GRAVENHURST’S WINTER OF DISCONTENT
We folks here at Birch Hollow, in uptown Gravenhurst, have been working hard on our business ventures over the past six months, and it has been one of my longest writing hiatus periods in my own recent history. My writing jags are being disrupted by the basic need of business attention, and I must note that the sacrifice of writing time has paid dividends in the antique enterprise.....while other businesses have taken a whipping in this most recent recession the online antique enterprise has been surprisingly strong. While I can’t stray too far from the keyboard, especially in the autumn season...which has always been my favorite time of the year, it is a nice, fuzzy, warming feeling to have accounting that spills favorably in the profit column for a change.
This is going to be one of the toughest economic periods in Gravenhurst history, moreso than for the other major Muskoka communities. The main street has been hit hard by the failing tourist economy and of course by the decentralizing "pod" commercial developments.....robbing, as they say, "Peter to pay Paul." Any modest economic visionary should have seen this coming and done everything possible to revitalize the historic main street business community before the recession, before the commercial expansion in the town’s south end, and before the winter of 2009-10 when we can expect a typical late recession hangover,....."the long-way from full recovery atmosphere," that will take its toll on those businesses just hanging on. And there’s road re-construction in 2010 to look forward to that will not be met with business enthusiasm..... when it comes to the anticipated inconvenience to be faced by already stressed business owners and landlords. We have family members in one of those storefronts so we know first hand just how precarious these lead-up months are to, remaining a for-profit mainstreet business.
I will never give up on Gravenhurst’s inherent capability to overcome adversity as it has for well more than a century of ups, downs and wobbles. It’s a survivor and it’s why I like living here. While it’s true I’m not a fan of local government, I am tremendously confident that the resident investors will push ahead regardless and get ready to meet the 2010 municipal elections, embracing the spirit of change. There are some folks on council who need to retire, or at the very least, to be defeated should they decide to give the council-experience another try. While I won’t endorse any candidates in this blog-site, I won’t hide my enthusiasm for a full house cleaning, in favor of some better economic leadership that benefits the whole town......and my town includes the historic and all important main street.
Trust me, I’ll be back soon with regular blog contributions. There’s too much at stake here in South Muskoka to sit on the fence and ponder.
As for the new pool.....well, all I can say is......FINALLY! And this is the problem. It has taken far too long to get one, and this needs to be understood to make pro-active changes for all the other improvements long over-due in Gravenhurst.
Thanks for visiting my Gravenhurst blog-site. More coming soon!

When you just want to scream - "Stop The Madness!"
I was wandering through The Bog the other day, admiring the transformation from winter slumber to this amazing regeneration of ferns and soon-to-emerge wildflowers.....enjoying the sounds of all types of creatures large and small, adjusting to this pleasant new reality of an emerging, soul-restorative spring.
There had been some earlier activity this particular day, in our neighborhood here in Gravenhurst, attributed to a rattling All Terrain Vehicle, with some resident-driver on a mission of some sort. For about two hours this gent drove back and forth along our lane on whatever mission or adventure in progress, with his youngsters hanging on the back. We watched him pass a couple of times so we know kids were involved, as was some haulage endeavor because we noticed the trailer hitched behind.
About the mid-zone of The Bog trail, I was staggered to find many deep ruts into the mud where someone had driven through, stopping at the edge of the basin to dump a large quantity of evergreen cast-offs from a neighbor’s recent property clean-up. I was actually standing there with my chin on my chest when I heard the ATV coming down the lane once more. I stood out in the open so I wouldn’t surprise the driver.....I didn’t want him to be surprised to see me then hit a tree......but then again! He drove that sucker right up to the toe of my boot which was itching to kick his arse. Onboard he had a load of cuttings from a tree that had been felled in his yard. He was going to dump this trailer-full as well over the edge and down into The Bog.....which by the way we fought to save from destruction two years ago when the Town had a plan to sell it off as a small subdivision......as a fundraiser for other town projects at the expense of an important wetland. We won, the neighborhood won, and all ecologically minded folks in Muskoka rejoiced at this small victory for the little guy over the capitalists.....who very much wish to pave over paradise for that insatiable financial gain.
