The third annual Macaron Day in Vancouver will combine tasty French confections with support for a local cause. Vancouver’s own French Made Baking and Soirette will join worldwide celebration of “Macaron Day” on March 20th as they team up their fundraising efforts to help children-oriented charities BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and Make a Wish Foundation.
Soirette macarons. Photo credit:
どこでもいっしょ on Flickr
Macaron Day was founded in France (le jour du macaron) by Pierre Hermé years ago. It’s a day to celebrate the colours of spring with a bright palette of treats. Macaron Day events will be happening overseas, in New York, and in Toronto. Over the last few years it has become a Vancouver tradition as well.
Macarons (not to be confused with macaroons) are meringue-based confections commonly filled with buttercream or jam with a delicate soft and crunchy outer shell. All you need to do is visit French Made Baking or Soirette to celebrate “Macaron Day” on March 20th where you will be given a macaron and be invited to make a donation to BCCHF and Make A Wish. The suggested donation amount is $2.
French Made Baking is located at 81 Kingsway in Vancouver and they will be open from 10:00am until 6:00pm. They will have macarons for as long as supplies last. Soirette is located at 1433 West Pender in Vancouver and will be open from 10:00am to 7:00pm.
Follow @FrMadeBaking and @SoiretteMacaron on Twitter for updates leading up to Macaron Day/Jour du Macaron.
The Surrey Party for the Planet, one of the largest Earth Day events in BC, welcomes the spring season on Saturday, April 26, 2014 with free family fun, concerts, and more.
Surrey Party for the Planet
Over 20,000 people attended the festival last year and this year the Party for the Planet will be held jointly with the official opening of the City’s new City Hall and City Plaza.
Headlining the event is JUNO Award winner Said The Whale and other performers include Andrew Allen, Dear Rouge, Bobs & Lolo, and cartoon superstar Dora the Explorer.
Green organizations and attractions at this year’s event will include: Sustainability House, a Birds of Prey Demonstration, and the BC Chicken Growers Poultry in Motion Educational Mini Barn.
There is no admission, there are no concert tickets, and all of this entertainment and fun is free for everyone to enjoy. Follow @Surrey_Events on Twitter for more information about this festival and others throughout the year.
Miss604.com is proud to once again be a Party for the Planet Media Partner
Surrey Party for the Planet Lineup
Update! The performance lineup has been announced for the Centre Stage, Children’s Library Stage, Atrium Stage, and the Main Stage.
The Vancouver St Patrick’s Day Parade will take place Sunday, March 16, 2014 at 11:00am in downtown Vancouver. As a part of CelticFest Vancouver, the 10th annual parade will be surrounded by activities and free family fun.
Happy celebrants, parade-goers and participants alike join the fun at the parade. Folks dress up in green, sometimes donning downright outrageous garb, just to watch! Up to 200,000 spectators are expected to attend and cheer on thousands of parade participants: colourfully-costumed revelers, award-winning pipe and drum bands, Celtic musicians, marching Colour Guard, Irish & Scottish dancers, sports groups, car clubs and vintage vehicles, mounted police, roving entertainers, resplendent floats, diverse community and cultural groups, celebrities, and more!
Vancouver St Patrick’s Day Parade Route
The Vancouver St Patrick’s Day Parade begins at Howe and Davie Streets at 11:00am and proceeds north on Howe to Georgia Street, ending at Georgia and Granville.
Vancouver St Patrick’s Day Parade Road Closures
Throughout the weekend, Granville between Robson and Nelson will be closed to vehicle traffic. On Sunday, March 16th, the following additional streets will be closed to vehicle traffic:
8:00am to 2:00pm
Howe Street from Davie to the Granville Bridge; all southbound traffic on Granville Bridge and Granville (except buses) from Davie to West 4th; Drake, one block east and one block west of Howe and Davie.
10:00am to 2:00pm
Howe Street, from Davie to Georgia; Georgia from Hornby Street to Seymour; Granville from Georgia to Pender.
Celtic Village and Street Market
After the parade, the Celtic Village and Street Market is the place to go. Located on Granville between Robson and Nelson — and in Robson Square — the Village features free concerts throughout the day from great Celtic bands at Mahony & Sons Music Stage and the CelticFest Community Stage at Robson Square. There will be community dance groups, the Penny Whistle Party, the Bohdrán Drum Circle among other great performances. The Street Market will have artisan and craft booths and food vendors. The CelticFest Workshops at Tom Lee Music will also be open.
The Celtic Village and Street Market will be open on Saturday, March 15th from 11:00am until 6:00pm and on Sunday, March 16th (Parade Day) from 10:00am to 5:00pm.
CelticFest Program Guides are available at participating Lower Mainland Starbucks. Check out the CelticFest Passport Contest to enter to win a trip to Ireland and follow CelticFest Vancouver on Facebook and Twitter.
The Vancouver International Dance Festival (“VIDF”) is now underway at various locations around the city until March 29th. The VIDF presents an extraordinary roster of dance artists and creators featuring a diverse wealth of free and paid events. The festival includes such international icons as China’s Guangdong Modern Dance Company and Spain’s flamenco innovator Israel Galván, as well as local favourites Dancers Dancing, Kokoro Dance, the 605 Collective, Goh Ballet, and more.
Photo courtesy of VIDF/Felix Vazquez
To share the creative, inspiring, and colourful experience of the Vancouver International Dance Festival with my readers, I have a pair of tickets to give away for La Edad de Oro (The Golden Age) where cutting edge Flamenco Master Israel Galván will make his Vancouver debut.
