Indholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2025 i Cottage Life

*TAP* add to cart We’ve heard your pleas—we’re happy to announce that CL merch will soon be available for purchase online! If you weren’t able to find your size at our last consumer show or you need a gift idea, we’ve got you covered. Stay tuned for more info about the launch this summer. New TV series premiere It might not be true crime, but the Cottage Life channel’s newest mystery docuseries is still worth obsessing over. In each episode of Mysteries Decoded, host and private investigator Jennifer Marshall delves into some of history’s longest-lingering mysteries using high-tech tools and newly discovered evidence. From Area 51 to the Salem Witch Trials, you can learn something new in every episode. Watch the premiere Sunday, June 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on…

YOU DON’T NEED to be a child—or a foraging fan—to enjoyThe Land Knows Me: A Nature Walk Exploring Indigenous Wisdom(becker&mayer! kids; $26). Part storybook and part reference book, the new hardcover from Leigh Joseph, an author and an Indigenous ethnobotanist from coastal B.C., is entertaining, informative, and beautifully illustrated. Young readers follow the characters on a forest walk, learning English and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) plant names and nature terms. The second half of the book includes 15 plant profiles, tips for safe and sustainable foraging, and details on how to use certain wild plants. For example, how to make Kwílayus (red-flowering currant) honey and how to freeze Skw’ekwchsáý (red huckleberries) to use in baking. It’s two books in one! And it’s way prettier than an ordinary field guide. (No offence, Peterson.)…

THEIR NUMBERS ARE UP According to a March report from the World Wildlife Federation, Mexico’s winter 2024-25 monarch butterfly population was double that of the previous year. Eastern North America’s monarchs spend October to March in the same dozen or so forested sites in central Mexico, and, the WWF, in partnership with Mexico’s National Commission of Protected Natural Areas, surveys the population every year during the last two weeks of December. This past winter, monarchs occupied 4.42 acres of habitat, compared to 2.22 acres in winter 2023-24. (Experts believe that favourable weather conditions along migration routes helped boost butterfly numbers.) It’s good news, but not great news. “Populations remain far below the long-term average,” said the WWF in a press release. THEM’S BITING WORDS A recent study from a team…

OUR COTTAGE’S CIRCA-1973 ugly panelling is begging for a facelift. Sure, we could rip down the panels, install drywall, tape, mud, sand, and paint. But could we skip all that work and make that brown sadness disappear with just paint? Before getting started, I consulted Rory Gaffney, the owner of About Painting in Calgary, about some tricky cottage surfaces. 1 APPLIANCES Painting an old white fridge a bold colour or refreshing its yellowed plastic handle is DIYable. After cleaning the surface with dish soap and scuffing it with a fine-grit sanding sponge, use a direct-to-metal spray paint. “Do four or five thin coats, and scuff between coats,” advises Gaffney. The same paint (check the label) may also work on the handle. If not—or if you want a contrasting colour—remove it and…

“WHEN IT’S JUST my husband and me,” says Andrea Buckett, “mornings are slow. We ease into the day.” Other times, her family cottage in Haliburton, Ont., is bursting with people—but she has breakfast strategies, below, to calm those mornings too. Andrea, who appears on The Good Stuff with Mary Berg and shares leftover-friendly, “What the hell am I going to do with this?” recipes on social media, has three criteria for a cottage dish: simplicity, seasonality, and sentimentality. USE WHAT YOU HAVE “My cottage breakfasts are more seasonal than they are at home, because we have to use everything we just picked up at the farmers’ market,” says Andrea. Last night’s leftovers also get used in the morning meal—whether it’s grilled vegetables as a side dish, or sausages and potatoes…

NESTLED BEHIND RHODODENDRON bushes, at the end of a gravel road in remote Huntington Point, N.S., sits a cluster of four whimsical huts covered in colourful stones resembling gumdrops. On one, the verandah roof is hoisted up by what appear to be tree trunks sprouting from the ground. One glimpse of the fairytale forms—which look like life-sized versions of something a child might fashion out of clay—could make you suspect you’re dreaming. Yet, blink, rub your eyes, open them again, and take a closer look. The cottage that looks like it is spun from sugar is actually made of solid concrete—delicate in appearance but potentially sturdy enough to survive a bomb blast. For almost a century, these peculiar structures have stoked the curiosity of passersby. But, despite their singularity, mention…

JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE an off-grid cottager, that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve a decent cup of coffee in the morning. You might, in fact, really need it: in rustic conditions, when it’s early, and you’re tired, and there are chores to do…even mediocre coffee is still pretty good coffee. Here are three novel products to keep that precious java flowing. IF YOU DRINK POUR-OVER COFFEE, TRY… Six Cup Classic Chemex $70, chemex-canada.ca The vessel is made with Borosilicate glass, which resists thermal shock. (It’s the material used for most lab glassware. So you’ll be making your coffee in a really fancy beaker! You’ll be a cool nerd.) BEST FOR Coffee snobs—er, connoisseurs. IF YOU DRINK COFFEE-MACHINE COFFEE, TRY… Makita 18V LXT Coffee Maker $180, makita.ca Sure, it looks like a…