When I confronted the BOG-Dumper, as to "What the hell are you doing," he simply stated "I’m dumping some stuff here." "Well I can see that sir, and you’ve been busy but do you own this property?" "No," he answered, encouraging me to ask therefore, "Why then are you dumping your refuse on someone else’s property?" "Cause everybody else is doing it?" he answered as if bolstered by the constitution of general consensus. When I informed him that he had no right whatsoever to dump anything on this beautiful and important bogland in the centre of the urban community of Gravenhurst, he had the kind of puzzled look that actually looked pretty sincere. And while there was a trace of sarcasm and some concern that I was an unauthorized "watcher in the woods,’ on such matters of what can and can not be considered trespassing and unlawful dumping, he did finally concede it may not have been a good idea to follow his equally uniformed, dumb-ass neighbors who do indeed dump regularly into these beautiful woodlands.
As well I pointed out to him the great ruts his day of dumping had caused to a beautiful expanse of soon-to-be ferns that in all likelihood will not flourish this year as a direct result. He admitted that his transgressions had indeed left a scar on the landscape and he offered to disappear from this sight and never pulverize it again with his ATV. Whether he was genuine with his apology or not, I was satisfied he had learned a little something from our encounter that just might be relayed to his neighbors when they pile up their refuse in preparation for a little dumping somewhere or other.
Last spring I caught a local handyman-caretaker doing the same thing......dumping the assorted lawn and household debris from a neighbor’s property into the same woods. When I confronted him, after having first gathered enough evidence to back my case for illegal dumping, he told me "He (the property owner) said it’s okay to dump it in there (The Bog)." And I asked "Does he own the woods over there?" "I don’t think so," he answered, a little annoyed I had bothered his disposal in progress. "Well then, if he doesn’t own it, and you don’t own it, then why would you think it’s okay to dump your crap on someone else’s property?" "I don’t know," was the best response I could get. So I asked if he knew how long it would take for the plastic oil bottles, he was casting with leaves and branches into The Bog, to diminish into dust as he obviously assumed would happen eventually. What I found was that he simply couldn’t have cared less whether the garbage ever broke down and in fact he didn’t find it all that offensive to stare at the garbage between the birches, ferns and trilliums. So that’s when we took some photographs of the offence in operation and suggested that the bylaw office would be interested in knowing of his opinion on the matter.....and possibly a fine would help him learn about illegal dumping and the property maintenance business. Haven’t had a problem since and all the refuse is bagged and hauled away.
I do footnote this last paragraph to inform you that I didn’t leave it at that.......I let him know that if I ever saw him dumping the refuse gathered anywhere else in the region....other than at a registered disposal site, I’d fulfill my promise to file a report with the bylaw department and see him lawfully prosecuted. The good news is,......seems he got the message.
The biggest problem we have as a global community desiring health and welfare, is the ongoing pollution and contamination of the already compromised wild places that give us a modest grip on ecological balance. The small restoration project here in The Bog has shown a glimmer of possibility for the wider community and the district.....until you meet up with someone who has a different plan.....to remove crap from one property to another despite the peril to an important resource. The Bog by the way, filters a huge run-off of town surface water and springs before it hits Muskoka Bay of Lake Muskoka. The flavor of the water, should you be outlandishly inclined, is going to have a distinctly pine taste for awhile until the wood dumped here deteriorates.....thankfully it’s not oil and anti-freeze which has wound up there in the past.
It makes me sick to think of all the contamination being dumped into our rivers, lakes and forests by morons who have no concept of the danger they are inflicting upon all of us.....just to avoid paying a tipping fee at the landfill site where these materials can be properly disposed.
Get involved. Let an illegal dumper know just how stupid they are for endangering our lives because they’re too cheap to haul it to the landfill site......so give them a couple of bucks as a donation toward a healthy tomorrow, and draw them a map to the disposal location......or show them the phone you’re going to use to call the bylaw department and report them for illegal dumping.
Look out for the welfare of your community by getting involved. They’ve had their day to dump as they saw fit.....now it’s your time in history to make an imprint for a better, cleaner, healthier future. And I trust you’re not as daft as some who can’t really see too much wrong with a field of beer bottle empties and car parts rising from the ferns and wildflowers. It’s time for concerned citizens to mobilize and nab perpetrators.....grab a licence number and make a phone call!

