YAM magazine Mar/Apr 2023

ISSUE 83 MAR/APR 2023

yammagazine.com

HOUSEPLANT HEAVEN

Clever design transforms a 1950s cottage into a contemporary home

A Mid-Century Masterpiece on the Edge

AT HOME WITH ART HOW TO:

CURATE YOUR COLLECTIONS Take a shortcation by the seashore

HOME ISSUE

The all-electric Mercedes-EQE Sedan.

The EQE Sedan is the embodiment of unrivalled Mercedes-Benz quality and comfort with effortless confidence, inspiring engineering, and remarkable technology. The exciting future of electrified, luxurious motoring is here to be experienced today.

With up to 547km on one charge[1] and fast charging in as little as 32 minutes[2], every journey is one of captivation and silent serenity.

Book your test drive today at Three Point Motors or Mercedes-Benz Nanaimo.

Three Point Motors

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Mercedes-Benz Nanaimo

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©2023 Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc. 2023 EQE Sedan shown above for illustration purposes only. [1] All electric range up to 547km is based on the 2023 EQE 350 4MATIC Sedan. Range based on optimal driving conditions and will vary based on environment, temperature, and battery age. [2] Fast charging time of 32 minutes is based on the 2023 EQE 350 4MATIC Sedan utilizing a DC fast charging station with 500 amps. Please see Three Point Motors or Mercedes-Benz Nanaimo for complete details. Three Point Motors DL9818 #30817. Mercedes-Benz Nanaimo DL9808 #30818

Cheers!

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HOME ISSUE

ON THE COVER

Contrast and Complement See story on page 34.

CONTENTS IN EVERY ISSUE 10 EDITOR’S LETTER 13 HERE + NOW

The perfect vase for spring blossoms; West Coast B.C. designers; a pretty spring frock; spring wellness tips; YAM’s long table dinners.

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54

Biophilia for beginners: How to fill your home with plants you’ll love.

An architectural masterpiece by Arthur Erickson perches on the Comox Bluffs — and on the edge of fading into history.

A NEW LEAF

By Wendy McLellan

28

AT HOME WITH ART

YAM’s guide to choosing and buying artworks for your home.

By Joanne Sasvari

42

ONE POTATO, TWO

Fried, mashed or baked au gratin: spuds always have a place on our table.

By Cinda Chavich

6

YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

DESIGN ON THE EDGE

By Andrew Findlay

62

GET CREATIVE WITH COLLECTIONS Show off your favourite things by following these handy tips.

By David Lennam

66

SERENITY AT THE SEASHORE

22 IN PERSON

Celebrated distance runner Lucy Smith laces up new shoes as race director of the TC10K.

By David Lennam

34 HOME + LIFESTYLE

Mixing vintage and contemporary design transforms a 1950s cottage into a perfectly modern home.

By Danielle Pope

48 STYLE WATCH

Textured knits and traditional tartans take on spring in this highlander fling.

Styled by Janine Metcalfe

72 SCENE

For Dave Morris, the unscripted play’s the thing at Paper Street Theatre.

By David Lennam

74 PERSPECTIVE

Need a refresh? Find it by the seashore in Parksville and Qualicum Beach.

Look closer: Fairfield’s last few hitching posts are the parking meters of the past.

By Joanne Sasvari

By Joanne Sasvari

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C O N D O S & TO W N H O M E S »

SO L D

IN T RO DUC I N G

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S I N G L E FA M I LY H O M E S »

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Filling our homes with things we love

H

ome, it has been said, is where the heart is. But it might be more accurate to say that home is where the stuff is. Even tidying-up guru Marie Kondo has given up on controlling the clutter. Now that she’s a mom, she’s finding it more important to spend time with her family. To which we say, whew. Thanks for letting us off the hook!

Clutter, admittedly, can be exhausting. Buying bins and baskets and off-site storage to control it can be expensive. So is buying all that stuff in the first place. There’s nothing like a good dejunking to make you wonder if the money you squandered on all those random things might have been better spent on, say, a trip to Italy.

Then again, it’s important to surround ourselves with things we love. As we started working on YAM’s annual Home Issue, we kept thinking about the items that, as Kondo might say, “spark joy” in our own homes.

That might mean a work of art or a potted plant or our collections of vintage glassware or baseball hats. It could be our favourite sofa, which has just the right amount of worn-in comfiness for curling up with a good book. And, of course, we still make room for books, for cookbooks and travel guides and paperback mysteries, even if it would be tidier to download them to our tablets.

We spend a lot of time thinking about our homes. (And yes, we humbly acknowledge how fortunate we are to have roofs over our heads at all when so many others do not.) Whether we rent or own, and whether we live in tiny condos or sprawling mansions or something in between, our homes are where we care for our families and welcome our friends. They are where we get to be our true selves. No wonder we put so much effort into making them look beautiful.

As you’ll read in this issue, the late great architect Arthur Erickson once built a house to save the soul of someone he loved. That’s a noble ambition for any structure.

Then again, when we fill our homes with things we cherish, aren’t we all just creating a place for the people we love? I like to think so.

Joanne Sasvari, Editor in Chief

VOICES IN CIRCLE

SEBASTIAN GASKIN

MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST R&B SINGER-SONGWRITER

editor@yammagazine.com

Heart of the House SATURDAY

MAR 11 7:00 PM

“...think Post Malone mixed with Frank Ocean, all swag and smooth vocals, hits of hip-hop and rap, rounded out with emotive thoughtful lyrics.” Winnipeg Free Press sebastiangaskin.com

250-721-8480 | tickets.uvic.ca 10

YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

Takao Tanabe, Home (1967)

There’s a reason why West Coast Modernism is such an enduring style. Its hallmark clean lines, flat roofs, large windows and seamless integration between building and landscape are just how we like to live on this edge of the continent. Now you can get a glimpse of the art and objects so integral to mid-20th century living at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s ongoing exhibit, Heart of the House: Art & the West Coast Modern Home, until May 14. Who knows, it might just inspire your own next renovation.

“ Do it big. Do it right.

” — Fred Astaire

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tug-o-war no more

PUBLISHERS Lise Gyorkos, Georgina Camilleri EDITOR IN CHIEF Joanne Sasvari DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Jeffrey Bosdet PRODUCTION MANAGER Jennifer Kühtz DIGITAL MARKETING CONSULTANT Amanda Wilson LEAD GRAPHIC DESIGNER Janice Hildybrant ASSOCIATE GRAPHIC DESIGNER Caroline Segonnes MARKETING COORDINATOR Claire Villaraza ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Lauren Ingle ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS Doug Brown, Will Gillis, Cynthia Hanischuk, Brenda Knapik FASHION EDITOR Janine Metcalfe

Have you ever played duvet tug-o-war with your partner? You're not alone!

St Genève’s new Euro Twin size was developed to bring peace back to your bed with two individual duvets, so that each sleeper can have a good night’s sleep tailoredFine to their needs. linen duvet cover and

Shanghai Garden

shams from Designers Guild

Visit us at Muffet & Louisa, we would love to help you choose the perfect duvets.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Cinda Chavich, Andrew Findlay, David Lennam, Danielle Pope, Wendy McLellan PROOFREADER Paula Marchese CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jody Beck, James Jones CONTRIBUTING AGENCIES Getty Images p. 42, 44; Living4Media p. 64, 65; Stocksy p. 43, 46; Unsplash p. 19, 63 GENERAL INQUIRIES info@yammagazine.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR letters@yammagazine.com TO SUBSCRIBE TO YAM subscriptions@yammagazine.com ADVERTISING INQUIRIES sales@yammagazine.com ONLINE yammagazine.com INSTAGRAM @yam_magazine FACEBOOK facebook.com/YAMmagazine TWITTER twitter.com/YAMmagazine ON THE COVER Home + Lifestyle: Contrast and Complement See story on page 34.

Photo by Jody Beck.

Published by PAGE ONE PUBLISHING 580 Ardersier Road, Victoria, B.C. V8Z 1C7 T 250-595-7243 info@pageonepublishing.ca pageonepublishing.ca Printed in British Columbia by Mitchell Press.

Ideas and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of Page One Publishing Inc. or its affiliates; no official endorsement should be inferred. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for the contents of any advertisement, and any and all representations or warranties made in such advertising are those of the advertiser and not the publisher. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, in all or part, in any form — printed or electronic — without the express permission of the publisher. The publisher cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs.

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A COMFORT LEGEND AND A FASHION STAPLE

1023 Fort Street | 250.920.7653 | heartandsoleshoes.ca

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YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

ADVERTISE IN YAM MAGAZINE YAM is Victoria’s lifestyle magazine, connecting readers to the distinctive lifestyle and authentic luxury of the West Coast.

For advertising info, please call 250-595-7243 or email sales@yammagazine.com.

BC

HERE + NOW

Branch Out Display sprays of spring blossoms in a sculptural vase that is also a piece of art.

PHOTO: ERIKA ARBOUR-NEVINS | FLOWERS:ANNA PERZEL, FORGET-ME-NOT FLOWER FARM

Ceramic artist Erika Arbour-Nevins believes that you should play with asymmetry when arranging flowers, and that’s just what her custom-made Arc vase is designed to do. This sculptural swoop has 17 holes of different sizes to arrange blooms of all sorts. It is handmade to order, of speckled buff stoneware in white, black or a natural clay with a glazed interior. The Sooke-based artist originally designed the vase for the bar corners at Wild Mountain restaurant, but Arc could easily work in any home setting, too. It’s just what you need to showcase spring’s branches of cherry blossoms, bunches of tulips or fragrant bundles of fresh herbs.

YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

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HERE + NOW

WEST COAST, BY DESIGN A new book offers a guide to our best interior designers, architects and their projects.

MARTIN KNOWLES AND ONE SEED ARCHITECTURE + INTERIORS

L

ike so many of us, author Julia Dilworth found inspiration in the IKEA catalogue. But she didn’t use it to design her kitchen or shop for a Billy bookcase. She used it to create her own book. “It’s, like, 100 pages of back-to-back design,” she says. “I wanted to basically create that, but with all the best interior designers from this area all in one space.”

Now she has. Dilworth’s new book West Coast North (Figure 1 Publishing) rounds up 29 design firms and 88 projects from Victoria to Vancouver to Whistler in a volume that is as useful as it is beautiful.

“The common thread through the book is it’s all B.C. designers and it’s all B.C. designs,” Dilworth says.

“It’s not all West Coast Modern, which is a common style here,” she adds. “Even for a traditional project, it’s that attention to detail and including a lot of organic material like wood and stone. There’s wood, there’s steel, there’s natural materials and you’re always trying to bring the outdoors in.”

