
My name is Shaelynne and I am in my fourth year of running a wild kelp harvesting operation off the coast of Port ...

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, ...

My phone is set to a special sound just for Search and Rescue calls and, while I have learned over the years to be ...
Words by
Tim Fairbank
Photo courtesy of
Daniel Gelson

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 ...

Nestled among the trees on Cortes Island is Hollyhock, gently nurturing the ancient lands of the Klahoose, ...

My draw to the water started at the age of 17. My stepfather owned a tugboat company just outside Victoria, and he ...

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

WORDS BY LOIS TAYLOR, TRACY SINCLAIR, & JUANITA MACLEAN
PHOTOS BY CARLA DUFFEY
Established in 1895 by Mr. ...

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 ...

There is a mystery that surrounds pregnancy and birth—a real sense of wonder. Cross-culturally, the practice of ...

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

We used to live in Cumberland when we were little. It was fun! We would walk to our friends' houses to play. One ...

Ancient DNA (aDNA). The term immediately brings to mind visions of dinosaurs, ancient civilizations, megafauna, ...

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KATHLEEN O’REILLY & FAMILY
My husband, Michael (Mick) Taylor, was an avid traveller, ...

Adam Swift has been bow hunting and fishing on the West Coast since he was a kid growing up in Campbell River. “My ...
Words by
Alison Bell
Opening photo by
Scott Bell

It takes a special kind of person to teach. If you're teaching in the public school system, you're likely signing ...

Twin Islands, tucked against Cortes Island’s southeast shore, has been a haven for a fascinating cast of ...

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 ...

Nature, specifically the ocean, has long been the undercurrent of photographer and sailor John Kelsey’s life. It’s ...
Words by
Camilla Sampson
Photos courtesy of
John Kelsey

Seated in one of my college classrooms, I received an email from Canada Olympic Park—a confirmation that I would ...

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

At its root, tradition is the sharing of stories. Perhaps our oldest tradition is exactly that: storytelling. ...

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 ...

It was April 1912 when Hilda Mary Slayter packed her travel trunk with an elegant trousseau in preparation for her ...
Words by
Claire King
Opening photo by
Alan Hustak

Paige Whitehead was 13 years old when she saw bioluminescence for the first time, during a midnight dip in the ...
Photos courtesy of
NYOKA Design Labs

Did you know that in the heart of Courtenay, a local recording studio—decked out with audio and video gear, and ...

In my opinion, no fruit or vegetable epitomizes all that is sweet and ephemeral about summer better than the ...