Not too many readers will have met Beta. Beta is a blue and gold macaw. I first met Beta well…
Columns
Lingering
Perhaps it would be a good idea if I lingered longer as I wander around the back 40. This past…
Christmas 2011
Christmas has a way of gently sneaking up on people, more so as they get older. It seems like only…
Sound of silence
It’s only mid-January, but do the math; we are now in what is colloquially known as the dead…
Parisian Steam Laundry offered service to Wellington County
Laundry is a mundane subject, but it has an interesting history over the past century and a half.…
Bowstring bridges
Just a few short weeks ago, my son and I, while poking around the back streets of a small country…
“For M”
Call me philosophical, but it seems to me that in this life, it is the big things that happen that…
Is small really beautiful
Several years ago a book entitled Small Is Beautiful written by E.F. Schumacher tried to make case…
Toads and princes
I am sure every young girl has heard the expression “you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find…
Final lines: Its been great
My colleagues wanted a final Stray Casts column. Having never written what is called…
Fergus council considered assistance for new housing in 1916
For the first time in the history of Canada, the economy geared up for an all-out military effort…
Couple fined $10 each for assault while seizing a child
In February of 1942 a farm family in Eramosa Township endured what today might be called a home…
Raid on Guelph novitiate drew national attention in 1918
The introduction of conscription in 1917 was the most controversial step taken by the Canadian…
Fair times
The tents have come down and the Ferris wheel has been dismantled. The caramel apples are…
Wedding of young Fergus woman was social highlight for town in 1889
Last week’s column described the elaborate funeral of Mayor Tom Goldie of Guelph in 1892.…