Spring Bird Count – May 11

Man with binoculars

The Spring Bird Count on May 11th kicks off our season in Tamworth. Please join us at SCFF for this annual count of birds. Yes it’s Mother’s day and you are welcome to bring your mum, and you can wander the property keeping your eyes and ears open for all you may see and hear. Then share the birds you find with the eBird app. We will also be collecting the list for the day and uploading it. Please register by emailing us at admin@scff.ca so that we know to expect you. This is a free and fun event.

group of 3 people in a field seen from behind

May 23-25 – Still Center Men’s Retreat at SCFF

If you’re done spinning your wheels and ready to break free from what’s holding you back, the Still Center’s “Emerging Man” Retreat is for you.

Transformational and Lifestyle Coaches, Greg De Koker and Brian DeCastro will be co-hosting a unique men’s retreat experience at SCFF this spring that will include men’s team building, physical fitness, immersion in nature, journaling and meditation. This isn’t just a weekend away. It’s a reset. A recalibration. A chance to break free and step into your next chapter with confidence and clarity.

This retreat is an opportunity to:

  • Identify and remove the hidden barriers keeping
    you from the life you truly want – and deserve.
  • Reconnect with your personal power and
    step into the man you were meant to be.
  • Gain clarity on your next steps so you can
    stop waiting and start creating.
  • Join a strong brotherhood of like-minded men,
    all committed to growth.

Greg De Koker has been a personal development and human connection junkie for over 3 decades. He is currently a Transformational Coach, Retreat Host and Dream Catalyst. Greg helps people get clear about what they truly want and what gets in their way, and then helps them get out of their own way so they can start living their dream and loving their life even more.

Brian DeCastro, is a Holistic Life Coach & Reiki Master. He helps support entrepreneurs, manage and optimize their health and energetic life force while offering strategic coaching in breaking down and rebuilding winning habits, so that they can bring their best in all of life’s endeavours and come away feeling fulfilled that they contributed massive value to the world and others around them.

If you’re interested in learning more about this Men’s Retreat, please contact Greg at greg@stillcenter.ca or 416-219-5799.
Early Bird pricing is available until May 1st.

June 27-29 – Women’s Biking and Dreambuilding Weekend

woman wearing biking helmet and sunglasses

Join Jennifer Marschal and Victoria for a unique retreat incorporating biking through the local Ontario countryside, walking in the forest, taking time to slow down and take in nature while visioning into living a life you would absolutely love.
Jennifer offers content-rich, interactive workshops that take participants on a journey in which they design, define, test, and experience a crystal-clear vision of the life they would love – a life that is in alignment with their highest purpose. They will have a unique opportunity to “step into” the life they are imagining and feel a resounding “yes!”
This retreat is designed for women who love to stay active while having a “time out” from their family and work. By consciously slowing down and bringing mindfulness to activity, this weekend is a perfect time to connect with your inner self, create transformational new thinking patterns, while meeting like-valued women and giving yourself permission to disconnect from busy-ness. 
Register early with victoria@scff.ca to avoid disappointment. Maximum 8 people.

August 2-4 and 9-10 – Self-Nurturing: Transformation in nature retreats at SCFF

Two smiling women


Co-hosted at SCFF by Sine Andersen and Victoria. Please join us for self-loving, self-image building and self-empowering transformational weekend retreats in nature. Located in the beautiful and private 100 acre off-grid property, we shall spend time in the forest, enjoying the process of therapeutic relaxation focusing on sensory engagement to connect with nature. We’ll meditate, walk and study spiritual practices to help you connect to your inner-self

Register early with victoria@scff.ca for either weekend (or both) to avoid disappointment. Maximum 8 people.

Two women posing in front of a red building with wooden shutters
Sine and Victoria, House of Mind Body Soul, Naestved, Denmark, March, 2025.

