Wilderness Beginnings

Monika Rohlmann is an environmental consultant in Yellowknife, Northwest
Territories.

These gentle reflections on over 30 years spent at Stone Orchard in
southern Ontario near the village of Cannington are different from the
novels and plays through which we have come to know Timothy Findley, but
they bear the same hallmark, one shaped by intelligence, humor, and a
deep humanity. From Stone Orchard is composed largely of columns
published since 1993 in Harrowsmith magazine. The essays have been
expanded through the addition of anecdotes.

In the summer of 1964, Findley and his partner, Bill Whitehead, were
looking for an affordable country property with an old house and garden.
Upon seeing Stone Orchard for the first time, they both knew they had
“come home.” There were hundred-year-old lilacs, tangled perennial
beds, and ancient trees. Oddly, it was in this peaceful sanctuary that
Findley wrote his novels of war, murder, and the heart of darkness in
Toronto.

Inevitably, the time came when Findley and Whitehead no longer had the
time or energy required to keep up the old house and large garden.
“Nothing replaces loss,” observes the author of this rewarding book.
“Nothing ... Still, we have what we had and what we have is
unforgotten.”