Glebe Report

Last month, The Ottawa Hospital released revised plans for its new Civic campus. Gone are the circular, doughnut-shaped design and bulking block diagrams. They have been replaced by a central building flanked by two wings, one seven storeys and the other 11, with the main entrance on Carling Avenue.

Just three years after retiring from the barber shop that still bears his name, Ernesto Falbo passed away in May at the age of 78 after a battle with cancer.

Along the canal and other local waterways, especially in ponds and inlets where the water is shallower, we are often treated to a close-up view of the Great Blue Heron. It doesn’t matter how often I’ve seen it, I don’t seem to be able to resist pausing and appreciating this majestic bird living among us urbanites.

The Glebe Community Association’s Anti-Idling Committee launched a poster design competition in the April issue of the Glebe Report. Here are some of the wonderful submissions. School winners are Rapha at Mutchmor and Catharine at Corpus Christi.

When teacher Lesley Kathnelson saw an item in the Capital Ward News about a Glebe Community Association (GCA) poster design competition aimed at dis- couraging vehicle idling, she was keen to share the news with her two Grade 2 classes at Hopewell Avenue Public School.

During our COVID confinement we’ve all been staring at our excess “stuff, ” wondering how that happened. In this occasional series, Martha Tobin answers some of your organization and decluttering questions. This month, she tackles basements.

Spinning off the successful Canadian Eats campaign that has featured inspired local dishes since 2017, food lovers this year will be able sink their teeth into something new – Glebe Eats! The event will celebrate signature dishes and fan favourites that our neighbourhood restaurants are known for.

What are pronouns? This (usually) gendered part of speech tells you how to refer to somebody or something. Some pronouns are more common, like she/her, he/him and they/them, and other pronouns, or neopronouns, are less common. They are an alternative for those who want a non-gendered pronoun other than they/them.

What exactly is fast fashion and what makes it so harmful? If a brand sells cheap, trendy clothes made from poor-quality material and has thousands of styles that it’s always restocking, it’s probably fast fashion. The problem with fast fashion is that it encourages consumers to buy and buy and buy.

It’s a glorious July day. I’m in my late 20s and high on life as I drive my sleek Valiant convertible through the Laurentian countryside that I love. Three nephews aged six, seven and eight are enjoying the ride from their belted-down positions in the back seat.

Clergy wear a lot of hats. We are preachers and teachers, we preside over beautiful liturgies, we are community organizers, we are friends in Christ who visit folks in our community and through the sacraments, we become living symbols of the church. Depending on which hat I wear, COVID-19 poses both difficulties and opportunities in this unprecedented time.

It has now been six months since I accepted the call to serve as minister of St Giles Presbyterian Church. Given the longevity of the congregation and many of its members, I am still very much a new kid on the block.

After a long month of planning and preparing for an exciting year ahead, the Trinity Anglican Church’s Reaching Seniors in Old Ottawa South leadership team is thrilled to announce that Seniors in Conversation is back starting June 1.

Abbotsford House has started a special Seniors Tablet Project (a tablet being a computer that is smaller than a laptop but bigger than a phone) to make it easier for seniors to connect with family, the community and each other.

There is an old proverb: “If you would be happy for an hour, brew a cup of tea. If you would be happy for a day, prepare a feast. If you would be happy forever, plant a garden.” That is just what some Glebe residents are doing at the nearby Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club (OTLBC).

Some of my friends from Toronto think any mention of gardening at a cottage is nuts. Maybe you do too. Nevertheless, with the wonderful colours and flavours, it is tempting for me. Geraniums can stand a bit of drying out and provide delightful splashes of colour by the cottage – pale pink, peach, coral, red, fuchsia, white – until the deer come calling to munch the blossoms.

The GNAG Summer Camp team is very excited for a great season with your kids, full of fun, friendships and adventures. After a tough school year, this summer’s camp theme is “Dare to Dream with GNAG.”