Sine Andersen is a certified coach in life and business. She is a spiritual leader and a meditation guide connecting people to their soul and inner wisdom. As a solopreneur for 3 years, Sine offers individual coaching and has hosted beautiful retreats in Italy and Zanzibar. In January 2025, she opened the House Of Mind, Body and Soul in Naestved, Denmark https://www.instagram.com/houseofmindbodyandsoul/ where she and her team collectively focus on mental health, personal development, soul journeys and wellness treatments. She loves working with and through her heart & soul and helping people to grow into and become-in who they truly are. https://www.instagram.com/sine_a_andersen/

A group of women posing after a workshop
Sine and Victoria with VIsion Workshop group, Naestved, Denmark, March, 2025.

Summer 2025 Photography

Two photography workshops are planned for 2025, along with book-related ones that may be of interest to photographers. Registration information will be posted soon.

Seeing Black and White: The Zone System – July 21-23

Looking down towards a pond in a Japanese garden
Matsudera walk – Temple Garden

This workshop will cover practical aspects of black and white photography, based on the Zone System methods of understanding light and exposure. Addressing both digital and film photography, this approach allows for previsualization of the grey values of the image, resulting in improved negatives and digital files that are closer to what one sees in the mind. Participants may work with digital and/or film processes. Exercises and photography will take place around the farm and digital results will be reviewed onsite. Film work will be processed later on your own time, but may be evaluated through online sharing.

Peter Sramek learned the Zone System when studying at MIT from Minor White, author of the original Zone System Manual, and then taught black and white photography at OCAD University for over 40 years.


Natural Inventions – Staging in the landscape – Sept. 5-7

Row of small stones placed in limestone creek bed
Stone Alignment, Shibagau Creek, Peter Sramek, 2024

Similar to last year’s land-based workshop, we invite photographers and non-photographers alike, to engage with the land in constructing site-specific assemblages using natural materials and then photograph them. The image remains as a record of what will inevitably change and fade in the landscape. Over the weekend we will use alternative printing methods to turn digital images into tangible prints.

Workshop participants around a table outdoors
Workshop participants with co-instructor Walter Bergmoser, August 2024

If you are interested in attending a workshop, please contact us at workshops@scff.ca. Participants may arrive on Friday to stay the weekend at SCFF or arrive for each day’s session. Registration and accommodation arrangements will be posted in the near future.

Drum Leaf Binding

At a one-day workshop in January, with 5 of us at the Sydenham Library, we went through the process of folding, gluing and trimming the binding which has no sewing, which opens up flat and can use a variety of materials for the spine and the board covers. The binding is attributed to American master binder Tim Ely. Peter learned boxmaking and gold leafing from Tim in workshops and boxmaking is high on the wishlist for this summer’s binding adventures.

Photography Workshop August 2024

Working with Walter Bergmoser and Peter Sramek, the workshop participants explored image-making with collaged natural materials exposed in the bright sunlight onto cyanotype paper and regular silver photo paper.

An introduction to the concept of art and interventions in nature supported by watching the documentary film of Andy Goldsworthy’s site-specific works, led to participants creating works in the forest and the creek bed. Enlarged acetate negatives were used to print images as cyanotypes and also for experiments in exposing directly onto large tree leaves of various kinds.

Hand Bookbinding Workshops 2024 with Peter Sramek

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Sramek_Peter-20231225_145143114-1-1024x683.jpg

This summer series of workshops introduced making books by hand, covering basic techniques of folding and sewing books without glue and moving on to historical sewing formats appropriate for a wide range of art and bookmaking projects. They were held in Kingston at the Tett Centre and at the Sydenham Library and Heron Point on Eel Lake.


August 9-11
Handbound Artists’ Books: Introduction to Non-adhesive Binding Structures
$300. plus accommodation if required ($175)

This workshop intensive introduced a range of basic sewn structures and each person made a range of samples over the weekend.


Sydenham Library, Ontario and Heron Point on Eel Lake – August 2024


Future sessions will be organized in different locations and take a similar approach with the possibility of diverse content and emphasis. To express your interest and help with planning these offerings, please fill out this form and subscribe to our mailing list to be informed.

