Boulevard Magazine - April / May 2016 Issue

APRIL I MAY 2016

VICTORIA LIFE AT ITS FINEST

living the dream Vision-inspired home blossoms at the edge of an island vineyard

SHIPS IN SHAPE Luxe life on the sea

SPANISH CLASS

Fiery spring fashion

EAT YOUR GREENS

Salads for the soul

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81

28

90 22

50 43 FEATURES

On the cover Chateau Wolff Estate Winery and Vineyard.

Photo by Mia Dominguez.

28

LIVING A DREAM

Vision-inspired home blossoms

at edge of island vineyard

By Jaiya Anka

43 SPANISH CLASS

8

81

OUTDOOR OASIS

Creating livable

spaces outside

By Angela Cowan

90 SALADS FOR THE SOUL

Fresh, seasonal

Spring fashion

and delicious

with a fiery flourish

By Chef Heidi Fink

By Lia Crowe

104 ALL GROWN UP

50 SHIPS IN SHAPE

40 years of

High-tech luxury vessels

Belfry history

transform yachting

By Angela Cowan

By Korina Miller

98

104 38 COLUMNS 57 HAWTHORN

Bringing history back

By Tom Hawthorn

DEPARTMENTS 10 OUR CONTRIBUTORS 14 EDITOR’S LETTER

Garden bounty

16

INSPIRED STYLE

Natalie Bahirova

By Lia Crowe

57

CONTENTS

18

INSPIRED DESIGN

98 TRAVEL FAR

Bedside beauties

Salviatino splendour

By Sarah Reid

Florence, Italy

By Jennifer Allford

20 INSPIRED EVENTS Fired Up!

22 INSPIRED CHEFS

Ryan Hayter

By Susan Lundy

24 INSPIRED PEOPLE

Bill Henderson

By Susan Lundy

38 TALKING

WITH TESS

All Smiles

Rachel Staples

By Tess van Straaten

116

110 TRAVEL NEAR

Bountiful Kelowna

By Susan Lundy

116 FRONT ROW

What’s on this month

By Robert Moyes

124 SECRETS & LIVES

Chris Walker

By Susan Lundy

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OUR CONTRIBUTORS

JENNIFER ALLFORD

JAIYA ANKA

ANGELA COWAN

WRITER: SALVIATINO SPLENDOUR

WRITER: FARMHOUSE CHIC

WRITER: ALL GROWN UP

PAGE 98

PAGE 28

PAGE 104

“It was truly inspiring to see a young couple realize their dream.

The dedication to their craft and how much they love their home and community infuses everything they do. And, the view from their hilltop home was intoxicating!” Jaiya is an art history graduate student, who enjoys writing about the arts, design and culture.

“I felt like a movie star staying in this villa, with its thousand little luxuries and one giant view of Florence, a world-famous destination brimming with art and culture.” Jennifer writes about travel, lifestyle and relationships, science and research and pretty much anything else that tickles her fancy.

“Standing onstage at the Belfry, I could feel the weight of the past 40 years — of new voices and revered performers, of stories both entertaining and sometimes wrenching. Its celebration of four decades this year is a testament to the scores of dedicated and passionate people who’ve kept its doors open.” Angela is a regular contributor to Boulevard.

LIA CROWE

DON DENTON

CATHIE FERGUSON

BOULEVARD CREATIVE

BOULEVARD STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

PHOTOGRAPHER: SPANISH CLASS PAGE 42

“On the shoot for Chris Walker, he offered to take me up in his plane and I couldn’t say no. After a breathtaking loop above Victoria, including a fly-by of my house, a couple stomachlurching turns and a hot-shot landing, my life is just that much richer!” Lia is a freelance stylist, photographer and writer with a long history of working in the fashion industry.

GROUP PUBLISHER Penny Sakamoto EDITOR Susan Lundy CREATIVE Lia Crowe DESIGN Lily Chan Lorianne Koch ADVERTISING Mario Gedicke Pat Brindle ASSOCIATE GROUP Oliver Sommer PUBLISHER ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Mario Gedicke 250.891.5627

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“As a fan of British Columbia architecture and history it was a great experience to photograph Chris Le Fevre and his sensitive restoration of buildings in Victoria.” Don has photographed numerous high-profile events, including the Olympics, World Hockey Championships and a Royal wedding.

CIRCULATION & Miki Speirs DISTRIBUTION 250.480.3277 CONTRIBUTING Jennifer Allford, Jaiya Anka, WRITERS Angela Cowan, Lia Crowe, Heidi Fink,Tom Hawthorn, Korina Miller, Robert Moyes, Sarah Reid, Tess van Straaten CONTRIBUTING Lia Crowe, Don Denton, Mia PHOTOGRAPHERS Dominguez, Cathie Ferguson

“Although we shot our fashion story on the stunning grounds of Government House, it felt like a Mediterranean village as the sun shone and we worked amid the incredible landscape and texture.”

Cathie is a commercial and lifestyles photographer who finds inspiration in people and the environments in which she finds herself shooting.

ADVERTISE Boulevard Magazine is Victoria’s leading lifestyle magazine, celebrating 25 years of publishing in Greater Victoria.

To advertise or to learn more about advertising opportunities please send us an email at info@blvdmag.ca Mailing Address: 818 Broughton Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 1E4 Tel: 250.381.3484 Fax: 250.386.2624 info@blvdmag.ca blvdmag.ca

Victoria Boulevard ® is a registered trademark of Black Press Group Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the publisher’s written permission. Ideas and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of Black Press Group Ltd. or its affiliates; no official endorsement should be inferred. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for the contents, both implied or assumed, of any advertisement in this publication. Printed in Canada.

Canada Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement #42109519.

Let us get you where you want to be.

The Elbers Financial Group Adrian Elbers, CFA, Portfolio Manager, Investment Advisor Eric Elbers, CIM, FCSI, PhD, Portfolio Manager, Associate Investment Advisor 250 361-2283 (Victoria) • 1 800 561-5864 www.cibcwg.com/Elbers-Financial-Group Advisor Managed Program Composite Performance Returns (Annualized as at December 31, 2015)

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Since Inception

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CIBC Wood Gundy is a division of CIBC World Markets Inc., a subsidiary of CIBC and a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund and Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. If you are currently a CIBC Wood Gundy client, please contact your Investment Advisor. Past performance may not be repeated and is not indicative of future results. Performance returns are gross of AMA investment management fees, and other expenses, if any. Each individual account’s performance returns will be reduced by these fees and expenses. The indicated rates of return are the historical annual compounded total returns. Inception date for the Elbers’ Balanced Income and Growth portfolio is December 2008. The Blended Benchmark is 35% S&P/TSX + 15% MSCI C$ World + 40% Dex Univ Bond + 10% Dex 91day T-bill. This information, including any opinion, is based on various sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed and is subject to change. All investments carry a certain degree of risk. It is important to review objectives, risk tolerance, liquidity needs, tax consequences and any other considerations before choosing an AMA strategy.

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

HEIDI FINK

TOM HAWTHORN

WRITER: SALADS FOR THE SOUL

WRITER: BRINGING HISTORY BACK

PAGE 90

“I found myself waiting for spring with more than my usual eagerness after working on the salad recipes for this month’s food article.” Heidi Fink is a chef, food writer and culinary instructor, specializing in local foods and ethnic cuisines.

PAGE 57

“I walk the streets and alleys of Chinatown and Old Town trying to imagine the bustle of a thriving port city during the Klondike Gold Rush. Where does that alley lead?

What hides behind that door? I also wonder how such magnificent examples as the Oriental Hotel escaped the wrecking ball. Turns out developer Chris Le Fevre has all the answers.” Tom is a longtime newspaper and magazine writer here in Victoria.

ROBERT MOYES

KORINA MILLER

WRITER: FRONT ROW

WRITER: SHIPS IN SHAPE PAGE 50

PAGE 116

“Front Row is distinctly international this issue: from Iraqi-born painter Hashim Hannoon to the high contrast of British-flavoured musicals Mary Poppins and Spamalot, there is much to delight. And Uno Fest is bringing the circus to town!” A born and bred Victoria native, Robert Moyes is a longtime freelancer and editor whose main focus these days is being an arts journalist.

“How fantastic to return to Van Isle Marina, one of my childhood haunts, and how astounding to see the changes! I’m an island girl at heart and love being out on the water. For my next boat, I’ll definitely consider a submarine launch.” Korina has covered arts and culture for the past 15 years for Lonely Planet and BBC.

SARAH REID

TESS VAN STRAATEN

CREATOR: BEDSIDE BEAUTIES

WRITER: ALL SMILES PAGE 38

PAGE 18

“Shopping around town for each month’s roundup is always loads of fun. This issue’s bedside table compilation offered much beautiful, functional inspiration for my own bedroom make-over!” Sarah is a designer, creative director and maker living in Victoria.

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“To say I’m not a fan of the dentist would be a big understatement. But as soon as I saw the deluxe massage chair in the waiting room at Urban Smiles, I was in no rush to leave. A massage chair and laughing gas — what more do you need?” A fourth-generation Victoria native, Tess is an award-winning journalist and television personality who has had the privilege of interviewing people for close to two decades.

EDITOR’S LETTER

Behold the bounty of gardeners

BY SUSAN LUNDY

PHOTO BY ARNOLD LIM

and I sat with little glasses of their homemade blackberry port, chatting about our busy work schedules.

Turns out she has just one day off every week and her “me” time includes weeding, watering, pruning, planting and plucking the garden. Hauling soil to and fro. Helping Peter fix the fence. And — of course — learning to distinguish between weeds and asparagus. I confess, it’s not really my idea of “me” time, and I started to rethink this garden business.

But for others, gardens and such abound in this edition of Boulevard.

The exquisite textures and colours of early spring at Government House create a beautiful backdrop to our fashion feature. This garden also demands a lot of people’s “me” time: some 460 volunteers from The Friends of Government House Gardens Society annually log over 17,000 hours of volunteer work in the gardens — and many have been doing so for more than 20 years. But like Peter and Shari’s garden, it is a sight to behold.

Big scale gardening also sets the stage for this month’s Hot Properties (page 28), where the owners of Chateau Wolff Estate Winery and Vineyard have built their dream home atop a hill overlooking rows and rows of grape vines. For readers looking to spruce up their own yards and gardens this spring, writer Angela Cowan consults the experts and offers up some tips in Outdoor oases, page 80. And of course, Chef Heidi Fink is right there with the ultimate say on getting all those garden goodies into delectable seasonal salads (page 90).

Venturing beyond the garden, join us on topics that range from luxury yachting to saving heritage buildings in Chinatown. Meet rocker Bill Henderson, the style savvy Natalie Bahirova, chef Ryan Hayter, builder Chris Walker and a dentist-with-a-difference, Rachel Staples. Discover bountiful Kelowna and travel to a lavish hotel in Italy. Help the Belfry Theatre celebrate 40 years. Get all fired up about a ceramics show.

There is so much to read and so many beautiful photos to enjoy in this spring edition of Boulevard, I think I’ll take a copy over to Peter and Shari. Maybe they’ll trade some pears.

PHOTO BY LIA CROWE

“D

O YOU HAVE ANY amusing gardening stories?” I asked my friends, whose thumbs are so green they glow in the dark.

Everyone is thinking “garden” at this time of year, so I wanted to write something witty and entertaining about our own gardening efforts. However, our story is more akin to tragedy than comedy, so as the four of us dined together one evening, I popped the question.

“Well,” said Shari, “I once weeded out all the asparagus spears. They looked like weeds.”

Judging by Peter’s glowering look from across the table, I gathered he didn’t find that story particularly amusing.

So I turned to him and said, “Didn’t you once have a situation with a bird and — well, there is no good way to put this — but … a bird and your nuts?”

Turns out as he plucked nuts from one of his gazillion almond, hazelnut and walnut trees, a jay hopped from branch to branch, screeching at him every time he picked a nugget from the tree. Mildly amusing for sure.

Peter and Shari have an amazing garden. Every fall, we remind them of our deep friendship by dropping by a little more frequently around the time they harvest their spectacular-tasting pears. In the summer they are the most popular barbecue guests on the block as they arrive with glorious salads — almost too pretty to eat — made entirely of homegrown vegetables. In spring, they give away bouquets heavenly scented red roses … and all year long they seem to be feasting on the bounty of their fruit trees.

I personally wish they lived a little closer because after the Big One hits, that’s where we’re headed. Once the post-quake barter system emerges, things don’t look so positive for Bruce and me. Last year our fledgling garden was savaged by a band of bunnies. The deer took care of any remaining foliage plus many of the flowers, and the birds made off with most of our cherries.

We did manage to produce some exquisite grapes — I wanted to frame them, not eat them — but they won’t last long enough to barter. And I’m not certain that our combined skills of editing, writing and deciphering public opinion will be very marketable: hence our plan to move in with Peter and Shari.

Our dinner conversation moved to other topics and later Shari

I PERSONALLY WISH THEY LIVED A LITTLE CLOSER BECAUSE AFTER THE BIG ONE HITS, THAT’S WHERE WE’RE HEADED.

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Boulevard editor Susan Lundy has been a writer since age six, when she reinvented the lemonade stand by selling handmade books at roadside booths. A former journalist and two-time recipient of the prestigious Jack Webster Award, her stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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inspiredSTYLE WITH NATALIE BAHIROVA, CO-OWNER OF BAGHEERA BOUTIQUE

BY LIA CROWE

FASHION UNIFORM: “A classic look — simple dress, everyday heel (current boots are from Vince) and spice it up with a scarf.” ALL TIME FAVOURITE PIECE: Tan, leather jacket by Juicy Couture. COVETING: Snoopy scarf by Codello. FAVOURITE SHOES: Alberto Fermani, AS 98 heels. DAYBAG: Canvas Print Tote Bag by Louis Vuitton. FAVOURITE JEWELRY PIECE OR DESIGNER: Leather Bracelet with Swarovski Crystal by Karyn Chopik.

FASHION OBSESSION: Shoes. ACCESSORY YOU SPEND THE MOST MONEY ON: Prada Sunglasses.

BEAUTY NECESSARY INDULGENCE: Make-up. MOISTURIZER: Le Blanc by Chanel. SCENT: Shanghai Lily by Tom Ford.

MUST-HAVE HAIR PRODUCT: L’Occitane En Provence hair conditioner. BEAUTY SECRET: Sleeping well.

LIFE FAVOURITE LOCAL RESTAURANT: “Matisse French Restaurant — best option for French Cuisine in Victoria. You can also see me often at Ebizo Sushi and Prima Strada Pizzeria.” FAVOURITE WINE: Menage a Trois Rose, California. ALBUM ON CURRENT ROTATION: What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong.

FAVOURITE APP: Kindle. LAST GREAT READ: Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. FLOWER: White Roses. FAVOURITE CITY TO VISIT: Paris, France. FAVOURITE HOTEL: Mondrian Hotel, Los Angeles.

FAVOURITE PLACE IN THE WHOLE WORLD: Odessa, Ukraine.

