Boulevard Magazine - September/Octorber 2009 Issue

BOULEVARD

september/october 2009

the magazine of urban living the arts people

sounds like SHELAGH ROGERS And the popular CBC Radio host has something new to say

FLIRTING WITH FIRE The molten masterpieces of glass artist Waine Ryzak

NO MORE green ALligators Irish Rover Will Millar embraces a new artistic expression

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computer, trying to think about a suitable topic to highlight from among all those we’ve chosen for this issue of Boulevard. But you know what I’d really like to talk about?

The whole magazine itself and the role I cherish in bringing it to you, our readers.

Twenty years ago, I started my career in publishing at Boulevard ; two years ago, I came back. I’ve watched over the years how Boulevard has grown with our community: I feel proud to share in its success today. As part of our 20th anniversary issue, we’ve made some subtle and not-so-subtle changes to the magazine. Among the subtle things is the typography — the size of the text you’re reading right now — to make it easier to read. More obvious changes include new columns, departments and contributors.

As publisher, I’ve carried the tradition of writing Ink on Paper, but after 20 years it’s time that our editor tell readers what we are offering you in the pages of Boulevard, both on paper and on our website. Beginning with this issue and in those to come, you’ll meet and get to know managing editor Vivian Smith. My face won’t appear in Boulevard anymore, but my role as publisher continues as always, to guide the team while working alongside my editors, art director, photographers, and sales team, as we endeavour to create a magazine about life in Victoria that you’ll want to read for many years to come.

Before you start exploring this issue, I’d like to take a moment of your time to congratulate my team, as well as to thank all of our advertisers for their support year after year.

This issue is our largest to date at 144 pages. An incredible accomplishment!

As I sign off on the last Ink on Paper, I look forward to receiving comments from you, our readers, about your thoughts on Boulevard. We love to hear from you!

Sue Hodgson Publisher Victoria Boulevard welcomes your letters. Please include your name, address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for brevity and/or clarity.

Write to Letters, 210-612 View Street, Victoria, B.C., V8W 1J5, or you can e-mail us at info@victoriaboulevard.com.

Check out our website: victoriaboulevard.com.

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contents

boulevard

volume XIX ISsUE 6 september/october 2009

26

features

66

88

122

12. FINDING HER VOICE Shelagh Rogers loud and clear from the West Coast

By Katherine Palmer Gordon

38. MOLTEN MIRACLES Artist Waine Ryzak and crew create glass masterpieces

By Alisa Gordaneer

66. NO MORE A’ RAMBLIN Irish Rover Will Millar paints in the Cowichan Valley

By Katherine Palmer Gordon

26. LOOK UP, WAY UP Stargaze to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy

By Adrienne Dyer

54. PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST Ted Harrison’s biographer takes a journey of a lifetime

By Katherine Gibson

122. PICKING PARTY Harvest volunteers pluck the Island’s vintage

By Robert Moyes

departments 4. INK ON PAPER A word with you

and ballets; Mix and mingle with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; Swing and sing with the Victoria Symphony; Coming-of-age drama at the Belfry Theatre; and many more artistic offerings

By Julie Nixon

8. FROM OUR EDITOR . . .

AND YOU Darts and laurels from our loyal readers 10. CONTRIBUTORS Meet some of the team that brings you this issue’s stories

columns

88. HOT PROPERTIES A stunning Saanich home celebrates the rewards of effort

By Denise Rudnicki

44. CREATIVE MINDS Eva Bild has the true mothering touch

By Alex Van Tol

106. HOT DESIGN Making an appealing entrance

By Shannon Moneo

62. BOULEVARD BOOK CLUB Join the discussion about Still Alice

By Adrienne Dyer

110. TECHNOLOGIA Preserve and share those digital memories

By Darryl Gittins

76. FRONT ROW Landscapes and portraits at two galleries; La traviata with Pacific Opera; Dynamic new danceworks

114. TRAVEL NEAR Visit Vancouver, the urban jewel we often take for granted

By Anne Mullens

22. HAWTHORN Our new columnist talks about us when we’re gone

By Tom Hawthorn

33. PUBLIC CITIZEN Why I’m singing the blue bridge blues

By Ross Crockford

50. STATE OF THE ARTS The arts play a new role in tackling social ills

By Alisa Gordaneer

118. TRAVEL FAR More ways to leave your heart in San Francisco

By Alisa Gordaneer 128. LIBATIONS A directed tasting with a savvy sommelier

By Robert Moyes 132. EATING IN From field to table, bringing the harvest home

By Elizabeth Levinson 136. EATING OUT These three Victoria restaurants excel at simple, fresh, and local

By Elizabeth Levinson 141. SECRETS & LIES Taking poetic licence with Lorna Crozier

By Shannon Moneo

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editor

FROM our

We hear it all the time at Boulevard: Wow, what a beautiful magazine! It’s true, thanks mostly to the hard work and vision of art director Jaki Jefferson and the creative team that obeys her every command. Issue after issue, we turn readers’ heads with photography that celebrates the people, places and things that make Victoria this fascinating place we call home.

As much as we love the compliment and will happily continue to earn it, we are greedy for even more of your attention. We want readers engaged by our stories, too, with more about you and your interests reflected in our pages. In this issue and those to come, you’ll find focused, relevant and timely features about life on our island, plus expanded coverage of food, travel, wine, personal technology and book clubs, as well as the regular departments that readers love, from Hot Properties to Secrets & Lies.

For our 20th anniversary issue, we uncover the new life of broadcaster Shelagh Rogers, who, like many of us who’ve clocked half a century, is finding her middle years satisfying in surprising ways.

Stargazing helps in the perspective department as well: our piece that looks at how Victoria is celebrating the International Year of Astronomy reminds us that neither you nor I are at the centre of the universe, but we can revel in its mysteries and gifts.

My own journey has meant moving from Toronto to Victoria more than 15 years ago, from working in newspapers to teaching journalism to editing this magazine, from being a readaholic kid to becoming a Saanich mother of adult children.

We lead many lives within our allotted years, and that’s why time is so precious.

With Boulevard in your hands, we hope you feel that your time with us is well spent. — Vivian Smith

letters

YOUR

Smoking and bureaucracy As the owner of a Goodfellas Cigar Shops, I have a different take on no-smoking bylaws and the “pleasure police” like Dr. Stanwick (Secrets & Lies, May/June 2009) who enact them. Everyone enjoys an activity or indulgence that is risky or harmful in some way. Coffee, alcohol, tobacco, fast food, suntanning and even harsh training by elite athletes, all have health risks, but health officials and politicians have chosen to focus on the smoking of tobacco.

The initial steps taken by health authorities were fairly 8 victoriaboulevard.com

reasonable: warnings on tobacco products, limiting smoking in public spaces and educating youth about potential dangers.

Now increasingly draconian restrictions on tobacco smoking are being implemented, such as the recent ban of smoking on all outdoor patios. According to health authorities, secondhand smoke is more dangerous to the public than all of the other smells and vapors (gas and diesel exhaust, cannabis smoke) that the average patio diner in the city is exposed to on a daily basis.

Are we going to continue to allow bureaucrats and

government officials to regulate pleasure and freedom of choice out of existence in the pursuit of complete safety for all?

Luigi Siletta, Victoria Wonderful job in print and online Just want to let you know how much I have enjoyed receiving your wonderful magazine in the Times Colonist for these past many months. You do an outstanding job with the articles, and the ads are so beautiful.

I must also congratulate you on your wonderful web version — it was fun to “turn the pages.” I will now be

able to send specific articles to others, particularly my son, who lives in Guelph, and is a woodcraftsman.

I wish you much success in the coming years.

Carolyn Herbert, Victoria Vegetarian not amused I don’t think any vegans had much fun with your article “Do Vegans Have more Fun?” (March/April 2009). Was it a disgustingly sick joke or just plain stupidity that led to the Thrifty Foods advertisement of grilled dead meat being featured next to Sarah Kramer’s article? That was neither fun nor funny.

Nicky Kew, Victoria

BOULEVARD the magazine of urban living the arts people food homes

President John Simmons VP Finance Melissa Sands Publisher Sue Hodgson Associate Publisher Linda Hensellek Managing Editor Vivian Smith Associate Editor Anne Mullens Art Director Jaki Jefferson Production Jaki Graphics, Kelli Brunton Principle Photographers Gary McKinstry, Vince Klassen Advertising Sue Hodgson, Linda Hensellek, Eve Hume, Cynthia Hanischuk, Pat Montgomery-Brindle Marketing Coordinator Scott Simmons Pre-press Kelli Brunton Printing Central Web 46,000 copies of Victoria Boulevard ® are

ourcontributors Adrienne Dyer puts her UVic English

literature degree to work in our new book club feature. “Book clubs are light on literary snobbery, heavy on fun,” says Dyer. “I’m hoping Boulevard readers will enjoy listening in on some of the intelligent and lively discussions some books clubs are having.”

Katherine Gibson is a former educator and consultant, and now public speaker and author.

Gibson, who wrote Unclutter Your Life and Pause: Putting the Brakes on a Runaway Life, will soon release her third book, a biography of acclaimed artist Ted Harrison. Anyone who thinks, “Gee, I could write a book,” will get insight into the time, talent and enthusiasm that it takes to climb such a mountain, as Gibson descibes it for us.

Katherine Palmer Gordon is a Gabriola Island-based freelance writer, National Magazine award recipient and award-winning author of four best-selling books on B.C. The former lawyer and land claims negotiator could relate to the way her two profile subjects (Sounds Like Shelagh Rogers and Will Millar) have passionately embraced new ways of expressing themselves. “Finally getting that freedom is an incredible feeling.”

Denise Rudnicki is a longtime journalist and

broadcaster who recently moved to Victoria from Ottawa, where she taught students in Carleton University’s journalism program. For Hot Properties, she was impressed by the resolve that went into building John and Sharon Brink’s home in North Saanich. “It speaks to the life-defining determination of that little boy in Holland.”

published bimonthly by Boulevard Lifestyles Inc. Mailing address: 210-612 View Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 1J5. Telephone: 250-598-8111. Fax: 250-598-3183. E: info@victoriaboulevard.com.

W: victoriaboulevard.com.

Victoria Boulevard ® is a registered trademark of Boulevard Lifestyles Inc. All rights reserved.

No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the publisher’s written permission.

Printed in Canada.

Alex Van Tol was reminded, when researching

this month’s subject Eva Bild (Creative Minds), of how much positive community impact a single person can have, often without realizing it.

“It’s what I miss most about my previous career as a teacher,” says Van Tol, who alongside her husband, juggles two small boys and a jam-packed work schedule.

SOUNDS LIKE SHELAGH She owns the mike now, so tune in as Rogers talks First Nations, the CBC and her depression

By Katherine PALMER Gordon Photos by Diana Nethercott

With her adored miniature schnauzers Strauss and Poppy snoring on her lap, Shelagh Rogers has been talking about her six years as host of the CBC national radio program Sounds Like Canada, and life after she quit the show in May, 2008.

The interview is over and the recorder is off.

Surrounded by books, scattered papers and dog toys, Rogers relaxes on the couch in the living room of the Gulf Island cottage she now calls home. Over mugs of tea made by her husband Charlie, the conversation is casual.

But suddenly Rogers leans forward, intensely focussed again. “Turn the recorder back on,” she commands. “There’s something else I want to talk about: my voice.”

The rich tones of that warm voice, and the intimacy and humour that it radiated to listeners are familiar to millions of Canadians. But since leaving the CBC after nearly 30 years of maintaining a journalistic distance from issues that she often cared deeply about, the voice has taken on a new independence: “I can finally express a personal opinion in an interview like this and not worry. This is so profoundly liberating for me,” she exclaims.

Rogers has no shortage of robust opinions on everything from mental health policy reform to reconciliation with aboriginal people, and is finally able to use her public profile to engage in advocacy for these and other issues: “I’ve had to sit on my opinions for so long, I feel like I’ve been sitting on a volcano. Now they’re coming out all over the place!”

Now as a freelance broadcaster, Rogers helms a weekly books show called The Next Chapter from the small recording studio which Charlie, a retired technician who is handy with a hammer, built for her in the back yard. (For Rogers’ privacy, Boulevard agreed not to print Charlie’s last name or which Gulf Island they call home.) It airs on CBC, but as a freelancer Rogers faces fewer constraints: “I much prefer a long interview format to doing short interviews, which is what the CBC was looking at for Sounds Like Canada. I also love the arts but we couldn’t cover the arts in any depth as the show was more focussed on community.

The Next Chapter allows me to indulge both loves.”

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After years of starting work at 4 am every day in Vancouver, the 53-year-old Rogers appreciates the walk of a few metres through the casual wildness of her small garden to her studio after breakfast. She makes it clear that there’s no letting personal standards slip, however: “I don’t go to work in my pyjamas,” she laughs. “I feel a lot better if I dress up. I want at minimum to put a dash of lipstick on.”

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Rogers, with two of her three miniature schnauzers, doesn’t start work at 4 am anymore: she strolls through the garden to her own studio.

If anyone knows about the importance of feeling good at work, it’s Rogers. By the time she left Sounds Like Canada, the early starts had begun to take a severe toll on her health. That’s mainly why she left. “It probably seems like such a glamorous life,” she muses. “While you’re on the air I suppose it is. But the rest of the time you’re just working on research and trying to find a place to take a nap. It was exhausting and there was never any let-up. I found it very, very hard.”

In 2002, Rogers took leave from Sounds Like Canada to deal with high blood pressure. Suddenly disconnected from her job, she became lost: “I identified myself by what I did, and without that, I went straight into a dark tunnel. There was a sense of utter emptiness,” she recalls. “I couldn’t express what was wrong to anyone. In fact, I lost my voice entirely for a couple of weeks. It was very frightening.”

A psychiatrist finally diagnosed depression and set Rogers on the road to recovery. Four months later, she

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returned to Sounds Like Canada. Responding to requests to tell her story publicly, she started working to raise awareness of mental health issues. “Now I’m also advocating for a national mental health policy, which we are currently lacking, and to try and turn off the stupid stigma that seems to remain attached to mental illness. We can talk about cancer comfortably but depression is still taboo for some reason. With this many people affected — the statistics are one in five Canadians suffering from mental illness, but if you count the families of those affected, it’s far more than that — that’s got to change.”

Despite the challenges, Rogers reflects on her time hosting Sounds Like Canada with pleasure. Over the years she interviewed everyone from farm workers to national leaders, from St. John’s to Whitehorse. No matter where she was or to whom she was speaking, she says: “I always wanted to reveal how whatever place we were in, defined the people there and how they lived. I think we did that well.”

The conversations Rogers had with aboriginal people struck a particular chord with her. “You can’t do a show like that, about Canadian diversity, without making sure aboriginal voices are heard, at every level.” She learned how many issues affecting aboriginal people remain unaddressed.

“It seemed like in almost every interview, for example, the subject of the residential school system would come up,” she says. Rogers recalls the impact of one of her earliest interviews with a residential school survivor. He told her how, as a boy, he was sent to the Port Alberni school. The man “never learned parenting skills because of the odious example set at the residential school,” sighs Rogers. That cycle of abuse then was passed on to his own children.

Inviting Canadians to join in a reconciliation process has become a cause célèbre for her: “I’ve been looking for ways to carry on the conversation, and have connected in particular with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, which is a fabulous institution doing great work out of Ottawa. We’re discussing ideas like a web-based project that would be called something like ‘One Thousand Conversations about Reconciliation.’ It’s a simple concept where people just have a chat, really, but they register it on the website and talk about what happened and share the experience.”

Rogers acknowledges that may be easier said than done.

The family she talked with about the residential schools, for example, had never discussed their experience together even privately before the Rogers interview. “Their courage in telling their stories on national radio still blows me away.

It’s moments like that I go back to constantly as a source of learning about what it is to be human. At its best, I think that’s whatSounds Like Canada offered listeners.”

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Rogers also learned a great deal from the CBC’s celebrated former host of Morningside, the late Peter Gzowski. “He was absolutely wonderful. Some people thought Peter was gruff and antisocial, but I know that’s how getting up at 3:15 (in the morning) can make you feel.”

Rogers met Gzowski in 1986, when she interviewed him about a golf tournament fundraiser for one of his pet causes, literacy. Gzowski reputedly had little patience with anyone who fawned over him, but took an immediate liking to the irreverent young woman who not only told him she didn’t remember him when he insisted they had met before, but who also cheekily disparaged his golfing skills. “Two weeks later, he called and asked me to read some of the Morningside letters on air with him.” Rogers accepted immediately. In 1995, Gzowski named her his permanent guest host.

It was the culmination of a longstanding ambition for Rogers, who grew up in Ottawa listening to Gzowski and dreaming of working with him one day. Initially she studied art history “We can talk at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. But her eclectic broadcast about cancer career began even before she graduated in 1977. She hosted a comfortably but classical music program for campus radio station CFRC and a country music program at Kingston’s CKWS. depression is After graduation, she continued to work for CKWS for three years, still taboo hosting a daily current affairs show.

In 1980, Rogers joined CBC for some reason” Radio in Ottawa. Only 24, she was the youngest staff announcer the broadcaster had hired. She moved quickly up the ranks, taking on host slots for local current affairs, jazz and classical music shows. Within two years, she was hosting the popular national concert program Mostly Music, winning an ACTRA award for best host in 1983.

Rogers moved to Toronto in 1984, still with CBC Radio, where she met Gzowski. The rest is history, including the strong friendship the two broadcasters maintained until Gzowski’s death in 2002. During that time, she had a brush with cervical cancer and became a stepmother to three when she got married.

Rogers continues to follow Gzowski’s counsel closely.

The first time she had to fill in for him on Morningside she telephoned him the night before, terrified and looking for advice. “He said to me, ‘Just listen.’ I thought he was telling me to listen to what he was about to say, but he was simply giving me this advice: just listen. That’s what I’ve tried to do ever since.”

