At Home in Gravenhurst this Christmas
One of the problems I have as an unretiring, unrelenting old fart of a news-hound, is that I always read between the lines, mistrust what governments say, maintain a suspicion about political motives and I’m wary to a fault some folks say, when a developer walks onto my patch with a claim that my life will be improved if we transform (for lack of a better example) a wetland into a housing development. Call me crazy but there’s a lot of stuff out there to be wary of.....if you want to preserve your home, your nieghborhood, and your sense of healthy proportion. As a reporter/editor for the local press I had no choice but to delve beyond what I was being told, and I have to tell you it was pretty remarkable how much "smoke" was being "blown" in those days. As I am not in front line reporting any more, (I’m on the poo-poo list) I can’t say it’s better or worse now but I’m still suspicious.....particularly when I read a news story and it has a tie-in with a precedent that I worked on years earlier....and I know the reporter is missing the story within. I haven’t been welcome in the community press for some years because I don’t pander to the advertising department or any one else who stands between me and the story that needs to be told. I don’t really mind being black-listed, even by friends I thought I had in the industry....because truth be told.....I’d be fired shortly after being hired because of my knack for kicking the feet out from under complacency. I’m not a white knight......but I think a reporter’s job is to delve and dig not polish the surface and glad-hand a news source. I’ve glad-handed a fair amount myself but it usually wraps up with a kick in the arse for some news source trying to jerk me around with b.s!
While I keep remarking to my wife that I’ve calmed down over the decades, and I’m not researching quite as rigorously as the old days, truth is I probably know more now than I did then simply because I read everything about my home district.....and as an historian to boot, it adds up to a fair amount of involvement in local affairs without any particular mission or employment opportunity to publish my findings. Once and awhile a reporter will call and I will help as much as requested.....and outside of this blog, I add it all up to the fact that I’d still rather know the truths of home and region than be under the mistaken impression,....the bliss of the uninvolved you might say, that all is running perfectly well. It’s not but that’s a personal opinion.
In other ways, I think having a heads-up on current affairs by thoroughly understanding the past, does make day to day stuff a little less stressful......and while I could sit and debate the whole town council on their policies for about two consecutive weeks.....I’ve kind of attained a balance here at Birch Hollow, attained by quite accidentally years ago while being Mr. Mom to our boys Andrew and Robert....now by the way full fledged local businessmen. The truly harry events of a crusty old reporter looking after the day to day needs and "bo-bos" of the wee lads, still trying to make a living at this crazy writing profession, made a lot of outside foibles seem less severe somehow. In fact, after a day chasing after the boys, and breaking up the near donnybrooks over play-things, dealing with the curiosities of local politics didn’t seem quite so daunting and confounding. It has been this way for most of the past two decades yet I still can find reason to abandon complacency now and again, and fuss up that a land-use policy for example.....SUCKS! That said, I can even be complimentary from time to time about the implementation of sound policy and environmental protection. I said some times! Not all the time.
I’ve made this point frequently in this Gravenhurst blog site.......this is my home. This is our hometown. I have enjoyed this residence we call Birch Hollow because of its position next to the cherished lowland, known with considerable affection as "The Bog," and it has been a locale that has helped inspire me to great periods of composition right back to the first months we arrived here after many years of residency in Bracebridge. Believe me, the old reporter used to go nuts on the sidelines in Bracebridge as well.....so it’s kind of a common theme in both towns, for a reporter to want to bust out a big scoop on a political gaff.
This snowy winter so far has already heralded a new agenda of writing projects for the coming year and that’s all I can ask from this humble homestead nestled on the embankment of the enchanted Muskoka woodlands. It’s the kind of setting that calms the reporter in me, and brings out the kinder, gentler old bard.....who is so much happier walking the forest trails, and seeking out the truths of nature, than hound-dogging the politicians who would rather I moved to another planet. Well, I’m here to stay so beware. But it’s a great town to work and reside, and when we made the decision in the late 1990's to move south to Gravenhurst.....while our contemporaries thought we were misguided, it became obvious soon after, that the move was life altering in a most positive and contenting way. I might be hard on local governance and I’m always at odds with some members of the business community for their foibles and unwillingness to get along.....but there’s still no place I’d rather live and work.
From our family please accept sincere wishes for a Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year, and if you haven’t visited Gravenhurst recently....or ever, make it a plan for the coming year. Feel free to move here.....maybe write a book....set up an art studio....make some new friends in a great neighborhood.
Thank you so much for reading this ever-so humble blog site.

