YAM Magazine Mar/Apr 2026

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Your Local Experts

Contents

Cold, Repeat

Backyard saunas are hot right now. Here’s what to know before taking the plunge.

By David Lennam

Soooo Awkward

Not just wastes of space, your home’s odd little nooks, crannies and corners can make a major style statement. By

YAM Staff

The Nakasendo Way

Follow in the footsteps of the shogun along Japan’s historic 500-kilometre trek.

By Lucas Aykroyd

The Musical Isle

The country’s coolest music scene might be just a short ferry ride away on Salt Spring Island. Plan your summer accordingly.

By Susan Lundy

Taking Care

Feeling isolated? Out of place? Lonely? You’re not the only one — and it’s why social well-being matters more than ever.

By Susan Hollis

10

EDITOR’S LETTER

From spa bathrooms to comfy sofas, home is where the well-being is.

13

HERE + NOW

A welcoming entryway; the surprisingly modern appeal of granny chic décor; three ways to tap into fashion’s vintage vibe; a sneak peek at what to expect at Design Victoria; the coolest new hue for countertop appliances; going daffy for daffs. Plus: The YAM contest.

18

IN PERSON

The owners of this Brentwood Bay café are offering good coffee and better conversation.

By David Lennam

20

LIFE AT HOME

A smart Shawnigan Lake reno proves that yes, sometimes less can be more — and beautiful, too.

By Carla Sorrell

44

STYLE WATCH

This spring, it’s all about easygoing menswear that goes everywhere you do. Styled by Anya Ellis and Janine Metcalfe

65 FOOD + DRINK

Pass the Pecorino! We unpack everything we learned in Rome about the Eternal City’s four iconic pastas. Plus: The return of The Bengal, spring’s craveable radishes, new places to dine, events to attend and everything you need to know for storing your wine.

80

SCENE

As artistic director of Meridiem Wind Orchestra, Scott MacInnes brings polish (and plenty of percussion) to modern classics. Plus: Culture Calendar. By David

Lennam

82 PERSPECTIVE

Look closer. No, even closer. This nest is hiding in plain sight.

By Joanne Sasvari

THE COMFORT OF HOME

Working on YAM’s Home Issue is always a lot of fun — I mean, who doesn’t love making their space more beautiful and more functional? I for one can happily spend hours browsing through wallpaper patterns, hunting for the perfect accent chair or debating English versus French cottagecore.

But lately I’ve also been thinking about the deeper meaning of home, and what our homes mean to us. They’re not just where we keep our stuff, nor are they simply an investment or a status symbol. They’re where we raise our families and gather our friends and live our most authentic lives. They are also something even more meaningful, and you can see it in the way home décor is evolving.

Back during pandemic lockdowns, when we were all spending far too much time within our own four walls, we began seeing our homes differently. We started adding more colour, more character, more texture. We retreated from the open-plan designs of the earlier 2000s and created pockets of privacy. We added houseplants and found other ways to bring nature indoors. We turned empty nooks into places for yoga or meditation. We transformed our bathrooms into spas and, in our backyards, we installed saunas, outdoor showers, hot tubs, cold plunges and sheds for home gyms.

In other words, we’ve been turning our homes into places of wellness, both emotional and physical.

It started with the spa bathroom trend. I really love the idea of having a serene space to begin and end the day with the cleansing rituals that wash away our cares. From spa bathrooms, we saw the rise of biophiliac design, the swing to warm, calming, earthy colours and the emergence of cozy trends ranging from hygge to granny chic.

All of these trends are really about comfort. Physical comfort, sure, with all those plush furnishings, gentle curves and layers of soft, nubbly fabric. But also emotional comfort, knowing that you have a place where you are safe, secure and loved.

We may consider “comfort” something familiar and a little bit lazy — a snug bed, a warm fireplace, gently worn pajamas, a book you’ve read a thousand times before — but I’m starting to think that it’s in that comfort that our greatest strengths reside. And we find that strength at home, the place where we escape the myriad stresses of an increasingly uncertain world and, even more importantly, build the resilience we need to face them each day.

So go ahead, buy that pretty accent chair and put up that gorgeous wallpaper. Hang a eucalyptus branch in your shower and consider building a sauna in your backyard. It will make your place look nice and may even increase its value. But mostly these comforts of home are an investment in your own well-being, and can’t we all use a little more of that?

Joanne Sasvari, Editor-in-Chief editor@yammagazine.com

PUBLISHERS

Lise Gyorkos

Georgina Camilleri

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joanne Sasvari

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Jeffrey Bosdet

LEAD GRAPHIC DESIGNER Janice Hildybrant

ASSOCIATE GRAPHIC DESIGNER Kelly Hamilton

ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS Deana Brown

Jennifer Dean Van Tol Cynthia Hanischuk Brenda Knapik Ieva Sakalauskaite

ADVERTISING CO-ORDINATOR Rebecca Juetten

MARKETING & EVENTS

CO-ORDINATOR Lauren Ingle

FASHION EDITOR Janine Metcalfe

COPY EDITOR Lionel Wild

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Lucas Aykroyd, Susan Hollis, Julien Johnston-Brew, David Lennam, Susan Lundy, Carla Sorrell

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Julien Johnston-Brew

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Dasha Armstrong, Lucas Aykroyd Andy Doyle-Linden, Stasia Garraway, Joshua Lawrence

CONTRIBUTING AGENCIES Dreamstime p. 82; Getty Images p. 17, 30, 33, 36, 43, 51, 54, 62, 69, 71; Living4Media p. 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43; StockFood p. 68, 71, 72, 73; Stocksy p. 41, 65; Unsplash p. 40

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ON THE COVER Make the most of a large wall with a varied collection of artwork. (“Soooo Awkward,” p. 38)

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Welcome Home

In a house designed for gatherings, the door is always open.

When the team at Jenny Martin Design was tasked with updating this historic Oak Bay home, they made every aspect of it about encouraging social connection. Timeless design. Easy flow between spaces. Warm, seaside colour palettes. A kitchen where everyone wants to hang. Most of all, this gorgeous front door that says welcome, come on in. Tall and arched, with dramatic black trim and glass panels, it opens into a hallway where scale, symmetry and silhouette are in perfect harmony, and creates a perfect frame for an eyecatching piece of art. Why, hello there.

Granny Knew Best

The hottest trend in home décor combines nostalgia with contemporary design to create a look uniquely your own.

They call it “grandma chic” or “grandmillennial style,” an eclectic and completely individualistic décor trend with elements of shabby chic and maximalism. Think: colour, texture, ornament, pattern, curved lines and layered fabrics. That said, this is not a cluttered, messy or chaotic look, but one that is thoughtfully curated and intentional, meant to last and designed to evolve as you do. Here are five ways to bring granny chic into your own home.

IN: Colourful Wallpaper

OUT: Bare White Walls

Thanks to peel-and-stick wallpaper, it’s never been easier to add a beautiful dimension of colour, texture and pattern to any room. Florals, plaids, toile, William Morris designs and Art Deco patterns are all having a moment.

IN: Plates on Walls

OUT: ‘Live Laugh Love’ Signs

The wall plate was not on our 2026 bingo card, yet here we are, with fine china replacing photos and posters all over the place. Use plates of varying and/ or complementary colours, sizes and patterns to create compelling designs.

IN: Vintage Styles

OUT: Fast Furniture

Disposable furniture doesn’t make sense economically or sustainably. If you don’t inherit a well-made tufted sofa or midcentury dining table, look for older pieces at garage sales or vintage stores, or newer ones that mimic their style and quality.

IN: Personal Accessories

OUT: Mass-produced Clutter

Add a personalized note to any room with handcrafted, vintage, antique or otherwise unique décor items that have personal meaning for you, whether that’s a beautiful vase or piece of folk art, floral cushions, plaid throws or chinoiserie ginger jars.

IN: Drapery with Drama

OUT: Flimsy, Slatted Blinds

Consider long, lush drapery that puddles on the floor, charming café curtains or panels in softly textured linen. Make it modern by layering your drapes over a roman or super-trendy chik blind crafted from bamboo or jute.

2 3 4 5

VINTAGE VIBES

Want to look, like, totally rad? Then add these trendy-all-over-again retro accessories to your spring wardrobe.

Jazz Shoes

Tired of ballet flats and not into the sneaker trend? Then you might just love the return of jazz shoes, last seen circa 1985, paired with stirrup pants, leg warmers and a scrunchie. Luxe versions of the flat, flexible, lightweight lace-up shoe were all over recent collections from Celine, Jil Sander, Tibi and Miu Miu, but you can find the classic at stores that cater to dancers. They’re ideal paired with spring’s roomy silhouettes — and, of course, if you’re gonna cut footloose. larroude.com

Pretty Pins

Add a bit of sparkle to your ensemble with a brooch — even better if it’s a vintage pin from Canada’s own Gustave Sherman. Based in Montreal, he made gorgeous costume jewelry from 1947 to 1981, famous for using an “aurora borealis” coating that gave rhinestones a distinctive iridescent shimmer. You can find signed and unsigned Sherman brooches in local vintage and antique stores, or online at Etsy and other resellers.

Kangol Cap

Victoria by Design

Annual festival celebrates the city’s creative culture.

Get jiggy with the lid all the sickest hip-hop stars flipped for in the 1980s and ’90s. Yep, the iconic Kangol flat cap is back in style, fun and funky for both men and women. Go ahead, channel your inner LL Cool J, or just make it the sassy finishing touch to whatever spring look you choose. Available at Roberta’s Hats. robertashats.com

Want an idea of what Victoria will look like in the coming years? Then be sure to check out the fourth annual Design Victoria festival, April 30 to May 3, which features dozens of events that explore how good design shapes our lives — and our community.

“I feel like we’ve got these things happening that are really exciting and show how design will be shaping the city in the future,” says Carla Sorrell, the festival’s director and cofounder. For instance, attendees will be among the first to see what’s happening at 780 Blanshard Street, an old Art Deco building that is being transformed by OMB Architects into Victoria’s first true art hotel. “It will be quite a cool addition to Victoria’s hotel offerings,” Sorrell says.

You can also check out plans by Reliance Properties for the Art, Industry and Innovation district that just got approved by the city, as well as other projects by some of the city’s most forward-looking creative professionals, through open studios, walking tours, exhibitions, talks, workshops and more.

As in previous years, the festival’s hub will be in the Rotunda at 1515 Douglas Street, where you can stop in at the daily Indigenous coffee morning, book an Ask the Expert time slot to get your burning design questions answered and learn more about what is now one of spring’s mustattend events.

As Sorrell says, “I had no idea Design Victoria would become such a fixture on the calendar here.”

designvictoria.ca

The Design Victoria festival will offer glimpses into ambitious projects like the new art hotel planned for 780 Blanshard (above) or the new Arts, Industry and Innovation District planned for the former Capital Iron lands downtown (below).

MINTY FRESH

Is it time to add a soothing new hue to your kitchen?

If you’ve been feeling that your kitchen could be just a smidge more calming, refreshing and uplifting, perhaps what it needs is a stylish new countertop appliance in serene pastel green.

A Modern Mixer

The KitchenAid Artisan Series five-quart tilt-head stand mixer is a culinary workhorse and countertop classic. In brand-new spearmint — KitchenAid’s 2026 Colour of the Year — it fits seamlessly into traditional, contemporary and mid-century modern spaces. This cheerful colour is so pretty you definitely won’t want to park it in an appliance garage. bestbuy.ca, kitchenaid.ca

A Retro Toaster

The chic Italian brand Smeg is known for highend modern appliances that evoke the optimistic vibe of the mid-20th century, and this pastel green 1950s-style toaster is no exception. Compact enough to fit anywhere, but with a big visual punch, it features several different toasting levels and functions to ensure the perfect slice every time. smeg.ca

A Brilliant Bubble-maker

Add carbonation to your beverages and a bit of fizz to your countertops with the sleek new Sodastream ART in groovy green. Even better, the new Quick Connect technology makes it a snap to insert the CO2 cylinder. Hydration has never been so delightful. sodastream.ca

the Wild Side

One lucky winner will enjoy an escape to Ucluelet’s spectacular Black Rock Oceanfront Resort, located right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

This prize includes a one-night stay in an Oceanview Suite, $150 dining credit at Currents Restaurant or The Patio, the resort’s new enclosed and heated frontrow space with endless ocean views, as well as access to hot tub, cold plunge and late checkout (based on availability). This giveaway has an approximate value of $750 (gratuities not included). Note that accommodation is based on availability; blackout dates and additional exclusions may apply.

To enter, visit yammagaizine.com or scan the QR code. Contest ends April 26. Good luck!

Embrace the Daffodil

It’s your best defence against spring’s hungry critters.

William Wordsworth’s heart may have with pleasure filled when he danced among the daffodils, but for many of us in Victoria, daffs are just a reminder that we can’t have tulips.