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Linda Groen, head of current affairs for CBC Radio, says: “Shelagh is a fantastic listener . . . She also understands the power of sound: of a pause, of silence, a hitched breath, a choked voice, a giggle or an angry retort, the stuff of genuine conversation.” Groen says a big part of what Gzowksi saw in Rogers was her open mind, “someone who genuinely cares about the country and wanted to be a part of exposing our accomplishments and our challenges.”

Denise Donlon, executive director of CBC Radio, says that Rogers has never let ego get in the way of her understanding of her role as a vehicle for the audience. That was “I have everything pivotal to Sounds Like Canada: “Shelagh was there for them, and it here that counts. showed. I can’t think of anyone else who sounded, and still sounds, I can’t think of more like Canada.”

Rogers may have fond memories of the CBC, but she is unhappy anywhere else about budget constraints that have resulted in recent program cuts.

I’d rather be.”

“BC Almanac is a good example,” says Rogers. “I’ve learned more about British Columbia from [host] Mark Forsythe than from any book, and now the program has been slashed in half.”

Rogers points her finger at what she feels is chronic federal government underfunding of the CBC. According to Donlon, that underfunding has left the broadcaster with little choice but to cut back original programming. Rogers says the risk in that is losing the link between our national broadcaster and Canadians: “It’s a hard time. I’ve seen this movie play before. It’s not necessarily a happy ending.”

But real life is good: Rogers now has time for one of her greatest passions, reading. And she supports literacy, hosting many of the Peter Gzowski golf tournaments held annually throughout the country. She also speaks at conferences, saying what she thinks, and, when she gets riled up, firing off letters to newspapers.

Menopause interferes with her routine: “My glasses keep fogging up with hot flashes. And I’m a complete menohead.

I’ll get a surging flash mid-interview and lose my train of thought completely,” she laughs. But walking the dogs for an hour daily helps, and in more ways than one. “Poppy and Strauss are good company on the walks but they are also a big part of keeping me sane. They were with me through the worst times and they were such an incredible comfort. They still are.”

Gazing out at the ocean, the mountains, ferries and eagles, Rogers sums up her new chapter. “I have everything here that counts. It’s truly my home. I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.” VB

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gather candy. They returned with cupped hands offering cellophane-wrapped prizes to younger parade watchers.

It was this sight, at the Oak Bay Tea Party Parade on a weekend visit, that convinced us to abandon the Big Smoke for a new life across the pond in Victoria. Heck, where I grew up back east, the tossing of candies would have sparked a riot.

I have been here now for a dozen summers, a storyteller in search of stories. What a sweet trove is to be found on this end of Vancouver Island, a far corner in a vast land.

It has been a privilege to write about athletes for the Times Colonist and about plain ol’ interesting folks for the Globe and Mail. I hope to find ever more memorable tales to relate in this spot.

hughes Many of us come to this city by birth, some by circumstance, others by choice.

Victoria produces homegrown talent such as the singer Nelly Furtado and the basketball star Steve Nash, while also luring here people accomplished in many fields. Some come here in retirement, and we barely get to know them before they’re gone.

It sometimes falls to me to write their farewell, their swan song, their obituary.

To write a newspaper obituary is to have an intimate encounter with someone you will never know. It is an awesome responsibility, not in the least ghoulish or maudlin.

Many lived here in near-anonymity, yet achieved global fame in their circle.

I’d like to tell you about some of the most fascinating people I never had the chance to meet. In formal circumstances, the scientist was introduced as William E. Ricker, OC, PhD, DSc., LLD, FRSC, an entire alphabet of accomplishment. By all accounts, Bill Ricker was not one to stand on formality. He was a fisheries biologist whose great achievement was a formula for predicting future fish stocks, which was known as the Ricker Curve. He was also a noted limnologist and entomologist who wrote Sherlockian pastiches as a hobby. A stern trawler that conducts research carries his name, while the waterfront Pacific Biological Research station in Nanaimo, where he long had an office, is reached by a gently winding road named Ricker’s Curve.

Jack Winter was a sitcom writer who penned funny lines for Dick Van Dyke and Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple (“I like ketchup. It’s like tomato wine”). He once published a celebrated comic essay for The New Yorker titled How I Met My Wife. “I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner,” he wrote. “She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total array. Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and she moved in a gainly way. I wanted desperately to meet her, but I knew I’d have to make bones about it since I was travelling cognito.”

How he really met his wife was credible, but just barely.

He was at an airport in Kathmandu when he struck up a conversation with a young Sudanese woman. She had studied at the University of Victoria, so they settled here after marrying in 2001. They bought a leafy property in Saanich that included a pond, which the writer had stocked

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with frogs, one of his boyhood obsessions. He had dated the actress Diane Keaton, played a weekly tennis match against retired basketball star Earl (The Pearl) Monroe, and had been the second-youngest graduate in his Harvard class.

The youngest later earned infamy — and a life sentence — as the Unabomber.

Experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, an avant-gardist regarded as a genius by cineastes and who influenced Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, died here, as did J. Lee Thompson, the director of muscular action pictures such as The Guns of Navarone.

Streetcar operator Lyle Wicks needed to get a small bank loan to afford a stay at the Empress Hotel after being elected a Social Credit MLA. The NDP’s Dave Stupich pleaded guilty to the misuse of charity funds in a scandal known as Bingogate that led to the resignation of NDP Premier Mike Harcourt, who later called his nemesis “an embezzler and Many Victorians a liar.”

I have chronicled the death whose obits I’ve of Bob Bierman, the editorial cartoonist sued for depicting written lived in Premier Bill Vander Zalm plucking the wings from flies, near-anonymity here, and the sad life of Frank Williams, given up for adoption yet achieved global at birth, who became a majorleague baseball pitcher before fame in their circle. winding up an alcoholic on the streets of Victoria.

We all have our losses. Since this magazine came into being, I have buried a father and helped move my mother to our city. I have mourned the untimely passing of two friends. The death of David Grierson, the host of CBC Radio’s On the Island, brought a touching display of public support. The station was inundated by well wishers, many bringing food, as though they knew personally a man whose voice they woke up with each morning. A quieter but no less painful loss was Dana O’Dowd, a neighbour on our street in a friendly nook of Gonzales, whose careening monologues sounded to my ears like improvisational jazz.

Of course, we all mourn Reena Virk, a teenager so cruelly killed. In their grief, her parents taught us much about grace.

And then there is the continuing puzzle of poor Michael Dunahee. The three syllables of his family name express loss, tragedy, mystery. He is missing now 18 years, plucked from our midst at age four. He remains unforgotten.

A Facebook page administered by his younger sister has 5,971 members. It is called “We will never forget Michael Dunahee.” I think about him when I see children enjoying a parade. VB

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STAR PARTY CENTR Victoria Celebrates the International Year of Astronomy

“As soon as somebody demonstrates the art of flying, settlers from our species of man will not be lacking [on the moon and Jupiter] . . . Given ships or sails adapted to the breezes of heaven, there will be those who will not shrink from even that vast expanse.”

Johannes Kepler, letter to Galileo, 1610

Kepler was right. Humans have soared into the heavens. We have landed on the

galaxies and gaseous nebulae along the way.

Yet none of these advances would have been

moon. Touched our exploration rovers

possible if not for Galileo Galilei, who aimed

down onto Mars’ dusty surface. Launched

his scratch-built telescope at the sky in 1609

satellites into orbit to fulfil various purposes

and discovered that the Earth moved. To

down here on Earth.

honour the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first

Our knowledge of the universe extends

astronomical observations, and to celebrate the

from its Big Bang creation to far into the

profound impact of astronomy on society and

future, where we have hypothesized what

culture, UNESCO and the International

will happen millennia down the road. We

Astronomical Union have declared 2009 the

have gazed into the farthest corners of the

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The year “is entirely devoted to education and public outreach, with hundreds of activities taking place in each province right across Canada,” says James Hesser, the event’s Canadian chair and director of Victoria’s Dominion Astrophysical Observatory atop Observatory Hill on West Saanich Road. Home of the Plaskett telescope built in 1918, and Centre of the Universe public interpretive centre, the observatory is also headquarters of the National Research Council Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics.

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“The stars have inspired poets, musicians and scientists from the earliest civilizations, yet today, more than half the people on this planet live in light-polluted cities and never get to see the immense beauty up there,” says Hesser. “Our goal is to create more opportunities for people to see the dark sky. When we gaze at the stars, our understanding of our place in the physical universe changes profoundly.”

UVic astronomer Sara Ellison feels that our intellectual capacity to ponder our origins and the mechanics of the universe sets us apart as “Our goal is to create humans. “In that sense, astronomy is somewhat like art, or music: we do it because we more opportunities can and because it is full of wonder and is intellectually for people to see the fulfilling,” she says, adding that a heightened sense of how we dark sky. When we belong in turn fosters greater awareness of what happens here on Earth. gaze at the stars, In terms of astronomical discovery, big things are our understanding of happening in our Canadian corner of the planet, and Hesser our place in the notes that Victoria is a major centre of research excellence. physical universe In recognition of our community’s accomplishments, changes profoundly.”

Victoria is also one of the country’s most enthusiastic participants in the great star party of 2009. Key proponents like Ellison, John McDonald and Sid Sidhu of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Victoria Centre, and countless other volunteers, have organized events and activities ranging from opportunities to gaze through a telescope to public lectures by Canada’s leading astronomers.

One of IYA’s cornerstone goals is the Galileo Moment, and Canada aims to tally at least 1 million such moments this year. Officially defined as “the participation in, or attendance at, an event that is officially sanctioned as an IYA 2009 activity,” Galileo Moments are tracked on the IYA Canada website, where you can register your name and be included on a CD that the Canadian Space Agency will launch into space next year. In Victoria, Galileo Moment opportunities are almost as plentiful as stars. The Centre of the Universe is a hotbed of activities, including a chance to tour the observatory dome featured on one of two Canada Post commemorative stamps. Victoria Symphony conductor Tania Miller’s fall Signature Series presents music inspired by the stars and UVic’s Jennifer Wise will present her new play,

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Galileo’s Children (based on Dava Sobel’s book Galileo’s Daughters) at the Phoenix Theatre in October. You can even watch the heavens dance, for two meteor showers promise a spectacular show this November and December.

Astronomy is accessible to everyone, with much to see and learn with your own eyes, or a simple pair of binoculars pointed at the dark sky. “I started with just a map of the night sky in my own backyard,” says Ellison. Free online star charts and tools like Google Earth’s new Sky feature allow you to explore space without a space suit. Or, if you want to relive Galileo’s first cosmic explorations, the Galileoscope is an inexpensive, high-quality, build-it-yourself telescope powerful enough to show you the rings of Saturn and the craters of the moon. Galileoscopes are available either online or in the Centre of the Universe gift shop.

After an evening or two gazing at the stars, you may want to gaze deeper into the vastness surrounding our tiny planet.

Volunteer members of the Royal Astronomical Society plan to set up their telescopes at events and locations throughout the fall for anyone who cares to step up to the eyepiece. “Public outreach is our main role in our IYA partnership with professional astronomers,” says event coordinator Sidhu, who notes that the vibrant amateur organization welcomes new members of any age or experience level. The society’s fall events include the Astronomy Café every Monday evening at Fairfield Community

Centre, video presentations of their cornerstone project “From Earth To The Universe,” and night sky viewings in conjunction with IYA-related arts events. As well, there will be a spectacular wrap-up party in December.

Hesser says he hopes the legacy of this year’s star party will be a new generation of fascinated stargazers who will become tomorrow’s leading astronomers, and that partnerships forged with the First Nations community, the Canadian Parks Council and BC Parks will continue to strengthen.

We are all part of a vast cosmos, and it’s ours to explore.

Websites to gaze at: IYA Canada: www.astronomy2009.ca The Centre of the Universe: www.http://hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/cu/main_e.html Victoria Symphony: www.victoriasymphony.ca/concerts/index.asp#655 Meteor shower information: www.earthsky.org/article/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide Google Earth’s new Sky feature: www.earth.google.com/sky Galileoscopes: www.galileoscope.org/gs/ For a complete listing of astronomical events in Victoria visit www.victoria.rasc.ca/ VB

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votes to replace bridge,” declared the front page of the Times Colonist, accompanied by a photo of the blue Johnson Street Bridge on the Inner Harbour.

Votes ? I scratched my head. There hadn’t been a public hearing, much less a referendum. And yet, Victoria’s city council had decided to demolish a landmark and erect a new bridge without any blueprints, or a tenth of the money to pay for it.

In the weeks since, the scheme has accelerated with dizzying speed. As I write this, the city has inked a $3.2-million deal with the MMM Group engineering firm to oversee construction, hired two full-time communications flacks, and readied the paperwork for a $60-million loan — all with no more input from citizens than a few letters to the editors of local papers.

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“We don’t have months for public consultation,” said Mayor Dean Fortin, trying to sound as grim as a disaster-movie president. “We have months to build a bridge.”

If you live in Langford, you might be tempted to laugh, until you consider that similar backroom dealings have marked the interchange project on Spencer Road. Transportation projects seem to follow the same disturbing pattern everywhere, and the bigger the decision, the smaller the chance you’ll have any influence upon it.

To be fair, if the City of Victoria has seemed frantic, some forces have been beyond its control. Our newly elected city councillors were just settling into their chairs in January, when the federal government suddenly announced a $4-billion infrastructure fund, giving two-thirds of the cash for projects that could be completed by March 2011. Replacing the 1924-built blue bridge wasn’t even on the council’s radar at the time: instead, the city’s list of “shovel-ready” projects called for $80-million to revamp Centennial Square, and $58-million to replace Crystal Pool.

But on April 2, everything changed. City engineers delivered a PowerPoint presentation declaring that the blue bridge could “unlock and open” during an 8.5 earthquake, and its massive counterweights would collapse. Bringing it up to seismic code would cost $25-million and make it last another 40 years, while

a new bridge would cost $40-million and last 100 years, with another $20-million to reconfigure surrounding roads and bicycle trails.

Over the next three weeks, the council swung toward a new bridge, chirping how it would “untangle” traffic and “open up” the skyline, and it ordered city staff to rush an application for $40-million in federal dough. “It’s fundamentally our numberone infrastructure priority,” Fortin said. “There’s just no doubt about it.”

Sorry folks, but I have doubts aplenty. I’m glad the mayor’s watching out for earthquakes — although if he really wants to worry about a bridge, maybe he should look at the one on Bay Street, which carries a water main, a gas pipeline, and phone and electricity cables. My real concern, however, is that by rushing to erect a new Johnson Street Bridge, Fortin and the council are putting the city at tremendous risk, without any public deliberation.

Knocking down the blue bridge will remove the only remaining landmark of the city’s industrial heritage that’s visible on the Inner Harbour. As you probably know, the blue bridge is also one of the few surviving bascule drawbridges created by Joseph Strauss, designer of San Francisco’s Golden Gate, making it architecturally unique across the continent. The city says that bringing the blue bridge up to code would require encasing it in

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plate steel, destroying its appearance, but I don’t buy it: other cities have managed to protect similar structures, like Toronto’s heritage-protected Cherry Street Bridge, without turning them into battleships.

Instead, with a new bridge, we’re almost guaranteed something bland. Victoria has a sorry record of replacing historic structures (Campbell Building, Victoria Brewery) with ugly concrete slabs, and the same thing’s likely to happen again: MMM’s portfolio is full of freeways, not distinctive bridges, and there will be no time for a design competition if construction has to start this November to meet the feds’ deadline. Don’t be surprised if we get a bridge out of a catalogue.

The most maddening thing about the bridge project, however, is that it diverts resources from problems like homelessness, which this council was elected to deal with in the first place.

The city is $43-million in debt already, so a new bridge means we can also forget about a new library or art gallery, both of which would generate more long-term employment and tourism than a one-shot construction job.

Governments everywhere make the same mistakes, it seems.

In his 2003 book Megaprojects and Risk, Danish economist Bent Flyvberg notes that many big transportation schemes, like the English Channel tunnel or Denmark’s Øresund bridge, labour under a paradox. They’re driven by the ideals of “frictionless

capitalism,” Flyvberg says, “a new world order where people, goods, energy, information and money move about with unprecedented ease.” But they rarely pan out economically: not only do they suffer huge cost overruns, they actually become obstacles to growth by sucking up vast sums of money better spent elsewhere.

The main reason for such failures, Flyvberg argues, is a lack of public oversight. “Promoters often avoid and violate established practices of good governance, transparency and participation in political and administrative decision making . . . because they see such practices as counterproductive to getting projects started,” he writes. “Citizens are typically kept at a substantial distance from megaproject decision-making.” Sound familiar?

In 1920, Victorians voted in a referendum giving the city authority to borrow $1-million to build the existing bridge.

This time, Fortin says, the city will proceed by “counter-petition” — if opponents can’t get signatures from 10 per cent of the city’s 64,000 voters, the project and its debts will be considered “approved” — a form of negative-option billing that enrages cable TV subscribers, but apparently is fine for Victoria taxpayers.

Sign me up for that counter-petition. Whatever stands at the end of Johnson Street will be a monument to who we are — and an old bridge inspired by civic and industrial pride beats a new one driven by ambition and convenience. VB

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WAINE RYZAK

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An artist flirts with disaster so that she can create miracles from molten glass

All the elements — earth, air, water, fire — are present. The earth, in this case, is bentonite sand moistened with water. The air is hot enough to singe tiny hairs from hands as it rushes away from the fire, an electric furnace where glass is heated to 1,200 degrees Celsius (2,200 degrees Fahrenheit) until it melts into a glowing red liquid.

For Victoria glass artist Waine Ryzak, this is where art comes to life, where all the Earth’s elements combine in a skilful dance between art and craft, collaboration and technical consideration.

Anything could happen. Anything could go wrong.

Or a miracle could occur, resulting in a piece of artwork singular in its perfection and design.

Ryzak, who has lived and worked in Victoria since the early 1980s, spent much of this past spring and summer preparing pieces for her upcoming show at the Winchester Galleries, opening October 4. She’s been working on an innovative process that combines the two major forms of glass art — blown glass and cast glass — into one. It’s fraught with technical challenges and the potential for disaster.

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Making glass art is different from other sculptural arts.

