A Fabulous Dinner, with a Side Order of Science

Kudos to Shannan and Ashley, who organized the fund-raising dinner on behalf of the up-coming Dwight Winter Carnival.  They did a fabulous job. The hall looked great.  The food, catered by legendary Jeff Suddaby and his 3 Guys and a Stove crew, was outstanding.  The girls really went out of the ordinary with this dinner -- and let me tell you the dessert table alone was worth the price of admission! 

More than just a meal, Ashley and Shannan arranged guest speakers from the world-reknowned Dorset Research Station at Paint Lake.  After dinner, we had the chance to find out 'What's bugging you?' when Chris Jones and Sarah Sinclair from the Dorset Research Station gave a talk and a show-and-tell about the little critters that live in our lakes.  Gill is seen in this picture, checking out the difference between a caddis fly larvae and a dragonfly nymph.

Full credit to Peggy, the Dwight Librarian, for being able to correctly identify all the little creepy crawlies when they were put up on the big screen.  These small benthic invertebrates are a critical part of lake health. And lake health is a critical part of our own health, not to mention the health of the environment here in Muskoka.   The science of tracking and identifying them becomes rather dense and intense, but the show-and-tell got everyone up in their chairs, fascinated.

Did you know that a dragonfly nymph, already a terrifying dragon to look at and the outright scourge of mosquito and blackfly larvae underwater, can take in water and fire it out behind like a jet engine?  No mosquitoe larvae can hope to outrun that!

Caddis flies create shell casings of great beauty, decorating them with grains of coloured sand, and dragging them around with them wherever they go.  Apparently you can buy them, as a line of jewellry.  Chris admits to having made the occasional purchase.

The Carnival is coming to Dwight February 23 - 25.  You should have that circled on your calendar.   Ashley and Shannan definitely think "outside the box" and they have lined up some really different and fun events for this year.  For one, there will be a Zorb Track...  Roll on, we say, we roll on...