
Communities in the Pacific Northwest are essentially human settlements in logging clearcuts. Whack down trees, lay ...

A curtain flutters through broken glass as fiery flakes litter the snow-covered ground. Despite the cold, ...

As the owners of The Lost Faucet Sauna House in Courtenay, we are constantly seeking out more knowledge and ...

In the fall and winter, most people don’t immerse themselves in the Salish Sea, but for geoduck divers, it’s ...

PHOTOS BY GWEN MONNET, SANDI PHYE, & CRAIG SOROCHAN
We respectfully acknowledge that the land we gather on ...

Reflections from an older resident.
I grew up and lived for much of my life in northern ...

Alex Guertin is the newest proprietor of Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery. On a warm evening in July, he tours ...

Reflections from a younger resident.
Nests are everywhere when you spend lots of time ...

Chuck Burdick is a self-taught photographer working in multiple genres including macro, landscape, and abstract ...

As a creative generalist working in an array of art practices, Sarah Clark is less interested in becoming an ...

It was late summer when my husband and I first rolled into Cumberland in our old Ford pickup. The year was 1996 ...

Many witches, including myself, when asked how and why we became witches, will answer that they didn’t become a ...

The year was 1990. On the steep, raw edge of a Mount Washington ski slope, summer wildflowers stood in stark ...

I’m writing these words in the height of summer, when I barely have enough time to juice a cucumber. But it will ...

Darren Howlett is sitting in Locals Restaurant, a place he has a long history with. He’s worked in this dining ...

It is a universal truth, I think, that the further you move through adulthood, the more you’re aware that life is ...

Since 1983, Comox Valley Hospice Society (CVHS) has been working to support the physical, psychological, ...

At Cumberland Chinatown’s peak in the years just after the end of World War I, around 1500 residents bustled down ...
Words by
Erica Keen
Photos courtesy of
The Keen Family

The practice of pressing and drying flowers and herbs dates back centuries and is part of many Indigenous cultures ...

“Fungi make worlds. They also unmake them. There are lots of ways to catch them in the act. When you cook mushroom ...

My husband and I sometimes travelled with our kids when they were tiny. If we ever stayed in a motel, we would ...

I am willing to hazard that you enjoy the results of fermentation in some way, shape, or form. What I'm not going ...

After our vegetable gardens has pumped out all of the food and flavour it can, one very important job remains: ...

Night riding can be eerie, there’s no question about that. Casting shadows as I pedal through the forest ...

Laurie is a “late in life” painter who moved to the Comox Valley after retiring in 2015 from a busy career as a ...

Jim is a fifth-generation Comox Valley resident, born and raised here. His interest in photography began in junior ...

It is usually late May when I embark on the first mountain trip of the season. In this particular year I was ...
Words & photos by
Claire Gordon

Starting in 1888, a vast labyrinth of extraction tunnels was carved beneath the village of Cumberland, the old ...

Eating local is a popular concept in the Comox Valley, with its long growing season and wealth of farms producing ...

When I was a kid growing up in the northern boreal forest, my mother took me and my siblings out foraging for ...

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
– Søren Kierkegaard, 1843
I don’t ...

This past January, I received an email from the organizer of the BC Epic thanking me for my registration.
Which ...
Words & Featured Photo by
Dave Nowak
Gallery Photo by
Gary Egli

Opening up, embracing new ideas, and making time for wonder.
I spent most of my career trying ...

Hi, my name is Dakota Blomgren. I was born in the Comox Valley and I am nine years old. I am a proud member of the ...

Over a century ago, on a Monday in late September, crowds of young and old thronged Vancouver’s sidewalks. Mothers ...

My first home in Cumberland was on Camp Road, in a row of rough cabins that were built in 1888 when the coal mine ...

What an ugly night. It’s dark, pouring rain, and there are still remnants of slushy snow melting in the driveway, ...
Words & photos by
Kyle Hansen

You don’t need to be an oyster farmer or sport fisherman for the daily ebb and flow of the ocean to impact your ...