Where a potter might transform clay into a vase within minutes, a glass artist has to plan, to sketch, to experiment, and to round up a crew of assistants at a workshop where the right equipment is in place. That space is the Ten Mile Point studio of artist David Calles, where Ryzak creates much of her work. The glass used in Calles’ furnace is imported from Holland, in 40-tonne loads of pellets ready to be melted into what Calles explains is a highly pure, clear glass.

Ryzak sketches out her ideas, gets down to exact measurements, and then explains them to her team of as many as six assistants. “I’m gimpy,” Ryzak jokes, indicating the leg that requires up to 15 hours of weekly physiotherapy to keep her from having to walk with a cane. For Ryzak, wrestling with 23-kilogram lumps of scorching A single work can hot glass isn’t an option.

While Calles prepares the take hours to glass in the furnace, Ryzak creates impressions in wet sand, produce and can like making sand castles in reverse. Lately she has been be damaged by using a mold to create a long, snake-like shape in the middle of the fine, damp, olivine sand. a tiny fluctuation She adds to the form, pressing more craters into it with natural in temperature forms like shells, leaves, ammonites and even tree roots.

Helper Jay MacDonnell dips a long pipe into the furnace, draws out a blob of molten glass, and blows it into the egg-shaped form. “I couldn’t do it without him,” Ryzak says. Another helper, Michael Hofmann, scoops a metal ladle full of melted glass, and pours it into the mold in the sand. The glass doesn’t stick to the cast iron ladle as long as the metal stays cool and the glass stays hot, a law of physics that can wreak havoc on equipment and artworks if it isn’t obeyed.

Then the two pieces of glass meet: egg shape and snake shape. The helpers roll the glass snake onto the blown forms before carrying the single piece, so carefully, to the annealer, a kiln where it will slowly cool until all that was liquid is still, like water becomes ice. The process could go wrong at any moment, but when it goes right, it’s perfect.

“You can’t rival the excitement of getting a ladle of hot glass, and pouring it into a sand mold, then wrapping it around a blown vessel,” says Calles.

Ryzak’s forms are inspired by nature, by the ebbs and flows of the world. Roots wrap around bubbles of glass, spiral forms meander like water flowing. The spiral, she

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says, “is the life force energy. I like to incorporate it into each sculpture.” These 60-centimetre-high (24-inch) pieces, which sell for about $4,000 apiece, are shipped in specially built wooden crates. In her studio’s loft, Ryzak keeps a roll of bubble wrap the size of a small refrigerator. She might “The glass seems take artistic chances, but taking chances with getting her work to be living or to the gallery or the collector is another story altogether. responding as it is “There are both familiar and surprising elements in her work that suggest images of struck by the light. lost knowledge,” says artist Miles Lowry, Ryzak’s longtime You feel it would be friend. “She is a playful perfectionist with a deep at home in a pure respect for nature.”

Ryzak, who was born and raised in the Lower Mainland, white room or in a learned her art by working at the Pilchuck Glass School garden full of north of Seattle, an institution founded in the early 1970s. birdsong.”

She was drawn to the medium while attending art school at the University of British Columbia, mainly because of its possibilities, how it held the light, how it was liquid that became solid. “I was lucky enough to be working to support my art habit,” says Ryzak, who spent 16 years there, developing her techniques.

Her Fairfield studio is filled with works begun, experimented, rejected. A single work can take eight people four hours to produce, and can be damaged, irreparably, by a tiny fluctuation in temperature. A minuscule accident of chemistry or timing can create a bubble or sometimes a tiny “check” in the glass, a crack that renders the work imperfect. “There are so many things that could go wrong,” she says with a shrug. Apparently, you get used to it. When you’re working with so many variables, what’s another wrecked $1,500 batch of glass?

“The whole thing is an investigation,” she says. “An investigation into what can be done.”

But the results are clear: a fusion of old knowledge and new technique, earth wisdom and fire energy.

“For me the appeal of Waine’s art is in its mystery,” says Lowry. “You feel as if something is held in the glass, something you could divine through the depths and reflections . . . The glass seems to be living or responding as it is struck by the light. You feel it would be at home in a pure white room or in a garden full of birdsong.” VB

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Eva Bild With her Mothering Touch, a businesswoman creates community for growing families

Drop Eva Bild’s name into any new-mom circle in this town, and you’ll be greeted with a chorus of appreciative exclamations.

Since she began working as a childbirth educator about 15 years ago, Bild, 48, has touched hundreds of lives through her work as a doula, breastfeeding consultant, shopkeeper and mentor for new mothers. Whether helping an exhausted woman through her 20th hour of labour, walking a frantic new mother through mastering the elusive breastfeeding latch, or finding just the right fit for a nursing bra, Bild brings warmth and wit – not to mention immense relief – to women throughout the Victoria area.

On a sunny afternoon, Mothering Touch, at 975 Fort Street, is colourful, airy and packed to the rafters with every kind of item doting parents could want. Staff are on the sales floor, answering customers’ questions and discussing products. Bild cheerfully asks me to hang on a sec’ while she navigates a security system malfunction. Moments after we’ve settled onto the plush sofa in the back room, mugs of green tea in hand and conversation rolling, Bild is interrupted to field a phone call about cloth diapers, then she’s consulted twice for advice by her staff.

The woman wears many hats, but as a business owner Bild says she’s learned to focus on what truly interests her and to relinquish to her staff the tasks that interest them. With so many balls in the air – a growing retail business, her work as a doula and breastfeeding consultant, a family of her own and a passion for singing – something had to give.

“Little by little,” she says, “it became clear that (letting go) was a good thing to do. I’ve hived off all the bits I don’t need to do.”

As co-owner of Mothering Touch (her geophysicist husband, Randy Enkin, helps run things behind the scenes), Bild has created a multifaceted business that aims to serve the needs of women as they undergo the enormous changes wrought by motherhood. “She feels like she’s doing good work,” says Enkin. “She wants to do something important for women, and for society.”

Now having moved to its third and largest location on Fort, Mothering Touch sells gear for babies and their caregivers, offers childbirth

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preparation classes, breastfeeding counselling, weekly mom-and-babe groups led by Bild, and a welcoming place for mothers to seek advice. The back room, with its sofa, chairs and throw rugs, is perfect for nursing babies or commiserating with other moms about sleep deprivation; the yoga studio accommodates large gatherings; and the Mothering Touch staff stays focused on clients. “That’s what’s led to having a community,” says Bild. “We’re interested in the people who come in and ask us questions.”

While Enkin was doing his PhD in Scotland, during her second pregnancy, Bild decided to scrap being a teacher and become a childbirth educator. “I watched this woman from the National Childbirth Trust teaching our (prenatal) class and I thought: ‘I could do that!’ ” she says. So she signed up. She started her training in the UK, wrapping it up at Vancouver Community College after the family relocated back to Canada. She started work at the Victoria YWCA in 1994. Soon after, she embarked on a doula training course, not because it was a path she “That’s what’s led to planned to pursue but because she figured it having a community,” would help her to pass says Bild. “We’re interested along additional insights to fathers and support partners in the childbirth in the people who come classes. “I was interested in the women and their in and ask us questions.” partners and in how hard it was to become a mother,” says Bild. “Because I was a mom, I identified strongly with them.” While a midwife’s expertise is in delivering babies, a doula accompanies women and their partners during labour to facilitate a satisfying birth experience. Bild’s doula services cost about $650.

With two under-fives, a third baby still nursing and a job teaching childbirth classes, “there was no way I was going to be a doula,” says Bild. But when a woman from one of Bild’s childbirth classes who lacked a local support system asked Bild to be her labour companion, she said yes. “I couldn’t say no,” Bild exclaims.

After that first delivery, she kept at it, building her practice until she was taking about a dozen clients a year.

When Mothering Touch opened in 2003, Bild dialed her doula commitments down to about four or five clients a year. “But I really need to do it,” she says. “I can’t work as a childbirth educator without being a doula. Unless you go and dip your toes in that water once in a while, you can’t remember exactly how intense it is.”

Being a doula has given Bild a gift she never anticipated: patience. “It put me in the moment. When I was being a

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doula, nobody expected anything else of me,” she says. “Nobody phoned me, no kids asked anything of me . . . and I knew it was for a limited period.” A perennial planner and future-dweller, Bild had always looked ahead to the next thing. Working as a doula taught her differently. “You don’t always have to be thinking ahead,” she says. “You can just do now.”

“She’s amazing,” says longtime friend and nurse’s aide Jo Owens. “Eva really knows how to listen. That’s a rare gift. She has the “She’s always trying ability to look at problems in a to get people to see different way.” Bild’s counsel and non-judgmental approach are her that there’s no need hallmarks, both in her professional and personal life, which includes to make things more singing in the Victoria Philharmonic Choir. “People are always giving all difficult than they sorts of advice about how to raise already are.” kids,” says policy analyst Chris Dawkins, who hired Bild when she was pregnant with her twins, now eight months old. But Bild isn’t out to preach “the right” way of doing things, says Dawkins.

“My sense is that she’s always trying to find a way forward that works for a particular family, and for those particular kids.”

Kelli Stajduhar, a professor in the University of Victoria’s

School of Nursing, agrees. She hired Bild as a doula for her second child, and loved feeling warmly supported and guided.

“She’s the type of person who knows exactly what you need to do or hear,” she says. When Stajduhar had trouble breastfeeding her second child, she called Bild. “I was feeling so guilty that I might have to supplement with formula,” recalls Stajduhar. “But Eva sat me down and in her no-nonsense way said, ‘Kelli. Your baby has to eat. That’s it.’ ” With those simple words, Bild lifted the heavy mantle of societal expectations around mothering and conveyed the message that it was OK for Stajduhar to do what worked best for her and her baby and never mind what others might say or do.

“She’s always trying to get people to see that there’s no need to make things more difficult than they already are,” says Dawkins.

But Bild shies away from applause. “It embarrasses me when people say ‘I couldn’t have done it without you,’ ” she says. “Of course they could have done it without me! But you can’t argue with someone who’s just had a baby, so I just say thank you.”

A self-described optimist — she says it helps her do things that otherwise might seem scary — Bild cherishes everyday pleasures. “I love having a busy life, and I love having big things to work toward,” she says. “But I really love going home and making supper, hanging out with my kids, playing bridge and watching movies.” VB

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If the words “community theatre” conjure up images of earnest thespians stumbling among cardboard sets, think again. Imagine a world where “community theatre” means a way of creating communities, reflecting the concerns of those communities’ members, and sparking social change that helps create a better world.

It might sound like something straight out of the touchyfeely school of political art, but it’s a real thing. Communitybuilding through the arts was not only the focus of a workshop held this past spring at the Community Arts Council, but it’s also a topic of some significant interest among academic types at the University of Victoria.

Community-building arts can take lots of forms, from mural painting, poetry readings and story anthologies to musical performances and even quilts. One enormous example is the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which began in 1987 and still grows. Closer to home, when Gabriola Island residents were protesting the Duke Point power plant,

community members stitched up the “Positive Energy” quilt, each person contributing a square that expressed something about what their unspoiled island meant to them.

The idea behind community-building through the arts is pretty simple. You get together a group of people who are concerned about something, and make art about it. It’s a way of strengthening the connections between the people, and creating something tangible that others can read, watch, or see in order to learn more about the community’s concerns.

One example is a recent play about seniors and driving, written by UVic theatre department chair, Warwick Dobson.

Called No Particular Place to Go, it presented statistics gathered by the university’s Centre on Aging, as well as the real-life concerns of seniors and their families. However, it steered clear (pardon the pun) of didactic messages, and was careful not to present any one message as the “right” answer. The production toured throughout the summer, with presentations followed by discussions where audience members could tell their own stories, further developing connections.

Sure, theatre as a means of conveying a political message is nothing new. Look at China’s Cultural Revolution, when playwrights were directed to create propaganda plays about the glory of the Communist Party, for just one quick example.

But for applied theatre, it’s not the actors or playwrights with the agenda: rather, the skilled actors help community members create meaningful presentations based on their own experiences.

Naturally, if people are doing something interesting, there’s bound to be someone studying how they’re doing it. In this case, it’s Budd Hall, the director of the University of Victoria’s Office of Community-Based Research, who explains he’s “particularly interested in the arts as a way of constructing knowledge, of naming the world and describing the world.”

Arts are a way of analyzing a situation and helping a community understand how to address that situation, Hall says. For example, imagine a group of people needing to convey an important message — such as their objections to a power plant. “If you’re trying to decide what direction your community wants to go in, you can have meetings, conversations about the community plan.” Or, he suggests, “another way to do it is to create a small piece of theatre.”

Or if not theatre, then a book, or a mural, or something the community can then show to others. “Any of the arts can be used that way,” says Hall, explaining “the arts, for whatever reason, have the capacity for reaching our affective minds, the way we feel, and our cognitive minds, the way we think.” Plus, these kinds of presentations tap into the

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emotions. Artists “are able to communicate with viewers, audiences, witnesses, through both the eye and the ear, but it also touches the emotional side of people.”

The community members who get involved don’t have to be professional artists, and artists don’t have to be political to help create a community project. They just have to be willing to take part. “It’s a great way for people to get involved, even those who don’t see themselves as necessarily political,” says Hall.

If you’ve ever participated in any kind of collaborative arts project — community theatre, a choir, even skits back at summer camp — you’ve probably seen first-hand how arts can build connections, friendships and networks.

Working together for a collective artistic purpose can create bonds between people that continue even after the project is done. “The use of theatre in community development builds knowledge for both head and heart. It builds social relationships, friendships,” says Hall.

That’s what academics call “social capital” — networks that, once forged, remain in place to be called upon again.

The shared values of the initial project carry over into other projects, which may then help further even more social change, Hall suggests. “To change anything, you have to work with other people.”

Hall’s colleague, Will Weigler, is an actor and playwright doing his PhD in applied theatre at the University of Victoria. For Weigler, theatre projects are a powerful way of creating public awareness and discussion. For one thing, community-building theatre usually has an audience discussion or forum at the end of the piece, where people can talk about what they’ve just seen. “It’s a way to broaden the conversation,” says Weigler.

It’s also a good way to present information, statistics or other material that’s got the potential to knock people into the not-listening zone. “You can read quantitative facts and figures, but it’s hard [with those] to get across relationships, environments and moods,” says Weigler. By seeing examples of people who are affected by the facts and statistics — the number of seniors who lose their drivers’ licences each year, for example — audiences sense strongly what’s at stake with any given issue.

Weigler says community-building arts are a growing trend, as people with a message to get across, whether it’s about public safety, justice, or human rights, are looking for a more dynamic way of conveying their message. Sounds good to me.

So here’s a question to ask your favourite politician next election: what shape would you prefer for your important public service messages? Dry, earnest brochures, or fun, community-created art pieces? I know which I’d choose, hands down. VB

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My Voyage Around

TED HARRISON

A biographer takes four years to find what inspires artistic genius and what makes all lives worth living

I could not have predicted the adventure ahead when Ted Harrison phoned one September evening in 2005. The great painter of the Yukon, whose exhibition I had recently reviewed in a magazine article, was inviting me to lunch. “I have more stories to tell,” he said. “Would you like to hear them?”

Would I? How could I resist such an invitation? The next day, Christmas-morning excitement flooded through me as I rang his front door bell. But no one answered. I followed a path through a back garden dizzy with dahlias, pansies, and roses. Sure enough, among the blossoms and birdsong, I spied a studio attached to the main house.

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Inside sat Harrison on a simple folding chair, contemplating a painting before him. Sounds of Beethoven thundered from the room. Even from outside, I felt his concentration, his intensity. After I got his attention, he looked over the easel, smiled, and greeted me with an open, gentle grin. He ushered me inside a sunny space covered in bright, happy paintings.

During a lunch of pea soup (whipped up by Harrison, who is as passionate about cooking as painting), he asked me to write his biography. I was stunned. His whimsical, playful paintings had enchanted me since I discovered them in the 1980s. To write his life story was an immense privilege. And immensely daunting. This project would demand the commitment and stamina of a marathoner.

The relationship between biographer and subject often becomes as complex as that between spouses.

Over the past 10 years, I have written feature articles for several publications and written two books. I have also ghost-written biographies and saw this as an opportunity to build on those experiences, but with a difference. Harrison, now 83, is an internationally acclaimed artist — a national treasure. This would be the first independent book about him (he wrote a memoir in 1980). The opportunity to work with this delightful man was irresistible and I happily accepted. And so my four-year relationship with artist, author and raconteur Ted Harrison began.

Within weeks, my obsession with Harrison was as firmly entrenched as the Yukon permafrost. If I wasn’t with Harrison, I was researching, reading or thinking about him.

What, or whom, were the pivotal influences that shaped his life? What inspired his artistic expression? Who was the man behind the public profile? But there were hurdles in my search to understand him.

Over the first two years, his health was precarious, making interviews sporadic. The stories he told me were often repeats of well-known narratives. And, as with many truly great people, Ted Harrison is self-effacing and does not easily talk about his accomplishments. I needed help.

As word of my project spread, little miracles happened.

Garth Graham, responsible for “discovering” Harrison and mounting his first exhibition in the Yukon library in 1969, sent an e-mail, as did Walter Gray, who in 1972 introduced Harrison to Ontario’s art establishment. Untold stories from them, and others who knew him, emerged, each leading to another contact, another piece in the puzzle that my research had become.

To unearth fresh, unknown details, especially of Harrison’s early life, I flew to Wingate, a village in northeast England where he was born. I walked through the streets he had known as a child, imagining them 70 years ago, when the Wingate Grange Colliery defined the town. The coalmine is gone. Green rolling hills cover what remains of the black slagheaps and fresh North Sea breezes have replaced the stench of the pit. I stood before the brick “Over the first two terraced home in which Harrison spent his youth. years, his health was I then wandered along Front Street, imagining how it looked in his day. In the precarious, making nearby village of Spennymoor, I met Norman interviews sporadic.

Cornish, a life-long friend of Harrison and also a The stories he told me celebrated artist. During that visit, I learned about Harrison’s art college days were often repeats of and that truly great people can be as ordinary as tea well-known narratives.” and biscuits.

