Pollinator Garden Update

Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2020 17:46:11 -0400
From: Daniel Buckles <dbuckles@sas2.net>

[The new pollinator garden at Carleton Avenue and the people behind it]

Thanks! Many neighbours brought leaves to the new pollinator garden, which now has all we need there. The leaves will protect the soil from the coming rains, harbour diverse insects and perhaps some field mice over winter and enrich the soil when more flowering Native plants are added next spring (contact Catherine Shearer and John Arnason, our resident plant specialists, if you have native species to offer: metshag@gmail.com).

More Clean leaves are welcome at our other sites, the Pontiac entrance to the woods across from the school yard and the entrance to the woods on Patricia near Clearview. Leave bags there.

Thanks too to those that brought large stones to the site, which are used to shore up the earth mounds. Thanks to Kris Phillips especially for his initiative and hard work. More stones are still welcome.

The garden will be magnificent.

Daniel Buckles, co-chair
Environment committee, CPCA

Need Leaves for the Pontiac Pollinator Garden

Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2020 16:30:30 -0400
From: DANIEL BUCKLES <dbuckles@sas2.net>

Have leaves, will help

You may have noticed the pollinator garden emerging at Pontiac and the entrance to the river. We want to keep the soil in place and continue to improve it with leaves. Lots of leaves. Please bring bags of “clean” leaves (no roots and bits of plants other than tree leaves) to the area (the Planters at Pontiac) over the next week. We also need them at two other entrances to the Champlain Woods, across from the school on Pontiac and the entrance on Patricia near Clearview, where tree planting this year has continued.

Want to help build up a stone boundary for the pollinator garden? When out in the woods consider bringing stones to the Pontiac location, and add them to the pile in front. They will be used to mark the mound edges and help keep the soil in place.

From your neighbourhood Environment Committee

Tree Action Priorities

Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2020 08:50:55 -0400
From: Daniel Buckles <dbuckles@sas2.net>

Trees, a tree canopy and access to Greenspace are a vital part of our neighborhood. While the City has made some progress in protecting and planting trees, we’re not where we need to be to ensure a healthy urban forest for Ottawa’s future.

Use this link to a blog on priority tree actions prepared by Daniel Buckles and Jennifer Humphries, with contributions from Heather Pearl, for the City-wide network “Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability” (CAFES). It offers Observations and examples relevant to our neighborhood and practical steps you can take to protect and plant trees, or influence policy in the city.
Continue reading “Tree Action Priorities” →

The Passing of John Holliday

From: Laurie Fagan
Date: October 15, 2020 at 4:34 PM

John Holliday a longtime resident of Champlain Park passed away on October 11 just shy of his 98th birthday. Jack as he preferred to be called lived at 198 Keyworth Avenue in a small white bungalow where he and his wife Winnifred raised 5 children. They were married for 75 years before Winnifred passed away almost a year ago. They lived their entire married life in the house on Keyworth Ave. After her death Jack went to live in a retirement home. He was according to his obituary a “bomb aimer” with the RAF Bomber Command out of England during the war and worked in the federal government when he returned to Canada.

But Jack’s real passion was the natural world, especially gardening. His front apple tree had several bird feeders and clumps of seed studded suet. In his garage he raised several types of moths and butterflies. He one day invited me over to see a Cecropia moth, North America’s largest native variety. It had a wingspan of about five inches. It was incredible if not a bit creepy since I had recently seen the movie Silence of the Lambs.

His side garden was ablaze with bright orange and yellow poppies every year but it was his backyard garden that was his real pride and joy. I live behind his home and Jack and I would swap flower and gardening tips quite often on spring and summer days. He had a giant patch of indigo blue delphiniums one year that was so tall that if you closed your eyes for a moment you felt like you were in an English garden. Another year he had about a dozen Asiatic Lillies (Casa Blanca) with a mass of trumpet white flowers almost 6 feet tall. As I sat in the backyard near dusk with a glass of wine the beautiful scent wafted my way. Jack shared his garden with neighbours, especially children as he often left free pots of Johnny Jump Ups and other perennials at the end of his driveway – usually on Mother’s Day.

This summer as his family prepared the house for selling, his son John very kindly gave me a clump of Jack’s irises that I will treasure in my garden and think of that lovely, gentle man.


A more formal obituary is at https://ottawacitizen.remembering.ca/obituary/john-holliday-1080426016

Say no thanks to COVID-19 this Thanksgiving

The city has a couple of articles / newsletters about avoiding contact with people during Thanksgiving to cut down on the spread of COVID-19 disease.

Say no thanks to COVID-19 this Thanksgiving

To say this year has been tough is an understatement. Thanksgiving is one of our most beloved traditions, and the prospect of missing out on the social connection we all crave right now is hard to bear. At this critical time, we must stick to our households and refrain from gatherings that could put us and our loved ones at risk. If you’re feeling disappointed, you’re not alone. Seven months into it, we are still in this together.

We know we can flatten this curve. How? Because we’ve done it before. Together.

The question then becomes – what’s next? Take a deep breath and consider the following tips to have a great Thanksgiving 2020 while still staying safe.

Continued at… https://ottawa.ca/en/news/say-no-thanks-covid-19-thanksgiving

What you need to know about social gatherings in October

We are at a critical point in the COVID-19 pandemic.

To respond to the rising number of positive COVID-19 cases, the Province of Ontario and Ottawa Public Health recommend that you limit close physical contact to people within your household. For those who are living alone, it is recommended that they consider having close contact with one additional household.

The Province has also reduced limits on the number of people allowed to attend private social gatherings, and these limits could change at any time.

With this in mind, if you still plan to have a gathering, here are the answers to some key questions.

Continued at… https://ottawa.ca/en/news/what-you-need-know-about-social-gatherings-october

Community Association Board Meeting Agenda – October 6

Agenda

Champlain Park Community Association (CPCA) Board Meeting

Tuesday October 6, 2020
7:30 PM via Google Meet
Just the board is attending, until we’ve figured out the technology

Main session

  1. Approval of previous minutes of executive meeting Jan 28, 2020 – Liz
  2. Report of interim executive motions – All
  3. Update on CPCA operation of Champlain outdoor rink 2020-21 project – Adrian, Dan
  4. Financial Update – CC LB
    1. CPCA 2018, 2019 Fiscal Expenditures and Revenue by Category;
    2. CPCA 2019, 2020 Fiscal Expenditures and Revenue by Category;
    3. CPCA Projected Pandemic Year Budget 2020, 2021 to discuss
  5. CPCA operations during the Covid-19 Pandemic – CC LB
    1. Virtual Board Meetings
    2. Fieldhouse closure
    3. AGM – legislation allows us to postpone or hold a virtual meeting
    4. Social Events – postpone our usual events
  6. Motion regarding Logo – Adrian and CC LB
  7. Recognition of community service awards – Roland
  8. Other Business
  9. Next Meeting