Welcome to the GNS web page! It is under construction. Please email
corrections, suggestions, and new material (photos as jpeg attachments; under
200K, please; please date event and identify people if you can) to
Tim.
(For the moment, though, aesthetics take second place to content.)
Bienvenu au site SNG! Il est en construction. SVP envoyer par courriel des
corrections, suggestions et du nouveau matériel (les photos comme
attachements jpeg, toujours moins de 200KO svp, et svp identifier le gens et les
dates d'événements si vous le pouvez) au
Tim.
(Pour l'instant, cependant, l'esthétique prend la deuxième place au contenu.)
President's Report 1999 / Rapport du président 1999
The snow that fell near the middle of March would have been so welcome in
January, but with the high temperatures over the weekend it just made heavy
going for the few people who tried to use the trails. Just another aspect of
a ski season that won't go down in record as a vintage year. Can anybody
remember when we had the last one?
With an icy crust over the entire
countryside, it is remarkable that so many people showed up on the morning
of Ski Day. One small group led by the two Peters went to take their chances
on the golf course, Diane Kakebeeke kidnapped a few others and took them off
to show them one of her trails that she promised would be skiable, and the rest
chose to accompany me (on foot) for a tree identification tour in the village.
Any lingering disappointment over the lack of skiing was soon forgotten when we
dipped into Jean-Paul's punch and dined on Lucy's roast beef. The traditional
challenge to identify the plants making up the centerpieces brought to the fore
the expertise of Stuart Martin's table, while David Cox and his group came
closest to solving the bird-names puzzle. Ski Bird medals were awarded to
Diane, Goulding and Françoise.
At the informal business meeting we announced
that Guy and Monique Lord have agreed to become directors of GNS, and that at
the end of the ski season I would be replaced as President by Tim Merrett. His
skiing prowess and youthful enthusiasm well qualify him to lead us into the new
millennium. (If only he can do something about the weather!)
Now we look forward
to our non-ski activities. Five Nature walks are scheduled a spring flower walk
on 9 May, a visit to L'ile du Marais on the 23 of May when their Fete
Printaniere
will be taking place. Other dates to mark on your calendar are the 26 June,
4 September, and 9 October. Watch bulletin boards in the village for details.
John Boynton
After the summer's windstorms, Georgeville Nature Ski has a lot of work to do
on the trails. We have made an early start. Walkers have been out, checking for
windfalls and obscurities, both on weekends and during the week, in between the
hunting seasons. Chainsaw and clearing gangs have followed, commencing the last
weekend in September. Thanks to: Paul Amos, John Boynton, Jean-Paul Clermont,
David Cox, Peter Hadrill, Peter Kohl, Francoise Lacoursiere, Guy Lord, Tim
Merrett, Mary Ann Merrett, Stephane Morin, Tom Stanger, David Stanger, Michael
Temple.
We have been giving priority to the trails nearest the village: the blue loops
south and north of Channell Road, crossing the golf course; the blue triangle
at Kohl and Begin roads; and the yellow trails, and the crossing red trails,
connecting these two. We are looking forward to snow and skiing.
Members should note that the trails are almost the same as last year, but there
are a few new kinks. The yellow running from the blue triangle down to the
village is once again routed past Crop Kohl's house instead of back through his
woods to avoid the livestock. The blue in the village, after crossing Channell
Road from the bell on the golf course and running past Morin and behind the
Hoblyns, no longer goes out onto Magoon Point Road, but follows a prettier
shortcut through the woods. A number of other small changes have been made to
avoid windfalls.
GNS held five nature walks during the spring, summer, and autumn. The first was
on May 8th, and the others followed on the Saturday morning of each of the long
weekends: Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, and Thanksgiving. The series
started with a large turnout for the spring flower walk, this year at Birch Bay.
John Boynton led us on a discovery tour of Dutchman's Britches, Spring Beauties,
Trilliums, ... On May 22, a more select group enjoyed a walk around Ile du
Marais which revealed, among many other treats, a bittern and five species of
fish. The next big turnout was on June 26 when Enid Elliott brought six or
seven carsful, including three professional biologists, to Marlington Bog: the
children loved the pitcher plants and the idea of twenty feet of peat beneath
us. On Sept. 4, the heat precluded the projected climb up Mt. Orford; we met
new neighbours on an exploration of Orford park.
Tim Merrett