The Osoyoos Oyster Festival has come and gone but it’s one of many events that this wine country destination hosts throughout the year. The communities of Osoyoos and Oliver have almost 30 wineries and when at least a handful of them get together to host pairing dinners and receptions, you’re always in for a treat.
View from our deck at the Walnut Beach Resort
My aunt (who owns a condo in Osoyoos) and I took in the first few days of the Osoyoos Oyster Festival in April and got a jump on stocking up on BC wines for the year. Here were some of the highlights of the festival for us which took place in the heart of the South Okanagan:
Miradoro Longtable
Thanks to OK Wine Shuttle we were whisked away from our spacious lake-view room at Walnut Beach Resort and over to Miradoro Restaurant at Tinhorn Creek Winery for a longtable dinner.
Oysters were served up on the half shell by Jon and Anne Marie Crofts of Codfathers Seafood, suppliers of sustainable seafood to the Okanagan’s best restaurants. Guests were given the rundown on the source of the oysters and how best to eat them. I have to give Jon and Anne Marie a lot of credit because my aunt, who is best described as a “meat and potatoes” kind of person, tried her first-ever oysters at this event — and enjoyed them, thanks to the duo.
Oysters were the star ingredient in the multi-course, family-style meal that followed at the longtable. Uniquely prepared, either wrapped in speck or cooked up in a simmering paella, the oysters were devoured alongside some beautiful and crisp Tinhorn Creek wines.
Under the Tuscan Sea at Terrafina
Taking the shuttle once more from Walnut Beach Resort we climbed up the hill to Hester Creek Winery to enjoy a night of seafood-themed pizzas and bubbly. Terrafina Restaurant‘s signature wood-fired oven delivered crispy thin crust pizzas with different toppings to each sparkling wine station which each featured a local winery and a unique pizza topping. Sirloin and blue cheese, shrimp and oyster, truffle and potato. We crunched into fire-grilled flavours and sipped effervescent bruts all evening. The Stoneboat Vineyards Piano Brut was our favourite along with the rose from our host that evening, Hester Creek.
Unfortunately we had to return to Vancouver before the weekend’s festivities began so we missed out on the main event — and every winery we visited (which was nine of them in one day) all expressed their sympathies because they knew it was going to be awesome.
The next time you visit Osoyoos and Oliver be sure to pick up a wine passport either from the visitor centre along the highway or at any participating winery. You can collect a stamp from each then drop it off at your last winery, when your card is full, to be entered to win some great prizes.
Coming up next in Osoyoos is the 1st Annual SUP Festival in June and the Okanagan Summer Wine Festival in July on top of special events, activities, and festivals hosted by individual wineries.
As the May Long Weekend arrives it’s time to think ahead and plan out our summer activities, especially what we’ll be doing on the next long weekend, Canada Day. Surrey’s Canada Day celebration returns to the Cloverdale Millenium Amphitheatre for a full day of free family activities and a great Canadian concert line-up on Monday, July 1, 2013..
Surrey Canada Day Activities
From 10:00am to 10:30pm tens of thousands of people will make their way through the venue, some making a home base on the lawn with blankets and others even bringing tents to camp out for the day. Community groups and organizations, as well as sponsors and vendors, setup booths around the grounds and kids will enjoy Storyville Presented by Surrey Public Library, Kids World Presented by the Downtown Surrey BIA, Frontier Tale Blazers, Soccer Zone, The Province’s Hair Dye Booth, and Coast Capital Savings who always draws a crowd with their face-painting and giveaways.
Food options on site include hot dogs, corn on the cob, lemonade, smoothies, fish and chips, barbecue, Triple O’s, Mama Mia’s Indian food, and much more. Shooting Star Amusements will be back as well with the Ferris Wheel, the Zipper, the Spider, bouncy castles, and more. Midway rides are open from 10:00am to 10:15pm, closing before the fireworks show at the end of the night.
The Seniors Strawberry Tea kicks off the morning with Mayor and Council hosting the community event, serving tea and strawberry cake at the Cloverdale Rec Centre. Seniors are invited to enjoy live entertainment, bingo, and more with some great prizes available.
Surrey Canada Day Concerts
80’s rockers Platinum Blonde will close out a day of entertainment along with Sloan, Crystal Shawanda, Dear Rouge and Good for Grapes all on the Chevron Main Stage.
Cole Armour, tribute band Aerosmith Rocks, Surrey Celebration Dance Team, tightrope walkers with Korean National Farmers Band, and Norman Foote, will perform as well. In between Sloan and Platinum Blonde, anthem singer Mark Donnelly will lead everyone in the singing of O! Canada.
