Why You Should Consider Moving to Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick

CUPPA Tea – CUPPA Coffee

By John G. Kelly john@activeretirement.ca www.johngkelly.ca

The entire front page of the February 2025 issue of the Atlantic magazine, an iconic source of contemporary public opinion in America, was devoted to a screaming headline “The Anti-Social Century”. It was accompanied with caricatures depicting loneliness spanning the entire age spectrum from genZ to seniors. The article provided a reader-friendly in-depth account of the extent to which a combination of factors ranging from the isolation associated with suburban living, a car-dependent culture, and social media was alienating Americans from their community. Americans, and by that I mean North Americans on both sides of the border, had lost touch with neighbours and their community. To put it bluntly, we’re anti-social. We’re living in a “home alone” environment as a former suburbanite in the Greater Toronto Hamilton area (GTHA) nodded my head in agreement upon reading the article.

But it also brought a smile to my face. My wife Susan and I aren’t living in a home alone environment. We left the suburbia lifestyle behind and are living in Saint Andrews. It’s a classic “Norman Rockwell” type community that’s focused on neighbours being neighbours and embracing community living.

Think of all the British movies you’ve watched where a neighbour just drops in on a neighbour for a “chat”. The first thing the host suggests is that they’ll put on the kettle so they can share a “CUPPA”. A nice cup of tea is the ice breaker and the chat becomes a shared experience. You get a warm feeling just watching the scene and wistfully wondering how you could experience that in your own personal life.

Well, Saint Andrews is a CUPPA friendly community. Neighbours often invite neighbours to drop in for a cuppa. But there’s more to it than just one to one CUPPAs as enjoyable as they are. There are “cuppa community” gatherings of all sorts in Saint Andrews. The town has several bistros that are natural cuppa gathering spots.

I belong to a men’s CUPPA group that meets bi-weekly at the Honeybeans Bistro and Café. It was easy to join. I just showed up. Honeybeans is the real deal that chains like Starbucks desperately try to imitate. The bistro has a wide variety of personalized teas and coffees and homemade muffins and cakes if you want a cuppa and a bite. If you show up regularly the staff gets to know you and you’re greeted with a smile and hello. There’s no rush because having a cuppa with the guys is all about letting go and relaxing, something that so many men forget how to do during their career days and need to relearn. There’s no formal meeting agenda because this isn’t a meeting. It’s a bunch of guys getting together and getting to know one another over a cuppa.

A CUPPA group in Saint Andrews isn’t a guys thing. My wife belongs to a women’s cuppa group that meets once a week at Honeybeans to just talk the talk. And talking the talk isn’t about gossip. It’s about sharing what’s going on in your life with others.

There are CUPPA groups in Saint Andrews that are learning focused. A neighbour decided she wanted to brush up on her French once she moved to Saint Andrews. She found out there was a conversational French cuppa group that met weekly at a downtown coffee shop. She just showed up and was welcomed to the group. The group just talks the talk but it’s all in French. It’s a fun way to make friends and a relaxing way to learn since the talk is all focused on a fun learning experience.

Want a CUPPA experience? Experience Saint Andrews.

The Knowledge & Talent Attraction Town
Historic Saint Andrews by the Sea
By

John G. Kelly
B.Com., D.PIR., LL.B.,M.S.Sc., M.A. (Jud.Admin.), F.CIS.
john@activeretirement.ca ; www.johngkelly.ca

America (and Canada) is at the dawn of a wave of internal migration that will spawn an explosion of new types of colleges and universities, reaching deep into our country. Just as every town expects a church, bank branch, post office, coffee house or brewpub, we will see a decentralized network of academies acting as the cornerstones for the post pandemic rebuilding of our society and economy.

Villages, towns and cities that want to tap into talent need to develop and implement a talent attraction plan, determining what mix of talent can contribute best to the future evolution of their location while creating a strong narrative and implementing sufficient change on the ground to establish credibility.

Saint Andrews is a knowledge town. The New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) has a campus that’s within the “15 minute walk” radius of all of the homes in the town plat. Moreover, it easily accessible through a ride share program for residents of Passamaquoddy Lodge, the community’s long -term care (LTC) facility. The college has evolved from a traditional trade school when it was established in 1963 into a vibrant post-secondary diploma and certificate granting institution. Yes, there are traditional skilled trades programs, which interestingly are gaining popularity with the “55+” generation looking to acquire skills they can utilize to apply to customized arts and crafts pursuits.

But there are also core programs that fit with a community where tourism and retirement are anchors. There are now a robust culinary arts and culinary arts management program, practical nursing and a family of Information Technology diploma and certificates. These are the types of programs sought after by Gen X and millennials open to exiting hectic suburban life and shift into vibrant new careers. The tech programs are a natural fit with the burgeoning remote work and gig economy. These all have the potential to open the door for innovative earn while you learn opportunities. And again, they’re all easily accessible from your home base which is just up the road or down the street, depending on where you choose to live.

Saint Andrews is home to the nationally ranked Sunbury Shores Arts & Nature Centre. It’s a non-profit cultural centre that facilitates connections between art and nature. It’s a mecca for both tourists who want a vacation that enables them open a long sought desire to pursue a passion in the arts and crafts and retirees wanting to engage in creative artistic community living. Sunbury Shores provides a broad range of customized courses of varying length that enable participants to find a course that fits with their lifestyle preference and budget. The depth and time- lines of learning are customized to introduce amateurs to a craft or art form as well as enrich the skills of accomplished artists wanting to elevate their artistic capability to an enriched level.

