 By Margaret Lindsay Holton
BURLINGTON, ON November 12, 2012 There is something very grounding about crafting clay into ceramics. Shaped by human hands for over 14,000 years, clay is one of the oldest naturally-occurring building materials we have to create, like stone or wood. When mixed with water, clay develops a plasticity that hardens in shape when dry. When fired in a kiln, permanent physical and chemical changes occur to create a ‘ceramic’. Different types of clay, when used with different minerals and firing conditions, create different types of ceramics such as stoneware, earthenware, or porcelain.
 Attendance during the first hour of a pottery show in Dundas, Ontario – the bi-annual Potters Guild of Hamilton and Region. MLH photo. As humans, we have long distinguished ourselves by preferring to eat our food from a decorative dish, plate, bowl, mug or tea cup. It defines us culturally and, more often then not, socially. As most know, not all soup bowls are created equal …
 Film adaptations of Charles Dickens’ famed Oliver Twist clay crock contrasted with high-end 19th century Sevres and Meissen porcelain from Europe. Photos by MLH During the 1800s, much of the world’s finest porcelain tableware came from Germany, France and England. Companies such as Meissen and Rosenthal in Germany, and Havilland and Sevres in France, became world famous for beautiful ornate designs, while the Staffordshire region of England produced such legendary companies as Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Spode and Minton. The great porcelain manufacturers of the era marked their products with the company’s name, initials or trademark symbols. Today, individual potters from the Potter’s Guild of Hamilton and Region continue this time-honored tradition. Look for their marks or signatures on the bottom of their wares.
 Signature or mark of maker on the bottom of clay bowls. Photo credit MLH North American pottery, first developed by the indigenous coastal people, occurred around 3000 BC. Pots, or vessels, were made using the ‘coil’ method. Strands of clay were coiled one on top of each other then smoothed over to create a seamless bowl shape. Designs were imprinted into the clay using sticks, shells or twisted cording. To date, no evidence has been found of a ‘thrown’ bowl in pre-contact native North American cultures. It seems they never used – or developed – a potter’s wheel.
 Potter’s wheel – Photo courtesy Potter’s Guild of Hamilton. The mostly highly priced base clay for all ceramics is ‘kaolin’. A large deposit exists in the Moose River basin in Northeastern Ontario, but we, as a people, have never mined it. Instead, we, in Ontario, import most of our clay, for decorative and utilitarian purposes, from the States, or Alberta. Interestingly, a unique shale-derived clay well-suited for ceramic production was once found in abundance in both Hamilton and Burlington, but it has long since been depleted, lost to rapid urbanization. Somewhat ironically, potters and ceramicists in the region are now forced to use imported clay mixtures to make ‘local’ pots.
 Burlingtonian potters Barbara Taylor & Kia Eichenbaum show their wares in Dundas. Photos by MLH Over the past weekend, the Potter’s Guild of Hamilton & Region held their unequivocally fantastic bi-annual three day Sale featuring over 100 local potters, (including Burlingtonians Barbara Taylor and Kia Eichenbaum and recently transplanted Dale Marks , at the Lions Memorial Community Centre on Market Street in Dundas, Ontario. An extra-ordinary diversity of shapes, covered in a variety of slips, mottled glazes and highlighted with colourful and pleasing configurations satisfied the aesthetic palettes of all enthusiasts. I have gone to this event for over four years now, and every year I am super impressed by the abundance of product. I highly recommend this sale as a ‘regional sojourn’. Mark your calendars for next years Spring Sale.
A little closer to home, it is well known that the Burlington Art Centre boasts “the largest collection of contemporary Canadian ceramics in the world”. Their collection contains more then 1800 artworks, with over 400 Canadian artists represented. Unlike the utilitarian (and beautifully crafted) eating earthen and stoneware featured at the Dundas show, the BAC collection explores the more abstract artistic possibilities of clay. Illustrative examples from their decades-old Fire & Ice Exhibition can still be seen on the Virtual Museum of Canada website:
The Burlington Art Centre holds its annual Soup Bowl Event, in the Rotary Shoreline Room at 1333 Lakeshore Blvd, Burlington, from November 15th to November 18th. Reserve your seat early for this very popular event. (BAC members pay $35, non-members pay $45). Enjoy a hearty soup and salad, and then take home your locally-crafted soup bowl – made from a mixture of clays from elsewhere.
