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.
What do I carry in a day? Honestly, when I finally empty my pockets, it's more than I realize. My work shifts constantly: design, art direction, illustration, and running a print magazine while maintaining my own art practice, prepping for shows, building new work, keeping the ideas moving. My kit isn't really a kit. I'm more of a crow, collecting as I go – drawn to things that are useful, beautiful, or just too good to leave behind.
Long before 'clean beauty' became a global marketing mantra, Cocoon Apothecary was quietly perfecting plant-based skincare in a basement lab in Waterloo Region.
I recently heard a story about a grandparent who was leaving a hand-written letter detailing the future inheritance of each of her grandchildren. As much as this grandparent wanted to pass down wealth to the next generation, she also wanted to pass down her story and a piece of history with each gift. I thought this was beautiful: her gesture would humanize the process and the gifts and bring focus back to what matters most.
CAMBRIDGE IS WELL ON ITS WAY TO BECOMING OUR REGION’S PREEMINENT WEDDING DESTINATION – AND WORD IS GETTING OUT. THIS SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE. AFTER ALL, THIS IDYLLIC EUROPEAN- ESQUE CITY THAT’S BUILT UP AROUND THE BANKS OF THE MIGHTY GRAND RIVER BOASTS A PLETHORA OF THE KEY INGREDIENTS THAT COUPLES IN LOVE ARE SEARCHING FOR WHEN PLANNING AND LIVING OUT THE DAY OF THEIR DREAMS.
I think I’m in love. No – I know I’m in love. With a small area of London. An enclave, really. It’s called Wortley Village, and it’s the most wonderful amalgam of independently- owned boutiques and galleries and restaurants and pubs and coffee shops – all set against the backdrop of mature tree-lined streets and historic homes and impeccably-dressed flaneurs (many with matching canine pals) in London’s Old South neighbourhood.
In late May the TOQUE team took on the lavish task of completing the trail in a single day (or two). Did we succeed? Was it tasty? What’s bacon popcorn, anyway? Follow along to find out.
‘So, is there something you enjoyed in particular?’, Chef John Forcier (Director of Culinary Operations at Equal Parts Hospitality) asks us once my TOQUE partner Cai and I have had a chance to sample everything spread out before us on a weighty table at the Aberdeen Tavern – a former-bank-turned-posh-eatery located at the foot of Hamilton Mountain.
IMAGINE YOURSELF SIPPING MORNING CAPPUCCINOS ON MAIN STREET WITH A DAILY PAPER. HUNTING FOR FASHIONABLE HOUSEWARE ITEMS AT THE MOST CHARMING LIFESTYLE BOUTIQUE. SHOPPING FOR BREEZY SUMMER DRESSES WHILE ENJOYING A GLASS (OR TWO) OF BUBBLY. SEARCHING OUT THE PERFECT BOUQUET AT THE CUTEST LOCAL FLORIST. CAPPING OFF THE DAY WITH FRESH OYSTERS AND A GLASS OF MUSCADET AT A LOVELY FOUR- SEATER OVERLOOKING THE MIGHTY GRAND.
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.