Spring sensations welcome at Birch Hollow
Still writing here in Gravenhurst.....with just a few words left to spare
Strangely this has been an incredibly prolific period in my senior years as a writer. I can’t believe I can still sit for four and five hours at this keyboard without collapsing into a great heap of expired authordom. While in some areas I’ve been penning much less, in others I’ve been pumping out copy like I did my first years as editor of the former Herald-Gazette, in Bracebridge, back in the early 1980's. Then I was driven by a passion for expression and the weekly gain of readership.....fueled by raw enthusiasm and beer. Lots and lots of beer. My young writing days almost killed me.....many times. The more I drank the more I wrote. The more I wrote while drinking.....the less I could salvage when I went to edit the copy later. I would be lucky to get one decent paragraph. I used to hold off on the booze until the writing was done. I can’t watch the movie, "Lost Weekend," without feeling it was my biography. The good news is that I can’t afford to drink any more and I’m getting a much better feeling.....a pretty fair high, just enjoying the fact I can still compose a well received column these days minus the fuel.
This past winter was spent getting the bulk of my paranormal stories on line, in my Muskoka Ghosts blog, including a long series of columns on the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Canadian landscape painter, Tom Thomson, back in July of 1917, while on a canoe traverse of Algonquin Park’s Canoe Lake.
I have been writing many columns ahead on a new series of antique and collectable themed columns for Curious; The Tourist Guide (available locally). These are all biographical accounts of a lengthy career as a treasure hunter. I’ve been hunting antiques and interesting stuff since I was about five years old, and gathering assorted stuff while on my way to school at Lakeshore Public School in Burlington. By time I got home each night I had my pockets jammed to over-flowing, and arm-fulls of old auto parts I found on the road, broken hockey sticks, dozens of chestnuts gathered on the hillside of Torrance Avenue, and anything else that was shiny and would attract the attention of a racoon. My poor mother Merle never knew what was coming home in those topped-up pockets and hidden in my bulging coat. She used to cull the items in my room once a month or I would have filled every open space by year’s end. I’m still doing this at 53 years of age so you can imagine how much patience my wife possesses, to put up with the calamity of road trips and ceremonious returns with van loads of treasure.....some purchased, some found, some given for the asking, some retrieved from the sidewalks beneath the sign that reads.... "Free to Good Home." I figured it was time this year to begin a biographical work for my kids because they’ve never really appreciated that there was a method to my madness. I began writing a memoir of a crazy collector and it went from an old ledger book where I was making notes to the pages of Curious; The Tourist Guide, which reaches about 40,000 readers a month. Not bad for a few anecdotes about collecting excesses over the years. If you can’t poke fun at yourself.....life’s too bloody serious.
All this writing stuff has been happening here at our mid-town, residential cabin we call Birch Hollow, and once again I must say it has been a most wonderful, calming sojourn in this magnificent Muskoka. As I have noted before, I was concerned when we moved to Gravenhurst back in the late 1980's because for a time, my writing wasn’t generating with the same vigor as in other abodes, particularly in Bracebridge and Windermere. Writers need a safe and inspiring haven. After about a year of plucking about at the typewriter I gradually found The Bog across the road, and the sea of lilacs and raspberry canes outside my window, were the generous treats of semi-solitude, and ever since spring has always set me free....... No danger of running out of things to write about. And I’m not disappointed this year either. It’s been one of those second-wind kind of situations, and it would be wrong not to express my gratitude to my hometown here for kindnesses bestowed an old writer. I might not have much praise for local politicians, but then they’re used to it, and urban sprawl which I despise, but by golly, I do love the setting here at my Gravenhurst retreat.

Sanctuary - Gravenhurst
The Ultimate Writer’s Retreat
For the first time since I graduated university in 1977, I am now officially unfettered from a long list of community projects that yes, at times, were unmistakably "millstones". While I enjoyed my volunteer involvement with several local museums, historical societies, and two well known and respected Foundations, plus many writing commitments across the district, I did rather seriously weigh myself down over the decades with social-cultural responsibility. It was okay at times but of course once you’re committed to a project, and hold one of the directorship portfolios, it’s bloody hard to find a replacement. The most burdensome aspect was attending so many meetings each month.......as I detested classroom instruction as a kid, well.... in adulthood I hated being confined in lengthy meetings. I didn’t mind the work-load but I couldn’t get around being tied-up for so many hours in stuffy meeting halls. We made more progress before and after the meetings over coffee than we did during the official portion of the get-togethers.