Margaret Lindsay Holton is both an environmentalist and a community activist. She is an artist of some renown and the designer of a typeface. She is also a photographer and the holder of opinions, which are her own, that she will share with you in an instant. She appears as an Our Burlington columnist every two weeks. All photographs are by MLH unless otherwise indicated.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON October 17, 2012 One of the fun things you can do in November is take in the Art in Action Studio Tour.
You get to drive around the city, spend time in ten different locations looking at all kinds of art from some very, very nice wood turning, to iron work, or stained glass if that works for you.
 Thirty six artists – ten locations – you will see much that you like and some you may want to buy. The event is put on by Art in Action – an artist’s collective that puts on the event each year on a Saturday and a Sunday – this year it will take place November 3rd and 4th – from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
You get to meet the artists and talk about the work they do – which ranges all over the map. Sort of like going to ten different art galleries.
There are ten studio stops where 36 artists will have their work set out.
 Paintings, jewellery, glassware, weaving – this city has a rich artistic community that you can experience in a single day. You might even get to know many of them personally. We did this tour last year for the first time – it went so well that we invited friends to join us this year.
What will you see? Well there is a brochure but it’s more fun just to dive from location to location and be surprised when you walk in the door.
Don’t be shy about walking into someone’s home. They want you to come in. As you make the rounds you will find that you bump into people you saw earlier in the day and you get to exchange ideas and comment on what you saw.
Last year we watched Don Graves sell a piece of art to a young woman who had not bought art before. She didn’t really see herself as an art collector but the paining appealed to he and the price was right – so she bought it.
At another location there was an almost party atmosphere. I swear that if we had had a bottle of wine in the trunk of the car the party would have begun right then. I’ve learned that the same group will be opening up their home again this year – and we will put a bottle of wine in the trunk of the car – you never know. Where did this happen last year? That would be telling but it was in the western part of the city – in a valley.
 All 10 locations can be done in a day. You’ll see parts of the city you’ve not seen before as well. How do you buy art? There is usually a price sticker on the piece but you’re not in a supermarket, this isn’t a commodity you’re buying. The object you buy is something the artist has spent many hours on and they put a lot of themselves into the piece you’re looking at.
What if you think you like it – but you’re not sure. Many of the artists will rent a piece of their work. Each artist will have their own approach to rentals – but if you’re interested in a rental – talk to them. What if the piece is more than you want to spend at that moment – but you really like the piece? Many artists are quite happy to take a couple of postdated cheques from you. They can’t be dated too far into the future – the artist would like to be alive when they are deposited.
Artists are people you can work with – they want good homes for their art and they want to sell what they make to people they like. So – if you’re not an art buyer – but you think you’d like to be an art buyer – pick either the Saturday or the Sunday and drive around. You’ll enjoy yourself.
Meet some really interesting artists as well as Burlingtonians who will be doing what you’re doing – looking around.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON June 19, 2012 – It was supposed to be a response to a Staff Direction about changing the rules that applied to signs on Plains Road which was something Councillor Rick Craven had been wanting to get done for some time.
The Staff Direction asked that: Director of Planning “review the current sign bylaws as it relates to portable signs in the Plains Road Corridor. B) Look at the feasibility and appropriateness of reducing the permitted size of portable signs in the Plains Road Corridor to that of those permitted in the downtown. C) Provide for public consultation and D) Report back to Committee 4Q 2011.
Somehow it went badly off track, ruined Tracy Burrows’ day and had Councillor Taylor tied up in knots. It was only when Planning Director Bruce Krushelnicki stepped in and explained what was taking place that Council agreed to the staff recommendation on Plains Road that would allow mobile signs that related to the property they were to be in front of.
 Is this a legal sign? And does that dog not see the fire hydrant? Krushelnicki explained that the sign bylaw had not been reviewed in more than 20 years and that when a review is done staff bring forward all their thinking for a council committee to review.
Craven’s issue is that Plains Road has changed and is no longer a highway but now a mixed use corridor and the sign bylaw no longer applies. Craven wanted the sign bylaw to reflect the new reality.
If the retail location is set back some distance from the street a large sign would be permitted. If the retail location was closer to the street a smaller sign would be required.