STYLE INSPIRATIONS STYLE ICON: Coco Chanel. FASHION DESIGNER: Roberto Cavalli. ARTIST: Vincent Van Gogh. PIECE OF ART: The Woman in Green Abram Arkhipov. FAVOURITE MUSICIAN: “I am partial to classic music. Mozart and Tchaikovsky.” ERA OF TIME: “The Parisian Life in the 1920s. This was a time of great influence and creativity around Paris, from world famous writers, artists to fashion revolutionaries.” FILM: The Devil Wears Prada.

N

atalie has a lot to celebrate this summer. First there’s the second anniversary celebration this July of her Broughton Street fashion boutique, Bagheera, which she co-owns with fiancée Anton Solonnikov. And next, comes the opening of a new, second location in Langley this August.

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The now 28-year-old moved to Victoria from her hometown of Kiev, Ukraine at 21 after leaving her university Law studies.

“It’s hard in Ukraine right now because there is war; the economical situation is pretty bad as well,” she says. “But it has always been hard to live in Ukraine. Living in Victoria, you feel like you’re in a cocoon — you feel so safe, like nothing bad can happen to you.”

Once in Victoria,she began working in fashion and hasn’t looked back.

“I always liked fashion. In Ukraine we had to get dressed up for school, so I started to like dressing up and looking good. I still like dresses a lot and appreciate good quality.”

As a business owner, she’s “learned to be calm and persistent,” she says.

“I have to be calm and not take any bad news too seriously. I had to change a lot in the last two years; I had to become a little bit stronger and more persistent. I think every chapter in our lives changes us. If you are persistent in whatever you do, in the end it will work out, even if it just takes you to another place in your life. Little by little just keep pushing.”

Bagheera, which means black panther, has the same origin as her own last name, so when she saw the word she felt a personal connection to it.

The boutique specializes in premier European fashions and asked what the future holds for the store, Natalie says, “I want to continue to build up this business — not expand but do more, bring in more cool, interesting collections from Europe, maybe find one interesting collection from Ukraine or Russia. Women in Ukraine and Russia really know how to dress up.”

Natalie’s beautiful face is one I’ve seen for many years while working in the sphere of Victoria fashion. And as one who’s at least 10 years her senior can say, it’s exciting to watch her grow up and come into her own as a strong voice in the local fashion landscape.

“WOMEN IN UKRAINE AND RUSSIA REALLY KNOW HOW TO DRESS UP.”

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inspiredEVENTS

Porcelain teapot with reduction fired crystalline glazes by ceramic artist Gordon Hutchens.

FIRED UP! WOOD-FIRED CERAMICS EXHIBIT “ART OF THE EARTH”

A

DENMAN ISLAND CERAMICS ARTIST is firing up a special wood burning kiln, making sure it’s stoked every 15 minutes for three days, and burning up to five cords of wood in preparation for a show featuring Canada’s longest running ceramic exhibition group.

The 32nd annual Fired Up! ceramics exhibit runs May 27-29 at the Metchosin Community Hall and features the work of 14 local clay artists collected under the theme Wood 20

Firing: The Art of Earth.

The wood firing happens on the Denman Island property of participating artist Gordon Hutchens, April 21-24.

The process involves using a “voracious” Tozan Anagama [or cave kiln], which needs constant tending in order to achieve firing temperature.

Ultimately, the flame and ash create chemical reactions that alter glazes and colouration. A cool-down period of several days follows the firing.

The Tozan Anagama kiln on Hutchens’ property is one of only four in existence, and he fires it up twice a year. About 12 feet deep and several feet wide, the kiln has over 250

cubic feet of space. Loading the lines of shelves, Hutchens says, among collectors. is like undertaking a 3-D jigsaw puzzle. Once lit, the flames In discussing his work with students in the fine arts program move across the pots towards the rear of the kiln. at North Island College, where he has taught since 1999, he “I try to imagine the river of fire,” he says: “The way it weaves talks about positive and negative space, and describes how his around the rock-like pots, caressing left hand, on the inside, creates the each clay vessel in its path.” inner volume, while his right hand, According to Fired Up! press on the outside, gently folds the clay material, China’s first emperor, around empty space.

Qin Shi Huang, used this type of “In this way I envelope the spirit kiln to make his life-size Terracotta of the piece by defining the form,” Army of warriors and horses in 200 he says, adding that the balance BC. Excavation of the mausoleum between control and spontaneity, in Shaanxi province is ongoing technique and creativity is with estimates of 8,000 soldiers, important. Each day, he adds, 130 chariots and 600 horses, still is an ongoing experiment, full buried in three pits. The army was of inventive ideas and endless designed to protect the emperor in surprises. his afterlife. Wanting to keep the At Fired Up!, he says, visitors location secret, the emperor decreed “will see the best work of the past year.” ​ a death sentence for all workers.

Other artists included in the But those who escaped to Japan “Whale Bearing Gifts” by Fired Up! artist Mary Fox. annual show are participating and Korea took the technology with members Alan Burgess, Samantha them.

Dickie, Sandra Dolph, Mary At age 14, Hutchens visited a Fox, Cathi Jefferson, Meira Mathison, Beth McMillan, wood-fired kiln in Japan and, noticing the sophisticated results, Kinichi Shigeno and Pat Webber. (Member Gary Merkel is was intrigued by the process. Since then, he’s delved into the on sabbatical.) This year’s guests are Robin DuPont, Kasumi alchemical science of glazing, and continues to marvel at the Lampitoc, Vincent Massey and Debra Sloan. complex reactions of heat, clay and mineral pigments. One of See firedup.ca for more information and to see the works of the founding members of Fired Up!, Hutchens’ exquisite palette various participating artists. of iridescent surfaces and rugged, wood-fired finishes is popular

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inspiredCHEFS

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PHOTOS BY DON DENTON

RYAN HAYTER CHEF AT GLO RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE

QUICK FACTS:

• Age 31 • Born in London, Ontario and raised in Calgary, Alberta.

• Trained to be a mechanical engineer at Camosun College, and planned to transfer to UVic to finish degree. But having worked in kitchens through school, he says, “I decided instead to challenge my Red Seal in cooking rather than continue with engineering.”

• Chef at Glo for over two years. “We have seen tremendous growth in the past couple years, and I think our cooks are motivated by the results quality food can have on a restaurant.”

• Before Glo, worked at Black Rock Oceanfront Resort in Ucluelet. “I was the chef de partie and saucier for two great chefs, Andrew Springett and Morné Van Antwerp. Both were very different — one is a personal mentor of mine, and the other pushed my food and technique to the next level.”

WHAT ARE YOU BEST KNOWN FOR AS A CHEF? I’d like to think I’m known for the food I like to cook. My style started with classic French cuisine and then mixed with my true comfort food. I love the grill, the smoker and bold southern flavours. I also travelled the Orient and now try to incorporate those flavours into my cooking … anything goes!

WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENTS IN YOUR PANTRY? I like big flavours, so dried parsley is out. My top 10 would be: star anise, clove, cinnamon, coriander, cardamom, garlic, onions, salt, sugar, vinegar and, if I’m allowed one more, chili flakes.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE DISH TO COOK AND EAT ON A SPRING DAY? I like salads in spring — we have great local greens on the island and in the spring they start popping up in grocery stores. I like local greens with goat cheese, toasted nuts, fresh fruit and homemade berry dressing (frozen berries work) with grilled chicken or pork.

It’s a nice meal that leaves you full, but not heavy.

WHAT’S YOUR GO TO ITEM WHEN SAMPLING OTHER CHEFS’ FARE? I grew up in Calgary, so for me it doesn’t get any better than an epic steak and frites.

Chef Ryan Hayter at Glo and his artful tuna tataki.

CAN YOU SHARE AN EASY, SEASONAL RECIPE FOR A QUICK NOSH IN APRIL/MAY? Here’s a recipe for the salad I mentioned: 1 bag of organic greens, I prefer the Kildara Farms organic greens. ½ cup toasted pecans ½ cup fresh berries or sliced apple Goat cheese 6 mint leaves, shredded by hand Grilled chicken or pork Raspberry vinaigrette dressing: ½ cup frozen raspberries (pull out to defrost about an hour before preparing dressing) Juice of one lemon ¼ cup white wine vinegar 1½ Tbsp liquid honey 1 cup canola oil Blend everything except the oil with a hand held blender, or mix well with a whisk to break up berries. While whisking, slowly add oil to berry mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

HOBBIES? I love cooking, baking, fishing and my car. My lady and my family are also always my favourite priorities.

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inspiredPEOPLE

Bill Henderson may be best known as the lead singer of the rock band Chilliwack, but he has a long history of making music in Canada.

BILL HENDERSON NO “CRAZY TALK” ... HE’S A ROCK ‘N ROLL HERO

BY SUSAN LUNDY PHOTOS BY LIA CROWE

T

HESE DAYS ROCKER BILL HENDERSON may best be known for hit songs like “Lonesome Mary” and “My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)” made famous by his band Chilliwack in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Or perhaps it’s the fact he was inducted into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1994, named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2015 and has a shelf-full of awards, including a Genie, a Juno and a special achievement award from SOCAN (Songwriters Association of Canada).

But less known these days are songs by The Collectors —

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Chilliwack’s predecessor — a band that rode the wave of a West Coast cultural and musical revolution in the 1960s.

“The Collectors were huge,” recalls Henderson, sitting in the cozy living room of a small house perched at the edge of a canal, and found at the end of a long, forested driveway on Salt Spring Island. “Artistically, we were perhaps the most innovative band in Canada.”

The Vancouver band’s unique sound, which incorporated chants and experimental studio techniques, was a favourite of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, and Henderson can list off

a dozen “greats” with whom The Collectors played as the band gained popularity, especially in California and Europe.

“That band had some incredible shows. We played with Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Cream, Chicago, Zappa ….”

They were so well known for their innovative take on the music of the day that the Canadian government asked them to write all the music for the Canada Pavilion at EXPO 1970 in Osaka, Japan.

The experiences didn’t feel “big” at the time, Henderson says, because it was all so new.

“We weren’t thinking about hits … it was just the music that was happening. We were in this west coast cultural corridor; we knew these bands and we were all a part of it as it grew.”

Eventually, artistic differences emerged among band members, and The Collectors lead singer, Howie Vickers, left in 1969. Henderson took over as lead vocalist, and a year later the band was renamed Chilliwack.

Born in Vancouver, Henderson spent much of his childhood in Yellow Point, near Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. His love of the ocean and rural lifestyle was pivotal in his and his wife May’s decision 22 years ago to move permanently to Salt Spring, where they had lived for three years in the 1970s.

Influenced early by folk, rock and jazz, Henderson felt that by the late 1950s, copycat artists had made popular music “completely boring.” He headed into a music program at the University of British Columbia, focusing on classical music, while playing jazz and the standards on the side with friends and mentors. But when he saw the 1964 movie A Hard Day’s Night, featuring the Beatles, he left, riveted, thinking, “Rock music is back! This is the real thing.”

“There was suddenly all this vitality and musicality,” he says.

“I knew then that I wanted to be in a rock band and I put away the acoustic guitar and brought out the electric.”

When fellow UBC student and musician Claire Lawrence — whose music Henderson had admired from afar — asked him to join the band that would become The Collectors in 1966, he said, “yes” — no questions asked. Fifty years later, Lawrence and Henderson continue to collaborate on various musical endeavours.

Today, Google and YouTube searches reveal the soundtracks of late 1960s Collectors songs like the catchy “Lydia Purple” — with a sound reminiscent of The Byrds — and “What Love (Suite),” featuring the band’s trademark experimental sound.

Fast-forward in time, and Internet searches offer the visuals as well. There’s Henderson with Chilliwack in 1977, rocking out in San Francisco with long hair and a satin shirt. In two other videos, the hair’s still long, but definitely more “eighties” as Dick Clark interviews the group on American Bandstand in 1981 and again a year later. Watching the interviews, one can’t help but be struck by Chilliwack members’ “Canadian politeness.”

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“We didn’t have a lot of attitude,” smiles Henderson.

Attitude, perhaps not. Hit songs? You bet. These days Chilliwack performs a couple dozen gigs a year (flying in and out of locales; no lengthy tour bus rides these days). But as the musicians take the stage and Chilliwack launches into hit after hit — “I Believe,” “Whatcha Gonna Do,” “Fly At Night,” “Crazy Talk,” “California Girl” — you can’t help but realize how these songs, for so many, form a musical backdrop to the past.

Henderson’s name is on all these tracks and songwriting continues to be a huge part of his life. There’s a bit of irony here in that much of the early Chilliwack music occurred spontaneously, without a lot of pre-written words.

“We’d go out on stage with about three songs that we’d play at some point in the night,” Henderson recalls. “We’d start by tuning up and jamming and it would just turn into something.

We’d go amazing places.”

The jamming included spur-of-the moment lyrics as well, he says, but after a few years of this, his enthusiasm for improvisation “dried up” and he realized, “I’ve got to learn how to write songs.”

He definitely learned. Over the following decades, he penned all those hit songs with Chilliwack, wrote music for movies, served on the board and as president of Canada’s songwriting entity, SOCAN, worked as musical director writing songs for Sesame Street Canada, and continues to write with the folk music supergroup UHF, which includes Shari Ulrich, Henderson and Roy Forbes.

Along with his wife May, he also recently composed “Take Back This Land” — a rallying cry for action in the 2015 election — which Chilliwack recorded with Henderson’s singer/

“YOU WRITE AND WRITE AND WRITE, AND ONE DAY SOMETHING COMES ALONG, AND YOU THINK, ‘THAT ONE FELT LIKE IT WROTE ITSELF.’”

songwriter daughters, Camille and Saffron.

Songwriting is complicated, Henderson says, and while socially conscious songs like “Take Back This Land” are revealing because “my heart is with community and where we find ourselves,” the “most important part of songwriting is often the accidents.”

“You write and write and write, and one day something comes along, and you think, ‘that one felt like it wrote itself.’”

Henderson recalls that he didn’t even want to release one of Chilliwack’s biggest hits, “My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone),” saying, “I thought it was too shallow.”

Luckily for all the rock fans who caught the cultural and musical revolution live in the 1960s, or via transistor radio in the 70s, followed by ghetto-blasters and boomboxes … some great songwriting “accidents” occurred along the way.

Henderson’s music has spanned the decades and with no end in sight, the musical soundscape he helped create for our past will carry onto the future. Write on, Bill Henderson.

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Living the

DREAM VISION-INSPIRED HOUSE BLOSSOMS AT THE EDGE OF AN ISLAND VINEYARD

BY JAIYA ANKA PHOTOS BY MIA DOMINGUEZ

28

HOT PROPERTIES

An eight-by-three-foot centre island anchors the kitchen, which is made for cooking and entertaining.

30

W

HEN NATALIE AND MATT Riga built their home high on a Nanaimo hilltop, they fulfilled their dream of combining life, work and a place they love.

Overlooking five-and-a-half acres of vines that produce predominantly Pinot noir and Chardonnay grapes, the new house is designed around the winery, which the couple has built together.

“The day I saw the land for the first time, I ran up to the top of the hill, and once I saw the view, that was it,” enthuses Matt. “Of the three wineries that were available to purchase on Vancouver Island, this one needed the most work, but it had the most potential to grow.”