Bringing both great subtlety and explosive rhythmic movement to his work, the Seville-born artist is renowned for expressions that honour flamenco’s long lineage and history, while smashing stereotypes and preconceptions common to the form.
Hailing from Seville, Spain, Galván has dedicated a lifetime to exploring and sharing the percussive, passionate form that is flamenco, beginning under the tutelage of his parents, dancers José Galvan and Eugenia de los Reyes.
In Vancouver, he partners with cantor David Lagos and guitarist Alfredo Lagos in La Edad de Oro – a poised, kinetic exploration of the form. The work’s title translates to ‘The Golden Age’ and refers to a period beginning in the late 1800s and running until the 1930s. Historians of the form generally hold that this era represented a peak for flamenco, and that – apart from exceptional cases – no artist today could match the quality, purity, and creativity of practitioners from that age.
In La Edad de Oro, Galván approaches this sentiment in two ways: first, as a gauntlet to be picked up. Second, as an invitation to explore these popular conceptions; applying his unique, contemporary aesthetic to the very roots of flamenco and dancing the ‘golden age’ as though it were a new era.
La Edad de Oro will take place March 22nd and 23rd at 8:00pm at the Vancouver Playhouse and tickets are on sale now for $50 to $60. Here’s how you can enter to win your way in:
- Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
- Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 5:00pm on Friday, March 14, 2014. Follow the Vancouver International Dance Festival on Twitter and Facebook for more information about events and shows this month.
Update The winner is Grace!
This post has been contributed by Ben Hill, Communications Volunteer with the Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”). I have been following SPES since I moved into the West End almost a decade ago and I have been a member for two years. I wanted to offer the team an opportunity to share their news, events, and work so I have created “SPES Saturday” and SPES features where they will be contributing stories with my audience once a month.
Setting Up House in Stanley Park
Spring is in the air and we aren’t the only ones to notice the change in the season. The start of spring also marks the start of the nesting season for many thousands of birds in Stanley Park.
One of the Park’s most magnificent birds is also one of the first to begin nest building. Pairs of bald eagles start building or repairing their nests in February and often begin laying eggs by the end of the month. Bald eagle nests are the largest of any bird in North America; nests that have been used for many years can grow to two and a half meters across, and have been known to weigh as much as a VW beetle.
Of course most birds don’t have such large nests to return to each year or even the most suitable habitat. Stanley Park Ecology Society (SPES) has a nest box program to help out some of the birds that return to the Park to breed.
This April, keep your eyes peeled for small wooden boxes perched on poles around Lost Lagoon. These are nest boxes for tree swallows which migrate from Central America to breed in tree cavities in the north. During the summer, they can often be seen hunting insects over Lost Lagoon so it makes sense that the nest boxes are in a place with such a good source of food.
Photo by Photo by Mark T White
SPES Conservation Programs Manager
and a volunteer installing a swallow
nest box on Lost Lagoon.
The nest boxes offer the swallows places to raise chicks that are safe from predators. To make them even more secure, SPES installed spikes on the top of each box. This stops the gulls that also live on Lost Lagoon from standing on top of the boxes and grabbing the emerging chicks.
This year SPES will be installing swallow nest boxes at four new locations on Lost Lagoon. We’ve taken great care to make sure these new locations are ideal for the birds. They are on the north shore of Lost Lagoon, facing south to get maximum light and warmth. The size of the entry hole and the height above the cavity floor are designed to exclude unwanted species such as starlings and house sparrows.
On the same day, SPES is also installing nest boxes for another bird that relies on the wetlands in the Park: the wood duck. This beautiful duck has been known to nest in tree holes around Beaver Lake; a new box will be installed on Beaver Creek, close to the lake where two nest boxes are already established.
Photo by: Photo by Robyn Worcester
Tree swallow on nest box in Lost Lagoon
In an urban park like Stanley Park, the large rotting trees that naturally suit cavity-nesting wood ducks may pose a hazard for park visitors. The nest boxes provide wood duck habitat where suitable natural habitat does not currently survive and are a proven alternative should aging trees be removed for safety reasons.
When we think about Stanley Park, we tend to think of the great trees, but the streams, lakes and other wetland habitats are just as important to the health of the environment and its animals.
Installing nest boxes is part of the HSBC Freshwater Initiatives in Stanley Park project supporting SPES to enhance the Park’s wetlands, lakes, streams and ponds, particularly Beaver Lake, Beaver Creek and Lost Lagoon. Beaver Creek is one of only four remaining salmon streams in the City of Vancouver and therefore holds a great deal of ecological importance. With the help of a host of volunteers, SPES will be restoring the creekside vegetation in these areas and also undertaking habitat and wildlife monitoring. The habitat created by this project will be used for many years by the Park’s wildlife – and its nesting birds.
To learn more about Stanley Park’s birds, join SPES’ monthly “Birds of a Feather” Discovery Walks. Visit the Stanley Park Ecology Society website for more information.
Swallow Facts
Photo by Photo by Mark T White
Wood duck pair on nest box in Beaver Lake
Stanley Park is home to six different species of swallows, barn swallow, tree swallow, violet green swallow, northern rough-winged swallow, bank swallow and cliff swallow.
The most common swallows seen over Lost Lagoon are the barn swallows but they don’t use the nest boxes. They just feed on the insects over the water. Barn swallows once nested on cliffs and in caves throughout North America, but now build their nests almost exclusively on human-made structures.
