Get ready for a big fat spring

This is our biggest issue ever, and possibly our most eclectic. From greenhouse to streamside to art gallery to doctor’s office, and on to steamy Broadway nights – it’s hard to guess what the next page will bring.

However, because it’s spring, there is one thing you can count on – and that is plenty of garden talk. This is the time for garden dreams, and Michele Green adds colour and warmth to those dreams with her visit to three area greenhouses, where tender shoots are already well sprouted. She also takes us on a tour of the Wilson farm near Creemore where she finds a riotous array of some 700 varieties of daylilies. Then it’s on to another garden, this time with tour guides Andrew and Sue Osyany in Mono, who describe the pleasures – and challenges – of his and her gardening.

However, lest lingering in the garden is not your thing, you can skip right on to the river – the Credit River, that is. Jeff Rollings was on hand to welcome 44,000 salmon to the Credit last year. After a very long absence, it was a momentous return for these monarchs of the waterway. And the new arrivals have plenty of company. Don Scallen introduces us to several other denizens of the watershed, less familiar to most of us than the iconic salmon, but equally intriguing.

The health of the Credit River’s fish population is a welcome note of optimism in these dark environmental times. That theme is reinforced in Caledon’s ambitious community mapping project, described by Kevin Black. Reflecting the extensive input from the town’s citizenry, the map puts special emphasis on Caledon’s remarkable water resources.

In this issue, we also venture into the complex world of health care, just the way we are all supposed to, through the portal of our family doctor. Tony Maxwell examines the changes taking place in our primary relationship with our doctor and offers a prognosis as to whether those changes will cure our ailing health-care system. Then he gets a second opinion. And Michele Green reviews the energetic activities of the volunteer committee that is working hard to attract new doctors to the region.

As for the rest of this busy issue, we’ll leave it for you to discover.