
An enlightening interview from our last issue led me down a rewarding rabbit trail. The conversation was an ...

All of us who love the alpine have our own reasons for getting out there. A hiker I once passed in the Kweishun ...
Words & featured photo by
Eryn Tombu Haigh

My name is Farrah. I am eight years old and right now I am living in Granada, Spain. I started the third ...

Although Cumberland-based Black Cat Skateboards is a relatively new entity, its founder’s love of skateboarding ...

Terry Lewis sits in his home office, staring at a computer screen displaying a GIS map that’s a spider’s web of ...

40 Knots Winery is alive with potential energy. I sit in the glassed-in terrace across from Layne Craig, who owns ...

I remember the sweet satisfaction of pushing peas into the slowly warming spring soil of my first garden “plot,” a ...
Words & Art by
Sally Podmore

“Deputy Minister Department of Mines offers services of H. M. Laing of Comox [to] accompany Expedition … to act as ...

To call Hornby Island “ferry dependent” is not just a figure of speech. If you live on this idyllic Gulf Island, ...

The Comox Valley is known for its abundance of fresh seafood and farm produce. At the right time of year, shoppers ...

In 2017, I attended a Soldier On ski camp at Mount Washington that changed (and maybe even saved) my life.
It ...
Words by
Nick Holyome
Photos courtesy of
Soldier On

We live by stories. By stories we understand the world, and ourselves. Each culture has its cosmology: an ...

As a Canadian living in Hong Kong in the late 1970s, I was regarded as a gweilo, a “white devil.” Even though I ...

The merry month of May is highly anticipated in the Village of Cumberland. Since 1888, Villagers have gathered on ...

Many people might be surprised to learn that one of the most successful astronomy news sites on the Internet is ...
Words by
Ryan Stuart
Featured photo by
Sara Kempner

I first sensed how landscape affects us while studying writing at the University of Saskatchewan. The ...

As we rounded the northern tip of Nootka Island, we were struck with sizable swell, wind, and refracting waves ...
Words & Photos by
Erica Keen

Strolling through Macdonald Wood Park, with its giant trees and verdant flora within town boundaries, is one of ...

The Beaufort Range sits temptingly in our backyard. If you’re a backcountry skier, then you’ve probably gazed at ...
Words & Featured Photo by
Andrew Findlay
Gallery photo by
Chris Istace

Have you ever noticed that the flowers you see in local gardens—maybe even in your own yard—are rarely available ...
Words & photos by
Lydia Jackson

I first heard of silent disco headphones while working in Toronto’s music industry several years ago. When the ...

One of the most iconic locations in the Comox Valley is Goose Spit, a long finger of land that shields Comox ...

In 2021, I decided to travel across British Columbia with my bike and my skis—or, more accurately—with my skis on ...
Words & Photos by
Damien Jannet

“Restoring land without restoring relationship is an empty exercise.”
– Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, ...

Born and raised on British Columbia’s West Coast, Christian grew up with a deep appreciation for nature, thanks to ...

We meet in the shadows and plan our route for the late afternoon, prowling the alleys, neighbourhood by ...

Wi'yugwa̱mala dłuwa̱n, - Baby with me,
Łax̱wa̱lanukwa̱n tłus. - I love you.
Mu'la̱n gax̱a'aḵus. - I’m ...

Eighteen-year-old Morgan, a Comox Valley resident, started taking photos with a smart phone when he was 12 and ...

One of my earliest memories is playing under my grandmother’s quilt frame while she and her friends sewed a quilt ...

I’m 11 years old and I’ve lived in Cumberland my whole life. I LOVE art. It’s one of my favourite things to do. I ...

A lone modular office building with blue vinyl siding rests at the end of a gravel driveway on the edge of Homalco ...

Last year a friend messaged to let me know there was a promotional Walking Dead backpack at one of the thrift ...

Most of us gain confidence when our skin looks and feels good, and this sometimes reflects how we hold ourselves ...

If you stand on Saratoga Beach and look out at the water on a calm day, the Salish Sea appears silent, steady, and ...

JIPSI TREE
It all began when JoAnne McElroy simultaneously left both her teaching and tree-planting ...

