Purple Grove news

Congratulations to all those athletes who are finishing up the season and especially Huron Bruce Blizzard U11 rep team coming home with the WOAA Championship and to the U18 OMHA Tier 2 Champions hockey team too! Glad to hear the celebrations included the fire truck tours in Lucknow
and Ripley!

Another season for the Ripley-Huron Skating Club finished up Thursday evening with the arena stands full as the skaters presented their achievement day, "From Harvest to Bloom." It was a treat to have guest skater, Aurora Playfair, and Brooke Thomas, bronze medallist at the Special Olympics World Winter Games, perform their solo routines!

We missed a few special birthdays! Happy Belated 50th Birthday to Julie Davey! Jake Lotton, Evan Taylor, Nora Farrell, Ella Ackert, Todd Thompson, Kay Logtenberg, Heather Finnie and Marilyn Johnston celebrated their birthdays the last week of March, and then Chris Davey was an April 1 birthday.

Happy Birthday to Wendy Smith, April 6, and Happy Wedding Anniversary to Rick and Susan Ryman on April 2!

Fran Farrell and Diane Clifford toured to Goderich last week and had lunch and a visit with Lillian Logtenberg. It was a good day for catching up. March certainly has been an unpredictable month for weather! Just when we thought that March had come in like a lion, it seemed to dish out another round on its way out. We're fortunate to have missed the majority of that freezing rain and we certainly have our eastern and northern Ontario family and friends in our thoughts and prayers that the hydro gets back on soon. Thank you to all those hydro and emergency response staff who look after us in these tough times!

The Purple Grove Women's Institute annual meeting was cancelled Wednesday, April 2, and re-scheduled to April 17 at 7 p.m. at the home of Dianne Simpson.

Looking forward to the Maple Syrup Festivals coming up soon - Belmore's is April 10-12, Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority hosted its festival March 28-29, and Holstein Maplefest is April 12-13.

The Farrell family was glad to have Chris Farrell and boys, Tyson and Cooper, visiting for their spring break last week.

Sheena Houghton was up visiting Doug MacDonald and family last week too.

Great to see all the spring flowers coming on - snowdrops, crocuses, and daffodils! Nice to see the water get away and some of us got to observe Tundra Swans visiting in the area.

Congratulations to the Roots of Bruce committee, celebration 30 years of operation! Roots of Bruce was held in Walkerton, April 3-4, and 600 students from Bruce and Grey counties attended the event. All our commodity groups were represented - dairy, beef, sheep, pig, chicken, eggs, soil and crop, Grey-Bruce stewardship, Grey-Bruce veterinary, alpacas, horses, farm safety, and so much more!

The open house, Thursday evening, was well-attended also, a great chance to see what our county produces and promotes. Thank you to the more than 300 volunteers and organizations that help over those two2 days. If you would like to find out more about Roots of Bruce, visit www.rootsofbruce.com.

Congratulations to the Kinetic Knights Robotics Team on receiving the Rising All-Star Award at the FIRST Canada Ontario Championships in Mississauga on the weekend! The team has qualified to go to the FIRST World Championships in Houston, Texas, April 16-19. Thank you to all the mentors who work with this remarkable group of young people!