digital edition

Spring has always been my favorite time of year. Shedding winter layers for bright colors, watching green buds spring from retreating snow, basking in the warm winds as they usher birds back to my doorstep. It always feels this way. And perhaps it’s just me, but as the weather shifts, I sense a collective inhalation, an embrace of life and change that we each make gladly and with hope in our hearts. Read more about Read the March/April 2022 Digital Edition

For all the fuss we Minnesotans make about winter, there is something truly special about this season. Even after the holidays wind down and the air becomes colder, that sense of renewal, of a slate wiped clean and new beginnings, is something I’ll always look forward to. In that same spirit, I’m thrilled to introduce myself as the new editor of this extraordinary community lifestyle magazine. What an honor it is to step in at such an important moment, as this community looks to heal following a period of great change and difficulty. Read more about Read the January/February 2022 Digital Edition

Having lived in White Bear Lake since the age of 2, it’s safe to say that I’m a fan of this town. My Canadian-born parents built their first and only home here in the ’60s, a singular house sprouting up in an expansive, open field. Other homes eventually filled our street, populating it with instant playmates. The block across the street from us remained undeveloped until I was a teen, giving me and my two sisters a place for grand adventures. Read more about Read the November/December 2021 Digital Edition

In 1894, then President Grover Cleveland signed a law that would establish the first Monday in September as a national holiday we know as Labor Day. The U.S. Department of Labor’s website states “The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. Read more about Read the September/October 2021 Digital Edition

Summer is in full swing. The weather is warm and the ice cream is cold. We’ve traded our boots for sandals, our parkas for T-shirts and find every excuse to spend time out of doors.

This issue is chockfull of summer fun … from the legacy and triumphs of the White Bear Sailing School to a lawn game primer to cabin-friendly plants and a quick hooray about the return of the stalwart Manitou Days—yep, we’re celebrating the long and carefree days of our favorite season. Read more about July/August 2021 Digital Edition

I remember my first car. It was a yellow and black 1973 Plymouth Duster, and I remember saving the $866 to buy it from Suburban Chrysler Plymouth on Suburban Ave. in St. Paul. I was in awe of the freedom it brought me—driving to my friends’ houses, cruising around downtown North St. Paul, and driving it to work in the summer of 1980, with Boston, or something like it, playing on the radio. I also remember, on one particularly icy January evening, slip-sliding on a patch of ice and hitting a fire hydrant, knocking it over; luckily, the water didn’t come gushing out. Read more about May/June 2021 Digital Edition

My dad always had a vegetable garden in the side yard at my growing-up home. I remember the hours of work he’d put into tilling the ground each year, spreading the manure, sowing the seeds of lettuce, spinach, beans, cucumbers, carrots and radishes, and planting the onion sets and tomato plants. He’d tend to the garden on warm Sunday afternoons, his well-worn T-shirt soaked with sweat, while my mom and all of us kids tended to other things. Read more about March/April 2021 Digital Edition