Decades ago, I was sitting in a cinema seat in Toronto, gripping the armrests as the tension heightened, and ...
Words by
Mac Newton
Illustration by
Ian Adams

When David and Angela Mackenzie open the door to their new home, they will bring with them an unwavering ...
Words & Photos by
Karen McKinnon

As I pull through the gates of Smith Lake Farm, I’m greeted by the sounds of chickens clucking and disc golfers ...
Words by
Sara Kempner
Featured photo by
Meredith Rose

Back in 2013, I started shopping around for healthy nutrition options to supplement my gym goals. I’d never given ...

Do you laugh when you hear the word sasquatch? Do you believe that sasquatches exist? Do you think that a ...

I’ve occasionally yearned to wear a Davy Crockett-inspired coonskin hat. The reason I don’t isn’t that I fear I’d ...

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon as I make my way through Alex Blais’ yard, following the sound of laughter toward an ...
Words & Photos by
Sara Kempner

Our new Cumberland home came with a view of the crisp Beaufort Range mountains, Mount Apps standing tallest above ...

The very first time I dipped my paddle into the Salish Sea, wedged awkwardly in the belly of a dragon boat, I was ...

Does the thought of walking in the forest at night make you feel uneasy? Does it sound strange? And if you were to ...

The ashen moon hung low that brisk October night. Despite the obscuring fog, I could see my breath. The chill cut ...

Curtis was born and raised in the Comox Valley, where he pursues a number of hobbies and seasonal interests, ...

t’s 7:30 a.m. and my 11-year-old daughter skips out to join our 74-year-old neighbour for a sprightly walk around ...

Sharon Lalonde has been creating all her life, using all forms of artistic expression.
The medium she chooses ...

Etched into the fabric of Comox life, the Northeast Woods are considered by many locals, especially newcomers, to ...

For over 5,000 years, the written word has carried knowledge and information to readers, supporting the ...

MY DELIGHTFULLY DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY
AUTHOR: LORAINE HARTLE
GENRE: MEMOIR
A fascinating and engaging story ...

I am age nine and go to Miracle Beach Elementary. I have a younger brother who’s eight named Callum, and we have ...

After the year that was 2020, we’re starting to see light at the end of the tunnel—a return to the way life was ...

Things are changing in the Comox Valley: our population is growing as more people move here in appreciation of the ...

For British Columbians, whether or not we are directly involved in the industry, forest products are us.
When I ...

If you take a moment to reflect upon the immense amount of organization, dedication, and perseverance required to ...
Words by
Kevin Flesher
Featured photo by
Jim Whyte

BECAUSE I AM QUEEN
I wear a crown of many eyes
that sees right through your bullshit lies.
My ...

In 1845, Henry David Thoreau went into the woods of Massachusetts and built a simple cabin beside Walden Pond. For ...

Fighting the urge to crawl back into my warm bed, I force myself to grab my camera bag and head into the chilly ...
Words & photo by
Sara Kempner

It’s better to burn out than to fade away? Not always. New alternatives to cremation allow bodies to return to the ...

Bannock: a simple quick bread made with a few ingredients most people will have on hand. But bannock, for all its ...

Watching John Waters scramble up a rock face is like watching a monkey climb a tree. A moment ago, he stepped off ...
Words by
Ryan Stuart
Featured photo by
Sara Kempner

I’m so glad you’re here. As many readers know, each issue is part of a cycle with four linked themes.
COVID-19 ...

The rising sun cast a pink glow on the cliffs as we prepared for landing on a crisp November morning. Just five ...

When I'm under the water, I feel at home. As soon as my head goes below the surface, an almost instant calm comes ...
Words & Photos by
Ryan Miller

Why travel makes us love home.
The very first thing she told us was that the monkey didn’t like kids. Of course, ...
Words by
Zola Findlay
with help from her sister
Sabine

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Fossil Beach Farm is a-bustle with activity. People are sitting at long picnic ...

One of the many big questions of 2020 is how we adapt and evolve as consumers, locally and globally. Whether we ...

I used to write science fiction (which means I know little about science, but I liked playing with ideas). In one ...

Full disclosure: I am a Traci Skuce fangirl, but because one of the things I love so much about the way she writes ...

When you first look at a Waterman surfboard, you wouldn’t expect it had been crafted by a guy who grew up on the ...

