It’s a packed and varied selection of things to see and do this week—everything from a boat show in Montreal and a gardening event in Almonte to an art exhibition opening in Chelsea, two cross-country skiing events, and a gruelling fat bike race. And if you’d rather stay in town, you can enjoy indie theatre, beers of the world, a tour of the RCMP stables and more.
See the RCMP Musical Ride horses in Ottawa
Photo credit: Serge Gouin, RCMP © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, 2016.
Do you have a horse lover in the family? Then head to the RCMP Musical Ride’s Ottawa stables on Saturday, February 8 (10am to 3pm) for the RCMP Musical Ride Open House and Food Drive. You can meet the riders and horses, tour the stables, and see demonstrations and displays. There will be fun activities for kids, too! Parking and admission are free, but the Mounties would be delighted if you brought a donation for the Ottawa Food Bank (cash or non-perishable food items). Note that parking is limited.
Enjoy a Valentine’s play with tea in Osgoode
The ITR Theatre Company’s annual Valentine’s tea show this year is A Bench in the Shade. It tells the story of seniors Annie and Paul, who were once engaged and meet many years later in a retirement community…that’s about to be sold. The afternoon show runs on Saturday, February 8, and Saturday, February 15, at St. James United Church in Osgoode.
Catch a documentary in Wakefield or Ottawa
Still from Dark Suns courtesy of the Wakefield Doc Fest.
On weekends from February 7 until March 1, the Wakefield Doc Fest will be showing an intriguing range of documentary films from around the world. Choices include All the Wild Horses, about riders around the world training for the Mongol Derby; The Silence of Others, about the 40-year fight for justice by some victims of Franco’s repressive Spanish regime; Our Time Machine, the Chinese story of a son mounting an artistic tribute to his aging father; and Dark Suns, about a growing wave of violence in Mexico.
This week also marks the debut of the Canadian War Museum’s 2020 series of documentary screenings in partnership with the Hot Docs festival. On Thursday, February 6, the movie is A Kandahar Away, about an Afghan-Canadian named Abdul Bari Jamal who impulsively buys some land in the tiny Saskatchewan community of Kandahar because it shares a name with the place he fled as a refugee in 1991. Filmmaker Aisha Jamal documented her father’s unusual project and will be at the screening for a Q&A after the movie.
Get active at Tremblant
Flickr/Creative Commons photo of Mont Tremblant by Peter Dutton.
This is the sixth year of the Festival Rando Alpine Tremblant (February 7 to 9), which celebrates winter mountain sports of all sorts. You’ll find activities for everyone from novices to experts, including night skiing, fat biking, yoga, snowshoeing and more.
Learn about 19th-century life in Ottawa
Learn what life was like for pioneer residents of Gloucester Township in the Mid-Winter Challenge, a self-guided, indoor-outdoor challenge at the Billings Estate National Historic Site in Alta Vista on Saturday, February 8. Visitors will work in teams of two to five people with their friends and family to test their mental and physical skills as they take on a series of challenges inspired by 19th-century winter life on the Billings farm. If you can’t make it this weekend, the challenge will also be running on February 15 and 22.
Browse for boats in Montreal
Photo by Sander Crombach on Unsplash.
Dreaming of summer days? Then head down Highway 417 to browse to your heart’s delight at the Montreal Boat Show at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal (February 6 to 9). Ogle sailboats, trawlers, remote-controlled boats and more.
Race your fat bike on the Algonquin Trail
If your idea of a fun winter outing is a 50K, 100K or 200K fat bike race along the Algonquin Trail west of Ottawa, I salute you! You’ll be the target market for the Wendigo Fatbike Ultra on Saturday, February 8. All routes start at Whitewater Brewery’s Lakeside location in Cobden, and they wind through various communities, including Renfrew and Carleton Place.
Shop for items by local makers in Merrickville and Brockville
Merrickville’s Valentine’s Makers Market is taking place in the village’s community centre at 106 Read Street on Saturday, February 8. Fifty vendors from Merrickville and beyond will be selling food and hand-crafted items of all descriptions, including jewellery, beauty products, tea, clothing, salted caramels, pottery and hats.
On Sunday, Court House Lodge in Brockville is hosting the first in a series of monthly Makers Markets from 10am to 2pm.
Catch a concert in Morrisburg, Renfrew or Vankleek Hill
In Morrisburg, as part of the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage series, six up-and-coming indie musicians will be performing a show called Intimate Acoustics at the Upper Canada Playhouse on Saturday, February 8. There’s lots of Eastern Ontario talent in the eclectic lineup, including Kingston’s Teagan McLaren and Ottawa’s Mia Kelly (see video above). They’ll be joined by Australian singer-songwriter Nigel Wearne, who is also giving a solo performance the night before (Friday, February 7) at Batstone’s Northern Ramble in Renfrew.
Earlier in the week, folk duo Rakish will be playing a show at the Arbor Gallery Cultural Centre in Vankleek Hill on Thursday, February 6. Fiddler Maura Shawn Scanlin and folk guitarist Conor Hearn will treat audiences to a lively mix of Irish and Scottish fiddle tunes, original compositions, and baroque music.
