Cottage Life

Follow us on: It’s time to listen up! Host Michelle Kelly is hard at work on season three of The Cottage Life Podcast. Exciting guests are in the mix, including the makers of our loon documentary (see p. 97) and the producer of Life Below Zero Canada. Catch up on seasons one and two, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. That’s a wrap (for now) A big thank you to everyone who attended our in-person spring consumer shows in Toronto and Ottawa. We had some great conversations, and we’re bursting with new story ideas. If you were too shy to say hi, we would still love to connect: edit@cottagelife.com. See you in the fall! The wild, wild west Cool show alert—a new season of Merchants of the Wild is coming to the Cottage Life channel.…

Rob Csernyik Six years ago, Rob Csernyik was spending his days at a home-goods store he owned. “During quiet hours, I would read magazines and a lot of great journalism. I thought to myself, You’ve always had an interest in writing. Why not try it out?” So eventually, Rob sold his store, completed a journalism program, and started writing professionally. You can read his work in “Years in the Making” (p. 64), where he shares his passion for a cottage classic: coffee. “We think of making coffee at the cottage with an old percolator,” he says. “But this is about enhancing the experience and having a coffee bar at the cottage.” Rob used to work as a barista, so we trust him with our favourite morning ritual. Rob is the editor…

“WHAT DO YOU DO?” You can’t swing a dead raccoon around Toronto without hitting someone asking this question. “I work for Cottage Life,” I always respond. Then the conversation, predictably, goes one of a few ways, but when it’s a cottager doing the asking, I can tell immediately. Something in the way they lean forward slightly, their eyes lighting up, as if I’ve just revealed that I have a basket of kittens behind my back and do they want to see? Their whole demeanour takes on an air of anticipation—they can’t wait to tell me all about their special place. They also can’t wait to hear all about our special place. What is it like to work at Cottage Life? Is our office at the cottage? (No, but I can see Lake…

Stay the course I enjoyed reading “Off the Map” in the May ’22 issue. I’ve been lost right behind our lake home three times but have always managed to get back. That first time prepared me to find my way home much faster when it happened again, once after logging had removed the trees and once hiking with a friend. My first experience was the summer I was on maternity leave with a four-month-old baby. It was blueberry season, and I wanted to go picking. My mother-in-law offered to take care of my son, so off I went, saying I’d be back in an hour or so. I headed north across a rail line behind our cottage. I then decided to head off the trail towards the west, searching for a good…

HAVE YOU NOTICED that during this pandemic, masks have become the new rearview mirror decoration? I’ve liked that, because masks have replaced the dream catcher as regularly featured mirror decor, a choice that has bugged me for years. Along with headdresses, the dream catcher is one of the most appropriated and exploited Indigenous symbols. There are lots of dream catcher tattoos out there. Miley Cyrus has one. Now, there are claims to Cherokee ancestry in her family, and that might be true, but guess what? Dream catchers aren’t actually from the Cherokee. Whoops. Whoever you are, if you’re going to display a dream catcher, you should at least know its meaning, value, and symbolism to the appropriate Indigenous people. I’ll get you started. The dream catcher is a part of the…

1 The Dunkley family on Six Mile Lake was featured in your ENTERTAINING SPECIAL SECTION (JUNE ’99). Last September marked the 100th anniversary of our property being transferred to Rosamond Duff, who had left it to younger siblings in the ’60s, splitting the lot into two pieces. By the ’90s, the larger piece had been transferred to three brothers, who set up a trust to preserve the property for the enjoyment of the family. (I am one of three trustees, and I’m married to one of the beneficiaries.) Since the 1999 article, we’ve lost generations one and two, and some of generation three, but Gen Four has grown up and is adding Gen Five members, so we are still growing. Google calendar, email, and WhatsApp have made it easier to…