Signe Ball

As the dark days of winter close in, we take the opportunity to celebrate a few of those ‘ordinary’ people who shine brightly in our own community.

Cannabis is once again a topic of avid discussion – where can you get it, what’s the best cultivar, is it worth growing your own?

Do real adults prefer beer over health care?

In “Game Changers” in this issue, Johanna Bernhardt reviews the complexities of the care system and has an extended visit with one group of local families who created a homegrown solution to one perennial anxiety.

The mission of the museum, theatre and magazine is to tell and preserve our community’s stories – our history, our drama and our daily lives.

Behind the pages: Many of our contributors are otherwise actively engaged in the life of community.

I’m also genuinely impressed by all the good environmental work done by the likes of Dufferin Northern Peel Anglers and Hunters Association and Ducks Unlimited.

Every column and feature in the magazine passes through this filter: What does it tell us about the place we call home and the people who live here?

We’re lucky to have some exceptional writers contributing their talents to In The Hills, and this year four of them have published books.

I recently asked my 12-year-old granddaughter what makes her most pessimistic about the future.

Among Canada’s troops at Vimy was a young poet named Christopher George Cook.

Gardening has always been one of my greatest pleasures, but my efforts were, and remain, of the “weekend gardener” variety.

Russna Kaur’s works can be found in private and corporate collections.

The Syrian refugee children who have settled in Headwaters give us reason to be optimistic for 2017 and beyond.

A stained glass artist for 26 years, Yvonne De Viller has ranked among top-selling artists in both the Autumn Art Sale held at the McMichael art gallery in Kleinburg and the Buckhorn Fine Art Festival.

Betty Ward of Orangeville knows the responsibility of generational memory. Her father Charles Thomas, who survived the First World War, had kept a regular diary during his service.

Water springs up all around us in the streams and rivers and marshes and pools of the four major watersheds that sculpt our landscape and feed three Great Lakes.

Shelburne artist Darlene Hassall is well known for her abstract art and portraits.