Admittedly, I got involved with a significant number of initiatives that were so exciting and rewarding that you just couldn’t imagine the good times ever ending. But they did! For example, I was the curator of the Bracebridge Sports Hall of Fame, at the Bracebridge Memorial Community Centre. I used to get a laugh about this because of the ongoing rivalry between the two towns......so they put a Gravenhurst resident in charge of a Bracebridge sport’s heritage display.....for 12 years! Well, the only way that posting continued as long as it did, was due to the fact I was appointed to the position by former National Hockey League goaltender, (and Bracebridge native) Roger Crozier, founder of the Crozier Foundation for youth in Muskoka (circa 1995). The Hall of Fame showcase was constructed as a memorial to Roger in 1996, following his passing. In the spring of 1995 Roger had asked what I thought would be a good first project for the newly created Foundation, other than charitable donations which were made in abundance, and I borrowed an idea given to me by former arena Manager Tom Robinson, suggesting a greatly expanded showcase, which would allow for a much more expansive display of sports memorabilia from the community. The Foundation put money up for the construction of the showcase as a tribute to Roger, and I was handed the exhibit keys that summer during a special grand opening ceremony. I was both Hall of Fame Curator and Public Relations Director of the Foundation for the next decade. The Crozier Foundation did close its operations here in 2006 due to unforseen circumstances, but I remained curator for the next two years until either an agreement could be made with the Town of Bracebridge, or a replacement found. As it turned out a replacement was found, and at long last the town was finally looking after its own display.....without that Gravenhurst influence.
The reason I got involved with this newly established charitable organization, was on account of Roger, plain and simple. One long, hot, boring summer back in the late 1960's, Roger called my mother to ask if I would like to attend a free week of hockey instruction at the Red Wing Hockey School he sponsored at the arena. We didn’t have money for such things back then and his kind offer was so incredible.....I was at the arena in minutes after getting the news. Roger had heard I was a promising minor league goalie and could use some brushing up for the coming season. And I suppose he knew money was tight for our family back then....as it was for many. I wasn’t the only kid to get a free week of instruction but I’ve always been the only one to make a big deal about it.....because it was a turning point not just in hockey but in my perception of what makes a community a "home town!" It was his generosity to me and my family that left a huge and lasting imprint. As Roger had been assisted by the same community, when he needed rides to junior games when he played in St. Catharines, among many other kindnesses bestowed by good citizens, he came back to town to return favors. To the end of his life he felt strongly about his friends in Muskoka and was able to re-visit with many before the final stage of his illness.
There wasn’t one moment at the helm of the Hall of Fame, or during my public relations stint with the Crozier Foundation that I didn’t feel an enormous pride working in Roger’s memory to promote athletics and help local youth achieve goals by removing economic barriers. From the first day as a member of his executive in 1995, to my retirement in the autumn of 2008, I celebrated the association as did the rest of my family who also thought the world of Roger. He had been very kind to my boys Andrew and Robert, and my wife Suzanne. He had even sent a corporate jet to the Muskoka airport to pick me up, for a several day tour of his work-place at MBNA (Bank) in Wilmington, Delaware.....and a chance to see what his life was like as a bank executive in contrast to his days as an allstar goalie for the Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres and then Washington Capitals. It was a terrific experience I will never forget.
I have had many interesting years of involvement with various community organizations in our home region of Ontario, ranging from a stint as historian of South Muskoka Memorial Hospital, director of the Muskoka Lakes Museum, founding director of the Bracebridge Historical Society, Manager of Woodchester Villa and Museum, a former director of the Bracebridge Branch of the Ontario Humane Society, and co-founder of both the Herald-Gazette Rink Rat Hockey Club and the annual Lovable Losers Hockey Tournament, both of which are still in operation and still fundraising for the betterment of the community. While it may not seem as onerous as it feels to me in retrospect, on top of my myriad writing responsibilities and the fact I’m a small business owner, it has been a crammed sort of existence since the mid 1970's when I decided to move back to Muskoka after a taste of city life......which I deplored.
But there comes a time when you realize that you’ve neglected a lot of other important life and times matters, and finally possess a clear recognition you’re pretty much spent as a volunteer..