Was the confusion the result of bureaucracy run amuck or staff extending their reach and putting additional options on the table for Council to consider. Taylor didn’t see it as the latter and Craven just wanted to get the Plains Road problem fixed.
Craven wanted large signs where the retail outlet or business was some distance from the road and smaller signs for businesses that were close to the road. Craven has an image vision for his part of the city that has been developed through close collaboration with retailers and the Plains Road Village Vision crowd. Give him that and he was satisfied. In the end he got what he wanted and the rest of the report went back to staff for a rewrite.
 Sign at Guelph Line north of new street. Are their days numbered? There are signage concerns for Upper Middle Road, Harvester Road and added Councillor Sharman, “there are going to be problems along Appleby Line as well”.
The report from city staff had a lot of add-ons – sort of like a retailer adding value to the purchase just made with a free coupon.
 Are these signs about to become a revenue source for the city? Banners were going to be allowed and election signs were going to be given a closer look. And, if there are real estate agents amongst our thousands of readers, and we know you’re out there, get ready for this one. Staff was wondering if there was not an opportunity to enhance revenue by licensing real estate signs. That one should go over with a thud at every real estate office in this city.
 Is the city considering fees for election signs during the next municipal election? The thinking with the election signs was that any candidate running for office would give the city a deposit of $200 and get the money back if there were no infractions. Councillor Taylor came close to levitating when that one got to his ears. “It costs a candidate just $100 to file nomination papers and you want $200 so they can put up signs.”
How are you going to enforce this bylaw? How will you know that I put up the sign? Are you going to take my fingerprints?
 With 15 bylaws to be enforced and a staff of five Tracy Burrows, Manager Bylaw enforcement gave a council committee report they sent back for more work and a "cleanup". John Taylor was clearly on a roll here and Tracy Burrow, the city’s bylaw enforcement officer was having a tough time rolling with those punches. When she mentioned that each infraction would cost, say $80, Taylor reached for the juice he was drinking.
The fee for banners would be the same $46 that applies to portable signs now.
This staff report was going nowhere fast. Councillor Dennison was prepared to support the two changes that would apply to Aldershot and Plains Road but wanted “a better report with some clean up” done to it. When it came to voting on the recommendations Dennison did not vote for the revised recommendation.
The city’s sign bylaw had not been revised for more than 20 years and in that time the kind of signs available to retailers has increased dramatically. They now light up at night and can have visual images that are fed into the sign electronically.
The city has five bylaw enforcement officers with one dedicated to Aldershot.
The specifics on the sign sizes will be finalized at a city council meeting and we will publish those then.
The report is due to go to Council July 3rd – expect a significantly different document then.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON May 13, 2012 They could have and perhaps should have held the event in Burlington but instead they are holding it in Hamilton. While we are a Burlington publication, the event: Great Lakes Need Great Friends; Protecting The Great Lakes Forever, being held May 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hamilton First Unitarian Church, 170 Dundurn St. South, is important enough to get mentioned here.
 That is not a healthy cloud - more like a marker telling you where Randall Reef is located - the second worst toxic site in the country. Given that Hamilton has done as much as anyone else to come close to killing the lake and is home to the second worst toxic site in on our side of the Great Lakes perhaps the event is being held there to shame the city. The plan to cap Randall Reef are kind of on hold – they’re still figuring out who is going to pay for the concrete cap that has to be put over the sludge that has accumulated from years of exploiting the natural water in the lake with waste from the steel mills and the coke ovens that once supplied the gas to light the street lamps in that city.
Maude Barlow, The Council of Canadians along with Mark Mattson, Lake Ontario Waterkeepers and Linda Lukasik, Executive Director of Environment Hamilton will talk about just how bad the situation is and what has to be done to begin cleaning up Lake Ontario.
Getting a good start at the Hamilton end is an admirable first step but given the rate at which the federal government is killing the whole environmental review process – don’t expect to see all that much done by the federal government. For them it is all about jobs – most of which might well be at hospices where the cancer patients can end their days after years of being exposed to toxic waste.
 Randall Reef - The second worst environmental waste deposit in the country is pretty close to home isn't it The Hamilton event is part of an eight Canadian city tour, with allied groups, several U.S. cities the “Great Lakes Needs Great Friends” Tour hopes to foster connections along the Great Lakes by making the links between current fights against threats such as “fracking”, bottled water withdrawals, invasive species, and nuclear waste storage and shipments.