Blame the hungry, hungry deer, so ravenous at this time of year. To them our tulips, crocuses, daylilies, pansies, impatiens, petunias and roses are little more than an especially delectable salad bar.

And so, daffodils. Also known as narcissus or jonquil, daffs contain toxic alkaloids that taste bitter and cause gastrointestinal upset. Every part of the daffodil is a deterrent to deer: the bulb, the foliage, the flower. Rabbits and squirrels don’t like them much either.

They’re not the only bulbs deer despise; the ungulates are not fond of snowdrops, irises, hyacinths or alliums, either.

So if you naively planted tulip bulbs last fall with visions of the gaudy pink and purple flowers to come, then woke one March morning to a garden massacre, plan accordingly for next year and plant a host of golden daffodils instead.

The Empourium’s Imperative

For these owners, it’s all about building community, one cuppa joe at a time.

By David Lennam | Photo by Jeffrey Bosdet

“It’s not really that we’re offering an essential service in terms of what comes out of a carafe, but what you don’t get is the connection. Even if you’re not with people, sometimes just being around other people can feel good.”

— Proprietor Alice Bacon

Joining co-owners John Carswell and Alice Bacon for a mug and a tasty breakfast sandwich in the Brentwood Bay Village Empourium is tutelage in community building by observation.

The Empourium (a.k.a. the BBVE) is not your average café.

It’s a miscellany of coffee shop, bakery, restaurant, caterer, expertly curated gift emporium, art gallery, even a place to have a beer or glass of wine and listen to surprisingly high-end musicians in ticketed Friday night concerts.

It was always destined to be something that offered more than java and a warm seat. The proprietors, longtime Brentwood Bay residents Carswell and Bacon, envisioned opening something akin to a town square, that community gathering place the Greeks once called the agora. You could imagine Plato drinking wine and offering philosophies here.

The first thing Carswell says to me is this:

“Ten years ago when we started this place the idea of community building was a philosophy and that has, in the time that’s passed, become an imperative. It is why we’re here. It’s the sole reason why we’re still here. It’s that important to us.”

COMMUNITY NOW

Carswell speaks gently, with measured words, but that doesn’t conceal the sense of priority with which he punctuates his language.

“This is why I say it’s imperative now because I think there’s a window of opportunity, which is coming to a close where, if we don’t, as a society, as a community, recognize the need for these kinds of places, we’re going to lose them. And once we’ve lost them, they’re not going to come back,” he says. “They’re going to be gone and we are going to be really so much the poorer. We’ll have lost the network of community and will have to build it from scratch.”

Then he almost catches himself for a breath.

“It feels to me like I’m turning into a bit of an evangelist,” he says, “because it used to be something that I used to be happy to talk about, but now there’s an urgency to it that I didn’t feel even five years ago.”

Studies show our loss of connection. There’s societal division, polarization, the isolation of social media. We’re entering an epoch that some researchers are labelling the disconnection epidemic. We chat on screens rather than face to face, there’s a marked rise in takeout rather than dine-in, young men are abandoning traditional relationships for digital “girlfriends” and the escalation of AI looks to make it all a lonelier place.

“Yes, of course,” adds Bacon, “there is the potential for a loneliness epidemic, but I also see people are pushing back against that in lots of different ways.”

She and Carswell push back by offering a protected space for human contact.

Bacon brings up the concept of intimate strangers, that somebody you see all the time, but never really connect with. At the BBVE, she and Carswell see to it that theirs is “a safe place where you can actually say, ‘Hey, you’re always here on Wednesdays, what’s your name?’ ”

“It’s really easy,” she says, “in a community forum like Facebook to go off on somebody because, say, they cut you off in traffic, but if you actually know that person you’re way less likely to indulge in that kind of bad behaviour.”

MAKING CONNECTIONS

One of the early innovations the couple introduced is the Talking Table — simply a table with a sign that suggested this was seating if you wanted to engage in conversation.

“You know that if there’s somebody sitting there you can sit down and chat with them and you’re not imposing,” explains Carswell, noting the idea sprang from observing customers who came in on their own. Did they want to talk or did they just like to be in the presence of others?

We talk of the COVID shutdown, we talk of the fine margins of running a business like this, the rising costs, staffing concerns, that online reviews liken the BBVE to that place where the characters from Friends hung out or the camaraderie of the barstool in Cheers

Carswell figures that post-COVID, their restaurant became a social enterprise, here for the greater good of community, the welfare of 16 employees and generous contributions to community groups. “Our passion for this place is not anything out of the ordinary,” he says.

“You can make coffee at home, right?” notes Bacon. “It’s not really that we’re offering an essential service in terms of what comes out of a carafe, but what you don’t get is the connection. Even if you’re not with people, sometimes just being around other people can feel good.”

When they opened the BBVE in 2015, Carswell and Bacon, as kind and gentle a pair as you’ll find, were already deeply entrenched in careers that brought people together and celebrated a society that wanted to participate in being just that — Carswell in community television and Bacon putting together public events like the Olympic Torch Relay and Luminara. Bringing that spirit to their own venue was the natural choice.

Before they leapt into the venture, they did their homework, sometimes standing on a corner asking passersby what Brentwood Bay needed. What they heard over and over again: somewhere good to shop, somewhere good for coffee and somewhere to connect with the community.

“We had an idea of what we wanted to do and we’re now doing it, but we didn’t want to be foolish enough to just assume what we wanted is what everyone wanted,” says Bacon.

Turns out, everybody wants what everybody needs — each other. As Carswell says, “We don’t sell coffee, we sell hospitality.”

A thoughtfully designed Shawnigan Lake rebuild proves that you can pack a whole lot of living into a not-so-big space.

By Carla Sorrell | Photos by Dasha Armstrong

SMALL BUT SMART

Dinah and Chris had long dreamed of redoing their small but beloved Shawnigan Lake home — something modest, efficient and built to last. When the time finally came, Dinah pulled out a local newspaper clipping she’d saved years earlier. It featured the home of builder Jackson Leidenfrost, owner of Hygge Design, and what stayed with her wasn’t just the modern esthetic — it was his philosophy of building “small but smart,” using thoughtful, cost-effective materials.

Before

The homeowners loved their small, old

When Dinah discovered that Leidenfrost lived in the neighbourhood, the decision felt obvious. One meeting was all it took. It was such a good fit, in fact, that the couple and Leidenfrost still meet regularly for coffee or a visit.

Although Leidenfrost had designed his own home, Dinah and Chris knew they wanted to bring an architect onto the project as well. “I worked on another, bigger commercial project with an architect, but our house project in Calgary made us realize that an architect makes the build sing,” says Dinah.

A FOREVER HOME

The original house — a former loggers’ cabin — was, as Chris puts it, “dark and dank and hardly insulated, with rodents crawling in behind the walls.” Despite its shortcomings, the couple loved it. The long, narrow property is split by a road, with a steep incline down to the lake on one side and gardens on the other. A detached garage with a guest suite sits behind the home — a space Dinah and Chris would become very familiar with, living in it during the more than two-year build.

A few online searches led them to Fold Architecture, whose work stood out for its emphasis on high-performance homes and generous use of windows. Sonnen Sloan, principal at Fold Architecture, took on the project. A certified passive house designer, Sloan’s design ethos aligned closely with the couple’s goals.

The exterior of the home combines contemporary design, including plenty of windows to let the light in, with local materials such as the cedar shakes milled in Qualicum.

Early designs for a two-storey dream home had already been submitted for zoning approval when a new municipal regulation came into effect: All main floors were now required to sit 100 feet above the floodline, a response to recent atmospheric flooding in British Columbia. For Dinah and Chris, this meant raising the house significantly — adding long flights of stairs that made neither aging in place nor their indoor-outdoor lifestyle practical.

It was a disappointing curveball. But with the right team and mindset, the couple pivoted. Renovating the existing home, rather than building a new one, meant their project wouldn’t be subject to the new bylaws. The plan shifted to deconstructing the house while maintaining its original footprint, with permission to add up to 25 per cent more square footage. It was less than they’d hoped for, but workable.

“They didn’t want their house going in the garbage in 40 years,” says Leidenfrost. “They wanted something they’d feel good about building — and they didn’t want to see a lot of waste.”

That ethos became a guiding principle. Dinah and Chris, who organize an annual community cleanup, were committed to minimizing waste throughout the process. A local company was hired to carefully deconstruct the original house and salvage as much material as possible. Other items were sold on Facebook Marketplace or donated to ReStore. Their old French doors now hang in a distillery on Pender Island, while much of the salvaged plywood lives on in a rebuilt cabin in Lake Cowichan.

Many elements were restored and reused: the woodstove and ceiling fan; the kitchen fridge relocated to the pantry; kitchen cupboards repainted and taps repurposed for the laundry room. Cedar from the old front deck — already on its second life after originating as bedroom ceiling material — was planed, sanded and reused once again to rebuild the new deck.

Inside, the home feels airy and much larger than its 1,400-square-foot area would suggest, thanks to the high ceilings, windows that flood the space with natural light and smart space-saving design like the sliding doors that screen off the office area next to the kitchen.

EFFICIENT DESIGN

The result is a 1,400-square-foot home that feels anything but small. Designed for efficiency and flow, the layout reflects how Dinah and Chris live. A large, open hallway lined with hooks allows for seamless transitions between gardening, swimming and welcoming guests from the onsite guest house. A flexible room with lake views functions as a home office, guest room or overflow dining space where retracting doors allow the dining table to extend when hosting larger gatherings.

“I never thought there would be space for a pantry and a laundry room,” says Dinah. “My husband’s an amazing cook and needs lots of space for pots and platters, so having places to tuck things away makes a huge difference.”

She credits Sloan with clever design solutions, including placing the mechanical room upstairs without counting it toward the home’s square footage — a move that helped maximize usable space.

The kitchen is designed for maximum efficiency — and for entertaining guests, too. The sleek kitchen cabinetry by Cowichan Woodwork, with its reeded glass doors and forest-inspired hues, helps the space flow seamlessly into the living area and connect with the nature views outside.

The primary suite is compact but thoughtfully designed. A wall at the head of the bed doubles as a walk-in shower on the other side.

“It’s not for everyone,” admits Chris of the open-plan bathroom. The couple laugh, noting that there are blinds in front, with the back looking onto the garden.

Knowing the couple spends winters in Mexico, Sloan suspected they might be open to some unconventional design choices inspired by Mexican homes — like open bathrooms.

“That was a win,” says Sloan. “It takes a certain

client. The room is small, so keeping it open and fluid helps it feel longer and more spacious.”

One of the home’s most distinctive features is its windows. No two are the same size.

Inspired by the couple’s eclectic art collection, the varied proportions echo the paintings that now hang throughout the house, from a son’s graduation artwork to a print discovered in the attic of the original cabin. Leidenfrost further refined the detail by wrapping each window in wood rather than drywall, eliminating traditional casing for a clean, simple and costeffective finish.

In the hallway, a row of hooks corrals outerwear, a useful feature for a couple that loves their indooroutdoor lifestyle. Other thoughtful elements in the space include the sleek benches, vintage Korean wallpaper above the hooks and old wooden flooring that’s been repurposed as wall covering.

A PERFECT FIT FOR TWO

Living remotely at Shawnigan Lake required a few pragmatic compromises. The wood-burning fireplace was retained to offset frequent winter power outages. Even so, Dinah reports their heating bills have dropped by 40 per cent.

“We weren’t able to build a passive house,” says Sloan, “but we were able to build an extremely efficient home that truly meets their needs.”

Above the hooks in the hallway hangs a piece of the old wood floor alongside vintage Korean wallpaper from Dinah’s family. Nearly every element was thoughtfully considered, with many materials sourced locally — from cedar shakes milled in Qualicum to kitchen cabinetry by Cowichan Woodwork and metalwork by Freeman Fabrication.

From every room, Dinah and Chris can take in the landscape, each view layered with memory and intention.

“It’s a small house — it really is,” says Chris, who cooked for 16 people at Christmas. “It was built for two people, but it can host a crowd. It’s perfect for us.”

One of the most intriguing and clever space-saving features of the home is the open-plan bathroom. The wall behind the headboard in the primary bedroom becomes a walk-in shower on the other side. It’s a design trend that is becoming more and more popular, especially in style-forward, high-end hotels.

PROJECT HELP

Builder: Hygge Design

Architect: Fold Architects

Structural Engineer:

Farhill Engineering

Exteriors:

Singing Hammers Carpentry

Windows: North Pacific Window & Glass

Millwork:

Cowichan Woodwork

Floor and tile:

Island Floor Centre

Finishing: Garant Construction

Roof: Golden Rule Roofing

HOT , COLD, REPEAT

Call them the new hot tub. Sauna-cold-plunge setups are super trendy right now. Here’s what you need to know before putting one in your own backyard.