The Yukon was Ted Harrison’s muse. So, during the cooling days of late summer in 2007, I went there to retrace a trip he’d made up the Yukon River to Dawson City in a riverboat 20 years earlier. I experienced that landscape, not as a forbidding wilderness, but as the symphony of colour that Harrison paints. I learned that silence is as nourishing as caribou stew and that nothing beats wild blueberry pie. I also learned that Yukoners measure people by who they are, not what they do. I found touchable history in abandoned trappers’ cabins and deserted homesteads. Before I left, I discovered why Ted Harrison, who has dined with kings and princesses, is as home-grown as the monstrous tomatoes that ripen under the Yukon’s long summer sun.

Celebrating 10 Years

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Although those trips took me to the heart of the two lands that Harrison loves, I still struggled to fully understand the pivotal moments in his life. And then fate intervened. In June of 2008, Harrison, a widower since 2000, moved into a “Ted Harrison, who has retirement home. While making this transition, dined with kings and long-forgotten boxes surfaced from inside his princesses, is as home-grown closets and storage rooms.

Decades old newspaper as the monstrous tomatoes clippings, letters, diaries and photographs appeared. that ripen under the Yukon’s A draft of an abandoned memoir, speeches and letters long summer sun.” from students, fans, friends (one from ex-president Ronald Reagan) added to my growing arsenal of information.

I had struck biographer-gold. Before long, my tidy writing studio was transformed into a jumble of Harrison memorabilia.

Collectors began to send images of sketches and paintings.

I poured over hundreds of pictures of paintings and worked through decades of documents. When his twin sister died in July of 2008, more material surfaced from among her papers. As the

project took shape, I struggled over what to choose from among this embarrassment of riches. Layers of Harrison analysis yet to be completed smothered thoughts of vacations, holidays or even a weekend goof-off. Yet, each day was as exciting as when we first met.

After four years, I finished the book. I titled it Ted Harrison: Painting Paradise, inspired by the painting that was on his easel the day we met, and to reflect the man who 40 years earlier began to change how Yukoners see themselves and how others see the North.

This was a treasured time with a special person, one who taught me that however rich or how famous we may become or how ordinary we remain, joy lies in the courage to express our passion, be it painting, composing music or growing a garden.

I came to understand that the essence of this man is reflected in what he paints: eternal optimism and joy in everyday life. I feel that his most significant legacy is the cheery innocence that leaps from his paintings straight into our hearts: a little dog surprising a gaggle of ravens, children tobogganing, friends sharing stories beneath a sky of dazzling stars: simple pleasures that, when hung together, make a life.

An exhibition of Harrison paintings is on at the Legacy Art Gallery and Café. For more information about the exhibit and Gibson’s new book go to www.tedharrisonbiography.com. VB

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Boulevard Book Club

By Adrienne Dyer photo by gary mckinstry

A scholar’s debut novel gives this club a chilling glimpse into Alzheimer’s

The Book: Still Alice Author: Lisa Genova Publisher: Simon and Schuster Length: 320 pages This Issue’s Book Club: The Next Chapter

Welcome to the new Boulevard Book Club. Each issue, writer Adrienne Dyer joins a local book club as its members delve into conversation about their latest selection, and then describes that discussion here for our readers. If you haven’t read the book, don’t worry — Adrienne won’t spoil the plot. So settle into your favourite chair and see what our first club makes of this issue’s featured novel.

THE CLUB: Nine of the 14 members of the The Next Chapter met for wine, appetizers and lively discussion on a rainy night at the North Saanich home of Diane Layton, who chose the book. The club’s members, whose ages range from 48 to 67, have met every month at a different member’s home for 18 years, discussing more than 200 books and providing support and friendship through all the phases of their lives. Informal and lively, this book club has a simple mandate: to share good books and enjoy free, open discussions that delve deep into plot, characterization, themes, and all aspects of writing style.

THE PLOT: Still Alice is the heartbreaking, terrifying, yet hopefilled story of Alice Howland, a 50-year-old Harvard cognitive psychology professor who is at the peak of her distinguished career when she is diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s disease. In just two years, Alice descends from a world-renowned linguistics scholar and beloved mother and wife, to a woman who cannot recognize her own face in the mirror.

THE AUTHOR: Actor, dancer, mom and first-time novelist Lisa Genova holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard, writes an online column for the National Alzheimer’s

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WHY THIS BOOK? Through her work with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, club member Layton became intrigued by the brain’s ability to adapt after injury. She wondered: what’s it like to experience the onset of dementia? She read Still Alice to help answer that question.

DISCUSSION HIGHLIGHTS: For the members of The Next Chapter, Genova’s novel is a shining example of writing from the heart as well as from the head. But what particularly touched many in the group was Genova’s poignant portrayal of how Alzheimer’s plays havoc with Alice’s personal relationships. “Alice is so young and such a woman of the mind — that’s why her disease is so particularly horrifying,” said one member. Everyone felt that by telling the story from Alice’s point of view, Genova makes a powerful statement about what it’s like to fall victim to a disease that dismantles a person’s body, mind and soul.

Some members felt Genova handled Alice a bit clinically, though. Alice seemed two-dimensional at times. And wasn’t it odd that Alice didn’t seem to have any women friends?

“This doesn’t ring true,” one member said. “There’s a sense of isolation in this book that seems . . . eerie.” Everyone wondered: is this a realistic depiction of a brilliant academic? Or did the author simply fail to populate her book with an adequate cast of secondary characters?

Discussion moved on to Alice’s “Butterfly” plan. They asked each other: would you put together a suicide plan to follow once your dementia reached a certain stage? And would you want to know if you carried the gene for Early Onset Alzheimer’s if it ran in your family?

One member asked the group what they thought of Alice’s husband, John, who seems to withdraw from Alice as her disease progresses and even accepts a high-profile job in another city, giving up valuable time with his wife.

Is this a realistic depiction of what might happen in a relationship? Most of the group thought yes, but that didn’t mean they liked John.

“I thought he was a heartless, selfish ass,” said one member. Others felt his focus on his career was sensible self-preservation when the woman he loved — and her mind — were rapidly disappearing. “I would want my husband to look after his needs and take the job,” said one member, who also brought up an interesting point: don’t forget that Alice is an unreliable narrator. She has dementia.

Can readers trust her version of the story? After all, in earlier moments of the book (in one, Alice can’t find the bathroom in their summer cottage, a scene which moved

several members to tears) John shows great tenderness, love and understanding. And late in the book, John weeps when he reads that the drugs Alice has been taking — drugs they hoped would stave off the disease’s progression — failed in clinical trials. Doesn’t that show a depth of feeling hidden beneath his cool exterior?

“I found all of the family relationships unrealistic,” said one member with vehemence, sparking some good-natured teasing, laughter, and protests from the rest of the group.

“Look — why would Lydia (Alice’s daughter) be so supportive given her mother’s lack of support for her?”

“Alice’s relationship with Lydia was the best part!” protested one woman. “As Alice forgets the values that made her disapprove of her daughter, the two connect in a whole new way. This book really explores how we connect even when the normal ways of understanding become disconnected.”

Conversation then flowed around our crippled ability to enjoy simple things in life. For Alzheimer’s patients, that ability comes naturally, as it eventually does for Alice. Even as the disease robs her of memory of everything that defines her, Alice gains a heightened awareness of the kind of simple beauty most of us are too busy to notice — the play of light upon the floor as dusk settles, the sweet scent of a baby’s hair, the urgent sound of rustling leaves that signals an oncoming storm. For The Next Chapter members, herein lies the message of hope.

Does Genova succeed in her chief purpose in writing this book: to open our eyes to the hopes, dreams and feelings of a person with Alzheimer’s disease; to show us that identity is important and life is still meaningful right to the end? To the members of The Next Chapter, the answer is, emphatically, yes.

CLUB VERDICT: While the group is often divided about the books they read, all nine women liked Still Alice and found themselves completely immersed in the story. Discussion flowed for more than an hour and a half, as members recounted scenes that had made them cry, shared their own fears about dementia, reflected on relationships with people with Alzheimer’s, and talked about how the book carried a message of hope. Should everyone read this book?

Absolutely.

Would you like your book club featured in the magazine?

E-mail Adrienne Dyer at adyer@telus.net.

If you liked Still Alice, Munro’s Books also recommends: The Housekeeper and The Professor, by Yoko Ogawa The Spare Room, by Helen Garner The Art of Mending, by Elizabeth Berg VB

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WILL MILLAR An Irish Rover settles in North Cowichan to paint people and places, past and present

Opposite page: Will Millar’s painting The Real Irish Bull, 24 in x 30 in, oil on canvas, 2009.

By Katherine PALMER Gordon Photos by Gary Mckinstry

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Sing along with me: “There were green alligators, and long-necked geese, some humpty-backed camels and some chimpanzees . . .”

If these lyrics make you start scissoring your arms like snapping crocodile jaws, hunch over like an ungulate and mug like a monkey, then you’re already a fan of North Cowichan’s Will Millar. For those not in the know, Millar and his band, the Irish Rovers, made Shel Silverstein’s The Unicorn a number one hit song in 1967. More than 40 years later, the tune still inspires unabashed crowd performances of the familiar accompanying movements wherever it is played.

The Unicorn also launched an enormously successful 30-year musical career for the Irish Rovers. After a humble beginning in 1966, playing at Phil’s Pancake House in Calgary, the band eventually produced more than two dozen best-selling albums. They also enjoyed a six-year run of their own show on CBC television in the early 1970s, toured extensively internationally, and once guest-starred on the long-running American series The Virginian as a band of likeable musical bank robbers.

The diminutive Millar, still wearing his trademark fisherman’s cap perched on a thick mane of grey curls, describes it as a life most musicians could only ever dream about. “Who would have thought four peasant Irish boys from Ballymena County would have ended up on Hollywood screens and with all those gold and platinum

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Dancing at the Crossroads

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albums?” he says wonderingly. “What a marvellous life we had!”

By 1995, however, Millar says the music had simply become the means to a livelihood. By then in his late fifties, he recognized it was time to make a change, and left the band. One year later, accompanied by his wife Catherine, Millar moved to a lakefront property in North Cowichan.

While he continued to perform occasionally, the move finally gave him the opportunity to devote himself to another lifelong passion he previously had little time to indulge: painting.

In a large, sunny studio overlooking the lake and surrounded by fruit trees and flower beds, Millar creates colourful, intimately rendered oil paintings of the people and landscapes he remembers from his childhood in rural Ireland. Potato pickers dressed in flannel and tweed enjoy a “tay break” by the plough; children in suspenders and bright red cardigans run giggling from a gypsy caravan; bearded fishermen haul their dinghies up the slips. Millar says of his work: “My paintings are like my folk music.

I’m telling stories about people who are linked to the earth.

My feet are solidly planted in the soil, too, just like my Irish forebears,” says Millar, whose Canadian accent still contains strong traces of his Celtic heritage.

Millar revels in his new life as an artist, and Janet Martinez, owner of the Excellent FrameWorks gallery in Duncan, says it shows in his canvasses. “His work is presented with such exuberance and joy,” Martinez

L UFEN “Sullivans John” The Tinker Man, 20 in x 16 in, oil on canvas, 2009.

Below: Dancing at the Crossroads, 32 in x 40 in, oil on canvas, 2009.

observes. “It’s usually pretty difficult to sell people in art, but Will’s people say so much. They leap off the canvas with a complete range of emotions and a history that’s immediately apparent.”

Millar was only 10 when his family immigrated to Canada in 1948, but he still remembers clearly the kitchen table in his Ballymena home. “It was always cluttered with jars of the leftover paint my father, who was working as a house painter, would bring home for me, and covered with dozens of paintings. I would paint on anything I could find,” he chuckles. “Linoleum, or pieces of cardboard.” To the understandable vexation of his mother, he even used the tablecloth once when he ran out of other materials.

The lad traded labour for painting lessons from a local art teacher, avidly absorbing her advice. After moving to Toronto with his family, he continued classes with renowned art teacher Ronald Satok, and after leaving high school enrolled at the Ontario College of Art. The constraints of a formal education system were ones Millar could not come to terms with, however, and he left the college after only six months. His continued on page 75

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Bursting with the summer’s harvest .

The Cowichan provides the perfect getaway to enjoy the bounties of fall. The lingering rays of summer sun have cast a golden glow over our little towns, rolling vineyards and abundant farms, and a quiet calm has settled in. We’re bursting with the fruits (and vegetables) of the harvest, and eager to share!

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The golden days of fall .

Come experience our many earthly delights on display in full splendour at this time of year.

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continued from page 69

musical debut occurred shortly afterwards, and for the next 30 years, painting would come a distant second to performing.

All the same, the craving to make pictures never left him.

Even on tours Millar was never without a set of paints in his kit. “I was constantly painting in motel rooms,” he recalls.

On one occasion, an outraged motel owner sent him a bill for “trashing” his room. Millar hadn’t destroyed the furniture in the throes of a celebrity tantrum: “We were never that kind of band,” he says firmly. He had simply spilled paint everywhere in his enthusiasm for the canvas he had been working on.

Now safely ensconced in his own studio, Millar can spatter paint liberally with no repercussions. Still possessed of a cheerful energy that belies his 70 years, he works in the studio “I always thought nearly every day. In addition to drawing on his own history, he I’d be sad when looks outside his windows for inspiration. Mount Tzouhalem I stopped playing, and the rural splendour and country faces of the Cowichan but I’m very happy.

Valley offer endless possibilities.

Even his home may well inspire a There’s no more painting. Six months after buying the 87-year-old house in 1996, the having to haggle Millars received some unannounced visitors. “These three with the world.” old ladies told us their grandfather from Orkney had built the house in 1909. Catherine’s grandmother was a Flett from Orkney, so we asked them what their grandfather’s name was. And of all things, it was Flett! How amazing is that?” marvels Millar. It was a discovery, he says, which has given their home a magical feeling ever since.

Millar says he will still perform music for “wakes and weddings” but the main creative focus in his life now is his art. “I always thought I’d be sad when I stopped playing, but the truth is I’m very happy. There’s no more having to haggle with the world,” he reflects. “I have everything I need here, and I’ve found a level of contentment in my life, a peace I wish everyone could enjoy.”

Gazing at the colourful canvasses stacked around him, with the lilting notes of an Irish Rovers song playing quietly in the background, Millar beams with happiness. “This is my favourite world, right here,” he says. “It’s a wonderful world to be in, all right. It’s a good life.”

Will Millar’s work can be viewed at www.willmillar.ca Excellent FrameWorks, 28 Station Street, Duncan is holding a show of Millar’s latest paintings from Oct. 2 to 24. VB

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By Julie Nixon

FrontRow New Adventures in Dance This fall, two epic dance events aim to electrify Victoria audiences.

First, this year’s ROMP! Festival of Independent Dance features two new programs, thanks to the help of the Victoria Foundation and the City of Victoria. The Fountain of Youth program pairs live performances by local youth talent with dance films from New York’s Dance Film Association. And inspired by “artwalk”

events popular in many cities, DANCE/WALK involves mini dance performances staged at various locations throughout downtown Victoria, including the Martin Batchelor Gallery, where you’ll also find a visual exhibition on body language.

Also on the schedule are a premiere solo danced by Jung-Ah Chung and choreographed by Darryl Hoskins, and the return of MOVE: the company. ROMP! takes place October 15 to November 8. For

tickets, visit www.suddenlydance.ca or call 250-386-6121.

Second, Dance Victoria presents the wowandflutter, choreographed by Kimberley Cooper of Decidedly Jazz DanceWorks. Set to a 75-minute, groovecharged score created by Brazilian/ Canadian drum’n’bass superstar Amon

The wowandflutter dancers of Decidedly Jazz Danceworks. Photo by Trudie Lee.

Tobin, 10 jazz dancers dance so hard that you’ll feel like you’re “going down the rabbit hole,” says Cooper. Like an album of various tracks, each visual vignette stands alone, but there’s a kind of an unearthly “creature-esque” theme with the dancers, the movements, the costumes and the visual projections by contemporary video artist David Hoffos that cloak the stage. wowandflutter plays October 23-24 at 7:30 pm at the McPherson Playhouse. For tickets, call 250-386-6121.

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UNRELEASED PAVELIC WORKS ON SHOW Celebrated for her portraits of prominent individuals such as Pierre Trudeau and Katharine Hepburn, the late Myfanwy Pavelic was a prolific local artist, painting and

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Myfanwy Pavelic’s Kate - Lion in Winter, 19 in x 26 in, acylic on canvas, 1985. Courtesy of the Pavelic estate.

drawing people, landscapes, nature and even experimenting with the deconstruction of images and presenting them in collage.

Born in Victoria in 1916, Pavelic was mentored by Emily Carr. While modern style favoured the abstract, Pavelic used a realistic style to convey the beauty of the human form.

Her portrait of conductor Yehudi Menuhin was the first painting by a Canadian to be accepted at the National Portrait Gallery in London. She died at 91.

The Morris Gallery will feature more than 50 unreleased works that have remained in her estate since her death in 2007. The Pavelic show opens September 10 at 7 pm and runs to October 3.

The Morris Gallery is located on Alpha Street at 428 Burnside Rd E. For more information contact Lance Morris at 250-388-6652 or visit www.morrisgallery.ca.

Everyone falls for The Fallen One Verdi’s La traviata is one of the most popular and most performed operas and it’s easy to see why, says Pacific Opera Victoria’s artistic director Timothy Vernon. “It’s a marvelously gripping, very human story,” he says. Violetta Valéry, a Parisian courtesan (aka high-class call girl), and the young nobleman Alfredo Germont, meet at a grand party and fall in love. Alfredo’s father, Giorgio, comes to Paris to plead with Violetta to reject his son for the sake of his reputation. “And what makes it a tragedy is that she has genuinely fallen in love with him,” explains Vernon. “But in order to save him, she renounces their relationship and flees Paris.”

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Vernon says La traviata is an ideal first opera for neophytes because its immediacy, sublime music and compelling plot never fail to sweep audiences away.

