The grapes are off the vines, frost is forming in the fields, and the bounty of the season is being poured into your glass while you enjoy the warmth of a fire and a view of the South Okanagan. Winter in wine country sounds pretty dreamy and it’s an experience you can actually book, sip, and savour at Watermark Beach Resort this month.
Winter in Wine Country
The Winter in Wine Country Festival is happening November 27th to 29th and December 4th to 6th, 2015 in Oliver and Osoyoos. This family friendly festival features fireworks, fine dining, a parade and an exclusive late season tasting opportunity at 30 Oliver Osoyoos Winery Association member wineries.
Pick November or December, or make the trip for both fun-filled weekends. The festival begins Friday, November 27th and Saturday, November 28th with the Oliver Community Light Up & Fireworks with pictures with Santa, entertainment, a bonfire, and fireworks. For the big kids, Hester Creek Estate Winery will host the very popular Rosé Revolution with the participation of 18 local wineries that produce rosé wines along with food stations, live music, and the people’s choice award for Best Rosé.
River Stone’s award-winning 2014 Malbec Rosé
I had the opportunity to sample the defending champs’ rosé at River Stone during the harvest and I have to say it will be tough to beat! However, Christmas is the perfect time for sipping rosé — it’s not just for hot and sunny summer patios as it pairs so well with holiday fare. Book your tickets for this event or browse you local liquor store for some Oliver Osoyoos rosé this season.
The first weekend ends with a Winter Wonderland Brunch at Watermark Beach Resort, starting at 9:00am, where Chef Adair Scott will use the best of the region to produce a farm-to-table prix-fixe breakfast. Watermark will also host a screening of Ventures in Wine Country that night, a series that goes behind the scenes of the wine industry, following three Okanagan winemakers.
The second weekend of the Winter in Wine Country Festival will shift over to Osoyoos with their own Community Light Up & Parade. There will be a charity craft sale, Toys for Tots breakfast, parade, and a festival of tress (which runs until January) up at NK’MIP Resort.
The grand finale, the pièce de résistance, is the open house that will include 30 wineries who will open their tasting room doors as various times throughout both weekends. Winery tours will be offered by Top Cat Tours, starting from $35 per person, including transportation and tasting.
Watermark Beach Resort, located along 1,000 of lakefront in the heart of Downtown Osoyoos, is your perfect home base for the event. John and I stayed there this summer in a lovely suite (with Wi-Fi, full kitchen, 2 bedrooms, and a lake view) and this fall I stayed in one of their beachfront townhomes, which is bigger than my house! It has all the amenities you can think of including perks like a private balcony, pet-friendly rooms, wine fridge, and the proximity to delicious farm-to-table meals in the restaurant. Call 1 (888) 755-3480 for reservation information.
Uncork the Sun in Oliver and Osoyoos at any time of year! Follow the winery association on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.
Just as the city changes throughout the year, sprinkling cherry blossoms around like confetti or blowing yellow leaves down to reach the flow of the rain as it hits the earth, so can a person. Michelle Kim‘s The Tree Inside is a dramatic feature film that will be screening at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival this week and it chronicles the emotional life of one women through every season of the year.
Directed by Michelle Kim and Rob Leickner (“Everything Louder Than Everything Else”, “Lost Lagoon”), and stars Kim; Casey Manderson (“When Life Was Good,” “The Red Rooster”); Diana Bang (“The Interview,” “Bates Motel,” “Lost Lagoon”); and famed Canadian author Michael Turner (“Hard Core Logo,” “The Pornographer’s Poem”).
“I think the truth telling in this film involves ideas of loss and heartbreak.”
The film follows a woman (Kim) who can’t keep a relationship for longer than a few months. When she meets the man of her dreams (Manderson), she needs to fight against her seasonal impulse to change. Kim drew from from her own personal struggles to make the film.
“I made this film for therapeutic reasons…thought I didn’t know it at the time,” says Kim, whom I have actually known for 30 years worth of seasons as we grew up together — and you may recognize her as being a guest author on Miss604.
