Travel Blog

Beau Dixon performs on a grand piano, and is partly reflected in the glossy raised lid

Meet the Musicians—Beau Dixon

April 28, 2022

At the start of 2020, Beau Dixon wasn’t sure where his career was headed. Even as a multidisciplinary artist with credits in music, theatre, and television, the closure of so many performance venues was nerve-wracking. “The first few months were very scary—how’s this going to work, what am I going to do, should I go back to school, you know, take up plumbing,” he recalls. In one of the pandemic’s many unpredictable twists, he found himself working on two prestige TV productions instead. “Weirdly enough, this has been the most successful two years of my life, my career, primarily because I landed a TV series called Station Eleven. I had a substantial role in that and another series, a sci-fi series called The Expanse. So that helped during my rainy days.”

A man in an orange hoodie looks at a bearded man playing guitar

Meet the Musicians—Close Kicks feat. Louwop

April 12, 2022

We’re used to seeing far-off places in our media. New York lofts, tropical beaches, Icelandic vistas—all perks of living in the Internet age. But it can make it all too easy to forget about the scenery and stories in our own backyard. Darryl James’ Close Kicks project is unabashedly local, and there’s a thrill of recognition in his music videos to seeing our landscapes and streets not as stand-ins for another place or era, but as themselves. Speaking to James and his collaborator Luis Segura, aka Louwop, at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, it’s clear their commitment to nurturing the local scene runs deep.

Sign reading STORE outside Red Mill Maple Syrup building

Sweet Spot: How Red Mill Maple Syrup Combines Tradition and Innovation

March 29, 2022

Check the shelves in a grocery store on either side of the country, and you’ll find plenty of foods that taste exactly the same as they do here in Ontario. So many experiences these days are standardized for consistency, it’s a real thrill to find something uniquely tied to a place and a community. That’s

Cale Crowe performs onstage at Victoria Hall

Meet the Musicians—Cale Crowe

March 23, 2022

A mark of professionalism in music is control over dynamics—the understanding of how to move between quiet and loud for maximum impact. Watching Cale Crowe perform, one thing that stands out is his ability to glide smoothly from a whisper to a roar. The singer-songwriter looks relaxed and comfortable onstage at Cobourg’s Victoria Hall, even as he plays stripped-down acoustic versions of his songs without the loop pedals he usually employs to build more complex arrangements. When he steps off stage, he gives credit to the venue for being especially conducive to live music.

Melissa Payne sits beside her guitar in the seats at Market Hall

Meet the Musicians—Melissa Payne

March 15, 2022

Melissa Payne sits in the front row of Peterborough’s Market Hall, having just stepped off stage after a performance of her song “September Skies.” Like every performer in the Meet the Musicians series she has special connection to the venue, but Payne’s story has a fascinating symmetry.

A woman on a stage in a barn plays guitar in front of a mural of a horsedrawn sleigh

Meet the Musicians—Kelly Burrows

March 3, 2022

Music scenes don’t happen automatically. They must be nurtured, week after week and month after month, by disciplined and passionate individuals who offer their energy to the community. They might be musicians themselves, leading a jam or bringing out crowds to a regular residency, or they might be venue owners opening their space to artists. As one of Bobcaygeon’s most active songwriters with a full-time music teaching schedule, Kelly Burrows easily qualifies as a prime mover in the Kawartha Lakes scene.

View down a snowy trail at Ken Reid Conservation Area

Chatting with the Trees: A Walk Through Kawartha Conservation’s Talking Forest

February 9, 2022

Kawartha Conservation’s Talking Forest app uses innovative technology to supplement a walk in the woods.

Four felt puppets play in a jazz quartet, in a still from a Cardboard Reality video

Outside the Box: An Interview with Northumberland’s Cardboard Reality

January 27, 2022

What do permaculture farming and animation have in common? Plenty, if you ask bekky O’Neil and Keith Del Principe, co-owners of Northumberland’s Cardboard Reality Farm & Studio. As animators, they’ve created award-winning stop-motion and 2D animated short films on their farm outside Roseneath. On the same property they’ve grown flowers, raised ducks, and experimented with a range of sustainable agricultural practices, making them the rare business whose output is equally at home at film festivals and the Cobourg Farmers’ Market.

Meet the Makers: Mariposa Woolen Mill & Farm Market

December 15, 2021

Mill & Farm Market Ellen Edney, and farm manager Karyn Boyd, giving a comprehensive answer takes a little extra time. “There’s the Mariposa Woolen Mill and the Farm Market, so we have two different kinds of things happening on the same property,” Edney says. “The farm market is more the retail side of things, offering the location for different artisanal products, foods, local produce, that kind of thing, as well as incorporating agritourism into the farm life here.” The retail business and suite of events offered by Mariposa year-round, however, are in addition to the day-to-day operation of the woolen mill. “We produce all-Canadian product made with Canadian wool, so we do everything from washing other people’s fibres for custom work, to finishing yarns, rovings, that kind of thing… Yeah, we have a lot going on.”

Angela Roest of Centre & Main Chocolate Co. stands in front of a wall of her chocolate bars

Meet the Makers: Angela Roest of Centre & Main Chocolate Co.

December 14, 2021

Is there a connection between fine jewelry and artisanal chocolate? Angela Roest, award-winning chocolatier and owner of Warkworth’s Centre & Main Chocolate Co., thinks so: “It’s the creation of something that will be cherished by somebody else. Giving pleasure, aesthetic or gastronomic.” The connection is more than a metaphor for Roest, who left a career

Closeup of a Christmas ornament containing a glass angel

Christmas Close to Home: 2021 Holiday Gifts and Events

December 7, 2021

It’s Christmastime in Kawarthas Northumberland, and locals are ready to turn up the holiday cheer. With the ups and downs of 2021 highlighting the importance of supporting local, there’s never been a better time to do your holiday shopping close to home, or to connect with the community. Here are just a few of the

Christine Roberts of Modelia stands beside a tailor's dummy that is wearing a deep blue scarf

Meet the Makers: Eco-Conscious Textiles by Modelia

December 7, 2021

“Every time you think you’ve come up with a new way of doing something,” Christine Roberts says, “then I’ll do a little more research and think, ‘oh, well, that’s not really the case, that’s not new at all—they’ve been doing that for hundreds of years.’” Not that she’s complaining. Roberts’ slow fashion brand, Modelia, is

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