Cyclone Lusi is broadening her target area with most of the North Island, and the top half of the South Island now in her sights.

The north will be hit first, but a flood-fatigued Christchurch could be in for another soaking, prompting the city council to prepare for the worst.

Those planning outdoor festival events are thinking again.

"A lot of our market and vendors run out of pop-up gazebos three metres by three metres, and in high winds they can become sails and frankly dangerous," said Silo Park Festival's Simon Van Prague.

At Vidal Estate in Hastings, pickers are working 24/7 to bring in a bumper chardonnay crop in case high winds strip the vines.

"The loss of the fruit would be catastrophic, significant at least, and the disease would spread and the quality of the wine would be affected," said Vidal Estate's Hugh Crichton.

So far the only high winds visible is an unrelated miniature tornado in the Waikato.

But as the Bay of Plenty enjoyed autumn, Civil Defence was getting ready and urging others to do the same.

Clinton Naude from Bay of Plenty Civil Defence says to clear drains, gutters, and to secure outdoor objects.

"We don't want the children's trampoline on the neighbour's roof."

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Kiwis preparing for Cyclone Lusi

photo by jerry dalia

The colorful Denville String Band performs in holiday parades around the area.

The Denville String Band, North Jerseys only Mummers-style marching band, is beginning its 63rd year of entertaining people in parades and concerts. The band plays and marches in the style of the Philadelphia Mummers bands with elaborate costumes and traditional popular music from the 1920s through the 1950s with a sprinkling of newer songs. It also performs concerts at indoor venues and summer-time gazebos all over North Jersey.

"Our next public performance will be at the Morristown St. Patricks Day parade on March 15," said Band President Bernie Dennison. "It is an honor to participate in this parade which is said to be one of the largest if not the largest St. Patricks Day parade in New Jersey."

Parade day will start with Mass at 10 a.m. at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 91 Maple Ave. in Morristown. The parade will begin at noon near the corner of South Street and James Street and proceed up South Street around the Morristown Green and Ends at Atno Avenue.

Pre-parade festivities will start at the Green at 10:30 a.m. with Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfe Tones, "The National Anthem," Irish step dancing and chalking of the Shamrocks by the Special Olympics.

According to Dennison, the Denville String Band has a full slate of concerts and parades scheduled for 2014 including many around Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving.

The band is very popular, we have more requests by concert and parade organizers then we can possibly handle," he said. "Unfortunately, we have to turn down many requests."

The band is actively seeking new members. According to Membership Chairman Andrew Bulfer, the band is particularly looking for new saxophone, clarinet, banjo, guitar, accordion and drummers. Other woodwind and string instrument players are also invited. There are non-musical positions available too, so other family members can participate.

According to Bulfer, marching with the band down the street in full colorful Mummers costumes with crowds cheering at the curb is a particular thrill for their members.

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Denville String Band to start 63rd year of Mummers style at St. Patricks parade

A northwestern Ontario First Nation community has been painstakingly assembling the wood building blocks for a community revival.

Forest products will be the economic cornerstone behind the development of Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek (BNA), an Ojibway community once displaced by the Ontario government in the 1950s.

Last August, the community held a land designation vote to ratify and proceed with a sawmill proposal.

It was a long time in the making, said Jordan Hatton, BNAs lands and resources manager. Its a positive step for the people that want to see the community move ahead.

Located on the southeastern shore of Lake Nipigon, the former Sand Point First Nation is a community thats still very much in the planning stages.

There is no current infrastructure in place for housing and the communitys population of 250 off- reserve members.

Originally, there were ambitious plans calling for a large volume cedar sawmill, a wood pellet mill and a one-megawatt co-generation plant to power the community.

But the members told the leadership that was too much, too soon.

Instead of having a two-shift, 20-employee sawmill, the leadership are re-examining the business and marketing plan.

They want us to start small and if its successful we can expand. Well build it incrementally rather than go big, said Hatton.

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First Nation advances sawmill project

Lafcadio Hearn, shown with Koizumi Setsu

Coloured perspective view of the proposed Japanese garden by Mike Roberts, FRIAI

The long established seaside resort of Tramore, Co Waterford, is to get a Japanese garden commemorating writer and translator Patrick Lafcadio Hearn one of those most admired western figures to live in that culture and who is known in Japan as Koizumi Yakumo. He spent his boyhood summers in Tramore.