A Place of Restoration - A Place of Contemplation - I Am Home
I have just returned home after a lengthy and vigorous walk through The Bog....the murky early evening atmosphere hangs as a thin veil over the remaining cat-tails not yet cut down by the first few snowfalls before Indian Summer. The wind still washes down mournfully through the dry grasses and against the outstretched border evergreens.....and there are times when the witness stops to listen.... sure that someone is at that moment, walking over the matted vegetation along the tinkling creek which snakes across the wetland. Many times I have stopped suddenly in an attempt to catch the perpetrator in his tracks. Not the faintest shadow of anything approaching. I have stood still, awaiting some vision to all of a sudden appear along the far embankment, as it should have...... as this is where the footsteps seemed to be manifesting. I've waited patiently for some material sign, anything at all, certain I was not alone in these darkening woodlands. At times I would purposely enclose myself in a cluster of trees to avoid detection, sensing whoever was tromping about, didn't want my company. As I watched out over the moor and even back in the abutting woods, to see if the approaching footfall belonged to man or beast, it would all quickly be consumed by the encroaching winter's eve. There is nothing to be witnessed. No animal passing, no neighborhood dog running through the lowland.....not even the several familiar cats that cross over from their homesteads, to catch mice near fallen logs. I will hear the footsteps again. They are the sounds of The Bog. The great Bards might believe it to be the land's own heartbeat I hear. It is above all, a wonderfully mysterious place in which to walk, before a new vigil at this old keyboard.
There is the "Talking Tree," that makes a creaking sound, as it reacts to even the slightest air current, which presumably makes it connect with an adjacent trunk which leans to the west. There are comforting, familiar sounds in the lowland that remind you of the normal tides between sunrise and sunset. Ever since we have lived in this Birch Hollow home, here in Gravenhurst, this enchanting little woods has been a cherished and inspiring companion. As a writer I don't think I could have survived in this house at Birch Hollow, without having the pleasant and healing solitude in which to wander occasionally. There are many times in the writing day that I, at least in mind, throw up the arms of defeat, and resolve to get away from the words that either haunt or elude me. The Bog has always been as much a place to escape and hide out for awhile, until these grand natural resources and cheerful environs can once again restore my interest to return to task.
At this time of great economic peril in our global village, and the stresses many citizens and families will face in the coming months, I do wish they had a place like The Bog, to fall safely and everso gently into nature's strong and forgiving embrace. I can recall an earlier recession our family lived through (1989-1993) here at Birch Hollow, Gravenhurst. When it seemed at times we might be forced to give up our new house because of cash shortfalls and a teetering antique business that was losing money monthly, a nightly walk in these same restorative woods gave me reason to pause and reflect in a most positive way. I would enter the pathway down to the Bog feeling great despair and the weighty responsibility of increasing debt-load, and after even a few moments, the burden seemed so much less intrusive than I had perceived. If I was a million miles from objectivity when I entered its embrace, it was equally true that when I ambled home again, my burdens seemed so much less threatening and unresolvable. These inspiring and relaxing sojourns, however brief, gave me reason to pause and address each of many problems..... without feeling the typical gritty purge of all good-humor from the body that some of us experience just talking about adverse accounting issues. What began with a heaving frustration to the point of chest pains and headache, diminished to simple action plans calmly thought-out. I soon learned how to relax and enjoy the ambience of a heavenly place on earth. I was not judged here. I was treated to a rare sojourn from the urban conundrum of life....which I have always felt was a sort of unholy terror upon the vibrant soul. I still retreat to the woods for inspiration and that sense of healing calm a weary traveller needs today to counter the heightening work-a-day, everyday, all-over-the-place "stresses."
I have always harshly measured and reviewed my writing credits and accomplishments, whether published that year or set aside for future projects, at the end of each year as a matter of tradition moreso than simply routine. It is on New Year's Eve that I either feel good or bad, complete or dissatisfied with that year's output of creative enterprise. There have been a few really bad years when I didn't feel like writing at all. This usually had something to do with the jerks I used to work for, and their meddling and bumbling attempts to make me conform to their plan.....their vision of what a good paper sells to the community. It just never worked and I told them it wouldn't but they had to try anyway. Sometimes their nagging and ignorance did discourage my creative interests for a time......because I started to believe the whole bloody publishing industry was being inundated with bad actors with giant ego problems...... clowns in publishing who set aside good reasoning and sound judgement, in the fruitless pursuit of winning friends and influencing others based on perpetuating faulty logic. I wanted bosses with experience and intelligence.....give me a scholarly overseer please! There haven't been many. So a few year-ends saw me frustrated with less than pleasing annual output and achievements yet always vowing, even in the midst of an admitted slump of inspiration, that I'd bounce back somehow and grasp up that Pulitzer. Never been wrong about that, except the Pulitzer part, since the mid 1970's. Good years, bad years, I'm still pretty pleased to say that by the end of 2008, this will be counted among the truly good years of writing productivity.
