On Saturday March 13th 2010, The Wine Ladies, myself Rob Campbell, and Dave Dingle of Shrinkray,  hosted the winners of two Lenzr photo contests and together enjoyed a Locaboire wine tour of Prince Edward County, Ontario.

The winner of Macro Photos of Life, Bill Watson ve3bnw and his wife Debbie, joined the winner of Best Gourmet Food Sandra Ausma sausma1 and her companion Johnny Cochrane.

Locaboire Wine Tour of Prince Edward Co.

The wines of Prince Edward Co have gained prominence over the last decade, which is remarkable considering most of the vineyards in the area didn’t exist fifteen years ago. This is still a very young wine region, but the idea is maturing as viticulturists are now producing excellent products.

Partly because of its soft and friable calcareous limestone soil, and partly due to assiduous care on the part of its winemakers who have learned how to protect their vines each winter to shelter the tender primary buds from killing cold, the vines have endured and excelled in tastings all over the world.

We all met up at The Timberhouse

Lenzr attracts an interesting mix of people, and our assembly was a terrific cross section of contest participants and colourful sponsors; there was great chemistry right from the beginning.

Everyone was surprised to find a stretch limousine waiting for us outside the  Timberhouse Resort in Brighton Ontario.  Some local vintages were waiting inside, with more down the road. The wine started flowing from the moment we all climbed aboard.

From left to right, Rob Campbell, Dave Dingle, Michell Walkau, Susanne and Georgia – The Wine Ladies, Debbie (MommaKoala), Johnny Cochrane and Dr. Sandra Ausma at The Grange Winery – that’s Caroline Granger pouring Trumpours Mill, 2007 Pinot Noir. Photos by Bill Watson (Ve3bnw) check ve3bnw Flickr stream for more pics.

The Locaboire Wine Tour started at The Grange

The prize winners enjoyed a short (hot) drive in a long limousine through the brown landscape of Prince Edward County in Eastern Ontario, and past some very old properties with dilapidated barns and overgrown stone fences. i though I saw some wild apple trees – all that remains of the orchards that were planted on every farm in the area in the early 1800s. This region boasts some of the oldest settlements in Ontario and the wineries people are quite connected to their history.

This is a blossoming wine country in the springtime of its existence and our tour visited three of the twenty wineries that are here now; ten more vineyards have planted grapes and hope to establish themselves in the near future.

Ten minutes into the expedition our limousine turned off the paved road and gingerly traversed down a muddy sideroad, over Dorland Creek, and past a 19th century  farmhouse to stop outside The Grange winery.

Inside a cozy wooden barn we met Caroline Granger who, along with her father Bob Granger, owns the property and facilities.   This family manages six different vineyards, with six different varietals – they harvest 180 tonnes of grapes every year.

Caroline was great and The Wine Ladies really liked her – Susanne and Georgia unpacked their signature oversized wine glasses, and we shot three segments for The Wine Ladies TV show in three different locations on the property.

Caroline was very down to earth as she related the history of her property – the farm is 200 years old and was once the location of a chicken canning business which packed under the label Meadowvale farms.  The chicken cannery was quite succesful in the early 1900s and printed material still exists that show the goods were sold in the market of the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto.  Caroline Granger was born and raised on the property, she described how she plowed the fields when she was a little girl and  The Wine Ladies in particular were very impressed with her – they remarked afterward how genuine it is for the proprietor of a winery to be so well connected to the climate and soil, the terrior of the region.

Next Stop, Closson Chase – 629 Closson Rd, Hillier Ontario

At 3:30 pm the Locaboire wine tour continued down the road to Closson Chase.

Its no secret, these vineyards was founded by and are still owned and managed by a smattering of Canadian film and television celebrities, most notably Sonia Smits. The first test plots were planted in 1998 and the winery itself was founded in 1999.