“I was trying to get over not just one relationship, but a series of failures in my love life and come to terms with relationship endings. Sometimes, I think it would have been a lot cheaper to have just gone to therapy.”
Shot in Vancouver — a city that they say never plays itself — over 12 months, The Tree Inside captures the seasons that ebb and flow with the woman’s changes of heart.
“When you’re making independent film in Vancouver, you basically need a team, which becomes your family. Luckily, over the years, Rob (Leickner) and I have found wonderful friends to work with and so there is always that support.” Kim is no stranger to being in front of the camera, or the driving force behind it, however The Tree Inside is her directorial debut. She credits Vancouver organizations such as Women in Film, as well as equipment houses like William F. White’s for their support of local filmmakers, in particular those who are independent and continue to grow in Vancouver, telling their stories here.
Nominated “Best Feature film” at The Green Film Festival in Seoul, South Korea, The Tree Inside will debut in Vancouver on Friday, November 6th, 2015 at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival. Tickets are available now for the screening at 5:00pm at Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas.
Follow The Tree Inside on Twitter and Facebook for more information.
The very popular Circle Craft Christmas Market returns this month to kick off the holiday season in style with hundreds of gifts, decorations, snacks, and seasonal inspirations.
What: Circle Craft Christmas Market Where: Vancouver Convention Centre West When: November 11th until November 15th, 2015 Tickets: Available online with a $2 discount if purchased before November 11th.
Hundreds of artisans from coast to coast will come together for the 42nd Annual Circle Craft Christmas Market. With artisans, artists, and crafters from all disciplines, including pottery, wood, glass, metal, fibre, fashion, jewellery, and more, there will be much to explore. The market will be open from 10:00am to 9:00pm Wednesday, November 11th to Friday, November 15th; 10:00am to 7:00pm on Saturday, November 14th; and 10:00am to 5:00pm on Sunday, November 15th.
Since 1973, Circle Craft Co-operative has presented a Christmas Market, Originally in the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, “The Cultch”, then moved under the sails at Canada Place, and currently in the Vancouver Convention Centre West location. The success of this inaugural event has resulted in 41 Markets to date, Generations of Vancouverites and visitors have attended, enjoying a Market where they come face to face with fine BC and Canadian artisans and their work: wood-turners, glassblowers, sculptors and potters, clothing and jewellery designers, toy-makers, and many more.
RT to enter to win tickets to @CircleCraft Christmas Market from @Miss604 http://ow.ly/Udjqc
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Friday, November 6, 2014. Follow Circle Craft on Twitter and Facebook to learn more about the co-op, their space on Granville Island and of course the Christmas market.
The longest running blanket drive in the region, the Realtors Care Blanket Drive, returns November 16th to November 23rd, 2015. Since 1994, this campaign has helped more than 250,000 people in need through donations of warm coats, clothing, blankets, and more.
REALTORS Care Blanket Drive
Where to Donate Warm Clothing and Blankets This Season
Real estate offices from Hope to Squamish will accept the Blanket Drive donations. A full list is available online here. There are over 30 locations in Vancouver alone, and many others between Abbotsford and White Rock.
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by Rebecca BollwittDisclosure: Review — This is not a paid post. My experience was compliments of Kootenay Rockies Tourism, Destination BC, and Emerald Lake Lodge. Views are my own. Please review the Policy & Disclosure section for further information.
There’s a time and place for thrilling adventures, and for sitting in front of the fire place all day in a robe, sipping mulled wine. Emerald Lake Lodge, an exceptional year-round accessible resort in one of the world’s most beautiful wilderness settings, offers a home base for both.
I visited the Kootenay Rockies region in September, as the leaves began to change for the season. After a full day of heli-hiking in Revelstoke our group made our way to Yoho National Park, wherein lies the legendary Emerald Lake Lodge, founded at the turn of the last century during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Once accessible only by rail and horse-drawn coach, this lodge has stood the test of time, providing absolute luxury in the middle of a spectacular natural landscape.
