My six year old knows what he likes. Shoes that make him run faster. His bike. Any sort of digging utensil. And – ever since he got a taste of the sweet nectar at his Oma and Opa’s house – apple cider. Hot. Cold. Room temperature. It doesn’t matter much. Because, as he’s declared: ‘It just makes me happy.’ It certainly does.
era66 is the creation of life and business partners Kip and Alexa (Lux) Perry – two talented, focused, and innovative craftsfolk whose growing company is one of Guelph’s most amazing treasures. These business owners share common passions of accomplished creativity, a sense of autonomy, and a love for creating custom furniture with modern functionality – coined #midcenturymodern. TOQUE recently sat down with Kip and Lux in their expansive workshop in Guelph’s ‘The Ward’ neighbourhood to talk shop.
When the English writer H.G. Wells remarked, ‘Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race,’ he could very well have been thinking about someone like Guelph resident Terry Manning who, at 69 years of age, made a herculean fifty-day cross-continent odyssey that raised $33,000 for Guelph General Hospital.
I have a theory about what makes a thriving coffee shop – those gorgeous spaces that continue to spring up throughout our region into bastions of good conversation. And company. And community.
And it’s got very little to do with coffee.
Bridge. The. Gap. Three seemingly ineffectual words. And yet, for Guelph Y Wellness Co-ordinator Chris Seftel, they’re powerful words that – when placed together – serve as a profound mantra that drives Chris’ every day at the Guelph Y. Bridging the gap.
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.