Sample world beers in Ottawa
Dominion City Brewing is hosting the one-day Rooted in Place festival at its east-end brewery on Saturday, February 8. Guests will have the chance to try beers from across Canada and around the world that are brewed with local ingredients.
Cheer for cheerleaders in Cornwall
Have you seen Bring It On more times than you care to admit? Do you still have a set of pompoms somewhere in your basement? Or do you just enjoy acrobatics? If so, you just might like Winter Blast, the Ontario Cheerleading Federation’s seasonal competition, at the Cornwall Civic Centre on Saturday, February 8. Gooooo, team! (The video above is from a national competition in 2014, but it gives you a sense of what you can expect.)
Dance the night away on Bank Street
Bank Street will be hopping this weekend during the family-friendly Fire and Ice Festival (February 8 and 9), where amusements will include a silent disco, fire juggling, a 2SLGBTQ+ art exhibition, throat singing, acrobatic shows and more.
Cheer on snowmobile racers in Picton
Snowmobile racers and their fans will be heading to the Isaiah Tubbs Resort in Picton this weekend (February 8 and 9) for two days of fast driving at the Sand Dunes Cup, part of the Ontario Snowmobile Oval Racers circuit.
Get gardening inspiration in Almonte and Montreal
Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash.
Can’t wait for spring to arrive so you can start digging in your garden? Swap your extra seeds for new seeds, or buy new seeds, and chat with gardeners of all sorts at Almonte Seedy Saturday, taking place on Saturday, February 8, at the Almonte Civitan Hall. The Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium in Montreal is hosting a similar event on February 8 and 9.
Celebrate winter in Chesterville, Clarence Creek, Pembroke and beyond
Haven’t had your fill of winter carnivals yet? Then check out the fun this weekend at the Chesterville Winter Carnival (February 7 and 8), the Clarence Creek Winter Carnival (February 7 to 16), the Lefaivre White Weekend (February 7 and 8) the Champlain Winter Carnival in l’Orignal and Vankleek Hill (February 7 to 9), the Rankin Culture and Recreation Centre’s Winter Carnival in Pembroke (February 6 to 8), the Rockport Winter Carnival (February 4 to 9), or the Fire and Ice Celebration in Clayton, New York (February 6 to 8). There’s also the granddaddy of winter festivals, Carnaval de Québec in Quebec City (February 7 to 16). And, of course, Winterlude continues!
Meet an artist in Chelsea
Signal by Hannah Ranger. Photo courtesy of La Fab Arts Centre.
For its first show of 2020, La Fab Arts Centre in Chelsea is hosting Phenomena, an exhibition of works by fibre artist Hannah Ranger. Working in felt, Ranger creates pieces that evoke aerial views of natural phenomena and humans’ interaction with the environment. You can meet Ranger at the vernissage on Saturday, February 8, from 2pm to 5pm. The show runs from February 8 to March 1.
Take in a cutting-edge play in Ottawa
The always-intriguing Undercurrents theatre festival, produced by Ottawa Fringe, returns to for its tenth season (February 5 to 15). Most shows take place at Arts Court. The schedule over the next two weeks includes Heartlines, a world premiere by playwright Sarah Waisvisz, about a lesbian couple creating Surrealist art in the shadow of the Nazis; Cardinal, which uses a metaphorical battle between two clowns representing Memory and Disease to explore themes related to Alzeheimer’s; and Unbridled Futurism, billed as a “sci-fi comedy rock show.”
Ski from Mont Tremblant to Lachute…
Okay, you don’t have to ski the entire 160 kilometres! You can pick one or more shorter sections of the Canadian Ski Marathon (February 7 to 9), put on your cross-country skis and hit the trail to join others in what the organizers bill as the “longest and oldest classic ski tour in North America.” They also note that it’s not a race; it’s designed to get people of all ages out on the trails.
…or ski in Murphy’s Point Provincial Park
Hurry if you want to try this one; registration for the Tay Valley Loppet 2020 closes on Thursday, February 6. The event itself takes place on Sunday, February 9, at Murphy’s Point Provincial Park near Perth. It features a 2.5K event for kids, a 5K for all ages, and 10K and 20K events for adults, and you get a reward of a hot lunch after your exertions.
Learn about Ottawa’s history…next week
These two aren’t actually happening until early next week, but I wanted to give you some time to plan.
On Monday, February 10, Ottawa artist, author and blogger Andrew King will be delving into the city’s historical secrets in a talk called Ottawa Rewind (based on his blog of the same name) at the Main branch of the Ottawa Public Library. The free presentation starts at 7pm.
As part of its Lifelong Learning series, the Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre is hosting a talk on Wednesday, February 12, called The Gouzenko Affair: The Start of the Cold War. Amateur historian Andrew Kavchak will recount how cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko walked out of the Soviet embassy in Ottawa in 1945 with explosive evidence of a Russian spy ring operating in Canada. The daytime talk is free, but you need to reserve tickets online at the link above.
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