This web site was originally designed and maintained by Paul and Diane from Aylmer, Quebec. To find out how and why this Web site was formed, please read below...
A message from Paul & Diane, your webmasters

It had become a weekly ritual to rush downstairs and get the Saturday morning Citizen. We would put a pot of coffee on and take the paper back to bed for a bit of R & R (rest & reading). Then, whoever went and got the paper gets the first pick of their favorite section. Needless to say, we each picked Northern Magic's page first! We'd open the People section with anticipation, settle into our pillows, take a sip of coffee and slip away to whatever part of the world the Stuemers are in. Although we'd never met Diane and Herbert, we followed their adventures while tucked safely away in our comfortable home each Saturday morning. We also commiserated with them, cried with them, worried about them and celebrated each wonderful discovery with them. They'd become like family!

Near the end of the summer of 1998, we missed a couple of dispatches while on holiday. We went into "Northern Magic withdrawal pains" and upon our return home figured we could catch up with our "friends" on the Internet. We searched the Net for a web site, did the archive bit on the Citizen's website.....all to no avail. Of course, totally frustrated, we commented that "someone should put up a website for them."

After moping about this sad state of affairs for a few days, we thought, well, why not us??? It all happened so fast. Within a few days, we had contacted the Citizen for an e-mail address for Diane and Herbert. It was Linda's address (Diane's sister and land-locked right hand person!) We wrote to Linda & Diane and Herbert asking for permission to put up a site. We have to admit, we had very ambitious plans and were surprised that we didn't completely overwhelm them! Not long after, we heard from both of them and got the answer we wanted. It was such a thrill to get a direct response from Diane knowing they were somewhere in the middle of the South Pacific! They were thrilled that someone was going to do it as they had always thought there should be a site as well. We promised that we would not post any dispatches before they appeared in the Citizen....besides we don't even read them beforehand because we still like our Saturday morning ritual! A few weeks later, we contacted an Internet provider from the Ottawa area who cheerfully donated some web space to get us going. It was wonderful to get some local support for this project

As with any project, it has turned out to be more work than we had originally thought. However, every minute spent has been a joy. This has given us a chance to read all the dispatches again while editing them for the web. It also provides a place on the web where people can reread previous dispatches, catch up on the ones they've missed, and leave messages for the Stuemers. We like to think of this as sitting around the old pot bellied stove in the General Store with the old yarns being spun, people drifting in for a few tales and coming back to visit on a regular basis. We hoped to provide a community feel to the pages.

If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to drop us a line at dianeking@videotron.ca .

Don't forget to sign the guestbook when you drop by and leave messages for us or the Stuemers. We get a thrill everytime we see a new message!

Happy reading!

Paul & Diane

The King Couch family is from just outside of Ottawa, Canada. We are Paul Couch, Diane King (which is a wonderful coincidence as Diane Stuemer's maiden name was King!) & our children, Jeremy and Aimée.