I’m Dining Out Here
by Andrew Sprague

I’m a big fan of happy hour on Fridays. The end of the week comes and I almost always make my way out for a couple of pints after work. For me, it’s a great way to finish the week, and a great way to wind down. Most Fridays I see the same guys at the same place. But a couple of times over the last two months, I’ve ditched the boys for happy hour with the
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The Cove Journal
by JoDee Samuelson

On this frozen winter morning with the north wind urging me to stay indoors, I decide to step out and visit some elder residents of the Cove, Charles and Myrtle MacNevin.

Charles MacNevin was born here, in the house where he has lived out his 84 years. I meet him coming out the door on his way to fetch firewood. “That’s okay, I can do it later,” he
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Wyatt Heritage Properties offers resources to home owners

Summerside Scene
by Peggy Miles

Heritage…history…the past…some people find it hard to connect to these terms. But imagine if you live in one of PEI’s grand historic homes—all of a sudden history comes alive under your own nose. Oh the stories those walls could tell.

History buffs and heritage preservationists know that the past contains
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One Great Thing
by Ann Thurlow

I always try to buy local—but I draw the line at olive oil. Until there are olive trees in the Bonshaw hills, I’ll make the biweekly trek to Norman Sahely’s store. On this day he says “Oh, you’re buying olive oil? Look!” And out from under the counter comes his phone. He pages through google earth to show me the olive groves that surround his birthplace,
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Profile: Arnold Smith

by Jane Ledwell

With roots in Pleasant Valley that go back to 1780, Arnold Smith can stand on a hill and in one direction see where his father was born; in another, where his mother was born. He can point to the home places of four grandparents, all eight great-grandparents, “and a good part,” he says, of his 16 great-great-grandparents. “When this side married that
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The Cove Journal
by JoDee Samuelson

The landscape is brown and gold with a few welcome crimson highlights of rosehips, Nova Scotia hollyberries and wild apples. Chrismas lights disappear too quickly, leaving the night landscape bleak and introspective. How long ago summer seems.

A sharp-shinned hawk sits on the phone line contemplating breakfast possibilities. Canada geese, reluctant to leave,
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In Her Own Write
by Ann Thurlow

When we hear the word “sustainability” these days, we tend to think of things like water conservation or economic development. Certainly, these are important. But many things feed into the need for a city, for example, to be able to flourish and support its citizens—without using everything up.

So can the arts sustain a city? Probably not—not completely anyway.
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I’m Dining Out Here
by Andrew Sprague

I feel a little embarrassed. I do my best to cover as much of the Island’s restaurant scene as possible and I try to make sure few stones are left unturned. I admit, there are a couple of dozen restaurants spread all over the Island that I haven’t been to at all, and many more I haven’t written about. I tend to be a little Charlottetown centric, but if I
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The Cove Journal
by JoDee Samuelson

What are these curious alpacas doing in the Cove? They’re standing in for camels in our first ever Living Nativity in the Cove.

A Living Nativity is a leap of imagination, a star above a lowly stable, the warm smell of farm animals, it is sheep and cows and yes, alpacas peering over the gate. It is a baby in the manger wrapped in swaddling clothes, Mary,
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Summerside Scene
by Peggy Miles

A stroll around Summerside Farmers’ Market

I’ve been telling myself that this is the year I’m going to make handmade holiday gifts for my family and friends. Who am I kidding? That’s not going to happen. As I ponder this thought, I realize that the next best thing is to take a trip to the farmers’ market to find items from local artisans that can be wrapped
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I’m Dining Out Here
by Andrew Sprague

Over the last ten years there’s been a dramatic jump in the number of high end restaurants in Charlottetown. From Sim’s Corner to Lot 30 it’s hard to turn a corner in this city without passing a restaurant whose dinner menu items average well above twenty dollars a plate. That might be peanuts in a place like Montreal or Vancouver, but here on the
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Cove Journal
by JoDee Samuelson

With our gardens put to bed for the winter, we turn to grocery store shelves for fresh fruit and vegetables. Where do those beautifully packaged strawberries come from?

California.

Your trusty correspondent had the good fortune to be in California recently, in Watsonville, south of Santa Cruz. This city is a tiny dot on the map, yet (unlike the dots on a PEI map)
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