This destination was a perfect exercise in serious wine tasting as Lynn Carmichael explained that Closson has two properties. The grape vines on their farm in Niagara are 30 years old, while the vines grown here in Eastern Ontario come from vines that are less than six years old. We tasted the difference as we sampled the Chardonnay – one glass was from 6 yr old vines, and other from 30 yr old vines. We savoured the contrast, and came to understand more about the structure of wine in general. It was a good education, and great exercise.

All of the wine we consumed on the Locaboire tour was of course Estate Bottled which means the wine was produced from grapes grown on the farm, or by the estate.

Locaboire Wine Tour ends at RoseHall Run

The final destination on our Locaboire wine tour was Rosehall Run at 1241 Greer Rd Wellington Ontario where we met Dan Sullivan who is both the winemaker and vineyard manager. He is a lifetime student of the art of making good wine (in large batches) and has been honing his craft for almost fifteen years. This guy is super passionate about his life’s work and very hands on, eager to discuss the smallest details of his craft. At one point he stood over a pump and explained how the mechanism could move whole grapes to the press without breaking or bruising the fruit. He also lectured on the experience of setting up the winery itself, and the geology of the soil as evidenced in the barrel cellar, which was hewn out of the same limestone that makes the grapes so delicious.

This walk about Rosehall Run got most interesting down in the barrel cellar where Dan did a great interview with The Wine Ladies. The group tasted several different wines , including 2008 Sullyzwicker rose and red, and a syrah that was made from grapes grown on a neighbour’s property, Steven Singer the viticuluralist of nearby Fieldstone.

The Timberhouse

That evening, at the Timberhouse we tucked into an incredible feast accompanied by the wines we enjoyed throughout the day. The chef prepared a feast fit for visiting monarchs, and indeed that’s certainly how we felt about ourselves at that time.

The Dinner Menu at The Timberhouse

First a small bowl of sautéed shrimp in Tai sauce garnished with diced pepers and strawberries on a tuft of vermicelli laying on a big piece of Swiss Chard.

Second course was a crisp  salad of assorted greens, with tomato wedges and cucumbers smothered in raspberry vinagrette

Third course and entree featured bacon wrapped Fillet Mignon in a herb compound butter with rosemary roasted potatoes an fresh vegetables.

All this was followed by a delicious homemade chocolate cake for desert.

The wines we drank at dinner include,

Rosehall Run 2007 VQA Pinot Noir
Rosehall Run 2007 Riesling
Rosehall Run 2007 Cabernet Franc
Rosehall Run 2007 Gewurztraminer
The Grange of Prince Edward Vineyards 2008 Trumpour’s Mill Gamay Noir
Closson Chase 2007 Chardonnay VQA Prince Edward County
Redtail Vineyard 2007 Pinot Gris
Redtail Vineyard 2007 Pinot Noir
Huff Estates 2008 VQA Riesling Off-Dry

Tuesday March 9th 2010 dawned sunny and bright, and was a truly beautiful spring morning, spoiling Toronto with unseasonably warm weather.  This put everyone in a good mood, and it was especially pleasant inside the medical center at 600 Sherbourne St, opposite the subway, on the south west corner of  Bloor and Sherbourne St in the heart of the city.

It was particularly cheery in unit #808, the dental office of Dr Natalie Archer DDS, the Toronto dentist that sponsored the Kids in Action photo contest on Lenzr.

At 1 pm that afternoon, when the sun was at its zenith, the girl that won the photo challenge  entered the office.  The girl is from York University in her last year of sociology studies, but she dreams of being a working professional.   The girl’s name is seattledredge, and she’s a soft spoken, sly and precocious amateur photographer with professional aspirations.  Seattle wears black nail polish, and someday she will be a world famous something – a photo journalist, marketing poet or cereal box designer, she will be famous.  Her image ‘Soccer Stand’ can still be viewed in her profile – the picture won the match with a high score of 116 points,  an amalgam of votes, views and comments.