I credit this adopted hometown for a good portion of this generous increase in writing interest. I've noted this before in my blog submissions...... but then it's quite true that I have always found my dwelling places in Muskoka (since the late 1970's) have been nuturing to tired old writing habits. I have lived in a few places in my life when it was simply impossible, inspiration wise, to write anything more than an occasional letter to the editor to complain about noise pollution, traffic volumes, neighborhood crowding, bad neighbors and pollution. Moving back to Muskoka after university cost me a girlfriend...... who insisted her beau have city-aspirations. Funny thing is that I was brought up.... for those first dozen years.... in a fairly big Southern Ontario city. Burlington. While I admit to being a little frazzled, when I then got dumped unceremoniously in the hinterland as a result of my father's employment in the local lumber trade.....thank God I had these woods to fall back on for a soft and safe landing. I was glad to leave the city and as far as writing opportunities.....well, I sacrificed those too, especially from the market I could have experienced to the restricted one in Muskoka.....yet it was worth the sacrifice in the long run.....which would be my charmed life now......possessing a freedom to write when I want, about what I wish, and as much as this computer will host without blowing up in my face. I seem to be able to get feature pieces published when I need exposure, and I always look forward to sitting down here and tapping all afternoon long, while the cats curl around my feet for warmth....for them and me, and the historic trappings of an antique book collector/dealer wring around me in so many sculpted, askew piles. It's my art form I suppose. Never a straight stack of books in the whole rickety place. I love it. We look alike. A hobbling, grumbling old writer-kind hunched over a crooked walking stick amidst the wonderous collection of antiquarian texts.....all as a standard but endearing characteristic....., these trademark leaning stacks of books in every nook and cranny of Birch Hollow. I've even written some of the books in these same off-kilter piles that touch the ceiling in some places. I've read a lot. I've written more. Does it show?
There are times in every month when I blow my stack about something or other I've either read in the paper, or found out about local politics, and it immediately effects my writing output. I can go from landscape writing to scathing columnist with a mission to carve out the mistruths....such that I frequently have to employ my resident censor....my wife....to cut it back to half strength to avoid having a lynch mob show up at the front porch. I trace this all back to my years in the news business when as a pesky reporter I found out stuff about local government that made good headlines....but in actuality a horrible reality.....because I knew that whatever we exposed of bad governance, there was too much left....and like quicksand the surface always returned to its predatory stillness; the victim, the taxpayer, left to decay into the particles of sand that swallowed him/her. I liked to find stuff out but I didn't appreciate that no meaningful correction lasted past a council term. With a lesser aggressive press these days it drives me nuts to think about all the crap going on behind the scenes. So when I get an inkling, hear a rumor, or find some act of irresponsible governance, I can't think of anything else but donning that reporter's fedora again, and hitting town hall with some old fashioned investigative reporting. Then I walk in the calming woods and retreat to Thoreau's Walden Pond in thought.......and the ogre is passive once more.
As a writer I adore living in Gravenhurst. As a political activist, let's face it, the work is never done, the problem never truly rectified no matter where one dwells in this crazy old world. But one thing's for sure, when the ire is raised, I at least know where to go for the good of my soul. These healing woods, God Bless.

Blog Gravenhurst
A Winter of Writing at Birch Hollow.....Can't Wait?
This has been the year of frequent hiatus periods, the most significant being the death of my mother Merle back in May. Although I have been writing frequently, it has in large part been unplanned except for a few moments here and there with no real set down schedule which I really do depend for consistency. It certainly hasn't been the case I've been deficient of projects but the back to back hours to put ideas into print have been cramped behind a booming year of antique book and art sales.....my other most adored profession. I've been truly and pleasantly distracted by the antique business.....as well assisting my young lads and their music business here in Gravenhurst. Things are sorting out now and it does look like a prosperous winter period for catching up on blogs and other research pieces I've had in the wings for the past six months.
This year has been one for the record books. I've stayed out of politics. I've removed myself from most of the sources of annoyance that would flare up the old battle passions of years previous. It hasn't been an entirely calm period of time but I really have enjoyed doing more in the antique field than usual, up until this most recent upheaval in the financial markets which adversely affects the sale of old stuff just as it slows down the sale of all merchandise. Antique dealers just have to wait for an upturn, historically refraining from holding big sales or cutting prices.....because most of us with any tenure have endured recessions before and have come out safely the other side with strong inventories. Still, we're surprised the sales haven't been worse. There still seems to be a willingness to buy antiquarian books and vintage art etc. It won't be a record year by any means, yet we're still making sales targets.... but I'm sure my contempories in the antique field in United States aren't faring too well.
I was asked if I was going to submit my name to sit on a new heritage committee that has been set up as an advisory group to Gravenhurst Council....presumably to offer information and sage advisories on matters of historical designation and conservation, and other heritage related initiatives. To get on the committee you had to send an application with resume. The same I believe was the protocol for joining the new Environmental Advisory Committee to assist members of council deal with development issues and conservation concerns. To which I replied to a mate that I would not give the Town the privilege of accepting or rejecting me based on a/. a resume, b/. their whim (I'm not in their good books after previous disagreements) and c. their desire to have a congenial, co-operative, amicable committee. On the other hand, if they had been sensible enough to weigh credits and experience over and above their need to feel superior and be the guiding hand, I might have considered a couple of meetings for curiosity's sake. So what's wrong with using an application process to fill out the seat on a fledgling committee? Here are just a few problems for those who won't be ruled and over-ruled.
First of all, a heritage advisory group in a municipality, needs to be staffed by the best of the best in the community or beyond.....it's not about having an interest in heritage conservation, as concerned citizens.......it's clearly a necessity to put experience and miles travelled in heritage affairs ahead of good citizenship. To properly fill out the expertise of an advisory committee you need those who don't care about ruffling feathers, or disagreeing with another point of view....especially if it happens to be the unyielding opinion of the mayor and council. If it's the wrong opinion, based on insufficient or inaccurate fact, then it is incumbent upon members of the committee to object, research, correct and offer no apology for doing what historians are supposed to......seek out supporting fact to correct a misconception and all other errors encountered along the way. The fact that both committees are under the thumbs of town council means they can dismiss you when they feel like it.....agree or be banished! They didn't want open dialogue on matters of local heritage; they wanted to control who was on the committee.....and set the tone they believe is in the best interests of doing council business.....which means no shit-kickers aloud. That would be me. Tell you what.....I'd rather work with well-tutored, experienced historical types with sharp, even cruel attitude, than with the head nodders who believe in the master-servant relationship they are assigned.
