Like entering the home of an old friend, Return to Holly Cottage is a second collection of stories from the beloved 1878 stone farmhouse, otherwise known as “the house that hugs you.” Located in Canada’s southern Georgian Bay near the famous Bruce Trail, Holly Cottage was a beloved country Bed & Breakfast frequented by fascinating guests and surrounded by quirky neighbours.Some guests were looking for love, others for a bit of peace and quiet. One particularly memorable Italian-spe...

Cottage Daze celebrates life at the cottage where the cottage is the main character, and family, friends, pets, and fellow cottagers are the supporting cast. Whether writing about cottage routine ("First Ski," "Of Mice and Men," "Cottage Guests"), cottage tasks ("Splitting Wood," "Boat Launch"), nature ("A Gathering of Loons," "The Sting," "Autumn Spell"), cottage fun ("The Cottage Duel"), or cottage touchstones ("Start the Day," "Bonfire," "The Perfect Storm"), the stories are to...

Reflections on country life on Canada's eastern coast: "Gentle humor and prose as clear and lilting as the song of the hermit thrush at dusk." —Deborah Carr, author of Sanctuary: The Story of Naturalist Mary MajkaSara Jewell has lived at eighteen different addresses—but there was one that remained constant: Pugwash Point Road in rural Nova Scotia. She was nine years old the first time her family vacationed in the small fishing village about an hour from th...

A WATERSTONES BEST HOME & LIFESTYLE BOOK OF 2023***This is a guide to a life well-lived. It is about the wonder of the everyday and the lessons that age brings.Wear stripes. Eat chocolate. Don’t leave empty-handed.But also embrace change, let go of what doesn’t matter and take care of something or someone other than yourself.**The Swedish Art of Ageing Well is a gentle and welcome reminder that, no matter yo...

As its title implies, In the Beginning There Was Chaos follows John and Elly Patterson as they tackle the everyday joys and sorrows--and surprises and frustrations and challenges--that arise when raising a young family. In her second For Better or For Worse treasury, Lynn Johnston takes readers back to the 1980s, when Elly leaves her column for a job at the library. As Elly chases her professional goals, she struggles with spending less time at home. Meanwhile, John provi...

Since its debut in 1979, For Better or For Worse has touched comic strip readers as few cartoons ever do. Lynn Johnston's eye for detail and her uncanny sense of what real parents and children struggle with daily are a big part of her success. The comic strip now appears in 1,550 papers in the U.S. and Canada. Read by people of all ages, the award-winning For Better or For Worse deals honestly with both the light-hearted and the serious, and to many readers, the Patterson...

Hamilton Spectator columnist Paul Benedetti’s essays paint a wonderfully funny portrait of family life today.Paul Benedetti has a good job, a great family, and successful neighbours — but that doesn’t stop him from using it all as grist for a series of funny, real, and touching essays about a world he can’t quite navigate.Benedetti misses his son, who is travelling in Europe, misplaces his groceries, and forgets to pick up his daughter at school. H...

Everyone needs things to look forward to: big things and small things, on good days and on bad days, whether we actively create delight for ourselves or simply allow it to enter our lives.In these pages, beloved author and illustrator Sophie Blackall has gathered a collection of joys for all of us—reminders that every day the sun comes up and new babies are born. She includes suggestions that you bake muffins for a friend, or draw a face on an egg and put it in the...

Sex and the City meets Martha Stewart in this savvy and eclectic interior-design manifesto for high-flying chicks with nesting fantasies from the authors of the bestselling Swell: A Girl's Guide to the Good Life.In their first breakthrough style manual, fashion designer Cynthia Rowley and former New York Times Sunday Styles editor Ilene Rosenzweig showed girls-on-the-go how to navigate the world with a little swagger and a lot of grace. Now they're taking ...

In this award-winning, true-life tale for gardeners, nature-lovers, and dreamers of all ages, Little Farm in the Foothills follows a midlife couple’s pursuit of the “new” Great American Dream—living closer to the land—as Susan and her husband John start growing their own organic food, living more simply, and transforming an old clearcut into a little homestead.For the fifty-somethings, figuring out how to raise food on their logging slash-covered property seemed like a mod...

An ancestry test suggesting she shared some DNA with the Sámi people, the indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic tundra, tapped into Laura Galloway's wanderlust; an affair with a Sámi reindeer herder ultimately led her to leave New York for the tiny town of Kautokeino, Norway. When her new boyfriend left her unexpectedly after six months, it would have been easy, and perhaps prudent, to return home. But she stayed for six years.Dálvi is the story of Laura's time in a reindee...

Whether your home is an apartment, a house, or a condo -- rented or owned -- the 101 stories in this book all about the place you call home will warm your heart.Home is where the heart is. Be it your childhood home or where you lay your head now, you will find joy, laughter, and inspiration in these 101 stories about cooking, family meals, decorating, remodeling, repairing... everything we do to make a home.