POV’s production is directed by Dennis Garnhum and designed by David Boechler, with Sookhyung Park as Violetta, Vale Rideout as Alfredo, and Bruce Kelly as

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Fall for opera this autumn with La traviata. Artwork by Jo-Ann Richards, Works Photography.

Giorgio. Performances run October 1, 6, 8 and 10 at 8 pm and October 3 at 3 pm at the Royal Theatre. For tickets, call 250-385-0222.

The Intimacy of Distance Oak Bay’s The Avenue Gallery presents Near and Far, a group exhibition of landscapes and cityscapes by four accomplished artists with distinct styles: David Goatley, Peter Paterson, Andrew Wooldridge and gallery newcomer Bi Yuan Cheng. Each artist invites you on a visual excursion, a journey through the villages and open spaces of the places they’ve lived and loved: Italy, Spain, England, China and Victoria. The works presented here both explore and celebrate these remarkable locales and the culture rooted there.

Near and Far runs September 13-26, with a preview on September 12 from 10 am to 5:30 pm, and opening reception with artists in attendance on September 13 from 12 to 4 pm (artists’ presentation at 1 pm).

Mark Heine’s exhibition Elements of Nature, featuring a heartfelt collection of new works that intend to awaken memories of childhood, runs October 4-17, with a preview on October 3. Opening, reception and artist’s presentation

Morris Gallery

Morning in the Town by Bi Yuan Cheng, 24 x 24 in, oil on canvas, 2009.

12-4 pm on October 4. Visit www.theavenuegallery.com or call 250-598-2184 for more information.

Symphony Pops Series Starts with Swingin’ and Singin’ Hugely successful symphony pops group Five By Design from Minneapolis makes its Victoria debut this fall with a live “radio” broadcast titled Swingin’ and Singin’. The five-member vocal group teams up with the Victoria Symphony for the opening of the Beltone Pops Series.

The show features popular songs, period costumes and even performances of golden-era radio ads. Swingin’ and Singin’ happens September 17 at 2 pm, and September 18 and 19 at 8 pm at the Royal Theatre Movie still (250-385-6515). from Charlie The symphony’s Chaplin’s City seasonal schedule Lights (1931). includes a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s classic silent film City Lights with the orchestra playing the original score.

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Victoria’s Farquhar Auditorium on October 9 at 8 pm.

For tickets, phone the UVic box office at 250-721-8480.

The line-up of concerts throughout the season includes pianist Anton Kuerti in September and, in October, local one-time child prodigy Nikki Chooi, now grown up and earning international raves as a concert violinist. Visit the website www.victoriasymphony.ca for more information.

Since 1953 the Volunteer Committee of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has organized the annual fall House Tour, a self-guided sneak-a-peek tour of extraordinary Victoria homes, faithfully attended by architecture lovers, interior design enthusiasts, green thumbs, art lovers and the curious. Proceeds support education and exhibition programming at the AGGV. The line-up this year includes six homes with blossoming gardens and take-your-breathaway ocean views. At each home, tour day-trippers will find

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mark heine elements of nature Exhibition and Sale October 4th to 17th Preview day October 3rd 10:00 am - 5:30 pm Opening reception and artist’s presentation October 4th 12 – 4 pm

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This watercolour by Robert Amos features one of the homes on the AGGV fall House Tour.

a local artist at work, including Robert Amos, Eva Campbell and Iris Nardini.

“It’s a great opportunity for people to be able to enjoy some of the amazing gardens and see some of these incredible homes,” says Lynda Henriksen, AGGV spokeswoman. “People love to see different places and how other people live, and get ideas for their own home.”

The House Tour takes place on September 13, 11 am to 5 pm. Tickets are $35 and usually sell out early; call 250-384-4101 for tickets.

Another AGGV event not to miss this fall is Urbanite, the seasonal social. “Our tagline is mix, mingle, muse: mix with the curators and the artists, mingle over music and cocktails and muse on the visual culture,” says Henriksen. Part of the gallery’s education and public programming, this “artful” soirée has been called one of the best places to meet new people. Attracting a mix of all ages, “everyone has something in common,” says Henriksen. “You can talk about the exhibition; you can talk about the artists: those icebreakers are already built in.”

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Urbanite takes place October 23, 8-11 pm. Admission is $12 or $10 for members.

On Stage: Life on a Border Town

Making a garden bloom en pointe “It’s going to be riveting — you will be treated to a visual feast of costume and lighting designs and enthralled by the talent of the dancers,” says Ballet Victoria’s artistic director Paul Destrooper, speaking of the company’s season opener The Secret Garden & Other Works. The choreography is physical, expressive and imaginative with a particularly theatrical style and a comedic flair, all wrapped up with impeccable technique from the dancers, says Destrooper.

This original, one-act ballet is based on a play written

by The Belfry Theatre’s artistic director Michael Shamata, which he adapted from the popular children’s novel. The music Destrooper chose to help narrate the ballet is Joseph

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You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll whoop in delight for the young protagonist and his coming of age. “Bordertown Café is both very entertaining and touching at the same time,” says Belfry Theatre’s artistic director Michael Shamata. Well-respected Canadian actress, director and teacher Rosemary Dunsmore will bring Kelly Rebar’s 1990 play to life, with all its offbeat characters and true-to-life dialogue.

The play involves 17-yearold Jimmy and his struggle to decide whether to stay in Canada or move to the United States to live with his father, soon to be remarried. The play’s connection between audience and actors heightens the slice-of-life story, and the strength of the characters’ emotions and their difficulty communicating them are said to affect the audience powerfully.

Bordertown Café , a coproduction with the Prairie Jillian Fargey plays Theatre Exchange of Winnipeg, Marlene, in Bordertown plays at The Belfry September 15 Café. Photo by Jo-Ann to October 18. For tickets, please Richards, Works call the box office at 250-385-6815 Photography. or visit www.belfry.bc.ca.

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Haydn’s piano trio, performed live by local musicians, including pianist Daniel Jordan. Visual artist Nancy Angermeyer designed the images for the set, which will be projected onto the background. “It’s a different approach,” says Destrooper. “A bit more contemporary.”

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The Secret Garden & Other Works takes places at the McPherson Playhouse October 30 and 31, at 7:30 pm and November 1 at 2 pm.

As part of the Royal Theatre’s Royal Tea Concerts series, Ballet Victoria teams up with the Victoria Symphony for an afternoon performance of classic dance favourites. Shall We Dance happens October 14 at 2:30 pm. Ticket holders are invited for tea and treats at 1:45 pm in the lobby.

Call 250-386-6121 for tickets for either show. VB

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The following spring, the Canadian forces liberated Holland. Those soldiers gave him two things: his first taste of chocolate and a fascination with Canada. Twenty years later, he arrived in Prince George with $25.74 in his pocket and a determination to own a lumber mill. For a time, he was cold and hungry again, sleeping in a deserted shed by the rail lines until he got his first job as a clean-up man in a lumber yard. Ten years later, he incorporated Brink Forest Products, which currently employs 160 people and is the largest secondary manufacturer in the province.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that when he and his wife Sharon crawled up a hill to look at a one-acre lot in North Saanich, he saw the potential and not the problem of building on an uneven jut of brush-covered rock rising and twisting above Haro Strait. John and Sharon Brink stood on the rocks, took in the view of Mount Baker, looked at one another and said, “This is it.”

Architect Gary van Dijk remembers his first impression of the site. “The big challenge was how to make this site work — where to build. It was a difficult terrain with the underbrush and all that rock.” To make room for a 9,500 square-foot house, an enormous amount of rock had to

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be blasted out — so much that it took 160 dump truck loads to remove it. To give an idea of how much rock that is, it would take one man with a wheelbarrow over 10,000 trips to take the rock away. But as Sharon Brink puts it, “I really think challenging sites can be the most rewarding.” Van Dijk laughs and adds, “The site was kind to us.” It also offered the opportunity to design a house and garden at the same time. Usually, the garden comes after but the Brinks wanted the gardens and exteriors to be integral to the design of the house. And so van Dijk worked closely with landscape designer Jonathan Craggs to create a house and property that settle into the hill, blending into the natural surroundings.

Visitors to the house may first be struck by the fact that there is no lawn. A lane of willow and walnut trees lined with lavender and creeping thyme takes you to the front of the house, which, rather than perching on the rock, rises

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out of it. The house is only seven years old but it looks as though it has always been there. As Craggs says, “There is an inevitability about the house. How could it be anything other than what it is?” This is largely a result of the decision to use the removed rock in the landscaping to create the sandstone walls, walkways and stairs that connect the house to the site. There is a seamlessness about the house, the rock, the muted green and lavender palette of the plantings and the willow shrubs, arbutus and ocean spray that are native to the site. Houses are close together in Cloake Hill but the stand-out feature of the Brink home is the atmosphere of privacy. It is peaceful, redolent of a European garden where reality recedes. Craggs says, “It is a wholly designed and created environment but subtle, allowing its beauty to come from its natural connection to the landscape rather than big colours or dramatic design.”

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views. Sharon says, “We wanted the house to always have light” and so every room has access to the outdoors, either to formal seating areas under wisteria and pergolas, or to decks with views of the water. The views are spectacular. They ought to be, with over 100 windows in the house, but as Sharon says, “Considering there are so many windows, it’s incredibly private because of the landscaping.” It was also important to the Brinks that the house not be, as Sharon puts it, “precious.” They wanted a home that was liveable and so the interiors are simple and free of the clutter imposed by overdesign. “You don’t have to take your shoes off here.” Sharon’s dressage saddles are stored in the garage; her studio is littered with easels and paints; the three stray cats they took in have the run of the house, as

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do Bailey and Riley, the young Westies who greet visitors with a thorough ankle-licking.

Sharon’s favourite rooms are the formal living and dining areas. They are surrounded by windows, letting in the light she so loves. She wanted interiors that would encourage intimate conversations and casual dinners for guests who can move from the round dining table through the French doors to the large patio, where they can stand and look out over the ocean. Her husband’s favourite room is the family room off the kitchen, where he can relax on weekends in his big red chair under a ceiling made of his beloved Douglas fir.

In the kitchen, John Brink talks about his life, his work and his love for Canada. He says he takes over 200 flights a year and always tries to sit by the window. “There is no place on Earth that is more blessed by its beauty and bounty than Canada. I never get enough looking.” As he speaks, he lays his hands palm down on a three-metre-long table made from beams that were manufactured in BC in the late 1930s and used to build airplane hangars in Gimli, Manitoba, where many of the crews of the bombers Brink heard overhead as a child in Holland were trained. “From the time of our liberation, I always felt I belonged here, and to this day I cannot imagine any place I would rather call my home.” VB

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Victoria Hospice provides a circle of care for individuals and families so they can make the most of life when time is more precious than ever.

PATIENT CARE | COUNSELLING | EDUCATION | RESEARCH | VOLUNTEERS

GIVE. Invest now in end-of-life care.

Victoria Hospice & Palliative Care Foundation Contribute online at www.victoriahospicefoundation.org or call 250.952.5720

98 victoriaboulevard.com hospice-displayad-BOULEVARD-famefortunelove-colour-1aug2009.indd 1

30/07/09 11:57 PM

SUPPLIERS AND TRADES: Architect: Gary van Dijk, Studio V Vancouver; Excavating/Grading: D.F. Bowcott Excavating; Plumbing Fixtures: Robinson Lighting & Bath Centre; Cabinetry: Swedish Touch; Counters/Tile: Eurocraft Marble & Granite Fabrication; Interior Painting: Mettes Painting; Exterior Painting: Hugh Gregory Painting; Flooring: Canadian Heritage Timber; Windows: Dynamic Windows; Doors: Jim’s Prehung Doors; Woodwork: R.W. Dean Ent. Ltd.; Deck Railings: Riverside Iron Work; Landscape design: Jonathan Craggs Garden Design; Masonry/Stone work: Benito Bros. Construction; Floral Design: Kenmar Flower Farm

GREAThomes GREATrealtors BOULEVARD MAGAZINEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S REAL ESTATE

advertising SECTION September/October 2009

incredible sky high penthouse! The crowning jewel of Swallows Landing, artfully executed, fully furnished and lavishly appointed. World Class Views! $3,950,000. For details contact Leslee Farrell at Macdonald Realty Victoria.

Photo by Russ Heinl

GREAThomes GREATrealtors Welcome to Boulevard ’s Great Homes, Great Realtors. This advertising section, showcasing prominent Victoria realtors and a hand-picked selection of currently available property listings, will appear in each issue of the magazine. We hope that you will enjoy it!

LESLEE FARRELL - MACDONALD REALTY I am a Simon Fraser University graduate and passionate about boating, the arts and charity service. After 30 years in my profession, I feel as committed to my clients today as I did on day one. I provide expertise in luxury and waterfront properties, along with a top-ranking internet presence that is combined with leading-edge marketing tools. My wish is to deliver the ultimate concierge service to all of my real estate transactions.

DALLAS CHAPPLE RE/MAX CAMOSUN Named after my father, bandleader Dal Richards, I have a Mass Communications degree from Paris’ Sorbonne University. I’ve been a Victoria realtor for 18 years specializing in Oak Bay and have consistently placed in the top 100 of RE/MAX’s 6,000 agents in Western Canada. My goal is to help clients find their dream home and ensure their decisions are wise, long-term investments.

LISA WILLIAMS CENTURY 21 QUEENSWOOD REALTY LTD. A third generation Victorian, my passions are architecture, design and our fabulous West Coast lifestyle.

Working in Victoria since 1990, I specialize in waterfront, unique and luxury properties and have sold many of Victoria’s highest priced homes.

My mission is to exceed expectations, rise to every challenge and to always look for innovative ways to connect buyers and sellers!

LYNNE SAGER RE/MAX CAMOSUN I’ve been selling unique and waterfront homes in Victoria for 25 years and offer knowledge in construction and interior design from my family business. I’ve been a member of the Education Committee for VREB for four years and am presently on the Community Relations Committee. I pride myself on keeping my negotiating skills current by recently completing Legal Update 2009 and Conflicts Resolution courses.

DEEDRIE BALLARD RE/MAX CAMOSUN During my 17 year career in Real Estate, I have been listing homes in Greater Victoria. Diversification and knowledge combined with personalized service has made me one of Victoria’s Top Realtors.

Giving back to my community has been a vital part of my life, having served on many boards over the past 35 years. When you work with Deedrie Ballard; Expect Excellence.

photos by bullock & kirstein photography

GreatHomesGreatRealtors

paddock, two garages. Amazing value and prime location on Saanich Inlet. $8,900,000 MLS#233557

$2,485,000 MLS#253844

SHOWCASE OF HOMES VICTORIA

$69

Call Leslee for

Email: leslee@lesleefarrell.com Your Luxury Waterfront Specialist Webpage: www.lesleefarrell.com Phone direct: (250) 514-9899 Phone office: (250) 385-2033

Leslee Farrel Boulevard ad Dec 21 1

This private pastoral 11 acre estate in the Cowichan Valley, offers over 700’ of low bank east facing waterfront with a Frank Lloyd Wright style residence of 7,000 square feet. The floor to ceiling windows bring in the fabulous views of Saltspring Island & the Saanich Inlet. Offered at $3,950,000. MLS#265182

A fine executive residence on 1.2 acre of prime east facing waterfront with 180° views of Haro Strait & San Juan Islands. The moment you enter the forested drive, you’ll appreciate the private setting complete with a sheltered outdoor pool. Recently reno’d & ready for you to move in. Offered at $2,695,000. MLS#259576

Twin Coves, named for the two coves on the shoreline is an outstanding waterfront estate in Queenswood with 1800’ of shoreline on 5.17 acres of magical property, and is one of the largest estates in the area. On the market for the first time in 20 years the elegant and stately residence offers 6300 sq.ft., a second garage and guest cottage. Offered at $6,900,000. MLS#256851 This exceptional Shawnigan Lake estate offers 1.2 acres of south facing waterfront, a beautifully renovated A-Frame residence, plus self contained guest cottage and 2 docks! The absolutely enchanting setting offers complete privacy with terraced landscaping. Come to boat, swim, enjoy! Offered at $2,445,000.

MLS#263640

One of Victoria’s most spectacular penthouses, situated in award winning Shoal Point. This home offers the ultimate in space 3800 sq.ft. on two levels, plus almost 3400 sq.ft. of deck. Enjoy an eagle’s eye view of city, ocean and mountains plus the ultimate in finishings. Fully furnished with concierge service.

Offered at $3,850,000. MLS#262297

LuxuryPortfolio.com

A classic residence situated on .5 acre S-facing low bank waterfront is truly a jewel in the heart of the Uplands.

Spectacular ocean & mountain views from every room, with a floor plan that is ideal for entertaining. Plus a triple garage w/carport, ideal for car enthusiasts!

Offered at $3,695,000. MLS#258313

Local Brand • Global Reach

Direct: 250.514.9899 Office: 250.388.5882 Toll Free: 1.877.388.5882 755 Humboldt Street leslee@lesleefarrell.com www.lesleefarrell.com luxuryhomesvictoria.com

GreatHomesGreatRealtors

RE/MAX CAMOSUN CALL: 250-744-3301 TOLL FREE: 1-877-652-4880 WWW.DALLASCHAPPLE.COM DALLAS SELLS VICTORIA / OAK BAY

“MY GOAL, AS YOUR REALTOR, IS TO FIND YOUR DREAM HOME, AND ENSURE THE DECISION YOU MAKE STANDS AS A WISE INVESTMENT OVER THE LONG TERM.”

Oak Bay! Close to Village!

Enter the foyer and experience the ambiance of this turn-of-thecentury beauty . With ceilings over 9 ft, the living room, with brick fireplace, flows through to the “Christmas” sized dining room with its own fireplace. Very bright home – lots of windows overlooking the mature, private garden . 4 spacious bedrooms up, great for kids, and a newer bathroom. Fir floors up and stairway. $799,900

South Oak Bay! This turn-of-the-century beauty, the Goodacre House speaks of style and grace! Spacious dining room, 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, living room with an inglenook flanking the fireplace & mantle, wonderful sunroom & beautiful garden: perfect for family enjoyment . $1,350,000

SOME PROPERTIES SOLD IN 2009 – LIST PRICE 950 Terrace Avenue . . . . .$2,550,000 - 3 offers 2092 Falkland Place . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,250,000 629 Beach Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,196,000 3320 Woodburn . . . $1,150,000 - Sold over list!

