Word Vancouver 2023

Sep 16

I hadn’t been to Word Vancouver for several years. This year exhibitors were in the ice rink and readings and panels took place in the adjoining UBC classrooms and on the pavement level above.

Here we see a typically Vancouver spin, with tai chi practice at the edge of the literary exhibitor area.

And on my way to the venue I’d passed an outdoor yoga class in the courtyard of the former Nordstrom’s department store. But my main business at the event was overseeing the volunteers who had kindly offered to sit at the table and answer questions about the Writers Union of Canada, for which I am currently BC/Yukon representative.

We shared a table with Joy Kogawa House; good neighbours to have! And luckily for me, almost all the volunteers arrived on time, and I was able to catch a few of the readings and panels, including one featuring two Victoria writers, Lorna Crozier and Eve Joseph, who with Vancouver writer Tara McGuire were discussing Life After Loss, with Vancouver poet Rob Taylor presiding. At the end of the day, I managed to catch the very end of a panel I’d wanted to hear, featuring Hilary Peach and Kate Braid, with Heidi Greco, discussing their writings about working in trades as women.

Author Esmeralda Cabral works a shift at the TWUC table

4 people at conference table

Life After Loss – Rob Taylor, Lorna Crozier, Eve Joseph, Tara McGuire

womans face between two turned heads

Lorna Crozier speaks on loss

5 women seated beneath canopy

Hilary Peach reads; Heidi Greco, Kate Braid. Vancouver poet laureate Fiona Tinwei Lam listens

 

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One more garden tour

Sep 10

Having planned my backyard reading for the same day as the Gorge Tillicum Urban Farmers summer garden tour (oops) I was pleased to be able to take in the follow on tour, and manage to get to one of the gardens at least.

We have a number of talented gardeners in our neighbourhood, and in this one, Emily had chosen to plant her front yard in fruit, vegetables, herbs and pollinator plants, with a rabbit hutch and chicken coop in back.

 

After the tour we repaired to Gabe & Belle’s for a poke round their garden and a large and splendid potluck supper, which featured many locally grown vegetables, and finished off with a large gluten-free chocolate cake to celebrate Lorrie’s birthday… and some rather luscious fruit pavlovas, cakes and (ahem) some bourbon-spiced peaches that I’d canned earlier in the summer.

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Fun at the Fair

Sep 2

The Saanich Fair has been going since 1868, and is a Labour Day favourite. The weather was perfect, and for me the day began with an exuberant noon performance of the Coastal Cowgirls, who have been riding together since 2014. Just wonderful.

Then on to all the sorts of things we go to an agricultural fair to see. Giant pumpkins, llamas and alpacas, horses, goats, rabbits, chickens, stock dogs, a midway, flower arrangements, decorated vegetables, chainsaw art, home baking, needle arts, photography, a farmers market and food of all kinds strategically scattered around the fairgrounds.

 

 

And of course there was home baking, and there were preserves. I have entered items in both categories for the past few years and was pleased to manage a few more blue ribbons:

Gluten free choc chip cookies

Apple chutney

Gingersnaps

And a couple of red ones too:

GF blueberry muffins

GF almond cake

Apple & plum chutney

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Boulevard Gardens

Aug 23

boulevard garden sign with qr codeVic West is a neighbourhood of the city of Victoria, one of the 13 municipalities that make up the Capital Regional District (CRD), collectively known as Victoria. It’s a working-class residential neighbourhood with a lot of single family homes, with a good selection of boulevard gardens.

The sign posted next to many of them offers a QR code that links to instructions on how to build a bed suitable for growing fruit, vegetables, flowers or hers between the sidewalk and the street. I went on a tour to see what some of the approaches have been.

This is what the sign’s instructions suggest – open wood base and PVC hoops that can be covered with mesh to keep out deer or other garden browsers. This one also has added wooden trellises in  adjoining beds, and filled the spaces between beds with pots.

Down an alleyway we found a boulevard orchard. Neighbours water and maintain the trees and signs are posted to tell people if the fruit is ready to harvest or not (and to remember it’s a community resource).

This creative garden was the work of someone who rents her home; the landlord did not want a garden on the property, so the entire glorious creation runs along the side of the property, fully on the boulevard.

chair surrounded by garden

Even a cosy seat

stacked plastic tubs growing plants

Using vertical space

Lush & pollinator-friendly

fence with planters made from plastic bottles

Creative use of old bleach (?) bottles

And this is the approach in nearby district of Saanich. Composted soil deposited in late summer, just in time for a mast year for Garry Oaks who clearly want to create a forest. What Saanich wants is yet to be revealed, but is likely grass.

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Serenity on the Farm

Aug 18

Serenity Farm had an open garden yesterday, and I’d wanted to see what went on there for a while.

A therapeutic farm, it’s a small (half acre) site that grows flowers, vegetables and herbs, and boasts a small orchard with pears, apples, plums and figs.

The farm was established to provide a working space for people with mental illness, as well as others working off community orders. And it’s attracted a team of volunteers who come a couple of times a week to help out (more always wanted!)

The project has been going for around 10 years and sits in a sunny field on the grounds of the Seven Oaks Tertiary Care Facility, in the Blenkinsop Valley. It’s always cheering to see how much food can be produced in a small space with volunteer effort, and the beans and tomatoes were abundant, as were the flowers and fruit – the plum tree was laden and the small apple tree boasted enormous apples. A crow presided from a nearby branch, presumably keen to judge the scarecrow competition that was underway.

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