President's Message
Caroline Bacher
"April showers bring May flowers"
This is a lovely quote for Spring, and it should lift up our hearts to know that Spring is coming amid all of this chaos. Let’s hope that the flowers will bloom, the grass will get greener and the temperature will get warmer soon! We have that to look forward to!
This is a very stressful time for all of us as we wait out this Pandemic of major proportions. We are doing our part to stop the spread of COVID-19 by cancelling regular meetings and suspending small group activities for our Probus club. Trips have also been cancelled until further notice.
It is also very difficult for us to be physically apart from our families at this time, especially with Easter approaching and other special events, like birthdays. You have time now to work on hobbies and try new ones!
I hope that you can get outside for a walk and enjoy some of the sunny days. Soon we will be able to do some gardening as well.
We are here to help you. If you are in need of assistance, such as having questions that are not health related, just chatting, or to pick up a few groceries or drugstore items, you may contact the following members who have generously volunteered to take your calls.
- Lynn Corrigan, Support Group
- Vicki and Terry Kellar, Membership
- Heather Buscher, Website Coordinator
- Hank Bouwman, Director at Large
- Ann Parsons, Speaker Chair
- Nancy Seppala, Co-Secretary
- Caroline Bacher, President
Our contact information is in the Pink Directory or you may access the Directory on our new website: beavervalleyprobus.com
For your information, I have compiled the phone numbers and websites of our local health authorities and hospitals as well as government websites below.
I believe that we are going to return to routines in different ways. Life is not going to be “as usual”. We have all been affected by this Pandemic and will go forward in our own individual way.
I wish you and your families good health in the coming days.
Calendar
| 28 April 2020 |
CANCELLED: Activities Fair |
| 1 April - 1 May 2020 |
Activities eFair Online |
| 27 August 2020 |
King's Wharf Theatre Outing: Rock of Ages |
| 21 October 2020 |
Stratford Trip: Spamalot |
COVID-19 Information
Local Hospitals and Health Units Information
Grey Bruce Health Services: (519) 376-2121 www.gbhs.on.ca/covid-19/
Owen Sound Hospital:1800 8th Street East.
Go to the website for instructions. Use the self-assessment tool to determine how to seek further care, before going to the hospital.
Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit: Health Connection (705) 721-7520 or www.smdhu.org.
Collingwood General and Marine Hospital: 459 Hume St. Collingwood or www.cgmh.on.ca
Go to the website for instructions. Use the self-assessment tool to determine how to seek further care, before going to the hospital.
Website Updates 
New Website Launched on March 15
Heather Buscher
You have probably already noticed the new website, which was launched on March 15. All of the things that you are used to seeing are still there - the Photos, Newsletters and Activity pages - with a new updated look. This web platform will save our volunteers hours of work behind the scenes, but also offers some new "Members-Only" features.
Check out the online Directory to find a fellow member's contact details or use the online Registration to sign up for an Activity group or theatre event with a single click. You can even update your own contact information using the My profile link in the top right corner. Just create a password and login, and these extra features will be available to you! Click here to see the new step-by-step instructions to create a password!
Please feel free to contact Heather Buscher if you have any issues logging in or registering for an event!
Activity Groups Update
Georgian Probus Travel Group
Gloria Thompson
- Highland and Islands of Scotland: This trip is postponed until October 3-18, 2020. The deposits will be honoured for the new dates. Please contact Gloria at 705-429-9455. Hope and pray this virus will be a distant memory by then.
- Portugal and Madeira: May 2021. This trip will be a 2 week program. For information or to register please call Gloria at 705-429-9455.
- Croatia: Sept 12-26, 2021. The first week, Sept 12-19 will be a tour to explore the interior. The second week, Sept 19-26 is a bike and boat trip along the coast. Regular or e-bikes will be available to rent. For questions or registration, please call Jacqui at 647-404-9380.
Dining Around Town
Hank Bouwman
- Please note April's event is CANCELLED. We will wait to see if May and June will be permitted.
- Wednesday May 13 – Justin’s Oven in Kimberley (limited to 24 diners). May 20 is also available if we have 40 people booked.
- Thursday June 18 – Barcelos in Wasaga Beach
- Thursday September 10 – The Falls Inn in Walter’s Falls
Ski Legends
Louise Armstrong
Sadly, the ski season came to an early and abrupt end, as a result of the corona virus outbreak and measures to limit it. Better to be safe and healthy.
This past winter has been very successful in all respects and especially the “Ski Day Every Tuesday at Blue” was hugely popular.
The “Legends” management committee continues to work over the Spring, Summer and early Fall to plan for next year’s social events, days at the private clubs and ski trips. The trip to the Dolomites in Italy in January 2021 is sold out, and planning for the annual Sun Peaks trip will begin over the summer. Members will receive emails as information becomes available.
Please visit the web site,
www.probusskilegends.ca
, as you will find the most up-to-date information on events, ski trips, as well as the application form to join Ski Legends. Basic memberships are $30.
Activities Fair 2020
The Activities Fair is Now An Online eFair!
Rick Leclair
No Activity Fair? No Problem!
Due to the COVID-19 crisis we can't meet in person this year, but we are now hosting an eFair instead - April 1st thru May 1st! Check out the Activities and Register online today!
We ask that all members register for the activities they are interested in, even if they were part of the activity last year. This will put our leaders in a better position to start activities, once we have the all-clear to get together again.
Step 1. Login to our website first. (It makes registration much simpler - just 1 click!) Click here if you haven't logged in before and need to create a password.
Step 2. Select an Activity that you are interested in...
Step 3. Click the Activity Registration button to register, or reach out to the coordinator with any questions. You can simply click on the Coordinator name to access their Online Directory contact details!