Harry Von Wolff, who originally planted the vines in the early 1990s, dreamed of building a house at the top of the hill, which offers spectacular views over a vine-covered, south-facing slope, Millstone River and Mount Benson. After he passed away, the vines sat dormant for over a decade. Even though the land was overgrown when Natalie and Matt came to view the property in 2013, they knew they had found the “one” that would help them realize their dream of owning a winery.

Their love affair with wine started a few years earlier when friend and former vintner David Godfrey loaned them the book The Wine Roads of Italy to take on their honeymoon. When they returned, they opened and ran their own restaurant for three years in Ontario, but built on their passion for wine with visits to the wineries of Prince Edward County.

Given their entrepreneurial spirit and a love for Vancouver Island, they did what any young couple expecting their first child might do: they Googled “Vineyards for Sale on Vancouver Island.” They short-listed three vineyards, sold their successful

restaurant and moved west.

Fast-forward two years and the couple’s boutique-style winery, Chateau Wolff, which sits just down the hill from their home, is producing a limited run of Pinot noir, Syrah, Chardonnay, a white blend and a fortified red called Rouge.

“For us, it’s all about keeping it simple and sustainable,” says Matt.

“We wanted an oldworld traditional feeling to be reflected in our wine. We’re a small winery that produces a limited run.”

The couple also wanted to weave this traditional or “farmhouse chic” sensibility into the design of their West Coast home, which was awarded a Canadian Home Builders Association “Georgie” as “best new home under $750,000 in BC” this past March. Initially, they planned to renovate the existing house near the foot of the hill, but soon discovered it was not structurally sound.

To take advantage of their spectacular setting, they decided

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Timber arch at the entranceway is a signature feature of the Riga house.

to build a new home on the top of the hill. To this end, they contacted Alair Homes’ Stu Hopewell, who happens to know the area well since he grew up just around the corner from the winery.

With Natalie in Ontario and expecting their child, and Matt busy pruning all of the vines, Natalie’s mom, Carol, was instrumental in working with Stu and his team on the preliminary designs of the house. Natalie also enlisted the help of a designer from Ontario who had created her childhood home, and the project grew into a successful cross-country collaboration, with the couple moving in 10 months later.

“We wanted our home to take advantage of the view and for it to have that West Coast feel,” recalls Natalie.

The couple collaborated with the Alair team to implement their vision, and incorporated elements such as timber and stone to keep the overall feeling of the home as natural as possible.

Windows are everywhere, bringing in light as well as views of the surrounding vineyard and hills.

The site itself was unique in that the home had to fit between a rock face at the back of the property line and the vines.

“We worked with what the couple wanted to design and with what the landscape dictated,” says Hopewell. “We optimized the amount of living space without removing any of the vines.”

In fact, Natalie and Matt have a short commute to work — the vines are just eight feet from their doorstep and a newly built tasting room is just down the hill.

As you approach the house, the “signature feature” use of timber makes a strong first impression. Originally intending to cover the portion over the entryway, the team decided to extend the timber arch farther. Together with natural stone, this substantial and graceful timber frame features oak pegs and a quality of construction that is a rarity in today’s building. This 32

timber frame sets the tone for the old-world feeling of both the vineyard and home.

The couple and their young daughter do most of their living on the main floor, which features a home office, side entryway, laundry room, pantry and an open-plan kitchen, dining and living room, with adjoining patio. The space feels open and bright, with nine-foot ceilings throughout. Since Matt worked as a chef for several years, it was mandatory for him to have a six-burner gas stove and a kitchen that is made for cooking and entertaining.

“The design had to begin with the kitchen,” says Natalie.

“The entire home was inspired by the kitchen cabinets — we loved their rustic feel.”

The couple also chose marble countertops and created an eight-by-three-foot centre island.

The highlight of the open space is the great room, which features a vaulted ceiling with timber beams and a floor-toceiling natural stone facing for the gas fireplace.

To unify the 4,000-square-foot interior, the couple installed laminate flooring that resembles wide-planked, walnut-stained oak, and applied a neutral colour palette of soft blues, greys and browns across all three levels. The floor in the kitchen area and its adjoining pantry feature porcelain tile that echo the home’s earthy character. Virtually every sight line offers a view to the outdoors and an abundance of natural daylight.

Refined industrial-style lighting fixtures adorn each room, with a distinctive globe suspended above the stairwell that leads to the second level, which houses the three bedrooms. The owners’ bedroom is another space that echoes this away-from-itall feeling with its view over the vineyards and the valley, its own patio and an en suite bath complete with soaker tub.

Guests have their own area on the lower level, which also has

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The great room features a vaulted ceiling, timber beams and a floorto-ceiling natural stone facing for the gas fireplace.

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Windows, light and views abound from every room.

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built for life, Built for beauty established in 1980

an infrared sauna, a recreation room with a gas fireplace, a private tasting bar (constructed by Matt out of old wine barrels and windows) and a wine cellar. The eight-by-ten foot cellar, which has no heat and is air-locked, features custom-made fir shelving, which is stained a dark chocolate brown and accentuates the terracotta-coloured brick.

When the room was nearly complete, the team noticed that there was a space remaining — there wouldn’t be enough brick to complete the wall. Natalie and Matt retrieved a painting from the former tasting room, an image of a castle in Germany that once belonged to the original owner.

When they placed it against the space in the brick wall, it fit perfectly.

With dedication and hard work, Matt and Natalie have realized their dream where an artful way of living blends easily with the work they love.

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TALKING WITH TESS

ALL SMILES BOUTIQUE DENTISTRY HAS PEOPLE GRINNING FROM EAR TO EAR TEXT BY TESS VAN STRAATEN PHOTOS BY DON DENTON

38

Dentist Rachel Staples in her Broughton Street offices.

D

r. Rachel Staples’ new dentistry practice looks more like a trendy boutique or coffee bar than a dentist’s office. Exposed brick walls, wide plank faux hardwood floors, playful art and colourful accessories greet patients at Urban Smiles, which opened in downtown Victoria in September. There’s even a chandelier in the waiting room — and a high-end massage chair.

“It’s a really cool space and we were able to bring in some really neat ideas to make it a boutique practice instead of a corporate structure, which is what I came from,” says Staples, who’s been a dentist in Victoria for more than two decades, and has been voted number one dentist in “Best of Victoria” for the last six years.

“I really wanted to make the space special and less clinical since a lot of people don’t like going to the dentist and have a lot of anxiety about it.”

Surprising, Dr. Staples was one of those people. Growing up in Esquimalt, she dreaded going to the dentist as a child — and admits she wasn’t a great patient.

“I did not enjoy going to the dentist,” she says. “I wouldn’t say I hated it, but I seemed to spend a lot of time there.”

So why does someone who really doesn’t like going to the dentist decide to become one and spend her working life in the very place she tried to avoid? It turns out it was a friend’s encouragement — and a lack of billing numbers for doctors in British Columbia at the time.

“Medicine was in my dreams and I wanted to be a plastic surgeon, but they weren’t issuing any new billing numbers so I couldn’t be a doctor or surgeon in BC or have hospital privileges,

and I didn’t want to move out of province,” Staples explains.

“A girlfriend talked me into writing dental school exams and I discovered I enjoyed dentistry so much and it really offered a lot of variety.”

In addition to undertaking check-ups, fillings and root canals, Dr. Staples is trained in neuromuscular dentistry and the kind of full-mouth reconstructions the popular TV show Extreme Makeover made famous.

The mother of three boys actually trained in Las Vegas for almost two years to learn how to create smiles from scratch.

“That’s the stuff I love to do,” the 50-year old Staples says enthusiastically.

An avid runner, Staples also believes in doing pro bono work.

At her previous practices, participating in the “Dentistry for the Heart” program amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars in free dentistry.

“We’ll be doing that here, too, and Homeless in Victoria approached me at Christmas time with an individual who needed full dental care, so we got him a new smile,” Staples says. “Social services will also call me occasionally with a case and if it’s a child, how can you refuse that?”

It’s a lot to juggle but Staples credits her husband, Brock — who she calls “superman” — with keeping their three sons, age 10, 12 and 14, on track during the busy transition to the new practice, and when they undertook a massive renovation of a heritage building by the Victoria YMCA. The space was transformed into a high-tech dental office that is one of only a few in Victoria to have nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, piped into the treatment rooms.

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“The biggest challenge was timing — we basically had three and a half months from start to finish to get the entire renovation done, and the space was completely gutted,” Staples explains. “But as soon as I walked into the space and saw all the brick walls, I knew it was the right spot for me.”

Before opening Urban Smiles, Dr. Staples was a partner in four successful practices. But she decided to walk away from that and branch out on her own in an effort to streamline her life.

“I still have 15 to 20 years of professional life left and as a mom, it was really important to simplify my life a bit.”

So far, that hasn’t exactly worked out as planned. Staples says the response to the new practice has been huge, with more than 350 new patients in the first four months alone.

“The average dental office will have eight to 10 new patients a month and we’ve had an average of 88 per month, which is a lot for a single practitioner,” she admits.

Staples is hoping to have another full-time dentist on staff soon, allowing Urban Smiles to add evening hours. This busy mom hopes to eventually reduce her hours after they get through this pivotal first year of business.

“Previously, I had my Mondays off and my ideal world is to work four days a week so I have more time to keep my boys out of trouble,” Staples smiles. “I had no idea how busy my life would be with three boys and managing a practice.

But I have no regrets — I wouldn’t change a thing.”

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Dress ($499) by Luisa Cerano, fringe purse ($335) by Luisa Cerano and necklace ($345) by Karyn Chopik, all available at Bagheera Boutique.

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FEATURE STORY

SHIPS IN SHAPE HIGH-TECH LUXURY VESSELS TRANSFORM THE WORLD OF YACHTING

BY KORINA MILLER PHOTOS BY DON DENTON

S

TAYING ON A BOAT FELT LIKE camping when I was a kid.

A childhood friend lived with her family on a 32-footboat docked at Van Isle Marina in Sidney. Rather than a fridge, they had a cooler outside; and each night, her parents turned their kitchen table into a bed. There was an ice machine and showers in the marina and not much else. Life on board a boat seemed rough around the edges and very different from my home.

50

Fast forward to the present, and gaze over the boats docked at Van Isle today. It’s obvious they are far from rough around the edges.

“The most significant change to yacht design over the past couple of decades is that they’ve gotten a lot bigger. They’re more like comfortable mansions than little boats people camp on,” says Greg Marshall, CEO of Gregory C. Marshall Naval Architect Ltd. and a professional designer for nearly 40 years.

“Historically, a common ‘disease’ among boaters was ‘twofootitis,’ meaning you started with an 18-foot boat and then

Mark Dickinson, President of Van Isle Marina.

moved up in size two feet at a time,” explains Mark Dickinson, President of Van Isle Marina. “Today, brand new boaters start with boats that can easily be 45 or 60 feet in length.”

The marina has changed in leaps and bounds alongside the boats. First opened in 1947, it was originally built over mud flats and sat afloat on beach-combed logs. The Dickinson family bought the marina in 1955 and it has gradually grown from two docks and around 35 boats to 500 berths in the water, plus another 90 on land.

51

“Granddad would have never anticipated the size of boats now or the size of the slips we’d need,” laughs Mark’s daughter, Cara Triconi, Van Isle’s Human Resources & Business Development Manager.

“We’ve also invested in lifestyle amenities a great deal in recent years,” says Dickinson. “There’s so much demand for things like Wi-Fi Now everyone has high speed to the very end of the dock.”

There’s also much more electrical power to boats that require it for things like shower power services, improved fuel dispensing and even a hull-out facility that can get a boat out of the water in under five minutes.

“People want things done now. Not in a couple of hours,” says Dickinson.

“Traditionally, boaters would spend weekends tinkering with their engines or woodwork. That rarely happens now. Now many boaters just want to arrive at the marina and go cruising.”

Updated facilities make this increasingly attractive, he adds.

“Moorage, repair facilities, resort amenities, fuel docks and restaurants are far more numerous today than they were 15 or 20 years ago.”

All this is not surprising, given the location.

“Next to the Greek Islands, this region is known as one of the finest cruising grounds in the world,” says Dickinson. “It’s relatively sheltered with no big seas coming in here.”

Somewhere like Los Angeles is exposed to the vast Pacific Ocean, but Vancouver Island is like a huge breakwater to the west coast of mainland BC. “It would be nicer if the water was warmer,” he laughs, “but it’s beautiful. There’s so much to do and in relative safety.”

Boarding a modern yacht is worlds away from the boat I stayed on as a child.

“Newer boats have flat screen HDTV with satellite reception in almost every cabin, modern kitchen appliances, ample battery and electrical supply, built-in barbecues and even water makers and climate control. They have auxiliary power to stay at anchor for extended periods, heating systems, separate sleeping cabins, multiple bathrooms and shore boats.”

And those are just the little guys on the water.

“Our biggest project was 330 feet — $230 million,” says Victoria-based Marshall, who designs boats in every corner of the world. “Many people who own these boats are driving progressive businesses that are changing society. They can’t help but carry the same thinking into their boats. They want helicopter pads and submarine landing stations — all sorts of things on board that make the boats more fun to be on. These boats are technological marvels.”

Today’s yachts are also incredibly easy to navigate and

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operate. Boating is a way of life for many — Dickinson grew up at the marina, used to sail a little boat around the harbour as a kid and still heads out on his own boat whenever he has the chance. However, he also sees many people who have no experience on the water, buying yachts.

“Electronic navigation enhancements give tremendous peace of mind to those who are inexperienced at coastal cruising,” he says. “In the old days a boat might have had a compass but little else; not even a communications radio or depth sounder. Today your entire boat system can be managed from a tablet or a touch screen. They also allow easy understanding of where the boat is exactly on the chart and on the water, where it has been and where it is going. In theory, you could drive a boat all the way around Vancouver Island without even looking out the window.”

With big, comfortable boats that are simple to operate, yachting is something that attracts people from every background.

“There’s an idea that yachting is only for the rich,” says Dickinson, “but that’s absolutely not true. There are plenty of people you’d not consider wealthy who have boats. They devote their entire means to having it.”

Like all industries, the market fluctuates.

“When people are happy, they buy things, and when they’re not happy, they don’t — especially luxuries,” says Marshall.

Dickinson agrees, noting that Alberta’s stalled economy is

affecting sales this year. But generally, “the value and price of boats has stayed the same, while people’s ability to pay has grown over the years.”

Marshall has seen more and more yacht owners offsetting the costs by building boats that they can charter out.

“People are getting more used to the idea,” he says. “It used to be that they spent 50 or 80 or 100 thousand dollars on a boat and so they didn’t want someone else sleeping in their bed. But now we’re definitely seeing lots of boats operating in charters.”

Somewhere within the mix of all of this comfort and ease, there’s a paradox that’s been recognized between the high-tech aspects of yachting that are now available, and the high touch that people are often looking for when they’re boating — the desire to be out on the water and doing some of the hands on things that we lose when we’re tuned into technology.

While technology allows boaters to spend less time tending to the nitty gritty and more time on deck enjoying the scenery, there are still those who seek low-tech vessels. “‘Plain Jane’ simple boats with the bare essentials,” says Dickinson. “We still see them.” Marshall also sees clients after less: “We still build lots of boats under 30 feet for local people — hands on boats that people can run themselves.”