1197 Transit Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,197,000 2118 Pentland Road . .$574,900 - Sold over list!

1766 Armstrong Avenue . . . . . . . . . . . $539,900 3539 Redwood Avenue . . . . . . . . . . . $719,000

1712 St . Ann Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $539,900 829 Gannet Court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $509,900 # 204-1318 Beach Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $249,900 828 Gannet Court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $434,800 # 306-1400 Newport Avenue . . . . . . . . . . . $237,900 #1168-2600 Ferguson Road . . . . . . . , $369,900 964 Newport Avenue . . . . . . $1,485,000 - 2 Offers! #202-2930 Cook Street . . . .$339,900 - 2 Offers 2892 Wyndeatt Ave . . . . $529,900 - Sold in 1 day! # 405-813/814 Douglas Street . . . . . . . $499,000 2566 Penrhyn Street . . . . $475,000 - Sold over list #605-813/814 Douglas Street . . . . . . . $519,000 2523 Fielding Place . . . $689,000 - Sold in 1 week! #104-3157 Tillicum Road . . . . . . . . . . $189,900 # 606-6880 Wallace Dr . . $499,900 - Sold in 1 day! # 403-1156 Colville Road . . . . . . . . . . . $295,000 $10,000 over list! #104-1680 Poplar Avenue . . . . . . . . . . $219,900

DALLAS CHAPPLE - RE/MAX CAMOSUN 4440 CHATTERTON WAY VICTORIA, BC V8X 5J2 OAK BAY OFFICE 2239 OAK BAY AVENUE VICTORIA, BC V8R 1G4 P: 250-744-3301 F: 250-744-3904 TOLL FREE: 1-877-652-4880 E: DALLAS@DALLASCHAPPLE.COM GreatHomesGreatRealtors

GreatHomesGreatRealtors

Welcome to Deedrie’s homes . . .

Set on a quiet cul-de-sac in

You will feel ‘at home’ when you enter

Broadmead Estates this 4900 sq. ft.

this Sayward Hill townhome. The main

custom-built home in Cordova Bay will

custom-built home has much to offer.

living area includes a large living/

exceed your expectations. This almost

Cherry cabinets, oak floors and granite

dining room, gourmet kitchen with

5000 sq. ft. home on over 15,000 sq. ft.

are featured in a gourmet kitchen. Six

many upgrades, great-room, bedroom

of property features six bedrooms and

bedrooms and four bathrooms make

and a south-facing patio. The upper

a possible one or two bedroom in-law

this a perfect family home. The

level features a luxurious master

suite. This home has in-floor radiant

sun-filled deck, built-in speaker system

bedroom, ensuite, and walk-in closet

heat, all rooms wired for satellite and

and media room makes for perfect

as well as a huge home office which

cable and are insulated for sound

entertaining. Call listing Realtor re:

could also become a bedroom. The

proofing. Four fireplaces, underground

Subdivision of two lots. $1,079,000

lower level includes a hobby/media

sprinklers, and gas connections on all

room and full bath. Easy access to

three decks. $1,099,000

Situated on a quiet cul-de-sac this new

shopping, golf and the sea. $699,000

Deedrie Ballard Expect Excellence Phone

250.744.3301 Email deedrie@deedrieballard.com Website www.deedrieballard.com 4440 Chatterton Way, Victoria, BC V8X 5J2 TOLL FREE 1.800.663.2121

GreatHomesGreatRealtors

Camosun

W

LISA WILLIAMS

SPECTACULAR WATERFRONT ESTATE! Over 6600 sq.ft. on prime 1.24 ac. in Oak Bay. Exceptional views, seaside pool, & tons of privacy! Elegant entry, formal lvg & dg rms, kitchen w/FP, eating area, family room, conservatory & office, gorgeous master suite plus 5 bdrms & 6 bths, lrg games rm, nanny suite & much more! $5,900,000

CHARMING ‘ENGLISH COUNTRY’ home on sheltered Portage Inlet waterfront! Spacious 5-6 bedrm home boasts HW flrs, large windows, lovely views, private 2 bedrm suite, lovely gardens & private dock too . . . perfect for kayakers! $969,000

CITY CHIC MEETS COUNTRY living in this spectacular 3 bedrm custom home on 5 acres in Central Saanich! One level living w/gorgeous master suite, gourmet kitchen, stunning formal rooms & large family room, outdoor kitchen, west-facing valley views . . . total luxury! $1,699,000

MODERN & CHIC Waterfront home with dock . . . kayak to the Inner Harbour! Incredibly warm, sunny and totally private with massive windows, lovely open design, deluxe main floor master suite, expansive decks, beautiful gardens . . . a total oasis! $1,399,000

SONGHEES WATERFRONT CONDO! Totally reno’d top to bottom by Bruce Wilkin & absolutely gorgeous! Enjoy beautiful finishing, exceptional views, lots of sunshine & more from this spacious 2 bed/ 2 bth home that welcomes your pet too! $699,000

GORGEOUS CUSTOM WATERFRONT home on beautiful Gonzales Bay! This fabulous home boasts over 4575 sq.ft. with amazing legal in-law suite & great guest studio too! Incredible views & sun all day . . . just 5 mins. from downtown! $2,495,000

STUNNING QUEENSWOOD 5200 sq.ft. home on gorgeous & totally private 1.26 acre park-like property just steps from beach access! ‘04 built with 4 bedrooms and 4 baths, fantastic design & beautiful finishing . . . private guest house too! $2,100,000

PROSPECT LAKE! Gorgeous, sunny lakefront property with spacious & elegant 4-5 bedroom custom home and PRIVATE DOCK! . . . just minutes from town . . . a true oasis! Super design, great for family & entertaining . . . cosy nanny suite too! $1,549,000

STUNNING ROCKLAND ‘MACLURE’ . . . an award-winning restoration & absolutely luxurious!

Gorgeous hardwood floors, gourmet kitchen, sumptuous master, beautiful formal rooms, outdoor granite kitchen too & tons of custom details throughout! $2,799,000

Lisa Williams offers professional & personalized service combined with the BEST INTERNATIONAL MARKETING STRATEGY and a commitment to achieving the BEST RESULTS FOR YOU

250•514•1966 Direct www.LisaWilliams.ca

Century 21 Queenswood R ealty ltd.

GreatHomesGreatRealtors

HotDesign

CURB APPEAL

When a home’s entrance has it, heads turn and hearts melt

Think of a woman wearing the perfect shade of carefully applied lipstick or a man sporting an impeccably-trimmed moustache. Our eyes are immediately drawn to such well-groomed faces.

Now imagine a house with a curved, stone walkway, leading to a covered entry, where a wood door with polished brass knocker awaits our touch.

There wouldn’t be a scene-destroying three-car garage or metal screen door in the picture. The whole scene is inviting: this is curb appeal.

And when it comes to the curb appeal of a home entrance, swaths of gray concrete called driveways don’t draw many second looks, nor do cookiecutter white doors. Just as if the imaginary woman were chewing bubblegum or the man were spitting out sunflower seeds, the focal point of a house would be destroyed by a distracting faux pas.

Realtor Leslee Farrell is blunt when discussing the importance of entrance curb appeal. “You’ve either got it or you don’t,” says Farrell, who has been selling luxury residential properties in the Victoria area for the past three decades. For those

entries that do have curb appeal, you cannot help but take notice. “It’s a head-turning experience,” she says.

A few basic elements produce prolonged gazes, says Farrell, who has toured hundreds of homes.

A clean approach from the curb to the entrance is crucial. The front door is the bellwether. “That’s what makes people decide to go through into the house,” Farrell says. Hardware such as house numbers, door handles and mailboxes are the small features that garner big smiles. Porches and verandahs can add oomph. And the appearance by both day and night has to be alluring.

Fairfield architect Brian Morris says that an appealing entrance is one that creates a sense of welcome to the home. When he consults with clients, he asks them to express the feelings that they have about their project, rather than the bricks and mortar aspect. “So much of architecture is psychological,” he says. It can be a difficult exercise, but eventually people realize that they want an entry that makes them feel

By SHANNON MONEO PHOTOS BY VINCE KLASSEN

comfortable in their own home. “It’s creating a sense of shelter around the entrance,” says Morris, who graduated with his architecture degree in 1984 and has been working in Victoria since 1994 after moving from Halifax. “It’s also bringing the scale of the home down to human proportions.”

Scale too, figures in the landscaping. “People look at one or two things and not necessarily the whole picture,” says Victoria landscape designer Duane Ensing. The favoured front garden may get all the attention while the monster driveway is neglected, creating what Ensing calls a concrete vortex that sucks in the eye to the exclusion of all other pretty moves.

Armed with a bachelor of fine arts degree and 18 years of gardening and design experience, Ensing treats landscaping as exterior sculpture. In certain front yards, he’ll recommend a big rock, artfully placed. Depending on local regulations, he may install screening, dressed with plants, or build a walkway over a water feature that leads to the front door. Favouring perennials and grasses that come and go throughout the seasons, Ensing uses plants that complement the property.

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www.countrysidemasonry.com We serve Vancouver Island and the southern Gulf Islands victoriaboulevard.com 107

DESIGN ADDS VALUE

HotDesign “I like to punch it up, do unique things, add colour,” he

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says. Instead of the three itty-bitty pots and a few plastic chairs he’s spotted at a front entrance, Ensing would haul out large glazed pots and a bistro table, creating atmosphere.

Victoria certainly has enclaves where atmospheric entrances hit you like a two by four. Uplands, which Farrell says has Victoria’s highest concentration of appealing entrances; Fairfield; Broadmead; Ten Mile Point, particularly Seaview Drive; and Rockland are all areas chock-a-block full of curb-appeal residences, Farrell says. Because land values are high in those areas, homes built there are “sharp, wow houses,” right down to every detail.

She particularly favours a Beach Drive house she sold this year. “It just screams ‘I’m a cute Tudor,’ ” Farrell says.

A driveway winds past trim grounds to a welcoming front door. The single garage is tucked out of the way.

Contractor and designer Bill Hustler admits to regular excursions to the Uplands. “I look through the trees at some of the cottages and homes to get inspiration for what I do,” says Hustler, owner of Victoria’s Anderson Cove Construction. He’s particularly proud of a group of houses he recently built at Mattick’s Woods, not far from Mattick’s Farm. One, inspired by a French farmhouse, is a textbook example of entrance curbside appeal with artful landscaping accenting a covered entry capped by a wood door. Hustler, who started his career 33 years ago as a carpenter, stresses siting as an important entry element. The house plan has to suit the lot’s parameters, usually easier on a large lot that hasn’t been scraped bare, Hustler says.

But appealing entrances are not restricted to pricier properties. Even on a street of high-density, tract homes, a gem can glitter among the mundane entrances. People who

specializing in quality custom homes

slave over their gardens, have a handcrafted door and beautiful exterior lighting can produce curb appeal. “You can put your wardrobe together at the thrift store or Holt’s,” Farrell says.

However, says Farrell, Victoria isn’t well known for having a surplus of entrances with curb appeal. “It’s not in abundance,” says Farrell, who, prior to her successful real estate career, was a junior high school teacher and counsellor in the Vancouver area. “Many people in Victoria prefer not to show what they are Curb Appeal turns inside from the outside.” Chalk it heads like these up to Victorian modesty or an four properties. obsession with privacy and security, this area is home to many fenced Previous pages: properties and gated communities Left: Formal plantings where curb appeal has been say “wow” in Fairfield. radically curbed. Or else long, Right: A comfy bench, winding driveways keep secret the potted trees and a beauty at the end. colourful door create a It’s a different story in U.S. cities, welcoming entry at an where rubberneckers risk whiplash from looking at appealing homes, Oak Bay home.

Farrell says. Homeowners in Seattle and many California communities These pages: put a lot of bucks and brains into Left: A sculpture creating photogenic homes. surrounded by lush Landscape designer Ensing says native plants he often feels like a doctor adorn this Gonzales examining an ill person when he Beach entrance. looks over a property. Happily, Above: Even a simple sometimes the cure for lack of curb arbour, in Fairfield, appeal is as simple as a trying a adds panache. new shade of lipstick. VB

250-592-5593

brianmorrisarchitect.com

victoriaboulevard.com 109

Imagine . . .

Life with your own private elevator.

TECHNOLOGIA

By Darryl Gittins

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Decortec Homelift Inc. www.decortechomelift.com 831 W. 3rd Street, North Vancouver, BC

250.883.2576 (Victoria) 1.866.990.1028 (Toll Free)

DIGITAL PHOTOS Before sharing them, back them up to keep those precious memories safe for years

The voice on the phone is shaking: “My computer won’t start. The error message said ‘Hard disk failure is imminent.’ Now there’s a clicking sound.”

“OK,” I say, “When did you last back up?”

“About three years ago, before the baby was born.”Uh-oh.

Bye-bye baby pictures. That clicking sound was the “Click of Death,” a term geeks use to describe a “catastrophic hard disk failure.” Now the only hope to recover the baby photos is an expensive lab that specializes in data recovery.

Sometimes files can be retrieved and sometimes they can’t.

Sometimes partial results means rescued pictures have blocks of pixels strangely missing.

Digital photography is a wonderful thing, but its Achilles heel is the back-up problem. Too many people have years of precious memories stored on their computer hard disks.

In the industry we say there are two types of people, those who’ve had a hard disk failure, and those who will have a hard disk failure. Even Mac users need to back up regularly.

So before we talk about some of the ways to access, share and display your digital memories, we have to first talk about backing up those memories. The good news: it’s easy.

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Sharing Photos are big files, so e-mailing can clog recipients’ mailboxes. A number of options are available to help share photo files. All store photos on a server. Your friends get a message and go to the server to view or download the images. These include: • Microsoft’s free Windows Live Mail and Photo Gallery, which along with sharing has a library manager and photo

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How Many Gigabytes?

People underestimate the amount of space they need.

They start copying files to a DVD or to a flash drive only to get the message: device full. Here is how to determine your size needs.

Click “Start”, right-click “My Documents” and then click “Properties.” Click “Find Target.” In the window that opens, right-click the “My Documents” or the individual folder, such as “My Pictures” that you want to copy. Then click “Properties.” Note the number to the right of “Size” and buy a back-up device that is 50% bigger than that number. Note that if you have lots of music files in the “My Music” folder, the “My Documents” may be large. Copy separately to keep the size manageable.

On a Mac, click the “Pictures” folder, and then click “Get Info” on the “File” menu.

Along with all that, I keep a program running to automatically copy files on a schedule. I think the best automated backup program is Second Copy. It’s not free, but it’s worth the $29.95. A free trial’s at: http://www.centered. com. ChronoSync is a good option for Mac: http://www. econtechnologies.com.

Make your home smarter than you are

TOLMIE

Here are the basic options for both PCs and Macs. To be safe, do at least two: • Connect a removable media device such as an external hard disk ($50 to $100), or a flash drive or memory stick ($10 to $50). Then drag your photos onto the device.

• Occasionally burn photos to a CD or DVD. Multiple copies stored in multiple locations, even a friend’s or relative’s house, is good back-up strategy. If you use Windows XP, install free burning software at http:// infrarecorder.org.

• Use an online backup or “cloud” service — move your files off-site. A simple way is to e-mail them to a free Gmail or Hotmail account you set up in your name. Or use Microsoft’s Windows Live SkyDrive, which gives you 25 GB of free online storage. Get it here: http://snipurl.com/gdgr2.

victoriaboulevard.com 111

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Life is always interesting at Carlton House of Oak Bay. As Victoria’s finest senior’s residence, we know how to enjoy life and as such, we offer you a wonderful range of programmed activities and special events to enjoy at your leisure, such as High Teas, Tai Chi classes, and musical performances.

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PREW_5589_PREW0020_N.indd 1

AN EXCEPTIONAL LIFE

7/6/09 10:22:05 AM

editing tools; http://download.live.com/wlmail.

• Flickr Photo Sharing, also with library and photo editing; www.flickr.com.

• Yousendit. Primarily a hub to send very large files like photos and even video; www.yousendit.com.

• Social network sites like Facebook or Myspace are a great way to share shots.

Showing Digital photo frames aren’t just a gimmick: the backlighting brings the detail to life. Depending on the model, they can hold a few dozen, or even thousands of images. They range from $50 to $500 at any photo or computer store. Kim Komando, the Martha Stewart of computing, has a terrific guide here: http://snipurl.com/gglia.

But it’s also nice to print hard copies. Nix the color printer: it’s too much trouble and expense. Copy the pictures to a flash drive or CD and bring them to a printing service such as London Drugs or use an online printer such as http:// www.kodakgallery.ca. Four-by-six prints are frequently on sale for 15 cents each.

Converting snaps Scan your old photos to make digital copies, but if you don’t have a scanner, use your digital camera and in good light take a picture of the picture!

Converting home movies VHS, Betamax, or Hi8 magnetic tapes will not last. I’ve seen the magnetic material actually falling off tapes that are only a couple of years old. (But quality tape stored in a cool dry place, rewound and standing on end can last decades.)

If you want to ensure you can watch those tapes 20 years from now, transfer footage to DVDs. Not because DVDs last longer (they also have a limited lifespan), but because DVDs are cheap and easy to copy.

Video transfer and editing is fun, but it requires patience and a fairly new computer. If you’re not up for a steep learning curve, take the tapes to a professional service that will transfer them for you for about $20 a tape. For an example, see http://www.homemoviedepot.com.

If you have a camcorder, you can connect the VCR’s “Video Out” to the “Video In” on the camcorder, and then record the movie to the camcorder. Then, use the camcorder’s software to transfer the movie to the computer.

Check the camcorder’s manual for the best way to do this.

How do you get the recorded movie onto a DVD? More free software! After you get the movie onto the computer, it’s a snap to burn the movie to DVD. Get DVD Flick from http://www.dvdflick.net. Drag the video file into the DVD Flick window, and then click “Create DVD”.

