The following has been contributed by Steffani Cameron, who is in the middle of a 5-year worldwide adventure that she is chronicling at FullNomad.com.
Old Vines Restaurant at Quail’s Gate Winery
Quail’s Gate Winery is one of the Okanagan’s early upstarts, and now it’s a grand old dame. On the scene for 61 years, they have been delivering solid wines for three decades.
Quail’s Gate’s Old Vines Restaurant is also a long-standing, high-delivering player in the BC wines foodie scene. In fact, in 2016, more than 275,000 verified patrons through Open Table ranked Old Vines as one of Canada’s Top 100 restaurants – a well-earned achievement.
Here’s something you might not know: Many restaurants operating under the guise of being a “winery restaurant” in BC are business arrangements between independent restauranteurs and winery brass, with the latter providing the former with space and a marketing hook. This isn’t a bad thing – it results in some spectacular unions in places like Terrafina at Hester Creek and Vanilla Pod at Poplar Grove.
But there’s something to be said for the relationship that blooms under steady in-house management and that interconnectivity between the kitchen and what grows on the land.
That’s what you get when dining with Quail’s Gate’s Old Vines Restaurant, where they’ve had the same chef for over a decade, and where the family that owns Quail’s Gate, the Stewarts, pride themselves on their culinary output playing partner to their wines.
I’ve known about that love of this region’s land that’s embraced at Quail’s Gate since I first dined there in 2009. Until this year, I’ve only had their cheese plate, because the view is stunning and the wine is lovely, and because cheese! It’s become a special place for my aunt and me.
So, naturally, when I learned I would be writing about Okanagan cheeses for a cheese magazine, I contacted Old Vines. They invited my aunt and me for a lovely lunch, so I was quite excited to experience my beloved Old Vines with their guiding hand. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
Visit the Copper & Fire Arts at Britannia Mine Museum this weekend for a community arts event that will showcase unique metal and earthen crafts mined from Mother Earth.
Copper & Fire Arts at Britannia Mine Museum
Where: On the Sea to Sky Highway, 45 minutes north of Vancouver
When: Sunday, September 17, 2017 10:00am to 3:00pm
Admission: Admission for the Copper & Fire Arts event is at half price, which includes event demonstrations, a variety of hands-on activities and music from Carolyn Grass and Friends. The underground train tour is available at regular admission prices.
Copper & Fire Arts features BC artists such as metal workers using copper and bronze, ceramic artists using a number of different mediums, and jewelers, including:
Byron Anderson, Gibsons, Wire Tree Artist: Inspired by a deep love of trees, this self-taught artist began developing his signature style over 24 years ago, and much of his work is designed around the tree featured in his Scottish family crest – the Rowan Oak. Using his creativity, Byron uses his own hands and manual tools to manipulate wire into unique bonsai-like wire art trees.
Sarah Groves, Vancouver, Metalsmith/Jeweller: Her original designs are forged (hammered), fabricated or cast using the lost-wax process and often incorporate a variety of textures and references to natural objects. These designs showcase natural materials like copper, silver, gold, pearls and natural gemstones.
Madisen Hilligoss, Squamish, Natural Pigment Watercolour Artist: – An artist who uses natural materials to explore how we communicate about the environment through art. Her eco-friendly approach, creating watercolour paints from crushed rock and other materials, is a unique way of connecting art and the environment. Madisen will be demonstrating how she creates paint with natural pigments during the Copper & Fire event.
Ania Kyte, Mission, Glass Lampwork Bead Artist: At TurtleBead Studios, Ania uses a torch flame to melt and create beautiful jewelry, glass beads and her signature glass turtle. In addition to her own artwork, Ania is also a passionate teacher, providing hands-on instruction to students interested in the art of glass beadmaking.
Angela Muellers, Squamish, Copper Plate Portraits: Specializing in capturing the character and spirit of the individuals who pose for her portraits, her work has been seen at shows across Canada. At the Copper & Fire Arts Event, Angela will be showcasing portraits painted on copper plates.
Tatiana Shilova, Squamish, Macrame Jewelry: Tatiana celebrates the unique beauty of rare stones from around the world by adorning them with beautiful macramé designs. Every one of her pieces is unique, one of a kind and made patiently, one knot at a time.
Valeri and Valentina Sokolovski, Sculptors: Internationally acclaimed artists who have exhibited sculptures and paintings in more than a dozen countries in the last five decades. Their black granite monument dedicated to the miners can be found on-site at the Britannia Mine Museum.
Jim Unger, Abbotsford, Copper Artist: Metal artist and former cabinet maker, Jim Unger operates Clayburn Copperworks and his metal works are made by hand and hammer, occasionally employing modern tools to create unique pieces.
Win a Membership
To celebrate this event at Brittania Mine, I have a Family Flex Membership to give away (2 adults, 3 kids) that’s good for unlimited visit for a year! Here’s how you can enter to win:
- Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
- Click below to post an entry on Twitter
[clickToTweet tweet=”RT to enter to win a @BritanniaMine family membership http://ow.ly/vxbH30f4ex6″ quote=” Click to enter via Twitter” theme=”style6″]
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Thursday, September 14, 2017. Prize package can be picked up by the winner at the museum.
The Britannia Mine Museum provides unique and memorable experiences that engage visitors of all ages. Visitors can enjoy fun exhibits and crowd favourites like the underground mine train, the historic 20-storey concentrator mill and gold panning, and learn about Britannia’s history as one of the largest copper mines in the British Commonwealth in the 1930s.
Follow the Britannia Mine Museum on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more information.