She was most impressed by the intentionality brought to designs like Full House in Vancouver, which is meant to support the family living there for 137 years with spaces that can change as needed. “It just feels like the future to me,” Dilworth says.

She also notes that even high end studios are working with developers on rental and commercial properties to make their designs accessible to everyone. “I like that and it made me very happy,” she says. “[Great design] is powerful, and it should not be overlooked.”

< Clean lines, airy spaces and the abundant use of natural materials are among the hallmarks of west coast interior design.

Design Inspo > We live in a visual world. These three books will help you see things in a whole new way.

As the go-to stylist for brands ranging from Anthropologie to Zara Home, Colin King knows a thing or two about displaying objects creatively.

Now, in Arranging Things, he explains how to take stuff you already have and compose it in sophisticated new vignettes.

More than a design book, this is a meditation on finding meaning in the everyday.

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YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

As the past few years proved in tragic detail, modern cities aren’t designed to protect us from highly contagious diseases. In Blaine Brownell’s The Pandemic Effect, the world’s leading experts, including architects, designers, materials scientists and health officials, discuss how to design communities that are safe from future pandemics.

Behaviourist Temple Grandin taught us to see autism differently. Now, in Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions, she encourages us to appreciate the contributions of visual thinkers — who are often overlooked, to all of our detriment — and learn how to celebrate, work with and advocate for them, too.

1

PRETTY SPRING PASTELS Welcome the lighter, brighter days of spring with colours as soft and romantic as the flowering trees outside. No need to completely make over your home; just add a few select pieces in hues of rose, lilac and buttercup — starting with these.

2

1 Shed chic light with the Muuto Ambit pendant lamp, designed by TAF Studio and available at Gabriel Ross. 2 Step lively with the Modern Shapes rug from West Elm. 3 Cozy up with the blush pink velvet Lucca scatter pillow from Article. 4 These lilac porcelain plates from The Proper Table are perfect for your sweetest treats. 5 Add a charming mid-century vibe to your patio with the Hot Mesh armchair and ottoman (shown here in aqua and natural yellow) from Blu Dot, available through Chester Fields.

6 Brighten your kitchen with adorable lavender screen-printed kitty tea towels from Belle General.

3

4

5 6

YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

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HERE + NOW

Soothe Your Soul A HAVN for when you are just soooo done with everything.

Ebb & Flow makes beautiful jewelry with gems from the sea.

S

PHOTOS: MELANIE ORR

ea glass begins its journey as, basically, garbage: broken bottles, discarded tableware, missing fishing floats, even shipwrecks. But then the ocean’s salt water and restless motion dehydrate, tumble and chemically transform it into softly rounded, mistycoloured, naturally frosted glass.

You can find sea glass on the beach, gleaming green, blue or white amid the pebbles. Or you can pick up one of the pretty silver pieces from Victoria’s Ebb & Flow Handmade Jewelry. Created by artist Megan Hagberg, these necklaces, rings and bracelets are made with sterling silver or gold and sea glass she personally hand picks on the beach. Each piece is set to highlight the shape the ocean created, which means you, too, can be swept away by the force of the sea.

Ebb & Flow’s sterling silver and sea glass jewelry is designed to let the wearer’s natural beauty shine.

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YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

1. Talk to your peers for support and validation.

2. Take time to acknowledge how you feel, but don’t wallow.

3. M ost importantly, no matter how busy you are, schedule time every day to disconnect and rest.

A Do-It-All Day Dress Who doesn’t need a pretty, functional spring frock?

LUCY POSKITT

IN A GLASS OF ITS OWN

When we heard that Victoria city council had unanimously approved a floating sauna called HAVN for the Inner Harbour, we thought, yep, we get it. We, too, are craving a soothing space to steam away our stresses.

This “waterpark for adults” featuring saunas, cold pools and green space will most likely open off Ship Point by summer.

In the meantime, Jennifer Moss, author of the book The Burnout Epidemic, has advice for dealing with the blahs so many of us are feeling after three pandemic years.

She suggests:

A good day dress makes life easy. It fits, it flatters, it goes anywhere and with anything and, best of all, it has pockets. It’s the epitome of effortless dressing. We’re always on the search for one, which is why we were so excited to spot the Ava dress at Smoking Lily. It’s based on their popular Kapow dress — it has the same flattering elastic ruching, pleats and V-neck — but with added sleeves and a longer hem. We especially love it in springy, floral organic cotton, and plan to wear it everywhere.

The Sixth Sense Get a taste of the mysterious at the next YAM Long Table Dinner.

Beyond touch, sight, smell, hearing and taste, there is a sixth sense. But what is it? Magician Jason Verners and chef Castro Boateng plan to conjure up the answer to that at The Sixth Sense, a long table dinner and theatrical performance hosted by YAM magazine on May 4.

Victoria’s own Verners has been described as “one of the most promising rising stars in magic today” by VANISH magazine; Boateng is the YAM Restaurant Awards 2022 Chef of the Year.

Together they will host this magical six-part feast at HOB Fine Foods. Each of Boateng’s six courses will be paired with a moment of mystery

by Verners that will unlock and reveal one of your senses.

This may well be the most immersive dinner theatre you will ever experience.

Look for two more YAM Long Table Dinners to come this year on September 7 and November 2.

For more information or to make your reservation, visit hobfinefoods.ca.

A Caf feinated Giveaway

Contest Alert!

One lucky winner will receive a Nespresso machine!

The Nespresso Essenza Mini D is a small but mighty machine. Its compact size means it will fit just about anywhere; its powerful, easy-to-use design means it will pump out enough espresso to start your morning right and keep you going all day. Plus it is bold on style, personality, and most importantly, on taste. Now that’s worth waking up to!

The total retail value of the machine, including a selection of Nespresso coffees, is $300.

Scan the QR code to enter or visit yammagazine.com. Contest closes April 30. Good luck!

COMPLETE EYE EXAMINATIONS BY

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CLIENT: MAYCOCK EYECARE YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023 17 PUBLICATION: YAM MAGAZINE SHIPPING DATE: NOV 2022; AD SIZE: 4.94” x 9.58”

HERE + NOW TASTES + TRENDS

By Cinda Chavich

Spring Tonics These fresh tastes pair well with the brighter days ahead.

Hungry? Culinaire is back! Head to the conference centre for a delectable taste of Victoria’s dynamic food and drink scene.

Eat, Drink, Repeat Culinarie, Victoria’s spring culinary showcase, is back March 29 at the Victoria Conference Centre.

With more than 60 food and beverage makers all under one roof, it’s an opportunity to schmooze with your favourite chefs, bartenders, winemakers and brewers, and taste what’s fresh and new.

“Victoria’s food and beverage scene is always fresh and exciting but is so vast in size it can be sometimes daunting for locals and visitors to know where to dine and drink,” says Culinaire creator Scott Gurney. “This event gives guests the chance to try an assortment of restaurants and beverages at their own pace … the perfect place for guests to try new restaurants and new drinks, and at the same time be reacquainted with some of their favourites.”

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General admission is $75 and includes 10 tasting tickets for food and beverage sampling, while a VIP ticket ($135) offers early access to the main event and 20 tasting tickets. Additional tasting tickets are $1.50 per item.

The annual event supports students and workers in the hospitality industry, with partial proceeds from Culinaire going to scholarship awards for local culinary schools and funding of the Chefs Table Society of B.C.

The Green Fairy With St. Patrick’s Day in the offing, it’s fun to break away from green beer and into the verdant spirit world.

There are some greenhued classics to showcase on your bar cart this month, including the herbaceous Chartreuse liqueur, created by monks in France and flavoured with 130 plants, flowers, barks, roots and

YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

spices, or green, aniseinfused absinthe, the proverbial “green fairy” of liquor lore.

For a homegrown version of the latter, look to Tofino Distillery and their potent version of the cult classic, the Psychedelic Jellyfish, infused with organic wormwood, anise, fennel, hyssop and lemon balm, and coming in at a whopping 73% ABV. Arbutus Distillery in Nanaimo offers its own take, Baba Yaga Absinthe (60% ABV). The addition of mint and other herbs gives it a natural green colour, and its creative, awardwinning package/label evokes a witch from Slavic folklore.

For an equally interesting but lighter spring tonic, look for the Kina-Blanc quinquina from Esquimalt Wine Co., a Lilletstyle elderflower aperitif, made by infusing mead with

Vancouver Island botanicals and quinine.

A Verdant Vegan Sip With vegan food and drink continuing its upward trend, plant-based dairy alternatives, such as soy, nut and oat milks, top the list. Now the trend is spilling into the booze business, with vegan versions of cream liqueurs.

Baileys Almande, made with almond milk, is the vegan alternative of Irish Cream; Arctic Blue Oat is a rich, gin-based liqueur from Finland made with wild Arctic blueberries and oat milk; and Amarula, the creamy Marula fruit infused liqueur from South Africa, now makes a plant-based “cream” with coconut milk.

With nearly 40 per cent of British Columbians under age 35 reporting they follow a vegan or vegetarian diet, the vegan cream liqueurs reflect local tastes.

This verdant vegan cocktail incorporates green matcha tea and dairy-free Amarula liqueur.

Matcharula Cocktail Coconut Matcha Latte: • 1 tsp matcha powder • 5 oz almond milk • 1 Tbsp coconut syrup Cocktail: • 5 oz Coconut Matcha Latte (above) • 1 oz Amarula plant-based liqueur • 1 oz amber rum • Optional garnish: shredded coconut Whirl the coconut matcha latte ingredients together in a blender (or use a hand blender to combine).

Add to a cocktail shaker, along with the liqueur, rum and plenty of ice. Shake well until chilled. Strain into old fashioned or stemless wine glasses and add fresh ice. If you like, sprinkle shredded coconut on top of the drink.

Makes 2 cocktails.

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IN PERSON

Born to Run

Race director Lucy Smith inspires others to be their best — on the track and at home.

By David Lennam | Photo by Jeffrey Bosdet

L

ucy Smith has won the TC10K six times, but this year, she’s not running in the race.

She’s running the whole competition.

As race director, the celebrated distance runner takes over the helm of the 34-year-old event. And, on April 30, she’ll shepherd as many as 10,000 runners and 400 volunteers over a 10-kilometre course that winds through some of Victoria’s best scenery.

“I get to do all this tactical, operational, very satisfying event management to make sure we have a safe event on race morning. That’s my high performer side,” says the 55-year-old, who has retired from full-time elite running, but is still keen to test her mettle in a race.