By David Lennam | Photos by Jeffrey Bosdet*

My wife and I had been testing the benefits of hot and cold therapy for some time, spending a small fortune at all the hot-cold hotspots, those suddenly ubiquitous cold-plunge-tosauna-repeat spas like we were a couple of obsessed Finns longing for the old ways.

The science behind a sauna-cold-plunge combo is time-tested: it boosts energy, increases circulation, enhances immune function, promotes faster muscle repair, burns “brown” fat for weight loss, improves skin health, reduces stress, gives better sleep, puts you in a buoyant mood — and, hey, it just feels good (especially the sauna part).

Cold plunge is all about training and resetting the nervous system, muscle recovery (think about all those pro athletes who bathe in ice after a game), endorphins for days.

The sauna itself is more about a cardiovascular tune-up, plus relaxation.

And the social aspect should not slip by unmentioned. Simply, sauna is a nice way to spend time with people.

After our extensive field testing, we concluded that it was definitely for us. So much so that we hired builders to create the experience in our backyard, a trend that seems to be catching on.

BIG HEAT, SMALL SPACE

We came up with a plan that was only marginally extravagant: a comfortable setup that would allow us to indulge, day or night, or day and night, without having to get dressed or find parking.

Victoria-based Azbowa Homes was already doing some work for us, manufacturing a sliding gate system and repairing an aging fence, when we asked whether they’d be up for fabricating a sauna. It would be their first for a client so there was a learning curve to ride.

For the builders, the biggest challengeslash-difference from home construction was compensating for extreme heat and moving air around a small space.

The biggest challenge-slash-difference from home construction was compensating for extreme heat and moving air around a small space.

Azbowa’s co-owner and lead carpenter Ryan Hamilton talks about how every single material — right down to the fasteners — had to be able to handle the temperature, while consideration had to be reserved for critical airflow.

“It’s almost science, which might be a big word,” he says, “but it’s the mechanicals you don’t really have to think about when building a shed or even a house. The types of screws, the placement of the screws, the placement of the insulation in the floor, where to put our holes and afterwards we had to play around with the airflow.”

It required plenty of research. And a bit of let’s-see-how-this-works.

“It’s hard to picture exactly until you do it,” Hamilton admits.

The finished product is gorgeous. A surprisingly spacious five-foot, six-inch square interior made from cedar, a hydrophobic wood that’s best for dealing with heat and moisture, but one that’s invitingly aromatic. Heat is from a Harvia 6kW electric unit, which accepts water sprinkles to produce a soothing bath of steam.

The exterior was repurposed from our old Douglas fir fence panels, then charred to achieve that Japanese esthetic of shō sugi ban.

A lot of thought went into the door, the biggest potential loss of heat. Azbowa sourced inch-anda-half thick 100-year-old fir that once comprised the rafters in old Esquimalt military housing.

TAKING THE PLUNGE

Josh Dupuis has probably built more saunas than anyone else in town — more than 200 of them since incorporating his Wildwood Saunas in 2022.

It all began when he tried to rent a sauna for his family one Christmas and, frustrated by the lack of options, ended up building his own.

“I said, ‘I’ll just build my own in the backyard. How hard can it be?’ Turns out it was a bit harder than I thought — just details you don’t think about. But we used it a ton. We’d jump in the ocean, then run back to the sauna, then look at the stars, then go back in the sauna. I got addicted.”

Home saunas can come in different styles — barrels, rustic cabins or sleek contemporary designs like this one from Wildwood Saunas.

It occurred to him that if he had become so easily addicted, wouldn’t other people?

Dupuis started out building mobile saunas and parking them at local beaches. They were wildly popular, booking out months in advance.

“The amount of traction we got was insane. The demand was just crazy. People were tripping over themselves to get a seat in the sauna.”

When municipal bylaws put the brakes on mobile operations, Dupuis got turned onto Bilston Creek Farm in Metchosin and made a deal to lease space for a significant sauna/cold plunge setup where the addicted could get their fix. He has since expanded to Ucluelet and Parksville, just as other operators are setting up similar outfits up and down the Island.

Dupuis has three sauna sizes he typically builds for private clients (five by five, six by seven, and eight by six feet), but is fine with custom jobs, be they sleek modern designs or something more rustic, with either woodfired or electric heat systems.

BEFORE YOU INSTALL A SAUNA

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you have enough space? Two-person cube saunas typically start at five by five feet.

• Will your municipality allow you to build a sauna on your property? Most jurisdictions allow for outbuildings under 100 square feet without a building permit.

• What shape of sauna appeals to you: barrel or square?

• Should you choose wood or electric heat? Does your municipality even allow you to burn wood?

• Will your home’s electrical panel support the capacity for a sauna heater? Note: A five–by-five-foot sauna would likely need a 30 amp breaker. A bigger sauna, say, six by seven feet, needs a 40 amp and anything larger would require a 50 amp breaker. Wiring should always be done by an electrician.

• How high and how deep do you want your benches? Do you want to be able to lie down or have more depth for comfort? Maybe consider what the Finns call “the first law of löyly,” a design principle that feet should be above the stones for maximum heat absorption.

• Do you want to add LED underbench lighting, towel hooks, a thermometer or even an audio system?

“The biggest one we’ve done is nine by 11 feet, with a corner glass window,” he says. “We push ourselves. We’ll add stargazers, windows on the ceiling and corner glass — things other companies would choose not to do because it’s too difficult.”

Cold plunge tanks have boomed along with his sauna business.

The cold plunge we decided on was a budget version, a 100-gallon galvanized oval stock tank filled with the garden hose. It works just fine for us. But if cost isn’t a factor, Dupuis will build you a deluxe unit — insulated aluminum tubs wrapped in cedar with a commercial chiller so you can choose your level of cold. They feature

pool pumps to filter and circulate the water. Add an outdoor shower or rain bucket for a breathtakingly icy dump of water over the head.

When Dupuis started the sauna biz, customers were iffy about adding a cold plunge.

“At first they hemmed and hawed,” he says. “Now every third sauna I sell, they want to pair it with a cold plunge.”

COMMUNAL ELATION

I didn’t mention that my wife and I began our sauna cold plunging at Wildwood’s Bilston Creek Farm locale. We were newbies who

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Help with Real Estate

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We set client appointments in advance to manage all the requirements of mortgage lenders, sellers, and buyers so you can have peace of mind knowing you won’t be signing everything at the last minute.

quickly became regulars. There was a real social scene in their 12-person sauna with giggles and stories mixing with the sweat. It didn’t feel weird or unusual to share our time in the hot box with strangers. We were all there for the wellness, the stuff of science, but equally the way sauna brings elation and, in this case, a communal elation.

My wife sums it up pretty nicely.

“I never imagined myself jumping into a tub of icy water on a snowy day in December, but it’s one of my favourite memories. There we were, almost stark naked next to a forest, with the snow falling all around us and I never felt more alive.”

A Sauna Sanctuary

This page and opposite: Who says a sauna needs to be a model of stripped-down Scandinavian minimalism? When Kristi Dupuis decided to build her own sauna on her property in Metchosin, she decided to take things to a whole different — and utterly charming — level.

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For the practicalities, she consulted with Josh Dupuis of Wildwood Saunas (no relation), but at the end of the day the design inspiration was all her own. With elements of Craftsman and modern farmhouse design, it is a beautiful, sturdily built place of wellness and healing, where she can sweat out her cares and find inner peace.

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WHY HIRE A PRO?

There are numerous ready-to-assemble sauna kits on the market, but we concluded it would be better to have professionals build our sauna, from scratch, and not just because we’re not the handiest folks around. (I’m just above the crow in tool-use capability.)

Sauna construction, notably for outdoor builds, prioritizes insulation. That’s where custom construction trumps the kits. Kits generally come with very thin foam board. According to Ryan Hamilton, co-owner and lead carpenter of Azbowa Homes, that translates into maybe an R-10 insulation rating, “if you’re lucky, and six months of the year that’s just not going to cut it.”

The insulation in the sauna Azbowa built us was, they joke, “borderline overkill” at an R-21 value, featuring minimal air loss through walls and ceiling.

“Essentially we built it as if it was a passive building — trying to keep the entire envelope a continuous envelope from foundation all the way to roof,” says Azbowa’s co-owner/CEO Alexandre Cunow Wicks. “I think that’s something that would get missed in a kit.”

He explains that, during a windstorm, air would find those areas in the envelope that aren’t continuous and push cold air in while drawing heat out.

Once you have that proper shell, the rest is just mechanical, says Hamilton.

“Buy the wrong heater? We can change that. Want to move the benches? We can do that. But once your walls are all sealed up, that’s the insulation you have and that’s what’s really going to make the difference in the efficiency of it.”

Part of which is ventilation, stresses Cunow Wicks.

“If the insulation is great, but you don’t have proper ventilation, then you’ve got condensation building up between your insulation and the inside of your wall and you’re going to end up having mould and rot eventually.”

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HOEDOWN FOR HOPE

Boot-stompin’ fun in support of Simon’s CureMPS research fund

In the world of rare diseases, meaningful scientific progress often depends not on large institutions, but on determined families unwilling to wait. For conditions like MPS (mucopolysaccharidosis), funding for biomedical research is scarce, and the responsibility to drive momentum frequently falls to patient families who must rally their communities, raise funds and advocate relentlessly for change.

CureMPS is one such effort. Founded by the Hoskins, a Victoria family, after learning in 2019 that their son Simon had MPS IV A (Morquio syndrome), CureMPS emerged at a time when global research into the disease had largely stalled. Faced with limited treatment options and little active research, the family chose action over resignation. What began as a grassroots response quickly became a powerful, family-led movement to reignite scientific progress and hope.

Since 2020 — in partnership with their charitable partner, The Isaac Foundation — CureMPS has raised more than $350,000, directly contributing to the first promising

new research for MPS IV A since 2012. Central to this effort is the CureMPS Hoedown for Hope — an annual fundraising celebration that demonstrates how small, committed communities can drive real progress, even in ultra-rare diseases. The Hoedown for Hope is equal parts fundraiser and community celebration, featuring live music, games, food trucks, drinks, door prizes and all-ages fun.

This year’s event includes live music by Mat Geddes, Whiskey Business and The Rob Curtis Band and aims to raise $50,000 — funds that will unlock a matching $50,000 contribution toward a promising new T-cell therapy for MPS. With early scientific momentum underway, the research team needs community support to keep moving forward.

As the Hoedown for Hope builds momentum for another unforgettable event, Simon and his family are calling on local sponsors and community partners to help turn that energy into meaningful impact. This year’s campaign aims to amplify awareness, drive critical research funding and demonstrate what’s possible

when a community rallies together. Businesses and individuals can get involved through sponsorship, prize donations and promotional partnerships that extend the impact far beyond the Hoedown.

To learn more, buy your Hoedown tickets, make a charitable donation or get involved, visit www.curemps.ca and follow CureMPS on Instagram at @curemps, where updates, stories and milestones continue to build awareness, momentum and hope.

Soooo Awkward

What do you do with the strange little nooks, crannies and other odd bits of your home? We have a few ideas.

By YAM Staff

Every home has them: those awkward spaces that are too big, too small, too weirdly shaped or too inconveniently located to be functional, let alone beautiful. They can include empty corners, funny alcoves, meaningless nooks, too-skinny halls, too-wide kitchens, small walls, tall walls, sloped walls (especially in attics), asymmetrical walls or those barren areas above kitchen cabinets or under the stairs.

You may think these are just wastes of space that could be put to much better use, but in reality, with some clever decorating they can actually become the standout features that give your home its character.

The key to making them work is to keep two things in mind: first, functionality; and secondly, bold décor that transforms limitations into opportunities.

Here are just a few ideas for making the most of the awkward spaces in your own home.

The key to making awkward spaces work is to keep two things in mind: first, functionality; and secondly, bold décor that transforms limitations into opportunities.

ENTRYWAYS

Narrow, cramped, cluttered, nonexistent. Our entryways are meant to welcome guests into our homes, but too often they aren’t exactly, well, welcoming.

TIP Make it pretty and soft

If yours isn’t ideal, you can create the illusion of a better one. Define the space with a rug and a bench for both storage and seating. On the wall, add dimension with beadboard, wainscotting, panelling or bold wallpaper, and don’t forget the hooks or a rack for outerwear. Include at least one piece of eye-catching art and, if you have a long, skinny hallway, break it up with a gallery of framed artwork or photographs.

Keep clutter under control with a drop zone for keys, gloves, dog leashes and the like. A bowl on a side table is fine, but a small dresser may give you more storage space. And make sure you have somewhere for wet umbrellas to go, too.

SLOPED CEILINGS

With their angled ceilings, quirkily shaped end walls and, sometimes, dormer windows, attic suites are adorable — right up until you have to live in one and realize how challenging they can be to decorate.

