Originally from Calgary, Allie Jenkinson studied English at the University of Victoria before working as a freelance writer for magazines such as Skier, Snowboard Canada, and Coast Mountain Culture. She currently resides in Cumberland.
Allie was the guest editor for CV Collective: Volume 5, Winter 2015, and was the editor for CV Collective: Volumes 13–20, Winter 2017 through to Fall 2019.
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 noises. As Epp makes her way down the property to unchain the gate, two miniature Australian shepherds at her feet, we agree there’s little chance […]
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 change seem rapid, it actually comes through a slow and steady build-up done by people close to the ground putting in the effort, every day, […]
“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 in canyons, and to sniff air thin, spray cooled, full of pine and spruce smells, and to be so close-seeming to the improbable indigo sky. […]
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 repetitive and never ending return to the well, hauling up voices from the past and releasing them into the ears of the present. What information […]
Vol. 20 Intro by Allie JenkinsonPhoto by Scott Bell
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 the Comox Valley in 1973. Wilde flips through a copy of Caitlin Press’s cult-hit book Gumboot Girls: Adventure, Love & Survival on British Columbia’s North […]
Words by Allie JenkinsonPhotos courtesy of Jane Wilde
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 alive in the coldest months. I grew up in a sprawling city with a river winding through it. We freely and joyously ran alongside it […]
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 gets anxious if he doesn’t socialize or get out of the house enough. I need time to recover from a string of family gatherings and […]
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 time slipping away. The more I fight to hold on to the present, the quicker it passes. I know there is nothing to be afraid […]
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 chose Tofino, it’s with as much passion as anyone is likely to muster. His love for this remote peninsula on the west coast of Vancouver […]
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 cooling rains in the spring, warmth is the defining characteristic of Wood Mountain Lodge: a honey-toned Douglas fir interior, a wood-burning fireplace framed by stonework […]
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 I’ve heard echoed by those of all ages—how the certainties we’d clung to in the uneasy transition from youth into adulthood have settled from polar […]
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, and a lack of community. Nowhere I landed felt like home enough to stay, building further on my expectation for the next place I went. […]
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 catch a glimpse of their black horse, Mouse, across the property. The scenery is mostly sky. Lauzon is warm and instantly talkative, and ushers me […]