Update: The winner is Mike Gismondi!
Browse and visit with hundreds of talented, unique, creative, and fascinating artists during the 8th annual Sunshine Coast Art Crawl happening October 20-22, 2017! Artists and artisans will be hosting special workshops, sales, demos, and more during this weekend-long festival at more than 140 venues.
Sunshine Coast Art Crawl 2017
Where: Lower Sunshine Coast, from Langdale to Earls Cove.
When: October 20-22, 2017
Admission: FREE! Artists may have activities in which you can participate for a fee. Otherwise simply bring your cash and cards to shop some of their amazing and unique pieces.
Read the full story about my adventure via FestivalSeekers »
Read the full Sunshine Coast Art Crawl festival guide »
I visited two talented artists this summer who will both be participating in the Sunshine Coast Art Crawl. The first was Chris Motloch at Molten Spirit Glass Studio in Roberts Creek and the second was Tim Kline at Coast Chimes in Gibsons. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
This post has been contributed by Kathleen Stormont, SPES Communications Specialist with the Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”).
Over 33,000 people on Facebook have viewed it. A select few have held it. Many have reported on it. Here’s some accurate information about Stanley Park’s bizarre discovery this past August…
The Lost Lagoon bryozoan, Pectinatella magnifica. Photo by Michael Schmidt/SPES.
Stanley Park Ecology Society—along with support from Canadian Wildlife Federation—hosted a massive, 24-hour, science-based Bio Blitz in Stanley Park in August. During the blitz, teams of experts and citizen scientists explored and inventoried different ecosystems and habitats throughout the Park. All of their findings are recorded and uploaded using iNaturalist. The coolest species found, and definitely the slimiest, is the bryozoan: Pectinatella magnifica. This species had never before been recorded within Stanley Park.
So, what exactly is this blob of goo? It is an animal – a colony of animals to be exact. Maria Egerton, SPES Conservation Programs Manager explains, “They live in colonies made of thousands of genetically identical individuals.” The individuals, or zooids, are microscopic cylindrical creatures with a mouth, digestive tract, muscles, and nerve centers.
A bryozoan zooid. 2=mouth, 7=stomach, 6=anus (Image by B kimmel – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org)
The original member reproduces asexually, through budding, to create an entire colony of clones. As a colony forms, they produce a protein which creates the slimy gelatinous structure that the individual zooids attach to and live on. This gelatinous mass can reach over 50 cm in diameter. Colony members cooperate with each other and work together to perform different functions—much like organs of other animals. Bryozoans are filter feeders; they extend a loop of hair-like tentacles into the water and sift out plankton and organic material.
New colonies will establish from a free-swimming, microscopic larval stage or by growth of dormant spore-like “statoblasts.” (ref: Dept. of Ecology, State of Washington) These “spores” can be inadvertently transported by ducks flying between water bodies, or by wind pushing them about a lake.
Statoblasts float free from a bryozoan. (Photo by Lamiot (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
Most bryozoan species are found in the ocean (some species secrete delicate coralline crusts on our local kelps), but P.magnifica is one of 20 freshwater species found across North America in ponds, lakes and streams.
Facebook readers report seeing them in Mission, Okanagan Lake, Duck Lake near Kelowna, Kanaka Creek, Harrison River and elsewhere in BC. Locally, Park Rangers report seeing bryozoan masses growing in Trout Lake. They are encountered more commonly in central and eastern Canada where one reader noted them in Orillia, Ontario.
The bryozoan colony rests in its watery home
in Lost Lagoon. Photo by Michael Schmidt/SPES.
Excitement about our “brain blobs” has spread: you might have heard about the Lost Lagoon colonies in a variety of news sources including National Geographic, Newsweek, Smithsonian.com and even Breitbart News.
The British and Australian media are intrigued! If you want to see the creatures yourself, come on over to Lost Lagoon and peer into the water at the edge of the lake’s man-made biofiltration pond along the northeastern edge of the lake. You may see blobs ranging in size from a peach to a football. But, please, leave them in the pond as handling them could damage their delicate tissues. You will have to visit soon, though, as the bryozoan colony disintegrates when colder weather and cooler water temperatures set in. The colony’s statoblasts will over-winter in the lake and germinate in the spring to grow into more new colonies. We’ll be watching for them!
In ancient Roman times, they honoured the deity Saturn with a celebration called Saturnalia and Vancouver’s H.R. MacMillan Space Centre is celebrating the end of the incredible 20 year Cassini mission to Saturn by hosting another one of their adults-only Cosmic Nights!
Cosmic Nights: Saturnalia at the Space Centre
Where: H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (1100 Chestnut St, Vancouver)
When: Thursday, September 21, 2017 at 6:30pm to 10:00pm
Tickets: Purchase your tickets for the planetarium shows here »
Starting at 6:30pm, guests can enjoy drinks, music, games, and demonstrations in the planetarium. Starting at 7:30pm and 9:00pm there will be a planetarium show: Journey to Saturn.
Twenty years ago the Cassini spacecraft left Earth on its journey to the ringed planet. In this live planetarium show, they’ll take you on Cassini’s journey to Saturn, and all of the stops it made along the way, including the extensive moon system where we found Enceladus and Titan. Over the course of those twenty years, Cassini has made some incredible discoveries which they’ll showcase in this beautiful planetarium journey.
To round out the night, Dr. Aaron Boley will give a lecture on Saturn at 8:00pm. Follow the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre on Facebook and Twitter for more updates on #cosmicnights.
This event is 19+. Photo ID will be required upon entry. Please enjoy responsibly.
