We don't get this again until 2045

Trusted by over 6,000 explorers. Become a Partner.

Happy Wednesday friends,

Tonight is the meteor shower and the moon is taking the night off. Very excited for it. Do send your pictures so we can share with everyone.

And congratulations to Kristy Chambers and Shirley Mennel, Wilmot's Citizens of the Year 🎉

Hope you enjoy the rhythm of the region and meet wonderful people.

with love,

your friendly neighbourhood goose 🦆

PS: A neighbour forwarded you this? Join here to get the next one in your inbox.

CONVERSATIONS & CONNECTIONS

Last chance to sign up for the August 20th Dinner Club and join 90 others signed up already to meet new friends!

Notes from the last dinner:

❝

" We had a fun group that was very chatty and the time went very quickly."

Come become friends with your neighbours, the wonderful people who make this place beautiful. For our friends who are not familiar, this is how it goes:

✦︎ Take a quick quiz about your interests, food preferences, and the kinds of people you'd love to share a table with.

✦︎ Get matched with a few other Waterloo Region Rhythm community members based on your answers.

✦︎ Receive your invite the morning of the dinner - restaurant details included, no guessing required.

✦︎ Show up, eat well, meet people. Then follow everyone to a secret after-party spot, revealed at the table.

GRAB YOUR SEAT

RIDDLE ME

Last week’s trivia: 52% got it right. Wonder how many ended up at the blues festival this year.

The Perseid meteor shower peaks the night of Wednesday, August 12. Those streaks are bits of debris left behind by what?

REGION’S RADAR

The Region handed $306,000 to ten local arts organizations. The 2026 Major Arts and Culture grants went to Homer Watson House and Gallery ($40,000), MT Space ($39,000), the Grand Philharmonic Choir ($38,000), Green Light Arts, the KW Symphony, The Registry Theatre, Button Factory Arts, CAFKA, Neruda Arts and Inter Arts Matrix. It is one-time funding for groups running on budgets over $250,000. Read more
Wilmot named its 2026 Citizens of the Year. Kristy Chambers won Community Service for years with the New Hamburg Fall Fair, the Grandview Public School parent council, The Breakfast Club of Wilmot and the U11 Wilmot Blue softball team. Shirley Mennel won the Seniors category for the Wilmot and Wellesley Resource Centre food bank, more than 20 years supporting outpatient chemo care at Grand River Regional Cancer Centre, and 30 years with Make-A-Wish. Eleven people were nominated and nearly 800 votes came in. Read more
Three University of Waterloo climate researchers just started a company. ULYSSES Climate Intelligence was founded by Dr. Jose DiBella with Dr. Sarah Burch and Simon Glauser of the Waterloo Climate Institute, and it turns years of climate adaptation research into an AI platform that gives businesses early warnings when extreme weather is about to hit their supply chains. Read more
Cambridge has been quietly planting pollinator gardens in its parks. Look for them at Ellacott Landing, Riverside Park and Soper Park, planted with a mix of wild lupin, white clover and sweet mignonette chosen to feed bees and butterflies right through the growing season. Read more
Cambridge is turning City Hall's Civic Square into a racquet court on Thursday. Racquet in the Square runs August 13 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with free guided play in pickleball, squash, badminton, table tennis and tennis, plus demonstrations, food trucks and sport org booths. All ages, all skill levels, no charge. Read more

ROLL OUT ROOTS

Work: multiple roles, Westburne

Volunteer: Volunteer, YMCA

House of the week: c1898 charm and character

Adopt a pet: Lilly can be your play and cuddle partner

AT HOME IN THE REGION

Cheryl Goetz has helped more than a hundred families feel at home here. You read her getaway lists last two weeks. Now she shares sixteen places she actually eats at and more. I did not expect to see: an afternoon at a community garden.

Reply with something you think she should try. We are sending her the answers.

Cheryl's Twenty Four →

LOOK UP TONIGHT. SERIOUSLY.

Tonight is the best night of the year to stand in your backyard and stare at nothing.

The Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight into the early hours of Thursday. It happens every August, so you may have shrugged at it before. Don't shrug at this one. The moon is brand new, which means it gives off no light at all, and a moonless Perseid peak like this does not come back around until 2045.

Here is what you are watching. There is a comet called Swift-Tuttle that swings past the sun once every 133 years. It was last here in 1992 and will not be back until 2126. Every trip it sheds a little dust, and after centuries of trips there is a long dirty ribbon of it out there. Every August, Earth drives straight through it.

Think of a summer drive on the 401 at dusk, when the bugs start hitting the windshield. Earth is the car. Each speck burns up in a bright streak.

That is also why after midnight is the good part. Before midnight you are riding in the back seat. After midnight, our side of the planet becomes the windshield.

What to do:

Sunset is at 8:30. Environment Canada is calling for cloud and a chance of showers early this evening, clearing later, with fog patches near midnight. So do not write it off if you glance outside at nine and see grey. Go back out after midnight.

Get away from the streetlights if you can. A dark backyard works too. Lie back, give your eyes a full twenty minutes to adjust, and keep your phone face down, because one glance at the screen resets the whole thing. Bring a sweater, it is dropping to 13.

No telescope. No app. No eye protection needed once the sun is down. Just your eyes and some patience.