Welcome to the first edition of CottageLink Magazine, the literary companion to CottageLink, where renters and owners connect on the Net. While this isn’t a periodical you can read in the bathtub – unless you like living life on the edge – we will be bringing you articles of concern and interest to those who enjoy the cottage lifestyle. We think you’ll like what you see – like you, we’re out to have fun in the great outdoors and this magazine is intended to reflect that.
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My name is Glenn Garnett and I’ll be editing CottageLink Magazine. Although this is my first foray into the world of online magazines, I’ve been a print journalist for over twenty years working on newspapers, magazines and sports and theatre programs. For the past decade, my wife and I have joined friends in sharing a cottage in Tobermory on Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula, an experience I will be sharing with you in an upcoming edition.
My colleague Linda Leatherdale, syndicated financial columnist, business editor of The Toronto Sun, star of her own nationally-broadcast TV show and author of a best-selling books on financial advice, shares her experiences in great getaways to the Canadian outdoors in this debut issue of CottageLink Magazine. But she also offers some insights in the future of cottages as investments, which she says is as sunny as those August days she spends at her family camp on Long Lake near Orillia. (Story #1)
My background in journalism and love of cottaging aren’t the only things that make me uniquely qualified to edit this magazine – I’m also pals with the proprietors of CottageLink, Craig & Kerry White. And what better place to start this new venture than by introducing you to Craig, Kerry & their kids, whose ill-fated experience in renting a cottage the old-fashioned way provides a funny story. But it also gave Craig, a budding Internet entrepreneur, a brainstorm. (Story #2)
Around the same time I met Craig in college, my father had a brainstorm of his own: to fend off the mosquitoes that were spoiling our backyard fun, he was going to attract one of Mother Nature’s most efficient skeeter-scooping systems, the Purple Martin. Alas, wanting and having proved to be two very different things and for years his magnificent Martin Motel only attracted fly-by-night birds of a different colour. It wasn’t until he tried his luck at my Uncle Jack’s cottage in New Brunswick that he won their trust – read about the winged scourge of the bloodsuckers and the dodo who loves them. (Story #3)
And, with apologies to those who love waterskiing or zipping around the lake on their personal watercraft, there are few things more enjoyable than taking a paddle in your canoe. Craig & I recently met some craftsmen who teach the fundamentals of building or repairing canoes. (Story #4)
We hope you enjoy our first edition of CottageLink Magazine and look forward to bringing you more. Remember – this is YOUR magazine. If there’s something you’d like to see or have a question you’d like answer, write us at cottage@cottagelink.com. We’d also like to hear about your favourite cottage experiences to share with your fellow readers. Drop us a line!
Before you sign on the dotted line for that time share vacation property, there's a lot you have to know - consumer writer Maryanna Lewyckyj takes a look at some of the dangers. Also: They're cute and they're curious but they can also be pests - a look at everybody's favourite wildlife bandit, the raccoon. This and more in the May/June edition of CottageLink Magazine.
