Tag Archives: Whaletown

The Awakeneers: coming back to Cortes

The Awakeners came home to Cortes in the summer of 2023. They played at Gorge Hall on Friday July 28, and Mansons Hall the following day.

“We are excited that we’ll have a brand new album with us,” said Immanuel McKenty. 

“It was mostly recorded on Cortes Island and the majority of the songs were also written while we were on Cortes. The album will also be for sale at the Cortes Natural Food Co-op, as well as at our concerts,” added his brother Francis McKenty.

This is the beginning of a two part series about that ‘nomadic tribe of multi-instrumentalist songwriters (most of whom are siblings)’ called the Awakeners. We talk a great deal about their album and where most of the songs were written. In part two, which airs next week, we will go to their home in Willow Point, Campbell River. 

Continue reading The Awakeneers: coming back to Cortes

Antique Cars coming to our Area this week

Fifteen antique cars will be in our area this week. They will be checking in at the Discovery Inn, in Campbell River, later today. That will be their base for day trips to Cortes Island, Quadra Island and the Comox Valley.

“There’ll be quite a number of Ford Model Ts, I’m not just sure how many. There’ll be at least two Buicks: mine is a 1912 and a friend of mine is going to be bringing his 1910 Buick. There’s going to be a Russell, which is a Canadian built car, and there’s going to be –  I think it’s  called a ‘Premier’ and it may be a Canadian built car as well,” explained Bruce Beecham, one of the organizers.  

Continue reading Antique Cars coming to our Area this week

The 2023 Creative Spaces Garden & Studio Tour

The ‘Creative Spaces Garden & Studio Tour’ returns on Saturday, July 8. 

“This is a self-guided tour, and once you get your ticket, you can choose what gardens or artist studios you want to visit, in what order, and you can stay as long as you want at each place,” explained Nancy Kendel, a museum board member whose garden will be among those exhibited. 

“We have 17 venues this year, 21 participating artists and gardeners,” added Managing Director/Curator Melanie Boyle.

Continue reading The 2023 Creative Spaces Garden & Studio Tour

The Taxidermist behind Wild Cortes

Laurel Bohart has volunteered her time to mount or prepare the study skins of 100 birds, fish and mammals for the Cortes Island Museum. She is a member of the Board and one of the co-curators of Wild Cortes in the Linnaea Farm Education Centre. Bohart is also a professional taxidermist, whose interest can be traced back to her parent’s missionary years in Nigeria during the mid 1960s.

The first words she used to describe taxidermy were, “It’s fun.”

To which she added, “It’s a form of sculpture when you mount a bird or a mammal. It’s better than a photograph, which is two dimensional. These are three dimensional.”   

Continue reading The Taxidermist behind Wild Cortes

No Sani-dump on Cortes this summer

Cortes Island will not have an RV sani-dump this summer. 

The matter was brought to Cortes Currents attention by former Cortes Museum President Lynne Jordan, who has been living in Duncan for the past four years.  

“The closest RV sani-dump is at the Shell station on the upper highway above Campbell River, two ferries away!  There is no public one on Quadra Island either.  I had planned to visit Cortes this summer for about three weeks to continue doing some more research for the history of Whaletown I am in the process of writing.  With my camper van which has small holding tanks, I will only be staying three or four days at the most,” she wrote.

Continue reading No Sani-dump on Cortes this summer