On June 6, host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by gardeners extraordinaire Lucretia, Melanie, Jane, and Erica to talk tips and tricks, spring garden techniques, herbalism, and the museum’s upcoming garden tours. Tune in to hear a dynamic discussion about getting your hands in the dirt!
Continue reading Spring Gardening Tips & Cortes Museum HoursOriginally published January 22, 2024. This is the first audio recording of the article below, and may have sufficient additional details to be called the most recent version. The text was originally published in the booklet Squirrel Cove (Cortes Island Museum & Archives Society)
At the beginning of the 1900s, Squirrel Cove on the east side of Cortes Island was a hub of activity for homesteaders, loggers, fishermen, miners and trappers. They came from all the surrounding islands for supplies, groceries, mail, repairs, radios and dances in the hall. There were two stores, a post office, church, hall, two machine shops, a boatworks, a marine ways, and a big dock where the Union Steamships stopped regularly. Jim Spilsbury also stopped frequently to install or repair his radios in boats and homes.
Continue reading Schools of Squirrel CoveAn Interview with John Vaillant, Zoe Grams, and Ian Gill
What exactly is a Climate Readers Retreat? At first, I thought is was a Climate Writers’ Retreat, and even though I’m a neophyte I was intrigued that the writer Hollyhock was featuring was John Vaillant – the author of The Golden Spruce, which I had just read, and Fire Weather, which I hadn’t. I decided I would like to go to this retreat so I hightailed it to the Campbell River library and Fire Weather was on the shelf. It must be a sign! The second sign was that Hollyhock has scholarships that I could apply for. This would make attending more feasible. I pled my case and received a generous scholarship. Then I proceeded to do my homework and read Fire Weather. This non-fiction book full of disturbing information focused on the Fort McMurray fire in 2016 gallops like a wild fire at a towering pace. I had been living in north-west Alberta at the time of the fire and the realities of the oil patch economy were a determining social and economic factor in Grande Prairie on the other side of the province.
Continue reading Reading the Climate: Personal, Political, and Planetary Perspectives
Originally Published February 2, 2020
The grounding of “March Wind” in January 2020 prompted Roy Hales to write a story about boats adrift. I’d like to dig (or dive?) a little deeper under that story and consider some of the factors that have led to the increasing number of derelict and dilapidated boats on the BC Coast.
Continue reading Vessels of Concern: Signs of the TimesBy Howie Roman
Rick Bockner, Immanuel McKenty and I have spent a year and a half working on this. Rick and I spent 18 months looking at over 30 hours of Lip Sync that Immanuel digitalised for us. We selected 16 acts and 7 mc bits for a usb video of Highlights of Lip Sync. It was a constant reminder of how great the shows were and what a special thing they were. We did 23 shows in 11 years It provided an outlet for the island’s performers that is now missing.
Continue reading The Lip Sync Video
