Life In Pleasantville
Food, Travel, Life
The first time I went white water rafting I was 43. If you had told me then that I would still be doing it at 56, and voluntarily, I would have laughed in your face and gone back to my sangria. But here we are. It turns out white water rafting for beginners in Ontario …
I don’t think I’m going to surprise anyone by stating that the world is feeling smaller. For the first time in modern history, instead of continued expansion of where we can go, we’re looking at a contraction. Our choices are being limited either by financial constraints or by threats to our physical safety. With oil …
There are small towns and then there is Merrickville. In 1998, Communities in Bloom named it Canada’s Most Beautiful Village, and the designation is not doing any heavy lifting on its behalf. It genuinely earns it. Victorian stone buildings lining streets that feel untouched by the last hundred years, a UNESCO World Heritage canal running …
I have spent twenty summers figuring out how to survive a heat wave without air conditioning, and I have some thoughts. Because one day it just up and died on me. My central air, that is. Just up and left us without so much as a note. But instead of replacing it, I asked my …
In December of 2022, my ex-husband caused $275,000 worth of damage to my home. On purpose. It’s a long, sordid story that I am actively choosing not to relive right now, but what I can tell you is that I am still fixing it. There is no insurance money. There is no magic renovation budget. …
Nobody was more surprised than me to discover how many things there are to do in Florenceville-Bristol, New Brunswick. If I’m going to be completely transparent with you, it was just a name on a sign I’d been blowing past on my way to Cape Breton for years. Turns out I was dead wrong to …
If you saw a piece of broken glass on the street, you’d step over it. Maybe kick it toward the curb. You certainly wouldn’t pick it up and carry it home. But tumble that same piece of glass in the ocean for fifty years and suddenly it’s a jewel. People will walk kilometres of beach …
Don’t go chasing waterfalls in Cape Breton until you’ve read this. As it turns out, TLC was on to something. Maybe you should stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to, and good news, Cape Breton has those in spades. Because social media will have you believing that chasing waterfalls is easy, …