As far as environmental advisory, and having a few minor credits to my name in this field, there was no way I was going to be scrutinized and voted on, by some of the same councillors, who a year ago, were willing to sacrifice and subdivide a wetland in our neighborhood known as The Bog. My name won't soon be forgotten as the bastard of Segwun Boulevard who drove them nuts with protest. I apparently gave them heartburn. Thusly I did my job! Once again,.....if council really wanted a highly responsive, aggressive, committed environmental committee, they should have made appointments from a pool of leading environmentalists and scholars (Muskoka wide) instead of asking for applications. As well, working within a town sanctioned and selected environmental committee, from a list of successful applicants, is like putting the fox, as they say, in charge of the hen house. Council maintains control. Despite what the Ratepayers Group noted about this being an excellent opportunity to participate in municipal affairs, and influence conservancy in new development matters, the fact that members are advisors with a stripe....that being the town stripe.....independence to object carries with it the town's option of sanction. An appointed committee.....where members have been recruited, whether they are friend or foe of the local government.....believers or disbelievers of the town's commitment to practice good environmental stewardship, makes for a much more candid, free-wheeling, and aggressive foray into important debates, able to operate without fear of sanction because membership won't tow the line. A committee made up of well versed citizens, and this includes even the naysayers, who aren't afraid of speaking their mind......and going against the flow because it's the right thing to do....distances an advisory group from being complacent, complient and agreeable in order to get a cookie for good behaviour. It seems council wanted to be naysayer free! Well, you know, while some people believe in the virtues of blind acceptance and co-operation, my experience is that fact and honesty thrives in an environment where counterpoint and criticism is welcome and requested.....as part of democratic policy. A few politicians here don't like negativity to dampen the parade. Bad news is, negativity is just part of reality regardless of silly opinion about it being an inconvenience to progress. Get over it!
On matters of environmental conservation and heritage recognition, under the circumstances, the tasks are best served by independent action and reaction. I'd rather work unrestricted and beyond a group's influence-sculpted mandate and protocol because I'm not convinced wearing the team jersey is in the best interest of the town and the citizenry. If on the other hand the town one day drops its requirement to conform to their plan......like submitting an application that meets their happy-times requirements.....and asks for my assistance....well, you just never know what the bastard of Segwun Blvd might be able to do to help out.

NEW BLOG SITE FOR MUSKOKA GHOSTS HAS ARRIVED
By Ted Currie
Although there's still a whack of editing ahead, probably two week's worth, most of our Muskoka Ghost tales are fully prepared for publication; the composition work has involved many late nights working by the light of my favorite old oil lamp (I'm a wee bit of a collector of historic lighting). Even as a fledgling writer at York University, I always had an oil lamp burning as I sat at the typewriter. I find it hard to work without the sweet scent of coal oil, and the flicker of historic flame. It has taken a tad longer than I planned to get the editorial collection to this stage but a few other family projects and business enterprises got in the way of my fun. And I have truly enjoyed putting this collection together and we hope readers will come back regularly to check out new entries and review some of the old.
Our family has had some interesting encounters in the past with what some might call paranormal, others may believe are of the spirit-kind....for us they are simply curious interactions....crossing of paths with something....we're just not sure what. We keep our minds open to possibility that's all.
To connect with this new blog-site you can click my dashboard.

Muskoka Blog
Home is where the writer thrives....I'm a Muskokan
This has been a tumultuous year residing in Gravenhurst, and probably the first time since we arrived in the late 1980's that I began to wonder if it was the place we should remain. In the first years here we did most of our business and professional work in Bracebridge, and even our lads were at the same school that I attended as a kid.....Bracebridge Public School. We resided in Gravenhurst. We did our shopping here but everything else, including my parents and the baby-sitting service they provided, was in the town ten miles north. It was an odd relationship at first but we liked the fact few if any people in our neighborhood knew what we did for a living, why we were on the road alot, kept to themselves.....and frankly the neighbors that did know us didn't seem to mind that we were part-time residents.
After a lengthy stint in the newspaper business in Muskoka, I had endured a rough decade dealing with the public. From death threats to many promises of bodily harm for our editorial investigations, and the fact my young family was becoming unnecessarily exposed to the off-shoot of my profession, escaping to the little urban homestead we call Birch Hollow, in central Gravenhurst, was a nightly respite we thoroughly enjoyed. While we weren't able to escape the dozens of phone calls from sources and all those hoping to get me to write some promo material for their businesses, it was enough of a hiatus to make you feel pretty good about off-hours being quality hours.