Since 1989 my safe haven has been Gravenhurst. Not that I don’t help out here when I can with fundraising projects my sons Andrew and Robert get up to, .....just that I’m a little more focused at home with writing these days and on our several decade foray in the antique business which consumes a weighty amount of time each year hunting relics. I am currently writing my own epic column this year for a wonderful little publication, available locally, known as "Curious; The Tourist Guide," which will be an adventure-filled and unique feature series about my years involved with antique hunting you might say.....which is my own way of settling down to enjoy an unencumbered passion for collecting,..... with nary a meeting or any encumbrance. So with this long overdue project I’m finally putting together my die-hard commitment to writing, with this insatiable appetite for what I fondly call...."Zen and the Art of Antique Collecting."
As well, I have recently published a new blog site detailing my connections with the paranormal in Muskoka, and you can link with this collection of stories by searching Ghosts of Muskoka. Everything has been authored in Gravenhurst, as it has been since 1989. As I’ve noted previously in this collection of blog-vignettes, of all the places lived in this region and beyond, I have never found a place that has inspired me more....than this wonderful sanctuary in the snowy Muskoka woodlands. Us writer-kind are rather fussy about our environs, and Gravenhurst has worked just fine for the past 20 years. I’m pleasantly stuck here at Birch Hollow where I will continue to enjoy a good and inspiring home town ambience.....just with a tad more free time these days to pursue a wee bit more writing....and home repairs which frankly I’ve rather neglected while working on everything else. I’d rather sit at this keyboard all day than tend a garden or paint the deck.....but it’s kind of caught up with me such that I don’t have any choice but to work at home improvement.
Till we meet again.

When good news has no counterpoint - well that’s a big old problem for a reality check
In the press it would appear Gravenhurst is about to burst at the seams with all the good stuff happening..... and on the sharp verge of occurring.....building permit increases, lots of business activity, new places to shop this spring and lots more of everything that falls within the definition of "progress" and for the "good of the community." Now cut away the bullcrap and it’s a lot less "good" when you factor in a critical examination of what is touted as being an advantage, actually turning out to be a timely disadvantage. A balanced story is one that details both or all sides of a point of view. When the mayor, for the new year projection had a "really good news" report, apparently there wasn’t much interest to delve into some of the persistent and related problems in the same town. It’s one thing to recognize all the great improvements coming with the new southend development but it’s kind of a gaping omission not to footnote that by the way.....the downtown core is going to be pounded into near submission as a direct result.
There are a few people I suppose, who truly believe what is served up by the press. I’m pretty sure these good news reports make some folks feel at ease but this old news hound becomes a little antsy when good news comes at the expense of the whole story. And there are undoubtedly more than a few cynics like me, who never take anything offered by the media as the end-all, even when the reporter has spared a few lines of ink to offer a counterpoint to what was intended to be a "good times were had by all" front pager. Well folks, the responsible thing for the local press to be doing now is reporting the nitty gritty of the really tough time local merchants are having with this economic downturn, and adequately address and justify, by old fashioned investigative reporting, why established merchants are fearing the coming year most. Maybe it pisses off some advertisers but by and large I think a balanced viewpoint can still be alluring by simply being helpful with information dispersal.
For example, the current affairs issue of local business expansion here in Gravenhurst, begs for more insight and investigation because a significant aspect to the story is missing.....the part about an existing business community about to be torn apart by an incredible new reality of competition.....and it would seem to me a really insightful although somewhat latent action on the part of local council, for at least one elected member to be truly concerned, and state this for the record. While they might not feel a responsibility to local merchants to offer anything more than "suck it up," councillors played an integral role in approving the expansion that is ultimately going to re-shape this community and then some. At the onset of planning for the new development, what was their estimation of the acceptable loss of established business....because there are few such expansions of commercial nodes that open without consequence to other competing businesses? Just the simple diversion of business traffic is going to be a serious alteration to local shopping habits built up over decades. Could they have been naive enough to believe that there would be no compromises, no losses just good and prosperous gains all round? Or did they appreciate that there could be a five to ten percent cull in the downtown core....or more, once the node was up and running at full capacity? Is there an obligation now, on Council’s part, to stop the rhetoric and "good news" propaganda and deal with the many grave concerns about the future welfare of the historic main street and vicinity...... and let the downtown know it has the commitment of town hall to help find solutions to immediate problems and deep seeded concerns about where loyalties lie. The word on the street is pretty clear that loyalties are not what they should be at this critical time of expansion and economic downturn. And it has been an ongoing issue with The Wharf...... about which commercial area is favorite? They don’t have to believe it but that doesn’t make it less true.
