https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Co1Iptd4p4 In Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things, producers Matt D’Avella, Ryan Nicodemus and Joshua Fields Millburn go on the road, speaking to people about their way of life and showcasing a more stripped-down,...
A West Coast lighthouse keeper greets summer with open arms.
A former Harrowsmith contributor, for 14 years Dan Needles entertained readers with his tales from the countryside. From 1997 to 2011, his stories about living in rural Canada offered a sweet, funny glimpse into a life that many enjoy, and many more dream of....
You have to pity Victoria Bick and her staff. It's an unseasonably scorching day in late May. The midday sun is a harsh mistress. But, there they are, working in the restored kitchen garden of Dundurn Castle. They move about in long skirts, long sleeves, bonnets and...
Dr. David Suzuki identifies with a hummingbird. The bird is the hero of a South American fable. In the story a forest fire is roaring. All the animals are fleeing the conflagration. Not the hummingbird. It flies towards the inferno with a single drop of water...
Soldiers and veterans are off to the Invictus Games
Just shy of two centuries ago (1828), the Canada Company began surveying Huron Road, part of which included an area where William “Tiger” Dunlop became the first European to plant his surveyor’s stakes in what would become Stratford, Ontario. But as was typically the...
Thanks to its natural bounty, Prince Edward County is home to a thriving farm-to-table scene.
Held this year from July 17 to August 27, the Stratford Summer Music Festival is now in its 17th year, though its roots stretch back to the 1950s, when it was closely associated with the theatre festival. Abandoned in the ’70s and revived here and there over the...
It was back in my early years of elementary school when I first remember seeing one: There, projected on the gymnasium wall, bigger than life, was a Land Rover. The scene was from Born Free, the 1966 film about a couple who were working in a nature reserve in Kenya,...
What do knitting, glee clubs, board games and food preserving have in common? If you guessed the 1950s, you wouldn’t be wrong, but these old-school skills and forms of entertainment are making a big comeback—some might even say they’re “sexy” again. Thanks in part to...
“I believed then, as I do now, in the goodness of the published word: it seemed to contain an essential goodness, like the smell of leaf mould.” – E.B. White If you were to ask me how I experienced nature as a child, my answer would be milkweed. Beyond the park at the...
Outdoor-fire season is here. And while diehards are sure to be seen dusting off their chiminea and oiling up their Weber, a number of Canadians will be looking to break out their tools to create their own firepit this season for a more old-school, back-to-the-land...
Mention the name Stratford, Ontario, to most people, and its annual celebration of Shakespeare is the first thing to come to mind. Though the town has enjoyed a connection with William Shakespeare since Thomas Mercer Jones gave a picture of the Bard to the owner of...
While many a small Canadian town will claim to be a Victorian village, Stratford is without a doubt the real deal: a place where vintage architecture has been lovingly preserved.