When we moved our boys to Gravenhurst Public School, and we decided to close-up our antique shop, in Bracebridge, in order to pursue other business interests and professional opportunities, it was obvious we were going to sacrifice some of our anonymity which wasn't bad at first but has become somewhat more cumbersome and a tad annoying. Most of it was our own fault because we decided to get involved in some fairly controversial political issues and even some personal disagreements with yes.....political overtones and roots about ten miles deep. With our boys in a main street business enterprise, there was very little chance to escape the onslaught of phone calls and personal visitations that frankly, we had been happy to have at work but not at home.
This past year saw us at the centre of a number of major controversies, including a "Save The Bog" campaign which was an effort to preserve a multi-acre wetland in our neighborhood, which is a key filtering region for water emptying from the urban area into Lake Muskoka. Our band of concerned neighbors and friends fought the good fight, and after several months of lobbying, harping and gaining a massive amount of public support, the town dropped their plans to sell off the acreage, or even sever lots which had been a secondary consideration. There were times during this fight, dealing with a number of councillors who wouldn't even visit the property they wished to sell-off, that I truly wondered if I could reside in a town with such a determined approach to take progress as it comes, and the "more money the better." Selling off our Bog was a money seeking mission that made little if any sense but it still cost a lot of good folks their recreation-time last summer to head council off at the pass.
From folks who were just quiet, unassuming residents here, to the accelerated point where we became involved in many initiatives, protests and action plans, coming home after confrontation took three times as long to unwind. Last summer, we simply stayed tightly wound until December, when things finally started to relax amidst the winter hush from the first few feet of snow. After all the weight of snow last winter, we were mentally relaxed but physically exhausted. We Curries all have a little Irish tenacity in us, so regular scraps are part of our culture but what we had opened was a big gaping hole of ongoing controversy. We were literally too close to the action. This isn't a blog editorial claiming that only we were right, in whatever fight was on the agenda that particular evening. It is very much to say this involvement nearly cost us all our residential escape. We had more people at our door it seemed than at our mainstreet business, and while most of the intrusions were welcome, a few were of the kind we'd rather never experience. As a sanctuary, well, it was failing badly.
After locking horns a couple more occasions late last summer, with some particularly nasty individuals bent on hurting us at all costs, we stood our ground, backed down nary an inch, let all the fur fly as they say, and came out of the dust-ups feeling tired, victorious but resolved. We have adored our place in Gravenhurst because we weren't politically active. We enjoyed our meandering through town daily, and it was a joy to shop, visit, and participate in events, without even once getting the urge to challenge a new initiative, or even debate an imposing tax bill, municipal bylaw, zoning amendment, school closing or anything else. Ours was the passive, call it "cowardly" approach if you must..... but being uninvolved except in the act of day to day living, allowed us a few moments of solace before yet another work day.
Earlier in this blog collection I wrote about how our present homestead here has been a boon for my writing activities, and more than any other location in Muskoka, it has been a daily source of inspiration through the four seasons. I can sit here for hours on end overlooking the lilac garden, watching the raspberries developing, and feel as free as the wavering ferns dancing in the spring breeze. All is calm and all is well. When I was an active news reporter back in my youth I loved the excitement of chasing down news and getting involved in the full monty of investigative journalism. Today I'm only interested in a good scrap if it is entirely necessary and the cause of some significance to the health and economy of kith and kin....and neighborhood. Most of the time we just enjoy being covered over by the full maples and birches, the towering poplars, wreathed by beautiful ferns and wildflowers than encircle our modest urban cabin. As a writer I could not ask for a more tranquil work place at this moment, enhanced by the fact we have spent most of the past year hauling ourselves out of the quagmires of political and social/cultural debate. We have opted to live and let live I suppose you might say, and our productivity in our chosen professions has doubled......knowing that when we retire from the daily toil there will be a comfortable chair, some wide open spaces, an afforded space to play at one or more of our favorite hobbies, and to enjoy Gravenhurst the way it should be experienced.....without a shred of controversy.
Whether Gravenhurst movers and shakers wish to acknowledge it or not, our hometown is about to enter into one of its most difficult social-economic periods. I'm a long serving historian and I hear a distant storm. The business community is being pulled apart at the seams and the negative effects are imprinting deeply, such that even in the standby regions of the old town's commercial centre, it is impossible to get a clear consensus about anything, and a clear direction on anything else. Strong differences of opinion and infighting, and a lack of town leadership, has destined the main street to suffer the consequences of straight-on exposure to new business node competition. There is a great deal of mistrust, anger, feelings of betrayal and hurt all round but none of it matters in the final analysis of what businesses are likely to survive and which ones will falter and fail. There's not much that can be done now to soften what could be a crushing new period of business competition. Added to this, the very real imprint of a recession, the effects of high gas prices on the economy of a rural population, a decline in tourism and a potential real-estate retreat, and we ponder if any one can relax even in the midst of this beautiful Muskoka hinterland.
As an historian, Gravenhurst and Muskoka have survived many tough times and challenges in the past. I do think our town will come through this next imposition of economic moodiness with a few bruises and feeling a little battle-worn but there is a future. I do think however, it may be time for the leaders of our regin, our town, to pay a little more attention to the dangers of putting too much faith in the advancements of progress as it relates to speculation versus what is logical, sensible, natural and sustainable growth. We have been blitzed by speculators far and wide and when the economy turns......the speculators run like hell.