These boats are a little closer to the one I stayed on as a child than to the luxurious beauties moored in the marina today.

THEY’RE MORE LIKE COMFORTABLE MANSIONS THAN LITTLE BOATS PEOPLE CAMP ON.

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GIFTS AND ART The Ladybug Boutique The Country Gift Shoppe Paper Chain The Gallery Paletteable Pottery and Arts Studio 5325 Cordova Bay Rd www.matticksfarm.com Free Parking Pantone Dark Blue C C: 100% R: 0 M: 93% G: 37 Y: 6% B: 154 K: 3%

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HAWTHORN

BRINGING HISTORY BACK DEVELOPER PLANS “PURE HERITAGE” PROJECT IN CHINATOWN

BY TOM HAWTHORN PHOTOS BY DON DENTON

Victoria property developer Chris Le Fevre at the site of his latest project in Chinatown.

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HE LATEST ADDITION TO CHRIS LE FEVRE’S airy office is an antique writing desk, a beautiful example from the late Italian rococo period. The Victoria developer won it at auction earlier this year for $3,500 (plus buyer’s premium) — a bargain considering the high estimate was $5,000.

The desk, once used by Rudyard Kipling during his sojourn in Victoria in 1907, is destined for Middle Beach Lodge, a Le Fevre & Company resort property in Tofino. Where once Kipling penned a poetic ode to the capital city and its people, patrons in future will sign the lodge’s guest book.

Le Fevre has an eye for heritage, though it more often finds expression in property than furniture. Since arriving in the city in 1989, he has rehabilitated a score of buildings in Old Town, turning the decrepit into the desirable, the condemned into the coveted.

“We bring back buildings to their original uses,” Le Fevre said, his large frame resting in a chair behind a six-metre-long table that serves as his desk.

His credits include such historic structures as the adjacent Biggerstaff Building (recognizable for the painted sign advertising Wilson Bros. Wholesale Grocers on its west-facing wall), the

Leiser Building, the Oriental Hotel, the New England Hotel and Morley’s Soda Water Factory, among others.

His latest project involves two, century-old buildings in Chinatown with a connecting courtyard. The properties were listed by Colliers International for $3 million. A short walk from his office, Le Fevre took a look at the properties, the Lum Sam Building at 534 Pandora Avenue and the Lee Chong Building at 533-537 Fisgard Street.

After 10 minutes, he had a vision for rehabilitating the two-storey buildings with ground-floor retail and second-floor residential units.

“It’s a very pure heritage project,” he said. “Pure in the sense that I’m not adding to the buildings with new construction above, or sideways.”

The younger of the buildings was constructed in 1901, the other 20 years earlier. The stories of the original builders are told in ancient brick and mortar.

“Every building tells their own story about the wealth of the people who built them,” he said.

The philosophy behind his development approach: “A fascination with old buildings with the challenge of bringing them back to viable economic use.”

Over in Vancouver, heritage is bulldozed and trucked off

“IT’S A VERY PURE HERITAGE PROJECT …

I’M NOT ADDING TO THE BUILDINGS WITH NEW CONSTRUCTION ABOVE, OR SIDEWAYS.”

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Building at 534 Pandora that will be rebuilt and restored by Le Fevre & Company.

to the landfill to be replaced by glass towers. Here in Victoria, the streets retain an amiable scale where the pedestrian is not dwarfed.

Born in Leicester in England’s East Midlands to a father who worked in a nearby colliery, young Chris was “a typical rebel,” who listened to the Mersey Beat from Liverpool (including the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers) and failed to graduate the Sixth Form. Chafing under the restrictions of a class system still rigid even through the swinging 1960s, he worked as a

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labourer to save enough to fly to Canada. He arrived in a frigid Toronto in March 1970, with not enough money in his pocket or warm clothes on his back.

Eager to find warmer climes, he was enjoying a pint at a rugby club after a training session when a member called out asking if anyone was free to drive a Volvo to the West Coast. Le Fevre soon hit the road. He had once heard Fiery Fred Trueman, cricket’s famous fast bowler, describe Brockton Oval in Stanley Park as the most beautiful he had ever played in his career, so

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estate firm, where he took external measurements of properties.

The firm became involved in the preserving of historic Gastown properties and his future path was set.

A big man at six-foot-four, Le Fevre was a prop forward in rugby, a sport in which matches are often settled after a long

CLOVERDALE

Le Fevre headed directly to the park. He parked the car at Third Beach.

“I jumped into the ocean like a mad Englishman,” he recalled.

“I’d arrived.”

He stayed at the YMCA and found a job as a clerk with a real-

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war of attrition. He earned a coveted roster spot on the national rugby team. After retiring as an athlete, he served for 15 years on the International Rugby Board.

His approach to rugby has found an echo in how the seven-day-a-week developer approaches his commercial projects: “Going at it and persisting.”

While best known for his heritage work, Le Fevre is also responsible for the RailYards, the ambitious development on former industrial land. He’s got a similar urban renewal project underway in Saskatoon.

Meanwhile, he’s got his eye on the former steam generating plant on the South Bank of Rock Bay. The developer is considering how to redevelop the long unused National Electric Tramway and Light Company Powerhouse, which once provided electricity to the street railway in the city around the time Kipling visited.

Shortly after his visit here, Kipling wrote, “Such land is good for the energetic man.” Le Fevre has found it so.

“EVERY BUILDING TELLS THEIR OWN STORY ABOUT THE WEALTH OF THE PEOPLE WHO BUILT THEM.”

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VICTORIA’S FINEST REAL ESTATE

L U X U R Y AT YO U R D O O R S T E P

Uplands Waterfront

3195 Humber Road, Oak Bay, Vancouver Island, BC | $14,999,999 | MLS #358440

This elite, gated estate stands prominently on an unrivaled point on Oak Bay’s Uplands waterfront, offering 1,000 feet of unobstructed ocean frontage. 15,000 square feet provides 6 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms and an attached private executive office.

Inside, the home offers every functional amenity and luxury upgrade. This gated home offers 2 double-car, and 3 single-car garages; greenhouse, outdoor kitchen, granite gas fire pit, an etched walkway around the ocean-lined perimeter, and an oceanfront anchor with a heated, covered outdoor space. Simply exquisite. ©2016 Engel & Völkers. All rights reserved.

Each brokerage is independently owned and operated.

735 Humboldt Street, Victoria BC, Canada V8W 1B1

The local real estate agent with the international network: vi.evcanada.com Scott Piercy Personal Real Estate Corporation 250-686-7789 scott.piercy@evcanada.com www.luxurybchomes.com vi.evcanada.com

Nature’s Wonderland

Arts & Crafts Home

Modern Waterfront Home

6601 Razor Point Road, Pender Island, BC $9,850,000 | MLS #360255

610 St. Charles Street, Victoria, BC $2,300,000 | MLS #360107

8407 Lochside Drive, Victoria, BC $2,795,000 | MLS #344427

60 stunning acres with incomparable privacy & almost a mile of ocean frontage! Modern upgrades provide an easy commute via Seaplane or helicopter with a landing area at the tip of the point. Foreshore development includes an aluminum ramp & catwalk that leads to a 40x10ft concrete float to secure your boats. Build your secluded dream home.

The heritage designated, “Akehurst” has been completely updated. The main provides a chef’s kitchen, grand dining room, family room, living room and breakfast room. Upstairs; 4 spacious bedrooms, and a Master with a private deck. The lower level houses professional practice space; easily converted to a nanny or in-law suite with a separate entrance.

Exclusive gated waterfront home. This modern design offers stunning views from the floor-toceiling windows. This spacious 4,900 square foot, 5 bedroom estate has a separate, selfcontained suite for guests. An infinity pool and hot tub bring additional luxury to this incomparable custom home.

Exquisite Waterfront Home

Charming Family Home

Harbour-View Condominium

237 King George Terrace, Victoria, BC $6,488,000 | MLS #360457

1587 Rockland Avenue, Victoria, BC $1,699,000 | MLS #360680

508-100 Saghalie Road Victoria, BC $799,000 | MLS #360982

Panoramic ocean and active sea life views from this stunning waterfront estate near downtown Victoria. The finest quality home over 7,000 sq ft with no detail spared. Gourmet kitchen, self-contained cottage, outdoor chef ’s kitchen, 1,200 bottle wine cellar, infinity pool, hardwood floors, large picture windows, and exposed beams.

Beautifully updated 6 bedroom and 5 bathroom, elegant character home spread over 4900 sq ft on ½ acre. The cottage-white kitchen features stainless steel appliances and a center island.

Hardwood flooring polishes the main; dining, family and living rooms. A spacious south facing deck captures ocean vistas.

2 bedroom + den harbour-view condo in the Bayview One. Tastefully finished; bright, 9 ft ceilings; German cabinetry, SS appliances & stone countertops in the open kitchen. The master suite offers a 5-piece ensuite; his & hers sinks, soaker tub & walk-in shower. The additional bdrm affords the same luxury. The living room opens to the sunny S-facing patio.

Commendable amenities offered.

©2016 Engel & Völkers. All rights reserved.

Each brokerage is independently owned and operated.

735 Humboldt Street, Victoria BC, Canada V8W 1B1

The local real estate agent with the international network: vi.evcanada.com James LeBlanc Personal Real Estate Corporation 250-812-7212 james.leblanc@evcanada.com www.luxurybchomes.com vi.evcanada.com

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binab group LO

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3545 Cardiff Place 360360 $950,000

LD

48 Maquinna 361385

Oak Bay

150 Howe Street Call for details

$950,000

111 Cheltenham Street 360369 $700,000

216 Michigan St 361280

$895,000

$900,000

LD

SO

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898 Brett Avenue 361318

$525,000

2646 M u S g r av e Street Beautiful Oak Bay Home

360378

2,100,000

$

406-300 Waterfront Crescent 361664 $500,000

1 3, 45 07 02 ,5040 0 $ 775,000

PH906-1400 Lynburne Place 358225 $700,000

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177 Joseph Street $152,000 over asking

FRANCE

11195 Chalet Rd Muse Winery 356674 $2,800,000

LD

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Half Duplex

1017 Pa k i n g t o n Street Modern New Fairfield Home

361341

$

G IN M ON COSO

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$1,352,000

LONDON

C A L I F OR N IA

210-999 Burdett Avenue 360705 $650,000

GERMANY

N E W YO R K

HONG KONG

F LOR I DA

2129 McNeill Avenue 360998 $940,000

MONTREAL

TORONTO

C A L G A RY

V IC TOR IA

1286 Fairfield Road Victoria, BC

The Value of Experience

Sylvia Therrien

Personal Real Estate Corporation

530 Salmon Road | $4,575,000

4069 Haro Road | $2,795,000

3000 Rutland Road | $5,850,000

2802 Arbutus Road | $2,849,000

202 Denison Road | $2,388,000

4301-2829 Arbutus | $990,000

Secluded Waterfront | Saanich Inlet

Award Winning Executive Home in Wedgewood Estates

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Fully Restored | Uplands Character

1 Acre Walk-on Waterfront | Foreshore

Spectacular Southwest Views | Gonzales Hill

Updated View Condo | Wedgewood Estates

Sylvia@SylviaTherrien.ca • LuxuryWaterfront.ca • SylviaTherrien.ca 250.385.2033 • Cell: 250.888.6621 • Toll-free: 1.888.886.1286

WLISA WILLIAMS QUEENSWooD

UPlaNDS

N. SaaNich

2614 QUEENSWooD Dr.

2510 NoTTiNghaM rD.

11344 hickory Dr.

$3,850,000

$3,998,000

$1,988,000

iNcrEDiblE 2.37 acre waterfront property in upscale neighborhood close to UVic, great schools & Cadboro Bay Village! This gorgeous oasis is the perfect setting for your new seaside home w/private beach & legal guest cottage too!

2014 lUxUry hoME in prestigious Uplands area. 5-6 bed/7 bath & nearly 10,000 sq.ft.! 3-car garage plus extra parking, ocean glimpses, lovely and private .87 acre property w/gazebo & close to UVic, great schools, golfing & the ocean!

SPacioUS & DraMaTic 8700 sq.ft. home on a sunny & private 1.1 acre property with spectacular, panoramic views to the ocean, islands & mts! 5 bedrms/6 baths, 3 car garage, indoor pool & lots of extras!

coMiNg iN aPril gorDoN hEaD

Gorgeous, upscale 5-6 bed, 6800 sq.ft . home w/super location & exceptional views!

rocklaND

Exquisite 4 bed home with 2 master options, incredible finishing & gorgeous property!

glEN lakE 1035 loch glEN Pl.

$1,688,000

caDboro bay

DazzliNg lakefront paradise! Custom 6670 sq.ft. home on a quiet and private culde-sac close to absolutely everything! Southfacing with beautiful finishing inside & out, 3-car garage, expansive terraces, lakeside gazebo and private boat dock!

Beautifully renovated 3-4 bed home w/views . . . just steps from the Village & beaches! call for more details!

corDoVa bay 978 SEaPEarl PlacE

$1,049,000 ENjoy SPEcTacUlar ocean & Mt. Baker views from this bright, & airy 3 bed/ 3 bath home! Wall-to-wall windows, open concept living, large office or studio, family/TV room, new deck, easy care lot & close to everything!

DELIVERING THE HIGHEST CALIBRE OF PROFESSIONALISM & DEDICATED CLIENT SERVICE . . . IF YOU HAVE CONSIDERED SELLING YOUR HOME CALL LISA TODAY! c: 250•514•1966 L I K E N O OT H E R sothebysrealty.ca

Lisa.williams@shaw.ca Independently Owned and Operated

www.LisaWilliams.ca

Extraordinary Properties!

Unrivalled Experience and Expertise

SHOAL POINT SUB-PENTHOUSE This luxurious sub-penthouse has been artfully customized with cherry hardwood flooring, coffered ceilings, beautiful crown mouldings, and built in sound system. Over 2,000 sq.ft. with 2 bedrooms plus a den. The suite enjoys 2 spacious decks, one east facing for morning coffee, and one west facing, to enjoy spectacular sunsets! Shoal Point provides concierge, fitness studio, pool, putting green, & guest suites. Incomparable!

Offered at $1,995,000 MLS 361633

THE GREAT ESACAPE – EAGLE’S PERCH

SHAWNIGAN LAKEFRONT - WITH DOCK

This exceptional west coast retreat, Eagle’s Perch, sits high on a 3.5 wooded site with 180 degree views of the ocean and surrounding hills, offering a completely exclusive & gated escape into the West Coast Lifestyle. Large stone pillars, exotic woods & massive beams all contribute to the breathtaking presentation. Guest quarters exist above the garage.

This home is designed for entertaining with hot tub, water features and lush gardens.

Offered at $2,988,000 MLS 357697

This delightful Shawnigan Lake cottage, is the perfect year round getaway, situated on .49 acre sloping gently to the water with 145’ of lakefront plus dock.

It is one level living at its best with 3 good sized bedrooms. The lot is private and enjoys summer sun on the dock. Included are hammocks, 4 kayaks, 1 paddle boat, 17’ boat with motor, 8’ row boat & a hot tub! A simply magical retreat 40 minutes from Victoria.