Installing a few skylights is a great way to add natural light while also breaking up a long expanse of awkward ceiling space. Serene neutral shades, pretty pastels and curved furniture like headboards and accent chairs can soften the look of all those sharp angles.

Alternatively, embrace the slopes and angles with bold paint, patterned wallpaper and custom millwork. A sloped ceiling is a perfect surface for stripes, stars, clouds, graffiti art or a mural. After all, these spaces have built-in character, so why not make the most of it?

This page: Use a sloped ceiling to create a romantic and cozy space with soft neutrals, charming patterns, layered fabrics (including the upholstered headboard) and plenty of natural light.

Opposite page: Make the most of an empty corner by turning it into a desk area for work and displaying books and decorative items.

ABOVE, BELOW, BEHIND

Then there are all those funny gaps above your kitchen cabinets or washer and dryer, behind a door or the sofa, under the sink or a tall window. Often these end up gathering dust and clutter or staying empty and forlorn. But they don’t have to!

In many cases, it just takes the installation of a couple of shelves to add much-needed storage space. Baskets tucked under sinks or on shelves can corral unsightly clutter, especially in your laundry room and bathroom, where they are great for essentials like toilet paper and towels.

Other ideas: Cover an old radiator with vented woodwork and use it to display a charming vase or two. In the empty space behind a door, tuck a skinny console table and tall mirror (making sure you have a doorstop that prevents the door from swinging open into them). Place a bench under a tall window, far enough from the wall that the draperies can fall behind it. If your living room is big enough, place a console table behind the sofa and use it for display space.

With a little creativity, a small landing can make a big statement.

TIP Install custom storage

If in doubt, use a forlorn space like the bit under the stairs or behind a door for the one thing every home could use more of: storage. Here, creative custom shelving doubles as space for both storage and display.

AROUND THE STAIRS

The space under a flight of stairs can be a tricky one, but it’s also loaded with potential. Depending on the shape, size and style of your staircase, it can be a place for a little home office, a wet bar, a decorative table and vase, a petite library or simply more storage, because who ever has enough of that?

If you have a large-ish landing, consider decking it out with glamorous accent chairs, an occasional table, sconces and a major work of art. If it’s small, concentrate on art and lighting. Line the walls of the staircase with even more art.

CORNERS

Corners can look sad and empty, but decorating them can be a breeze. If it is a largeish corner, it can be as simple as filling it with a large, rounded accent chair (which will balance any sharp angles) and perhaps a reading lamp and a piece of art on the wall. If the corner is small, you can use it for a hanging display — install sets of hooks on both adjoining walls and string up an attractive assortment of hanging plants, baskets, lanterns, macrame or other decorative elements.

WEIRD WALLS

Whether your wall is too small, too tall, too asymmetrical or has obstacles like windows, fuse boxes, thermostats or doors to work around, the key here is disrupting the space, often using art, in a way that takes scale and balance into consideration.

An art gallery can work obstructions into the design. It can also make a big, empty space look smaller, add interest to a room without architectural details and distract the eye from slanted ceilings or strange shapes. (If you have a fuse box in a prominent location, as sometimes happens in older homes, you can also use a piece of artwork to create a “door” to cover it.)

If the wall is very small, consider painting it with chalkboard paint and using it as a giant message board with a shelf for pieces of chalk and brushes. Alternatively, install floating shelves to display books or collectibles. And if the wall is very unusually shaped, transform it into a statement with wallpaper, bold paint and/ or a large piece of framed art.

Right: Bold colour transforms a strangely shaped wall into a dramatic design feature. Below: Use a variety of differently sized artworks to create an art gallery that makes the most of a large wall, breaks up a long one or downplays obstacles like thermostats.

ALCOVES, NOOKS, CLOSETS, WINDOWS

Older houses are rich with odd little spaces that may once have had a purpose — milk chutes, ironing board cabinets, telephone alcoves — and now just sit empty and unused. But even new builds have these weird gaps. Think of them as pure design potential.

If there is an awkward nook between two walls, or a shallow spare closet, consider transforming it into a small home office with a desk, shelves and cool wallpaper. It could also become a reading nook, sewing room or a place for all your gift-wrapping paraphernalia. Better yet, it could be a special place for your dog, if you have one, complete with toys, bed and water bowl.

If you have a bay window, use the pop-out space for a desk, a console table, bench or as a sort of conservatory for indoor plants. A shallow mantel, phone alcove or other narrow ledge is a great place to display photographs, especially if you can find skinny frames for them.

A small space within a larger one is a great place for a mural, which can also create the illusion of a separate area in the same room. One fun idea is to use trompe l’oeil to mimic architectural details or the look of faux wood, bricks, metals, moulding or even bookcases.

And remember: It can be a lot of fun making a major decorative statement in a tiny space and maybe even breaking the rules when you do. After all, it’s easy enough to change it later if you get tired of it.

QUICK FIXES

The easiest way to make any space more functional is by adding storage or extra seating or, even better, seating that is also a place to store things. If you’re looking to fix up an awkward space in your home, start with these ideas.

Storage: shelves (especially floating shelves), bookcases, cabinets, bar carts, small tables, pedestals, baskets, storage benches, ottomans.

Décor: dramatic wallpaper, wood panelling, bold paint colours, potted plants, vases, mirrors, artwork.

WHAT ABOUT THE TV?

Each room should have a focal point, but if that room also has a television set, that often means the focus is divided between two points.

If you have a fireplace, conventional wisdom would be to place the TV over the mantel and make both the focus, but that’s not always possible or, indeed, desirable. In that case, your best move is to choose one element as your focal point and draw attention away from the other.

For example, try arranging your main seating area around the TV and minimizing decoration near the fireplace. Or do the opposite — create a conversation area around the fireplace and keep the area around the TV as neutral as possible.

Street Smart

Wherever the road takes you this spring, get there in style with the kind of easy, modern and versatile menswear that is designed to go anywhere and everywhere.

This

Opposite page:

This page: Banja quilted overshirt by Rains, KÜHL shirt in pirate blue, KÜHL Klassik pant in burnt olive, all available at Adventure Clothing. Benchcraft woven belt, available at Outlooks for Men. Quilted Everyday Bag by Ecologyst, available at Ecologyst.

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Nakasendo The

Way

FOLLOWING IN THE HISTORIC FOOTSTEPS OF THE SHOGUN FROM KYOTO TO TOKYO.

Samurai armour, gleaming swords and dramatic posters depicting rival Japanese feudal lords greet me at the state-of-the-art Gifu Sekigahara Battlefield Memorial Museum near Kyoto. I thrill to an epic 4D animated movie — complete with thundering horses and elegiac carnage — of the 1600 AD battle that led to the Tokugawa shogunate’s 260-year reign over Japan.

Sekigahara, considered one of the world’s three great battlefields along with Gettysburg and Waterloo, also features in the Season 1 finale of the hit FX/Hulu TV series Shogun Season 2 is filming now in B.C. — the first season’s locations ranged from Ucluelet to Port Moody — but won’t air until 2027, making this the perfect time to trek across the land whose history and culture inspired the labyrinthine plot.

At age 13, during summer vacation in my Victoria backyard, I devoured the 1975 James Clavell novel on which the show is based. Now, I’ll clearly never be an English sea pilot marooned in 17th-century Japan amid a power struggle to become shogun (supreme military dictator), but visiting the famous battlefield is the realization of a childhood dream.

And my Walk Japan group tour on the historic Nakasendo Way from Kyoto to Tokyo has only just begun.

JOURNEY INTO THE PAST

The Nakasendo Way runs 530 kilometres through central Honshu’s mountains, forests and 69 historic post towns where travelling samurai, artisans and farmers overnighted. We are only covering 130 kilometres of it, some of the best sections of the old road, which offer a captivating blend of fresh air and Japanese culture.

“The Nakasendo Way emerged under Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified Japan after Sekigahara and appears as ‘Lord Toranaga’ in Shogun,” explains Walk Japan guide Ines Rosan, a Kyushu resident who studied Japanese language and culture in her native France.

Left: Step into Tsumago and enter history — this centuries-old post town is one of the best preserved in Japan, and an essential stop on the Nakasendo Way between Kyoto and Edo. Above: Lush forests, rushing streams and rustic wooden bridges all feature along the Nakasendo hiking trail.

The variety-laden journey is a great workout for young solo travellers and hearty retired couples alike. From ancient rock-paved roads to spotless residential sidewalks, we average 12 kilometres a day and peak at 24 kilometres, with elevation changes between 350 and 740 metres. That doesn’t include indoor excursions like climbing the steep wooden steps inside Hikone Castle, an immaculately preserved National Historic Site. Buses and trains — including the legendary Shinkansen (bullet train) zooming along at 320 kilometres an hour — transport our group to further-flung destinations, and luggage delivery from inn to inn is seamless.

During our 11-day odyssey in early fall, temperatures range from 12°C with light rain to a humid 30°C. Regardless of the conditions, something magical always catches my eye, and there is exquisite cuisine and charming lodgings at every stop along the way.

CULTURE SHOCK

An easy stroll from the Sekigahara museum brings our group to Masuya, a cozy ryokan (guest house). I sink into a steaming traditional onsen (hot spring bath) in a wooden tub. Whether solo or in a sex-segregated group, one always bathes naked in Japan — one of the many customs that startles John Blackthorne, the Anjin-san (pilot) played by Richard Chamberlain in NBC’s 1980 Shogun miniseries and Cosmo Jarvis in the FX/ Hulu version.

After my bath, I don a yukata (a casual, lightweight kimono) and

group

relaxed, family-style dinner, seated on cushions in front of low tables, where we savour a simple meal of shabu-shabu (Japanese hot pot) served with tangy plum wine.

As we head deeper into the Kiso Valley, whose evergreens recall B.C.’s coastal temperate rainforest, a 1,300-year-old cypress looms next to the trail. (Unauthorized cutting down of such magnificent trees was punishable by decapitation under strict shogunate rule.) As Shogun’s lyrical scenery reveals, Japan is a country of wild greenery as well as formal gardens and bustling big cities.

Situated on a steep hillside, the well-preserved post town of Magome is graced by lion-dog statues guarding a woodland Shinto shrine, murmuring water wheels and stone lanterns.

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In Tsumago, dark wooden buildings — some 600 years old — evoke a bygone era. Unlike most Japanese towns, there is no slew of outdoor vending machines selling cold coffee and pop here. Instead, a diorama celebrates the harvest moon with silhouetted lunar-dwelling rabbits whimsically crafting mochi balls. An 18-room house originally owned by a rich sake maker includes a special table and bathroom constructed exclusively for a half-hour visit by the Emperor of Japan in 1880.

Meals and accommodation become more lavish as the trip progresses. At Ryokan Yamaka no Yu, with its grand views of sacred Mount Ontake, we feast on flame-cooked wagyu beef with mushrooms, crickets on shisho leaves, wild mountain vegetables and ultra-fresh sashimi, served with buckwheat shochu, a distilled spirit.

At Ryokan Yamaka no Yu, dinner can include luxe ingredients like wagyu beef.

My spacious room has a comfortable futon with fresh tatami mats and a space-age Japanese toilet with de rigueur “toilet slippers” by the door, per local hygiene standards. As a sixfoot-three westerner, I must take care to not bang my head on Japanese door frames, especially at night.

The culture shock is real, but far from insurmountable. I’m not sure if I’m relieved or disappointed that one major nighttime difference between this Walk Japan tour and Shogun is the lack of illicit romantic encounters with Japanese noblewomen or surprise ninja attacks.

Above: Historic Tsumago features many minshuku (bed and breakfasts) and ryokan (inns) where guests can stay and soak in the centuries-old ambience.

Below: The natural beauty of sights like the Karasawa Falls is as much a draw along the Nakasendo Way as the shogun-era history.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

The Japanese reverence for nature — a respite from the wars, earthquakes and fires that spice up Shogun — is vividly apparent at the 100-metre-high Karasawa Falls near the Kaida Plateau. Little red Jizo statues stand roadside to protect travellers according to Buddhist tradition.

Even with numerous signs warning travellers to avoid ferocious bears, I enter Karuizawa — Whistler’s Japanese sister city — unscathed by ursine or samurai wrath. French bakeries and chi-chi dog outfits abound in this ski town, signalling that I’m truly back in modern Japan.

Exiting Tokyo’s central railway station for the final march, I am overwhelmed by the rush of humanity in this breathtakingly modern city of 37 million people. Tokugawa Ieyasu made Tokyo (then Edo) his capital, but his vision of keeping Japan isolated from foreigners would not endure.

In the shadow of the rising Torch Tower and the Mitsukoshi department store, I reach the Nakasendo Way’s finish line at the Nihonbashi Bridge. After walking nearly 130 kilometres, I’ve won a victory of my own.