I have no wish to create a Utopia here, and Nirvana would be too pleasant to be inspirational and for all intents and purposes, I can do without a pristine, comfortable, accomodating environs to write.....why I suppose I could write a book while being under bombardment of scud missiles. I do however, call me a nostalgic, romantic old fart, enjoy the thought of a town contented with itself, proud of its accomplishments and particularly pleased by its ability to weather storms and come together in the time of crisis to rebuild and restore. This is where we should be.....and what any "home" town should be.......and we should never allow the landsharks, speculators, snake oil peddlars to change the character of what we have honed from the Ontario hinterland since the late 1850's.
Until it all changes, I will sit by this window in my office, adoring all that summer brings forth from the dark soil, and feel enchanted by the windsong of the afternoon breeze washing through the evergreens at my back. And I shall write until I can write no more. It is a good home in a good town. We need to appreciate how easy it is to screw up a nice place to live.
Ghost stories coming soon
I have been working for the past three months, on a weighty collection of ghost stories, from a personal perspective, and hope to launch the new blog site in the next several months. There will be a link to the site from this blog. It will be a mostly Muskoka and Algonquin based collection of stories.....real life encounters with the paranormal.

Gravenhurst is where I wander today
It has been a busy summer so far and I have great expectations that August will be less so, and afford slightly more time for writing and retreating into the woodlands around us. We have spent quite a number of hours on the road already this summer and frankly I'd like to avoid hitting the highway at all, with the seasonal thrust on sanctuary of heavy traffic and that crazy urban dynamic that foists the city upon ruraldom. It would be great to just sit out on this deck overlooking The Bog and spend most of the day penning poetic about such wonderous events as morning dew and midsummer sun, deep shadows and gentle ferns, trickling creeks and foraging squirrels. What a glorious change of pace from racing around the region in that dog-eat-dog hustle of business.
I am slipping however, into a deeper resolve these days that business must not overtake sensible proportion, and already this summer I have read more books than I have sold in my online business. I've sold twice as much art however, which makes me contented.....as a collector/dealer I have always been reluctant to sell off my books but I seem to be able to part with paintings as the cycle of business. So I vowed to read more and sit out on this deck of ours and consume some of the great literature and biographies I have recently uncovered, especially titles that usually, by now, would have been sold-off and more secured out on the old book hustings.
A friend asked me one day that as an old book seller, whether I read in proportion to what I sold annually. When the old book business is good, obviously it would be impossible to keep pace. I do end a month however, feeling good financially that so many books have been shipped off world wide..... yet occasionally feeling a pang of disappointment that I let so many important ones get out of my hands before having the chance to consume content. This is the first summer that I've insisted on driving less and reading more, and the ones I have finished cover to cover, I have also now put up for sale online. I do feel better about passing on a "read" book, than one I haven't had time to consume,.....but of course as a businessman, I have no choice but to perpetuate sales activity where possible. And this usually means I will part with a gem just to keep the bankers at a distance.
I haven't been able to contribute to this blog much this summer season due to this almost intolerable work situation. As costs go up, so necessitates our hustle to find more old books as such, at hopefully better prices. Gas alone has curtailed some of our driving around but funny thing......I'm almost glad of it today, as I have far more opportunity to sit back here in this beautiful woodland at Birch Hollow, and read, and read, and read.
Contact with some well known Canadian writers this summer as well, has inspired me to put pen to paper, keyboard to screen myself, and so far it has been a pleasing experience to consume good literature, and attempt the same myself.....how badly I desire to be as good an author as those who have penned my summer reading list. What pure joy to read back a personal writing attempt and feel that the work has been inspired and improved by those with great acclaim as authors. While so many are struggling with high gas costs and surviving the obstacles of a changing economy, I feel rather fortunate in many ways, to have been forced by the same economy to retreat to this old inventory, this humble abode, this great vantage point, and the pen once again. One needs self discovery now and then for that evasive sense of order giving a regimen to what, in the modern context, is a jumble of emotions, an absurd disorder of silly tasks, and obsessive behaviour, versus the one tried and tested formula for success.....a calm hiatus in the midst of storm.
Ghost stories coming soon
For the past three months I have been working on a collection of stories about "Ghosts and Hauntings I've Known," and in all there will be about twenty or so major pieces. It's scheduled to appear early this autumn season and there will be a link via this blog-site.

GRAVENHURST - AND FINALLY SPRING
This is the first winter that I almost abandoned writing to the advancement of our family antique business. From the accoutant's vantage point it was a success but from the obsessive bibliophile, it was like tearing out a kidney without even an aspirin to dull the pain.
I say almost because I still had several committment pieces and a few impromtu writing projects that demanded time spent.... but overall it wasn't my most prolific winter. We have been re-ogranizing our homestead here at Birch Hollow, and that has involved the sorting of about 30,000 old books. I've been selling a lot of titles off from our private stock because frankly we have no room left at the inn....should I one day come upon a really good bulk book buy.....I'd like to know I could shoe-horn them in! Actually, if my wife ever sees another box of books in the back of the van, I may have to beg you folks to take me in......for awhile....and if you wouldn't mind, a couple of boxes of reading material.