The last in our series imagining how the Comox Valley’s communities could look 20 years from now.
It’s hard ...

The famous French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau once said, “We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are ...

“Now gently let your breath out and slip beneath the surface. I’ll go under first and be ready for you to join ...
Words & photo by
Lisa Graham

One of my twins’ favourite meals is tacos. They are easy to prepare and a great way to incorporate all the colours ...

Early in 2020, our editorial team envisioned the general look and feel of the covers and themes for the year ...

There’s something that connects me to a greater world when I fire up the smoker. I can’t put my finger on it. ...

By all accounts, Johnny Bannerman is a very nice young man. He’s a member of the Cumberland Volunteer Fire ...

Oh my god, this hurts so bad... Why does this hurt so bad?? Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. Uggggggghhhhhh, this burns so ...
Words & Photo by
Sarah Seads

Running a tourism business, especially in an area as remote as Kyuquot Sound, is challenging at the best of ...

“I take a lot of my inspiration from the natural world around me,” says Gordon Hutchens, Denman Island’s ...
Words & Photo by
Trish Weatherall

Richard Mravik was born in 1973 in the city of Nove Zamky, Slovakia. Of Hungarian descent, he was noted from a ...

Glynnis was raised on a hobby farm on Vancouver Island by parents who were "hippies" of the day. Their ...

The fire that forged the earth
holds the space between us
ancient atoms
in our blood and bones
pulled to the ...

“All along the way, where the deep green forest used to stand, lies a waste of mangled trunks and branches, enough ...

The third in our series imagining how the Comox Valley’s communities could look 20 years from now. ...

Earth, air, water, fire. In the extreme, these elemental forces can be either ineffectual or catastrophic. They ...

Burning sage, summer heat, and the vegetal scent of the plants in the traditional Indigenous tea garden of the ...

True story: my first-ever sauna experience included pitchers of gin Caesars and a waterslide—a really steep one. ...

Before the headlines were screaming “Murder Hornets!!!” (officially known as Vespa mandarinia, aka “Baskin bees” ...

From the expansive windows of Courtenay resident Tom Grimmer’s dining room, the Comox Valley is laid out below ...

When I wrote the last Editor’s Letter, things were still reasonably normal in the Comox Valley. But some time ...

Last summer my family and I embarked on an epic journey. 10 months, 10 provinces, 25 US states, 17 Mexican states, ...
Words & Photos by
Alice Grasby

Despite the perpetual spotlight that the world of technology enjoys for “changing the world”, few technical ...

I have lived in Cumberland my whole life. I was born in October, even though I wasn’t supposed to come until ...

Board riding culture and the visual arts have always held a natural alliance, sharing a rejection of norms to ...

I’m a social guy. I love people. I love interacting with kids, adults, animals—most anybody really. If you’ve met ...

Local hunter, fisher, conservationist, and author Ralph Shaw once said, "The role of the successful fisherman and ...

Fall gives way to a darkness, where fairytales operate best. As the days grow shorter and the sun slips behind the ...

Sarah is a Comox Valley-based artist primarily working in oil painting. At the core of her practice is an ...

Viktor came to Canada from Switzerland in 1978, eventually immigrating here. He spent 13 years in Calgary before ...

“Every child, every person, needs to know that they are a source of joy; every child, every person, needs to be ...
Words & photos by
Alex Nataros

[On Judgement Day] …men will cast away their idols of silver and gold—the idols they made to worship—to the moles ...

As concern for our environment spreads, we’re becoming more conscious of the ripple effects of our lifestyle. Fast ...

The idea that the dead remain with us in spirit is ancient. Cultures the world over document the presence of ...

Would you be less frightened of a ghost if you were able to greet it by name?
The Comox Valley contains many ...

It’s a long and lazy Saturday. The kids are sleeping off another busy week of school. Looking out the window, you ...

If you know what to look for, the signs of the Comox District Mountaineering Club (CDMC) are everywhere. A new log ...
Words by
Ryan Stuart
Featured photo by
Ryan Stuart

Our heritage house was built in 1895 with the proceeds of a hip-length gold chain carried over the Chilkoot Pass. ...