IF YOU GO

Air Canada and Japan Airlines offer nonstop flights from Vancouver to Tokyo and Osaka. aircanada.com, jal.com

From there, connect to Kyoto via Shinkansen (bullet train) in approximately two hours. shinkansen-ticket.com

Walk Japan pioneered innovative walking tours throughout the country and today offers a variety of guided, self-guided and custom experiences. walkjapan.com

Just a short ferry ride away, legendary names and talented newcomers are rocking out on Salt Spring Island. You should probably join the party.

By Susan Lundy

Musical Isle

It’s a summer night on Salt Spring Island and the Tree House Café is absolutely rocking. As the popular local band Everyday People pumps out the classics, diners jump from their seats, transforming every available corner into a dance floor. Outside, passersby are swept in, encircling the restaurant and bouncing to the beat, while lawn-chair spectators in the alleyway abandon their posts, clapping and grooving to the sound.

The scene is not unusual at the Tree House, which for close to three decades has hosted the Music Under the Stars program, 135 consecutive nights of live music that runs through the spring, summer and early fall. But what is different on this island — historically

famous for producing Salt Spring lamb, Salt Spring mussels and the legendary Saturday market — is the burgeoning music scene.

“When I first moved here, there were two or three bands that might play here regularly, and maybe an open mic or two,” says Mark LeCorre, who has owned the Tree House Cafe for close to 20 years. “Now it’s a year-round scene.”

As LeCorre points out, a music scene needs an abundance of venues, and the fact that Salt Spring has several within walking distance in the main town of Ganges is a “big deal.”

“You’ll be going for groceries at Thrifty’s and hear live music, so you wander over here to the Tree House and

then go around the corner, and there’s Tom Hooper [from the band Grapes of Wrath] playing on the boardwalk at Shipstones; then you can walk over to Moby’s Pub and hear music there.”

So, while Everyday People is rocking out at the Tree House, myriad other musical acts are playing at any of about a dozen venues, including Mateada, the Waterfront Country Cafe, The Local and the Legion, just in Ganges. One of the newest venues, The Jam Factory, is home to Pitchfork Social, the host of a summertime concert series featuring world-class Americana and roots acts. It’s a stunning number of venues for an island of 12,000 residents.

As LeCorre notes, “A lot of communities of 12,000 have zero venues.”

SCHOOL OF ROCK

LeCorre, who is also the guitarist for Everyday People, knows a lot about music scenes. He worked as a sound engineer for decades, touring with acts such as Dido, Avril Lavigne, 54-40 and The Tragically Hip. He joins a cast of well-known musical icons on the island, including: folk singer-songwriter Valdy; rocker Bill Henderson of Chilliwack; children’s musician Raffi; Jamie Wollam, the drummer for Tears for Fears; bluesman Harry Manx; Hooper; and The Guess Who’s Randy Bachman, who called Salt Spring home for years and still has connections here.

“The depth and quality of the music scene is truly staggering for a small island,” says Andy Doyle-Linden, the driving force behind the newly formed Salt Spring Groove, a non-profit initiative that aims to “celebrate, elevate and amplify” music on the island. “Salt Spring has a vibe that attracts established artists, while also nurturing young talent. The glue is the intimacy of the community. Everyone knows each other and plays with each other. The island has created an environment where live music is part of everyday life. I had a sense of this before moving here in 2022, but you really need to experience it to understand that we have something special going on here.”

“Salt Spring has a vibe that attracts established artists, while also nurturing young talent. The glue is the intimacy of the community.”

There have always been lots of musicians on Salt Spring — Doyle-Linden estimates around 250 currently live on the island — but the calibre of musicianship has risen in recent years, says LeCorre. Part of that can be attributed to the Gulf Islands School of Performing Arts (GISPA), a music, dance and theatre program that has run inside the high school since 2009. The program’s academy model allows for specialized, advanced education in performing arts, and students in Grades 10 to 12 — with successful auditions — receive ongoing training and performance opportunities.

LeCorre says there’s a renaissance occurring with those youths who were in GISPA at its conception now returning to the island.

“The young people who were children when I first moved here are in their 30s now. They don’t necessarily live here but they’re coming back and playing here. They’ve trained at Berklee College of Music in New York; they’ve played in Nashville. They can read and write music and play different instruments and genres. This has added another layer to the music scene here.”

And GISPA is the gift that keeps giving, continuously producing new musicians and ensuring a constant evolution of the local music scene.

IN THE GROOVE

The current musical explosion on Salt Spring is both a driver and an attraction for big names in the music industry — people who are now eyeing the island as a place to put down roots.

A family legacy of craftsmanship and care

Kevin Churko, for example, is a Canadian record producer, sound engineer and musician known for his work with artists such as Ozzy Osbourne and Shania Twain, among others. He recently purchased St. Mark’s, a historic stone church tucked away on a hill mid-island. Construction is already underway on the 1890s building as Churko transforms it into a music studio and yet another music venue.

Also new to the island is Alan Ett, a sensational horn player and jazz musician, who toured the world playing music before landing in Los Angeles and working for 35 years as a composer and producer in the film industry. He’s added another level of excellence to the music scene, both as a mesmerizing on-stage presence and as a conduit to the other internationally renowned musicians he brings to perform on the island.

“Coming out of COVID, when venues started opening up again, there was an explosion of different acts and places to play,” says Bruce Cameron, the drummer with Everyday People and one of four Salt Spring Groove directors. “It has been just electric, with a lot of musicians playing in two or three or four bands, and people moving to the island to be part of the scene.”

Salt Spring Groove has partnered with other groups to organize music events — such as a fundraiser for the food bank last summer — and produced two editions of Salt Spring Groove magazine, a photography-forward publication highlighting local musicians. Doyle-Linden, a former sports photographer, has found a

UNIQUE BY NATURE

“Musicians put themselves out there for audiences, and that deserves to be recognized and

celebrated.”

new passion capturing island musicians performing live on stage. He and his camera appear at so many events, he’s become an active part of the scene.

“Salt Spring Groove is firmly rooted in giving back to the community,” he says. “There are many ways to do that, and we are only at the beginning of what it could become. At its heart, the project aims to portray musicians and the scene in a way that captures the vibrancy and emotion of live performance. Musicians put themselves out there for audiences, and that deserves to be recognized and celebrated. There is so much talent and creativity here that anything we can do to promote, support and enhance the scene is on the table.”

Back at the Tree House, the final notes of Everyday People’s encore drift off into the night air. It’s still early, only 10 p.m., so patrons have options: they can head home or back to their hotel; or they can keep on dancing, catching the last sets at the Legion or Moby’s Pub. Whatever they choose, they go into the night knowing that, come tomorrow, the show will rock on.

LISTEN TO THE MUSIC

There are many, many ways to enjoy the music of Salt Spring Island, everywhere from public venues to outdoor spaces to private homes. Here are just a few ways to join the party.

 Music Under the Stars at Tree House Cafe returns on May 11 and continues nightly throughout the spring, summer and early fall. treehousecafe.ca

 Check the event schedules at Moby’s Pub (mobyspub.ca) and the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 092 (saltspringlegion.ca), to see who’s playing when.

 On long weekends especially, look to see what’s on at venues such as Salty Pear Gallery (saltypear.ca) and The Jam Factory, which also brings in top talents for the annual summertime Pitchfork Social series (pitchforksocial.com).

 Even better, make friends with a Salt Spring Islander and you might find yourself invited to a backyard session at someone’s home or at a community song circle.

TAKING CARE

MORE AND MORE OF US ARE FEELING LONELY, ISOLATED AND DISSATISFIED WITH OUR LIVES.

IT’S TIME TO START LOOKING AFTER OUR SOCIAL WELL-BEING.

By Susan Hollis

It’s a paradox that this highly populated planet is a lonely place.

Around a third of Canadians report persistent feelings of loneliness, and that has a significant impact on our physical health, mental wellness and financial stability. When our public isn’t thriving, the impacts are far reaching, but course correction isn’t simply a matter of access to information — after all, everyone and their dog has been drinking from a fire hydrant of health and wellness advice thanks to the dominance of social media and the 24-hour news cycle.

Many of us understand the dos and don’ts of how to eat healthily and get enough exercise. But beyond that, adopting routines that improve our mental landscapes isn’t always that simple. It’s a long game with many steps, and almost every single aspect of improved well-being starts with meaningful attachment.

“Research shows that people do better when they’re connected to others, whether that’s friends, family, groups or community spaces,” says Mandy Hamilton, a registered clinical counsellor, executive director and co-owner of Pegasus Recovery Solutions. “In a world where it’s easy to isolate, intentionally choosing connection is one of the most protective things I think we can do for our mental health.”

“Happiness, from what I see, isn’t about being positive all the time it’s about being flexible and able to ride emotional ups and downs without getting knocked off course.”

SHUSH YOUR INNER CRITIC

There are more than a few ways to measure social well-being — 91 if you look at the metrics used by Statistics Canada in their ongoing data collection on the lived experience of Canadians.

The agency uses a Quality of Life Framework to measure how people are doing across five domains — prosperity, health, environment, society and governance — to track the buoyancy, or lack thereof, of the Canadian public. While the numbers fluctuate year to year, some key data snapshots show that across the country, 46.1 per cent of people report a high life satisfaction; 55.7 per cent report a high sense of meaning and purpose;

and 55.9 per cent report having a hopeful outlook on the future.

That means a lot of people are not living their best lives, and these numbers are trending downwards.

According to the StatCan website, much of this is shaped by the economy of the past five years.

“Identifying possible reasons for declines in life satisfaction can be challenging. However, there are signs that the financial landscape has affected feelings of subjective well-being,” reads a summary of the findings. “For instance, Canada had a greater share of people facing financial difficulties in 2024 (32.8 per cent) than in 2021 (18.6 per cent).” Meanwhile, Canadians who were financially insecure in 2024 were less likely to feel satisfied with

their lives than they were in 2021.

While financial struggles can’t be filed under a quick-fix note in a mindfulness journal, Hamilton does suggest trying to loosen the stranglehold of one’s inner critic when it comes to identifying one’s self worth.

“People who are struggling often have a hard time tolerating uncomfortable emotions or feel stuck resisting what’s happening in their lives, but the truth is that life is hard,” she says. “Happiness, from what I see, isn’t about being positive all the time — it’s about being flexible and able to ride emotional ups and downs without getting knocked off course.”

Hamilton adds: “The more we practise selfcare and self-regulation skills when things are

going well, the more automatic these practices are when things get hard, making it easier for us to bounce back from difficult emotions and experiences.”

LESS REALLY CAN BE MORE

Despite an almost universal griping about taxes, it’s notable that highly taxed Scandinavian countries have long held the rank as the happiest in the world. According to the “World Happiness Report,” the Finns are the most joyful people globally, something that can be credited to strong social security, proximity to nature and a national pride in their overall grit — despite being highly taxed. Being proud doesn’t hinge on having the biggest house, it’s

about living well with less and forging ahead no matter how bad the circumstances — something Canadians should do well given our scrappy, enduring historical legacy.

“The people who seem most content tend to practise acceptance, self-care and emotional regulation,” says Hamilton. “Acceptance doesn’t mean liking everything — it means acknowledging reality instead of constantly fighting it. That alone can lower stress and help people respond more thoughtfully.”

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SOCIAL WELL

-BEING

It can be hard to make changes to deeply ingrained patterns of behaviour, but to promote wellbeing one only need take the smallest of steps in the right direction — starting with these.

Move your body. Take a stroll or do some stretching after work or school before settling down to scroll the night away. Even 10 to 15 minutes can have a markedly positive impact on your health. Start to incorporate movement into your work breaks by finding some stairs to climb or getting a quick walk in after lunch.

Tackle a hobby. Use YouTube to your advantage and learn how to knit, dance or bake. Even better, take a local class to up your skills and get the added benefit of socialization.

Help someone in need. Self-care has long dominated the headlines, but other-care is arguably more impactful when it comes to improving our sense of well-being. Reach out to a volunteer organization to see how you can apply your existing talents (or find some new ones). Whether it’s chopping carrots for a soup kitchen or organizing toiletry kits for the unhoused, there’s something you can do to give back to those who are struggling more than you.

Be grateful. It has been said before and we will say it again — experts agree that keeping a gratitude journal can have a notable positive impact on one’s mental health. Keep a diary by your bed and jot down one or two things that went well or that you’re grateful for to reduce stress and foster appreciation for the things that were previously left unnoticed.

Food + Drink

66

The Dish

The return of The Bengal and other tasty things happening around Victoria.

68

Cheese, Pepper, Noodles

We travelled to Rome and came home with recipes for the city’s four iconic pastas.

76

Vintage Design

If you’ve got wine, you probably need a better way to store it. Here’s how.

IN SEASON

Ravishing Radishes

Not that we’re biased or anything, but we’re convinced that the French breakfast radish is the best radish. It is milder, sweeter and crisper than the round, peppery supermarket radishes you know so well. It’s easier to grow. And it’s prettier, too, with its oblong shape, bright-pink body and snow-white tip.

