The fall is a wonderful season in Canada. The air is fresher, the sky seems bluer, flower and vegetable gardens offer us their last hoorah of growth and abundance, and the mosquitoes finally give us respite. It’s also a great time to travel, so in mid September four of us from Kingston Cohousing embarked on an adventure of fun and discovery. Part of building a cohousing community is getting to know one another. We know we need to spend quality time together, especially as we don’t all live in Kingston yet.
We faced each day gently to explore the bustling yet charming city of Halifax, meeting and making friends every day. We strolled through the oldest Victorian garden in the country, where the dahlias were stunning, and took the Harbour Hopper tour around the city on land and water (highly recommended!). Seeing Maud Lewis’ house and art was heart warming, and visiting Pier 21, the immigration museum, was sobering.
We reserved a full day for our road trip to Bridgewater’s newly established community. Kathy Horton, a former Kingstonian, was our gracious host. She and several members of the community welcomed us with a delicious home-made lunch. Being in the forming stage of our own project, we had many questions which were met with generous and forthright answers. They shared their knowledge and experiences, recommendations and tips concerning the struggles, insights and successes in creating their completed intentional community.
We had a full tour of the complex inside and out, visiting several of the common areas where people gather to cook, eat, work and play in small and large groups. A couple of families welcomed us into their private quarters, allowing us to see the design and workmanship that makes each unit efficient and personal inside and out, where gardens beautify the ongoing project of the ‘green’.
Ground level utility buildings serve multiple purposes, offering storage for the community’s bicycles, tricycles and outdoor toys (for kids big and small), camping gear and household extras like large kitchen gadgets, that are shared, library style. We also saw shared laundry facilities, indoor play areas for the 18 resident children, and common yoga/exercise space. Elsewhere on the property, beside an abundant garden is an impressive workshop with an array of tools required to keep improving their living environment. The buildings are surrounded by a vast acreage of forest land, yet it is a short walking distance into the town’s centre.
Our visit ended with tea and banana bread baked in Kathy and Clara’s lovely unit. We left with our heads full of excitement, discussion and ideas to implement our own plans for the cohousing project in Kingston.
On our way back to Halifax, we took a right turn towards the lovely town of Lunenburg where we strolled the waterfront to catch a glimpse of the not to be missed Blue Nose ship and enjoyed a seaside sunset meal. What a great way to nurture friendships!
For more about Treehouse Village, check out their website.
Stay tuned for news of Lesley’s visit to Wolf Willow Cohousing in Saskatoon!