“But there’s this whole other side of me that, even though only one person can win the race, every other single human that signs up for the TC10K is doing it for some personal reason.

There’s a little part of me that understands it’s somebody’s first time. Somebody wants to break 50 minutes. Somebody just wants to complete the darn thing without walking.”

She adds, “I really, really understand the human experience when it comes to running.”

TACTICS AND STRATEGY Highly respected by the running community, Victoria’s Smith spent years on the international stage for distance racing, winning 19 national running, duathlon and triathlon titles, as well as those for half-marathon, 10,000-metre and cross-country events.

She’s run a 32:46 10K and a 2:38.40 marathon.

She’s sweated her way through several gruelling Ironmans and, last year, at age 54, finished the TC10K in 39 minutes flat, placing 63rd out of nearly 4,000 entries and eighth among all women. (At that race, her 22-year-old daughter bettered her time for the first time.)

But hiring Smith, who was recently interim CEO of Triathlon Canada and, since 2017, lead coach for the RunSport training clinics, didn’t come about as a result of scrutinizing her trophy cabinet. It was more about handing the reins to someone with proven leadership ability at all levels of the sport — from elite Olympian runners to those looking to break in their first real pair of sneakers.

“She’s a leader. That simple word. A caring, compassionate leader,” says Mark deFrias, whose company deFrias Management Group manages the TC10K for non-profit event owner RunSport.

For Smith, the job is part strategy — the whatare-we-going-to-do-next-year questions. But it’s

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equally tactical. And tactics are something she didn’t leave on the track from her days in elite racing.

“This is how I worked as an athlete. If I had a big event, I’d start visualizing that event months out. I’d visualize what I wanted to feel like on race day. Not just how fast I wanted to run, I would actually visualize how I wanted to feel,” she says.

“I want to feel calm, I want to feel confident, I want to feel prepared. I want to wake up energized. I have this same vision now [as race director for the TC10K]. I can actually see myself on race day with my radio, my cell phone, my vest and my clipboard, and I’m visualizing how I’m going to communicate with my team leaders and my second-in-command.

And I’m visualizing watching the elite runners come across. I’m visualizing thousands of people on race morning. That’s how my brain operates.”

A RACE-TO-WIN ATTITUDE Smith grew up in a super-competitive family.

Brother Dan made sure he never cut his kid sister any slack and the pair were head-to-head in everything.

“Anything we did, we did at top speed. Even when we sailed, we had to do it competitively,” says Smith, who remembers running around the house as a child, and having a stopwatch clocking her.

“I was naturally competitive, and in a competitive family, so competition became the outlet for whatever you’re dealing with as a child, like all the dysfunction. You just pour your energy into what you’re getting the most feedback from.”

That race-to-win attitude led her to early glory in high school in Bedford, N.S., and at Dalhousie University where she placed fourth in her first race and by the end of her first season was ranked No. 4 in the country. Smith’s accomplishments led to her induction into both the Dalhousie and Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame.

She balanced a long career at the top level with raising two kids, coaching others, working as a motivational speaker and writing. Her book, First Triathlon: Your Perfect Plan for Success, and her Run For Joy blog offer handson (or should that be feet-first?) training for newbies and old pros.

I bring up something Smith said years ago in an interview, that she wanted to be “one of

those amazingly fit 60-year-olds” who would inspire her at world championships.

“I said that?” she says. “I’ve changed since then in that I just want to be happy in my own skin. That came from a time in my life when I was actually unaware of my perfectionist tendencies. I’m much more interested in being emotionally stable now, or emotionally aware and evolved. I don’t know how to put it in words.

Maybe, to evolve emotionally as a human.”

She nods like she’s agreeing to an affirmation. There’s a deep breath and a pause.

Then I go and ruin it by calling her intense.

Something she once said about the thrill of the intensity of being on the starting line. It went like this: YAM: “You’re an intense person.”

Smith: “Oh, am I?” YAM: “And I mean that in a good way.”

Smith: “Ugh. For some reason, intense has kind of a negative connotation for me and I don’t know where that came from. Maybe passionate is a better word.”

YAM: “Would driven be better?”

Smith: “I think passionate and switched on.

I wish I was more chill, but that’s not me.”

RUNNING FOR JOY Her running partner and UVic coach Marilyn Arsenault agrees that “intense” isn’t quite right. “[Lucy’s] very warm and generous with information or boosting people up,” Arsenault says. “I think she’s going to make an amazing race director, the perfect person for the job. She just really wants to see people improve in all aspects of life.”

Now she is doing that by giving TC10K participants — from walkers to gallopers — the tools, tips, techniques and, importantly, the motivation they need to achieve personal best times on race day.

“If I put my coaching hat on, what I often help people establish is to understand that there can be both intrinsic goals and extrinsic goals,” she says. “The extrinsic goal is, I want to beat that guy [ahead of me] and that’s awesome. If that propels you to run faster or get that extra two per cent out of yourself over the last five minutes, then go for it, but don’t rest your whole sense of success or self-worth on whether you beat that person or not.”

She adds, “It’s the intrinsic, that joy you get from pushing yourself from showing up, from being in discomfort. It’s the intrinsic benefit that keeps people running.”

“

I really, really understand the human experience when it comes to running.

A NEW LEAF The best way to freshen up your home for spring is with a new indoor plant, or 10.

Here’s what you need to know.

BY:

Whether your style is subtle sophistication, classic elegance or modern simplicity, we’ve got you covered.

IDEAS FOR EVERY WINDOW

By Wendy McLellan | Illustrations by Janice Hildybrant

F

rom giant monsteras to tiny air plants, sinuously vining philodendrons to fragrant potted herbs, houseplants are proven mood lifters, de-stressors and all-natural air purifiers. And they just look so good in every room in the house.

No wonder biophilia, which means “a love of living things,” has been trending in interior design, especially over the last few challenging years. “People are definitely decorating with plants,” says Bethany Garant, owner of VI Plant Shop in Victoria.

“Having houseplants is definitely a trend, and I don’t see it going away — it’s gratifying to see things grow.”

As with so many things, social media is at least in part responsible for the trend.

In the 1990s and 2000s, indoor plants had actually been getting less and less popular.

But then, says Kevin Tholenaars, founder of the Vancouver-based online plant store Plantsome, “In 2015, 2016, as social media played a more important role in lives, stylists began using greenery, plant influencers appeared and it started a boom cycle. And the pandemic was like rocket fuel.”

Once COVID hit, he says, “Houseplants became so popular, we couldn’t meet demand, couldn’t get inventory. Now that we’re out of the pandemic, it’s correcting a little, but plants are still very popular.”

Whether you’ve been meaning to incorporate some green living things into your own space or struggling to keep your leafy friends alive, here’s what you need to know.

CHOOSING YOUR PLANT(S) For Garant, the challenge is to help customers find the right plant for the right place. It all comes down to a few basic questions: How much light will the plant get?

What size plant are you looking for?

How much effort are you willing to expend on your plants?

Do you have pets?

“The majority of our customers are new or had never been interested in keeping houseplants. We answer a lot of questions,” Garant says. “We want people to be able to care for their plants and we want the plants to live long and healthy lives. We don’t want people to leave with a plant and not know how to keep it alive.”

As with anything else, trends in houseplants come and go. But just because, say, fiddle-leaf fig trees are all over Pinterest doesn’t mean they will work in your home.

Irene Blazich, co-owner of Treefrog Tropicals in Duncan, says she spends a lot of time helping customers new to buying indoor plants determine what they want in a plant. “The biggest question is ‘What won’t I kill?’ ” she says, laughing. “The second question is whether it’s pet safe.”

Many common plants, including English ivy, pothos, tulips and lilies are toxic to pets if ingested. But there are lots of cool pet-safe plants to choose from. Peperomia is one interesting option, as well as calathea, and both have many different varieties, which is great for collectors.

Sean Partlow, a Victoria landscape architect and owner of Back in Five plant shop, says larger plants and trees are popular, especially with people who want a statement tree rather than a collection to care for. Many of his customers are asking for olive trees, “but that is a mistake,” he says. “They don’t do great indoors — but interior designers bring them in for magazine photo shoots.”

A better choice would be dracaena or a variety of fig tree such as Ficus Audrey. But be prepared to pay for larger specimens.

In any case, Partlow says, “There is a huge spike in interest in plants. You see them more in design magazines, restaurants. And then COVID — everyone wants plants.”

CARING FOR YOUR PLANTS It’s been said that, especially for younger generations, pets are the new kids, and plants are the new pets. And like your fur

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babies, your plants need to be cared for.

Plants have their own special needs, depending on the variety, and the best way to learn is by asking the experts at your local plant store. Understanding what your light conditions really are is important.

For some plants, direct sunlight can be just as damaging as too little light. All plants like light, but bright, direct sunlight is not necessary for most of them.

Sterilized potting soil is also important and some plants, such as orchids and cacti, need specialized blends. Fertilizers are most useful — but used sparingly — when plants are actively growing, from spring to summer.

Learning how to water plants properly takes a little effort. Some like moist soil, but others prefer the soil to dry out between waterings. Again, talk to the experts about your particular plants.

When it comes to containers, just about any vessel can become a good home for a houseplant, as long as it has drainage holes in the bottom. Plants grow best when the container is not overly large for the existing roots; when it’s time to repot, choose a container that is just a couple of inches wider and deeper.

DECORATING WITH PLANTS Adding to a room’s décor with plants can be as simple as placing a single plant in a pretty vessel on a coffee table or entry shelf.

If you’re short on floor space, installing brackets for hanging plants or floating shelves for a potted grouping brings life to any spot in a home. And a collection of plants in similar pots is great for styling bookshelves or a repurposed bar cart.

“Hanging plants are really popular, but recently more people are coming in looking for plants for shelves,” Blazich says.

Haworthia, especially the zebra variety, and smaller cacti are beautiful and dramatic choices for shelves, and pothos varieties never go out of style. They can trail along shelves or hang down from them.

Once you have one plant, you will almost certainly want more.

“People love variety, especially as their collections grow,” Garant says. “They look at leaf textures, variegation. There are so many different varieties, different looks and colourations. It’s nice to mix it up.”

She adds, “It all depends on your style.”

If you like a clean, modern look, you might choose a ZZ plant or a striking yucca. A palm is a softer, more romantic style of plant. Or maybe you prefer plants with pink stripes or super-shiny leaves. There is truly a plant (or 10!) to suit any décor.

But whatever your style is, it should include plants.

“Plants really turn a house into a home — it sounds cliché, but it’s true,” says Tholenaars. “When you decorate interiors, they look so much better with greenery. It’s something living and growing, and you are caring for it.”

