Inspired by Quetico

Today’s post comes from one of Quetico Provincial Park’s 2017 Artists-in-Residence. Heather M. O’Connor is a freelance journalist and children’s author. She is currently working on a middle-grade novel and two picture books, inspired by her 2017 residency. 

I hear the first loon call the moment my foot touches the path.

It’s magical, the sound of the loon. One part greeting, one part grief. This GTA girl, far from home, is grateful for the welcome.

I hurry to the water’s edge, scanning the surface, but I’m too late. Its spell cast, the loon has vanished.

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Here’s to another 125 years

As our 125th anniversary year comes to a close, we would like to say a huge thank you for an amazing year.

Now etched into our history, here’s a few of the highlights from this exciting year.

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Billy’s bobbers

Thanks to Brad Steinberg, our Natural Heritage Education Coordinator, for today’s post, which includes instructions on how to make your own fishing bobber.

I never knew either of my grandfathers, both of them claimed by heart disease before I got to know them. I was, however, blessed with some great surrogates – family friends whose wisdom and support filled the space normally reserved for a grampa. Bill Bishop was one of them.

Bill possessed the wisdom and wit that seems unique to Newfoundlanders, often toasting a meal with a maritime saying that was mysterious in its slang and nearly impossible for an eight-year-old boy to decipher.

Bill and my family shared a deep love of Algonquin Provincial Park, especially the speckled trout that inhabit the murky depths of those cold, Canadian Shield lakes. And every spring, as the lake ice freckled and broke apart, he’d fish for those speckled trout using homemade bobbers made from old wine corks.

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Algonquin Artist in Residency program – call for submissions!

In partnership with the Algonquin Art Centre, Algonquin Provincial Park is excited to announce the launch of the 2018 Artist in Residency program.

This program allows artists working in various areas (visual, literary, media arts) to spend time in the heart of Algonquin’s beautiful wilderness — working on their projects, collaborating with park researchers, and participating in art outreach opportunities at the park Visitor Centre and the Algonquin Art Centre.

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Welcoming home the Wakami Wailers

As part of Ontario Parks’ 125th anniversary celebrations, we’re very excited to announce a concert tour featuring our very own Wakami Wailers!

The Wakami Wailers are long-time camper favourites, but many fans don’t realize the band first met when working at Wakami Lake Provincial Park in 1981.

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Ecosystems and music

Not sure exactly what “ecological integrity” means? Today’s post from Park Biologist Shannon McGaffey explains how ecological integrity is like music.

Synergy: the creation of a whole that is bigger than the sum of the individual parts

If you are listening to a symphony, you are not listening to two violins, one piano, three flutes, etc. You are listening to music, an art that breaches the realms of spirituality. Music naturally generates measurable energy, but also produces energy beyond that, an energy that humans can feel, but just can’t quite grasp and understand.

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Killarney is my muse

Today’s post was written by photographer Rob Stimpson, a long-time lover of Killarney Provincial Park’s wild spaces. All photographs below are copyright to robstimpson.com.

Killarney has been part of my life for years. It was one of the first canoe trips after moving from Montreal to Toronto in the late ’80s. The images I shot on those trips (long before becoming a professional photographer) may be amateurish in composition and lighting, but still hold strong memories of a place that I have returned to time and time again.
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