WHEN YOU’RE SINGING to yourself, “I’ll have a little piece of toast,” but the toaster handle won’t stay latched, do you trash the toaster and butter some raw bread? No, because cottagers fix stuff. Or at least, they try. The latch needs electricity to work: check that the toaster is plugged in and there’s power at the receptacle. Inspect the toaster’s cord for damage, though that’s not a common cause of a lazy latch. Next, you need to access the latch mechanism. Unplug the toaster. To remove the metal or plastic shell covering the appliance innards, start by pulling the knob off the latch lever. Flip the toaster, and remove any screws securing the base (look for hidden ones under rubber feet). You may also need to winkle open a…

A GREAT DECK is so much more than a place to park the barbecue. It’s where you sip your coffee and let the day get away from you, a perfect perch for a spot in the shade with a page-turner, a sheltered view to an epic rainstorm, the headquarters for hours-long board games with the kids. These three well-designed decks capture all these moments and more. Use the sun and shade The site (above, and p. 47) on a remote off-grid island in southwestern B.C., was intimately familiar to the homeowners long before they built their cabin: the first summer they purchased the property, they camped here in a canvas-walled tent—its posts made from driftwood pulled off the beach—on a temporary deck platform designed by architect Laura Killam. “They were…

SCAPTIA BEYONCEAE Type of bug Horsefly Named after Beyoncé Why Its abdomen is tipped with golden hairs. Basically…it has abutt made of gold. PRESEUCOILA IMALLSHOOKUPIS Type of bug Gall wasp Named after Elvis Presley, specificallyhis 1957 song “I’m All Shook Up” Why Unclear. Gall wasps are plant parasites (they lay their egg inside them). Elvis probably didn’t do that. BAETURIA LAURELI AND BAETURIA HARDYI Type of bug Cicadas Named after ComediansStan Laurel and Oliver Hardy Why Because cicadas arehilarious! Fine—not intentionally. But they’re known for beingbumbling, clumsy fliers. SICODERUS BAUTISTAI Type of bug Weevil (a kindof long-snouted beetle) Named after Former Blue Jays player José Bautista Why The baseball-fan scientist wanted to pay tribute to Bautista’s history-making bat flip. (You’re welcome, José.) BATHYNOMUS VADERI Type of bug Water bug Named…

WHEN HE GOT to the last item on the agenda for the Opinicon Property Owners’ Association meeting, Guy Valentine, the association’s secretary, asked the attendees if there was any other business. There was: a request for a little free library on the Eastern Ontario Lake. Guy wasted no time, repurposing leftovers—pre-varnished pine from his sister’s porch reno and shingles from a shed roof—to build what has become a popular spot for cottagers to leave a book (or take one). Guy keeps the roadside attraction tidy. “The number of people who use it is gratifying,” he says. The library is supported by a 6x6 cedar post that sits on a braced base, weighted with rocks for stability. It’s survived several winters, with only minor realigning required. To promote air flow around…

Q: I’ve been on a lake in the Kawarthas for more than 60 years. Last summer, there seemed to be an abundance of watersnakes descending on my waterfront. Frogs too, seemed to be more plentiful, which I am sure contributed to the snake population. Should I expect another summer of higher-than-normal snake activity this year? How can I get them to go somewhere else?—Rick Seto, via email A: To answer your first question…that’s pretty impossible to know. While some wildlife can boom and bust in predictable cycles, often because of a tight-knit predator and prey relationship, this doesn’t necessarily happen with snakes. Watersnakes eat a variety of prey, so the snake increase probably isn’t tied to an abundance of frogs. When snake populations change from one season to the next,…

MARK SCHATZKER ON naked truths I BLAME MY children. The 3 a.m. diaper changes. The Ferberizing. The teenage years. Tuition. Driving lessons. Their taste in “music.” By the time my kids were through with me, a one-time champion of slumber, I had become a sleep-starved, bleary-eyed zombie. A typical night: I go to bed at eleven, doze fitfully until three, get up to pee, and then stare at the ceiling until 6:45 a.m., when the dog comes in to remind me that it’s time for the day’s first session of fetch. As I haul myself out of bed, the one thought I have—the one thought that will hang over me like a cloud for the rest of the day—is that I can’t wait to go back to bed. Sixteen hours…

A yellow-on-yellow image of a chair and hanging fabric—in the Macdonald Cottage, p. 81—is a “monochromatic moment” that does lots of storytelling, says photographer Carolina Andrade. “The quilts, the blankets, the variety of fabrics in the cottage were all picked by someone. It’s very intentional, this interior design,” she says. Getting this shot, despite thick concrete walls and small windows, meant being there when the low-angle morning light emphasized the contrast in texture. “The wicker is very tactile in front of the smooth drapery with its pops of tiny, red strawberries,” says Carolina. “It’s beautiful, it’s bright, and it’s a happy note.” Good morning, sunshine.…