Another objective is to cultivate a Great Lakes stewardship by encouraging people to recognize they not only have a right, but a responsibility to protect the Great Lakes’ waters. Ideally this will invite community involvement and encourage inspiring actions that will help shift the current market economy priorities that govern the Great Lakes to priorities based on commons and public trust principles.
Maud Barlow, who is a delight to listen to, will tell anyone with a minute of time, that “protecting the future of the Great Lakes is in all of our hands. When communities come together with passion and purpose, they can change political priorities and shape a better future for our shared water.”
Sometime this week you will get to the lakefront – pause and ask yourself what you can do to improve what we have. Next time you see Mike Wallace, the person Burlington sends to Ottawa, ask him what he is doing to help; listen carefully and ask him tough questions. His first position is to usually try and snow people.
By Joanna Bull
 MT. NEMO, BURLINGTON, ON., May 29, 2011 – It is around ten o’clock Sunday morning when we pull off the highway in Burlington and head north. The Niagara Escarpment looms ahead of us on Guelph Line, an angular brow reaching up to a blue sky. By the time we turn up the Harmers’ tree-lined drive, Allie Kosela and I know we aren’t in the city anymore.
 Already in her rain boots and coat, Isabelle Harmer welcomes us with instructions to gear up. Boots on, binoculars ready, and cameras charged, we follow Isabelle past the barn and along the path to the back fields.
Young seedlings the Harmers planted last year along a small creek are marked with orange tape. In a few years, they will look like the tall trees that border the far end of the field, planted when Isabelle and Al first bought this property 41 years ago. The tiny creek they stand watch over is part of the Mount Nemo Tributary of Grindstone Creek, which flows down the escarpment to feed Lake Ontario at Hamilton Harbour.
With a piece of hay already in her mouth, Allie points out raspberry bushes, apple trees, and small brown toads along the path. Isabelle tells us her grandkids love to visit the farm, pointing out the remnants of a tree fort under an old pine. When we reach the end of the mown path, we keep going, walking now through knee-high hay. The threatened bobolinks are calling from the middle of the field; the Harmers postpone harvesting the hay each year to maintain cover while the birds lay their eggs.
As we hike through the hay, our boots begin to earn their keep. This part of the farm is muddy in spots where groundwater comes to the surface. The sun is warm, so it is a relief to step into the woods when we reach the end of the fields. We’re in a moist, cool place, with a ceiling of leaves and a floor of healthy green plants. Isabelle points out the Jack-in-the-pulpits growing low to the ground, lifting their folded leaves to reveal a hiding “Jack”. She brings us to the edge of one of the wetlands on the property, where filtered sunlight is reflected on water like green glass. The threatened Jefferson salamander lives in these ponds, but it is too late in the season to see them crawling into the water now.
We emerge from the cover of trees into a narrow tract, marked by tire ruts, that signifies the division between the Harmers’ farm and the property owned by Nelson Aggregate Company. Nelson hopes to quarry this part of their land when their existing quarry, to the north of where we stand with Isabelle, runs out of rock. Densely planted pine trees block any peek we might have had of the property, part of the regionally significant woodlands standing in the way of Nelson’s quarrying hopes.
Along the property line, Isabelle points out metal pumps, now padlocked. She tells us how Nelson used to pump water from the quarry onto their land, often overwhelming the wetlands. The Harmers had to ask their neighbour to stop the pumping, forcing Nelson to find somewhere else to deposit the groundwater they pump off their land.
 Allie Kosela and Isabelle Harmer touring the wetlands and fields in the Harmer farm that is next door to land the quarry wants to open up for quarrying for the next 20 years. We walk west along the ruts until Isabelle pulls us back into the woods to show us the sinkhole on her land. Sometimes filled with water, the sinkhole shows that the ground below us is limestone or dolomite, soluble calcium-based rock prone to dissolving in water. Isabelle tells us about the time she moved a large rock at the bottom of the sinkhole and saw two wide salamander eyes peering up from the soil. She quickly put the rocks back, leaving the salamanders to their cool home.