After being buried in books most days and getting frustrated routinely about what titles to keep, sell or recycle, I haven't had much interest in penning thoughts......you wouldn't want to read my thoughts on the folly of having too many authors and too few trees. Like my old book buddy, David Brown of Hamilton, who managed to jam 100,000 books (at the time of his death) into his tiny bungalow, I have some of the same obsessive traits, and I find it almost impossible to part with books that really should be discarded. I always imagine a time when I might need the books, and that always takes precedent over the responsible approach.....or until your spouse packs her bags and leaves them as reminder at the door. Dave Brown's wife left him at about the 30,000 mark, and when the books started to infiltrate the kitchen area of the homestead. In fairness she did give him the option...."Me or the books." Like I say, Dave died having amassed a collection of 100,000 books.
I'm a pretty needy fellow so I have taken my wife's repeated advisories seriously and I am genuinely concerned about the clutter of the collector. So this winter I've spent three solid months working in my archives area here at Birch Hollow, and both getting rid of and sorting thousands of books; and it's true I have donated many, many other books to schools and charitable organizations who can benefit from their eventual sale. I knew you'd wonder about that! I have occasionally purchased back books I donated both by accident and by intention, when they come up a the local Salvation Army Thrift Shop. I definitely don't tell my partner about this transgression.
I'm feeling quite bad about not writing more for this blog site over the winter months, which by tradition of many years past, has always been my most aggressive period of production. It hasn't been the case of indifference but rather sheer exhaustion. I've achieved exhaustion honestly, and I've held the pennings of many of the world's greatest authors in my hands this winter....and I am both humbled to be part of world literature, and annoyed at having to cull my collection because it accumulates dust bunnies. My wife has declared war on dust bunnies. Hey, it's what marriage is all about. The give and take right? How come it feels so crappy to be reducing by the thousands, a collection that has taken me a lifetime to build? Dave Brown didn't have to participate in his stock liquidation. I won't say it was fortunate he was deceased, not to have witnessed the forced evacuation of his archives but I can tell you that he would have never, never capitulated to any demand to reduce or else?
I like being married.
I will be adding to this blog more frequently now, seeing as a bulk of the reduction has already taken place, and my soul is gradually regaining its elasticity and resolve to fight-on yet another day.....one book acquisition at a time.

BLOG ENTRY

Gravenhurst and the rest of the world

Early on in this blog’s editorial inventory, I wrote at some length about my own personal satisfaction living here in Gravenhurst, nestled into the southern topography of the well known District of Muskoka, one of the best known tourist regions in North America.
When I noted that it was a wonderful place to hole-up and write to infinity, I was being honest with myself and blatantly truthful to my audience and fellow citizens. I have enjoyed a prolific writing enterprise here at our humble homestead we call Birch Hollow. I have never had the inclination to write as frequently or as much in any other locale in this district, where I have lived first as a bachelor, and then as a husband and father. This writing portal has given me an ongoing current of fresh inspiration, in part of course, because of the proximity to the amazing little urban wetland, we call with only affection, “The Bog.” With one foot in the urban scheme of things where we do business, and the other in the midst of the hinterland, it is our own modest estimation of the promised land. We did of course nearly lose the Bog this year to political interference but we won our battle to keep the wetland doing what it’s supposed to…..filter the water with its array of contaminates before in gets to Muskoka Bay of the greater Lake Muskoka.
In 2007 for the first time since we arrived in 1988, our whole family got involved in local current and business planning events and I dare say we brushed ever so closely to the gritty exterior of local political will……the ambitions of those movers and shakers and self proclaimed prophets who bet the farm that urban change will in all proportion, be an advantage to our way of life…..cause apparently you can’t be a worthy or healthy community unless you’re bursting at the seams. While my lads Andrew and Robert have been part of the entertainment scene for a number of years, and both my wife and I have a distinct public life as writers, historians and antique dealers, we had all kept well away from those who peddled their progress-is-good agendas. We remained insulated by the common sense approach, because we are a dangerous mix of Irish, Scottish and Dutch and I’ve got to tell you, there’s no scrap we enter that we don’t finish. My wife’s family, pioneers in the Ufford and Three Mile Lake area of Muskoka were known as the Three Mile Lake Wolves, and were known to walk abreast down the centre of Manitoba Street in Bracebridge, challenging those of varying opinion to intrude on their march. It’s in the history books. I didn’t make this up.
At my urging we did get involved in a number of controversial issues particularly in the business community, and some of the fall-out from the group activists, did make us ponder as a family, what had happened to our wonderful, peaceful, and quiet existence here in the south woods of Muskoka. What we found was a cantankerous element of the population we had never been exposed and it was quite enlightening to find out there was so much disharmony with life, times and politics in the town most citizens of Muskoka know as the true “sleepy hollow” of the region.
As I have noted previously in this collection of blogs about our adopted home town, we moved here specifically because it was a town respectful of its past, a town less interested in sacrifice and more concerned about quality of life issues, and a neighborly burg where residents do give a hoot about how you’re doing…..and it’s sincere. In the past 20 years however, we’ve seen a great many changes here and some of them we believe have been invisible trigger-points festering for years……we just didn’t recognize the anger brewing beneath the surface of this pretty much average Canadian community.