Owls are a fascinating subject rife with symbolism, mythology, and contentious conservationism. No Halloween would ...

PETER GEE: CONNECTOR
If you recently arrived in the Comox Valley and found a family doctor with little trouble, ...

My boyfriend, Curtis Blackburn, and I love to be in the mountains. Although we spend most of our time in ...

As I roll over a small bump in the slope, a voice calls out to move out further to the edge of the run on skier’s ...

“I discovered mountain rivers late, for I was a prairie child… All I knew was that it was pure delight to be where ...

Since 2011, Victoria Hospice Society has been organizing the Cycle of Life Tour, in which people from all over ...

Our trip to South Africa was twelve years in the making. In 2006, my mother returned to her native homeland to be ...
Words & Photos by
Andy Phillips

Mt Colonel Foster is among the most impressive peaks on Vancouver Island. Its east face rises over 1000 metres and ...
Words & Photos by
Tyler Bellows

Driving on Comox Road along the Courtenay River estuary and through the K’ómoks Nation’s Number 1 reserve, it’s ...

Corwin Fox is very hard to get a hold of.
If you’ve emailed him recently, you’ve received an automatic reply ...

The dough stretches and resists my hands as I roll it on the floured surface. As I work, the aroma of yeast ...

If there was ever a time to exercise your democratic right to vote, it's now. Across the globe, research has shown ...
Words by
Andrew Findlay
Illustration by
Ian Adams

I enjoy a good local holiday, and one of the best things about living on Vancouver Island is the abundance of ...

Growing up in the Comox Valley I have always been passionate about nature and the outdoors. Camping, hiking, ...

I came across a photo box recently containing pictures of a summer my family spent in a rented cottage at Penn ...

I was sitting in a ceramics class attempting to blow into a hand-built vessel when the spark for glass blowing ...

On a sunny afternoon six years ago while riding my motorcycle home from Campbell River on the Old Island Highway, ...

I am a true introvert, my husband a true extrovert. Which means we spend a lot of time telling each other how ...

Back in the seventies, Glen and Kathy Beaton got married then saved enough money to buy 47 acres in Black Creek. ...

My first impressions of Peru came on a domestic flight between Lima and Cusco. Bleary eyed after 20 hours of ...
Words & Photos by
Sara Kempner

I met Cyril Werlen from cascadianwoodtech almost a year ago in our favourite coffee shop. Unbeknownst to me, this ...

When I was a little girl in the 1960s, we’d play hand games to amuse ourselves: cat’s cradle, shadow puppets, and ...

The sun rises from the east, cresting over the peaks of Salt Spring Island to bring light to the little village of ...
Words & Photos by
Chris Istace

My husband Kyle and I grew up in the Comox Valley, both of us lovingly raised on the family farms started by our ...

I have always loved reading, but fell hard for books when I was eight. We were living in an amateur’s converted ...

The Purple Martins swirl and swoop in the air above my head, their bright chirping punctuating the sound of the ...

By his own admission, James Emslie has a knack for making modern things from other people’s discarded items. His ...

There’s a new sign up at the Harbour Centre building in Comox that maybe doesn’t quite fit with the other ...

Summer lays down to sleep in the cool woods. The crisp fall air wakens. Trails of dark wet earth wind through the ...

The map of British Columbia is festooned with splotches of green, and we've got the granddaddy of them all—2500sq ...

In 1874 in Kirksville, Missouri, Dr. Andrew Taylor Still pioneered a form of manual therapy that emphasized the ...

Over the years, I’ve quietly contemplated whether I have the skills—and the lady balls—to try roller derby. It’s a ...

After returning from an extended period of travel, in our case driving a van to South America for 18 months, one ...

“I had no idea they made planes this small…it’s so cute. What a lovely scenic flight. Oh, look at Quadra and ...

I’m standing at the sink, doing the dishes, washing out the plastic yoghurt pot before tossing it into the ...

As we stood at the bottom of the twenty-one steps leading to the main entrance of the former Royston schoolhouse ...

We have much to celebrate in the Comox Valley.
Aside from spectacular scenery and a host of ways to amuse ...

In these days of shifting consciousness around food production and consumption, it’s encouraging to meet a young ...