The French breakfast radish is an heirloom cultivar that was introduced in 1879 and ever since has been popular in Paris produce markets. Despite its name, it is not a breakfast food — it is best enjoyed as a snack dipped in a little salt or sliced thin and served on buttered bread, its leaves used like arugula in salads or sandwiches. It thrives in cool weather (just above zero to 18°C), so plant it now and harvest it in about 30 days for a perfectly delicious taste of spring.

RECIPES

71 Cacio e Pepe

72 Pasta alla Gricia

72 Pasta all’Amatriciana

74 Pasta Carbonara

By Joanne Sasvari

A TASTE OF WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND VICTORIA

The Bengal is Back!

A much-missed favourite returns with a fresh look and brand-new menu.

The Bengal has been lightened and brightened for a new generation of diners.

April 30, 2016, was a tragic day for many Victorians. That was the day the 60-year-old-plus Bengal Lounge officially closed its doors.

As part of a $30-million renovation at the Fairmont Empress hotel, a new restaurant and bar called Q opened in place of the lounge known for its curry buffet, Indian-themed décor and that famous tiger skin on the wall. (The tiger skin disappeared during the reno and, despite a police investigation and a reward offered for its return, its whereabouts remain a mystery.)

Even though that colonialish décor was perhaps just a bit out of step with contemporary sensibilities, the space held a lot of fond memories. So we were thrilled to learn that The Bengal was reopening.

This isn’t the first update to this lofty, airy space. It began

life serenely as a “Reading & Writing Room” during a 1912 expansion of the hotel. Then, in 1954, it was transformed into the Coronet Lounge, Victoria’s first cocktail lounge (or, depending on whom you ask, the second, after the Strathcona Room, now Big Bad John’s). In the swinging ’60s, a renovation known as “Operation Teacup” modernized the space and The Bengal Lounge was born, its opulent décor paying homage to the traditions and craftsmanship of the Indian subcontinent.

And now we have The Bengal 2.0, all refreshed, lightened up and offering a gracious nod to its heritage, but without any potentially awkward associations.

It is currently serving breakfast and dinner while Q undergoes renovations (details to be unveiled later this spring). After the reno is done, the plan

(for now) is for The Bengal to continue serving breakfast seven days a week and, in the evenings, become Victoria’s largest private dining room.

Under the leadership of executive chef Isabel Chung, the breakfast menu (served from 6:30 to 11 a.m.) features everything you could want to start your day, including breakfast cocktails. We especially love the cinnamon buns with cardamom orange blossom — served warm, of course. Dinners (served from 5:30 to 9 p.m.) are classically inspired but elegantly indulgent. Think truffle soup or pork tomahawk with mustard jus.

And before you ask, no, the curry buffet won’t be making a comeback. But given the delicious things chef Chung and her team are dishing out, we really don’t think you’ll miss it. fairmont-empress.com/dine/ the-bengal

WHISKY NEWS

 For Canada’s whisky lovers, January is the most important time of year — not only is it when the annual Victoria Whisky Festival is held, it’s also when the Canadian Whisky Awards are concurrently announced. Among the big winners at this year’s ceremony, held at the Hotel Grand Pacific on January 15, were: J.P. Wiser’s, crowned Canadian Whisky of the Year for its ultra-premium 24 Year Old Canadian Whisky; North Van’s Sons of Vancouver Distillery, named Canadian Whisky Producer of the Year; and Victoria’s own Macaloney’s Distillery, which not only won the award for Single Malt Whisky of the Year, it also claimed the Award of Excellence in Product Innovation for The Peat Project. For full results, visit canadianwhiskyawards.com.

We’re also happy to discover a new whisky right in our own backyard. Phillips Brewing’s Fermentorium Distilling Co. has just released two expressions of its Sanctuary single malt, made from Islandgrown barley that’s malted at its Victoria location. fermentorium.ca

And, for even more local whisky, the first-ever Vancouver Island Whisky Festival was held February 28 at Merridale Cidery & Distillery. We’re already making plans for next year! merridale.ca

TRANSITIONS

 We’re always excited to find new places to shop for food, especially when they are extensions of brands we already know and love. In December, the folks behind Vic West’s eclectic Market Garden opened Sabayons, a culinary treasure trove in the former Hudson’s Bay space at the Bay Centre. Meanwhile, Damascus Food Market, purveyors of all things delicious from the Middle East, has opened a second location at 2405 Eastdowne Road in Oak Bay.

 The new restaurant CairoMum serves Egyptian “street food with a modern twist,” and we love the heavenly spice this recent addition adds to the Victoria dining scene. Think: kofta (a sort of ground meat kebab), falafel, lamb shanks and, of course, koshary, Egypt’s national dish, a melange of pasta, rice and lentils. cairomum.com

 Yet another local craft brewery has closed its doors, falling victim to the rising cost of ingredients, materials and everything else since the pandemic. After 27 years in operation in Esquimalt, the pioneering Lighthouse Brewing has sold its brand and beers to Phillips Brewing.

 More openings: Niloo Persian Kitchen & Grill has opened Niloo Chicken & Grill, specializing in crispy fried chicken, at 624 Admirals Road. Driftwood Great Chinese Buffet,

Savour Sidney is the best way to sample all that makes this booming seaside community so delicious.

the first Victoria outpost of this popular Vancouver Island chainlet, has opened downtown at 615 Yates Street. (A dim sum buffet? Yes, please!) Meanwhile, Sam Harris and Vincent Vanderheide, the team behind Cafe Brio and Brasserie l’Ecole, are thisclose to opening Dough Eyes Pizza in the old Virtuous Pie location in the 500-block of Pandora Avenue.

EVENTS

 At 47 years of age, the Vancouver International Wine Festival is widely considered North America’s premier wine show. With its many winemaker dinners, seminars and international tastings, where literally hundreds of wines are poured, it’s a must-attend for wine lovers and a good time even for those who don’t know their Cabernet Sauvignon from their Sauvignon Blanc. The 2026 edition runs March 7 to 14 and features the wines of France. À votre santé, and we’ll see you there! vanwinefest.ca

 Sidney has quietly developed a thriving food scene and the best way to get a taste of all that’s on offer is by taking part in Savour Sidney, March 13 to 31. Over 19 days you can enjoy prix fixe menus at prices ranging from $15 to $75. Things kick off with the Savour Sidney Gala Launch Party on March 12 at the Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea. For info and tickets, visit savoursidney.ca.

 The second annual Feast of Flavours, a five-course dinner crafted by Camosun College’s culinary arts students, takes place April 10 at Huber Hall on the Interurban Campus. Come out and enjoy locally inspired dishes, thoughtful pairings and live music. Money raised by the event goes to supporting students with professional development and extracurricular learning. camosun.ca/events/feast-flavours

< Feast of Flavours showcases the talented culinary students at Camosun College.

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Food + Drink

CHEESE, PEPPER, NOODLES

We travelled to Rome and all we brought back were these recipes for the city’s four classic pastas.

Last fall I travelled to Rome, not to see the Colosseum or the Trevi Fountain, not to go shopping for fancy clothes along the Via Condotti, not even to enjoy an aperitivo on a rooftop bar, although I did indeed do all those things and think you should, too.

I went to Rome to sample the city’s four classic pasta dishes: cacio e pepe, gricia, carbonara and Amatriciana.

The journey actually began many years ago, on my very first trip to Italy, when I fell in love with spaghetti carbonara. Back then, my ideal pasta dish was spaghetti loaded with red sauce and meatballs and baked under a molten layer of cheese. (This is not, please note, a dish you will actually find in Italy.) I’d stopped for lunch at a trattoria across from the Pantheon, where the waiter suggested I try something called spaghetti carbonara. I was initially skeptical. It looked so boring, just a plate full of nearly naked noodles studded with a few tiny chunks of bacon. One bite, though, and my world shifted. It was, quite simply, perfection: salty, creamy, crispy, utterly irresistible.

When I got home, I learned how to make spaghetti carbonara at cooking school and discovered that it may be a simple dish, but it’s not an easy one — you have to master both emulsion and tempering to make it successfully. I’ve been trying to perfect it ever since.

I also discovered that there are three other classic pasta dishes with a similar lineage. Each builds on the last with simple ingredients based on shepherds’ staples of Pecorino Romano cheese, guanciale (cured pork jowl), black pepper and sometimes eggs or tomatoes. Each also has its own preferred noodle shapes, sometimes thick and chunky, other times long and skinny.

By Joanne Sasvari

All are the sort of thing you can keep in your pantry so they’re ready whenever you are. I wondered how the Italians managed to wrest so much flavour from such simple ingredients. So I packed the stretchy pants and, joined by my husband, made my way to the Eternal City.

◗ CACIO E PEPE

Ingredients: Pecorino Romano cheese, black pepper, pasta, starchy pasta water. Noodle: tonnarelli, bucatini, spaghetti.

This is the simplest of the four classic pastas, the one all the rest evolved from. Its name translates to cheese and pepper, and that is literally what the sauce is made of: Pecorino Romano cheese and toasted black pepper in an emulsion with starchy pasta water, tossed with long, skinny noodles like spaghetti or tonnarelli.

It’s a humble dish that’s been around for centuries, long a staple for shepherds in the hills of Lazio, the administrative district where Rome is located. As they watched their flocks, shepherds would assemble simple meals from long-lasting, portable ingredients, notably the aged sheep’s milk cheese called Pecorino. Even today it’s the salty tang of Pecorino that gives the Roman pastas their distinctive flavour.

In recent years, cacio e pepe has seen a boom in popularity. It was, reportedly, the late Anthony Bourdain’s favourite pasta dish, and its simple flavours have been applied to pizza, crackers, eggs, Dutch babies and even potato chips like the one Miss Vickie’s launched last year.

I’ll admit, cacio e pepe is not my favourite. It was the last dish I had on my tour of pastas, and it was … fine. A bit bland. Something I might eat if I was feeling under the weather. Luckily, the rest more than made up for it.

◗ GRICIA

Ingredients: guanciale, Pecorino Romano, black pepper, starchy pasta water, pasta. Noodle: spaghetti, rigatoni.

Pasta alla gricia is perhaps the least well known of the four, so it may surprise you to learn that it’s considered “the mother of Roman pastas,” its two famous offspring being carbonara and Amatriciana. It’s

basically cacio e pepe with the addition of guanciale, which has been cooked until crispy.

My husband and I had made our way to Trastevere, a lively, somewhat Bohemian neighbourhood across the Tiber River from the historic centre, with narrow cobblestoned streets and dozens of restaurants, bars and artsy boutiques. We’d started the evening drinking Champagne cocktails at the tiny Jerry Thomas Bar Room, named for the historic father of cocktails and designed to evoke an old railway carriage. We emerged ravenous. Luckily, Caramella, a popular casual joint known for authentic Roman food, was nearby. We shortly found ourselves seated at one of the sidewalk tables sipping wine and digging into bowls of rigatoni alla gricia.

The star here is the guanciale, fatty pork jowl that has been cured for several months in salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary and sage. In North America, it’s hard to find outside specialty Italian markets, which is why people often use pancetta instead. Although both are similarly bacon-like, they are not really interchangeable: pancetta comes from the belly of the pig and is cured for a shorter time with less complex spices. As a result, guanciale is richer, butterier and more robust in flavour. It’s fattier, too, which means it crisps up beautifully.

A little surprisingly, the gricia might have been my favourite pasta dish of the week, though that might just have been the convivial atmosphere in a beautiful setting, the perfect end to a perfect Roman day.

◗ AMATRICIANA

Ingredients: guanciale, tomatoes, Pecorino Romano, white wine, black pepper, sometimes crushed red pepper flakes, pasta. Noodle: bucatini, spaghetti, rigatoni.

The day we ordered bucatini all’Amatriciana, it poured in Rome. There were mutterings about floods and a disgruntled mood in the air. The city was still thronged with visitors for the Jubilee of Hope — a record-breaking 33.5 million pilgrims made their way to Rome in 2025 for the Catholic holy year — and between the crowds in their plastic rain ponchos, the slippery cobblestones, the relentless downpour and the sticky humidity, it was with a sense of relief that we found a table safely tucked under an awning near the Piazza Rotonda.

Food + Drink

The waiters were just as crabby as the rest of us, but the white wine was refreshing, the pasta was comforting and we soon found our spirits rising.

Like gricia, Amatriciana is based on guanciale, but with the addition of crushed tomatoes and a touch of heat from red chilies. (“Amatriciana” refers to Amatrice, a nearby town where the dish likely originated; tragically, it was largely destroyed in a massive 2016 earthquake.) The chunks of pork jowl tend to be a little bigger and softer, and the traditional pasta is the long, thick

and hollow bucatini. This is a hearty, satisfying dish, and the easiest of the four to make as there is no tricky emulsification involved.

