Cottage Life

The go-to source for cottagers, the award-winning Cottage Life offers valuable advice as well as profiles, how-to articles, recipes, essays, issues pieces, and lifestyle stories that help readers look after their cottages, entertain guests and, of course, kick back and have fun.

S’more stuff • How you can read, watch, stream, share, and visit— Cottage Life is everywhere!

Contributors

Cottage Life

The best job in cottage country

Your letters

Waterfront • Long-weekend season is here! Let’s celebrate, shall we?

The meaning of a dream catcher

Cheeky chipmunk pictures • Three-plus decades of photo contests and thousands of chipmunk pics have taught us:

The history of the s’more • Every cottager’s favourite campfire treat has come a long way, baby! It all began with the marshmallow…

Here’s what happened to cottagers we featured in the • LAST YEAR, WE asked to hear about cottagers and cottages that had been previously featured in the pages of CL (“Whatever Happened To…” Waterfront, Aug/Sept ’21). Thanks for the updates, guys! Oh, and thanks for sticking with us all these years—we couldn’t have done it without your stories.

Invasive spider migration; Muskie statue revamp, and

The best butter tarts in cottage country • In our October 1991 issue, we ran a story on cottage country’s best butter tarts (“The Great Butter Tart Hunt”). Twenty years later, we asked you on social media: who makes the best butter tarts? (“That’s a question that has many answers,” as one Facebook responder pointed out.)*

Magazine mix-up: Over the years our magazine has be

A tiny getaway in the Gulf Islands at an affordable price

How to manage a joint cottage—stress-free

41 cottage upgrades you can do in a weekend • We know, we think of everything, and we have since 1988.

Cottage Q&A: turtle protection, humidity solutions, and deer whistles • How can we protect these turtles?

Discouraging the DIY enthusiast with poor execution • Sharing the family retreat with keen cottage putterers is a win! Unless these well-meaning relatives don’t possess any useful skills

The psychology behind our urge to collect • Rocks, shells, Canadiana, salt and pepper shakers, Jadeite kitchenware—whether priceless or worthless, cottages house precious objects of all kinds. But why do we collect? There’s some surprising psychology behind our urge to gather

Meet the grandmother who spends her summers alone on a remote island in Georgian Bay • She punches bears. Her grandkids call her “the inappropriate grandmother.” And she’s reigned over northern Georgian Bay for decades

The best Cottage Life moments over the past 35 years • WE’RE CELEBRATING 35 YEARS OF COTTAGE LIFE BY REVISITING SOME NOTABLE MOMENTS IN OUR HISTORY

Rewriting the next chapter after the loss of my wife • We were going to retire to the lake together, but life had other ideas

The best Cottage Life recipes according to our contributors • Celebrate 35 years of fabulous feasting with our top chefs as they share their best memories, secret regrets, and, of course, their go-to recipes (plus the dish our readers can’t stop making!)

A profile of the Common Loon • How well do you know this cottage-country icon? Our favourite (and famous) Canadian bird is anything but common

Stunning sunsets in cottage country • Thank you for a beautiful 35 years, cottagers. Here’s to many more cotton-candy skies and colourful stories.