Where the Story Continues

For many years I wrote here about life on a small coastal island in Nova Scotia — raising four children, navigating the rhythms of the Northumberland Strait, and slowly building a life connected to this place.

Our time on Pictou Island began as a family seasonal retreat, a place to step away and spend long stretches of time near the water.

Over time, that quiet experiment in island living grew into what is now Kirribilli EcoRetreat.

Along the way, the writing grew too.

What began as reflections about island life gradually became something larger — the foundation of my upcoming memoir, Islands Within Us, and a growing collection of essays about resilience, motherhood, leadership, and the quiet ways life reshapes us.

Because of that, my writing has moved to a new home.

Islands Within

I now publish my writing on Substack in a publication called Islands Within.

Unlike traditional social media, Substack is a quieter place to read — there are no ads, no algorithm-driven feeds, and no endless scrolling. It feels more like browsing a thoughtful magazine, where readers can linger with an essay rather than rush past it.

There I share weekly writing about:

• life on a small island in the Northumberland Strait
• raising a family close to nature
• the quiet exhaustion many capable women carry
• leadership rooted in trust rather than control
• resilience, healing, and rebuilding after trauma
• the deeper story behind Kirribilli EcoRetreat

Many of the ideas behind our retreats begin in these essays.