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

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

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

As old man winter wears on, it reminds me of one of my favourite places, Quebec City. My favourite way to arrive in the city is to ride the rails. In our case, we travel to Montreal, changing trains, to connect to Quebec City. The journey takes a day. This is slow travel. Stepping off the train in Montreal you feel the change; there is a different vibe to Ontario, a feeling that runs deeper than simply arriving in a French speaking province. After a quick lunch we boarded t

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

As a young girl, around seven or eight years old, my grandparents took my brother and I to Niagara Falls from our small town in the Eastern side of Ontario, Canada. It’s not as though I’d never left home but it was the first time I ever travelled anywhere specifically as a tourist . The week leading up to the trip I floated on cloud nine, writing my packing lists and preparing my suitcase with precision. My grandparents turned the backseat of the car into a fort with pillows

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.

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