Seattle took lots of pictures on Tuesday March 9th, and these images can be found here on seattledredge Flickr photostream.

Although the NiteWhite teeth whitening kit was positioned as the grand prize of the challenge, this reward requires a dental office to make custom molds for form fitting trays that are filled with the bleaching agent and left on your teeth overnight. These trays are made from impressions taken of her teeth and mouth.  Dr Archer’s dental technicans used a special pink gel that hardens in about thirty seconds.

Seattle was interested in every detail and the citizen journalist was alive in her – she has a friend writing a story on teeth whitening in an online university publication.  I love the picture above in which Dr Archer is just standing back and taking it all in. Its clear that even though she didn’t expect this, she finds it all very amusing.

Introducing a fourth contest on Lenzr for March and April 2010.  This is the first time there has ever been four consecutive photo contests running simultaneously on this serial contest website.

Obsolete Office Equipment invites workers to submit shots that showcase yesterday’s business standards. Let’s make people marvel at what used to pass for modern technology! Together we’re hoping to see huge early cell phone ‘bricks’, call center switchboards, and lots of old typewriters, adding machines and rotary dial telephones.  Show us your business antiques, and add a brief story.

We hatched this contest to remind folks that choosing the correct business telephone system is very important, because that system will be an integral part of everyday operations and will foster growth and better relationships. And conversely the wrong system can cripple your firm by stifling communications and alienating clients.

Understanding your business needs is the most important part of choosing the right telephone system, as the closer your chosen telephone system comes to meeting your specific requirements, the greater the value it will add to your business.

The Prize, courtesy of an business telephone equipment sponsor
is a 4 Line office telephone AT&T Model 1070. This state-of-the-art communication device has 4 line speakerphone & answering system capability. With Caller ID / Page / Intercom / Call transfer / Expandable to 16 stations / 32 # speed dial / 3 party conference / 6 number redial,  it has so many wonderful functions!

This contest ends May 1st at which time the member that uploaded the highest ranking photo will be issued this wonderful prize. Contest open to all Canadians age 13 yrs and older, excluding Quebec.

Lenzr gets even greener in March and April 2010 as they welcome technologically advanced start-ups as sponsors for photo contests.  Forward thinking people are helping Lenzr grow and reach a wider audience.

The How Green Are You? photo challenge hopes to collect one sentence stories and images that display a wide array of useful ideas for the rest of us increasingly environmentally conscious citizens to admire and adopt.  Sharing your wisdom and energy-saving tips here in this photo contest could actually help save the planet.  And we’re excited about what new ideas we might dredge up.

Good examples might include photos of people in expensive suits, carrying briefcases, riding their bicycles to work. Or maybe water powered or wind powered gadgets,  or colourful compost heaps, or photos of recycling trucks compacting plastics.  Even a walk in the woods would constitute green activity. There are so many photo opportunities here, its actually hard to decide on the right approach – so we leave it to shutterbugs to submit their spiffiest shots of whatever green subjects they can imagine.

Be sure and remember to add a detailed caption as good imaginative tag lines seem to be the common denominator in each previous Lenzr photo contest winner’s strategy.

The GrassCutters is quite possibly Canada’s first sustainable grass cutting business. The company uses electric lawn mowers powered by clean renewable solar energy produced by large panels mounted on their trucks and trailers! See the picture above that’s so cool it just might win any photo contest.  The set up is sure to attract the attention of your neighbours.  The enterprise reduces the need for fossil fuels and makes cutting grass very quiet, clean and more sustainable than anyone else on the block.

The business is competing against some other very notable competitors in the 2010 Green Innovation Awards in which the City of Toronto will invest up to $50K in the winner’s project.

How Green Are You? photo contest on Lenzr ends May 1st 2010.