Offered at $925,900 MLS 359986

Call Leslee Farrell at 250.388.5882 for assistance with your local and global real estate needs.

MACDONALD REALTY LTD. 755 Humboldt Street, Victoria, BC | T 250.388.5882 | TF 1.877.388.5882 leslee@lesleefarrell.com | www.lesleefarrell.com

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3750 CADBORO BAY RD. $989,000 (New MLS)

1003 CAROLWOOD DRIVE $779,000 (New MLS)

BEAUTIFUL UPDATED RANCHER IN BROADMEAD. 3 bedroom, 3 full baths, 1,860 sq.ft.

2 gas FP, immaculate.

SWEEPING VIEWS OVER CADBORO BAY. 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2,047 sq.ft. Stroll to the Yacht Club, Village shops, beaches and UVic in minutes.

3176 RIPON ROAD $2,398,000 (New MLS)

4126 CABOT PLACE $648,000 (New MLS)

SOLD FAST!

SOLD FAST!

6,918 sq.ft. Upland executive home on .73 acre lot.

Beautiful indoor pool.

Prime Gordon Head location! 5 bedroom, 3 bath.

Backing onto Lambrick Park.

PROUDLY SERVING VICTORIA FOR 30 YEARS PHONE 250.744.3301 • EMAIL lynne@lynnesager.com WEBSITE www.lynnesager.com Get the results that you desire. Call Lynne for professional representation, when you wish to sell your home.

Dallas Sells Victoria/Oak Bay

Personal real estate CorPoration

OAK BAY

Stunning views from this wonderful character home! The cruise ships light up the horizon at night,

CORDOVA BAY RANCHER

Fabulous rancher – best price in vibrant Cordova Bay! 3 bdrms, 2 baths, 1,700 sq.ft.

Spacious master with newer ensuite. New quartz counters in renovated kitchen. Open layout with French doors to patio. Over-sized garage. On Lochside Trail, steps to Cordova Bay Golf Course & Matticks Farm shops. $640,000

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the freighters and whale watching boats and beautiful snow capped mountains are right at your window during the day. Den on main floor is used as a bedroom plus 3 spacious bedrooms up and 1 down. 2006 renovated kitchen has views too! Wood floors under carpets. Thermal windows except in living & dining room. Enjoy the old world charm of the brick fireplace in the living room and exposed timbers. Enjoy cocktails on the deck with fabulous water views. Large lot to expand or rebuild. Don’t miss this rare exceptional water view home! $1,175,000

“My goal is to find your dream home and ensure that the decision you make stands as a wise investment over the long term.”

BROADMEAD

This beautiful stand alone executive townhome features views of the Sooke foothills & fabulous sunsets. 2 bedrooms & a den, large double garage plus storage & open floor plan: great for entertaining. Brand new designer kitchen with quartz counters, s/s appliances, glass tile backsplash, new lighting, custom wood cabinetry & huge island for those who love to cook! New hardwood floors & carpeting, new lighting, designer paint colours, new blinds & new built-in vac system.

Barbecue on your deck off the family room & kitchen. Small pet allowed. Close to shopping, buses & Commonwealth Centre. Perfect home for professionals in a prestigious neighbourhood. $629,800

BROADMEAD

Stylish executive home in a quiet neighbourhood of beautiful homes. 4 bdrms, 3 baths plus den off kitchen. Access to fabulous multilevel south-west facing deck from kitchen/ den & from upstairs master bedroom. Oak floors & new carpeting. Close to shopping, buses & schools. Great Value! $809,800

Dallas Chapple RE/MAX Camosun • Tel: 250.744.3301 • Toll Free: 1.877.652.4880 www.dallaschapple.com • Email: dallas@dallaschapple.com 76

Oceanfront in Prestigious Deep Cove

Owner-built oceanfront, this 7400-sf custom Deep Cove beauty boasts Southern California architecture & room for the large family. 5 beds & 6 baths, incl. caregiver suite & bespoke home office. Storage everyone!

From the soaring pillars, limestone floors & plush carpeting to the builtin sound system & pergola-graced rear terrace, this home was made for gatherings. Entertaining is a breeze w/ propane wok, Gaggenau ovens, Subzero fridge/freezer, granite counters & commercial-grade fan. Wet bar, media room, pool, sauna & hot tub down. Wow, parties!

One acre meticulously landscaped with arbutus, fir, pine, Japanese maple, bamboo, blue atlas cedars, plus year-round flowers from rhodos, azaleas & heather. Watch the ocean traffic from the south backyard, or meander the path down to your ultra-private, pristine beach & midden.

Relax into the grace of this home.

11468 Chalet Road | Offered at $4,250,000

Winnie Wu | REALTOR

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Every Move Matters To Me Cell: 250-480-9908 Office: 250-656-4626 Email: winnie@winniewu.ca www.winniewu.ca My ability to speak both English & Chinese helps me reach a large audience for all my clients

2444 Beacon Ave. Sidney BC

THERE’S NOTHING HERE. Nothing but living color everywhere you least expect it. An otherworldly landscape filled with magnificent wildlife and natural wonders that literally make time stop. Nothing but an abundance of charming towns filled with heritage, culture and a flourishing economy with endless possibilities.

LOOKING TO OWN YOUR OWN PIECE OF THE ISLAND? acreage opportunities Vancouver Island ACREAGES AVAIL ABLE FROM SOOKE TO CAMPBELL RIVER. Couverdon has several

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Lots starting at $239,000

1.877.239.4811

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SELLS VICTORIA Personal Real Estate Corporation

2444 Beacon Avenue, Sidney, BC V8L 1X6 Tel: 250.656.4626 www.ingridjarisz.com

Helping you make better real estate decisions.

DOWNTOWN LIVING, envision the next chapter of your life, from ocean views to charming neighbourhoods, the city’s finest residences are for you to discover.

Let’s explore and see if urban living is the lifestyle for you!

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4890 Munn Road $1,000,000 | MLS #360473

981 Gade Road $988,000 | MLS #361044

2129 McNeill Avenue $940,000 | MLS #360998

3414 Pattison Way $459,900 | MLS #359874

313-1335 Bear Mountain Pkwy $275,000 | MLS #360537

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5092 Clutesi Street $1,030,000 | MLS #360694

Lewis Ratcliff Mobile: 778-679-8431 Email: lewis.ratcliff@evcanada.com

www.lewisratcliff.com I TA LY

FRANCE

LONDON

C A L I F OR N IA

GERMANY

N E W YO R K

HONG KONG

F LOR I DA

MONTREAL

wedgewood point Ten Mile PoinT • 3 loTS

TORONTO

TUS

ARBU

C A L G A RY

V IC TOR IA

D

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PARK

LOT 1

LOT 2

BE DF O RD

RO AD

LOT 3

extremely rare opportunity

Purchase the last available vacant properties in this exclusive enclave of luxury estate homes. Offering three large adjoining properties which are fully serviced and are situated in an incredibly private setting. South facing rear yards and nicely treed, the lots are bathed in light with some ocean views.

JOHN McMillAN 250-882-0015

lOt 1

tHe lotS

area-16,300 square feet

lOt 2

area-28,518 square feet

lOt 3

area-34,076 square feet

johndavidmcmillan@gmail.com | www.wedgewoodbuildinglots.com 79

“Home is the Canvas on which you are free to Paint your wildest and most beautiful Dreams”

I am actively seeking properties to market, please call me if you are considering selling your home. I believe every home is a mansion, regardless of size, location or price.

Sharen Warde & Larry SimS

250-592-4422

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FEATURE STORY

OUTDOOR OASIS CREATING LIVABLE SPACES OUTSIDE

BY ANGELA COWAN PHOTOS BY DON DENTON

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Backyard patio and garden designed and built by Pacific Ridge Landscape Ltd. 81

C

HERRY BLOSSOMS IN FEBRUARY and fresh salad greens year-round — anyone who’s spent time on the south island knows what a paradise it is here, especially compared to our fellow Canucks in the snowed-under East Coast. As early as March, folks are getting outside, turning over dirt, planning out gardens or just enjoying a hot cup of tea bundled up in a deck chair.

Victoria’s balmy weather is one of the driving reasons Merle Kroeker, owner of Pacific Ridge Landscapes, moved here two years ago after landscaping in Edmonton since 2007. Taking advantage of the longer growing season, he’s been helping people expand their living spaces outside ever since.

“I want to change the way people interact with their property,” he says.

In much the same way an interior designer can take a room to its full potential and functionality, Kroeker strives to do the same with outdoor spaces. A flat, barren yard can be transformed with built-in pathways, streams, strategically placed shrubbery or colourful blooms.

From citrus trees to palm trees, bamboo to an infinity of flowers, virtually anything can thrive in the south island climate, and that opens up some unique design ideas.

“What’s possible here is almost limitless,” he says.

Coming from a previous career as a graphic designer, Kroeker isn’t your usual landscaper.

“We love plants, but we’re not gardeners in the traditional sense,” he says. “We are more passionate about the design of the entire property and how the landscape can be integrated with the home.”

Rather than focusing on plants specifically, he looks at textures, form and colour to create a balanced aesthetic that also fits each household’s needs. That could mean planting a variety of tall, upwardgrowing grasses to create a feeling of movement, or ensuring negative space to ground the design and add stability.

But one of the first and best things you can do for your yard is bring in a professional, says Kroeker.

“Sometimes, if someone’s been living in a place for a long time, they can’t see the potential.”

A professional landscaper can see myriad possibilities, and with most companies offering a free initial consultation, it’s a good way to get some ideas before committing to an investment.

Make sure you and the landscaper are on the same page, stresses Kroeker. He and his wife, Katie, will have extensive meetings with their clients to ensure that the final product is exactly what they want.

But even before those conversations, think about how you

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want to use the space. Do you see an endless summer of entertaining and outdoor grilling with friends? Or do you dream of quiet evenings on a sun-warmed deck, savouring a glass of Pinot noir with your beloved? Do you have young children, or will you in the future? A toddler-friendly yard will have certain safety considerations that a retiree’s retreat might not.

“What’s very common is wanting to create an outdoor living space,” says Kroeker, whether that’s for large groups of friends or just the immediate family. “As much as possible, I bring the living spaces into the yard.”

Once you have your purpose firmly in mind, you can start tackling the finer decisions of design.

Plant selection is an obvious first direction, and there are a few key things to keep in mind before splurging Stonework by Rocks at the local garden centre.

Stone Masonry “Natural light dictates the design 100 per cent,” says Kroeker.

If the yard is shaded by tall neighbouring trees, sunworshipping shrubs and flowers are doomed from the start.

Similarly, planting more delicately leafed greenery in full sun will leave it burnt and withered.

How much maintenance are you willing to invest? Rose

bushes and hydrangeas are exquisite when in full bloom, but require heavy pruning and deadheading every year to keep them healthy and tidy. If the thought of wielding a pair of shears doesn’t make your heart skip, stick to evergreens and what Kroeker calls “well-behaved plant material.”

Water features are incredibly popular, he continues, and can be much less intensive to install than most think.

“You don’t need a lot of slope to have a stream,” says Kroeker. “For every 10 feet, you only need half an inch of slope.”

The bubbling sound of running water has long been known to promote relaxation and reduce stress, and water features work fantastically to create a peaceful oasis.

“And you don’t have to have a pond to have a stream,” he adds.

Pond-less systems, with an underground tank cycling the water through a closed system, are quite common. They’re great for households with young kids, as there’s less worry about little ones accidently falling in.

If the yard has a steep grade — not uncommon in the Victoria area — adding in retaining walls and creating a stepped space can make the space inviting and functional, and using natural stone creates a seamless effect.

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“To create an outdoor space — and really developing a nice flat area almost like an outdoor living room — using stone you can add levels and create a more dynamic area,” says Kevin Wilson, owner of Rocks Stone Masonry. “Stone itself just has a nice warm quality. Once it heats up in the sun, it holds that temperature. It’s the best natural material to use for outside.”

He adds, “Even in a really small space, I find stone adds a solid feeling to it. And you can put stone on virtually any surface. It’s such a natural thing to have stone in your yard.

Even having a boulder in your yard, it feels right and looks right in the landscape.”

Finally, when the construction is finished and the debris cleaned up, it’s time to think about what type of furniture will best suit your new outdoor living space. Think back to your original purpose: if it’s just you and your family using it, a little bistro set or table and chairs might be perfect. If you’re looking to entertain, a “conversation set” — loveseat, two chairs and a sofa —invites the whole group to have a sit down.

“When you’re buying [furniture], you want to make sure it’s got longevity,” says Bruce Alexander of Design Source Warehouse.

Look for pieces that are built for all-weather, he suggests, and again, keep in mind the maintenance factor.

Your yard can be an escape, an oasis, a gathering place or anything else you want it to be; it just takes a little time and effort. And who knows? By summer’s end you could be happily lounging by your new gurgling stream, eyes closed and deeply relaxed, waiting to enjoy dinner in the evening sun.

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FOOD & DRINK

Salads for the soul

FRESH, SEASONAL AND DELICIOUS TEXT BY CHEF HEIDI FINK PHOTOS BY DON DENTON

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A curly endive salad from Chef Heidi Fink and a vase of tulips.

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B

Y WINTER’S END, I am absolutely craving fresh greens and vegetables. I want foods that are just out of the ground, tasting of real spring. Greens that mean it: sharp, peppery, earthy, mineral, pungent, refreshing. Fresh new vegetables that entice the palate and spark a jaded appetite. I hope you’re with me.

For this reason among many, we are blessed to live on Vancouver Island. Our sub-Mediterranean climate allows for a longer growing season and earlier harvest of the freshest new vegetables. Right now, we can be enjoying a meal of locally grown lettuces, spring greens and baby greenhouse-grown vegetables. By late May, it feels as though the farmers’ markets are in full summer swing and I have to hold myself back from

spending my entire paycheque on boutique vegetables. Craving = satisfied.

My spring salad comes in many forms, depending on what I find at the market or what I have on hand in my pantry. At its simplest, the salad is a plate of lettuces and spring greens, drizzled with homemade vinaigrette. This is my go-to if I don’t have a lot of time, and especially if I have some more flavourful salad leaves in my crisper: chicories like radicchio and endive, peppery greens like mizuna and wild arugula, or something tender and sweet like miner’s lettuce and pea sprouts. A plate of these with a great oil and vinegar, and my craving for fresh greens is satisfied.