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1 Pothos

2 Alocasia

Why you will love it: • Sturdy leaves • Architectural appearance • Stunning foliage

Why you will love it: • Fast growing • Several varieties • Drought tolerant Good to know: • Grows in low light conditions

Good to know: • Needs indirect light and frequent misting

PLANTS TO BRING HOME There’s a plant for everyone, even if your thumbs are more brown than green. (In that case, try the ZZ plant — it is slow growing, drought tolerant and can take bright sunlight, but will survive even in low light.)

And once you succeed with your first plants, you will probably want to add to your indoor gardening collection with plants like the seven on this page.

3 Succulent

Why you will love it: • Lots of varieties for every décor style • Drought tolerant

7 Peperomia 6 FICUS Audrey

Why you will love it: • Elegant fig tree • Similar to the fiddleleaf variety, but more resilient and less work • Matte green leaves Good to know: • Prefers bright, indirect light

5 Hoya

Why you will love it: • Many varieties • Easy to care for • Trailing • Fragrant flowers • Pet safe Good to know: • Prefers medium to bright, indirect light

Good to know: • Needs bright light

Why you will love it: • Low maintenance • Slow growing • Varieties that are so different, it’s hard to recognize they are the same plant Good to know: • Tolerates low light, but prefers medium or bright, indirect light

4 zz plant

Why you will love it: • Striking green foliage or, in the case of a newer variety called ZZ Black Raven, dark purple-green foliage that darkens as it ages • Drought tolerant • Hard to kill Good to know: • Thrives in bright light, but also tolerates low light

YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

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AT HOME WITH ART Looking for something original to hang over the fireplace? Here’s how to begin your collection — or build on what you already own. By Joanne Sasvari

J

oe Bembridge remembers the time a customer came into his contemporary art gallery looking for a serene landscape to hang on the walls of her home.

“But,” says the owner of Victoria’s Gallery Merrick, “I could tell she was quirky and unique. I said to her, ‘Do you actually want a serene landscape or do you want to have fun?’ ” She walked out with a large painting of Dubble Bubble gum by Quebec artist Jacinthe Rivard — no soothing pastoral, it simply popped with bright colour and bold personality.

“You are the one who is going to spend all of the time with this piece,” Bembridge says. “My personal opinion is, first and foremost, buy what you love, even if it’s challenging.”

Of all the decisions you make for your home, choosing art can be the most gratifying. It can also be the most terrifying.

“If you’ve never bought art, or if you haven’t bought art for a long time, you might be a bit nervous,” says Karen Cooper, the art rental and sales consultant at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, who notes that many people simply don’t trust their own judgment. Sherry Willing, an interior designer with Make it Real Design, agrees. “People are intimidated,” she says. “They are afraid to make a mark on the wall and they are afraid to make an investment from their budget.”

It can be scary spending a lot of money on art, especially if you don’t really understand it. But art adds value to your place, both in actual dollars and in sheer enjoyment. It’s worth learning to choose and buy it. Here’s how.

DECORATIVE ARTS First, though, it’s important to differentiate between wall décor and art. In general, wall décor is commercial and widely available, like that “Live, Love, Laugh” sign over your washing machine or the giclée (fine art digital print) of Van Gogh’s Starry Night you hung so proudly in your dorm room. Art, on the other hand, is unique. “When I think of art, I think of an original piece,” Willing says. “It could even be something that your child did, or something that you inherited.”

Wall décor has its time and its place. It’s great for casual spaces, especially if you are on a budget or when you are still developing your sense of personal style. But at some point you will almost certainly want to invest in something original that expresses your unique personality.

The question is: Do you choose the art to go with your space, or do you design your space around your art?

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Above: The most important thing when it comes to choosing art is to buy what you love, says gallerist Joe Bembridge. After all, you’re the one who has to look at it. In the case of one client, that meant Jacinthe Rivard’s large, colourful and slightly quirky oil painting, Dubble Bubble.

Right: It helps to work with a gallerist or designer whose opinion you trust.

In this interior designed by Bidgood, paintings by Luis Merino take pride of place and establish a palette of colours for the décor to work with.

YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

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PHOTO: JAMES JONES INTERIOR AND STYLING: BIDGOOD ARCHITECTURE: BOFORM

“OFTEN PEOPLE ARE CAUTIOUS ABOUT ART SO THEY MAKE SMALL ATTEMPTS THAT DON’T WORK WITH THE SPACE.”

NIKOLWIKMANART.COM

PHOTO: JAMES JONES | INTERIOR & STYLING: BIDGOOD

Michael Warren thinks the art should come first.

He’s the owner and director of Madrona Gallery, which sells fine works, many by well-respected, wellestablished artists. “Often the art in your collection will be a part of your life longer than couches and your other décor,” he says. “The impact of the art will always trump the colour of the cushions. If you think of longevity, colours and trends in décor will age, but a piece of art will stay.”

Willing agrees, mostly. She likes to use art as a source of inspiration for a room, weaving the colours in a painting into décor elements. “It helps people come up with more adventurous palettes,” she says. “It’s almost like the art takes the lead for the appearance of the room.”

But not everyone thinks that way. “When I started in the art world 10 years ago, we literally had people coming in with paint swatches,” Bembridge says, noting that there’s nothing wrong with being all matchy-matchy, but it can be visually very boring. “Listen to your inner voice. Things don’t need to match.”

As Cooper says, “Art doesn’t have to match the sofa, but it has to match you and your lifestyle.”

Where you really should let the house speak to the art is when it comes to the size and shape (horizontal versus vertical, for instance) of whatever you plan to hang in a space.

“What I think people really struggle with is the scale of the work,” Willing says. “Often people are cautious about art so they make small attempts that don’t work with the space.” You can always cluster smaller pieces into a larger salon grouping, but she suggests taking inspiration from display suites staged with big, bold works of art. “For the price you pay for art, you’re going to get your money from that rather than spending it on candles and throw cushions,” she says.

A SENSE OF DISCOVERY Art also has more nuanced meaning than any other element in your home, so it’s wise to invest some time in education before you purchase it.

“Art is very personal, so how you choose it is going to be quite unique,” Willing says. “But with a little information, you can do a better job of it.”

This should not be a chore — after all, if you collect wine or hockey cards, learning about them is part of the fun. “The sense of discovery should be a really big part of art as well,” Warren says. “Start with things that you appreciate, then think about the history of the artist and all those

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YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

Experts say that you shouldn’t choose art based on what goes with the sofa. But you should select pieces that fit the shape and scale of the space where it will hang.

PHOTO: JAMES JONES | INTERIOR & STYLING: BIDGOOD | ARCHITECTURE: BOFORM

Opposite page, top: At 60 inches wide and 40 inches high, local artist Nikol Wikman’s acrylic-on-canvas work Sometimes She Likes Pink offers a powerful visual punch in a large, horizontal space.

Opposite page, lower left: On the other hand, this vertical piece (lower left) by Bill Porteous fits better in the narrower space of this home office.

Right: Another way to make a large visual impact is by grouping two or more smaller works together, like these paintings by Samantha French, which form a large, horizontal shape hanging above the bed.

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things that add significance to their work.”

That could include social context and any artistic influences on the painter’s esthetic.

For instance, at a young age Warren was impressed by Alex Colville, the Canadian Precisionist painter, and learning about Colville has not only influenced his personal choices, it has helped him understand more about the contemporary artists he shows in his gallery.

“You don’t have to do that, of course,” he says. “But if you’re looking at building a collection of art, those are good questions to consider. If you set that foundation, you are always going to be building in the right direction.”

He suggests working with a designer, a gallerist or art dealer “whose ideals line up with yours. And,” he says, “look everywhere so you can be informed and be enthused by the work that you do choose. Collecting art is a process and what you start with and what you end with are different, and that’s the fun of it.”

“COLLECTING ART IS A PROCESS AND WHAT YOU START WITH AND WHAT YOU END WITH ARE DIFFERENT, AND THAT’S THE FUN OF IT.”

SHOPPING TIPS

JESSICARUTHFREEDMAN.COM

Once you’re ready to add a work of art to your wall, there are many places to purchase it, from street vendors to art shows to galleries to auction houses. But before you drop a few hundred or thousand dollars, why not test drive it first?

The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has had an art rental program for about 30 years, and in recent years has expanded to feature about 60 artists who work in a wide range of milieus.

“Selling and renting art by local artists is a way to raise money for the art gallery and to support our local artists,” Cooper says.

They rent to movie sets and home stagers, but most of their clients are residential, often people who’ve changed homes and want to see what works in their new space. Depending on the work, it costs $30 to $120 a month to rent a piece, with up to six months of rental fees

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going to the purchase price. The average fee is $60 for a painting worth $2,500 and, as Cooper says, “If you’re going to blow 60 bucks for one month on a painting, that’s not a big deal.”

Once you do choose to buy, Bembridge encourages you to purchase your art from a gallery — and not just because he owns one.

For one thing, he says, “When you’re purchasing an emerging artist, you are at the early stages of being along for the ride of their career.” For another, if you decide to sell the piece later on, you will need to prove provenance (a record of ownership used as a guide to authenticity, quality and value) and the best way to do that is for it to already be part of the gallery system. “There’s value in working with a gallerist,” Bembridge says.

And you shouldn’t feel bad if you decide you’ve outgrown a piece you once loved. “Art you bought in other stages of your life may not fit who you are now,” he says reassuringly.

“If you spent 10 years with a work you spent $2,500 on, you’ve got your money’s worth.”

He adds, “Art is fun to curate ... and it’s fun to edit.”

To make it easier, some galleries offer payment plans and approval programs that allow consumers to see how art works in their space. At Gallery Merrick, if a piece doesn’t work for technical

Above: Art does not need to be expensive. For instance, this painting by local artist Andrea Soos, entitled Lazy River, is available for rent at the AGGV. Below left: Meanwhile, Victoria’s Jessica Ruth Freedman sells more affordable art prints and prints on canvas as well as original works like her botanical abstract Perennial.

reasons (it’s too small, or horizontal when it needs to be vertical, for instance), they can even sometimes commission a new work from the artist.

ARTFUL LIVING The world of art is a vast one and beauty truly is in the eye of a beholder. You might prefer sculpture or photography, watercolours or encaustic (a technique in which pigments are mixed with hot liquid wax), delicate florals or industrial abstracts or the human form. Even perennially popular landscapes come in almost as many styles as there are artists, ranging from the bold lines and vivid hues of Monica Morrill’s cheerful island scenes to the misty, moody woods of Alanna Sparanese or Chrissy Nickerson’s impressionistic-writ-large beaches.