Tett Centre Gallery, Kingston, ON – July 2024


Introduction to Basic Hand Bookbinding

Learn how to easily create small, decorative blank books and later assemble your own contents into book form. This workshop will cover basic folding and sewing of small sample bindings, covering a range appropriate for newcomers to book making: single section pamphlets and stab sewings, albums and multi-section formats with paper covers.
Only basic hand tools are required and all materials will be provided. Bring your lunch.


Linkstitch and Album Binding Structures
This workshop will cover two (or more if we have time) formats adapted from historical bindings which allow for the creation of multi-section books. Decorative spine sewings, as well as a format appropriate for use as albums with inserted contents will be constructed. Once again, we will make a number of blank books with paper covers. This workshop will follow well from the skills covered in the Introduction day. Only basic hand tools are required and all materials will be provided. Bring your lunch.

Recent Workshops at the TETT Centre, Kingston


These two one-day workshops took place in the TETT Gallery at 370 King Street West, Kingston, coinciding with an exhibition of photographs and books by Peter Sramek. Future sessions will be organized in different locations and take a similar approach with the possibility of diverse content and emphasis. To express your interest and help with planning these offerings, please fill out this form and subscribe to our mailing list to be informed.

July 6 11:00-4:00
Introduction to Basic Hand Bookbinding
$90.

Learn how to easily create small, decorative blank books and later assemble your own contents into book form. This workshop will cover basic folding and sewing of small sample bindings, covering a range appropriate for newcomers to book making: single section pamphlets and stab sewings, albums and multi-section formats with paper covers.
Only basic hand tools are required and all materials will be provided. Bring your lunch.

July 7 11:00-4:00
Linkstitch and Album Binding Structures
$90.

This workshop will cover two (or more if we have time) formats adapted from historical bindings which allow for the creation of multi-section books. Decorative spine sewings, as well as a format appropriate for use as albums with inserted contents will be constructed. Once again, we will make a number of blank books with paper covers. This workshop will follow well from the skills covered in the Introduction day. Only basic hand tools are required and all materials will be provided. Bring your lunch.

SCFF BioBlitz August 3-4, 2024

In conjunction with the Nature Conservancy of Canada we are inviting you to join us on the August long weekend for our second BioBlitz at Shibagau Creek.

Cuckoo on branch

The Nature Conservancy of Canada is calling for its annual countrywide BioBlitz on the August long weekend and we invite you to participate with us.

"It is the NCC's intention to unite thousands of people across Canada in a collective community effort to celebrate and document the diverse species across our beautiful country. Bioblitzes are a community-led gathering of information about species in a certain area held over a certain length of time. These community science events have led to the documentation of rare or endangered species in many countries, including Canada. Our collective observations can grow our knowledge of native species’ distributions and help conservationists target areas to eradicate invasive species. These efforts may help conservation efforts to restore the balance and health of our local ecosystems. By documenting the natural world and sharing these observations to a global database, anyone can give back to nature."
NCC BioBlitz Call

As we learn more about who and what inhabits the land, we celebrate all that we encounter. 

  • Pick your species be it flora, fauna or both and wander the 100 acre property noting what you see, take pictures to later upload for the Nature Conservancy using the iNaturalist app and enjoy the peace, quiet and beauty of all that’s around. 
  • Bring friends looking for a fun and easy way to support nature this August long weekend. 

Please come for a few hours on Saturday and/or Sunday. We can’t wait to hear/see what we all discover. 
Please fill out the Registration Form
to let us know when you will join us and receive further details.

Victoria and Peter

P.S. See what happened last year!


The Shibagau Forest Farmstead is situated within the traditional territories of the Mississaugas, Anishinabewaki (ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ) and Wendake-Nionwentsïo peoples who are the original owners and custodians of these lands on which we are honoured to gather. As part of the Upper Canada Land Surrenders, under the Crawford Purchase of 1784, no treaty was ever signed.