At its most elaborate, a spring salad can be a fantastic hearty

Garnishes and proteins (choose two to four):

BASIC EARLY SPRING SALAD RECIPE GUIDE With a bit of attention to how you cook the vegetables and a homemade dressing, this salad is a delicious, satisfying and nutritious meal. Makes one platter, serving up to eight people as a side, or up to four people as a meal. Adjust portions to suit the size of the diners’ appetites

INGREDIENTS Base: 2 - 4 cups clean, dry, ripped lettuce or salad greens or chicories Dressing: One of: Lemon Vinaigrette, Herbed Vinaigrette, Roasted Rhubarb Vinaigrette, Maple Balsamic (recipes follow) or choose a favourite dressing of your own Cooked vegetable options (choose two to four): ¾ cup halved or quartered early potatoes 2-3 small garden carrots, quartered A handful fresh green beans, trimmed ½ cup overwintering broccoli florets 2 baby beets, boiled whole, then peeled and sliced ½ cup stemmed snap peas or snow peas A handful fresh asparagus, trimmed and halved Raw vegetable options (choose two to four): New radishes, sliced 6 to 10 greenhouse cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered A fistful of chives, sliced Pea shoots or sprouts Tender hearts and leaves of celery, sliced thin Broccoli stalk, peeled and grated Baby greenhouse cucumbers, sliced Sliced fresh strawberries

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Peeled and quartered hard-boiled egg Shaved hard cheese (cheddar, Gruyère, Parmigiano) Crumbled soft cheese (feta, goat cheese) Smoked or cooked fish Sliced grilled meats Cooked grains (bulgur, rice, farro, freekeh, barley) Cooked beans (chickpeas, black beans) Toasted nuts Sprouted beans or seeds Dried fruit (cranberries, sliced apricots) Pickles of any kind Cook the potatoes in one pot, the beets in another, and any remaining vegetables together in another. The potatoes should be just covered in salted water, brought to a boil and then simmered for about 12 minutes. Do not overcook the potatoes. They should be able to retain their shape. Drain in a colander and spread the potatoes on a baking sheet to cool and steam off their remaining moisture.

Boil the beets whole for 20 to 30 minutes, then drain, peel and slice.

For the rest of the veggies, bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Make sure to add the firmer vegetables first and let them cook for several minutes before adding the more delicate vegetables. You want the vegetables to be slightly underdone and crisp-tender. Immediately drain the veggies in a colander or strainer and spread on a cookie sheet to cool and steam off.

To assemble the salad: Cover the entire surface of a platter or large plate with an even layer of salad greens. Drizzle one tablespoon dressing over it. Arrange the cooked and raw vegetables around

meal. By mixing leaves and a delicious dressing with a variety of steamed and raw vegetables, proteins (fish or boiled eggs are my favourites), herbs, cheeses, nuts, even fruit, you can create a seasonal meal that is both simple and elegant.

In between, I find a happy balance between what I want to eat and what I have on hand. A dish can be made flavourful with seasonal supermarket ingredients, or can be elevated to the superb with farm-market-fresh vegetables. I have used everything from leftover vegetables and store-bought romaine hearts, to just-picked baby beets, spring leeks and farm-stand heritage lettuces.

No matter how involved the recipe, I focus on the vegetables — their peak-of-freshness is really what sets this kind of salad apart. The joy in finding a local greenhouse-grown snap pea or

the plate, either in little piles or in even scatterings.

Drizzle two tablespoons of dressing over this now. Tuck in the wedges of egg and tomato (if using) here and there, then scatter or artfully place any garnishes on top of, or around the edge of, the salad (scatter toasted nuts or shaved cheese over the top, or artfully place pieces of smoked or cooked fish around the edges of the platter). Drizzle everything with one more tablespoon of dressing. Enjoy!

Sample Spring Salad combinations: • Late winter/early spring: salad greens, thinly sliced radicchio, grated broccoli, sliced celery, sliced chive, cooked baby beets, shaved cheese, Herbed Vinaigrette • Spring-in-full-swing: spicy spring mix, sprouted pea shoots, cherry tomatoes, cooked carrot, cooked snap pea, cooked asparagus, boiled egg, seared salmon, Lemon Vinaigrette • Warm spring salad: radicchio, arugula, cooked early potatoes OR leftover cooked grain, hot-smoked salmon, cherry tomatoes, Maple-Balsamic Vinaigrette (heated to a boil before tossing with the salad ingredients) A “Spring Celebration”salad.

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cherry tomato in early spring, or delicious local asparagus and early potatoes in later spring, calls for celebration in the kitchen and attention to preparation. A salad with a few carefully chosen perfect vegetables cannot be had every day of the year, so I take my time and enjoy the process.

I have created a simple guide, below, that anyone can follow to make the salad of their dreams, or to improve on the salad they make in a pinch. It’s important to focus on what you like and what you are able to cook without making yourself crazy. Find a salad dressing that you love, and work with the ingredients on hand or those you have wanted to try.

I prefer to lightly steam or cook a variety of harder vegetables (carrots, broccoli, snap peas, asparagus, new potatoes, beets) and include them with the fresh raw vegetables (radishes, chives, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers). Lightly cooking the harder vegetables improves their colour, flavour and digestibility. All the ingredients (salad dressing, washed and ripped leaves, cooked vegetables, cooked proteins) can be prepared in advance and assembled when ready to eat.

As a final note, remember that many salads can be served warm, meaning that one or more of the main ingredients, as well as the vinaigrette, can be heated before being tossed with the rest of the ingredients. This is an especially good way to introduce yourself or your family members to the robust and unbelievably nutritious bitter lettuces. The warmth of a heated vinaigrette wilts and mitigates the bitter edge of these greens, making them more palatable for the average eater, but still plenty flavourful for the adventurous palate.

For a start, try Maple-Balsamic Vinaigrette heated and tossed with arugula and radicchio. For my favourite warm salad, try the final recipe in this issue’s collection: Warm Endive Salad with garlic and grainy Dijon.

Satisfy your spring appetite with any of the following recipes.

Happy cooking!

Dressings, from left, Lemon Vinaigrette, Maple Balsamic, Herb Vinaigrette and Roasted Rhubarb Vinaigrette.

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ROASTED RHUBARB VINAIGRETTE

This goes particularly well with salads containing fruit and/or nuts. Try it as an alternative dressing on the Spinach-Strawberry Salad. ¾ cup chopped rhubarb (fresh or frozen, thawed) 1 tsp oil pinch salt 3 Tbsp freshly-squeezed lemon juice 1 Tbsp water ¼ tsp salt, or more, to taste ¼ tsp sugar 2 Tbsp light oil (grapeseed or sunflower) Preheat oven to 400°F. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Toss the chopped rhubarb in a bowl with the teaspoon of oil and the pinch of salt; spread in a single layer on the parchmentlined tray and place in the preheated oven. Roast for about 15 minutes, until the rhubarb is softened but not completely mushy. Remove from oven and allow to cool while preparing the remaining ingredients.

Place the roasted rhubarb, lemon juice, water, salt, sugar, and oil in a blender and process until smooth. Taste and adjust for salt. The dressing is very tart; if you would like it sweeter, add a bit more sugar.

Thin the dressing with a bit of water, if desired. This dressing will last up to five days in the fridge.

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LEMON VINAIGRETTE

This is favourite salad dressing in the whole world. The oil will solidify in the refrigerator. Bring the dressing out to sit at room temperature while you are making and assembling the salad, to give the oil enough time to “melt.”

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1 small clove garlic, minced or pressed 1 Tbsp finely minced shallot ½ tsp Dijon mustard ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp fresh ground pepper ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (or substitute 2 Tbsp local apple cider vinegar) Grated zest of ½ lemon, or more, to taste 1 Tbsp honey ½ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced or pressed ½ tsp smoked sweet paprika ½ tsp Dijon mustard ½ tsp salt ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil

In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, shallot, herbs, mustard, salt pepper, lemon juice, lemon zest and honey. Slowly drizzle in the oil, whisking until thoroughly emulsified. Pour into glass jar and refrigerate. This dressing will last up to 2 weeks stored in the fridge. Shake well before using.

To serve this as part of a warm salad, heat the dressing to a boil in a small pot, whisking constantly. Immediately pour over a bowl of prepared salad (using robust greens and hearty ingredients: radicchio, spinach, arugula, cooked grains, beans, or steamed vegetables).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the vinegar, maple syrup, garlic, mustard, paprika, salt and some pepper. Slowly pour in the oil, whisking all the while, until the dressing is thoroughly mixed. This dressing will keep in the fridge for up to three weeks.

HERBED VINAIGRETTE

Use the Lemon Vinaigrette recipe (above) omitting the lemon zest, substituting a good-quality vinegar of your choice (red wine, white wine or apple cider) for the lemon juice, and adding 1 to 2 tsp minced fresh thyme, 1 Tbsp minced chives, and 2 Tbsp minced flat-leaf parsley to the mixture.

SMOKEY MAPLE-BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

This flavour-packed vinaigrette can be used either cold or warm. ¼ cup balsamic vinegar 3 Tb maple syrup

SPINACH AND STRAWBERRY SALAD

8 oz fresh baby spinach leaves 4 oz fresh local strawberries, sliced ¼ cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted Optional: 60 gm crumbled soft goat cheese Optional: 1 to 2 Tbps Overnight Pickled Shallots (recipe follows) Smoky maple balsamic vinaigrette (recipe above) Arrange the baby spinach leaves in a large shallow bowl.

Scatter the strawberries and almonds over the top. Garnish

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A GUIDE TO LOCAL GREENS Tender, “sweet” leaves: baby spinach most lettuce pea shoots miner’s lettuce mache (corn salad) chickweed baby beet leaves

Peppery, “sharp” leaves: baby mustard arugula mizuna watercress baby tat soi radish sprouts baby kale

Bitter leaves: dandelion endive radicchio escarole frisee • some lettuces

with Overnight Pickled Shallots, if desired. Drizzle with several tablespoons of the Smokey Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette. Serve immediately.

OVERNIGHT PICKLED SHALLOTS

These vibrant pink flavourful bites add pizzazz to any salad.

1 shallot, peeled, halved, and sliced very thin 2 cups boiling water 1/8 tsp salt 1/8 tsp sugar ¼ cup white vinegar Place shallots in a sieve over the sink and pour boiling water over them. Let drain completely.

Remove shallots to a small mason jar. Add the vinegar, salt, and sugar. Mix well, making sure the shallots are submerged completely in the vinegar. Cover with the lid. Place in the refrigerator for several hours up to several weeks.

WARM ENDIVE SALAD

This sophisticated and flavourful salad can be served as a first course to any meal, or as a side vegetable. Its slightly bitter edge, rounded with plenty of sautéed garlic and tangy Dijon, makes for one of the tastiest palate-tinglers around.

8 oz (about ½ large head) curly endive, washed and chopped into 2 cm pieces 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar 1/8 tsp salt 1 tsp grainy Dijon mustard ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 fillets of anchovy, minced ¼ cup roasted pine nuts or walnuts In a large mixing bowl, combine the red wine vinegar, salt, grainy Dijon, and black pepper.

In a large saucepan, combine the extra virgin olive oil with the minced garlic and minced anchovy. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly until the garlic is fragrant but not coloured. Immediately add the washed and chopped endive, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon or tongs until the leaves are coated with garlic-oil-anchovy mixture and have begun to wilt very slightly, about 1 minute.

Immediately dump the contents of the saucepan into the mixing bowl with the vinegar-Dijon mixture. Toss with tongs or two wooden spoons until well-mixed and the endive leaves are evenly coated with the vinegar mixture.

Transfer to a serving bowl or platter, garnish with the toasted nuts and serve immediately.

Leftovers can be kept up to 5 days and be eaten cold. The salad will lose its vibrant green colour after the first few hours.

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TRAVEL FAR

SALVIATINO SPLENDOUR ‘LIVING THE LIFE’ IN THE HILLS ABOVE FLORENCE

BY JENNIFER ALFORD

I

’M IN A THICK WHITE ROBE walking through the hotel’s elegant gardens toward the pool — the glory that is Florence lies before me and the 15th century villa where I’m staying arises just behind me.

Now called the Il Salviatino Hotel, this villa in the hills above Florence was built by a banker who wanted the Medici, Curry dishes prepared by Chef Heidi Fink his competitors in the city below, to have to crane their necks to look up at his luxurious house. It’s lost to history whether or not the Medici even noticed the beautiful villa — busy as they were financing the Renaissance and making Florence a world-famous

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destination for art and culture.

As I descend the stairs from the gardens and head down the road for the short walk to the pool — passing rose bushes that were planted 500 years ago — I can see the Duomo, or Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, in the distance. I look forward to exploring the city a little later, after a dip in the pool and a glass of Prosecco in the sun. After all, one should rest up before immersing herself in art history and joining the throngs of tourists admiring such treasures as the Fountain of Neptune, Michelangelo’s David and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.

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Besides, as enriching as Florence is, there’s really no need to rush away from the villa. Back in my room, I pull open the floorto-ceiling white curtains and throw open the giant windows to smell the tree tops and listen to the birds chatter. A giant painting that looks like it’s straight out of a Renaissance coffee table book hangs on one wall. A mirror easily eight feet tall is mounted on another, hiding a very modern TV in the glass.

Eventually, I do leave my robe and the luxury of my room to head to the wide, red-carpeted staircase and down the windy driveway into the streets of Florence.

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Hallway in the Greenhouse Suites at the Il Salviatino Hotel in Florence.

“ON THE TERRACE WE SWAP STORIES OVER A GLASS OF AMARONE AND ANTIPASTO. AS WE TALK, WE WATCH THE LIGHT FADE OVER FLORENCE. ” 100

We meet our guide at the Duomo, and all look up to marvel at the octagonal dome that was completed in 1436, one of the gems of the Renaissance. We wander around the central part of the city and see the Vasari corridor, the elevated walkway built so Cosimo I de’ Medici wouldn’t have to walk among the people to get from his house, Palazzo Pitti, to the town hall, Palazzo Vecchio.

We jostle among dozens of other tour groups and hear their guides speaking a plethora of different languages. We walk over to the Ponte Vecchio — the “old bridge” that’s lined with jewellery stores — and peer into the windows to admire pretty baubles.

We walk past the Uffizi. Inside, reams of priceless art line the walls. Outside, there are reams of people to admire — from the full range of selfie smiles (sweet to sexy to straight up) to local high school kids teasing each other outside their school, and an impossibly stylish man in a beautiful suit expertly taking down a cone of gelato while weaving through the tourists.

It’s a little quieter taking a gondola ride on the Arno River.

You sit back and enjoy the city’s sights — more Prosecco in hand — while two men in white T-shirts stand at the back of the boat and use long wooden poles to guide us along the shallow river. Rowers glide along next to us, the only traffic we see on the water.

At the end of the day, the Il Salviatino is waiting for us up in the hills. On the terrace we swap stories over a glass of Amarone and antipasto. As we talk, we watch the light fade over Florence.

The lavish library is one of the common spaces at Il Salviatino Hotel.

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Another day, after a breakfast in the library of fresh fruit, strong coffee and a few pages of the Great Masters of Italian Art that I’ve pulled from the shelves, we head out truffle hunting. Giulio Benuzzi, one of the 1,000 or so licensed truffle hunters in Tuscany, introduces us to his dog Eda and we set out to see how the pair finds truffles that are growing in the woods on the villa’s 4.5 hectares.

Benuzzi carries a special shovel and a wealth of knowledge about the pungent delicacy. While he keeps his truffle hunting secrets close to his utility vest, he does share a few tricks of how he trained his dog by hiding truffles in a ball and playing a lot of fetch. It worked. In about 20 minutes, the dog finds several big black truffles that we enjoy sliced ever so thinly on spinach gnocchi at dinner.