Announcing the project yesterday, the Japanese embassy in Dublin pledged to provide six million yen (41,860) towards the Koizumi Yakumo Memorial Garden, which is to be laid out on the 2.5-acre grounds of Tramore House.

The grant is the largest of 48 awards this year from the Japan World Expo 1970 Commemorative Fund, reflecting the importance of a project that ambassador Chihiro Atsumi said would be a valuable addition to the cultural links between Ireland and Japan.

Lafcadio Hearn was born in 1850 to an Irish father and Greek mother and brought up by his grand-aunt, Sarah Brenane, who brought him from Dublin to Tramore on holidays. He went on to live in Japan, becoming revered as its great interpreter to the rest of the world. West to east The aim is to transform the existing, steeply sloping site into a themed Japanese garden reflecting his extraordinary journey from west to east from his orphaned boyhood through many turbulent years to ultimate peace, self-realisation and fulfilment in Japan.

Inspiration for the garden came from a trip to Tramore by Koizumi Bon, Hearns great-grandson, in September 2012.

It is also being seen as one of the fruits of visits by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe to Ireland and Taoiseach Enda Kenny to Japan last year.

The concept was created by Agnes Aylward, who heads the Tramore Development Trust, with garden structures designed by architect Mike Roberts, drawing on his knowledge of gardens in Japan, and landscaping by Martin Curran of MBC, who also worked there.

The project has an overall budget of 500,000, nearly half of which has been pledged by Waterford County Council and the Japanese fund. It will include ponds, cascades, gazebos, ornamental planting and Japanese-style bridges and entrance gates, arranged in sequence.

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Tramore to get Japanese garden in memory of Lafcadio Hearn

A range of bamboo home styles-design prefabricated "bamboo houses"-custom, installed hut/gazebos
bamboocreasian.com - A range of bamboo home styles-design prefabricated bamboo houses-custom, installed hut/gazebos- build a bamboo house| Manufacture and i...

By: Creasian Bamboo

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A range of bamboo home styles-design prefabricated "bamboo houses"-custom,&installed hut/gazebos - Video

Federal regulators recently accepted more than 200 nonconforming structures at Lake of the Ozarks to be grandfathered in, which was the final step in Ameren Missouris five-plus year-long campaign to have its energy license renewed. Photo by Ceil Abbott.

LAKE OZARK, Mo. Ameren officials say they are relieved a final resolution has been reached between the utility, a government agency and the Lake of the Ozarks property owners whose structures encroached on the lake's boundaries.

We are very pleased with FERCs recent order accepting our June 5, 2012, request to permit over 200 nonconforming structures at Lake of the Ozarks, said Jeff Green, Ameren Missouri shoreline manager. Although there is much work left to do in actually issuing permits for these structures, this represents the final chapter in a year-long process involving property owners, agencies and the FERC.

Green was commenting on a request from Ameren that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allow them to grandfather in some 215 non-conforming structures as the final step in the companys five-plus years-long campaign to have its energy license renewed.

The recommendation came one year after FERCs June 2012 order to comprehensively revise the project boundary at the Lake to 662 feet above sea level and even lower in areas where private homes encroached onto its property. The order included a provision that required Ameren Missouri to inventory and recommend a plan for all remaining non-conforming decks, patios, gazebos and similar structures. For more than a year, Ameren Missouri inventoried the structures, worked with property owners and agencies before recommending its closure plan to FERC.

Although there were originally some 4,000-plus structures, including 1,500 homes, that encroached onto Amerens property, many of those structures, including all private residences, were exempted from the issue of encroachment in 2012 when Ameren redrew its boundary to a line approximately 662 feet above sea level.

In commenting on this latest decision by FERC, Green said, Our main goal from the beginning has been to work out a reasonable solution that successfully resolves issues related to the location of unauthorized lakefront decks, patios and similar structures within our project boundary. Now that FERC has approved our plan, we can now move forward with issuing permits and getting back to business as usual at the lake.

Green said it is important that lake front property owners take note that under the newly approved shoreline management plan, new decks, patios and gazebos are not allowed to encroach on that portion of the shoreline that lies below the 662-foot elevation line.

Property owners considering new construction along the shoreline should contact Green at his Lake Ozark office for information about where the 662-foot elevation line is on individual properties before starting construction.

Lake of the Ozarks is the only large privately owned body of water in Missouri built specifically for the purpose of operating a hydroelectric dam. Ameren Missouri forerunner Union Electric of St. Louis built Lake of the Ozarks in the 1930s, and today operates it under the companys license with FERC.