When you enter the Gardens on Anderton, you are greeted by a volunteer host who offers a smile, an orientation, a ...

When we invite young people to visit the engineered landfill at the Comox Valley Waste Management Centre, we ask ...

When Kermit the Frog said, “It’s not easy being green,” he wasn’t talking about investing, but he might as well ...

I don’t remember the summit of Mount Colonel Foster.
I know I stood on it with my friends, Chris and Sean. I ...

Not long after I moved to Cumberland, when it was easier to get lost in the forest, I was riding my dirt bike down ...

“Expect mountain bikes, hikers, runners, dogs, children, and elders on these trails.”
—excerpt from the Interim ...

Seaweed is a food resource long celebrated by traditional coastal peoples across the globe, including throughout ...
Words & Photo by
Angela Willard

In a field next to the ruddy red barn of the Black Creek farm owned by Margaret Douglas and Fred Hinz, a group of ...

If you’ve ever spent time with a toddler, you’ll know they ask “Why?” about seven thousand times a day. When my ...

Hornby Island local Jake Berman first encountered onigiri while visiting his sister in Japan in 2006. This ...

THE TIME OF THINGS
A masked woman reaches toward the fabric hanging on the art gallery wall.
“Don’t!” ...
Words by
Glen Sanford
Featured photo by
Kyle Little

I enjoy the practice of traditional karate for many reasons, including what it teaches me about Japanese and ...

Behind every non-profit there’s at least one driven, talented founder willing to make sacrifices to chase their ...

Haida art is internationally recognized as part of the Indigenous artistic tradition of the peoples of the Pacific ...
Words by
Keisha Everson
Featured photo by
Zac Whyte

1. Field’s sawmill
A burial site with ghost bodies
on platforms in trees
retaining walls at the river’s ...

Michael was born in Campbell River and currently resides in Fanny Bay with his partner Anna and cat Sophie Bean. ...

Living on a Gulf Island is a dream come true to Shannon. Slowing down her lifestyle has allowed her the time to ...

Your recent travel plans may have gone down the toilet, but was there ever a better time to start planning another ...

My name is Olivia. I am nine years old and I adore art. It is one of my favourite things to do. All of my family ...

The Comox Valley has long been home to an impressive array of local restaurants that have made highly valuable ...

“We so rarely get second chances,” says whale researcher Jackie Hildering, the co-founder of Port McNeill-based ...

Often in an instant, an acquired head injury can change everything. How do you make sense of so much loss? Where ...

Editor’s note: Rick Zyvitski, now retired, used to fly fighter jets out of Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Comox. We ...
Words by
Rick Zyvitski
Featured photo by
Sara Kerr

There are many ways to spin a wheel. Even within each discipline of cycling—BMX, mountain and road, to name a ...

“Hi, I’m Sam. I’m trans.” I start quite a number of conversations this way, and although it’s an unfortunate ...

There’s money in honey (sometimes), and for several beekeepers in the Comox Valley, keeping bees is a full-time ...

It is no secret that the Comox Valley offers us a unique opportunity to work, play, and revel in the natural ...

Sarah Wilson always loved her veggies, even as a kid. She attributes the craving to growing up in Rivers Inlet, a ...

Welcome to the 25th volume of our ongoing love letter to the Comox Valley.
In 2014, Ross Bodenmann had the ...

My quads burned. I stared up the seemingly endless, brutally steep stairs, then I glanced back down the valley and ...

I’ve always loved eggs. Hard-boiled. Scrambled. Sunny-side up. Anything but poached—well, unless they’re smothered ...

How many times have you thought about how nice it would be to drive less? Maybe you want to reduce your carbon ...
Words & photo by
Dave Prothero

My name is Sam and I am 11 years old. I love to go fishing, play basketball and ride bikes, but my very favourite ...

We got together in the living rooms of cabins, converted barns, half-finished homemade houses. We ate date ...

Jo is a Comox-based artist with a passion for exploring colour, texture, and light. Using primarily acrylics, ...

Nature has always been a key part of Matt’s life. Growing up on Vancouver Island has given him countless mountains ...

Curled against you under the night sky
your touch reminds me
that my flesh is made
from the spark and dust
of ...

A rare beam of sunshine reflects off a long steel blade, catching the eyes of a pair of observers who press their ...

