Galwegians-March 2022

If one can keep pace with the ever-changing decisions as to what is open and what is closed, congratulations! As for the Galway Hall, one can always check our webpage regularly at: www.galwayhall.ca. All of ‘The Galwegians’ articles are also posted on this page. Solve-All in Kinmount manages our webpage and keeps this page up-to-date. Thanks to the good lads at Solve-All for their expertise.

As of January 31^st, the Galway Hall is again open to the public for meetings and events. The Galway Hall Board was able to capitalize on this current re-opening. Its scheduled board meeting on January 31^st was on the first day of the easing of some of the restrictions. This allowed the ‘in-person’ meeting to occur. Board members were pleased and excited that the Municipality had approved a budget to renovate our Hall’s kitchen. This great news led to a discussion to begin to make plans for our Strawberry Supper on Saturday, July 2^nd, 2022. Optimistically, moving forward, the Board is meeting on Monday, May 30^th, to discuss and formalize our plans for this fundraiser. This will be no small task given the fluidity that is COVID-19 and its variants.

Tidbits of advice for this month’s column from “The Best in the Cupboard” come from the ‘Clothing’ section of its index.

1. Sticky zippers can be coaxed to slide easily if you run a lead pencil up and down the closed meshes. The graphite in the pencil lubricates the zippers.
2. Before a new garment is worn, touch the centre of each button with transparent nail polish. It seals the thread and the button stays on.
3. Patent leather shoes and hand bags can be kept looking like new by rubbing them with a cloth dampened with milk.

Note: Several of the tips from this section of the book dealt with shoe polish/polishing shoes, suede shoes, overshoes and galoshes, and felt hats. Does anyone still have any of these items around today?

In the periods of cold temperatures that we experienced in late January and early February, did you notice the frequency of Bluebird Sky days? Of course, clear skies day and night help the temperatures to stay cold as there are no clouds to trap any radiant heat.

The coldest night so far this winter at our place was on January 21^st. It was -32C! Even at that temperature, the flock of goldfinches was the first around our feeders. A few purple finches join in with them as do a few tree sparrows. There have been a few sightings of the Pileated Woodpeckers in our area. The big, bright red crests on their heads add welcome splashes of colour in our winter wonderland landscape. Did you know that in winter, each Pileated Woodpecker excavates its own hole in a tree and roosts by itself? Pileated Woodpecker meaning relates to hard and steady work as well as resolute in meeting one’s goal.

If you have been out enjoying our area’s natural landscapes (walking, snow-shoeing, XC skiing), you may have come across a myriad of little pine cones scattered on our roads, trails, or snow-covered grounds. These small cones are from Eastern hemlocks. Hemlocks begin producing cones between 20 and 40 years of age. They may continue to produce cones for up to 450 years or more. Hemlocks are one of the highest producers of cones out of all the eastern North American conifers. Usually, lots of cones are one sign of a healthy tree. However, “distress crop” is a phenomenon that occurs when a tree becomes so stressed that its very survival is threatened. Dealing with the possibility of death, a tree will produce a bountiful amount of seed as a last ditch effort to reproduce. Let us all hope that distress crop is not the case with our hemlocks locally.

The full moon this month occurs on Friday, March 18^th. Our Indigenous Peoples called it the ‘Worm Moon’ because the ground would begin to soften and the earthworms would begin to re-appear. This moon has also been called the Crow Moon, the Crust Moon, the Sap Moon, and the Lenten Moon.

March 20 is the March Equinox when the sun shines directly on the equator giving almost equal amounts of day and night throughout the world. It occurs at 15:24 UTC. This is the start of our spring (vernal) equinox.

Here is a thought for the month of March:

“People will forget what you said.

People will forget what you did.

But people will never forget how you made them feel.”