This is not only easy, but fun. Please take the time to give it a try!
Theatre Event
Rock of Ages: A Totally Rad ‘80s Musical
Vicki Kellar
Once again our Club has arranged tickets for a Drayton Festival Theatre Event at King’s Wharf Theatre in Penetanguishene. Fans of '80s arena hard rock music will dig this awesomely hilarious musical comedy that wails with big chords, big hair ... and an even bigger heart.
It's 1987, and aspiring rocker Drew meets and falls madly in love with Sherrie, a fresh-faced Midwesterner who has recently moved to Los Angeles to chase her movie star dreams. Will their stars rise? Will their love last? Find out in the worldwide phenomenon featuring 28 classic rock tunes like "We Built This City," "The Final Countdown," "Wanted Dead or Alive," "Here I Go Again," "Harden My Heart," "Can't Fight this Feeling," and "I Want To Know What Love Is."
- Date: Thurs. Aug. 27, 2PM show
- Group Rate: $44.32/ticket (payment instructions to follow closer to date)
- Location: King’s Wharf Theatre, 97 Jury Dr, Penetanguishene
- Driving arrangements: should be made individually. A group dinner will be arranged closer to the date.
Please register online below or contact Vicki Kellar. This event is expected to sell-out, so please register as soon as possible. First-come, first-served.
Computer Corner
Pa55w%rds!
Martin Buscher - IT Dude, Computer Group Leader & BVPC Vice-President
Last month at the AGM our scheduled speaker was unable to attend last minute. Martin Buscher, our Computer Group Leader stepped in. Before migrating to the Beaver Valley and joining the BVPC, Martin had a career in the oil industry. Just prior to his retirement, he ran a program to improve his company's cyber-security defenses. This is where he learned much about the fight between people and their information machines, in particular on the topic of passwords. In this presentation, Martin hopes to help his audience understand why things are the way they are, and how 3 simple rules can help fend off cyber-criminals.
Click here to see the presentation if you weren't able to attend or to refresh yourself if you did!
In Memoriam
Peter White passed away in March. He and his wife, Penny, who passed away in 2019, joined Beaver Valley Probus Club in 2006.
Reflections 
And the People Stayed Home...
And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.
Kitty O'Meara
The Master Gardener’s Corner
Things to do in your garden each month taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar by John Hethrington, Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario. For more information call 519-599-5846.
Please Note: The Paul Zammit presentation on Perennials has been postponed until Thursday, May 28 2020 at the Beaver Valley Community Centre at 7 PM. See you there!
April 2020
- Make sure you have done everything you were supposed to do on the March Master Gardner's List.
- Do stretch and bend exercises before you start in the garden. I find skiing muscles have nothing to do with gardening muscles. Take it easy. There are a lot of gardening days before the ski season comes again.
- I hope you had a chance to spread 19-19-19 general purpose fertilizer over the snow on all your flower beds and shrub borders before the snow disappeared. It melts down into the ground as the snow goes away. It and other fertilizers are available at the Co-Op in Markdale, at 10% discount for 599 Members. If you missed this step this year, plan for next winter and buy the fertilizer this fall.
- The snow has gone but may be back once or twice in April. You can still spread the triple 19 as long as it does not get on to the emerging plants, as it may burn them.
- Organize your compost pile for the new season. Start a new one with the top foot of compost from last year’s pile as a base.
- As the weather warms and the ground dries, prune back perennials and ornamental grasses to 1” to 3” from the ground. Put dead material on your new compost pile. Shred if possible.
- Prepare garden beds for planting. Dig in compost, and/or manure, and/or other organic material around each plant. Remove any weeds that have come through from last fall. When you have cleaned up the beds, ADD 3”TO 4” OF MULCH to control weeds this summer.
- Remove rose protection. For Hybrid Teas, Prune to 6” or 8”and apply dormant oil spray before the buds break.
- Apply dormant oil spray to shrubs like euonymus that may have suffered from scale last year. Do it before the buds break.
- Prepare your vegetable garden with a good digging and mid-month plant the seeds of cool-weather vegetables like peas, spinach, lettuce, onions, beets and seeds of frost resistant annuals like larkspur, sweet peas and calendulas.
- When dry, rake your lawn vigorously to remove thatch, repair damage with weed-free topsoil. Add grass seed to bare spots. Keep moist.
- Fertilize your lawn with slow-release high nitrogen (the first of the 3 numbers) fertilizer. Slow release urea costs more, but it’s worth it.
- Apply crabgrass pre-emergence herbicide to your lawn, if required.
- When spring finally comes, plant trees, shrubs, perennials and biennials in your garden. No need to wait until May 24th for perennials, that’s for annuals. It may be the first week in June before you can get frost tender annuals into the ground.
- Re-fill your pots and planters with compost. Put empty plastic bottles with tops at the bottom of large pots. You will need less soil and they will be lighter to move. Add slow release plant food to the top 4 inches.
- Plant frost-resistant pansies NOW for a little spring colour.
Support Group
Lynn Corrigan
Do you know of a member who needs encouragement to get through a difficult period? Please do not hesitate to call on Lynn Corrigan or any of the management team.
The Last Word
Submitted by Marion Stewart, Past President
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
Aesop
Grapevine Team
| Editor |
Chris Rickard |
| Photographer |
Cheryl Besley |
| Distribution |
Nancy Dixon |
| Website |
Nancy Dixon
Heather Buscher |
Activity Groups: Participate - Volunteer - Have Fun!
Convenor: Rick Leclair
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Please be advised that all events and activities of the Beaver Valley Probus Club are organized for the benefit and enjoyment of its Members. Individuals who participate do so at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety. |
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Beaver Valley Probus Club