One of nature’s fundamentals is the way matter flows in loops, supporting life as it transforms from one state to ...

I grew up in a house where bookshelves reached the ceilings, with cascading spider plants tucked in among the ...
Words by
Nora Bingham
Cover painting by
Harry Heine

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

Soft whitecaps glisten atop cresting waves, tall green grasses dance in the wind, an eagle swoops low across ...
Words & photo by
Sophie Vigneau

Musical wizardry is something I’ve always admired, and after meeting Comox Valley luthier (guitar maker) Wyatt ...

GALLERY PHOTOS BY COLTON WILS
& TOM LAPLANTE
Throughout history, humans have been fascinated–even ...

As the sun breaks through in a brief respite on a day of steady rain, the 11 acres of the MARS Wildlife Rescue ...

I'm inching along the narrow ridge leading to 5040 Peak, a ski on either side of the crest, mushy spring snow in ...

When my kids were younger, I logged long hours at the Rotary Skypark, going half-dizzy as they performed endless ...

Air. When it’s good, we often don’t notice it. Think of a spring hike through Paradise Meadows: we may be aware of ...

History was made recently at Kumugwe, the K’ómoks Bighouse. On October 16, 2019, a ceremony was held marking the ...

Ah, spring. It’s the time when the light begins to spill over our valley again—a little longer every day—and the ...

No matter where I’ve ended up on this journey, the coast has always called me back and the surf has kept me sane. ...
Words & Photos by
Andrew Talbot

Once upon a time, my grade seven teacher took our class on a road trip from our interior town of Kamloops to the ...

The 2014 annual general meeting of the Comox Valley Road Runners (CVRR) was winding down when something ...

My name is Justin, and I am a very active boy who loves the outdoors. My favourite summer sports are BMX racing ...

Alex Maertz is an illustrator based on the west coast. Born a stone’s throw from the woods, she instinctively ...

Paige Owen is a photographer and graphic designer based in the Comox Valley. She takes inspiration from her ...

We live in an incredible rainforest. Part of the wonder of our local geography is the amazing old-growth trees ...

Take a moment and listen to your breath. Inside it is the cadence of the ocean, the push and pull of an endless ...
Words & featured photo by
Laurissa Cebryk
Gallery photo by
Mélina Lamoreux

The Baynes Sound herring spawn in March is a spectacle, and the largest of its kind. About 38% of all the herring ...

For the past 15 years, I’ve spent summers working as a kayak guide leading multi-day trips, mostly in the waters ...

It was the 1880s and “The Great Salmon Industry” was in its golden years on the British Columbia coast. Entire ...
Words & Photos by
Oriana Smy

His name is Kumugwe (pronounced “koo-moo-gwee”). He lives in a mansion made of precious metals, is revered as a ...

The red embers of cigarettes glow through a thick fog. It’s 6am and workers outside the processing plant at Mac’s ...

The life of a Tibetan Buddhist monk is often assumed to take place in a remote monastery with complete detachment ...

At one time she was probably a sporty trimaran, moored inside Comox Harbour. Then, during a fall wind storm her ...

ERIC RUSH: EXPLORER
To put it mildly, Eric Rush is pretty fond of road biking. A member of Courtenay’s Riverway ...

I’m tied to the dock as a gale grows outside the protection of the bay. Snow is piling up on the sailboat, but ...
Words & Photo by
April Bencze

Under the steady gaze of the Comox Glacier, looking east to the Strait of Georgia, the airfield at Canadian Forces ...

Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest of earth’s continents. Though it’s a region of extremes, it’s much ...
Words & Photos by
Gordon Ross

Every second week, a group of adults varying in age and background meets at the beautiful Abbey Studio, a ...

Eric Greene’s mornings are different from most people’s. The New York city-based 36 year-old wakes before dawn, ...
Words by
Mike B
Photos by
Lucy Laucht

For many, spring means decadent chocolate Easter eggs and sunny daffodils. For others it’s the first taste of our ...

When the days grow short and the nights grow long, the foggy village of Cumberland starts to slow down. But in a ...

Near the end of July 1918, the blackberries were just starting to ripen, a welcome development for the hungry ...

