Here I am going to town on a huge chunk o' stone.

Hi and welcome! I’m Crystal and I’m a second year student here at Willowbank. Before coming to the beautiful Niagara region I had no experience with the traditional skills of carpentry or masonry and knew little of heritage conservation. Armed with a love of all things historical and an undergraduate degree in the humanities, I came with an eagerness to learn and man have I ever! I have a propensity for the theoretical (I loves me a good discussion group!) but also love to get my hands dirty and feel like I’ve built something at the end of the day.

When I’m not at school, I love working in my garden (when weather allows),cooking up all my homegrown veggies, trying to master all things DIY, reading Sci Fi/Fantasy fiction usually about werewolves and vampires (what?! its a now not so secret addiction), and blogging about my life nestled in amongst the grapevines on my other blog. I hope you’ll enjoy following me around here at Willowbank and getting a sneak peek behind the scenes of heritage conservation.

P.S. Check out my blogroll for some cool links. Some of them are the usual heavy hitters like ICOMOS and UNESCO, but others are pretty nifty blogs on planning and alternative building. Some of them are a tad political but all are always good food for thought.