The following is a list of current Sunbury Shores programs to whet your artistic appetite;
Life Drawing, Perspective Drawing, Understanding Contemporary Art, Ceramics Hand Building, Life Size Drawing, Sculptural Paper Collage, Silversmithing Techniques, Colour Confidence, Paining Principles and Practices to Elevate Your Work, Artistic Growth Studio, Acrylics Unleashed, Porcupine Quill Work (Indigenous Culture). Now, what if what you is to take in art exhibits. Sunbury Shores hosts a series of artistic exhibits throughout the year. This is just one more example of the vibrant culture that envelops the town. You’re not going to be sitting around the house relying on Netflix for your visual entertainment. You’ll find yourself taking in an ongoing series of arts exhibits. You’re also going to discover that your neighbours include artists and craftspeople who have decided to make Saint Andrews their home base and neighbours and who, just like you, who aren’t content to chat about the weather but want to engage in invigorating conversation.

Then there’s Kingsbrae Garden. The 27-acre horticultural masterpiece officially opened its gates in the spring of 1998, unveiling an array of over 2,500 species of perennials, as well as, a wide variety of trees and shrubs. Now a major tourist attraction, Kingsbrae Garden has been recognized with a number of major awards for both the product and the services it provides.

Most recently in addition to being ranked the #1 Thing to Do in the Region by Trip Advisor, Kingsbrae Garden was recognized in 2017 for being a top Canadian Garden nationally to visit to celebrate Canada 150 . Kingsbrae is much more than a Garden and with its ever- growing arts and culture base, career and training opportunities have been created in the horticulture, culinary and the arts fields.

David J. Stanly and Dominic D.J. Endicott, Knowledge Towns. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore (2023) at P.1.
Supra at P.33.

By John G. Kelly
john@activeretirement.ca www.johngkelly.ca

Whew! Autumn in Saint Andrews is a whirlwind of entertainment. We lived in downtown Toronto for 30 years because we wanted to experience the arts and cultural scene. Coworkers and friends who lived in the “burbs” would tell us about the wonderful once or twice-a-year entertainment experience they had when they fought their way through traffic for an hour and a half and attended an event. But once or twice a year was all they could bear because of the commute stress and the search for parking. Yes, we would respond. We had also attended the event but, for us, to get there and back it was either a leisurely walk or a short subway or streetcar ride. Oh, if only we weren’t trapped in the “burbs” and lived downtown so we could enjoy all those wonderful cultural and entertainment experiences they would say.

Now that we live in Saint Andrews those same friends and acquaintances have asked us how much we must miss all of the arts and entertainment, especially once the tourist season ends. The presumption is that the town supposedly closes down for the fall and winter. Far from it. One of the reasons we chose to live in Saint Andrews when I “came home” to the Bay of Fundy is because it’s a community that’s very much alive with all manner and sorts of cultural and entertainment experiences 12. months a year. And, of course, everything is within that “15-minute walk” that makes small-town living so desirable.

Yes, the summer tourist season draws to a close by October. But then on October 15th -19th Indulge New Brunswick Food and Wine Festival kicks in. The entire downtown is cordoned off. All of the local restaurants offer special “tasters’ choices” of the best of their menus. Portable facilities are set up in the downtown commons and food and beverage vendors within a day’s drive of Saint Andrews set up booths to offer “taste bits” of their specialized menus.

You purchase an Indulge ticket. This entitles you to stroll the street with live band music in the background and sample exotic food. And it is exotic, albeit with a Maritime flavour. This is not about getting hot dog or hamburger on a bun with a side order of fries. Saint Andrews is a premium tourist town. There is a stable of chefs and restaurants that cater to tourists wanting customized cuisine. We get a taste of all that during Indulge. It’s Michelin-ranked food that we could never afford at 5-star restaurants in Toronto but can certainly indulge our food cravings in at maritime prices in Saint Andrews

October/November is also when the fall/winter concert series kicks in. Saint Andrews is fortunate to have a concert organizer who has a national reputation. Jamie Steele is well known in the touring entertainment circuit with links to bands across the country. Among them are Juno award winners. On average, at least once every two weeks there is a nationally ranked performer or band appearing on stage. The genre of the music is popular with a maritime flavour, which for my wife and I who were baroque music aficionados in Toronto, is an opportunity to experience some new and enjoyable entertainment.

There are two performance venues in town with the acoustic capability to support high-quality performances. There is no squirming in uncomfortable seats or straining to hear the full quality of the sound in the performance. In addition, there are what I’ll label as boutique performance venues in Saint Andrews which host baroque and classical music quartets and ensembles.

In a ten- day period spanning two weekends in November, my wife and I took in five musical performances. It started with a cozy cabaret at Salty Towers where you could mix and mingle with the performers. It’s a legendary stopover for musicians across the country who frequent it for a relaxing break and jamming seasons. Then it was on to baroque and a theatre performance with a finale by a nationally renowned one -man classical guitar performance. We needed a bit of a break and were able to wait out an entire week prior to attending a jazz concert.

We were very busy and on the go for that entire ten-day period. But it was the type of activity that doesn’t tire you but energizes you. And of course, we weren’t the least bit tired from all that frantic driving and navigating traffic to get to an event. This all took place in that idyllic small town of Saint Andrews where every event is either that “15-minute walk” or five minute drive on through a beautiful heritage townscape.

This brings us to the two concerts scheduled for December and the Saint Andrews Winter Warmer; an intimate small venue music festival featuring 15 Acts … 12 Shows … 9 Venues … and lots of winter fun activities to enjoy! January 28th – February 2, 2025.

Now, that’s entertainment!