For the first time since 1988 I do have some doubts whether the good folks of Gravenhurst will be able to embrace all the change headed their way, without destroying their own heritage with this same anger and indifference to the values of neighborliness. It’s not to say we haven’t played a part, or that I’m the best neighbor to have…..cause I’m pretty restrictive about the qualities of peace and tranquility I enjoy here and wish to preserve……but I am troubled by the fact so many public animosities are allowed to thrive without any significant bid at reconciliation. I have most recently attempted to mediate one disturbing dust-up in the public domain and it has been a tell-tale, no holds barred spectacle for one and all to see…..where only peace and co-operation should prevail.
I blame most of this on local municipal council because it is their leadership and capability to mediate in a wide variety of areas of public life and business, that could and should be the catalyst of intervention…..the parties in conflict brought to the table by a council concerned about the way it all looks……it’s not just this writer who perceives there is widespread disharmony about what the present and future should look and act like……and there appears to be little willingness to hammer out workable arrangements that would appease all parties. What we have now is a council very interested in progress and expansion for the good of the community but taking on the appearance of a square spike being driven into a round hole. Change is being forced upon the citizenry and it isn’t working in the spirit of goodwill…..the result is an ongoing series of retaliatory moves and counter strikes, and even random boycotts to teach one or the other a lesson about small town sensitivities.
I have researched some of these pressing issues bubbling over with anger and distrust and know that none of the hot button issues exist without roots, all dating back decades, the result being a shingling of issues that become more complicated and onerous each year. There is a crisis in the business community largely based on the disinterest of town council to rectify the problems. It is their job to make this a better place to live……also more blatantly because that’s the way they advertise Gravenhurst when they’re out on the hustings looking for new business investment. While it’s not their responsibility to bandage every hard feeling or referee each argument, it is their clear mandate to intervene and let the warring factions know there is greater economy in co-operation than perpetual conflict…..and it all has to do with leadership and its governance by the protocols entrenched…..which seemed to be ignored as an annoyance to those who wish to govern as they feel like, not as is just and fair according to respective constitutions. So the good name of Gravenhurst gets crushed in the middle of senseless, endless, pointless debate, and the square peg is hammered into that round hole till it hurts.
I have this feeling that Gravenhurst was handling these issues better twenty years ago, Maybe even ten years ago. Today I believe change has intruded upon the Gravenhurst citizenry who have been told repeatedly that progress “won’t hurt a bit,” and that “we will all prosper” when we are truly at the pinnacle of the definition…..”a progressive community.” I have this lingering doubt about the folks still hammering that square peg because the weight of resistance has never been truly taken into consideration as it should. Many local politicians today do not have the kind of historical sensitivity about the town they represent, because if they did, the Gravenhurst Archives Committee volunteers would be consulting every day of the week about sparing the integrity of the local identity; conserving the character of the first community of Muskoka dating back to the late 1850’s. Instead we have allowed developers to tell us what our history was and will be in the future. Frankly, they’re not qualified so we should be exercising a hundred percent more authority, about the way history is being dismissed and bypassed by the agendas of a few, not by the will of the people.
I have no wish to leave the place that has afforded me so many wonderful days of inspiration and good company. I can still sit here in my office looking out over the Bog and feel truly Muskokan, and connected to both the urban life and times, yet immersed in the natural splendor of all life and creatures making the wetland home. I will soon look out from this same window and see the lilac buds emerging, and I can’t tell you how splendid it is, to have those beautiful blooms wavering in the spring breeze just metres from this old writer’s desk. And because of this, and all the other kindnesses bestowed by the citizens of this community upon our family, I will carry on with these occasional forays into public life, when I think an historian’s insight and comparisons can be effective in defusing a dispute…..one that need not have inspired ill will and insensitivity as it has perpetuated most recently.
Some readers may accuse me of being overly negative in regards to these issues, and my only response is that to fix the issues currently dogging the town, only the most critical, constructive approach can expose where the contamination has been rooted, and uncover the reason(s) it has been allowed to flourish. Reconciliation depends first on honest appraisal and truthful explanation, and then a clear willingness for some to acknowledge their part and failings, so reconstruction can commence without the rigorous agendas that have routinely sabotaged needed rehabilitation.
Going into an economic downturn should be motivation enough, for warring factions to make peace and herald new co-operation. The Town, instead of blowing smoke about what’s in the best interest of the community, should start taking care of the hot spots and shortcomings in the business sector particularly before the consequences become more distinctly dire than they are at present…..from the days of the bull to the new worries of the bear market grumbling evermore onto the scene. We need some survival measures not more of the same adversity to get through the next few years.
I won’t give up on Gravenhurst no matter what but I think it’s time the citizenry took back the community they built, and demanded a great deal more from elected officials than they’re getting for their dollars invested. The best way to deal with the local government’s idea of progress is to meet it head on with the citizen’s demands for a healthy and dynamic hometown…..and change council if need be, to entrench this goodwill forever.