Nobleton Notes
By Angie Maccarone (905) 859-5174
Nobleton Skating Club getting ready for its 50th year in community

Fall Registration for the

Nobleton Skating Club

The Nobleton Skating Club turns 50 in 2008.

We are committed to offering the community many of the same great programs as years past, and new ones as well.

Registration for our fall and winter programs begins Sept. 8 and runs through to Sept. 29 at the arena. We will be taking registrations Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 to 7 p.m., Fridays from 4 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9-noon. Cash, cheque, VISA and Mastercard will be accepted.

STARSkate programs (junior, intermediate and senior) begin Sept. 17; Canskate and pre-power begins Oct. 10. Please check out our improved Web site, which can be found at www.nobletonskatingclub.c om for more details regarding the fall and winter schedule.

As well, this is an Ice Show year. As part of our golden anniversary celebration, the club will present A Skate Down Memory Lane April 5 and 6. The show will be a tribute to Nobleton's history, and a celebration of our 50 years of skating excellence. We are requesting that former skaters with the club contact us at (905) 859-4943 to be a part of the celebration.

For more information on any of our programs, please call (905) 859-4943 or visit our Web site.

Nobleton seniors

The Nobleton Seniors fall activities will begin Sept. 4 with a meeting and euchre at 1:30 in the Drop-in Centre. The next week, Sept. 11, there will be an evening euchre at 7:30 p.m. also in the Drop-in Centre.

Our club needs more participants to function property. If we do not get more support, we may be forced to cease operating.

If you want more information, contact Herb at (905) 859-4636.

St. Alban's yard sale

The annual yard sale at St. Alban's Anglican Church is scheduled for Sept. 8.

Organizers are looking for donations of at can be sold at the sale. Good new or used items in working condition are needed (not clothing or computer equipment). They can be dropped off at the church, at 13162 Highway 27 Sept. 5, between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m., or you can call (905) 939- 2314 to make other arrangements.

Horticulture

Here are three perennials not often found in local gardens, yet all of them are relatively easy to grow. Give them some tender loving care until they get established and they will prove easy to look after as they are heat, humidity and drought tolerant.

Gauras, tritomas and yellow asphodels grow about three to four feet high and two feet wide. They like full sun and poor to average soil. I grow all three in my Tottenham area garden in sandy soil, but I've dug in a few shovelfuls of composted cattle manure in their growing area. Once the ground is frozen I mulch them with leaves (not maple leaves) or straw.

Gaura (gaw--ruh), a member of the onagraceae/primrose family, is a wildflower native to Texas and Louisiana. The garden variety, white gaura (gaura lindheimeri) once established, grows happily in full sun. White, tinged with pink, butterfly like flowers dance along the wand stems that rise from a mound of reddish green leaves. Gaura has its flowers from mid spring well into fall, making it one of the longest blooming perennials. It is wise to mark where you have planted it as it's very to slow to start growing in the spring.

Passionate Rainbow, Siskiyou both showing more pink and Whirling Butterflies are newer cultivars of gaura lindheimeri

Tritoma (torch lily, red hot poker kniphofia--named for German botanist Kniphof), a member of the lily family, is native to southern Africa. Each of its thick stiff stems is capped with a long cone of tightly packed tubular florets that go from cream to yellow to orange to scarlet as they ascend the stalk. These garden show stoppers strut their stuff in mid summer with some varieties blooming into September.

Asphodelus lutea (yellow asphodel, asphodelene) graces the spring garden, mid May to mid June, with spires of soft lemon star shaped flowers. This columnar plant gets its name from the Greek word for lily as does daffodil and both of course are members of the extensive lily family.

The leaves of tritoma and asphodel resemble narrow daylily leaves.