Whatever it is that takes your fancy, art is something that makes our lives better and our homes just that much more livable. “Art really helps to lift our spirits. It changes our mood and makes us smile,” says Willing.

And it isn’t always as pricey as you might think it is. “You can spend money to the nth degree if you want to, but you don’t have to,” Warren says. “Not everything is crazy expensive.”

Besides, as Bembridge points out: “You’ve already spent a ton of money on your home, so why not spend just a little more?”

HOW TO BUY ART Five ways to bring art into your home — even on a budget.

1. RENTAL: If you’re not really sure what works in your home, don’t buy right away; rent instead. AGGV’s art rental program typically runs about $60 a month and, if you decide you love a piece, up to six months rent can go to the purchase price.

2. PAYMENT PLANS: Many galleries offer payment plans so you can spread the cost of an artwork out over time.

3. ON APPROVAL: Some galleries will also allow you to take an artwork home and see if it works in your space for 24 hours (and sometimes more) before processing payment. Gallery Merrick, for instance, will bring it over, hang it, offer advice and let you really appreciate an artwork where it will live.

4. COMMISSIONS: Love a painting but wish it was bigger, smaller, more (or less) horizontal or that it had personal meaning to you? Many artists will take commissions, and the galleries they work with will often work as their agents. It can’t hurt to ask.

5. AUCTIONS: These can be held in person or online and are often how fine, exclusive artworks are bought and sold. If you have, say, a Group of Seven painting you’d like to offload, it will almost certainly go to auction (unless you arrange a private sale). Participants bid on the art, and the highest bidder takes it home.

TREAT YOUR ROOF.

Remove that moss and keep your roof looking like new.

A serene landscape may speak to one person, while another individual may lean toward an industrial abstract. Yet another might prefer the hyper-realistic oil paintings by Victoria’s Joe Coffey, like Trigger above. For even more personal pieces, he also accepts commissions through his agent at Madrona Gallery.

Protect your largest investment with Victoria’s moss prevention experts.

Call 250-385-3124 or email mossfree@thomsonroof.com for your free quote.

thomsonroof.com

YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

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HOME + LIFESTYLE

CONTRAST and COMPLEMENT

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A juxtaposition of vintage and contemporary design transforms a tiny 1950s cottage into a home that blends comfort, style and function.

By Danielle Pope | Photos by Jody Beck

O

n a spring day in 2020, Gray and Alana Eakins were in the Quadra neighbourhood picking up tomato starts when they noted how much they liked the area. The tomato merchant joked with them that, if they were really interested, a sign had gone up for the house next door just an hour earlier. The couple hadn’t planned on house hunting that day, but both remarked what a cute bungalow it was.

Fast forward through a few details and before long the Eakins were moving in.

“We actually had a condo on the Songhees [Walkway] and had been there for six or seven years, but you get to a place where you realize this isn’t the lifestyle you want,” says Alana. “We wanted a bit of a garden and the person who owned this house had a beautiful Southern Hemisphere garden. We love that look. The home was small, though — it had a tiny kitchen and only one bathroom, but we thought we could work with it.”

The 1950s home was built in a classic English cottage style, with period millwork, coved ceilings, a pitched roof and the limited storage and living space standard to the times. The entire house was only 814 square feet. While both say the home was perfectly livable, they wanted something that reflected their unique tastes.

“We both gravitate toward Scandinavian design; bringing in light and not too decorative,” says Gray.

“But we also wanted to hold onto the home’s feel, so our intent was to leave as much as we could to honour that cottage comfort.”

To those who see the back of Gray and Alana Eakins’ home, it would seem obvious the structure has an industrial modern appeal. The front, however, (pictured on the following page) reveals classic cottage charm — circa 1950s style. That was entirely the intent behind this dramatic reno, which fused two distinct looks together to bring function to the small space and delight to these homeowners, who hold a love for both looks.

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A CREATIVE VISION The Eakins sought the support of Atarah Humphreys, designer with Urbana Kitchens, who had worked with them on their previous home.

Humphreys knew the couple was willing to take some creative risks, and she could see the vision they wanted to bring forward. With the support of the team from Green Island Builders, Humphreys worked to create a plan that would optimize every square foot available, maximize storage and give a more open feel to the house.

“We first worked by removing an inefficient laundry room to expand the kitchen,” says Humphreys. “The laundry facilities were built into a functional hallway storage cabinet. The former master bedroom was expanded through a new addition off the back of the home and reconfigured to add the primary ensuite and a bedroom large enough for a king-sized bed, as well as access to the backyard.”

That addition added 210 square feet to the home and its purposefully modern contrast is the single most striking thing about this renovation — it’s also what Humphreys says earned this home the title of “mullet house.”

“We wanted the new addition to be intentionally modern and a complete contrast from the front of the home: ‘a mullet house,’ as Alana joked,” says Humphreys. “Keeping the front of the house in white, with a standard pitched roof, and the addition in black, with a flat roof, created a stark contrast, both in colour and style.”

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“WE WANTED THE NEW ADDITION TO BE INTENTIONALLY MODERN AND A COMPLETE CONTRAST FROM THE FRONT OF THE HOME.”

One of Alana’s requests for this reno was to create an outdoor space the couple could actively enjoy. The new deck, positioned as a connecting feature and accessible from both the master bedroom and kitchen, welcomes the pair out to a seating area and gathering fire. Only a few steps down is a gravel space and a lush, Southern Hemisphere-themed garden. To make sure the view of this remained uninhibited, a wire railing was positioned along the edge of the deck to create an open barrier between the zones.

What used to be a small primary bedroom underwent the most drastic change through this modern expansion. It was reconfigured to add the ensuite and a room large enough for a kingsized bed. Direct access to the backyard opens this space even further, while keeping within the confines of the pre-existing roofline. The ensuite carries on the black-andwhite theme with a touch of pattern and adds in a curbless shower to provide accessibility for the years to come. The stark contrast of black, white and natural oak appears in every room, giving the home consistency and cohesion, with repeating angled details.

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Naomi Reinhart, project manager with Green Island Builders, supervised the build and recalls this project as particularly special.

In order to pull off such dramatic style shifts, the team replaced the home’s existing deck to blend both sections together, using boardand-batten siding. With glass doors out to the south-facing yard, the primary bedroom basks in light and feels airier and larger than its actual size.

“The [Eakins] are very creative people with naturally good eyes for design,” says Reinhart. “They love the juxtaposition of old with new. While the addition is obvious, it looks purposeful and was designed to blend together. The deck becomes the transitional style link.”

A FOREVER HOME Because the home’s renovations were made with aging-in-place in mind, strategic choices created an accessible environment, and one that could support the idea of a forever home.

“This was a very small home, so we built in an open flow to places like the bathroom and included elements like in-floor heating, a curbless shower and grab bars so this could be a space the couple could grow into,” says Reinhart.

The layout of the new kitchen worked to bring in more south-facing light, says Humphreys. The stark contrast of black, white and natural oak materials carried throughout the house brings consistency and cohesion to the space. The angled details were also repeated throughout the home in the cabinetry and waterfall gable on the peninsula.

“Ensuring every space was properly utilized, while concealing necessary features like the electrical panel in the kitchen, plumbing and venting for the stackable laundry in the hallway closet was a challenge,” says Humphreys. “As was ensuring the integrated appliances were the correct scale for the home to provide functionality, while not overwhelming the space.”

Humphreys took serious inventory of how each area needed to function so every nook could be properly allocated. Pantries in the kitchen, for example, were used for food storage on one side, and as a closet on the other.

In addition to its utility, the space holds a cultured feel thanks to the Eakins’ appreciation of art and travel. Despite its clean simplicity, space was made for showcasing the couple’s collection of pieces acquired during their travels. Along with the more dramatic addition, changes were made throughout the home, including new millwork, a modern fireplace mantel, revised flooring, paint and fixtures, to bring the space into alignment with the couple’s style.

“Coming here was in keeping with our goals of having a smaller footprint and a more compact downsize to one level,” says Alana.

“We’re getting old, so it’s important we have a place that will work for us into the future.

We wanted that accessibility right outside the kitchen — a garden we could step down into and a fire pit we can sit around and just enjoy.”

A special occasion demands special attention.

You’ll find it here.

534 Yates St. 250-384-2848 Uptown Blvd. 778-432-2848 outlooksformen.com

YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

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HAMILTON COSMETIC DERMATOLOGY KNOWLEDGE  EXPERIENCE  EXPERTISE

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250-940-8000

YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

In the kitchen, the white country cottage style is paired with the black modern addition. The combination of three materials in the cabinetry — supermat white, plain-sawn oak in a wire-brushed black with zero-sheen finish and rift-cut white oak in a light stain — creates visual impact. Angled open cabinets act as bonus display shelves. Given the home’s 1950s-period build, space was at a premium and storage was one of its biggest issues.

To complement the clean, functional and minimal environment, the designer envisioned floor-to-ceiling cupboards that made use of every inch of space.

RESOURCE LIST Designer: Atarah Humphreys (Urbana Kitchens) / Dan Foster (drafting) Builder: Green Island Builders Framer: Dave Taylor Plumbing: Solid Plumbing & Gas Mechanical: RedBlue HVAC Electrician: VIP Electric Doors, Windows and Hardware: Slegg Building Materials Roofing: Shoreline Roofing & Exteriors Fireplace and Backsplash Tile: Hourigans Flooring Kitchen Appliances: Coast Appliances Countertops: Colonial Countertops Plumbing Fixtures: Splashes Bath & Kitchen Flooring: TDI Flooring Drywall: Devlin Drywall Contractors Paint: Capital City Drywall & Painting Engineering: Munro Engineering

YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2023

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One Potato,Two FOLLOW YAM’S GUIDE FOR MAKING THE MOST OF THE SATISFYING AND VERSATILE SPUD.

By Cinda Chavich

I

t’s hard to predict what March will bring in this neck of the west coast woods — warm days bursting with the first flush of leafy greenery and early blossoms or another dreary month of winter.

What you can predict is the annual celebrations, including the beer-swilling St. Patrick’s Day parties and the spring seders of Passover (April 5 to 13 in 2023).

Both always include potatoes on the menu because, at this time of year, it’s a given that we’ll still be eating storage crops and root vegetables, especially potatoes.

That’s not a hardship for me.

Quite the opposite. It’s hard for me to imagine a world without potatoes: addictive rippled potato chips and squidgy potato perogies, creamy potato-and-leek soup, crispy potato kugel, curried potatoes with green beans, and tender Norwegian lefse or Irish farls with smoked salmon.

