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March, 2006 Website: www.smimirror.ca VOLUME XX, Number 3 Published for and about local people and events Secrets of the Earth Festival The Prince Edward County Council Environmental Advisory Committee is delighted to announce its first pub- lic event, Secrets of the Earth: gardening beautifully with- out pesticides. 1:30 -- 4:30 pm, Sunday March 19 at the Community Centre in Picton, the garden festival will in- clude speakers, workshops and informative displays, as well as seeds and advice for ecological gardening. Doug Parker, chair of the EAC pesticide subcom- mittee commented, "We're quite excited about the lineup for this festival. Not only will it offer a wide range of ideas and techniques, but also, we hope, the inspiration to ap- proach gardening in a whole new way." Speakers will include author and field naturalist Terry Sprague on landscapes that welcome birds and but- terflies, organic lawn care specialist Jenn Nash on ecologi- cal lawn alternatives, organic landscaper Lorraine Schmid on flower gardens, and organic grower Doug Parker on building healthy soil. The workshops will offer more detailed informa- tion and tips for gardening beautifully without pesticides. Parker added, "This initiative is a practical out- come of the EAC's mandate, to advise Council and do pub- lic education on issues of environmental concern. We plan to continue pursuing effective controls on the harmful use of cosmetic pesticides. But in the meantime, we're de- lighted to offer this unique opportunity to explore some marvelous alternatives." The Secrets of the Earth festival is free. All are welcome. Six Years of Silence A Letter from Beverly Nelson-Walker (Editor's note: Bev is the founder of the South Marys- burgh Mirror and produced it from 1988 until 1995 when it was assumed by the present publisher.) It seems like it was just a week ago that I first came to the Portneuf Region of Quebec, but in actual fact, it has been six years. So why the contact now? Well it has to do with an election that was held last month and a fel- low by the name of André Arthur who was elected to rep- resent this riding, the lone independent elected in all of Canada. The Federal Riding of Portneuf-Jacque Cartier is primarily rural but with several larger centres and a vari- ety of towns and villages ranging in size from the size of Belleville (St-Augustine on the outer edge of Quebec City) to St-thuribe, which could be a scaled down version of Waupoos. But most of the towns are about Picton size. The riding is on the north shore of the St. Lawrence. The village I live in is St-Casimir and close to the size of Wellington. There are a variety of industries here, from the big aluminum plant to small distillers of essential oils, by way of manufacturing and of course with all the for- ested land, wood product related industries. In terms of agriculture, there are large dairy farms, pork producers, a few hydroponic vegetable producers, sheep and beef producers. The largest seasonal industry other than forest Continued on page 19 BINGO! SEE PAGE 14 Sensations in Poo Poo Platter of Life 5 OOPS! 7 Druella Acantha Malvina 11 Star of Stage, Screen and Television 13 Life in the Past 18 The Last Word | 20