Though the Comox Valley leaves little to be desired for the Island’s mountain biking community, our excitement ...

At 11 years old and growing up in the Comox Valley, I am lucky to be exposed to a lot of culture and experiences. ...

Both of my parents emigrated from Europe to Canada soon after WW2. People of the Netherlands, like other ...

A herd of Roosevelt Elk browses willows in a bog near the Mount Cain turnoff. Nearby, a pack of wolves lie hunched ...

Blissful, haunting, enchanting, and tranquil are just words on this flat piece of paper in black and white. ...

We’re familiar with boom and bust on the west coast, with the effect of a fluctuating economy challenging us all. ...
Words & Photos by
Ross Bodenmann

American sociologist Matthew Desmond said that housing is absolutely essential to human flourishing. These days, ...
Words & Photo by
RJ Herron

High on the verdant slope of Forbidden Plateau rests a craftsman lodge overlooking the Salish Sea. Though the area ...

Long known as “the cultural heart of Courtenay,” the Native Sons Hall is the most historical and iconic building ...

Bowen Technique involves a gentle yet dynamic system of muscle and connective tissue moves, which balance the body ...

A barefoot walk in the soft moss, slowly and with intent, senses heightened, just to witness the scampering of a ...

To some, it’s the Village in the Forest, to others simply “Cumby.”
But to those of us who crave the mud ...
Words by
Ryan Parton
Image supplied by
DODGE CITY

Do I love my mountain bike or dirt bike more?
When I was four years old, I saw a dirt bike in a book and became ...

Open. It brings to mind not one singular definition but a refusal of its opposites. Stubbornness. Inflexibility. A ...

Bryan Walwork got serious about photography when he learned to develop film and print at age 12. In 2002, he ...

Merville Organics is a food grower cooperative made up of several Comox Valley farms including Amara Farm, Ripple ...

Julie Sabey's creative work has, until recently, only been viewed on screens. Her writing and directing career has ...

The principals of rainwater harvesting have remained the same for centuries: collect and contain clean ...
Words by
Mark Miard
Illustration by
Ian Adams

Keep a childlike curiosity in search of life’s miraculous delight.
I celebrated my 85th ...

In the 1980s, I was living in a subdivision in the suburbs just north of Toronto. On any given Saturday afternoon ...

Tucked away in the northwest corner of Vietnam, with China to the north and Laos to the west, is the frontier town ...
Words & Photos by
Lindsay Elms

You know the expression, "Never trust a man with a moustache?" Well the same goes for a wealthy man in a top hat. ...

When I was a Merville-raised teenager turning 19, my father wanted to take me for a beer on my birthday. Becoming ...

Daffodils, snowdrops, pussy willows, and crocuses are popping up madly, desperate to attract the attention of some ...

Do you love walking along the ocean while the tide ebbs and flows? Are you a fan of sunsets pouring spectacular ...

The idea of market farming became a possibility for us after visiting the Comox Valley and falling in love with ...
Words & photos
Sarah Kehler

It doesn’t feel like there are 500 seats inside the fairly boxy, grey, glass building at the corner of 5th Street ...

The kiln has been firing for six hours. Brilliant orange light is emanating from every crack in the brickwork. The ...
Words & Photo by
Jeff Brett

With stunning visuals and captivating words April Bencze is reconnecting humans with the natural world. Her ...
Interview & photo by
Ross Bodenmann

“Man must make himself small and humble to live in [nature] rather than a ruthless giant to conquer it”
– ...
Words & photos by
Tim Ennis

Ever since I can remember, the Comox Valley has been growing and expanding, but it’s only in the last four or five ...

Comox Valley Transition Society started in 1987 with one employee and a small group of volunteers. Today, in its ...

Before the Coal Hills BMX Track in Cumberland opened in 2007, my loving parents shuttled me to Nanaimo several ...

What is that? A question often posed by onlookers as Comox Valley Canoe Racing Club (CVCRC) members cart a 44ft, ...

We’re spoiled for choice when it comes to high-quality food and beverage producers in the Comox Valley. ...

The first time I ate an heirloom tomato I had my doubts. I was never a tomato lover.
I’d seen too many sandwiches ...