Never mind the everyday potato mash, hash and fries.

There’s even a new vegan potato “milk” made with the ubiquitous root.

Yes, the potato shines in so many cuisines around the world; it’s a rare week when there are no potatoes on our plates.

GLOBALLY LOCAL The potato was originally a plant indigenous to South America, domesticated by preIncan civilizations in the Andes around 400 BC and spirited away to Europe by Spanish invaders in the 16th century.

The hardy root vegetable was

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planted across Europe to prevent starvation, but, in a twist of bitter irony, led to the Irish potato famine in the mid-1800s, when a blight caused potato crops to fail over three consecutive years.

By then, potatoes made up 80 per cent of the local diet for both humans and livestock. Millions were left without food. The Irish emigrated en masse to escape the famine and brought a love of potatoes with them.

Today the potato is the fourth largest food crop in the world, after corn, rice and wheat.

Canada has long been a big potato producer. In the early 1800s Lord Selkirk arrived on Prince Edward Island with a group of Scottish immigrants, bringing the potatoes that seeded an industry that continues to thrive there today.

When the Hudson’s Bay Company brought potatoes to Fort Langley in 1827, the Indigenous people of Haida Gwaii were already growing a fingerling variety, recently traced through a genome project to cultivars in Mexico and Chile.

The isolated Pemberton Valley, north of Whistler, has become a kind of seed potato vault, wedged between two mountain ranges that have protected its potatoes from encroaching diseases for decades.

Designated a seed potato control area in 1945, it’s known to grow some of the best virus-free seed potatoes in the world, supplying growers from Western Canada to Idaho, Oregon and California.

At least 27 potato varieties are grown in the Pemberton Valley,

including Sieglinde, Eramosa, Warba, White Rose, Pontiac, Chieftain, Russian Blue and Yukon Gold, the lovely, yellow-fleshed and tasty potato created by Canadian plant breeders at the University of Guelph. No potatoes sourced from outside the valley can be planted in this official virus-free zone.

Across the Creek Organics has been growing potatoes here since 1912, while the Pemberton Distillery uses organic local potatoes to make its awardwinning Schramm potato vodka and other spirits.

In Peru, where the root vegetable is rooted, you’ll still find an astonishing array of heirloom varieties in the local markets (some 4,000 recorded there) and, in Andean communities, Indigenous women tend native potatoes for food, trade, medicine and cultural practices.

The potato is a local food in every way, produced around the world for local markets. That’s what keeps the price affordable — as grain prices skyrocket and global supply chains splinter, potatoes, grown close to home, are a staple most of us can count on.

PICKING THE RIGHT POTATO Potatoes come in many different shapes and sizes. There are literally thousands of cultivars, each with unique attributes. Some potatoes are firm when cooked and best for salads and frittatas (think waxy round red Pontiac and Norland), others mash easily and have an inherent buttery flavour when roasted (Yukon Gold or Sieglinde), while long white

CAMERON WHITMAN/STOCKSY

Kennebec are versatile and make excellent fries. The starchiest spuds (russet or Idaho) are dry and fluffy, good for baking and ideal when you’re making gnocchi.

In summer, look for a variety of interesting small fingerling potatoes from local growers, such as the knobby, nutty Pink Fir Apple, tasty oval red Roseval (French Fingerling) or yellow banana fingerling potatoes. These are all low-starch potatoes that keep their shape when cooked.

Early new or nugget potatoes such as the Warba, only grown in B.C., have very thin skins and can be enjoyed without peeling.

Later crops have thicker skins, appropriate for storage, so you may want to peel them (though all potato skins are edible and offer extra fibre and flavour). Just remember to avoid any potatoes that have a green tinge (a result of exposure to light and heat), or make sure to pare any green portions away before cooking. And don’t eat raw potatoes — uncooked potatoes contain solanine and lectins, which can make you sick.

A POTATO IN EVERY POT Potatoes are more than just starchy sides for basic meat-and-potato meals. They can star in any course.

A tiny baby potato, halved and roasted until crisp, makes a nice hors d’oeuvre when topped with a dab of crème fraiche or sour cream, and a bit of smoked salmon.

In India, spiced potatoes fill samosas and are rolled into crispy dosa pancakes. And sliced potatoes are the basis of any Spanish tortilla or Italian frittata, both of which make great tapas-style starters.

Potatoes also shine in soups, the base of an elegant potato-and-leek potage or a chunky fish chowder with lots of cubed potatoes, clams and other seasonal seafood. In the European tradition, potato soups range from cool and creamy vichyssoise to hearty combinations with smoked sausage, carrots, mushrooms and dill.

And don’t miss out on main dishes that feature potatoes, such as Greek moussaka, a layered casserole of potatoes, eggplant and minced lamb, or Peruvian causa, a cold potato casserole made by layering spiced mashed potatoes with tuna or shrimp salad and sliced avocados.

Potatoes also fill perogies and knishes, and are the main ingredient in classic Italian gnocchi, the binder for fish cakes and the topping for meaty shepherd’s pies.

Of course, boiled, mashed, roasted and fried potatoes are always welcome in a supporting role, whether you’re serving basic bangers and mash or coq au vin. Dress them up in a gratin with cream and cheese, or serve them cold in summery salads with mayonnaise and sliced radishes or tossed in mustardy vinaigrettes.

Red Pontiac

These waxy potatoes are ideal for salads and frittatas.

Pink Fir Apple

An heirloom fingerling that’s trendy again, this potato makes terrific chips.

Warba

The versatile, early-ripening Warba is best baked or boiled.

in the heart of nature

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A HEALTHY CHOICE Potatoes get a bad rap in the low-carb world, but potatoes are more than empty white calories — they are a surprisingly nutritious vegetable, especially when served with the skin.

One baked spud delivers two milligrams of vitamin C along with a good amount of B6, folate and magnesium, plus a ton of potassium (about 940 mg or 20 per cent of your recommended daily amount).

And if you’re worried about the blood-sugarspiking glycemic index of potatoes, try cooking, cooling, then reheating them or using them in other recipes. The cooling step actually changes the makeup of the starches and reduces the glycemic impact by 40 per cent. Or make that creamy mash with potatoes and (mostly) cauliflower, a sneaky substitute for the usual starchy side.

So, pass the potatoes and celebrate the humble spud. Mashed, smashed, fried, baked or gooey in a gratin, potatoes are the universal meal maker!

10 TIPS + TECHNIQUES FOR TERRIFIC TATERS

Boiled and Mashed

• Boil or steam potatoes whole, if small, or cut into large cubes. Cook until tender. Mash with butter, milk or cream and season with salt and pepper. Rustic mashes, with the skin, include all of the healthy nutrients and fibre. If you like a garlicky mash, add whole garlic cloves to the pot while cooking potatoes.

• Fold in finely chopped green onions or chives and top with extra butter for Irish champ, add dill and feta, or make Parmesan potato mash with sour cream, grated cheese and butter.

• For rustic colcannon, boil your spuds with chopped onions, parsnips and cabbage, then make a chunky mash with butter and cream.

• Use leftover mash for salmon cakes, to top pot pies and in potato griddle breads such as Norwegian lefse, Scottish potato scones or Irish farls.

• I like an old-fashioned ricer to crush cooked potatoes that are destined for dishes like gnocchi or potato breads. It keeps the potatoes dry and fluffy. Don’t be tempted to use a food processor — the results will be gummy, not light.

Roasted and Baked

• Bake whole, washed russet potatoes in their skins. Stab with a fork (to prevent explosions), rub with oil and salt, and bake at 400°F for 45 minutes, or until soft inside. Then slice the top lengthwise, squeeze to fluff and top with butter; sour cream; chopped, crisp bacon and/ or minced green onion.

LINGCOD AND SPRING VEGETABLES EN PAPILLOTE INGREDIENTS | Serves 2 • 300g lingcod, cut into 2 portions • 5 cups spring vegetables sliced no more then 1/2" thick. (Some of my favourites are patty pan squash, leeks, spring onions, fava beans, peas, morel mushrooms — anything green that “springs” to mind.)

• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil • 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar • 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley • 1 Tbsp kosher salt • 1/2 lemon cut into 4 thin slices • 2x 8x12” sheets of parchment paper

• 1 Tbsp grainy mustard

• 2x 18” lengths of twine

Preheat oven to 400°F. Whisk together mustard, vinegar, olive oil, parsley and salt to make a dressing.

Set aside 1 Tbsp of the dressing and toss the rest of it with your sliced veggies.

Divide the dressed veg in two and lay in the centre of each sheet of parchment. Top veg with 2 lemon slices each and

place the fish on top of that.

Drizzle the remaining dressing over the 2 pieces of fish. Wrap the bundles securely and tie closed with twine. Bake bundles on a sheet pan for 18 to 20 minutes.

Can be lifted out of the bundle and placed on a plate or enjoyed straight from the parchment.

Check our website for more seafood recipes!

• For a perfectly crispy potato, do this: Steam or boil whole nugget potatoes, skin on, until barely tender (I like Yukon Gold), place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, press them

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FOUR POTATO RECIPES TO TRY

1 Potato Gratin

lightly with a potato masher (just to break the skin, flatten the potato a little and expose some of the fluffy interior), drizzle with olive oil (or duck fat) and sprinkle with sea salt. Then bake in a hot 400°F oven until golden brown and crisp (about 45 minutes).

The French potato gratin (a.k.a. pommes dauphinois) is the simplest way to take the humble spud into decadent territory. There are many variations, some made with parboiled potatoes and cream sauces or with the addition of a layer of sautéed onions or leeks, but this is easy and elegant.

• For easy roasties, peel and cut larger potatoes into big chunks, boil in water for five minutes, then drain and shake in the dry pan to rough up the edges. Toss with olive oil (or duck fat) and salt and roast in a hot oven until brown and crispy.

• Oven fries start with scrubbed russet potatoes, cut lengthwise into wedges. Heat a baking sheet in a 450°F oven until hot, toss potatoes with olive oil and salt, place on a hot pan and bake 20 to 30 minutes, until brown and puffed.

SARA REMINGTON/STOCKSY

• Tossed with a spicy paprika sauce, crispy roasted potatoes become patatas bravas, a popular Spanish tapas dish. Or use roast potatoes as the base for a hearty breakfast hash, topped with sautéed mushrooms, scrambled eggs and melted cheese.

