Bee Beard Festival

6th Annual Bee Beard Festival

Saturday August 14

Clovermead Bee Adventure Farm

Fundraiser for World Vision Canada All Event Admission goes to buying beehives and training for families in developing countries, $7 per person.

Kicks off at 1:30 pm with Beekeeper Olympics – Bee smoker lighting, beekeeper dress up and down, honey comb squeezing, bee box assembly, hive tool target throw, and bee catching. Beekeepers and the public will both compete.

2:30 pm Bee Beard Competition. Four Beekeeper contestants are given twenty minutes to load up with bees and to groom their fashionable beards inside screened tents. They are each weighed before and after, the number of bees are calculated by the grams of bees on their chins. Each beekeeper dances and models their beards on the catwalk, backed up by funky music, the judges select their favourite. The trophy is awarded, and folks can have their pictures taken next to their beekeeper hero. In the end the beekeepers give their heads a big shake to return the crawling and itchy bee beards back into the beehives. Great fun if you’re watching, a little nervous if you’re a beekeeper, and a strange afternoon if you are a bee.

Live music by 1- 4 pm. Wagon rides, farm animals, walking trails, pedal go-carts. Wholesome farm fun for families and friends.

Location: 11302 Imperial Rd. 2 km North of Aylmer, on Hwy 73, twenty five minutes from London.

Hosted by: Clovermead Bee Adventure Farm, in Aylmer, Ontario.

For more information or to download photos from previous Bee Beard events www.clovermead.com

Contact Chris Hiemstra. Director of the Buzz (519) 617-5503 chris@clovermead.com

World Vision Canada - Brad Saunders 1 800 268 4888 Mobile 519-400-2653

MOE Beekeepers Club (Middlesex Oxford, Elgin)

Contact President Bob Crowhurst (519) 666-1670 robert.crowhurst@sympatico.ca

2010 Bee Beard Contestants

Tibor Szabo – 519-836-5617 Guelph, ON Commercial Beekeeper.

Albert de Vries – 519-637-0375 St. Thomas, ON - Cabinetry/Beekeeper.

Chris Crocker – 519-644-2408 Aylmer, ON - Minister/Beekeeper.

Carmenie Stemmler – 519-270-2276 – Markdale, ON – the only female Beekeeper contestant.

HMS Investigator Sees The Light of Day

HMS Investigator was a merchant ship purchased in 1848 to search for Sir John Franklin's lost expedition. She made two voyages to the Arctic and had to be abandoned in 1853 after becoming trapped in the ice (but not before sailing the last leg of the elusive Northwest Passage).

Archeologists working with Parks Canada first discovered the ship on July 25, after ice had cleared from Mercy Bay, a remote site in Aulavik National Park on Banks Island.

War of 1812 app released for iPhone

Niagara 1812: Return of the Fenian Shadow

A War of 1812 application for iPhones has been released in the Apple iTunes online store. Titled Niagara 1812: Return of the Fenian Shadow, it showcases people and places key to the nationally-defining war in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Read all about it at Interactive Ontario.

You can take a journey into the past with Niagara 1812. Using your iPhone, you'll visit places and people from the War of 1812 and beyond. Choose Roam Mode, walk around historic Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, and discover the stories that lie behind the bricks and mortar. Or choose Quest Mode, and solve a centuries-old mystery in an immersive adventure. With Niagara 1812, you carry history with you, in the palm of your hand.

Thames Valley Museum School Teacher Appreciation Tea

The Thames Valley Museum School Teacher Appreciation Tea

Sunday July 18 from 1-4

The Thames Valley Museum School staff and board
request the attendance of teachers and appreciators for tea
on Sunday July 18th, 2010 from 1:00pm- 4:00pm
at the Thames Valley Museum School.

Featured Speaker: Curator, Jennifer Beauchamp

There will be a silent auction of items, donated by local businesses, located in the 1905 classroom
commencing at 1:00pm and ending at 3:30pm.

Refreshments will be served throughout the afternoon.
Please bring a lawn chair.

Thames Valley Museum School
656 Main Street North, Box 37
Burgessville, Ontario N0J 1C0
519.424.9964

Flat Thomas Visits Pompeii

Thomas Talbot lived from 1771 to 1853...obviously a span long past the the year 79 when Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii. During Talbot's lifetime Pompeii was an excavation site. The archaeological process had been going on since its' original unearthing in 1599. Names most noted with the excavation of the site during the 18th and 19th century included engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre, Charles of Bourbon (later king of Spain), Karl Weber, military engineer Franscisco la Vega who was then succeeded by his brother, Pietro, in 1804 and then Giuseppe Fiorelli who took charge of the excavations in 1860. Although Talbot did occasionally travel back to Great Britain after staking his claim in Upper Canada it doesn't seem that Pompeii would have been on his travel itinerary. Lucky for us though that Flat Thomas has no restrictions to where he might wander. The Harding Family took Flat Thomas along with them to the ancient city of Pompeii and sent the THS a picture of our slender colonel silhouetted against the walls of the site with Mount Vesuvius towering in the background.

Backus-Page House Wallacetown Fair Exhibit

Please join us for our newest exhibit "The Wallacetown Fair ~Sewn and Home Grown~ Celebrating 150 Years of Progress". The exhibition runs from July 10th to September 6th. .

The Backus-Page House and Tyrconnell Heritage Society would like to thank the Wallacetown (& West Elgin) Agricultural Society for its assistance in providing resource material for this exhibit.

Trails Open Summer Celebration

Open Trails Day Summer Celebration
Backus-Page House Museum
Saturday July 10th 10-4:30pm

Come spend the day at the beautiful John E. Pearce Provincial Park. Learn about the distinct Carolinian characteristics of the area while enjoying a guided trail tour with local nature experts (tour begins at 2pm). There will be box lunches, barbeque burgers and hotdogs available for purchase. Compete in our children's scavenger hunt. Local wildlife enthusiast Laura Hathaway will do 2 presentations at 11am and 1pm on the topics of butterflies and bees. Spend a Saturday afternoon enjoying the provincial park in your own backyard.