Lanark County Quotes

“Autumn in the country advances in a predictable path, taking its place among the unyielding rhythms of the passing seasons. It follows the summer harvest, ushering in cooler nights, and shorter days, enveloping all of Lanark County in a spectacular riot of colour. Brilliant hues of yellow, orange and red exclaim, in no uncertain terms, that these are the trees where maple syrup legends are born.”
― Arlene Stafford-Wilson

“The eldest ones said that the laughter and tears are sewn right into the quilt, part and parcel, stitch by stitch. Emotions, experiences, heartbreak, mourning, pain and regret, stitched into the cloth, along with happiness, satisfaction, cheer, comfort, and love. The finished quilts were a living thing, a reflection of the spirits of its creators.”
― Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Lanark County Connections - Memories Among the Maples

“Some things were done a certain way and they had been done that same way for ages. Most of the time it was a good thing, a reliable thing, and we grew up being able to count on life being very predictable and very dependable.”
― Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Lanark County Chronicle

“The plants and animals all around us were waking from a long sleep, and our yard was slowly transformed into a carpet of soft green, and the skies above our house were filled with choruses of birdsong once again.”
― Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Recipes and Recollections: Treats and Tales from Our Mother's Kitchen

“When autumn gusts blew in from the Rideau Lakes, parched brown leaves swirled and scattered around the sides of the neglected building, forming mounds like grave-markers, for ghosts of the past, who lingered on the dust-covered dance floor.”
― Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Lanark County Connections - Memories Among the Maples

“Long past the first official day of spring on the calendar, old man winter slowly loosened his icy grip on the Lanark County farmlands. We waited and watched for the tell-tale signs, hoping that the mercury in the old thermometer would being to move in the right direction. Even as the sap began to drip slowly from our beloved maple trees, the bitter winds blew relentlessly from the north.”
― Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Lanark County Calling: All Roads Lead Home

“We had some memorable times, on those long, hot summer nights, along the shores of the mighty Rideau; but we were by no means the first to do so.”
― Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Lanark County Chronicle

“It wasn't until I worked in the Perth Hospital kitchen in the 1970s that I began hearing stories about the ghosts that haunted their halls at night.”
― Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Lanark County Chronicle

“Looking around, from near the top of Foley Mountain, it was easy to imagine why the early settlers decided to make their home in Westport.”
― Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Lanark County Chronicle

“Some of these tales were about the ‘land beneath the waves’. This Irish fable tells of an enchanted world, under the water, and mortals may visit there at dusk, between the rising and the setting of the moon, when the water is still, and reflects like a mirror. They used to call it the ‘gates of glass’.”
― Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Lanark County Calling: All Roads Lead Home