When the rivers meet in Spring

Madawaska River flowing to join the Ottawa River

Arnprior has been our home since 2011.  We love the small town lifestyle because it is quiet and friendly and we can walk to almost everywhere in town.  There are many hiking trails and parks here, and the beautiful Galilee Centre for retreats and get togethers with friends and our Oblate community.   Arnprior has been in the news lately due to the record spring floods. Thought I would share a few photos from around town.

Where these two rivers meet was flooded out

Ottawa River at its first peak

Sadly about a dozen houses where flooded

Our house (right) on the Madawaska remained high and dry

The Ottawa has now subsided and things are getting back to normal as the massive cleanup proceeds.  People are searching for a reason why this happened (again) and what can be done to prevent it in future.  Certainly climate change is a plausible reason, but what is causing this change remains controversial.  I believe that we know implicitly that we are damaging the environment through our throw-away lifestyle and fossil fuel dependence and that we all must make changes to ensure our long term survival.

Arnprior has great recreational facilities e.g, hockey, swimming, library and lot’s of services for seniors.  On the short side for youth is a lack of local post secondary education facilities and not being able to find long term high paying employment opportunities.  Some complain that the shopping here is limited and statistics show there is a local shortage of nursing home beds.  We do have a great hospital and good medical care.  There are so many fundraisers it is hard to keep track.  There are many talented musicians, artists and trades people here and there are 4 local golf courses, a curling club, a bridge club, yoga studios, 10 churches, etc., etc.  It’s a great place to live, work, play and retire.

It is true that we are located on “unceded” Algonquin First Nation territory here (as is all Eastern Ontario).  However there is an agreement in principle with the Ontario Algonquin tribes to address this.  A treaty could be in place soon to address this historical shortcoming.  You can read more about this interesting development here.

Samuel de Champlain canoed right by Arnprior in May 1613

A morning dove is getting ready for summer in Arnprior

Cheers.  Have a great rest of Spring!