Surrey Canada Day is free to attend so all you need to do is plan your day out in Cloverdale (bringing sunscreen or an umbrella, hopefully the former) and partake in all of the fun. Get your face painted or hair (temporarily) dyed, wave some flags, and enjoy the music. Follow @Surrey_Events on Twitter and Facebook for more information leading up to Canada Day.
Miss604.com is proud to once again be the exclusive Social Media Partner of Surrey’s major festivals this year including Party for the Planet, Canada Day, Fusion Festival, and the Tree Lighting Festival.
Paws for Hope Animal Foundation is hosting their first ever rock concert fundraiser at the end of May to raise awareness about animal welfare issues and to have a good time in the process.
Rock for Paws will take place on Friday, May 31, 2013 from 7:30pm at Wise Hall (1882 Adanac Street at Victoria Drive). Live music will be provided by local bands DUOTONE, Eddy Olson Jr. and The Off Sales and Bad Wougar. Tickets are currently on sale online for $15 plus fee) and will be available at the door as well.
“We thought we do something fun and get people out socializing and listening to local talent. This is a great way to connect with community members who may not be directly involved in animal welfare and a great opportunity to share with others, the great work we are doing and what our hopes are for future work”, said Paws for Hope’s Executive Director, Kathy Powelson.
All proceeds will go directly back to Paws for Hope for programs, such as Roxy’s Fund, to support homeless, street involved and low income pet guardians and the Guardian Angel Fund, to support the medical needs of animals in local volunteer run rescue organizations.
Aside from the rocking music for a great cause, those in attendance will also be entered to win raffle prizes. Follow Paws for Hope on Twitter for more organization and event information.
Paws for Hope Animal Foundation is a non-profit society in Vancouver, British Columbia established in 2011 out of the recognition that the majority of existing animal welfare initiatives are set up to respond to the immediate and urgent needs of animals in crisis and that in order to significantly improve animal welfare, a holistic and sustainable approach is required.
On the way back from Harrison Hot Springs Resort earlier this week my friend and I took a quick detour before hopping back on Highway 1. Coming from Agassiz, we turned right at the roundabout on Highway 9 (Agassiz-Rosedale Highway) and stopped into Minter Gardens for lunch at the Envision Garden Cafe.
Prior to heading inside for lunch, we took a quick walk around the gardens — although more time is definitely needed to soak up all of the lush scenery. I had to take out my camera and capture whatever I could of the garden’s beauty:
Visit Minter Gardens daily from 10:00am until 5:00pm in May and from 9:00am to 6:00pm in June, July, and August. They also have a Country Garden Store just down the road. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook for more information. Read more about my last experience at Minter Gardens in 2009.
I am proud to once again be the Social Media Sponsor of the Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards (the Jessies) and as such, I am featuring a local theatre company every Thursday.
The Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards are an annual awards ceremony and party produced by the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award Society to celebrate and promote the outstanding achievements of the Vancouver Professional Theatre Community. The Awards have been presented since 1982, originally by the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance, taken over in 1997 by the newly formed Society. Over 35 statues are awarded each year to outstanding theatre companies and artists.
These profiles contain basic information about each company, as supplied by their team, and a list of their upcoming productions that you can check out in the coming season. Today’s feature company is: Theatre for Living formerly Headlines Theatre:
Maladjusted (2013) Pierre Leichner. Photo by: David Cooper
Theatre for Living (Headlines Theatre)
Date Established: 1981
First Play Produced: Buy,Buy, Vancouver (1981)
Founders: Nettie Wild, John Lazarus, Beth Kaplin, Suzie Pasyne, Anne Hungerford, Norbert Rubesaat and David Diamond.
Artistic Director: David Diamond
Total number of plays/events produced: 500+ Theatre For Living projects, including workshops, trainings, and main stage productions.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to create theatre that functions as both a “true voice” of a community and also an aesthetic space in which community dialogue (not monologue) takes place.
Coming Soon
A BC/Alberta tour of ‘Corporations in our Heads’ for Fall/Winter 2013 which will include 26 events across BC and Alberta and 7 around Vancouver. The project will launch on October 10, investigating how corporate messages have planted themselves in our collective psyche, and how we can use theatre to “evict” these messages.
Anecdote About the Company
Our audiences are very diverse. Something happened during “maladjusted” that often happens at our shows. A “buzz” was on about the play, we played to full houses for the last half of the run. People interested in innovative theatre were coming from the “mainstream”, as were people living in extreme poverty, (some homeless) via our voucher program. This puts people who would never otherwise find themselves in the same physical space together, crammed into an intimate theatre, side by side, experiencing interactive theatre that links their lives together. You can taste the transformational power of this in the theatre when it happens and for us, it happens often.
Follow
It was announced this week that Headlines Theatre has changed their name to Theatre for Living. Stay up to date on the latest from Theatre for Living by following them on Facebook and Twitter.
