Us Georgian Bay birds settled our southern seeking wings down to winter for a change in Collingwood ON, trading in sun, sand, and margs on the beach for shovels, snow squalls and wine by the fire. Winter did what winter does best and hit us hard and heavy here in Collingwood. What a refuge it was to discover that many of our fellow Georgian Bay birds also migrate inland for the winter months.

The real life snow globe that is Collingwood has started to shed it’s winter coat and welcome in the new season. We at The Hive are very much excited and very much underprepared for said season. So, as we anxiously await “spring to sprung” we have decided to prepare for you a list of all the things we have discovered and fallen in love with in our new home: Collingwood.

1. A new stop sign can be the talk of the town. For all you city people, this is real! A new four-way stop sign arrived at the corner of Second and Cedar this month, and you can bet that everyone texted, called, and emailed about said stop sign. Alert your neighbours, call your parents, and best be sure we are chatting about this wild change!

2. Snow days! Turns out it snows here in Collingwood, like a lot! It’s snowing right now as we write this piece and it’s mid April! The snow brought fun new challenges for us, trading in our brooms for shovels, picking up the reminance of snow squalls instead of wild beach kids.

3. We are an early to bed, early to rise type of town. Out past 6 is only saved for the wild at heart. You won’t catch Home Depot open later than 6 on a Sunday so you certainly won’t catch us out past 6. We are officially the most well slept people around.

4. We have neighbours, and we know their names! Long gone are the days of only knowing your neighbours by their crazy habits; ‘flip flops in winter from two doors down”, “dude who rakes his snow-covered driveway”, or “cement blocks for feet from upstairs”, sorry our Toronto is starting to show. We are so thrilled to live in a place that has such a rich sense of community with an ethos of neighbourly help.

5. This has nothing to do with Collingwood or spring but if you're here reading we appreciate it and so use code 'fiddyoff' for 50% off all our apparel on our webstore. How fun is that?! 

We are officially four months into this new adventure and look fondly towards all the unknowns the next few seasons bring! Whether you are visiting for the first time in Collingwood, or stopping in to see us again in Honey Harbour we are so stoked to see everyone in their sunny states!