As I write this on the Victoria Day long weekend, it seems most days that summer has arrived. More bikes are out and about. There are lots of people and dogs on the Queen Elizabeth Driveway and paths along the canal. The dock is in at Patterson Creek and being well used. The days are long and warm.

June is the month when we finally get to relax and enjoy our garden – the deck is scrubbed, patio furniture is set up with two-metre spacing in anticipation of when we can have a distanced get-together with family or friends and the stock of snacks is overflowing the kitchen cupboards.

A group of 60-plus Glebe Friends Forever (GFF) who received their first COVID-19 vaccination in early spring celebrated the event with a Zoom jamboree, complete with bubbly in flutes and special mini cakes in hand.

I love sandwiches, everything from meatball subs to peanut butter and jelly, but my true love is the deli sandwich. I want to share a little hack that has elevated my sandwiches: tapenade.

Plague and political correctness permitting, there’s little finer on a bright Saturday morning than drifting through a flea-market stall of books from yesteryear. In that, I admit a genetic quirk: a shameless affinity for the raw beauty and pristine scape of our magnificent country just prior to the First World War, as passionately and graphically depicted in unique volumes penned by a band of Canadian and American authors my mother teased as muscular Christians: the dedicated woodsmen, trail riders, climbers, fishermen, loggers and sifters of the forest gloam.

A sure sign of summer is the arrival of the TD Summer Reading Club, and the Ottawa Public Library’s online celebration of summer, Summerland, is back this year. Every summer across Canada, more than 2,000 public libraries encourage children to keep reading and participate in the TD Summer Reading Club, a free bilingual program.

“Transitions are hard mummy,” said my youngest. “Maybe you need to get used to noise.” As we collectively approach a moment of transition, with its attendant joys and anxieties, I highlight two children’s picture books that focus on the possibilities of movement and change.

Ethereal, haunting, earthy, gut-punching – if I had a poet’s mastery of language, I’d be reaching for words like these to describe a new collection by Old Ottawa South’s Susan J. Atkinson. Atkinson is a poet and Grade 1 teacher at Charles H. Hulse Public School. The Marta Poems is her debut poetry collection.

This month, the Glebe Report brings you a plethora of films to while away what remains of the pandemic. Lois Siegel reviews the 1979 classic Meatballs; Kate Roberts reviews a quirky Korean film, Space Sweepers; Barbara Popel introduces us to Chloé Zhao’s second film The Rider, just before her Oscar winner Nomadland; Angus Luff reviews the 2014 film Whiplash that is still relevant today; Xavier Saikaley reviews the 1994 Tim Burton film Ed Wood, starring Johnny Depp; and Iva Apostolova introduces us to the UK film The Woman in the Window reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock.

Do you know a youth with an interest in theatre? In August, Odyssey Theatre will host 15 youths for a memorable online theatre experience. Apprentices will spend the entire month being mentored by professional theatre artists on theatre roles and techniques.

As English speakers, the question “can we use the informal ‘you’?” seems irrelevant. But its answer is critical for speakers of languages that distinguish between the formal and informal “you,” such as French, Spanish and German.

City Hall is busy wrapping up a few files before council breaks for a few weeks over July and August. Here are updates on ward improvements, the Porsche dealership in Vanier, traffic calming in the Glebe, and the West Coast Video building.

Every morning when I walked into work in the rest week of May, I thought of a personal support worker coming off a night shift at a long-term care (LTC) home. Why? Because the report from Ontario’s Long-Term Care Commission had just dropped.

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly impacted nearly every single facet of our lives in Ottawa and around the world. But work continues to move forward on major projects that will transform this city for generations. I wanted to provide a brief update on a few of our largest infrastructure projects and on projects aimed at greening the city.

At Good Morning Creative Arts and Preschool (GMCAPs), we are celebrating 40 years of providing an arts-based, early-childhood program and summer camps for families in the Glebe and surrounding communities.