Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt’s Book Launch

Sunday October 3 2025, from 3 to 5 pm, at Gillygooly Gallery

The Hospitality of Trees is a collection of poetry. Here is a short synopsis: 

In the Hospitality of Trees, Bellehumeur-Allatt offers a poetic account of her first encounter with North Hatley, of marrying and raising her four children there, and how this bucolic village became a place of solace and security after a childhood of moving around the world with her peacekeeper father, including spending time in war-torn Beirut during the Israeli-Lebanese conflict and the Lebanese Civil War in 1982-83. 

Derek Webster, winner of last year’s QWF A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry,  praises Bellehumeur-Allatt’s “direct fine poems” and writes: “Anyone who knows and loves the small lakeside village of North Hatley, Quebec, will recognize its cherished face in these poems of family, nature, and close observation.” He notes in particular, the poet’s moving poems about the passing of her father, Lt. Col. Donald Bellehumeur, two years ago from oesophageal cancer at age 82.

Award-winning poet, Susan Musgrave, describes Bellehumeur-Allatt’s poems as “both fearless and humble” and dealing with “the serious business of living.” 

What also stands out in this deft and polished collection is the poet’s love of trees: from lindens along the shore of Lake Massawippi, to the massive pine in North Hatley’s Dreamland Park, to the Persian olive on the corner of Massawippi and Main, destroyed in a late winter wind.

It is thus not surprising that the launch of The Hospitality of Trees will take place among the trees in full autumn colour around Gillygooly Gallery.  In addition, the John Geary duet will play live jazz music and the painting by local artist Trevor McKinven which graces the book’s cover will be on display. The launch is free, and everyone is welcome.  Copies of The Hospitality of Trees may be purchased on-site for $20.

For those unable to attend the launch, Bellehumeur-Allatt will be reading from The Hospitality of Trees at Black Cat Books the following weekend, on Saturday October 11, from 2 to 4 pm. 

Books will be available for purchase at Black Cat books as well as at LeBaron’s General Store, and via the Shoreline website, www.shorelinepress.ca.

For more information, contact: Shoreline Press, 819-498-0052

Art Show 2025

Karl Forrest Ehrlich: Views and Visions

Vernissage Sunday August 31 at 2pm at the Library

August 31 to October 18, 2025

Light Is ephemeral. My images focus on moments, which are often missed. In addition
to views of beauty, I try to capture mystery and emotions.

My photographic journey began in the ‘60s, when I obtained my first Pentax Spotmatic
and LunaPro light meter.
I am a marine and freshwater ecologist with a background in forestry. I worked, for 30
years, in applied environmental microbiology to protect and restore our common universal
heritage — The Earth and its Inhabitants. No matter what one’s economic status,
personal beliefs, we are all Earthlings. If we don’t find common ground to restore,
preserve and protect our small, insignificant but precious planet, we shall all be doomed.
Photography is an extension of my life’s work. I try to capture form, light, and colour,
which are not only fleeting but often overlooked or lost when one sees and photographs
objects as illustrations. My goal is to show the beauty of nature with refreshed perception and to focus on
spirituality, emotions and the mysterious.
I am a graduate of a MASTER CLASS — Fine Arts and Science of Woody Omens (past president, Amer. Soc.
Cinematographers; Professor Emeritus, USC, School of Cinematic Arts; and past chairman Motion Picture
Academy – Student Academy Awards Committee).
My work has been exhibited in California, including the Leica Gallery, West Hollywood (2019 & 2020). Solo
exhibits in the North Hatley library include (2019, 2022, 2025) and the Uplands Cultural and Heritage Centre,
Lennoxville (2019), solo exhibit North Hatley Marina (2020-2024). Other local exhibits include Studio Georgeville
(2019), Objectif Photo, Exposition Grand Angle, Centre Culturel Pierre-Gobeil, Sherbrooke (2019), Mac Arts,
Newport, VT (2019-2025), Tour guide (2023) “LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE ART OF SEEING”
GLEN VILLA ART GARDEN, North Hatley.