A Field Journal

My career was born from sharing experiences with food on a blog, Everything I now do points back to that origin. And I kind of miss it - sharing in this format. After a decade of larger film productions, it's nice to have a more....relaxed space to share the little things, thoughts, and ideas that often hit the edit floor or otherwise never see the light of day. The world I've been busy exploring is vast, and I've uncovered a lifetime of nooks and crannies that often aren't in 'the show'. I also have an unusual occupation and life, so hopefully it's also simply interesting to follow along.

So here it is. An attempt in earnest to journal here for a while.

It feels fitting to begin at, well, the beginning. Of a calendar year. My life truly revolves around seasonality, and I'm just now finishing up a winter break and about to walk onto sheets of ice to source our lake fish for the year. Hand lining large pike remains one of my favourite fishing methods of all time.

Before long the snow will melt to brown, and I'll put in our wall tent camp to breathe in some fresh air, look for hares and bears, pick spring greens. Then headed east to Ontario to film an episode of FTW with Jonathan Forbes and Jordan Madley. Then my guiding season begins, hard and fast. I'll be teaching hundreds of people this year.

Summer will quickly follow. In June, I'll be touring the province, corner to corner, teaching people about plants and fungi. I'll of course be teaching a lot, but I also intend to learn a lot. July I'll be sea kayak guiding near Tofino for the first time in my life, so I'm spending a winter studying seaweeds and shore plants on the pacific. August back to filming some esoteric and fascinating plants for FTW with Robert Rogers and Eric Whitehead.

Then the leaves will start to yellow. Our day camps unfold, and before long we're hanging the wall tent in the boreal again as hunting season begins. From The Wild should see the return of our dear friend Mel Finn. October brings bird hunts in the grasslands (upland and waterfowl) until the first few days of November and the mule deer stalking begins. Then nearly back to where it started: snow on the ground, rattling whitetail in bushcamp in the boreal. This time of year is punctuated with butchery, butchery, and more butchery.

If all goes well, I can see all the seasons through. Leaving behind some stories and insights, information and discoveries that may otherwise be hard to track down or live behind a paywall. Wish me luck.