Turn waste into earth! Composting completes the life cycle as organic waste becomes humus, and feeds new organic ...
Words & photo by
Joyce McMenamon

Dialect is a small design studio based in the Comox Valley that was created by Alex Dunae and Nik Szymanis in ...
Words & Photos by
Jamie McCue

There are really only two ways to understand what’s going on in the world. Argue about it over good beer (my ...

Roll into Cumberland on Wednesday evenings from late April to early October and you will spot a group of about ...

My first experience hunting was with my dad. Over the years I've made many great hunting buddies, but the biggest ...

Cyclocross, as a type of racing, tends to be limited to a clearly defined race season here on Vancouver Island. ...

Port Alberni is no stranger to overcoming adversity. In 1964, a powerful tsunami flooded homes, flipped over cars, ...

If art is the reflection of community, the Comox Valley Community Arts Council holds the mirror. For almost 50 ...

The stalwart CEO of the Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce has been going to bat for local business people since ...

As a tour guide for the Cumberland Museum, I am drawn to stories of people within our local history—I read family ...

In the past I have waxed poetic about the beauty of wood; how it can be shaped, molded, and finished. But wood is ...

My earliest memory of holding a fly rod was on the Cowichan River, at the age of seven, in April, with a lively ...

The local food movement is often seen as the antithesis of ‘fast food’. These three Comox Valley food providers ...

Hello, my name is Molly McCue and I am 10 years old. I have lived in the Comox Valley my whole life. First we ...

I once practiced yoga regularly. During good stretches, I was attending class two to three days per week, and ...
Words & Photos by
Bevin Clempson

Imagine a library. Books lining the shelves, open ceilings, and the wonderful smell of endless possibilities ...

The slightly dewy grass is freshly cut, filling the air with the sweet smell of familiarity. The painted white ...

I love the way our mysterious and beautiful world works. At a time in my life when I am practicing being evermore ...

Lia Cormick launched Clever Crow about three years ago at the Comox Valley Farmers’ Market selling herbs, spices ...
Words & Photos by
Ross Bodenmann

Four ingredients: water, malt (usually barley), yeast, and hops. Beer. A simple recipe but such a complex ...

Halfway through Joy District's set, the power to their bass, both guitars, and all four microphones cut out. On ...

From a converted classroom on the second floor of NIC’s Discovery Hall, Albert Balbon is changing the way students ...

Why not tea? Growing up on a farm on a Hornby Island farm with summers spent working on a commercial fish boat ...

It’s the last weekend in October, and like so many salmon to their spawning grounds I find myself once again in a ...

Spring rolls around and you find yourself back in the truck, bouncing along on your way to the cut-block. What ...

I moved to Powell River when I was 12. At that time it was just another mill town where the primary goals in life ...

“Colby is a Swiss army knife. He pretty much does it all. James is our IT guy,” explains Jason (‘action’) Jackson. ...

Get on Board is a Comox Valley based registered non-profit organization which uses board sports-surf/skate/snow ...

The cats were intensely focused, only glancing at me before returning their focus to my dog Taz, a large German ...

We all have a virtual playlist running through our minds that gets us from one day to the next. Music can inspire ...

The intrepid leader of the Pantuso Dance Studio is a professional dancer, singer and performer in his own right. ...

There are many reasons to make fun of the French–their philandering presidents, that air of cultural superiority ...

The Comox Valley enjoys a reputation for clean living, and rightly so. With inviting beaches meandering along vast ...

Imagine no commute to work, more time for sleep and leisurely mornings, flexible hours, no boss, more family time, ...

Screen-printing is enjoying a resurgence on a worldwide scale, in part because the industrial/functional side is ...

Walking along the old Wellington Railway trail where alder, hard hack and osier dogwood create a bower of ...
Words by
Dawn Copeman
Featured photos by
Ed Brooks

It doesn’t matter whether you have tried yoga, or not. Whether you’re good at it, or not. Yoga isn’t really about ...

I once met a witch in a cafe in Cairo who told me that I was a lot like the season autumn. She explained, that for ...

Arguably one of the only constants that exist in our world is the reality that nothing is constant. Change itself ...