Editor’s Desk

Behind the pages: Many of our contributors are otherwise actively engaged in the life of community.

I’m also genuinely impressed by all the good environmental work done by the likes of Dufferin Northern Peel Anglers and Hunters Association and Ducks Unlimited.

Every column and feature in the magazine passes through this filter: What does it tell us about the place we call home and the people who live here?

We’re lucky to have some exceptional writers contributing their talents to In The Hills, and this year four of them have published books.

I recently asked my 12-year-old granddaughter what makes her most pessimistic about the future.

Gardening has always been one of my greatest pleasures, but my efforts were, and remain, of the “weekend gardener” variety.

The Syrian refugee children who have settled in Headwaters give us reason to be optimistic for 2017 and beyond.

Betty Ward of Orangeville knows the responsibility of generational memory. Her father Charles Thomas, who survived the First World War, had kept a regular diary during his service.

Water springs up all around us in the streams and rivers and marshes and pools of the four major watersheds that sculpt our landscape and feed three Great Lakes.

This spring we can do something we’ve never been able to do before in these hills: Visit a local vineyard and winery.

A hometown boy makes good on his childhood dream of playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

A large part of this fall issue, as is our tradition, is devoted to a celebration of the arts.