUR' on our local CIDI 99.1 FM! Do listen for his distinctive voice… Thanks for reading about our adventures in our special Eastern Townships.

Colourfully, Greta von Schmedlapp, Design Sleuth, and Aurelien Guillory.

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