• Butter or olive oil (for greasing the pan) • 4 baking russet potatoes (about 2 lb), peeled, divided • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and slivered, divided • Salt and freshly ground pepper • 1 cup shredded Gruyère or old Cheddar, divided • 1½ cups heavy cream (or half cream and half sour cream, whisked together), divided

APERI A PERI TI V O H O UR MONDAY TO FRIDAY 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Join us on FARO’s sun-drenched patio or modern tasting room and bar to experience our take on a traditional Italian Aperitivo Hour.

Enjoy a variety of feature cocktails, appetizers and wine flights, all on special throughout the week.

OPEN DAILY

Café Service from 7 am Full Menu Service from 11:30 am oakbaybeachhotel.com/faropizza @FAROPIZZA

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Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a shallow oval gratin dish with butter or olive oil.

Slice potatoes very thin using a mandoline.

Place a third of the sliced potatoes in the bottom of the gratin dish, arranging them in concentric circles. Scatter half the garlic over top, season with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with a quarter of the cheese. Drizzle with about a quarter of the cream.

Repeat with a second layer, then finish with a layer of sliced potatoes. Pour the remaining cream over top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake uncovered for 60 to 70 minutes, until bubbly and golden brown.

Serves 4 to 6.

3 Perogy Pizza

Inspired by a flatbread served at Category 12 Brewing Bistro, my recipe for this carbs-on-carbs pie is pure comfort, one that evokes my favourite perogy flavours — potatoes, fried onions, bacon and sour cream!

• 2 Tbsp olive oil • 1 large onion, chopped • ½ tsp salt • 3 pieces lean, double-smoked bacon, chopped • 2 cups mashed potatoes • 2 Tbsp melted butter • 2 green onions, chopped, divided • 1 ¼ cups shredded cheese (such as a mixture of mozzarella and Parmesan), divided • 2 single-serve prebaked pizza shells, naan, pita or other flatbread • Pinch of crushed chili flakes • Sour cream and chopped green onions to garnish

JEFFREY BOSDET/YAM MAGAZINE

Preheat oven to 400°F. In a sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium-low, add the chopped onion and salt, and cook until browned and caramelized, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

Cook the bacon until crisp and drain on paper towels.

Stir about a quarter of the caramelized onions into the mashed potatoes, then add the melted butter, half the chopped green onion and ¼ cup of the shredded cheese.

Place the flatbreads on a baking sheet and top each with the mashed potato mixture, dividing the mixture evenly between each flatbread and smoothing it into an even layer. Top each with the remaining cooked onion, chopped bacon and shredded cheese. Sprinkle each pizza with a pinch of chili flakes.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until bubbly and beginning to brown on top. Serve perogy pizza drizzled with sour cream and sprinkled with additional green onions.

Serves 2 to 4.

2 Mini Potato Kugels

You can bake this kugel mixture in a buttered baking dish, but using a muffin tin makes this Passover classic the crunchiest.

They are like crispy potato latkes, without all of the work of frying, and great for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

• 1 to 2 Tbsp vegetable oil (for greasing the muffin tins) • 2 lb baking potatoes (about 4), peeled and grated • 1 medium onion, peeled and grated • 3 eggs, beaten • 1 Tbsp olive oil + extra for drizzling • ½ tsp salt, or to taste • Black pepper, to taste Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease muffin tins with vegetable oil.

Alternatively, you can use cooking spray or parchment liners.

Use a food processor fitted with a grating disc (or the large holes on a standard grater) to grate potatoes and onion. Place in a sieve and drain for 30 minutes, squeezing to press out excess moisture.

Combine the potatoes and onions in a large bowl and stir in eggs, 1 Tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper.

Fill muffin tins with potato mixture. Bake 45 to 60 minutes or until tops are brown and crisp.

Loosen from pan while still warm. Serve immediately or refrigerate (or freeze) and reheat on a baking sheet in a hot oven (to retain crispy exterior).

Makes 1 dozen.

4 Potato and Green Bean Curry

I love to cook this simple potato curry with fresh green or yellow beans, but feel free to substitute other vegetables (think cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, Brussels sprouts) to change it up.

Serve with roti (Indian flatbread) or rice.

• 2 Tbsp butter or ghee • 1 tsp whole cumin seeds • 1 onion, chopped (about 1 cup) • 1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger • 1 tsp ground turmeric • 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (methi) • 2 large Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped (about 1½ cups) • 2 cups potatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces • 4 cups (1 lb) green or yellow beans, stems removed • ½ cup water • 1 tsp garam masala • ½ tsp Asian chili paste (or to taste) • 2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro In a large saucepan, heat the butter over medium-high. Add the cumin seeds and stir until they sizzle and pop. Add the onion and ginger, and cook together for 5 minutes, until onion is softened and starting to brown.

Stir in the turmeric, methi, tomatoes, potatoes, beans and water, and combine well. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low and braise for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the potatoes are just tender.

Gently stir in the garam masala, chili paste and chopped cilantro.

Serves 4.

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STYLE WATCH Fashion Stylist: Janine Metcalfe Photographer: Jeffrey Bosdet

This page: Terracotta linen Anna top and forest green linen Berkley skirt, both

by Eliza Faulkner Designs, available at Tulipe Noire.

Black bowler by Magill Hats, available at Roberta’s Hats.

Opposite page: (Left) Cotton grandfather shirt by Lee Valley Ireland, waxed jacket by Oxford Blue, both available at Out of Ireland. (Right) Cream shirt

by Civilian and cream knit vest by SAOL Ireland, both available at Out of Ireland.

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Blustery spring weather calls for old world tartans, weather-resistant jackets and textured knits.

HIGHLANDER FLING

This page: (Left) Kilt and standard five-button, highland-style vest, both from North of Hadrians.

Shirt by Lee Valley Ireland, available at Out of Ireland.

Boots by Red Wing Shoes, available at Heart and Sole Shoes. Black bowler by Magill Hats, available at Roberta’s Hats. (Right) Kilt from North of Hadrians.

Oatmeal sweater by Van Kukil and Davina black bag

by BRAVE, both available at Tulipe Noire. Nevegal Abx black boot by Geox, available at Heart and Sole Shoes.

Black bowler by Magill Hats, available at Roberta’s Hats.

Opposite page: (Left) Miekaa vest by Armed Angels, Riah turtleneck by Part Two and Oxana midi skirt by AYRTIGHT. All available at Moden Boutique. (Right) Jacket by Loro Piana, cream shirt by Tommy Bahama and rust pants by BRAX. All available at D.G. Bremner & Company.

This page: Peregrine Maker’s Stitch orange sweater, LangerChen boiled wool navy jacket, Stenströms sky blue flannel shirt and Strellson patterned cotton pant.

All available at Outlooks for Men.

Opposite page: Rebeca handmade quilted jacket

by DIGO STUDIO, available through digostudio.co.

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design on the edge Arthur Erickson designed the revolutionary Filberg House to save one man’s soul.

Sixty-five years later, his masterpiece on the Comox Bluffs is worth saving, too.

By Andrew Findlay

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In the late 1950s, Arthur Erickson met his friend Robert Filberg, son of Island logging baron Robert (Bob) Filberg, at a seven-acre property he owned atop the Comox Bluffs. It was a picturesque chunk of raw land, dominated by a stately Garry oak that still stands today. Erickson was then in his mid-30s, well-travelled and well-educated, but virtually unknown as an architect, with just two unassuming wood-framed Vancouver houses to his design credits.

The young Filberg’s brief high-society marriage had recently collapsed and he was plunged into depression. He enlisted Erickson to design a house and guest cabins that would befit this panoramic acreage overlooking the Salish Sea. The affluent and idealistic Filberg envisioned it as a sort of retreat — less a residence and more a place where intellectuals, artists, politicians and thinkers would gather as guests of his aspirational think tank-cumfoundation focused on peace efforts.

The planned-for guest cabins on the Comox Bluffs never happened, but what emerged was one of Canada’s most fascinating houses.

Vancouver architecture critic and writer Trevor Boddy calls it the first post-modern house in Canada. It was a design ahead of its time, many of its elements still featured in contemporary homes with their horizontal lines, industrialmeets-natural materials and large windows that bring the outside in.

But like so many other heritage homes across British Columbia, this important architectural landmark is at risk of being lost to the past.

Architect Arthur Erickson designed the Filberg House with horizontal lines, natural materials and, above all, big windows that allowed the sunshine to stream inside and bring joy with it. The home was designed to integrate seamlessly with its beautiful natural surroundings.

ALL PHOTOS: ERICKSON FAMILY COLLECTION/ARTHURERICKSON.COM

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“ My mission with the house was to try to save a lost soul— Rob Filberg.“

ABOVE: Controversially, at a time when stripped down minimalism was all the rage in architectural circles, Erickson added ornamental details inspired by Moorish architecture featured in the Alhambra palace in Granada. Critics may have been appalled; everyone else loved it.

RIGHT: Erickson was in his mid-30s when he visited his friend Rob Filberg in Comox and decided to design his house. He would go on to design some of Canada's most revered buildings.

BRINGING THE LIGHT In 1958, fame was just over the horizon for the young Vancouver-born Erickson.

His renowned projects were still years away: Simon Fraser University; Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto; the downtown Vancouver complex of Robson Square, the Provincial Law Courts and the Vancouver Art Gallery; the south wing of Victoria’s Inn at Laurel Point (legend has it that Erickson took on this design after losing a wager with hotelier Paul Arsens); and many others.

Erickson had recently returned home after extended travels in post-Second World War Europe. His creative mind was filled with inspiration from the gorgeous Alhambra palace in Granada and other fine examples of Moorish architecture in southern Spain’s Andalusia, not to mention the designed landscapes of Le Corbusier, the moniker by which famed SwissFrench modern architecture pioneer CharlesÉdouard Jeanneret was known.

According to Boddy, who was a close friend of Erickson’s until his death in 2009 at the age of 85, the Comox project evolved in concert with a then-illicit romantic relationship between Erickson and the emotionally troubled Filberg — a liaison that the conservative Filberg family took pains to hide.

It may seem like a salacious detail, if not for the fact that it was integral to the story behind the building.

Erickson took his time sculpting and landscaping the property while sketching house design concepts. Using steel as the frame, Erickson designed the house with large windows to draw the eye toward the landscaping, but also with natural light in mind, intended as an architectural antidote to Filberg’s struggles with depression.

Fourteen-foot ceilings gave the 2,500-squarefoot house a light, airy feeling. The living room walls were fashioned from locally quarried granite, while the architect used tropical hardwoods like African zebrawood and Philippine mahogany for lavish interior details, inspired by Mediterranean baroque style described as “poetic geometry.”