It is not, however, always the easiest to eat — when cooked al dente, bucatini isn’t very bendy. As you try to twirl it around your fork it tends to spring back, flinging tomato sauce everywhere. By the time we were done, the table looked like a crime scene and we were giggling idiotically. But at least we were happily well fed and our grouchiness had fully disappeared.

GOOD FOOD STARTS WITH THE FINEST INGREDIENTS

◗ CARBONARA

Ingredients: guanciale, Pecorino Romano, eggs, black pepper, starchy pasta water, pasta.

Noodle: spaghetti, bucatini, tonnarelli, rigatoni.

Like Amatriciana, carbonara evolved from gricia, but instead of tomatoes, eggs have been whisked into the sauce, making it decadently rich and creamy.

In the culinary world, there’s a lot of discussion these days about authenticity versus cultural gatekeeping, especially in North America, where so many immigrant communities have merged their culinary traditions. Here it’s not uncommon to see carbonara made with cream, onions, ham, Grùyere, even — somewhat randomly — peas. Of course, none of these would appear in a carbonara in Rome, where the meat is guanciale, the cheese Pecorino Romano and the creaminess always the result of eggs emulsified with pasta water.

But that doesn’t mean every carbonara is the same. It is, for instance, as likely to be made with short, thick, tubular rigatoni as it is with long, skinny strands of spaghetti or bucatini. The guanciale can be cut in tiny cubes or generous chunks; chilies might make an appearance; the amount of egginess can vary widely, too.

And despite all the conversations about authenticity, carbonara doesn’t have the long, storied heritage you might expect. Although it evolved from other, much older pasta-andegg dishes, it only became a thing after the Second World War when American officers stationed in Italy popularized it. No one really knows where the name came from (it might refer to the way flecks of pepper look like carbon or a secret society called the Carbonari or something else entirely), and it didn’t even appear in any cookbooks until the 1950s.

This was the era of La Dolce Vita, Italy’s glamorous, prosperous, post-war boom period, and right in the heart of all the action was the Ristorante Tre Scalini. This restaurant has been overlooking Bernini’s glorious Fountain of the Four Rivers in the Piazza Navona for over 200 years, and was famously Elizabeth Taylor’s favourite hangout back in the day. It is delightfully old school, elegant but not overly fancy. And it serves a great carbonara.

Tre Scalini was the first place we headed upon arriving in Rome, and the servers knew just how to treat a pair of jet-lagged guests still achy from a long, long flight. Glasses of Prosecco quickly appeared and heavy hints were dropped about the arrival of fresh truffles from Alba. Sure enough, when the carbonara landed on the table, it was both luxuriously eggy and buried under an absolute avalanche of sliced tartuffi.

It was among the most joyfully decadent dishes I’ve ever enjoyed, and well worth the journey to the other side of the world.

BUT WAIT A MINUTE …

I went to Rome to savour the city’s four classic pastas, but was a little surprised to discover that there is actually a fifth, though it has nothing to do with sheep’s milk cheese, cured pork jowl, hill-dwelling shepherds or WWII GIs.

In 1908, a restaurateur named Alfredo di Lelio created a simple but rich dish of fresh pasta tossed with butter and Parmesan for his wife as she was convalescing after childbirth. Hollywood stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford discovered it in the 1920s and popularized it in the United States, where it was more likely to be made with heavy cream.

The dish, of course, is fettuccine Alfredo.

Hmmm. Guess that means I’d better start planning a return trip soon.

RECIPES

A NOTE ON INGREDIENTS

Cacio e Pepe

This is the most basic of the Roman pasta recipes, literally just cheese and pepper.

Serves 4 to 6

Substitutions: These recipes should be made with cured pork jowl (guanciale) and Pecorino Romano cheese, both of which you can find at some Italian and specialty markets. In a pinch, you can replace guanciale with pancetta and Pecorino with Parmigiano Reggiano.

Variations: These recipes do not traditionally include ingredients such as cream, onions, garlic or peas. That said, even some Roman restaurants occasionally switch up the classics. Trattoria al Moro, for instance, famously adds chilis to its carbonara and Tre Scalini has been known to shower it in truffles. So if you decide to add a little garlic to your Amatriciana, we won’t tell.

Pasta: These recipes call for dried pasta, which has the firmness to handle all that rich cheese and pork. Ideally, choose a pasta that has been extruded though bronze moulds (“dies”); this creates a porous surface that holds onto sauces and releases plenty of starch for pasta water. Look for “trafilata al bronzo” or “al bronzo” on the label.

Salt: For truly flavourful pasta, you should always salt the water it’s cooked in. About a teaspoon of kosher salt per litre is plenty, a bit less if you’re using sea salt. A good ratio is: one pound of pasta + one heaping tablespoon of kosher salt + four litres water.

• Salt as needed, preferably kosher

• 1 lb (450 g/1 pkg) dried pasta such as spaghetti, bucatini or tonnarelli

• ½ cup (2 oz/60 g) finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus additional for serving

• 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper, plus more for serving

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, then add the pasta and cook until al dente (firm to the bite), according to package directions.

While the pasta cooks, in a large skillet over medium heat, toast the freshly ground black pepper for about 1 minute, until fragrant, to “bloom” the flavour.

Using tongs, add the pasta to the skillet with the black pepper, ladle in about ½ cup of pasta water, then remove the skillet from the heat (see note).

Add the Pecorino Romano cheese and toss everything together vigorously. The hot, starchy water will melt the cheese into a creamy, glossy sauce. If it seems too dry, add more pasta water, a little at a time; if it’s too runny, add a little extra cheese to thicken it up. Serve immediately with additional cheese and black pepper.

Note: Rather than using tongs and a ladle to add pasta and water from pot to skillet, you can instead scoop out a measuring cup full of starchy pasta water and set it aside while you drain the pasta in a colander. Add the noodles to the skillet, then drizzle in the water as needed.

Before adding the cheese, remove the skillet from the burner and use its residual heat to finish the dish — direct high heat can cause the cheese to form unappealing, greasy clumps.

Food + Drink

Pasta alla Gricia

Known as the “mother of Roman pastas,” this lesser-known dish is made similarly to cacio e pepe, but stepped up with the addition of crisp guanciale and its fat.

Serves 4 to 6

• 8 oz (225 g) guanciale, cut into cubes or strips (see note)

• Salt as needed

• 1 lb (450 g or 1 pkg) dried pasta such as spaghetti or rigatoni

• ½ cup (2 oz/60 g) finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus additional for serving

• Freshly ground pepper, to taste

In a large sauté pan over medium heat, cook the guanciale until it has rendered most (but not all) of its fat and is lightly browned and crispy.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, according to package directions.

Using tongs, transfer the pasta to the skillet, along with a ladleful of the pasta water. Sauté the pasta in the skillet, stirring frequently, for a minute or two.

Remove from heat and add the cheese and a generous grinding of black pepper. Mix everything together vigorously until the cheese has completely melted into the sauce.

Serve immediately, with additional grated cheese and freshly ground pepper.

Note: When cutting guanciale, trim off the tough bottom skin and discard it before slicing the rest into cubes or strips. It also helps to place the guanciale in the freezer to firm up for 15 to 30 minutes before slicing.

Pasta all’Amatriciana

This is basically pasta alla gricia with the addition of tomatoes and a hint of spice. Note that it is not traditional to add onions or garlic to this, but if you insist, stir them into the hot rendered pork fat along with the optional chili flakes.

Serves 4 to 6

• ½ lb (225 g) guanciale, cut into small cubes or strips

• Optional: ½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes

• Optional: cup dry white wine

• 1 can (28 oz/800g) whole peeled or crushed tomatoes, preferably San Marzano (see note)

• Salt as needed

• 1 lb (450 g) pasta (bucatini, spaghetti or rigatoni)

• ½ cup (2 oz/60 g) finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus additional for serving

• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat a large sauté pan over medium-low heat, then add the guanciale cubes or strips. Cook slowly for about 8 to 10 minutes until the fat has rendered and the meat is crisp and golden.

Use a slotted spoon to remove the crispy guanciale pieces and set them aside, leaving

the rendered fat in the pan.

If using, add red pepper flakes to the guanciale fat and sizzle for about 30 seconds. Increase the heat and pour in the white wine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer until the wine reduces slightly, about 2 minutes.

Stir in the crushed tomatoes. Bring the sauce to a simmer and cook for 10 to 20 minutes, until the sauce is slightly thickened. Return the crispy guanciale pieces to the pan.

While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, according to package directions.

Using tongs, transfer the pasta into the pan with the sauce. Turn the heat to high and cook pasta and sauce together for a minute or two. Stir constantly so the pasta is well coated; if it looks dry, add a little pasta water to create a glossy sauce.

Remove the pan from the heat, then stir in the grated Pecorino Romano cheese and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. Add a bit more pasta water to create a glossy sauce.

Serve immediately with additional cheese and black pepper.

SATURNA ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA VINEYARD, WINERY & BISTRO

In the heart of British Columbia’s Southern Gulf Islands, settle onto our terrace, sip our wines, and savour seasonal fare — rooted in the sea.

Note: If you are using whole tomatoes, before you start cooking, gently crush them with your hands or an immersion blender to a sauce-like consistency.

VISIT US - Reach us by float plane, ferry, or boat - we have private boat slips and mooring buoys. Open seasonally, May to October.

32 Trueworthy Road, Saturna, BC, VON 2Y0 250.791.0380 | info@sagehaywardvineyards.com sagehaywardvineyards.com | @sagehaywardvineyards.com

BRING SPRING HOME

Enjoy the blooming beauty of tulips year-round with a stunning, lifelike bouquet! The realistic petals of Abbott’s 5-stem tulip bunches deliver timeless beauty — no watering, no wilting, just effortless elegance.

Pasta Carbonara

This recipe builds on pasta alla gricia by adding eggs to the mix, which means that you not only need to create an emulsion with the fat and water, you also need to temper the eggs to avoid cooking them into a scrambled mess. It’s tricky, but done right, the result is a perfect combination of rich, creamy, salty and crunchy.

Serves 4 to 6

• ½ lb (225 g) guanciale, diced or sliced

• 3 to 4 whole eggs, at room temperature

• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

• ½ cup (2 oz/60 g) finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus additional for serving

• Salt as needed

• 1 lb (450 g/1 pkg) dried pasta such as spaghetti, bucatini or rigatoni

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil.

While the water is heating up, heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the guanciale and cook it slowly until it has rendered most of its fat and is crispy and golden brown.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the eggs with the cheese and a few generous grinds of black pepper.

Once the water has reached a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook until it is al dente, according to package directions.

Using tongs, add the pasta to the sauté pan with the guanciale and remove from heat.

Slowly and carefully pour about ½ cup pasta water into the egg and cheese mixture, whisking constantly — you want to bring the temperature of the eggs up without scrambling them.

Add the eggs to the pasta and, working very quickly, toss everything together, adding more pasta water if necessary to create a creamy sauce.

Serve at once with the additional cheese and freshly ground black pepper.

Food + Drink

By Joanne Sasvari

VINTAGE DESIGN

A dream wine cellar has custom racks, a tasting table and climatecontrolled environment — just like this cellar in the Land’s End project by Christopher Developments.

If you’ve started collecting wine, you need some place to store it. Here are some ideas.

It starts slowly. You pick up a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino on a trip to Italy and decide to hold onto it for a special occasion. Then you attend a wine festival and gather a few more special bottles. On a visit to the Okanagan or Cowichan wine country, you fill a carton with vintage treasures. Finally, you join a wine club. Suddenly you need a place to put all that wine. You need a wine cellar.

Unfortunately, many of us don’t have a perfectly climate-controlled basement area with lots of space (and no spiders). But there are other options for keeping your wine safe, well-protected and attractively arranged.

THE ENEMIES OF WINE

The purpose of a wine cellar is not just to show off your collection. It’s to protect your wine from the environmental conditions that can destroy it. Wine is a living thing that continues to evolve in the bottle, and is particularly vulnerable to three conditions: temperature, light and vibration.

Wine is happiest between 10°C and 15°C — a.k.a. cellar temperature — and the worst thing you can do to it is expose it to excess heat for any extended period of time. Heat speeds up the aging process, leading the wine’s structure to collapse and its vibrant fruit flavours to go flat, flabby, even “cooked.” It’s not just a matter of keeping the temperature cool. You want to keep it consistent and slightly humid because dramatic temperature swings and very dry air can cause the cork to contract, allowing tiny, but highly destructive, amounts of oxygen into the bottle.

Light — even indirect sunlight — can be just as damaging. When UV rays penetrate the glass, they can cause chemical reactions that degrade the wine’s compounds, a condition known as “light strike.” Wine in clear bottles is especially vulnerable.