Since the lodge is located in a National Park, guests first drive into a main parking lot off-site. There you can stow your vehicle while you walk over to a cabin and pick up a direct line telephone to call the lodge to pick you up. A shuttle arrives and drives you past parked tour buses and over the two lane bridge that connects the National Park to the lodge’s 13 acre peninsula in the heart of the jade-coloured lake.
Coming from our alpine trek, tired and rain-soaked, our group then checked in at the main lodge. Greeted by the warmth of the century-old fireplace, I sunk in for a bear-hug from one of the large leather arm chairs as I checked my email — the lodge being the only building on site that has Wi-Fi.
Accommodations range from lodge rooms, suites, and cabins, with a lodge room being one of four rooms in a single building. There are 85 units in total, situated in 24 chalet-style cabins. I was in a lodge room, with a private balcony and lake view, fireplace ready to light, and big comfy bed that I couldn’t wait to fall into after dinner. The rest of my group found their rooms and went out to the state of the art stainless steel hot tub, catching a rainbow falling across the lake in the process. I stayed in, showered, and lit a fire to warm up and reflect on the day.
When it was time for dinner I walked up to the main lodge, dodging chipmunks and black-billed magpies on the path, and met my colleagues for a drink. Built of hand-hewn timber, the lodge features a massive stone fireplace, sitting rooms, an elegant dining room, quiet reading rooms, games room, and conference facilities. The lounge, where we ordered some bold whiskey-based cocktails, features an oak bar salvaged from an 1890’s-era Yukon saloon.
Dinner featured bison and elk from Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch, owned by the lodge’s parent company and located 30 miles southwest of Calgary, Alberta. Seasonal vegetables, local wines, and great service rounded out our candle-lit meal in the lodge. Surrounded by history, and mountainscapes viewable from grand windows and verandas, the warmth of Emerald Lake Lodge glows on even the cloudiest and coldest of days.
In the morning, after a buffet breakfast at the lodge, I walked down across the bridge and over to the boathouse where there is a trailhead that will lead you around the other side of the lake. While I stopped to take photos, tour buses of travellers visiting the national park came and went, like a tide of people with cameras and selfie sticks that flowed in and out every 15 minutes. I was handed a few cameras to capture this moment for a handful of couples who beamed with excitement about being in such a lovely place, and their happiness was infectious even though I was feeling rather wonderful already.
Our group eventually met up near the boat house, which also houses a great little gift shop, and some took out the bright red canoes that glow like ruby gems on Emerald Lake, while I opted for the hike around the lake.
In the winter, you can snowshoe and cross-country ski both of these routes. The walk features placards and signs with history and information about the area. You will also walk through an avalanche path, carved out each year by inevitable slides that prevent tress from growing and pressing the ground flat as a pancake in one single strip, very visible in the summer months as vegetation attempts to re-grow.
Yellow leaves, sandy stones, luscious green lake water illuminating even the greyest of days as the Rocky Mountains attempt to peer through the clouds, it all made for an amazing autumn stroll with my camera in hand. I can only imagine winter days where everything is covered in pillowy white powder, save for the evergreen tree tops surrounding the lodge. Sharp, harsh slopes of the Rockies peeking out from all around you, not realizing that they have you surrounded as they take turns revealing themselves in the late afternoon sunshine.
Enjoy the great outdoors in spring, summer, and fall in the greatness of Yoho National Park with all of its offerings, or spend your entire day on the pristine waters of Emerald Lake Lodge. In the winter — yes the Rocky Mountains do make for a fantastic winter getaway — Emerald Lake Lodge has packages for your snowy mountain escape including Christmas at Emerald Lake Lodge complete with a visit from Santa and dinner with all of the trimmings.
As mentioned, there is no Wi-Fi in the rooms (just in the lodge) and cell phone reception is spotty. But what it lacks in connectivity, Emerald Lake Lodge makes up for with its ample recreational opportunities and even more ways to relax and enjoy its stunning setting.