From the sinkhole, it isn’t far to the largest expanse of wetlands on the Harmers’ farm. This is a particularly wet year and the wetlands weave beautifully through the trees. Part of a provincial significant wetland complex, the Harmers and their fellow members of Protecting Escarpment Rural Land [PERL] worked hard to have these wetlands properly evaluated and classified by certified experts a few years ago. Because they are fed by both ground and surface water, they are vulnerable to drawdown, or “under-draining” (draining from below) if dewatering for a new quarry happens next door.
It is clear that water is an asset on the Harmer farm. Wetlands and sinkholes are respected, left for the frogs, salamanders, and exploring humans to enjoy. The connection of the creeks to waters downstream is evident throughout the property.
In striking contrast, water on the adjacent Nelson land is a big problem. After our hike through the fields and woods with Isabelle Harmer, Allie and I board a yellow school bus to tour the quarry. The dryness of the land is overwhelming. After wandering through the lush Harmer farm with our feet in mud puddles all morning, the dusty quarry property seems just about barren.
Water is a problem for Nelson because they excavate rock below the water table. Groundwater from the surrounding area empties into the quarry, posing a threat to local wells and the stability of the ground. To keep the area dry for their machines and staff, Nelson pumps that water out of the quarry all day, every day. This year has been so wet that they can’t pump it out fast enough; huge piles of aggregate will sit in ponded water until August.
Water is also a key issue at the Joint Board hearing into Nelson’s proposed quarry expansion. Nelson has applied to extend their quarry by more than 80 hectares onto the land between the existing quarry and the Harmers’ farm. The hearing began last November and is scheduled to continue until at least December of this year. The long list of planning and aggregate extraction approvals Nelson requires to dig a new quarry triggered this hearing – a joint process of the Ontario Municipal Board and the Environmental Review Tribunal.
The hearing has just passed a pivotal point: Nelson’s lawyers have finished presenting the case for a new quarry and it is now time to hear from those opposed to the proposal, including the City of Burlington, Region of Halton, Niagara Escarpment Commission, Conservation Halton, and PERL. Between our hike on the farm and our bus tour of the quarry, Allie and I dropped by the home of another active PERL member: Roger Goulet.
Roger’s house is around the corner from the Harmers’, just to the west of the quarry. His huge back windows look out at a sea of leafy trees sloping to the Medad Valley. Roger tells us over tea that he is optimistic at this stage of the hearing, and a lot of that optimism has to do with water.
Nelson’s witnesses told the Board that the new quarry won’t affect surrounding groundwater or nearby wetlands because the area sits in a huge clay bowl. The bowl layer is impermeable, so even if the quarry drains the area, no one outside Nelson’s property will be affected. Roger tells us why the hydrogeology experts testifying for the City, Region, and PERL disagree.
Instead of an impervious bowl, the hydro geologists tell the Board about undulating rock topography – more like the surface of an ancient lake than a salad bowl. The wavy rock is all connected and full of cracks and fractures, so draining groundwater from one area can affect water at the surface and in the other pockets. Each little pond, sinkhole, or wetland is connected to, and supplied in part by, groundwater. Ultimately, these are what feed and replenish Lake Ontario. This is truly source water: starting as a home for frogs, fish, and salamanders, this water becomes our drinking water, where we swim and fish, canoe and sail.
 It is wetlands like these that the PERL people are trying to save as they oppose the granting of an additional license for quarrying to Nelson Aggregates. PERL is putting everything they have, from energy to money to heart, into this Joint Board hearing, but they haven’t lost sight of why they are doing it. For the people who live on the Mount Nemo Plateau, and all who seek refuge in the beauty of its conservation areas, on its public trails, or atop its lofty cliffs, this hearing is part of a larger vision of the plateau. Roger reminds us that his house, the quarry, and the Harmers’ farm are all within a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve: the Niagara Escarpment. Working to protect the land from more quarrying, PERL discovered the wetlands, woodlands, and threatened species now central to the hearing. They also discovered how much they have to protect.
Going into the second half of these hearings, PERL is optimistic. They have built a strong case and founded it on science, with expert evidence in hydrogeology, ecology, and planning. The going has definitely not been easy – more like a hike up the escarpment face than its gently sloping back – but we can see why they keep at it. It only takes a short walk to the back of the Harmers’ farm in rain boots to understand.
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