On May 1st the highest ranked image as decided by the members wins a Neuton CE 6 Battery-Powered Mower with DURACELL® battery technology. There is no gas or oil to spill and no engine emissions to pollute the air. The 360 watt-hours of battery provide plenty of power. The Neuton CE 6 mower can cut about 1/3 acre (approx 15,000 sq. ft.) on a single charge. If you need more time, just swap in another battery and keep on mowing! Approx retail value $489.00 + shipping.

Saturday Feb 27th 2010 in The Better Living Center at Exhibition Place in Toronto, on day seven of the National Home Show, Lenzr met Steve Hamoen.

Steve is a geothermal guru.

The word geothermal comes from the Greek language – the root ‘geo’ means earth, and ‘thermos’ means heat.  In modern times the word has come to mean ‘power extracted from heat stored in the earth’ and Steve’s company uses that power to heat houses.

Geothermal energy originates from the original formation of the planet, from radioactive decay of minerals, and from solar energy absorbed at the surface. It has been used for bathing since Paleolithic times and for space heating since ancient Roman times, but is now better known for generating electricit. In large scale power plants this is done by simply boiling water to make steam to propel turbines.

But Geothermal energy is not exactly free power…

A common misconception about geothermal energy is that it just comes up out of the ground in easy to use levels. Sadly, once again nothing in life is free, not even the Earth’s heat.  In this case the heat units that come from the ground are referred to as low grade energy, and they need to ramped up into more viable residential or industrial heating (or cooling) strengths. This usable heat also needs to be distributed to from the source to the areas that require heat and all of that sort of thing requires electricity. But overall the system is part of a bigger, better planet saving solution.

Geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly, but has historically been limited to only a very few areas of the globe, like Iceland. Recent technological advances have dramatically expanded the range and size of viable resources, especially for applications such as home heating, and in particular floor heating.

The Fire and Ice photo contest on Lenzr is sure to melt minds and set hearts ablaze on the homepage. The contest is probably the most technically challenging request this session, and it will almost certainly ‘go viral’ as friends tempt each other to submit their best fire photography. Already there are some terrific pictures in the index, and you can be certain, more arctic infernos are coming. Contest ends May 1st 2010

The Prize is GeoAir PCO air purifier

GeoSmart’s GeoAir PCO (PhotoCatalytic Oxidation) is perhaps one of the most advanced air purifier technologies available today. Unlike existing air cleaning systems that rely solely on ultraviolet light, the PCO integrates a titanium dioxide semiconductor to leverage photocatalytic oxidation allowing it to vaporize indoor air pollutants, including those that cause odors, and break them down into non-toxic products like C02 and H20. Bacteria, viruses, mold spores and volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) are destroyed when they come into contact with the system’s 187 square-inch Ti02 grid. The system is cost-effective, maintenance-free and provides maximum energy efficiency with negligible resistance to airflow.

The perception of indoor air quality (IAQ) is based on the interaction of a complex set of variables including chemical, biological, physical and psychosocial factors.1 Concern about indoor air quality has been driven mainly by health problems believed to be attributed to exposure to gaseous, particulate and microbial contaminant.

Downtown Toronto, its winter time and Absolute Tent and Event Services is stuffed to the rafters with everything required to make a party.  This place is a bonafide party bomb waiting to explode with tents and staging, folding chairs and tables, event lighting and so many other luxuries waiting to be delivered and assembled in backyards all over the Greater Toronto Area.  Kaboom its party time!

Just because its winter time is no excuse not to throw a party. This building is filled with heaters and insulated tents, snow blowers, troughs and buckets. Maybe we should have a made their photo contest a ‘winter parties’ theme?

Their building is huge and multi-faceted and worth visiting if you live in Toronto and you’re organizing an event. Tell them you’ve entered a photo on Lenzr and you may get 10% off…  maybe.

