Comox Valley Collective 2023 Fall
Darren Howlett is sitting in Locals Restaurant, a place he has a long history with. He’s worked in this dining room off and on since it was called The Old […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhotos by Jenn Dykstra

WINE FROM THE SOIL UP
Comox Valley Collective 2023 Spring
40 Knots Winery is alive with potential energy. I sit in the glassed-in terrace across from Layne Craig, who owns the vineyard with his wife, Brenda Hetman-Craig. Together they head […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhotos courtesy of 40 Knots Winery

THE SURROUNDING BLUE
Comox Valley Collective 2019 Intro Spring
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Words by Allie JenkinsonPhoto by Paige Owen

KNIT LIKE A NORWEGIAN
2021 Comox Valley Collective Winter
I pull up to Kelsey Epp’s Merville farm, and, before my feet hit the ground, the silence of the long, verdant rural road has erupted into a cacophony of animal […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhotos by Joslyn Kilborn

RAISING WOMEN
Comox Valley Collective 2020 Winter
Famed feminist leader Gloria Steinem is quoted as saying: “Revolutions that last don’t happen from the top down. They happen from the ground up.” While tipping points in society make […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhoto by Wendy Morin

WHERE YOUR HEART IS
Comox Valley Collective 2019 Fall Intro
“I discovered mountain rivers late, for I was a prairie child… All I knew was that it was pure delight to be where the land lifted in peaks and plunged […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhoto by Sara Kempner

BREAKING THE SURFACE
Comox Valley Collective 2019 Intro Summer
Storytelling originates underground. It’s the job of a writer to drag little known stories to the surface. Journalists bring covered up or willfully ignored information to the light. It’s a […]
Vol. 20 Intro by Allie JenkinsonPhoto by Scott Bell

LONG MAY YOU RUN
Comox Valley Collective 2018 Winter
Jane Wilde and Monika Terfloth are waiting for me at a patio on 5th Street. Not far from here, Terfloth once stocked shelves at a discount store upon arrival to […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhotos courtesy of Jane Wilde

A PLACE UPSTREAM
Comox Valley Collective 2018 Intro Winter
The rivers of the Comox Valley are made in the winter. All season long, drop by drop, the rain falls and they swell and boom around us. They are most […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhoto by Ross Bodenmann

SHUT IT DOWN
Comox Valley Collective 2018 Fall Intro
I am a true introvert, my husband a true extrovert. Which means we spend a lot of time telling each other how weird we think the other one is. He […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhoto by Jenn Dykstra

FLOATING ON
Comox Valley Collective 2018 Intro Summer
I don’t think I truly understood the word “bittersweet” before I became a mother. When I watch my son play with toys, whispering to himself on the floor, I feel […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhoto by Kyle Hansen

THE STAY-AT-HOME DEFENCEMAN
Comox Valley Collective 2017 Winter
In the small coastal towns of BC, long-time locals are often suspicious of newcomers. Yet when former professional hockey player and two-time Stanley Cup Champion Willie Mitchell explains why he […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhotos by Jeremy Koreski

A WILDERNESS RETREAT, REIMAGINED
Comox Valley Collective 2018 Spring
High on the verdant slope of Forbidden Plateau rests a craftsman lodge overlooking the Salish Sea. Though the area is at the mercy of deep snow in the winter and […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhotos by Jenn Dykstra

LETTING IN THE LIGHT
Comox Valley Collective 2018 Intro Spring
Open. It brings to mind not one singular definition but a refusal of its opposites. Stubbornness. Inflexibility. A non-starter or a dead end. There’s one surreal aspect of getting older […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhoto by Kareen Sanderson

THE FIRST SNOWFALL
Comox Valley Collective 2017 Intro Winter
In my 20s I was thrilled by the promise of a blank slate. I moved often, believing each new location was rich with the potential to solve anxiety, stalled creativity, […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhoto by Scott Bell

CASTING LIGHT
Comox Valley Collective 2017 Summer What
The setting of The Fanny Bay Candle Company is pastoral. Donalda Lauzon and her husband Randy greet me while attempting to wrangle their wildly friendly 7 month-old puppy, Belle. I […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhotos by Jenn Dykstra

LAKE OF DRAGONS
Comox Valley Collective 2015 Winter
Though Comox Lake is a short drive from Cumberland’s west end, past the Chinese town site and a quaint collection of waterside cabins, it’s arguably best witnessed when stumbled upon […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhotos by Jenn Dykstra

THE FIRE INSIDE
Comox Valley Collective 2015 Intro Winter
Our associations with the notion of inspiration are more fiction than fact, made evident by the familiar image of depressed and disheveled artist waiting for the lightning to strike. This […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhoto by Jenn Dykstra

WRECKIN’ SHOP
Comox Valley Collective 2015 Spring Where
For the past 90 years Royston’s rusty monuments to Vancouver Island’s nautical history rests on the Comox Harbour seabed. Welcome to the Royston Ship Wrecks. On most days, taking a […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhoto by Jenn Dykstra