That’s it, you’re done. Now you can preserve and share digital memories for years. VB

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TRAVELNEAR By Anne Mullens

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Like a worldly big sister, Vancouver is fun to hang with on a fall weekend The sun is setting over English Bay, with Mother Nature playing lighting designer on the Bard on the Beach main stage.

Seagulls call and dive. Soon, stars will add twinkling authenticity to the bedroom scene on stage.

In short, it is the perfect setting for a tragedy.

On the Bard’s seaside stage, Shakespeare’s dark and disturbing Othello unfolds before a full house. When the actors take their final bows, the audience gives a standing ovation with hollers of Bravo.

“That was marvelous. And the setting — just fantastic!” says Jan Walker, who with her husband is visiting Vancouver from Boston for the first time. “Vancouver is one of North America’s most stunning and exciting cities. We’re so impressed.”

For those of us in Victoria, Vancouver is like the big sister we take for granted, often finding more to complain about than celebrate — the traffic, the Downtown Eastside. Many of us, me included, left her hectic scene for a more manageable family life here.

But take a look at her now: that big sister may still have her issues, but for the most part, she’s a stunner catching the world’s admiring eye. Her palpable urban buzz, sophisticated cityscapes juxtaposed with natural vistas, abundance of good

food, arts and entertainment, harmonious multiculturalism ­— all admirable indeed.

For me, September and October are two of the best months to visit. The weather is still good and there is much to see and do with summer events tapering off and the fall’s offerings just coming on.

Here are some things I love to do in the fall in Vancouver: Bask in the Bard Now celebrating its 20th year, the Bard on the Beach gets better every year. This season’s offerings, which go until September 26, are Othello and Comedy of Errors on the main stage and All’s Well that Ends Well and Richard III on the studio stage. All are getting good reviews; Othello is worth a trip to Vancouver alone. Consult the schedule, bring a picnic and buy tickets in advance at www. bardonthebeach.org as shows frequently sell out. Avoid the seats looking directly west: you will have the setting sun in your eyes for some of the show. Pack a sweater even on the hottest days.

Stroll, Roll, Ride or Run the Seawall What used to take an hour or so can now occupy an entire day. Where some cities have bungled public waterfront access (hello, Toronto), Vancouver’s waterfront walkway, now more than 20 kilometres long, represents the best of city planning.

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It starts at the new convention centre at Canada Place and extends to Kits Beach. Yaletown to the Science Centre has been a great addition this past decade, but now it is rivaled by the new section in front of the Olympic Village on the south side of False Creek. Despite the village’s financing woes, it is already showing it will be the new cool place to hang out. All along the seawall are view points, water access, cafes, restaurants and some lovely public art, like the waterfall with Earle Birney’s poem in Coal Harbour.

Third Beach along Stanley Park has remote charm; Kits Beach rocks. Running is one way to take in the entire length, but I love rollerblading the paved sections (it’s gravel from Granville Island to Kits Beach). Reckless Riders, which has a shop here in Victoria, has a convenient location to rent bikes at Davie Street and Marinaside Crescent in Yaletown. Or take a portion and walk. Until September 13 you can even have a swim in Kitsilano Pool, in my mind the world’s best outdoor pool.

Eat, Drink and Then Eat More I love drinks on the patio or in the 60s retro lounge at the West End’s Sylvia Hotel (like being in a scene from Mad Men); any scallop or fish entrée at Rain City Grill, 1193 Denman Street; and the taco salad at the Topanga Café, victoriaboulevard.com 115

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2904 West 4th Avenue — my crayoned menu from 1983 is still on the wall. Coffee from 49th Parallel, at 2152 West 4th Avenue, is arguably the best in the city. Favourite restaurants include the Italian winner Cin-Cin on Robson Street, Provence Marinaside, where Davie Street meets False Creek in Yaletown, or Kamei Royale for sushi and gomae-ae at the corner of Burrard and Georgia Streets. Other great places for drinks are Bacchus at the Wedgewood Hotel, and the bars at the new Loden Hotel in Coal Harbour or Opus Hotel in Yaletown.

For great cheap eats, try take-out at Urban Fare (three locations) or drive to Richmond for the ethnic food court at the Yaohan Centre, the Asian mall at 3700 No. 3 Road, with Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian food all for under $5.

My current favourite restaurant, however, is Vij’s, 1480 West 11th Avenue at Granville. No reservations are taken but the atmosphere and appetizers in the civilized waiting area are part of the appeal.

Take in the transcendent Two places in Vancouver never fail to lift my spirits or infuse me with calm: the cathedral-like trails in Pacific Spirit Regional Park, in the heart of Point Grey, or the International Buddhist Temple on Steveston Highway. Both places make me catch my breath and make it hard to believe I am in a Canadian city. Take a map for the extensive park trails among the towering trees (maps are available by googling the park name.) And these days don’t walk alone in Pacific Spirit after the recent tragedy there. But those who know and love the park now flock to it more than ever to keep it a safe and essential woodland lifeblood of Vancouver’s soul.

On the way back to the ferry, stop at The International Buddhist Temple, 9160 Steveston Highway, open 9:30 am to 5:30 pm daily. Even if you are not Buddhist, its walkways, water fountains, gardens, buildings and statuary will invoke a feeling of awe and reverence. For me, it always brings true admiration for our largely peaceful Canadian multicultural mosaic that is embodied so well in Vancouver.

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Current favourites are: The Opus Hotel in Yaletown, 350 Davie Street, www.opushotel.com, a boutique hotel in a great location.

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The Loden Hotel, www.lodenvancouver.com, a boutique hotel in Coal Harbour, 1177 Melville Street, Starting at $225/night.

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7/23/09 3:59 PM

TRAVELFAR

Text and Photo By Alisa Gordaneer

SAN FRANCISCO The fog is lifting: look at all the ways to enjoy the City by the Bay in autumn

I had thought that taking my kids for a week in an American city could be an exercise in stressful parenting opportunities, but when I hauled my two “tweenagers” to San Francisco earlier this year, they proved me wrong. Apparently, all kids need to have a good time is a loaf of sourdough bread to munch, a cable car to zip up and down hills like a demented rollercoaster, and a flotilla of barking sea lions lounging on wharves just below their feet.

Now that the kids are back in school, I wish I could go back again, but maybe this time my partner and I would trade the cable car ride for a romantic hike up Telegraph Hill, or an evening picnic watching the sunset from the Presidio park.

With United Airlines flying directly from Victoria to San Francisco, more of us may want to take our various passions — whether for art, food, hiking or shopping — and find our own way to fall in love with the City by the Bay. During autumn in San Fran, average temperatures are similar

to Victoria’s in summer, and the famed fogs aren’t as prevalent.

It may be California-warm in daytime, but sweaters or jackets are essential for evening.

For art lovers

Start in the SoMa (South of Market) district, where in one day you can hit the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the Museum of Craft and Folk Art and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The Museum of Modern Art, a landmark building designed by Mario Botta, houses a vast collection of works from Matisse forward.

Have lunch on the MoMA’s chic rooftop patio or in its elegant dining room.

Dance, theatre and music performances at the Yerba Buena Center lean toward the avant-garde, and change weekly. Check the SF Weekly or San Francisco Bay Guardian for event listings.

Dress up to dine at the Press Club, a wine bar with French bistro fare.

Reserve an entire day for Golden Gate Park, home of the de Young Museum of Contemporary American Art, and the Legion of Honor, where European artworks (not to mention the building) rival what you’ll find in Paris. Everywhere, watch for artist-designed hearts (like our eagles), many of which celebrate San Francisco’s heritage, culture and architecture.

For sporty types

Rent a comfort bike ($28 US/day, $50 for a tandem) from one of the bike rental outlets in the Fisherman’s Wharf area, and create your own tour. Sticking to the waterfront keeps you away from most of the major hills, but there’s no shame in hoofing it up the steeper ones.

Along the waterfront, do some intervals at one of the outdoor public fitness stations, where joggers stop to cross train. Bike or run through the Presidio and around to Golden Gate Park, where you can ride across the bridge to Sausalito (and catch a ferry back to Fisherman’s Wharf), or continue through eucalyptus-scented trails and quiet suburban streets to the Botanical Gardens. Take a break among rare orchids, tropical ferns and special exhibits like a display of San Francisco landmarks built from recycled materials.

Load up on carbs at Q Restaurant, a funky café on Clement Street, where the all-day brunch (try the cornedbeef hash) is local, free-range, and plentiful.

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Prefer cheap for your chic? The historic Haight-Ashbury district is still home to patchouli-scented thrift shops and a self-referential Summer of Love ambiance.

For families

You can do as we did and visit the Pier 39 sea lions at Fisherman’s Wharf, but skip the nearby Aquarium of the Bay in favour of loading the kids onto a rattling cable car over Telegraph Hill to Zeum, a high-tech museum at Yerba Buena Gardens. There, school-aged kids create songs and music videos and act in self-invented television shows.

Curious kids (and adults) will love the Exploratorium, a vast, hands-on science museum in the Presidio area. Learn

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about physics, chemistry and biology while playing games, pressing buttons, and even sliding through experiential exhibits.

Pig out with dinner at the nearby Tipsy Pig, 2231 Chestnut Street, a new and surprisingly kid-friendly local hot spot that serves up barbecue and microbrew. Too crowded?

Stroll along Chestnut to Squat & Gobble Cafe (a local chain) for crepes.

For foodies

Go by neighbourhood and you’ll find everything from fancy to funky: Chinatown is an excellent stroll-and-dine option, and the Fisherman’s Wharf area has, not surprisingly, a vast number of seafood restaurants. (If you drop by the wharf at about three in the morning, you’ll see the boats arrive with the catch of the day: tourists be damned, it’s still a working harbour.) Buy fresh California oranges, strawberries and tomatoes at the Ferry Building Farmers’ Market, every Saturday and Wednesday.

October is the perfect time to celebrate the harvest here, as the month is the Eat Local SF festival. More than 35 restaurants participate with chef demonstrations, special menus and more, all using local ingredients. And in the last week of October, California’s organic wine and beer producers host a tasting festival in the Ferry Building.

Foodies must cross the Bay (about 45 minutes by subway) and splurge at Berkeley’s famed Chez Panisse, 1517 Shattuck Avenue, where Alice Waters started the whole local slow food trend back in the 1970s. If you go without an expense account, have lunch in the upstairs café, which is less pricey than dinner in the downstairs dining room. Never fear, the food is still as jaw-dropping as the bill. Reserve online up to a month in advance.

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Hotels : Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf offers stylish,

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At Hotel des Arts near Union Square, ask for a “painted room” and spend your getaway literally surrounded by art by emerging U.S. artists. Rates $64 to $129/night.

Tickets for Attractions :

A Go San Francisco card offers flat-rate cards valid for one to seven days ($49-$143 for adults, $39-$112 for kids).

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The Happy Harvest Volunteers are about to descend on local vineyards to pick tons of grapes. Is it a job or a party?

Rain or shine, pickers are needed at Dragonfly Hill Vineyard’s harvest. 2008 (top) was a wet one while 2005 (below) was pleasantly warm and sunny.

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Every October, a rustic bonhomie overtakes the southern Island’s many vineyards. That is when 20- to 30-strong armies of volunteers harvest the many tons of Pinot Gris, Ortega, Pinot Noir and other grape varietals that have been slowly ripening in our summer sun. Ranging from helpful neighbours to urbanites seeking a dose of rural romanticism, these pickers pull on their rubber boots, grab a bucket and head for the nearest row of fruit-heavy vines, eager to participate in a centuries-old ritual.

“I started off just relying on friends to help with the picking,” explains Jerry Mussio of Starling Lane Winery. “But you have to rotate so they don’t burn out, and we’ve been using volunteers for about five years now. The trick is to make it a fun day and ensure that they have a good time.” Mussio has clearly worked out a winning formula, because most of his volunteers are repeats, including Karen Morrison, who is heading into her fourth season.

“I’m a gardener and I like the process, but I also think it is important for people to be involved in their own food production,” she notes.

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Down the way in Deep Cove, Chalet Estate Winery’s new owner, Peter Ellmann, is looking forward to his second harvest, which will be released under the winery’s new name of Muse Winery. Susan McIntyre had wandered into the winery last summer to buy a bottle for dinner and spotted the sign-up sheet for harvest volunteers. “My husband and I are wine geeks, and we realized this would be a great opportunity to learn more about the winemaking process,” she says. “We tour Okanagan wine country every “The trick is summer, but this was fantastic fun.

Plus it is a very social environment not to get at the pick, and as recent arrivals from Ucluelet we thought it would distracted and be a good way to meet some of our neighbours.” nick your finger,” “It’s really a form of celebration,” notes Leanne Cadden, an artist and chuckles Dennis business consultant with several Kitchener, who harvests under her belt. “You get such a true sense of community . . . has been picking it feels like you’re in Europe, sharing food, sipping wine, and for nearly meeting all these interesting people.

It’s my favourite event of the year.” a decade.

For Sue Madsen, much of the appeal lies in learning, whether it’s about the different grapes or about winemaking itself. “And I don’t even drink,” laughs this vicarious winemaker, who lives on a two-hectare property behind Elk Lake.

“It was the sun, the earthy aromas, my fingers around these beautiful grapes,” recalls Mary Jean Alger of her first pick, in 2008. Adds this Texan, who moved up from Austin six years ago: “I love wine, it’s unimaginable to have dinner without it, and I felt privileged to participate in such an old tradition.”

The consensus is that the work isn’t particularly hard, but that you have to be reasonably fit to last what is usually a four- to five-hour shift. The equipment itself is simple: a bucket to sit on, another bucket to plop the fruit into, gloves, and a small pair of shears with which to harvest the grape with stem intact. “The trick is not to get distracted and nick your finger,” chuckles Dennis Kitchener, who has been picking for nearly a decade. “The grapes twine around themselves in clusters and you have to be careful what you’re snipping. Band-aids are a regular part of the picker’s kit.” Wasps, attracted by the grapey sugars, are another minor threat. And volunteers also have to be ready to show up with just a day or two of notice, when the winemakers determine that their grapes have achieved the optimum balance of sugar and acid.

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Many local wineries are eager for volunteers. Interested pickers should call up a winery directly (contact information is available at www.wineislands.ca). VB

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As with any farm, once chores are done — bring on the food! The climax of the harvest is the much-loved communal feast. This could be a gourmet lunch at the smaller wineries whose one hectare of vines can be picked in a morning, or a more elaborate dinner at the end of a two- to three-week harvest season for those operations with “It’s no problem larger holdings and several grape finding pickers when varietals that ripen at different times. Traditions vary from winery to winery. Starling Lane the weather’s nice,” Winery’s Sherry Mussio emphasizes an Italian theme but says John Kelly. changes her menu every year.

At Dragonfly Hill Vineyard last “But when it’s October, veteran grape growerturned-winemaker Carol Wallace pouring out - then had professional chef Brock Windsor prepare a sumptuous you know who your meal using strictly local and organic ingredients. Muse Winery friends are.” had four harvest days over two consecutive weekends, hauling in 3,000 kilos of fruit. They served pizza for lunch, holding off on an elaborate evening feast for the pickers until late November when the grape “crush” was finished and the post-harvest chores had slowed down. “We make a point of asking a few musicians to be among the harvest help,” adds the gregarious Ellmann. “That way we get some live music at the dinner.”

A key ingredient at these harvest celebrations is, appropriately, the wine itself. Some wineries also hand out a “memento” bottle to their pickers, either one from last year or a delayed gift several months later, once the current year’s pick has been bottled.

On a warm harvest day the combination of sweetly earthy fragrances wafting through the vineyard, sunlight dancing on the grapes, and an old-fashioned spirit of community can induce euphoria — and that’s before any wine is poured. Urbanites starved for agricultural authenticity are delighted by this beguiling communal experience. Ah, but if October rains slash down, all that romance gets washed away and there is a marked drop-off of interest. “It’s no problem finding pickers when the weather’s nice,” says John Kelly of Glenterra Winery in Cobble Hill. “But when it’s pouring out . . . then you know who your friends are,” he admits with a bark of laughter.

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taking your relationship to the next level? One option is to romance your palate with a so-called directed tasting led by a wine expert. That’s what a group of us did recently as we swirled, sniffed, and slurped our way through five “fireside reds.” Set in a private wine cellar with a cozy tasting area, this carefree event proved to be everything you could hope for in an evening of adult education: informative, lively and very well lubricated.

Our guide was Britta Giese, a sommelier at Sooke Harbour House who also runs her own wine consulting company. “I want you to truly explore wine, to taste and experience it deeply,” she explained once everyone was seated. We started off via Spain with a glass of the 2005 Castillo de Almansa, an attractive everyday wine that was well priced at $12.99. Our noses deep in the glass, we were seeking olfactory input for our brains to interpret. Next came the first sips, and members of our group could taste everything from dried cherries and stewed plums to hints of black pepper.

The aromas and flavours were far from universally agreed upon — a bit of anarchy that pleased Britta, who

By Robert Moyes Photos by gary Mckinstry

Sommelier Britta Giese

wanted us to learn to trust our own palates. She explained that people not only smell and taste things differently, but have unique mental associations that further create differing reactions to the same wine. “If some ‘expert’ tries to tell you that your comments are wrong, I suggest you just walk away,” she said with empowering firmness.

As well as flavours, we were also asked to note the level of acid in the wine, the amount of tannins (the mouthpuckering substance that red wines absorb from grape skins), the alcohol level, and how much “fruit” was present in the glass. Most important, were these elements in harmony? It didn’t end there. Was the wine light, medium, or full-bodied? And did the wine’s flavours persist and evolve after swallowing, or was there a “short finish” indicating it was plonk and not a posh Pomerol?

Our heads were buzzing with questions instead of alcohol as we tackled our second wine, also from Spain.

The 2001 Vina Albali, made entirely from Tempranillo grapes and selling for $21.99, was tasty and light-bodied; its combination of black cherry, cedar, and spice was popular but not compelling. Things got more interesting with the 2005 Reserve Syrah from the Okanagan’s Nichol Vineyards.