Here’s Laura, the Absolute blogger who is our eyes and ears inside this busy Toronto tent and party rentals house. She gives us the skinny on upcoming events, Hollywood film shoots, parades and even Toronto waterfront conditions from the perspective of a rentals house employee, which is kind of fascinating. The company does movies and big City of Toronto public occasions too, like Canada Day,  Woofstock and Gay Pride Parade  and so its possible she will have celebrity pictures and details about the assembly and clean-up of big urban bashes. Another interesting thing about Laura are the little glimpses we get into her daily life at the business, and how she struggles to improve her skills driving forklifts and

Backyard Party Events is for the little people who host their own good times at home. Every photographer worth his salt has party pictures and the ones we want to see will hopefully show off some residential geography and show off backyard BBQs, games and dancing under shady trees. Already there are shots of some rowdy kids and a whole of beer cans, but I think we can do better than that.

The prize for the Lenzr member that uploads the highest ranked picture is a spiffy new 10×10 Popup Tent, and $500 Gift Certificate * that must be spent at Absolute Tent and Event Services obviously. Laura is actually building the tent prize in the photo above and the Absolute blog will detail its specifics.

It’s March 1st 2010 today. Three photo contests ended on Lenzr at 12:01 am this morning, and now three more photo challenges are set to begin.  It wasn’t the smoothest contest we must admit – the changes to the voting algorithm caused severe problems when the votes were finally collected.  But all issues have been resolved, and now the website voting, grading and ranking mechanisms are well oiled and twice tested.

So let’s have a look at who won the last contests, how and why…

The Kids in Action photo contest was a real battlefield last month. With 27 photos uploaded and 851 total votes there was some competition for the prize , an advanced NiteWhite teeth bleaching kit courtesy of a Toronto dentist.

The photo named Soccer Stand by a rather prolific user named  seattledredge (why does nobody ever capitalize their username?) garnered the most votes.

Uploaded on: 27 Jan the image was a late addition and still managed to win with a score of 215.80 points.

The Total Votes:      116
Popular rating:        8.4 (99 votes)
Registered rating:   7.1 (17 votes)

Congratulations seattledredge !

The Everyday Tangled Web photo contest got the most attention, and to some extent it went viral as phone service technicians called each other and shared their most horrific case studies with the public.  There were 28 photos uploaded into the competition, and these images accrued 1680 votes.  The classic pictures uploaded by members Tialdone and Phonemaster were exceptionally good, real pictures of everyday tangled webs clogging telephone service rooms and data racks.  This is what the sponsor most wanted the public to see as this is the particular type of mess they specialize in curing.

Not surprisingly however the winner was a much less technical image that caught the hearts and tickled the minds of voting patrons.

The photo of a colourful stuffed animal lost in the wires and cables that was uploaded by a user named mroy won the challenge with humour and grace. Her picture, This Looks Yummy carried the storyful caption: “My twin grandsons hid this toy for me to find. Took me 2 hrs to find it, hidden behind my computer.”  The image with caption earned a total score of  573.30 points.
Total Votes:             247
Popular rating:      8.5 (189 votes)
Registered rating: 7.4 (68 votes)

Congratulations mroy ! You win the Plantronics Voyager wireless headset courtesy of an office phone systems provider in Markham Ontario!

And finally,

The winner of the Best Gourmet Food photo contest was Berry Delicious!, a photo uploaded by another very prolific photographer, member named sausma1 that she snapped at her friend’s wedding.

The caption reads, ‘There’s nothing like the taste sensation of squeezing seasonal fresh berries in your mouth. These are Mini-Creme Brulee with fresh berries.’

The very attractive and informative picture scored of 119.30 points

Total Votes:              47
Popular rating:       6.9 (32 votes)
Registered rating:  6.3 (15 votes)

Congratulations sausma1 ! This talented shutterbug will now be joining myself (and last session’s Macro Photos of Life contest winner Bill Watson plus guest) and The Wine Ladies on the Locaboire Eastern Ontario wineries and breweries tour

Stay focused on the Lenzr blog for stories about the winners as they receive their prizes.