Hi, I'm Candice

This website has been a few things over the years but now it’s mostly a landing page for folks to find out a bit about me if they follow me on social media.

Some basics if you’re curious or just want to get to know me:

I’m in my mid-40s, married, have two cats, and live in Nova Scotia (Mi’kma’ki), Canada. That’s on the very eastern coast of the country – hence my username.

I lived in Ontario (Ottawa, then Toronto) for most of my adult life but returned to my roots here in Nova Scotia in 2021. I do live in the city (the Dartmouth side of the Halifax harbour) but that’s about as large a city as I prefer now.

I’m a believer in slow living. I enjoy spending time in nature, bird watching, canning, baking my own bread, embroidery, gardening, and other ‘old fashioned’ hobbies.

I love to read, mostly fantasy and historical fiction. My favourite series read in the last year was The Empyrean Series by Rebecca Yarros and my favourite stand-alone book was A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark. My favourite Canadian author is Ami MacKay (who lives not too far from me here in Nova Scotia!).

I also play video games, mostly JRPGs or cozy farming games. Some favourites are Stardew Valley, the Octopath Traveller series, Pokemon Shield, and of course, Final Fantasy.

My other major hobby is fitness. I love strength training, yoga, rowing, and walking/hiking. I’m a huge fan of Peloton classes and you can find me on the Leaderboard as #EstCoastCandice in the class types mentioned.

I love learning languages although I’m not super fluent in anything except English. I speak intermediate level French (like many Canadians do) plus beginner German and Japanese. I actually take a lot of German classes with Peloton because it lets me practice my German! (Assal, Erik and Nico are my faves)

I live with a chronic pain condition, an autoimmune disease, and an anxiety disorder. I don’t go into details about those things online to preserve my privacy, but I do mention the impact on my life from time-to-time. I also sometimes talk about chronic illness and disability awareness and advocacy.

Finally, some important things: trans rights are human rights, and queer rights are not negotiable.  Canada will never be the 51st state. Don’t mistake my love of ‘grandma’ hobbies to mean I want to return to the 1950s – we must fight for rights for BIPOC, women, queer folk and everyone else who isn’t a white man.

About this website:

I used to be a ‘run influencer’, representing a few brands and teams. I am no longer a runner due to my medical conditions, but mention this because most of my content prior to 2022 was running focused. This website actually used to be called ‘Vegan Runner Diaries’ and had a lot of running content. That’s all been archived offline, but you can still see all my running selfies on my Instagram grid if you scroll back a few years.

I have a few recipes in the blog section and may develop more in the future, but this isn’t a ‘food blog’.