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Federal regulators make final ruling on Lake property

Organisers of Mudeford Arts Fest appeal for artists for this years quayside event

4:00pm Wednesday 5th March 2014 in News By Toby Wadey

Scenes from last years Mudeford Arts Festival

ORGANISERS of the annual Mudeford Quay Arts Festival are asking for artists to submit sea themed work as they prepare for this summers event.

The two-day exhibition will be held on July 26 and 27 at Mudeford Quays picnic green with the aim of celebrating sea creatures and monsters from the deep.

The Mudeford Arts Festival committee is calling for people to get involved by submitting their works of art, performing, setting up stalls or to volunteer to help in any way they can.

A spokesman said: Last years festival was a huge success and were hoping for a repeat. The green will come alive with marquees and gazebos celebrating the very best of local art and craft.

Space is also being made in the main marquee area to exhibit the work of youngsters, with submissions from anybody under the age of 14 welcomed.

Thousands of people visited the artists tents and displays in 2013, when the theme was smugglers and pirates, and the festival has grown into a much anticipated annual opportunity for artists in the area to display their work.

As well as all the art a variety of refreshments will be available all day and there will also be live entertainment from the performance pod and a host of activities for children.

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Organisers of Mudeford Arts Fest appeal for artists for this years quayside event

6 Mar 2014 14:22

Members of the organising committee will take to Reading centre on Sunday to launch the event and drum up interest from potential participants

A major summer charity event will be launched in Broad Street this weekend.

The Cancer Research Relay for Life Reading is a 24-hour walk involving teams of up to 15 people taking it in turns to complete laps of Palmer Park Stadiums track.

Members of the organising committee will take to the town centre on Sunday, March 9, to launch the event and drum up interest from potential participants.

The relay, due to take place over the weekend of August 30 and 31, will feature an opening and closing ceremony. Cancer survivors will complete the first lap as guests of honour.

Teams and members of the public will be able to light candles to remember those who have lost their battle with the disease at a Candle of Hope ceremony.

Chairwoman of the Reading committee, Amy Moss, who is the volunteering and social enterprise coordinator at the University of Reading, was contacted by the local Cancer Research UK fundraiser who asked her if she would like to organise an event for the students.

Amy, who lives in Coley Hill, said: Due to the time of year, there wont be many students around, so instead we decided to open it up to the public.

We have a target of recruiting 15 teams to take part, and are hoping to have between 200 and 300 people on the day. As it is a 24-hour event we encourage teams to bring tents and gazebos, not only to rest in, but also to sell things to raise a bit more money.

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Cancer Research Relay for Life goes on the march on Sunday

Opinions and ideas swirled Tuesday at a Dixon Parks and Recreation Commission meeting called to discuss how to make the city's park system better.

More than a dozen residents turned out -- and shyness was not an issue.

Commissioners wanted to hear the good, the bad and the ugly in order to better frame the update of the Parks Master Plan, described as the guiding document for the future development of the city's parks and recreation programs.

The good -- in general, the parks-to-resident ratio provides ample, attractive green space, those at the meeting agreed.

"They've always been beautiful parks and we've always had a nice supply of them," said Bessie Miller.

Rob Salaber with the Dixon Rugby Football Club pointed out that the ample parks allowed Dixon to be one of the few Bay Area cities able to host tournaments which often bring more than 1,000 people to town.

"Our quality of life is improved because of it," he said.

The bad -- maintenance and restroom issues, speakers said.

Residents said weeds and other overgrowth are commonplace in some parks and need to be attended to. As well, restroom cleanliness and availability are problems.

"They're a mess," Miller emphasized.

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Dixon sounds off on city parks

Richard Banister was a beat cop his entire career with the Watertown City Police Department.

He had been on the force from 1967 to 1991.

Banister had a secret.

He planned to leave a lot of money to charity.

Banister passed away in 2012, but we're just learning that he bequeathed hundreds of thousands dollars to Jefferson County's SPCA and Hospice.

The SPCA got $224,545.62 to be exact.

Executive Director Doug Marlow says the money will be used to improve the SPCA's 129-year old building.

"That's a great deal of money for an organization such as ours and I guess it's a great deal of money for any body," said Marlow.

Banister also bequeathed nearly a quarter million dollars to Hospice of Jefferson County.

CEO Diana Woodhouse says tops on her wish list is to build gazebos and pergolas outside for summertime visitors.

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The Watertown Police Officer Philanthropist