CV Collective Fall
I’ve occasionally yearned to wear a Davy Crockett-inspired coonskin hat. The reason I don’t isn’t that I fear I’d end up looking more like some molly-soaked fool who had just washed in on the king tides of a Coachella Festival. It’s because I fear I’d end up dead in some last-stand-at-the-Alamo situation, backed into the […]
Words by Neil BoreckyPhoto by Jenn Dykstra
CV Collective Summer
Deep in the heart of Utah Mormon country, in a place called Temple Square, sits an unusual statue known as the Seagull Monument. It may be one of the few monuments where life imitates art in an endless self-fouling image. It commemorates the “Miracle of the Gulls,” which occurred in 1848. The year before, as […]
Words by Neil BoreckyPhoto by Nick Thornton
CV Collective Spring
Not long after I moved to Cumberland, when it was easier to get lost in the forest, I was riding my dirt bike down a logging road and spotted a huge figure in the distance. At first, I assumed it was a lumberjack who’d escaped from decorating the mahogany down at the Waverley Hotel, but […]
Words by Neil BoreckyPhoto by Jarrett Lindal
CV Collective Winter
Not many people know this about me, but I’ve got a real penchant for fine, stiff Italian boots. This confession may provoke some strange mental images, but rest assured, I’m only talking about skiing. Many of us are seasoned enough to remember when going to the ski hill meant hours of gruelling, cold imprisonment in […]
Words by Neil BoreckyPhotos by Luc Antaya
Strathcona Collective
It’s hard to say when the first beings took an interest in sliding down the slopes around Mount Cain. I’m sure it was the ravens. You can still catch them in the high summits, as we did earlier this spring, walking up a little promontory, flipping onto their backs, and sliding headfirst, only to repeat […]
Words by Neil BoreckyPhotos by Kimberley Kufaas
CV Collective Fall
Before the headlines were screaming “Murder Hornets!!!” (officially known as Vespa mandarinia, aka “Baskin bees” for you Tiger King fans), every tree planter, summer wedding planner, and basically any Canadian who ever set foot outside knew about the wrath of the mighty yellow jacket. I don’t know if anyone else has fond childhood memories of being duct-taped into […]
Words by Neil BoreckyPhoto by Curtis Parker
CV Collective Fall
[On Judgement Day] …men will cast away their idols of silver and gold—the idols they made to worship—to the moles and bats. They will flee to caverns in the rocks and crevices in the cliffs, away from the terror of the LORD… — Isaiah 2:20 Come on, Robin, to the Bat Cave! There’s not a […]
Words by Tim EnnisPhotos by Neil Borecky
CV Collective Fall
Owls are a fascinating subject rife with symbolism, mythology, and contentious conservationism. No Halloween would be complete without an owl swooping into the scene (not to steal the thunder from bats, of course). Owls are historically associated with wisdom, death, and the underworld. At one time, standard Canadiana education required reading Margaret Craven’s I Heard […]
Words by Neil BoreckyPhoto by Alexandra Stephanson
CV Collective Winter
If you live close to a ski hill, the couch surfer is a species you’re intimately familiar with. Much print space has been devoted to the art of couch surfing over the years, but this time I’m the guy with a couch. A good one. I remember being stoked to find it in Too Good […]
Words by Neil BoreckyPhoto by Morgan Callison
CV Collective Winter
“Nature abhors a vacuum.” This is what Jeff Jones, the secretary of Mount Cain’s board, used to say. And then suddenly, purposefully, and without fanfare, he was gone. The seasons at Mount Cain don’t always change in accordance with the calendar. Sometimes they happen through the years. Or through the people. Like a carnival, the tiny ski […]
Words by Neil BoreckyPhotos by Patrick Kitto
