The Birchdale Letter January 2026

January at Birchdale

According to Google and AI… the root of “resolution” is the Latin verb solvere, meaning “to loosen, release, or untie.” Or more literally to “solve” or “resolve.” Its original sense was about breaking things into simpler parts…

This last part really caught my attention, because isn’t that the energy we bring into the new year… a dedication to simpler parts?

Which got me thinking about a parking lot outside a grocery store in Toronto, on a cold night in January where, sitting inside a jeep, Tracey and I formally sent an offer to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to purchase Birchdale. It was January 4, 2020. That date is significant. Watch for it later.

Stories are often how we make sense of where we are and how we got here. Yet, since the internet entered our pockets and our homes, the way stories are told has changed dramatically—faster, more public, and fragmented.

Birchdale, somehow, has always moved at a different pace. Even as it feels the influences of the world that swirls around it.

Birchdale is a place of stories. It started with tall tales of ice and oxen and it continues with stories hidden in buildings, on paths, in the meals shared, and winters endured. Stories passed between people, often quietly, often without an audience—
and then again more recently in beautiful ways by “Northern Scavenger”, with his piece on Birchdale in the winter called:
Overnight at Old Monk Monastery in Rural Nova Scotia

Overnight at Old Monk Monastery in Rural Nova Scotia (YouTube)

And then not too long after a compelling YouTube story appeared by “HDMS Studios” called:
Murder, Movie Stars & Monks: The Secret History of Birchdale Lodge | Nova Scotia

Murder, Movie Stars & Monks: The Secret History of Birchdale Lodge | Nova Scotia (YouTube)

And then finally, before we came on the scene a video on CBC hit the interwebs. It was called:
Historic Nova Scotia lodge that hosted celebrities up for sale

Historic Nova Scotia lodge that hosted celebrities up for sale (YouTube)

So Here’s Another Story

Before Birchdale, I was a realtor.ca addict. Always looking, always imagining, always convinced the next listing might hold the answer to a question I couldn’t quite articulate.

At the same time, I was carrying a deeper hope: to learn, slowly and imperfectly, how to live more directly connected to the land. The question, I realized, was this: How would I care for myself and others if I didn’t find a way to develop skills for survival?

Then Birchdale appeared.

It was like nothing I could ever have imagined and looked exactly like the thing I had always envisioned. It was perfect! And preposterous! And perfect!

The next day Tracey and I sat in a cafe and I shared what I had found with her. We made a video because somehow we already knew how important this discovery was going to be. Perhaps someday we will share this silly video too! Through some cajoling and a lot of organizing I was able to get Tracey to agree to come to Nova Scotia to see what we thought about this place.

I remember that the minute I set foot on the soft earth of Birchdale I felt certain that I had met a friend.

During this first visit, we were joined by my brother and his wife, who were living in Shelburne. We were hoping they could act as sanity checkers for us!
As we walked around the property with the realtor, my sister-in-law claimed a certain cabin for her future self, and the realtor said: “that’s the amazing thing about a place like this, you can stay in a different cabin every summer” and it was at this moment that Tracey grabbed my arm and said: “I dreamed about this place”.

She glimpsed a memory of dream that she was sure she had written down years earlier. I sensed that this memory mattered—that it might shape her decision about accepting this call to adventure. When we returned home, I went looking for that page, doggedly, until I found it. It was like panning for gold!

So sitting in a parking lot, outside of a grocery store, we put in an offer on Birchdale.  It was January 4th, exactly twenty years to the day from when that dream had been written down. That handwritten page now hangs on the wall as a record of how Tracey’s and my converging stories met over a place as magical as Birchdale.

Tracey and I are the current owners, and we hold that role deliberately and with care. Our relationships to Birchdale are not identical, but they are deeply entwined—shaped by different ways of seeing, imagining, and arriving.

Nicola Roberts-Fenton, Birchdale’s incredible Director of Operations has become glue to the success of our present and  endeavour. She carries her own enduring connection-of course-one rooted in childhood memories and lived experience of this place. Her presence here is not just operational; it is relational. She knows Birchdale in a way that only time and memory allow.

At the end of 2025 the 3 of us met for a planning/dreaming retreat. We decided that Birchdale 2026 is dedicated to Abundance. While the world spins around us, Nicola, Tracey and I are committed to seeing Birchdale prosper. To hear the laughter of kids and the sound adults make when they are filled with joy.

And during our time we were able to articulate some key values to help guide us. Of the 5 we named, this one feels most pertinent to this missive:

Honour the Past by caring for the Present.

So here’s me raising a toast to 2026 with a call to breaking things into simpler parts.

Here’s to abundance and breaking things down into simpler parts

As always, thanks for reading,

Sarah

Now…Here’s What’s Coming in 2026