• An Australian man visiting from England on a bicycle tour of the Eastern Townships stayed a couple of nights in Knowlton. Wandering around the village he visited an antique shop, he didn’t say which one, and spotted a lady’s Cartier watch, obviously considered a cheap knock-off by the shop owner.

The visitor paid $20 for the watch. On his return to England, he took it to a jeweller. Incredibly, it turned out to be a real Cartier. The man paid the equivalent of $175 to get the quartz watch up to speed and ended up with a watch worth $1,750. Antiques Road Show comes to Knowlton?

• West Bolton has plenty of wild country, but the homes lining Glen Road hardly qualify – more Rural Suburbia than Savage Splendour. Imagine the surprise, then, when a resident of the Glen opened his front door to find a friend from across the road with a camera, and pictures he wanted to show. A keen hunter, he’d been out scouting in the woods for deer habitat, and had set up a camera with motion sensor and night vision to find a good spot for a blind. But instead of Bambi, he’d got shots of Mama Bear, three cubs and two other adults rooting around the bush and giving the kids a lesson in tree climbing.

“Where,” the resident asked innocently enough, “did you take these pictures?” “About two hundred metres from your house,” the hunter replied with an evil grin. “Keep your garbage secure.” The following night, four coyotes were photographed on that same camera.
There have been many reports, in different areas of Knowlton, of male deer – some sporting a good rack of antlers. Females and babies are a very common sight but stags have, in the past, been less in evidence. Much as these animals are lovely to see, they are turning local gardens into “hosta bars” rather than salad bars. They are also proving hazardous to car drivers as, blinded by the cars’ headlights, they are easy and expensive prey for local traffic.