It's been a busy summer with a heavy work schedule along with some family responsibilities that have required me to stick close to home. As a result, I cancelled most of my plans to focus on the day-to-day. However, a couple weekends ago Pablo and I woke up on a Monday with a rare free day. A girl needed a day out. One of our go-to day drives is to visit Prince Edward County, an island (or technically a peninsula) located about two-hours east of Toronto or about an hour ea

One of our favourite things to do in Eastern Ontario is to go out for a drive on country roads to explore the many small, picturesque villages. In Mexico they have something called pueblos magicos or magic towns which are towns formally recognized for their beauty, history or legends. It's a lovely idea and Ontario, not just Eastern Ontario, is blessed with many such towns. I'm adopting this concept. Located between Kingston and Ottawa, and just over an hour drive from hom

I stumbled onto Capri, Italy in the 90s in a serendipitous moment during my low budget, university graduation backpacking trip. Those days on the island were an unexpected bolt of lightning, its profound beauty, striking fast and deep. Meanwhile, I blinked, and it was 25 years later. The day Pablo and I set out for Capri I felt nervous at breakfast. Had it really been as beautiful as I remembered, or was it all a figment of my imagination that grew with the decades? We fidge

Kingston, Ontario is both a central gathering point within Eastern Ontario, as well as a central character in my life. Throughout the decades I have come and gone from Kingston. We have loved, and lost, fought, broken up and always made-up. In the end, all roads have led me back to Kingston. At 175,000 inhabitants, it is the biggest city in Eastern Ontario outside of Ottawa. While I would no longer call it tiny Ontario (as a kid Kingston was closer to 60,000), it is the reg

This weekend my youngest kiddo and I went on road trip to Perth, Ontario about an hour from home. The town of Perth, which is split by the Tay River, was founded in 1816, and has a population of about 7000 people. Like much of tiny Ontario it has a bustling Main Street, an impressive Town Hall, and a thoughtfully planned out park. Walking up the main street we noticed the entrance to Stewart Park, which happened to be hosting the Stewart Park Festival, and wandered in. The p

On our recent trip to Greece, we transited through Athens. I always knew we would fly home from Athens, and would spend the final night there, but after miscalculating which day there was a flight from Malta to Greece, we also ended up with a pit stop at the start of the Greek portion of the holiday. With the flights booked, we were supposed to land in Athens at midnight and had a mid-afternoon flight the next day to Rhodes. After briefly contemplating sleeping on the airpo

It's been an atrocious spring for weather - wet and cold. The sun hasn't peered out in ages and it rains constantly. We are waterlogged and grey. People are afraid to leave their nursery plants outside as the temperatures are still in the single digits, at night, and sometimes even in the day. It is miserable. Yesterday in a dry moment we went out for a long walk around town before the sun set. As we walked across the swing bridge toward the town dock, I saw my town town

On our recent trip to Rhodes, we took several days trips in addition to exploring the Old Town. One of those day trips was to a neighbouring island, Symi. With a reputation as being one of the prettiest islands in Greece, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to Island hop for the day. Symi reached the height of its prosperity in the mid-nineteenth century, under Ottoman rule, mostly for its prevalence, of all things, sea sponge diving. During its hay day, beautiful brightly

As a traveller I love travel, both physical and mental. The other day we went to a movie after work to see The Way, My Way, a story about an Australian filmmaker, with a bum knee, who decides to embark on a pilgrimage to walk the Camino de Santiago across Spain. It hits all the notes of a grand adventure - beauty, humour, overcoming challenges and human connection. The Camino commonly begins in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France and transverses the north of Spain. It's 800 ki

When I moved to Mexico in the 90s, one of my favourite things to do was to go shopping. And I don't mean shopping for shoes or designer bags. I loved the everyday shopping for groceries and other necessities. My town had several supermarkets which I frequented but my favourite place was the market, which butted up against the Gulf of Mexico. The fisherman would dock their boats, throwing their catch of the day to the vendors above. I would wake in the morning, heading ou

I've loved a day at the market for a long, long time. Is there anything more beautiful than fresh produce? As a young person when I first started going to museums I didn't understand why people painted bowls of fruit. And yet as I get older I realize I'm guilty. I would have been one of those people who painted bowls of fruit. I have taken literally hundreds of photos of produce in markets. The shapes and the colours are mesmerizing. Thank-you Costa Rica!

As a life long lover of coffee (even though I have recently given up caffeine) I was always intrigued to see how coffee is produced. On my recent trip to Costa Rica we had the opportunity to visit Hacienda Doka, a small production fair trade, coffee farm. Costa Rica produces 100% robusta coffee, a premium type of coffee, as differentiated to arabica coffee which is larger, and grows more quickly. They guided us through the process from seed to cup. The baby plants are kept

In November, I noticed signs for the South Alley Holiday Market. I didn't think much about it. On the day, I was kicking around the house and decided to walk over with no expectations. In Gananoque there are the main streets for the fronts of homes and then alleys in behind the houses which face the backyards of the two corresponding streets. Not having a lot of driveways and garages in front yards, gives the town a lovely nostalgic charm. I stepped onto South Alley that

While I'm not a huge fan of winter, autumn is a fleeting gift. Living in South Eastern Ontario we are blessed with rural landscapes,...

One of the coolest parts of living in Gananoque is the 1000 Islands Playhouse. Labelled Canada's Dockside Theatre it resides in the old Gananoque Canoe Club, right on the St. Lawrence River. Those with neighbouring cottages can literally boat in and dock for the evening. They run about seven shows a year - from spring to fall. According to their website, it is the largest theatre between Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa and they bring in amazing talent from across the country.

My closets will never be more organized than they were partway through the pandemic. I had the joy of coming across my old journal that I...

People have happy places. Some people thrive in cities, others love the suburbs and still others cherish the country life. Each type of environment has a different vibration, or energy. Over the course of the pandemic, I realized that I didn't want to be an empty nester in the suburbs. The suburbs were a fantastic place to raise kids while they were in high school, and for that I'm immensely grateful, but it wasn't my happy place. I grew up in a small town on Lake Ontario, an