We are just the latest in centuries of guests to enjoy the beauty of the villa — at one point there was a pope and more recently, a university. The building sat abandoned for decades before being acquired in 2007 and brought back to its original splendor with 45 different guest rooms, each offering its own unique little sanctuary.

I ask whether the hotel gets a lot of repeat customers and I’m surprised to be told “no.” It seems people like to visit Florence to tick it off their bucket lists and then head to the next destination in line.

But for me, while I enjoyed visiting the city that the Medici built, I’d happily put a return visit to just the Il Salviatino at the top of my list. Somehow, I think the banker who built the villa in the hills above Florence would approve.

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FISTICUFFS, FEASTS AND FAMINES IN 40 YEARS OF BELFRY HISTORY TEXT BY ANGELA COWAN PHOTOS BY DON DENTON

E

VERY THEATRE HAS ITS own personality. Some are grand and Elizabethan with barrel-chested voices; some are sleek and modern, edifices of steel and glass that stand with perfect posture and enunciate their lines.

A landmark in the heart of Fernwood, the Belfry theatre is neither, but instead has the spirit of a veteran player who’s seen rough edges in his days, but has at last become a respected fixture on the stage.

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Originally built in the late 1800s as a Baptist church, the Belfry puts the audience in a unique position, almost within fingertips’ reach of the performers — a vastly more intimate setting than most theatres in the country. The near-circular rows of seats expand on this feeling of inclusion, and allow theatregoers to not only take in the show, but to be exposed to their fellow patrons’ reactions and emotions.

“It’s rare that an audience is so close to the performers,” says Mark Dusseault, director of marketing and communications

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Belfry board members gather on stage as the Fernwood theatre prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

for the past 25 years. “[Theatre] is one of the few communal experiences we have as a culture, and a big part of it is, we don’t get those opportunities to come together that often.”

Celebrating its 40th anniversary season this year, the Belfry has been bringing both Fernwood and larger communities 105

together for decades. It will pay homage to its roots with an allnew production of Puttin’ On the Ritz, running April and May. The brainchild of Don Shipley, one of the Belfry’s first artistic directors, the show honours the genius of Irving Berlin; and it was the first production to open the Belfry back in 1976.

“Bringing it back to where it all began has a nice circularity to it,” says Dusseault. “This is where we started.”

But while the show is the same, the Belfry has evolved far past its early years.

In those first days, the theatre had more than its fair share of challenges, particularly during the period when the rest of the building was rented out to the Victoria Cool-Aid Society, a dentist, and a few other office types.

“In the early days, there wasn’t enough power in the building,” says former production manager Craig Moddle, who worked at the Belfry for nearly a decade through the 1980s.

“We couldn’t run a full dress [rehearsal] in the day, or the dentist’s drill would start slowing down.”

With the rest of the space occupied by other businesses, set design, prop construction, costuming and everything else was

limited to the stage and seats. Moddle remembers prepping for countless shows with paint cans in the audience and sawdust on stage.

“Some of the things that we created virtually out of nothing … It was whatever we could beg, borrow or steal.”

“Our early board members were more than just board members,” says Marnie Crowe, the publicist from 1979 to 1985. “We used to raid their homes for props! I don’t know how many times Paddy [Stewart’s] oriental rugs ended up on stage. And a pair of my father’s long johns were featured in On Golden Pond.”

Working in live theatre is an eternal exercise in adaptation and dealing with the unexpected, from actors forgetting lines and prop malfunctions to — in the Belfry’s case — a roof falling in during a show, and startling confrontations with some of Fernwood’s more “interesting” characters.

The latter is an experience Crowe is unlikely to ever forget.

“I got socked on the jaw,” she recalls.

And no, that’s not a metaphor. As On Golden Pond played out in the theatre below, Crowe and Belfry general manager John

“WE COULDN’T RUN A FULL DRESS [REHEARSAL] IN THE DAY, OR THE DENTIST’S DRILL WOULD START SLOWING DOWN.”

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Historical image outside the Belfry.

Linfield were working up in the tower one evening when Crowe pointed out a spectacularly full moon.

“Well, someone outside apparently took exception to me pointing at him,” she says with a shake of her head.

In moments, Crowe and Linfield heard a barrage of clomping footsteps shaking the narrow staircase up to the tower. Crowe went around the corner to see who it was, and was knocked back by a fist to the jaw.

The intruder pushed past and started tussling with Linfield, and the two men went tumbling down the stairs to the first balcony and through the doors into the audience — while the play was still going on.

Luckily, says Crowe, a quick-thinking patron jumped up, grabbed both men by their collars, and took them out of the audience. The attacker was summarily thrown out the front door, and the show went on.

Crowe was only a sore jaw worse for wear, and looks back at the incident now with amusement.

“I dined out on that story for years,” she says with a laugh.

“I’d tell people, ‘you’ll never guess what happened to me!’”

But behind the occasional chaos and fistfight, there were people who gave their every breath and effort to producing the best theatre possible at the Belfry.

“It’s really been a community that’s built the theatre,” says Crowe. “We had an enormous number of volunteers.”

She remembers everyone pitching in constantly, whether it was picking up actors from the airport, selling tickets, finding props, painting sets or sweeping up sawdust. If a job needed doing, someone stepped up to do it, and that’s just the way it was.

“It’s the essence of the theatre, and that continues to this

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day,” she says. “That’s theatre people. You do what you have to do to make it work.”

“It was a collection of really creative and wonderful people,” adds Moddle. “This was my life, the early days of my life. It was an exciting time, and I learned a lot. It sounds cliché, but it really was a strong family group.”

That family kept the Belfry afloat in slow seasons, sometimes with just their noses above the waterline.

But things turned around in 1990 when Cool-Aid decided to relocate, and the theatre group was able to purchase the building.

“When they acquired the rest of the building, there was a future then,” says Crowe.

After undergoing more than a decade of renovations and additions, the theatre has “sort of grown up,” she adds.

There is now a rehearsal space, workshops dedicated to building and painting sets, a costume room, dressing rooms for the actors, and a highceilinged lobby that still carries a ghost of the sense of inspiration from its church days.

Those four decades of theatre history — of perseverance in the face of unimaginable hardships, of constantly making do, of the sheer love of performing that kept it all going — infuses the Belfry with such humanity you can almost hear its heartbeat when you walk through the door. And through it all, it just keeps working, practicing its lines, dedicated to the next show, and the next, and the next.

THE BELFRY THEATRE IS HOSTING A “RUBY RED” 40TH ANNIVERSARY GALA MAY 14 TO CELEBRATE ITS LATEST MILESTONE. ENJOY PERFORMANCES FROM BELFRY PRODUCTIONS LIKE “CHELSEA HOTEL,” “THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE” AND “STONES IN HIS POCKETS.” TICKETS $250, AVAILABLE AT THE BOX OFFICE. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.BELFRY.BC.CA

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OMEWARD BOUND, UP AND OUT of Kelowna, the bags of “goodies” in the back seat tell much of the story.

There are bottles of locally made gin, liqueur and ice wine, alongside two six-packs of Kelowna-crafted beer and cider. Add to that a box of beautiful wine goblets and a little cloth bag of local lavender products (a welcome gift from our stay at Quails’ Gate Winery’s Lakehouse accommodation).

And then there’s wine. Always the wine.

Everyone knows Kelowna as a seasonal playground with boundless lake activities in the summer, golf, and Big White snow sports in the winter. And with over 300 wineries, it’s a wine lover’s haven anytime of year.

But when my husband Bruce and I decided to check out this small, booming city in the heart of BC’s Okanagan in the off-season, we added a caveat to our personal quest: “What if you take wine tours out of the equation?” Is it worth the four-hour drive from Tsawwassen?

Public art on Kelowna’s The answer is a resounding waterfront boardwalk. “yes.” We found so much to do, explore, eat and drink, that as we drove away, we were already

creating a bucket list for a return trip.

Over the weekend, we hiked a hillside, sampled topnotch food, made some new friends, drank local wine, beer, cider and spirits, and found myriad things to do beyond wine tours — although they were tempting too!

Ultimately, this truly is wine country and it’s impossible not to literally discover it around every corner. Case in point: walking back from a Broken Ladder cider tasting at BC Tree Fruits, we stumbled upon Sandhill’s beautifully rendered tasting room and lounge. It happened to be happy hour and in no time at all, I had a glass of rich, red Sangiovese in my hand. (I quickly became thankful I wasn’t aiming to write a story about staying sober in Kelowna.)

So as we headed back towards the coast, souvenirs in hand, it was easy to choose 10 highlights:

1. THE VIEW FROM THE TOP FLOOR OF BNA. This new brewpub has transformed a former tobacco warehouse into a splendid mix of post and beam architecture, restoration hardware, soaring ceilings and massive chandeliers. Standing on the second level, peering down over the brightly lit bar, I was amused by the lawn bowling lane behind me and eager to sample the menu.

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Later, Bruce sipped a Belgian IPA called Big Blanc, brewed with champagne powder from Big White and local spruce needles — how local is that? — while I delved into a lovely red from Hatch Winery, located just down the road and over the bridge.

The drinks were topnotch, but the setting stole my heart.

2. MEETING CHEF MARK FILATOW AT WATERFRONT RESTAURANT & WINE BAR … and everything that followed.

Chef Filatow is committed to sourcing fresh, local ingredients and producing exquisite flavours. The meal he crafted for us ranks among the very best we’ve ever had, and I’d make a return trip just for another round. And speaking of delightful, the evening began with a glass of local sparkling wine, Blue Mountain Brut, probably my favourite drink of the entire trip.

3. WAKING UP AND FLINGING OPEN THE CURTAINS in our 10th floor room at the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort. The window revealed a sparkling, sun-spotted view of the lake, marina and rolling hills in the The view from the loft at distance. The sun lit up the rich Quails’ Gate’s Lakehouse. purple accents in the room, and set me in search of morning coffee, which I found in the

9th-floor lounge along with morning snacks and comfortable “wake-up” couches. Ahhh.

4. WALKING THE WATERFRONT BOARDWALK. This meanders lakeside for two kilometres, past public art and an outdoor skating surface. Our early morning trek began just steps from the entranceway of the Delta Grand and ended back at the resort’s beautifully cultivated inland water park.

5. THE VIEW FROM KNOX MOUNTAIN. Just a short drive from Kelowna’s Cultural District down Ellis Road sits Knox Mountain — a hiking, running, dog-walking area that is hugely popular judging by the many fit-looking people out and about on a sunny Saturday.

Most of the year you can drive to the viewing platform at the top, but the gate was still closed for winter on the day we travelled, so we hiked up to the first lookout. It was worth the small amount of huffing and puffing for the expansive city and valley views.

6. WATCHING THE LIGHTSHOW AT TREE BREWING. This funky, hip space has lit-up vats that change colour, plus a huge, live-edge wood table and tasting bar downstairs, and patio and games room on the second level.

We did a tasting flight that included samples of Tree Brewing’s all

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“WHETHER YOU CHOOSE ONE OF THE MANY WINE TOURS OR NOT, THIS IS TRULY WINE COUNTRY AND IT’S IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO LITERALLY DISCOVER IT AROUND EVERY CORNER.”

natural, unpasteurized craft beers and cider, and then played a game of shuffleboard. If Bruce hadn’t won, the game might have been a highlight moment as well.

7. THE DUCK FAT POPCORN AND COMMUNAL SETTING at micro bar • bites, where we enjoyed a tasty feast in this tiny-but-trendy restaurant. Sitting at the communal table, we discovered the people to our right sat next to us about three weeks earlier at the Bard and Banker in Victoria. What are the chances? The communal setting also introduced us to Steve and Paula, a lively couple who had moved to Kelowna from England, and with whom we feasted and chatted into the night....

8. THE HASKAP LIQUEUR, TABOO GENUINE ABSINTHE AND GIN at Okanagan Spirits — yet another fantastic tasting. We tried to pick just one bottle, but all three ended up in the backseat of the truck. These spirits are locally distilled, internationally acclaimed and have won tons of awards. And delish!

9. SITTING IN THE HOT TUB OUTSIDE UNDER THE STARS — with the quiet of an inky Okanagan Lake expanding out before us — in one of two ultra luxurious lakeside offerings at Quails’ Gate Winery. A steam in the master bedroom’s en suite bathroom, marking the perfect antidote to all that wine-beer-cider-spirits tasting, followed the next morning.

The five-bedroom “Lakehouse” can accommodate up to 10 people and the nearby “Nest,” an additional seven. Perfect for family celebrations or special occasions. And with Quails’ Gate Winery and exclusive Old Vines Restaurant just up the hill, no need to worry about what to eat or drink. There’s also a winetasting room, offering up a chance to sample Quails’ Gate’s wines, which over the years, have been served to US President Obama, Queen Elizabeth 2 and, more recently, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau.

10. FINDING A SET OF UNIQUE WINE GOBLETS — and a bottle each of red and white — at Mission Hill Winery. The winery is a stunning piece of inspired architecture, sitting atop a rolling peak, and featuring curved roofs and vaulted ceilings, plus details such as a 24-foot wooden door, a pair of Baroque wood columns from the 1740s and a collection of Roman glass. There’s a courtyard bell tower, outdoor amphitheatre, terrace restaurant, a museum-style reception hall, two tasting bars and a great selection of wine drinking accessories. This is a “must-do” during any trip to Kelowna — even those that don’t include wine tours.

So, brand new goblets packed away with all our other Kelowna goodies, we hit the highway home, happily surprised by the many highlights of our stay, and eagerly planning our return visit.

This trip was aided by the friendly and helpful folks at Tourism Kelowna. Visit them at tourismkelowna.com or call tollfree at 1-800-663-4345.

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FRONT ROW

 BY ROBERT MOYES

Pacific Opera Victoria is set to perform Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

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DREAMING OF SHAKESPEARE

Pacific Opera Victoria continues its tribute to the quadricentennial of Shakespeare’s death with Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Britten is a central figure in 20th century British classical music, and his Dream is a unique and compelling interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s most beguiling plays. “Britten had a pronounced personal style as a composer, and was also supreme at ‘setting’ the English language,” explains POV artistic director Timothy Vernon. “He had the ear of a genius for discovering the music that is inside the text.” Debuted in 1960, the music of Dream is modern but by no means dissonant or atonal.

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“The opera actually has very easy harmonies, but the way Britten juxtaposes them means we hear them in a fresh way,” says Vernon.

“There is a huge range of colour and atmosphere.” Adding to the opera’s ethereal charm is the casting of the male lead, Oberon, as a countertenor with an unearthly, soaring voice. Factor in the “fairy chorus” of 20 boys and the sprite-like character of mischievous Puck and Dream has the power to enchant. This is one of Britten’s chamber operas, and little more than half of the Victoria Symphony will be performing in the pit. Although Britten hasn’t changed any of Shakespeare’s words, he has compressed the text, putting much more emphasis on the lovers in the woods and the actions of the fairies. “The opera deals with true emotions, but transports the audience to a never-never land,” adds Vernon.

“You get a profound sense of the inner life of nature.”

At the Royal Theatre from April 14-24. For tickets, call 250-386-6121.

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CLOWNING AROUND

Currently in his late 50s, Iraqi-born painter Hashim Hannoon was a highly respected artist in his homeland.