The bouquet elicited comments like “earthy,” “Dijon mustard” and “cabbage,” while the flavours were dominated by dried cherry and cocoa. “It’s over-priced,” declared one participant, and Britta agreed that $37.99 was too steep, even though the wine was classy and had cellaring potential.

Well into the tasting, Britta said that a key to enjoying wine involved “place and context.” For example, if you are lucky enough to be touring in Tuscany, a simple table wine

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might seem to sing from the glass because it’s accompanied by olives and artisan foccacia bread in a rose-draped garden; bring that same bottle home with undue reverence and the seductive song you heard in Siena may be just a croak when you uncork the wine in your own backyard. And don’t let the poetry of a wine’s flavour blind you to its physical properties. Tannins, for example, soften and complement animal protein: that’s why a bruising California Cabernet paired with a juicy steak almost always guarantees a satisfying dinner.

Then it was on to wine number four, the 2006 Pertaringa “Understudy” ($26.99), an Australian powerhouse. This was 80 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon topped up with an exotic grape named Petit Verdot, known for its spiciness and rusticity. There were cinnamon, coffee, tobacco, “The more you pay and dried apricot on the nose, attention to the aromas with vivid flavours of blackcurrant and blackberry around you, the easier in that fruit-forward style you expect from Aussie wines. it will be for you to Yummy!

So far, everything had understand and enjoy been poured from the bottle. the wines you drink.”

Attention now shifted to the handsome glass decanter, centerpiece of the narrow wooden table we were seated around. Our group was to analyze this “mystery wine” all on our own. Britta didn’t want any guesses, just pure description, and we stumbled through moderately well.

What we were savouring turned out to be a $70 Gigondas, a prestigious Rhone wine from southeastern France. The 2006 Chateau de Saint Cosme “Valbelle” was a traditional blend of Grenache and Syrah that had classic notes of fennel, thyme and dried sage: this herby character, which the French call garrique, expresses the region’s dusty landscape. Elegantly earthy, harmonious, and with an extremely long finish, this was a sophisticated yet approachable wine and a rewarding end to an evening that had combined notable pleasure with the mental challenges of being “in the moment” as we delved deeply into the mysteries of aroma and taste.

“Be as precise as you can, and smell everything,” Britta suggested as we were leaving. “Your brain will grow with every challenge you give it. The more you pay attention to the aromas around you, the easier it will be for you to understand and enjoy the wines you drink.”

For a tasting, Giese charges from $25-$50 per person, depending on the value of the wines being poured. She also provides all necessary glassware. Those interested in more information can contact her at: www.britta@wineconsulting.com. VB

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EATINGIN

Season of mists, sure, but letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talk sweet corn, crunchy kale and butternut squash soup

By Elizabeth Levinson Photos By vince klassen

That which the poet John Keats called the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” draws us to the Saanich Peninsula’s farm-gate stands to stock our pantries with the season’s offerings. Autumn inundates us with colour, texture and bounty as local growers proffer root vegetables and hearty greens, crunchy apples, hazelnuts and braids of garlic.

At Silver Rill Farm, some 20 varieties of yellow, white, bi-coloured and ornamental kinds of corn grow. Co-owner Wendy Fox says when hunger strikes, she rips open “a husk of our super-sweet pale yellow corn and I eat it straight from the cob.” The corn at Silver Rill is so tender that it doesn’t need cooking, but for those who like it hot, it’s hard to beat a quick boil in water (no longer than two minutes) or a bake on the barbie. One way to barbeque is to remove the silk, soak the corn in its husks for an hour and put it directly in its natural covering on the coals or on the grill.

“It’s an art to organize the plantings — early corn, late corn, corn varieties that can’t be planted next to each other or else the cross-pollination will result in everything coming up Peaches ‘n’ Cream corn,” says Wendy.

At this time of year, the most frequent request is for sweetness, and Silver Rill offers several varieties of supersweet, crunchy corn. It is best for cooking in dishes like chowder because the kernels stay firm. The higher sugar content also ensures longer storage, particularly in the freezer. To freeze the corn, husk it and blanch for less than two minutes, then rapidly cool in ice water and freeze the cobs in freezer bags Dieter Eisenhawer at Eisenhawer’s Organic Farm says he surveys “the bounty of good-looking stuff in my fields, and I realize that my labour has been worthwhile.” Eisenhawer is known for serving up a dish of philosophy about the need for sustainable agriculture along with his produce, and for offering such sayings as: “We should be building health, not hospitals.”

Like me, Eisenhawer encourages people to support our community farmers’ markets. He is a fixture at the Moss Street and Metchosin markets until late October. In the last few days of each market, customers can sign up with him on a first-come, first-served basis for home delivery through the rest of the year.

Although the first local tomatoes start ripening in May, the fruit is still a big deal in the fall at Sun Wing Greenhouses, where owners Jeanette Lee and Tom Law have been growing 14 varieties since 1992. Their beefsteak, cherry, grape, cocktail, Roma, on-the-vine and heirloom

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Succulent Squash . . .

Its sometimes sweet, sometimes nutty flavour and nutritional qualities make squash a perfect addition to any meal. Whether baked, roasted, broiled or sautéed, served as an entrée, side dish or even an appetizer, versatile squash is an excellent culinary choice.

We carry an amazing array of the freshest organic vegetables and fruits, herbs, meats, poultry and seafood — as well as exotic spices, vinegars and oils from around the world.

So if you’re looking for those special and sometimes hard-to-find ingredients, shop at The Market on Yates or The Market on Millstream.

Chances are, it’s the only stop you’ll need to make.

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Mini Yellow squash stuffed with chile red pepper tapenade.

tomatoes have a huge local following because they are grown without pesticides, resulting in fruit that is firm, fragrant and delicious. Law is proud to tell me that their annual crop of 300,000 pounds of tomatoes is “locally grown and locally served” as none of it is shipped off the Island.

Law has some tips for tomato lovers wanting to preserve these last vestiges of autumn: “Store them in a paper bag at room temperature — never in the fridge — and without taking off the stems as they will keep longer. Never store them in the sun as they will keep ripening.”

Sliced tomatoes on toast, says Law, is one of the best ways to enjoy them. And nothing says autumn more to me than slicing up some vine-ripened Sun Wing tomatoes with a glug of good-quality olive oil and a sprinkling of vinegar, rock salt and pepper, served with a steaming bowl of squash soup and a baguette and piece of cheese.

Thanks to that “maturing sun” of autumn and the work of our farmers, what glory there is in the eating!

Here’s an easy recipe from restaurant Devour.

Ginger Butternut Squash Soup 2 tsp canola oil 1 medium onion 2 bulbs garlic minced 4 carrots roughly chopped 2 tbsp ginger grated 250 ml orange juice

CONSTRUCTION

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I litre duck stock (available at Devour) or chicken stock 2 medium butternut squash diced In a stock pot, sauté garlic, onion and ginger in canola oil on medium heat until translucent. Add the carrots and butternut squash, sauté for one to two minutes, until slightly soft, then add juice and enough stock to cover the ingredients. Let simmer until squash and carrots are soft.

Blend. Add salt and pepper to taste. Use any remaining stock or water if you want a thinner consistency. Garnish with sour cream and fresh chives or chervil.

Silver Rill Corn: 7117 Central Saanich Road, Saanichton; 250-652-3854; Open every day 9 am - 6 pm until the end of October.

Eisenhawer Organic Produce: 4266 Happy Valley Road, Metchosin, 250-474-7161. Available at Moss Street Market, Saturdays, 10 am - 2 pm; Metchosin Market, Sundays, 11 am - 2 pm; until the end of October.

Sun Wing Greenhouses: 6070 Oldfield Road, Saanichton, 250-652-5732. Open daily 9 am – 5 pm until the end of October. VB

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D e s i g n , c o n st r u c t i o n , a n d w o o d w o rk i n g t o s u i t yo u r u n i qu e l i v i n g s p a c e

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EATINGOUT

Follow the local fall bounty from farmers’ fields to restaurant tables

Lucy in the Square’s Cowichan Bay chicken liver paté on olive crustini. Jeff Keenliside, owner/chef of Lucy’s in the Square preps fresh organic produce for one of his signature entrées.

By Elizabeth Levinson Photos By vince klassen

In autumn, good crops in the fields mean good food on our plates. When skilled and sensitive chefs cook from our region’s fresh, seasonal produce, the results are often amazing. If you don’t want to cook it yourself, where can you eat this bounty in local restaurants?

You can be a nosey food writer like me and literally follow farmers to restaurant kitchen doors, or take my recommendation that Lucy’s in the Square, Mirjana’s and Devour will serve you the best of the fall harvest sauced with warm hospitality and sincere respect for the ingredients.

Mirjana Vukman is the dynamo behind her namesake restaurant in Chinatown’s Dragon Alley. Procuring a reservation and then squeezing oneself down the alley is half the fun, and the other half is imbibing her sensual, colourful cookery and intelligent banter. When I catch this Macedonian culinary diva between sets at the Abkhazi Gardens, where she is consulting chef, and Mirjana’s, she is plotting her menu for her evening dinner guests.

She tells me she loves all the fall vegetables, “especially those skinny yellow, sweet things from Rosalie.”

(Translation: Delicata squash from Salt Spring Island organic farmer Rosalie Beach.) She always bakes her vegetables whole, such as beets, yams and squash, to encourage the caramelization of their juices.

Vukman makes pasta, gnocchi and dumplings from the squash. The German-style dumplings are a special treat, filled with squash purée and sautéed with bread crumbs and “lots of butter.” She makes other sweet versions of these delectable dumplings with prune plums, crab apples or apricots, often served with flattened local quail or doubleroasted maple duck. At this time of year, raw bitter greens that she has delivered from the Gulf Islands and conjures into gorgeous salads are the perfect accompaniments.

Heirloom apples are also big on Vukman’s menu, along with figs “served with a nice stinky cheese such as white Stilton or ash goat” and “gorgeous champagne grapes.”

A typical resplendent Mirjana dinner is partridge with Thai rice and poached pears with champagne grapes strewn over top.

Jeff and Micki Keenliside’s Lucy’s in the Square in Fernwood has arrived at a time when many of us seek good local food that is simply prepared, fairly priced and served without pretention. As chef, Jeff brings a history of good relationships with farmers and local food producers to the couple’s charming, homey restaurant.

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To him, fall means “chanterelles, late-harvest tomatoes, squash, pears and apples arriving at the kitchen door and great opportunities to buy in bulk and preserve for the rest of the year.” Jeff gets fresh chanterelles from a Cowichan Valley mushroom hunter, using them straight up as well as pickling them for use in his house pâtés and fish dishes.

He is excited about pears from the couple’s own pear tree: “I pruned it back a couple of years ago, and we’ll be taking hundreds of pears from it this year for favourites like straight-up vanilla poached pears, pear marmalade and rosemary-pear butter.” He is a devotee of the lateharvest tomatoes from Sun Wing Greenhouses from which he produces a simple salad (“the best representation of fresh tomatoes”) and also makes a signature tomato marmalade to accompany pork, as well as vinaigrettes and sauces.

From Saanich Organic’s Kabocha squash, Jeff makes soups and desserts. The restaurant’s signature soups (including a fabulous spicy pumpkin with chorizo and crème fraiche), sauces, stocks and preserves are also available from the deli case for takeaway along with baguettes made for Lucy’s by Brad of the short-lived but much-loved B-red bakery and pizzeria on Tillicum Road.

Devour, in the heart of downtown, comes by its name honestly for everything made by chefs Alison Bigg and Jena Stewart is worth devouring. From spiced pumpkin muffins with a mug of Caffé Fantastico coffee in the morning, to soups and stews that warm the heart and tummy on these nippy days, the ladies have drawn their inspiration from the season’s burgeoning vegetable patch.

Bigg is a lifetime traveller who brings Indian, Angolian and South American influences to her famed chutneys and curries. Over the next couple of months, she and Stewart are focussing on the late-tomato harvest for their tomatoginger chutney and for canning, along with pears and apples, to use throughout the year. Says Bigg: “We love making fruit pies!”

They’re pickling green beans for stews and to accompany meat and cheese platters, and stocking up on turnips, winter greens and rutabagas from Saanich Organics as well as cabbages for making sauerkraut.

Mirjana’s: 532 ½ Fisgard Street; Reservations: 1952mv@gmail.com; private prix fixe dinners by reservation only.

Lucy’s in the Square: 1296 Gladstone Avenue, 778-430-5829, Wed/Thu: 11 am – 8 pm, Fri/Sat: 11 am – 9 pm and Sun: 10 am – 2 pm.

Devour: 762 Broughton Street, 250-590-3231, Tue/Wed: 9 am – 5 pm, Thu/Fri: 9 am – 8 pm and Sat: 9 am – 3 pm. VB victoriaboulevard.com 139

How do you prepare for the first day of classes?

I always get my hair cut. I buy a new fall outfit. In midAugust I go over course outlines, add new readings.

I clean up my office, make it warm and welcoming. I get rid of the detritus of the year before. I remind myself why I’m still a teacher. You never know what’s going to walk in through the door. Every year I’m terrified before I open the door. I almost hyperventilate.

Has the use of electronic devices such as cell phones and iPods affected students’ creativity? Are they aware of the world around them?

words like willow, taking out words from the natural world and putting in words from the electronic world. That’s very dangerous.

Have you ever had students unjustly demand better grades?

I have. Many students who go to university have been told all their lives that they’re geniuses by their parents, by their teachers. They’re not quite ready to have their grades fall from an A to a B. I’ve had some say they’ve never got a B.

What trait do you call on most to keep you from getting angry with your husband, writer Patrick Lane?

Patience and a sense of humour.

We used to fight horribly when we first got together. We were like wolves, marking territory.

I didn’t want to be his little poet bimbo. I battled really hard to have my own space.

Lately, we don’t fight much at all. I just don’t understand why most men won’t clean off the breadboard or sweep the floor.

Any rituals before you start writing?

I always have to read someone who I admire greatly. It oils the wheels, gets me going. Then I go for a long walk, at least five miles.

What’s your advice for fledgling poets?

Marry a dentist! It’s not new.

Read, read, read. Pay attention to the world. Stop worrying about being influenced by someone else.

At heart, are you a Prairie girl or a West Coast woman?

Should I say 50-50? Writers always go back to their first place, the first smell, the first visual image. It’s embedded really deep inside of us. I’ve lived on Vancouver Island almost 20 years. I had to learn

I think the students who end up at the department of writing are aware of the world or they wouldn’t want to write.

If they put electronic blinkers on, they wouldn’t be paying proper attention to the world around them. If they put on earphones, they wouldn’t hear the scream of an eagle. I am concerned when I see the dictionary is taking out

lies

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By shannon moneo photo by gary mckinstry

Lorna Crozier Professor of Poetry, University of Victoria

a new nomenclature.

I never had seen a rhododendron or bald eagle.

But I still have one foot on the Prairies. I need to go back at least once a year to smell that dust, see the tumbleweeds.

Your ideal meal?

Patrick’s blackened, barbecued chicken with fresh garden salad (we grow our own lettuce) green beans and rhubarb pie.

Death surfaces often in your poems. Why? FEATURING BIG BUDDHA BAGS

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Because we’re all going to die. Writing poetry makes me happy even if I’m writing about something sad. You never know where you’re going when you start. Many of my friends have died over the last decade. My parents are both dead. We have to be aware of our own mortality in order to live well in the world. What we’ve got is very brief.

You do benefit readings for various organizations, including PEERS, the Prostitutes Empowerment Education and Resource Society.

What’s your position on legalized prostitution?

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Whatever makes their lives safer is the right way to go.

If legalizing prostitution means that terrible pig farmer wouldn’t be able to do what he did . . .

It goes to a deeper problem.

It goes to misogyny, unequal pay.

If you could be any fairy tale character, who would it be and why?

Definitely not Snow White.

Not Cinderella. Maybe Little Red Riding Hood re-created by a feminist writer so she’s a match for the wolf and the wolf doesn’t end up being murdered in the end.

I’ve always loved the colour red. I have five pairs of red shoes. A red hood would be great, wool or cashmere.

When you won the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry in 1992, what were the first words out of your mouth?

Probably “Oh my God.” I was nominated two times before. It’s very disappointing when you don’t win. I’m really glad it happened when my mom was alive.

You’ve read your poems on every continent except Antarctica. Where did you encounter the most appreciative audiences?

South Africa was amazing.

In Chile, during Pinochet’s regime, they were stamping their feet, hooting and shouting. South America and Mexico are really appreciative countries, where politics are more fiery. I’ll be reading in my home town (Swift Current, Sask.) in October.

That’s probably the scariest.

I worry that someone will stand up and say “You got that wrong,” or “Who do you think you are?” VB

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Familiar Faces, Familiar Places

This is

Tony Zarsadias, with Burr Properties Ltd., with his IS 250

As one of Victoria’s top young realtors, Tony Zarsadias has been conditioned to work hard. For over nine years he’s traveled the globe, racing his bicycle in the professional road cycling ranks, from the Canadian team to the top national professional team. Tony has high hopes for his wife, Olympic cyclist Erinne Willock, who is training to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London. Tony graduated with honours from Simon Fraser University with a degree in psychology and for the past five years has been working with Burr Properties as a residential and commercial realtor. “Buying smart and investing well are my objectives for my clients in this business,” says Tony. These goals are reflected perfectly 2009 Lexus IS 250 Very well equipped from $36,545.00 Includes freight and pre-delivery inspection

in his recent purchase of a Lexus IS 250. “Not only do I love the sophistication, sleek lines and handling of the IS 250,” says Tony, “the navigation system and climate control of the vehicle are ideal for my job and my clients, too.” With such determination and tremendous work ethic, Tony has developed a successful career buying and selling real estate.

“After purchasing from Lexus, I can say Lexus is worthy of the same credentials,” says Tony. “Their research and knowledge were thorough and they were also very accommodating making the purchase seamless.” So now, between his bicycle and his new IS 250, we’re bound to find Tony putting out lots of mileage on the streets of Victoria.

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