Welcome to the GNS web page! It is under construction. Please email corrections, suggestions, and new material (photos as jpeg attachments; under 200K, please; please date event and identify people if you can) to Tim. (For the moment, though, aesthetics take second place to content.)
Bienvenu au site SNG! Il est en construction. SVP envoyer par courriel des corrections, suggestions et du nouveau matériel (les photos comme attachements jpeg, toujours moins de 200KO svp, et svp identifier le gens et les dates d'événements si vous le pouvez) au Tim. (Pour l'instant, cependant, l'esthétique prend la deuxième place au contenu.)

President's Report 2005 / Rapport du président 2005

Even I did not welcome October's snowfall, which took out many unready trees and made it difficult to finish cleaning up the garden. But it does remind us that ski season and the winter GNS activities are on their way.

Bird Count will be on Tuesday, Dec. 27 this year. You don't have to be an expert to contribute to this annual audit of the state of our most visible wildlife. The Audubon Society depends on us to monitor a large area. Please let John Hoblyn know that you can help out in this enjoyable activity ... and attend the party in the evening when the tally is made.

The Barbara Clift Ski Day will be on Saturday, Feb. 4. Don't forget to book early for dinner. Please, however, wait for our mailing in early January: it will contain your registration form, and nobody else will be booked before that mailing. Please do not call before then. And note that dinner bookings will be accepted only for paid-up GNS members and one guest per member (two per family). Ski Day will again feature Nancy Amos' superb roast beef and vegetarian option, Jean-Paul Clermont's warmup punch, and John Boynton's unsurpassed tablepiece challenges.

We also expect to hold Family Fun Skis again this year: on Sat. Jan 28, Sat. Feb 18 and Sat. March 18Feb 18 and Sat. March 18Feb 18 and Sat. March 18Feb 18 and Sat. March 18Feb 18 and Nature Walks! Last winter's delicious funski soups were provided by Loy and Peter Denis, Joan and Peter Hadrill, and Betty and David Stanger. (The Stangers introduced us to David's father's onion soup, after a lovely ski through their own woods.)

The three Fun Skis and five Nature Walks in 2006 were enjoyed by over forty people. If you were there, you would have met a: Bachelder, Beattie, Blais, Boynton, Bradley, Cousineau, Cowans, Delorme, Denis, Fontaine, Hadrill, Hurlow, Irvine, Kilkelly, Kohl, Leclerc, Lacoursiere, Lefebvre, Markwell, Marquis, McAuley, McTavish, Merrett, Moore, Mulhall, Pascal, Pasztor, Smith, Stanger, Terni, Temple and Williams.

All these events were special, and some particularly so. After a stimulating and challenging talk (April 16) on Petroglyphs in the Eastern Townships by Dr Gérard Leduc, almost half the audience met Dr Leduc five weeks later at the Jones Farm near Vale Perkins. There we were treated to the petroglyphs of Potton Indian Rock, and picnicked on the spectacular ruins of a former water mill. At the end of the summer, we returned to the west side of Lake Memphremagog for the Thanksgiving Tree Walk. We were met on Mt Elephantis by Pierre Renaud on behalf of the Nature Conservancy, and invited to explore their recently acquired woodlands, including the Bishop Darney Trail. This was a special, once-off privilege extended to GNS: the Nature Conservancy does not normally host walkers on its preservation lands.

We made a good start on clearing and ribboning the ski trails before the hunting season. Because of the premature snowfall, we'll have to do much of it again, after hunting. But they will be ready before the lasting snow.

I look forward to seeing you on the trails.

Tim Merrett