Hilary Farr

Many families are planning summer vacations and in Canada, camping is a very popular way to spend those long summer nights! My camping experiences have been miserable. Beginning with my mother sending us off for summer camping with Forest School Camps. I swear the tents were WW1 army surplus. Heavy, leaky, canvas. English summer being what they are, I endured squelchy, wet, cold, miserable weeks under the canvas. The food was horrible. I have memories of porridge for breakfast that had a consistency of mortar. We should have built a house rather than try to eat it! In spite of…

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Students, school’s back from summer, and the time has come to sit inc lassrooms across the country and learn things that will matter in your life and so much that will be totally irrelevant. It’s not easy being a student today. The pressure is on to succeed. You need some relief — try Learning-For-The-Sake-Of-It which can discovered and nurtured by…books! I was a rebellious student, called up in assembly almost every week for some misdemeanour, lots of time on the Headmistress’s office for what must have been, in retrospect, annoying behaviour. What saved me from total academic failure and overwhelming…

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March 20th was the first day of spring. I have heard the odd flock of geese flying in, and I even saw what I think was something green poking out of my garden bed, which I’m hoping is a tulip. Spring is my favourite season and always feels way overdue after the long winter here in Canada. Right now, winter is still with us. As I write this today, March 24th, Toronto has, ” A Severe Winter Storm Warning” in effect. Dismal, grey skies and freezing rain turning to snow. It’s upside down: The old saying, March comes in like…

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I love fashion and I love interior design. There are times when the two worlds collide but more often than not, they go side by side in tandem. What influences each is a mystery, but I believe sometimes there is a perfect storm where we look back to archives searching for inspiration that will resonate with the mood out there today by echoing a past that lies hidden in our subconscious. The perfect example is Harris Tweed, which is back in a big way. It has crossed all lines of design. I grew up in England. My school coat was…

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