Windstone Farm
Linlathen
"Wild and Far Off Places"
Creating at the intersection of what was and what will be
Despite wildly different creative sources and inspirations–from Wendell Berry’s Hubbards to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, from the paintings of North African missionary Lilias Trotter to the literary genius of George MacDonald, T. S. Eliot, and Charles Dickens – writers Jennifer Trafton and A. S. “Pete” Peterson look to the companions and creators of the past to inform their creative work here and now and to shape their vision of what is yet to come. Where is our art coming from, and to what end does it point? How do we root our work in the artistic inheritance we’ve been given (including the creativity of the Divine Artist) while also planting seeds of truth, beauty, and wonder for the future? Jennifer and Pete will share their own journeys of studying and participating in literary and artistic tradition in order to develop better ways of seeing the road ahead and imagining the amendment of all things in a New Creation to come. This weekend retreat will include teaching & discussion, guided attention to and creative engagement with nature (à la Trotter), and a reading of Pete's critically acclaimed adaptation of Frankenstein.
Our 2025 Speakers...
A.S. “PETE” PETERSON of The Rabbit Room (which seeks to foster Christ-centred community and spiritual formation through music, story, and art), is the Artistic Director of Rabbit Room Theatre and the Publisher for Rabbit Room Press, based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the author of the Revolutionary War adventure novel The Fiddler’s Gun and its sequel Fiddler’s Green, as well as numerous short stories. As a playwright he has published the Civil War musical The Battle of Franklin, a critically-acclaimed stage adaptation of Frankenstein, an adaptation of Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place (finalist for Best New Production, 2020 Houston Theater Awards), and in 2024 a riveting production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Pete has also has edited work for Walter Wangerin, Phillip Yancey, and Malcolm Guite.
JENNIFER TRAFTON is a storyteller and artist with a passion for exploring the intersections of faith, creativity, and the arts. After her graduate work explored George MacDonald's influence on Christian views of the imagination, she was managing editor of Christian History & Biography magazine and a curriculum writer and editor for the StoneWorks Global Arts Initiative. For over a decade Jennifer has been a regular conference speaker, writer, teacher, editor, and illustrator for the Rabbit Room creative community. Since her first two highly-lauded novels for children, The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic and Henry and the Chalk Dragon, she has collaborated on or contributed to a wide array of projects, including The Wingfeather Tales, The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad, Every Moment Holy, Vol. III, and J. R. R. Tolkien and the Arts: A Theology of Subcreation. She is now in the completion stages of a book about the artist-missionary Lilias Trotter (B&H Publishing, 2025).
In 2022 Jennifer and Pete pilgrimaged the Camino de Santiago together for several weeks. This life-changing adventure continues to shape the work that they do together and alongside each other. They live in Franklin, Tennessee, just south of Nashville -- a small city twinned with Windstone's closest town of Carleton Place, Ontario.