When I moved to the Comox Valley as a new-ish parent, thinking about things like good schools felt far off. Since ...

I hold my breath, feeling a trickle of cold that distracts me for a second; there must be a hole in my suit from ...

From the coasts of the Indian Ocean to our north Pacific paradise, Ceylon Cuisine brings the warmth of their ...

“As a family physician, death is a part of my every day at work. As a father, it was the furthest thing from my ...

This story has the feel of a fairy tale. For some it’s been just that, a tale of unrealized dreams. Until now. ...

An endless coastline, mild climate, and constant ocean breeze are all part of life on Vancouver Island. Most ...
Words & Photos by
Sarah Seads

As my floatplane touches down in Sechelt Inlet on the Sunshine Coast, a feeling of calm comes over me and I am ...

Being outside is one of the most important parts of my life; it’s the only way my body works. I’d crack if I ...

I love my job.
Not only do I spend five mornings a week with preschoolers, I get to do it in the beautiful ...

The process and eventual outcome of furniture craft provides a necessary staple around which some of the most ...

“It’s getting too damn warm in the Salish Sea,” explains aquatic ecologist Bill Heath. He goes on to tell me about ...
Words by
Tim Ennis
Opening photo by
Grant Callegari

A light rain is trying to fall, but it’s more of a mist in the air that clings to eyelashes and hangs, tremulous ...

While the idea of collecting fresh eggs at home sounds idyllic, don’t think you can wing it. Like most things ...
Words & Photos by
Rebekah Kenway

Since it was first discovered, fire has been heating our caves, huts and homes. But wood-burning heat has not been ...

Memories line a wall of Gord Schreiner’s humble office; the decorated history of one man’s relationship with his ...

When the dismissal bell rings at Cumberland Community School, the day is far from over. Students gather for ...

I was a child of the ‘80s and ‘90s. If you were too, your childhood was probably filled with cartoons, sugary ...

In my happy place, I’m away from the world and all its noise. I’m free from unnecessary thought and distraction. ...

Not so long ago, before real estate prices in Vancouver entered the realm of the absurd, the band Bob’s Yer Uncle, ...

One of the things I love about living in Comox is being able to ride my bike to the marina to go sailing.
Like ...

There's a simple metric for the health of a river—can fish live in it?
The Tsolum River meanders lazily through ...

Floating lazily in the glassy, calm waters of Shearwater Passage, our boat tied off to the mooring buoy, we get ...
Words & Photos by
Eiko Jones

One of my crewmembers refers to spot prawn fishing as sea gambling, and in many ways it’s true. Our industry is ...

In our work to protect and conserve forests around Cumberland, arguments are presented about water quality, ...

1. CHOOSING YOUR SEEDS
A blend of Mesclun mix, oriental greens, or lettuce mix for raised beds or container ...
Words & Photos by
Rowan Helliwell

The streets and alleys of downtown Courtenay look considerably different in the first week of June. It could be ...

Healing Bliss Botanicals inspires people to nurture their bodies and restore themselves and the planet through the ...

“I used to race Lasers when I was a kid” is what I wrote on the new member release form. A half-truth. It should ...

After two ferry rides and a quick jaunt across Denman Island, you arrive on Hornby Island, the gem of the Gulf ...

On a summer afternoon with life jacket-less tubers bobbing by, teenagers jumping off cliffs and dogs fetching ...

It’s go time. I know the big day has arrived when I see canoes in the parking lot of Mount Washington Ski Resort. ...
Words by
Sarah Seads
Illustration by
Ian Adams

For the past 90 years Royston’s rusty monuments to Vancouver Island’s nautical history rests on the Comox Harbour ...

North Americans love their cars. No matter how hard we try to avoid it and might hate to admit it, the automobile ...

With a spirit of excellence and determination Darcy Lange has overcome serious illness and found legendary status ...
Interview & photos by
Ross Bodenmann

What do you get when unruly people meet unruly bees? If Dave and Andrea Brimacombe, the creative geniuses behind ...

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
– John Muir
Silent Season is a music label ...

Most of you don’t know much about us. You like to talk like you do, gazing at each other over the plate. There’s ...

It was a hot day in May. My first spring as a resident of the Comox Valley and it felt as though summer was ...