Vibration, meanwhile, can disturb the maturation process, stir up natural sediment and cause chemical imbalances that degrade flavour, aroma and texture. It’s particularly hard on big,

complex reds that need long aging, which is why you really don’t want to store your precious Barolos, Bordeaux reds and vintage Ports next to your stereo speakers.

YOUR STORAGE SOLUTIONS

Given all that, two of the most popular places to store wine — over top of your fridge or in the garage — are also the very worst ones. Instead, find a place that is cool, dark and stable, with consistent temperature and humidity. In other words, yes, a cellar.

If you don’t have a basement that will do the job, and you don’t want to rent wine storage space, you can approximate a cellar elsewhere in your home.

The easiest solution is simply to buy a wine fridge, which can usually fit in a kitchen, pantry or den, but is limited in how much wine it can hold.

Alternatively, you can transform a cupboard, closet, pantry, section of wall or under-stair area on a lower floor into a wine “cellar,” as long as it’s away from exterior walls, light or humming

appliances. To do so, you will need:

• A well-insulated and humidity-controlled space.

• A cooling system that keeps the entire space at around 13°C and 60 to 70 per cent humidity.

• Lighting that produces minimal heat and no UV rays, ideally low-intensity, UVfree LED. Avoid fluorescent lights, which can emit damaging UV rays, or high-heat halogen lighting.

• Racking, either kit or custom. Remember: Wine needs to be stored on its side to prevent corks drying out. There are many different styles of racks you can choose from. Custom racks accommodate awkward spaces and non-standard sizes and are ideal if you want a showcase cellar to display your collection. Kits, however, are generally less expensive. Whatever you choose, make sure the racks are sturdy, stable and attached to the wall.

• A door that locks, seals properly and doesn’t allow light in.

• Additional security, especially if you have a lot of very valuable wines.

A wine cellar may seem like an indulgence, but if you have even a few good bottles of wine,

HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR WINE

Once you have the wine and a place to put it all, how do you organize and maintain your cellar?

You can organize your cellar by region, variety, producer or a combination.

Organizing by region is ideal for larger collections, for instance, separating wines by the Old World (France, Italy) and New World (B.C., California, Australia).

Organizing by style may be more practical for most people: Group wines first by type (red, white, rosé, sparkling, fortified), then by grape (Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chardonnay) and then by producer or drinking window (placing wines meant to be consumed soonest where they are most accessible).

If you have space, you could also create display areas or install a tasting table (with glassware and spittoons) where friends can gather to sample your wines.

A wine collection can get unruly fast. To stay on top of the chaos, you need an inventory system, either a spreadsheet or a digital inventory app such as CellarTracker, Vivino or InVintory.

Other good practices include:

• Placing frequently accessed bottles at eye level or in easy-to-reach racks.

• Keeping bottles from the same case together.

• Labelling things clearly.

• Keeping your space clutter free by removing bottles you no longer intend to drink.

With

Three to Cellar

If you can find them, tuck these exceptional B.C. red Bordeaux blends in your cellar for a special day.

1. Hester Creek Estate Winery 2022

The Judge

The big, bold and juicy flagship wine of this Golden Mile winery is a classic Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec, with mouthwatering notes of dark cherry, cocoa, cedar, a hint of spice and a touch of tobacco.

2. Painted Rock Estate Winery 2021

Red Icon

This elegant but powerful Bordeaux blend (Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Petit Verdot) from the Skaha Bench is fragrant with notes of violet, dark chocolate and black fruit (cassis, blackberries, plums, black cherries) and hints of pepper, baking spices and Okanagan sage.

3. Corcelettes Estate Winery 2022 Talus

From the steep, rocky talus slopes of the Similkameen Valley sprang this gorgeous, gold medal-winning Bordeaux blend (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot). It’s rich with plush black fruits (blackberry, plum, cassis), but still delightfully fresh and well-structured, with subtle herbal notes and just a hint of spice.

A Mighty Wind

For Meridiem Wind Orchestra, brassy flourish meets polished virtuosity.

By David Lennam |

Photo by Jeffrey Bosdet

Some might say listening to the music of a wind ensemble is like hearing only the best parts of a symphony orchestra performance. Or at least the most exciting bits, where everything sounds like an overture, all that brassy flourish and crashing percussion.

Scott MacInnes chuckles at the suggestion. The artistic director of Victoria’s Meridiem Wind Orchestra since 2015 oversees more than 40 unpaid professionals who perform twice a year with a set list you’re unlikely to hear elsewhere — modern classical with a twist.

“I think there’s an absolutely phenomenal set of repertoire,” he says, stressing it’s as elevated as anything the Victoria Symphony offers, but goes beyond the typical classical canon. “There’s so much more to what the wind band can do.”

Meridiem was formed in 2013 by George Corwin to give music teachers a group to play with. Since then, MacInnes says, they’ve attracted pros from the jazz world, various symphony orchestras and the Naden Band (the Royal Canadian Navy’s band of 35 full-time

professional musicians, in operation since 1940), all enticed by both the music and musicianship.

“Naden Band members who play band music at least five days a week then come and volunteer to play in our band because it’s that different and that fun and high calibre,” MacInnes says.

This past year, for the first time, Meridiem ran a competition offering a top high school wind player the chance to perform as a soloist at their May 14 concert. MacInnes, who has been teaching music at UVic for 19 years and often plays with the Victoria Symphony, calls it rare for a teenager to join an outfit like Meridiem as woodwinds and brass players don’t typically mature, musically speaking, until they get to university age.

The nine applicants (all outstanding, according to MacInnes) included several flutes, trumpet, trombone, clarinet and sax. The winner, Daniel Sanabria Torres, is a 14-year-old flautist originally from Colombia, who is being home schooled. He not only gets to take the spotlight, but earns a recording of the concert,

professional coaching and $750.

Wind ensembles, or orchestras, first gained prominence in the early 1950s. They can be differentiated from concert bands by having one person per part rather than several. It’s less about numbers and decibels than it is about polish and virtuosity.

Today there are few wind orchestras in Canada, fewer still of this calibre. And while Meridiem’s initial goal of offering music teachers a group to play with is still in the mandate, the main goal now is to simply make the best possible wind ensemble music.

“We want to be at the level of the Naden Band, but [we] do rep that they can’t do because they’re so restricted in terms of numbers,” MacInnes says. “They can’t put on some of the pieces we put on because they need, like, 12 percussionists.”

Check out Meridiem (with soloist Daniel Sanabria Torres) May 14 at the Dave Dunnet Community Theatre at Oak Bay High. meridiemwindorchestra.ca

CULTURE CALENDAR

There’s something for everyone who needs a break from home.

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Until April 12, Royal BC Museum

Back for its 61st year, this powerful exhibition captures the world’s fragile beauty in images of stunning landscapes and diverse wildlife. Among them: “Ghost Town Visitor,” South African photographer Wim van den Heever’s grand-titlewinning photo of a lone brown hyena gazing upon the remains of an abandoned mining town in Namibia. royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

VICTORIA JAZZ SOCIETY PRESENTS DOMINIQUE FILS-AIMÉ

March 6, Studio 919

Juno award-winning singer-songwriter and Polaris Music Prize finalist Dominique Fils-Aimé’s latest album, My World Is The Sun, explores sonic, creative and spiritual freedom. rmts.bc.ca

DANCE VICTORIA PRESENTS GALLIM

March 6 and 7, Royal Theatre

In this Victoria premiere, critically acclaimed performance company GALLIM showcases a mixed program featuring primal movements, boisterous vignettes and intimate duets. GALLIM’s bold choreography is led by founder Andrea Miller, the first choreographer to be named artist in residence at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. rmts.bc.ca

MODERN WEDDING SHOW

March 8, Crystal Garden

Vancouver Island’s largest wedding and event industry showcase returns with an array of luxurious vendor displays, indulgent catering samples and exclusive contests and giveaways. Attendance is a must for anyone seeking inspiration for upcoming special occasions. modernwedding.ca

CASTING FOR MURDER

March 11 to 29, Langham Court Theatre

Produced in partnership with Elihu Entertainment and based on the novel by Elizabeth Elwood, this thrilling murder mystery follows a flourishing actress who inherits a fortune when her aunt is murdered on an isolated Gulf island. Three years later, while preparing for a highlight acting role, new evidence about the murder casts a sinister wrench in her career. langhamtheatre.ca

JEREMY DUTCHER IN CONCERT

March 14 and 15, Royal Theatre

Jeremy Dutcher, first two-time winner of the Polaris Album Prize, makes his Victoria Symphony debut with a blend of classical influences and traditional songs from his home in Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick. rmts.bc.ca

PACIFIC RIM WHALE FESTIVAL

March 14 to 21, various locations, Tofino and Ucluelet

A celebration of the Pacific grey whales returning to Vancouver Island during their northern migration. Complete with marinethemed events, a street parade of oceanic floats, community markets, a getaway raffle draw and the Baleen Bash party on closing night. pacificrimwhalefestival.com

BALLET VICTORIA PRESENTS THE RITE OF SPRING

March 20 to 22, Royal Theatre

Igor Stravinsky’s avant garde masterpiece springs to life on stage in a spectacle of passion and imagination. Dynamic music and physicality, as well as exciting new choreography by Ballet Victoria’s resident artist Andrea Bayne, make for a viscerally dramatic experience. rmts.bc.ca

VICTORIA SYMPHONY PRESENTS KLUXEN – HAYDN & STRAUSS

March 22, University Farquhar Auditorium

This engaging musical journey celebrates humour and ingenuity through three distinct generations of orchestral music, courtesy of the Victoria Symphony under Maestro Christian Kluxen. rmts.bc.ca

Compiled by Julien Johnston-Brew

INTERNATIONAL KIZOMBA FESTIVAL

April 2 to 6, Victoria Conference Centre

Dance enthusiasts are invited to explore the rich genres of kizomba, bachata, urban kiz, reggaeton and more through workshops, educational sessions and social dancing put on by the AfroLatin Cultural Exchange Society. Attendees will also enjoy a gala of performances and fashion shows that highlight African designers and culture. alces.world

CHOIR OF KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

April 11, Christ Church Cathedral; April 12, Royal Theatre

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear one of the world’s most renowned choral groups, in two separate performances. The first is in the cathedral’s soaring space where the men’s and boys’ choir founded in the 15th century performs a mainly a capella program. That’s followed by an appearance at the Royal Theatre, this time performing Mozart’s Requiem with the Victoria Symphony. christchurchcathedral.bc.ca; rmts.bc.ca

LESBIHONEST

April 12, Mary Winspear Centre

A one-woman standup comedy show following Laura Piccinin’s journey of “coming outs.” Piccinin explores the discovery process of self-identity, as well as the ever-shifting societal view of LGBTQ+ people in this eccentric dive through lived experiences. marywinspear.ca

CASEY AND DIANA

April 21 to May 17, Belfry Theatre

This inspired-by-true-events drama features Thomas, a patient from Toronto’s Casey House — Canada’s first hospice for men dying of AIDS — who has been waiting five long months to die. But he sheds his apathy at the prospect of meeting his idol, Princess Diana, whose 1991 visit to Casey House changed the world’s attitude towards the fatal affliction. belfry.bc.ca

PACIFIC NORTHWEST CREATIVES SUMMIT

April 22 and 23, Victoria Conference Centre

An engaging series of workshops, panels, presentations and readings designed to spark ideas, deepen conversations and build meaningful connections within the creative community. The event closes with an evening of cultural performances, a fashion showcase, music, a cash bar and light fare. pnwsummit.ca

PERSPECTIVE OUR FINE, FEATHERED ARCHITECTS

By Joanne Sasvari

The architects of the animal world construct some pretty cool and complex structures, including beavers’ dams, termites’ mounds or social spiders’ vast communal webs. But among the most charming, whimsical and quite frankly odd of all the animal structures is the bushtit’s nest.

Bushtits (Psaltriparus minimus) are tiny, grey-brown songbirds that live here year-round, chirping and twittering merrily all over southern Vancouver Island. They flock around parks, gardens and suburban woodlands, especially among oak trees, where they dine on insects such as aphids and small caterpillars, making them good friends to local gardeners.

If you look closely among the trees where they like to hang out, you might be able to spot their unusual nests: long, sock-shaped pouches intricately woven from moss, lichen and spider webs. They are typically camouflaged with bits of nearby foliage, including bits of the trees they hang from, so they are not easy to detect.

More remarkable is what you can’t see: the cozy — indeed, luxurious — interior. The birds pop through a side entrance into a space lined with down, fur and feathers, a soft, safe haven for the parents and the four to 10 eggs in the family.

Even with the rest of the flock pitching in, it takes up to a month to build each nest, which can hang as much as a foot from its branch. And, rare in the animal world, male and female bushtits work together, both on constructing the nest and raising their nestlings.

A community coming together to create something beautiful and functional, while also raising the next generation? Not only is the bushtit’s nest a fascinating structure, it’s one the rest of us might be able to learn from, too.