June is such a splendid month. Summer comes rolling in and the good (warm) weather gets a real grip on our part of the world. The festivals, summer theatres and concerts and parties begin and the summer tradition of enjoying ourselves, indoors and out, takes hold of our entire culture. Of course, for me, the good news starts once I can go through the door to go outside without donning five or six layers of clothing first.

In this area, we are so blest with the profusion of talented people, and talented young people, that live or come here to perform. Just look at the Blues and Jazz festival happening this weekend in Orangeville - there are so many great musicians who either live right around the town or are happy to travel here to play that almost three days will be filled with music that will please any affectionato.

Now, I do not have the schedule for all that is happening but there are a couple of concerts coming up, back to back. I am longing to tell you about them, partly because they involve people that I love a lot but, more importantly as far as you are all concerned, because they involve our talented youth.

The Annual Strawberry Festival in Hockley Village is set for June 16. As always, there will be the Great Bicycle Parade, with a bike decorating station and prizes and so forth. What starts the day is the Pancake Breakfast hosted by Hockley United Church. Both village churches are busy this year, with " Little St. Jimmy's" Anglican Church hosting many of the treats. A long list of activities is planned - two Silent Auctions, a juggler and magician, ponies, face painting, strawberry treats - you know, all the right elements for a worth while Strawberry Festival.

Then, still on June 16, in the evening, there will be a concert - "Strawberry Nights" - in the Seniors' and Community Hall in Hockley Village.

My daughter Patricia has always had a passion for music. I bought her a piano when she was three, on which she learned to play Greensleeves within a few weeks. She wrote her first composition - a lullaby - when she six and has been composing ever since. While she was in Grade 12 at Robert F. Hall C.S.S., she co-composed the music for the modern version of MacBeth that the school produced.

Three years ago, she moved to Hamilton, living between there and home here in Hockley. She got job at a conservatory in Stoney Creek, teaching vocal students. Finally, she is bringing her students home to sing for us in Hockley. Patricia and her students have worked very hard over the time they have been together, so that these young women habitually win first and second ribbons whenever they sing in competitions in the Hamilton area. However, rarely do they have the opportunity to just perform for the pleasure of it in a concert. So, they are very excited about this chance to do a show in Hockley.

Joining in the fun with them are Bond's Brass Quartet and rising comic star, Kristen Warburton.

To get you in the mood, Hockley's award-winning restaurant, Hiding Inn Hockley, is offering a theatre dinner special.

The show stars at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are available from Hiding Inn Hockley and Hockley General Store.

The very next week, on Friday, June 22, Mark DuBois and his fabulous students are performing, at last, in a concert that is all theirs at Theatre Orangeville. I have been looking forward to this for a long time.

The Mark DuBois Studio Singers need no introduction, as they say, for they have been busy for some time donating their gift of music and their time to a large number of charity concerts in the community. DuBois' students walk many musical roads with their maestro and it is clear when they sing with him that they love what they are doing.

Those of you who have seen them will know the joy of watching them perform both with Mark and on their own. However, whether you have had that pleasure or not, do not miss this concert, for I have it on good authority that they will be offering us a whole new repertoire. Singing music the Studio Singers have not performed before, the program will include classical, show tunes, jazz and popular music - with our own tenor at the helm, keeping us laughing, making us hold back our tears.

The concert, "Singing in the Sun," will also feature the Hockley Children's Choir. They will melt your heart. Mark decided late last year to start a children's choir in Hockley, simply to bring music into the lives of youngsters and compensate them for cuts to the arts budgets within school boards.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at Theatre Orangeville.

Just the fact that there is so much talent, energy and enthusiasm for music and the theatrical arts within our reach is wonderful. The Orangeville area is a veritable Mecca for gifted musicians and vocalists of all ages. What is more, there seems to be almost a renaissance of interest in the theatre for the simple reason that good music and good theatre are back in style.

And so, this fine month of June is replete with entertainment not only of high calibre but coming from within our own community.

Don't miss out on any of it. It is all simply marvellous.