There are a lot of situations such as this which are minimized in Gravenhurst and the silly arse reality is there won’t be any way of denying the truth in a few short months when changes start seriously impacting shopping trends......you would have to be holed-up in a closet not to see the shortage of customers on Gravenhurst’s main street and that new reality began well before Christmas, and will continue for an indefinite period of time yet. So not only does a local business have to deal with the typical Muskoka winter downturn of commerce, take the blunt force of the current economic crisis and then contend with a division of commercial areas at the very time they need an upturn to make it through the rest of the year. It doesn’t take a clairvoyant to see the huge impact about to whomp-down on established businesses. So it should be abundantly obvious to councillors that amidst all the good news reporting, crap is about to hit the fan and there won’t be any hiding from responsibility......so trying to sell the world on the economic prowess of Gravenhurst might be a tad awkward as main street vacancies begin to rise in the "rob Peter to pay Paul," syndrome that will cause a lot of pain for this gain.
Then, as rats jumping ship, the move is to shift Town Hall about as far away from the main street as possible....it’s not the first time this has been attempted but it’s the first time the public can’t be bothered fighting the plan. The decentralizing plan is seen as good for town..... Of course I see it as a betrayal of the downtown at a highly critical time.....when abandoning a battle-weary neighborhood is pretty much the declaration of "oh well....they’ll get over it!" I’d like to hear from just one member of council who appreciates that you just can’t have it all.....and like you were likely told umpteen times as a child......there are consequences to your actions. This could be a very painful two year stint as councillors wrap up their terms of office. I don’t believe they’re going to escape accountability.
So what could any one do at this point to help out the main street and other business situations soon to be affected with the Big Pod? First of all, the Business Improvement Association can not forcefully deal with the shortfalls at town hall.....and it has been proven the town isn’t all that interested in the BIA so I suppose it’s mutual. There needs to be a ground swell of all business owners in Gravenhurst who feel the time has come to work out a new deal with town hall......who are confident there’s a counterpoint to all the "good news" peddling coming from the municipality. The BIA alone can not protect the downtown merchants without a major commitment from all stake-holders who have something to worry about in the division of local commerce from here on. Council has learned to brush off the BIA and the Chamber of Commerce but I dare say the same thing won’t happen to either the South End enterprises or The Wharf when a problem arises.
It may seem as if I’m a tad unhappy with the expansion of Gravenhurst’s commercial community......this isn’t the case and I predicted this business bonanza would explode in our town when I was writing for the local press more than ten years ago......and in fact I was bang on. And even then I knew that there was going to be a heavy price to pay on the traditional main street unless there were some huge changes in attitude by every one involved. Ours is not the only community to face this tearing apart scenario and there will be much suffering in our neighboring towns due to the same divide and conquer scenarios....how many grocery stores does a small community need and what happens when you "over-store" or "over-retail," the actual merchandise demands of the target populations.
While municipal economic development committees pat themselves on the collective back for attracting these new commercial investments, do they truly appreciate that by over-loading the retail sector, they are participating by the same stroke, a parallel destruction of existing business? Do they have an inherent responsibility to the existing commercial taxpayers to accept expansion based on a reasonable survey of current and future business/service demand? If they don’t feel it is their responsibility then they are knowingly, willingly participating in the cull of vulnerable businesses as "acceptable loss" of any progressive action. And while I’m not advocating that a town council seek permission of the business community on such matters of commercial expansion, it is incumbent on them to deal with the business community in general to get a proper and truthful perspective of the impact, positive and negative that will result from a major development. I hear far too often off-hand comments like "That’s just the way it is.....everything will work out fine.....everybody will benefit." All this without a shred of proof. When shown evidence of this serious impact, these same numb nuts claim similarly.....they would have failed regardless. I expect to hear and read about a lot of buck passing around here in the next two years.
Our family has a stake in main street business and we’re fighting tooth and nail to hang onto old time values, the graces of a healthy downtown, and the motto imprinted on our eyelids when we sleep......."The price of success is hard work!" Now..... let’s have a level playing field, and it is attainable by council......the same council that voted for expansion....and can show their own dynamic and progressive character now by making strong overtures to the existing merchants, to develop a new and improved, cooperative relationship that to most of us hasn’t existed in years.
It will be a struggle. We are all prepared for that. What we need now is a council that will look after all her children not just a chosen few.

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.