He immigrated to Canada in 2009, after living through the bleakness and horror of two wars in Baghdad. Despite that trauma, Hannoon produces colourful and energetic paintings whose joyful optimism has brought him wide acclaim in his adopted country. “People really respond to the colour at first,” says Michael Warren, director of Madrona Gallery. “It’s later that they see the little representative elements that Hashim incorporates.” According to Warren, Hannoon is rooted in the school of Abstract Expressionism, but has a shifting perspective and an intentionality to his brushstrokes that differentiate his work from that of, say, Jackson Pollock. Hannoon’s acrylicon-canvas paintings often suggest an aerial perspective at first; closer examination reveals figurative aspects that imply a more straight-on point of view. The paintings typically display an appealing colour palette and a gentle beauty. “I think his style is unique, but what he is expressing is quite universal,” notes Warren, whose gallery is one of four in Canada that shows Hannoon’s work. Although Madrona has been selling individual paintings by Hannoon since 2013, this will be its first full show, comprising 25 canvases. We’ve had to wait awhile for this and we’re very excited to be able to present him,” Warren adds. “It’s great work that he’s done for this exhibition.”

Five years ago, Intrepid Theatre artistic director Janet Munsil was in Montreal where she saw Circus Incognitus, a oneman circus comedy by Jamie Adkins. To say she loved it is an understatement — she’s been desperate to book him for a show in Victoria ever since — and it’s only now that the globe-trotting performer’s busy touring schedule overlaps with Intrepid’s 2016 Uno Fest. “Jamie offers perfect family entertainment,” declares Munsil. “Little kids think it’s hysterical, while their parents see it like a Warner Bros. cartoon.” The award-winning Adkins used to perform for Cirque du Soleil but turned his back on all that high-tech flash and returned to the roots of circus arts. His persona, akin to an old-style vaudeville clown, recalls silent film stars such as Harold Lloyd; the show itself is choreographed with goofy wit and performed with deadpan aplomb. “This is a totally physical performance by someone who’s brilliant at giving the sense that things are going terribly wrong,” explains Munsil.

“He’s a lovable underdog … an endearing character who gets into terrible predicaments while trying to solve smaller problems.”

With elegant simplicity, the physically virtuosic Adkins climbs freestanding ladders, juggles while walking on a slack wire, and incorporates other hilariously precarious acrobatics — all while interacting with the audience. “You’re rooting for him to succeed … although there’s always another failure lying in wait,” laughs Munsil. “The show is so innocent and he’s just such an incredible

Showing May 14-28 at 606 View Street. For information, see Madrona Gallery.

performer.”

Appearing May 21 at McPherson Theatre. For tickets, call 250-386-6121.

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Vocalist Maureen Washington performs as Jazz at the Mansion presents contemporary West Coast jazz at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria on April 24.

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JAZZ LEGENDS COME ALIVE

MARY POPS IN

Now into its seventh season, Jazz at the Mansion presents contemporary West Coast jazz at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. The shows feature predominantly Victoria musicians and are scheduled for Sunday afternoons — an attractive alternative for some jazz lovers who don’t want to go out at night to a club. This season’s theme is “jazz legends” and the last two shows offer the chance to do some delightful time travelling.

First up is “Maureen Washington sings Carmen McRae,” where one of Victoria’s most expressive and gifted vocalists pays tribute to a dazzling jazz icon who is considered the equal of more famous contemporaries like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.

“Carmen was known as a singer’s singer,” says event organizer Dave Paulson, himself a noted jazz pianist. “She sang a little bit behind the beat and gave nuanced readings of the standards.”

Three weeks later the Brent Jarvis Trio explores the extraordinary and still influential legacy of piano master Bill Evans. Soulful, romantic, and highly melodic, the introspective Evans earned 31 Grammy nominations. “Brent Jarvis is known as a Bill Evans aficionado, so his performance will be very informed, but he will also impart his own style,” explains Paulson. “And part of our mandate is to educate, so there will be some talk about the music as well as the chance for the audience to ask questions,” he adds.

“Plus the ticket includes admission to the gallery, so it’s a wellrounded afternoon.”

Victoria’s Canadian College of Performing Arts attracts some of the country’s most promising song-and-dance students — and they’ll really get a chance to sparkle during the CCPA’s upcoming production of Mary Poppins, the award-winning musical adaptation of the beloved 1964 Disney film. “This is the biggest show we’ve ever done,” says director Darold Roles, a longtime instructor at the college. “In terms of special effects, several dozen costumes, elaborate choreography and general lushness, it’s a mixture of razzle-dazzle and pure charm.” It is standard to refer to a venerable entertainment like Mary Poppins as “magical,” but in this case it’s literally true — aside from statues coming to life and a flock of dancing penguins, there is a little matter of how Mary and Bert — the cockney chimneysweep — both fly blithely above the stage. “We had to bring in the pros from Vegas and book two extra stage days so that everyone could get trained on flying with the wire,” explains Roles. And the show itself will take flight whenever classic songs like Chim Chim Cher-ee and A Spoonful of Sugar are performed.

And unlike poor Dick Van Dyke, whose performance as Bert in the movie was castigated for his unconvincing accent, expect to hear plummily perfect English vowels courtesy of the College’s British-born voice coach, Dr. Iris Bannerman. “This is already getting great buzz,” adds a happy Roles. “Victoria is really going to embrace the show.”

Maureen Washington performs April 3; Brent Jarvis performs April 24. Tickets are available through the AGGV (250-384-4171 ext 0).

At the McPherson Theatre from April 22-30. For tickets, call 250-386-6121.

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Mary Poppins plays at the McPherson Theatre, April 22-30.

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THE COMEDY GRAIL

Step into Spring

Given the enthusiasm with which many thousands of Victorians emptied their wallets to take in “An Evening with John Cleese” a few years back, it is safe to assume that Monty Python’s Spamalot will provoke similarly intense paroxysms of joy in those who still quote hilarious passages from 1975’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The musical adaptation of the movie that outrageously spoofed the King Arthur legend debuted on Broadway just over a decade ago, and received 14 Tony nominations (winning three, including Best Musical). And even though it differs substantially from the movie, Eric Idle wrote the script and the lyrics, so that zany Pythonite spirit hasn’t been altered. “As Idle put it, the show was ‘lovingly stolen from the Holy Grail’ and it really is a hoot,” explains local theatre veteran Roger Carr, who is directing Spamalot for the Victoria Operatic Society. “I feel like I’m in charge of a threering circus.” Notwithstanding the addition of about 20 songs, fans can be assured that all those classic moments like the killer rabbit and the taunting Frenchman are still gloriously intact.

Carr, who is typically drawn to dramatic productions like The Laramie Project, has clearly enjoyed having what sounds like an illegal amount of fun surrounding himself with vintage silliness.

“The show is incredibly funny, we have a cast of 25 who require over 200 costumes, and the singing is great,” Carr adds. “The audience is going to love it.”

in a

beautiful Bra by

Suite 210-2250 Oak Bay Ave. Victoria, BC 250 384 1791 (corner of Oak Bay & Monterey) Behind Oakes Restaurant

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Appearing May 6-15 at the McPherson Theatre.

For tickets, call 250-386-6121.

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2015-04-17

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Lady of the Lake (Tara Britt) and Sir Galahad (Dwayne Gordon) in Spamalot.

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SECRETS & LIVES

Chris Walker with his Chinese Nanchang aircraft.

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FLYING HIGH

SKY’S THE LIMIT FOR HOMEBUILDER WITH A PASSION FOR FLIGHT

BY SUSAN LUNDY PHOTOS BY DON DENTON

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C

LICK THE START BUTTON AND you’re up and away.

Chris Walker’s motion-filled flying videos place you in the cockpit of a two-seater Chinese warplane and send you soaring above Victoria.

As you dip and dive — with land, sea and sky visible through a transparent cockpit canopy — other vintage warplanes appear to the left, the right, above and below. One has yellowtipped wings, others sport patterns of blue and combat green, and each wears the red star of communism. Their propellers spin as they line up, fall back and sail through the sky like a flock of birds in flight. And then — suddenly — the horizon spins. And again. It’s a soaring, spinning, upside-down, right-side-up world.

This is Walker’s world when he takes the controls of his newly acquired Nanchang CJ-6A Chinese military trainer airplane.

The videos show his view from the sky as he learns to fly in formation and undertake aerobatic maneuvers alongside four other Victoria-based Nanchang pilots.

Many Victorians saw this collection of vintage planes last November as the group flew over Remembrance Day ceremonies in several municipalities. Walker, who was still in training, flew with an ex-pilot of Canada’s ultimate air demonstration squadron — the Snowbirds. It was a thrilling experience, he says.

The owner of Christopher Developments — a company that designs and builds customs homes — Walker’s passion for flight has been a life-long affair.

In fact, he says, “I was almost born in a Canadian made de Havilland Otter aircraft — literally.”

His mother — in the latest stages of pregnancy— experienced labour pains as she flew with Walker’s father, a pilot with the RCMP Air Service, in northern Manitoba. Although the labour turned out to be false, it undoubtedly caused some tense moments.

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Two years after Walker was born in Churchill, Manitoba, his father was transferred to Regina and later to Inuvik. The family moved to Brentwood Bay in 1974, but as Walker recalls, “Some of my most cherished memories are with my dad flying into remote northern lakes for fishing trips in his small floatplane.”

Freshly graduated from Stelly’s high school in the early 1980s, he launched into a career in aviation, obtaining his commercial pilot’s license, studying aircraft maintenance at UBC, working for a short time at the Vancouver Airport and finally returning to Victoria to complete an apprenticeship at the Victoria Flying Club.

People who lived in Victoria in the ‘80s may recall Walker’s first business venture — an aerial advertising company. The business used a rudimentary computer connected to a light grid strung beneath the wings of a Cessna airplane. Slogans, programmed into the computer, would appear in the light grid and, with this “flying marquee,” he’d zoom over the city at night.

“It was often mistaken for a UFO,” he laughs.

When a Vancouver radio station ran a contest to advertise its slogan, Walker entered and won close to $11,000 —“A huge windfall for a 20-something kid.” Within a month, he’d sold everything, bought a backpack and headed to South East Asia.

On his return, he started a business selling a “unique triballooking earring,” which he imported from Bali. But the venture gained him “more experience than wealth,” and he started searching for a new career path.

“For as long as I can remember I’ve yearned for a career that would provide an outlet for my creative streak,” he says.

“Whether it was sketching cars, airplanes or motorcycles, I was always dreaming up my own design concepts.”

Aviation was exciting, but it didn’t inspire his creativity. And nor did his next job — initially anyway.

“To be honest, my real estate passion started more from a

desire to be financially successful than anything else.”

In 1991, he invested his entire savings into an older home in Esquimalt, taking advantage of the duplex zoning and creating two houses out of one. Essentially doubling his money, and then undertaking other successful spec ventures, he incorporated Christopher Developments in 1992.

“Over the years I concentrated on small, in-fill type developments consisting of duplexes, townhouses and single family subdivisions. The custom home design/build side of the business evolved naturally from this progression,” he says.

Designing — first on a drafting board and then with a 3D computer program — came a bit later, but today Walker’s company is known for its high-end custom home design and building.

“The most gratifying part of the business is to see someone settled into a space that you’ve designed and built, and having them tell you they couldn’t imagine having done it without you.

It simply doesn’t get any better than that.”

Walker, his wife Joan and their 12-year-old daughter Anya (“the light of our lives”), live in one of his developments on the waterfront in View Royal. Joan also runs the office at Christopher Developments.

“She’s the anchor here,” he says. “I couldn’t do it without her.”

So how does Joan feel about his airborne activities?

“Joan says, ‘follow your passion — life is short,’” Walker laughs, adding, “Hopefully this won’t make it shorter.”

Walker is also an avid motorcyclist — he owns a custom built Victory Hammer stylized after a Mustang GT350 — and is also looking to get back into motocross.

But a big portion of his heart belongs to flying and after a long hiatus from the air, he purchased a floatplane a few years ago.

“I loved float flying ... it opens up a whole new world,” he says.

But within a year of buying the floatplane, his partner flipped

it while landing at Maple Bay. He swam away from the accident, but Walker lost the plane. Soon after, however, he had the chance to fly with the Nanchang pilots — and he was hooked.

“I’ve always thought I’d like to be a fighter pilot in my next life and the closest a guy can get to that kind of old-world flying are these war birds.”

Walker has all the old log books of his plane, which was made in China and sat on display in a museum for years following the Second World War. It’s changed hands a few times and been fully rebuilt since being imported to Canada. Walker purchased it last April.

All five of the local flying group’s planes are based at Victoria International Airport; but their practice runs often take place over the waterfront near Cattle Point in what they call “The Sandbox” — an area out of the way of other air traffic.

“We do loops, rolls and hammerheads,” Walker says, adding that the planes aren’t built for extended periods of inverted flying. “It’s called ‘gentlemen’s aerobatics.’”

An enormous camaraderie and trust develops among the pilots, who talk through the formations ahead of time and use hand signals in the air. Radio contact is minimal as it would have been during the war.

Asked what life has taught him, Walker pauses, thinking for a moment. “I would have to say, that my true ‘successes’ have come when I’ve taken bold steps … and that doesn’t come easy to me. Despite the so-called dangerous hobbies I pursue, I’m pretty conservative by nature.”

“Conservative” is not the word that comes to mind as Walker’s camera captures the exhilarating, up, down and around motion of flight in his flying videos.

Check them out by Googling “Vimeo Christopher Developments.”

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PHOTO BY CATHIE FERGUSON

OUTTAKE

Boulevard fashion director Lia Crowe and photographer Cathie Ferguson were astonished by the beauty and diversity they found at Government House, where this month’s fashion shoot took place. “One area of the garden looks like a mossy, magical forest; another looks like the dry and arid Mediterranean — perfect for our story this month,” said Crowe. “Nestled on the Government House grounds in the historic Cary Castle Mews, we discovered the Tea House and our favourite backdrop, a white stone wall. The whole scene transported us to another place and time and became the inspiration for our story.”

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Model Kim Noseworthy wears dress ($720), bag ($600), necklace ($135) and sandals ($520), all by Liviana Conti and available at Hughes Clothing.

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Sold on high quality, great Service and “tiptronic” Shifting When Shane Wright recently decided to buy his first brand new car, he went straight to the top of the line with a 2016 Lexus IS350.

Wright, director of operations for the Paladin Security Group, researched quite a few models before deciding on his IS350, but in the end, it all came down to Lexus’s unparalleled quality, he says.

“It’s very solid, and it was the right balance of being sporty and having that luxury comfortable part.”

Then, actually getting behind the wheel on the test drive completely sold him.

“It was exhilarating,” he says. “I was a couple blocks away and I just couldn’t help but smile.”

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performance — was a big draw for Wright.

“It’s not a manual car, but it’s nice that when you want it to be sporty, it can be. And it really does change the personality of the car when you’re shifting through those modes.”

Wright’s experience at the dealership was just as much of a selling point, he adds.

“The way that [my profession in] security is on demand, often means that overnight my morning changes,” he says.

With his hectic and unpredictable schedule, Wright couldn’t always commit to the structured appointments other dealerships tried to enforce.

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