Travel tends to sharpen taste. It introduces new ideas, uncovers unforeseen obsessions, and offers the occasional epiphany – nudging your sense of beauty and your grasp of craftsmanship in new directions. For Ryan LeClair, founder of Makoto Watch Company out of London, Ontario, it was travel – and specifically a trip to Japan – that transformed his infatuation with watch collecting into his initiation of a brand built on craft, restraint, and everyday practicality.
Almost nothing we carry defines us more clearly than the books in our bags: tactile objects filled with ideas and stories – testimonies to time well spent. They tag along with us, mark our days, and shape the rhythm of how we move through the world. In Uptown Waterloo, three long-standing independent bookstores – Carry-On Comics & Books (46 years young), Words Worth Books (42 years), and Old Goat Books (25 years) – offer distinct ways to build this bracket of everyday carry: a nostalgia-driven comic haven built for the thrill of discovery, a curated literary hub grounded in conversation, and a densely-packed used bookstore where the search is part of the reward. Together, these enduring fixtures map a reading life – charting not just what we read, but how we come to find it.
In my line of work – as writer, photographer, editor, regional explorer – EDC isn't a trend. It's infrastructure. Most days I'm in motion: tracing backroads toward a brewhouse, mapping my way to an artist's studio, or sliding into the corner of a coffee shop where I turn field notes into final copy and RAW files into photographs that will pop on paper. My office is wherever I set my bag down. My tools make it possible.
With lunchtime queues that regularly spill out the door and wind onto Macdonell Street in downtown Guelph, Crafty Ramen’s owners Jared Ferrall and his partner Miki have what any restauranteurs dream of: early and dramatic success. Our region is undergoing a culinary renaissance, with independent ‘boutique’ establishments like still-newish Crafty Ramen leading the way. In late August, Guelphite Emma Rogers sat down with Jared for some rapid fire questions
During one of several existential crises after graduate school and before ‘life,' I considered becoming a realtor. When I discussed this possibility with a local broker friend, he asked what was holding me back. ‘The overabundance of realtors in the region, for starters,’ I answered. His response has stayed with me: ‘Don’t worry about that,’ he said. ‘There’s always room for the best.’
DISCOVERING LOCAL: GOODFELLOWS FIELD TO FORK
BY CHRIS TIESSEN
‘Try this.’ I look up from the bakery’s beautifully-worn wood counter and see a sharpened four-inch butcher blade...
AARON ZUCCALA: THE MOST AWESOME PERSON YOU SHOULD KNOW
BY CHRIS TIESSEN
Aaron Zuccala is not a household name. Not yet, anyways.
For the past decade he has flown...
PLANET REALTY: AN UNCOMMON, EXCEPTIONAL APPROACH
by Chris Tiessen
I once asked a real estate broker friend of mine to describe a typical relationship between brokers. He...
Travel tends to sharpen taste. It introduces new ideas, uncovers unforeseen obsessions, and offers the occasional epiphany – nudging your sense of beauty and your grasp of craftsmanship in new directions. For Ryan LeClair, founder of Makoto Watch Company out of London, Ontario, it was travel – and specifically a trip to Japan – that transformed his infatuation with watch collecting into his initiation of a brand built on craft, restraint, and everyday practicality.
Almost nothing we carry defines us more clearly than the books in our bags: tactile objects filled with ideas and stories – testimonies to time well spent. They tag along with us, mark our days, and shape the rhythm of how we move through the world. In Uptown Waterloo, three long-standing independent bookstores – Carry-On Comics & Books (46 years young), Words Worth Books (42 years), and Old Goat Books (25 years) – offer distinct ways to build this bracket of everyday carry: a nostalgia-driven comic haven built for the thrill of discovery, a curated literary hub grounded in conversation, and a densely-packed used bookstore where the search is part of the reward. Together, these enduring fixtures map a reading life – charting not just what we read, but how we come to find it.
In my line of work – as writer, photographer, editor, regional explorer – EDC isn't a trend. It's infrastructure. Most days I'm in motion: tracing backroads toward a brewhouse, mapping my way to an artist's studio, or sliding into the corner of a coffee shop where I turn field notes into final copy and RAW files into photographs that will pop on paper. My office is wherever I set my bag down. My tools make it possible.
Stratford – and, by extension, Perth County – lends itself to takeaway. A coffee to carry, a sandwich in hand, something sweet tucked alongside – then out into the streets for window shopping, into the theatres for a performance, or down to the riverbank for a nosh.