At the time, purists in the tight-knit world of architectural criticism scorned Erickson’s use of ornamentation, which added levity to the unadorned and stark modernist esthetic of the day. Stuffy critics took exception to decorative details like indoor and outdoor latticework made of local yellow cedar, the 16 cedar barrel lights on poles and the curved ceiling soffits.

Construction was completed in the early 1960s, and it came in over budget. Sadly, Robert Filberg lost his battle with depression and died before he had a chance to move in.

In a 2002 interview for the Globe and Mail, Erickson reflected on the Filberg House and its melancholy genesis.

“My mission with the house was to try to save a lost soul — Rob Filberg,” Erickson said.

“I never would have done it if I hadn’t felt that his life depended on this house. That was the vanity of it — thinking that you could change anything with the right design.”

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LEFT: The 2,500-square-foot, steelframed house is rich with details like barrel lights on poles, yellow cedar latticework, curved ceiling soffits and natural materials including locally quarried granite and tropical hardwoods.

BELOW LEFT: The Filberg House is vulnerable to the whims of owners who haven't always appreciated the intention of the design — one, for instance, removed the copper hood mounted above the living room hearth. It was reinstalled by Doug Field, who, starting in 1999, painstakingly restored the home to Erickson's original vision.

BELOW RIGHT: The home is considered a masterpiece that showcases Erickson's gift for designing buildings that are seamlessly integrated with the landscape — a style that is still very much part of contemporary west coast architecture.

“C ANADA’S MOST FABULOUS HOUSE” Canadian Homes magazine, 1961

02 Logo VARIATION Despite the tragedy of the owner’s untimely death and some controversy among architecture aficionados, the popular press loved the Filberg House, as it became known.

It catapulted Erickson’s name onto the front page of Canadian Homes magazine, which in a 1961 issue called it “Canada’s Most Fabulous House.”

Boddy considers it a masterpiece that highlights Erickson’s gift for designing buildings that have a “dialogue with nature.” In layperson terms, it simply means that Erickson deeply appreciated the relationship between building and landscaping, or nature, as Boddy calls it.

They are inseparable, each complementing the other, and in the eyes of an architecture critic, the Filberg House symbolized this relationship.

Revolutionary and controversial in the early 1960s, this sort of design is now a hallmark of contemporary west coast architecture.

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Sixty years after the house made magazine headlines, Boddy believes it still deserves recognition but says it’s at risk, at the mercy of whoever happens to own the house at any given time. And indeed, over the years, the house has seen its share of renovations that were an affront to the original design.

For example, one owner preferred darkness over light, so had windows removed and walls plastered over, among numerous other alterations. The folks at the Arthur Erickson Foundation in Vancouver would call them abominations. Luckily, in 1999, the Filberg House got a saviour in the form of Doug Field, the son of Rex Field, who invented the Buzz Bomb, a famed fishing lure that seeded a successful family business empire.

The younger Field lived next door to the Filberg property and over the years had witnessed its death by a thousand cuts under a succession of owners. After he bought it, Field undertook a painstaking restoration, true to Erickson’s original design. He was meticulous.

No detail was overlooked. Field even found and reinstalled the striking original copper hood that was mounted above the hearth in the living room, but which had been removed by a previous owner.

“It was remarkable because Doug [Field] had no plans or documents to work from and he had no background in architecture. He was into restoring old cars, but applied those skills to the Filberg House,” Boddy says.

Several years after Field’s restoration, Boddy had the opportunity to spend a few nights in the Filberg House. He remembers lying in the master bedroom and watching Mount Baker glowing in the morning sunrise. It reinforced for Boddy the beauty of Erickson’s skills as a landscape architect; in his opinion as beautiful as his artistry with building design.

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Two decades and multiple owners later, there are reports that the Filberg House is showing its age. Cracks are splintering the walls, the yellow cedar latticework is weathered and the property is looking unkempt. This concerns Boddy, who says the house needs heritage designation.

The problem is that current regulations in B.C. protecting buildings that have historic or architectural significance are weak and the fact that it is privately owned further complicates matters.

According to a city planner with the Town of Comox, the Filberg House has no municipal heritage designation. Similarly, Corinna Filion, a spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Arts and Sport, says the house isn’t listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places or under B.C.’s Heritage Conservation Act. In the case of the Filberg House — or any privately held building — a heritage designation by the province or local government would need the consent of the owner. Even with this designation, a current or future owner could simply apply for a heritage alteration permit to make changes. So, in theory, the seven-acre property and the house could be levelled and redeveloped. And that would be sacrilegious to Arthur Erickson fans.

In an ideal world, a non-profit society would own and manage the Filberg House, making it possible to apply for restoration support to the Heritage Legacy Fund, an arm’s length provincial government organization. But that’s not the case.

Linda Thomas is executive director of the Filberg Heritage Lodge and Park Association, which oversees the nine-acre Comox property where the Filberg family lived in a 1930s Artsand-Crafts-style waterfront home until the patriarch’s death in 1977. Predeceased by his wife and children, Bob Filberg gifted the estate to the Vancouver Foundation. In 1978, the Town of Comox purchased the property, then established the association to manage it as a park.

“Unfortunately, [the Filberg House] is not something that I am very familiar with as it is not part of the mandate for the Filberg Heritage Lodge and Park Association,” Thomas says.

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And so, the story of the Filberg House continues. In 2020, the house, then owned by a Calgary couple, sold again for $2.75 million to a woman originally from Denman Island. A request for an interview with the current owner went unanswered.

Considering that it’s an iconic Canadian post-modern house designed early in the career of one of Canada’s greatest and most renowned architects, the Filberg House languishes in a surprising limbo of obscurity.

For many of us, it’s a footnote from early in the career of a famous architect: a glass-walled, rectangular curiosity in which one could easily imagine 007 sipping a Martini while gazing, square-jawed, upon the rippled waters of the Salish Sea. For others, it’s a one-of-a-kind Canadian architectural treasure, perched on the precipice of ruin.

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osgrave Construction knows that your home is the centre of your family life. They also know that every family is unique, with unique demands and needs — and so is every project they do.

“We and our trades want to make extraordinary structures come to life in the most efficient and practical way,” says the company’s president and journeyman carpenter, Paul Cosgrave. “Our passion is building, our trade is carpentry and our purpose is to satisfy our love for constructing unique and special homes from the ground up that we’re proud of.”

Since 2013, Victoria-based Cosgrave Construction’s team of certified carpenters and apprentices have worked closely with local designers, suppliers and sub-trades on custom projects for people whose needs are not catered to by the average market supply.

“Our relationships with our clients, suppliers and trades separate us from our competitors,” says Cosgrave. “We realize

how important it is for all hands on deck to be striving for each project to exceed expectations.”

Along with the expertise that comes from 20 years of building strictly custom homes in Victoria and Whistler, add an in-depth and thorough construction process that keeps projects on track and on budget, as well as construction software that allows clients and trades to follow the job in progress. It’s easy to see why Cosgrave Construction has been recognized by both the CHBA Vibe Awards (Best Townhouse Development and People’s Choice winner, 2021) and Care Awards (Best Custom Home Finalist, 2019).

More than that, Cosgrave and his team are passionate about supporting their community.

They source locally as much as possible and practice green building techniques that include minimizing waste, recycling materials and salvaging or repurposing when possible.

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WITH COLLECTIONS There’s a fine line between collectibles and clutter, and often it’s marked by how you display your cherished possessions.

By David Lennam

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PHOTO: PETER KRUPEYNE | ARCHITECTURE & INTERIOR DESIGN: CAROL KURTH ARCHITECTURE + INTERIORS

Get creative

M

any people love collecting items that interest them, but all too often their treasures are hidden away. There are ways to ensure an assemblage of cherished possessions doesn’t turn into a ramshackle assemblage of “stuff.”

While the sky’s the limit on specialized temperature- and light-controlled rooms, you don’t need to take out a second mortgage to put together an appealing and emotionally satisfying presentation, be it of fine art, vintage wines, seashells, porcelain figurines or wooden duck decoys.

Take a cue from galleries and museums, where, typically, only a portion of a collection is on display at any time, says Iván Meade, principal designer of Victoria’s Meade Design Group. Meade suggests starting with the most important pieces and working around those, creating a focal point that excites intrigue.

“How many records do you have that are actually that important? Or how many bottles of wine are your best bottles of wine? Which one is the star of the show?” he says.

Ann Squires Ferguson, CEO of Western Design+Build, had a client with an incredible collection of heritage table linens, “really beautiful runners and tablecloths and napkins, embroidered and beaded.” Because the collection gets used regularly, Squires Ferguson created

multiple shallow drawers so everything could be laid flat, but easily shown.

Another challenge was designing superbly lit glass shelves behind dustrepelling glass doors to present an assortment of Disney figurines. “To [my client] they represented a time of nostalgia, whimsy and playfulness,” she says.

Meade worked with an uncle whose collection of model airplanes was too vast to display all at once. He designed a set of drawers with special lighting and small information cards. “That gave it this almost curatorial aspect,” he says.

Another client had a collection of 20 lithographs from famous artists, but had downsized to a condo with only one wall suitable to hang them. “I was only able to display four,” recalls Meade. “I came up with an idea for a frame that would be made so he could easily change the pieces in and out. Just slide in a different lithograph.”

And remember: our collections aren’t just things; they have emotion attached to them. “What we collect sometimes says a lot about us,” says Squires Ferguson.

“Maybe intimate is the right word because sometimes we don’t want to share that piece of ourselves with the general public. The objects tell a story.”

She sees collections as an announcement of “This is who I am, and this is what I care about.” Meade agrees, “These are the things that make you unique and special.”

5 tips FOR SHOWING OFF YOUR COLLECTIONS

1

Put it on stage Don’t let the backdrop interfere with what’s on stage. That busy wallpaper might ruin the visual.

Be dramatic with your little stage: sightlines, lighting, a neutral background that doesn’t overpower.

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Mix it up Rotate your collection, as they do in art galleries. Bring in new pieces and swap them out with some that have been on display for a while. Not everything has to sit in a box unseen.

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Be ingenious

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Consider movable display cases, the use of drawers or otherwise wasted spaces: hallways, against a staircase, an alcove.

Tiered plinths or shelving give different pieces the distinction of being highlighted at their own level. Millwork need not be expensive. A second-hand cabinet or sideboard might become a display stand.

Dramatic lighting, like you’d see in a museum, will draw the eye to a piece. Even if your collection is for your eyes only, as in this dreamy walk-in closet by Jenny Martin Designs, good lighting will let you see items clearly. Lights can shine from above, behind, from the side or even underneath through a glass shelf. Use a flashlight to test out the best position for lights before you commit. And watch where shadows are cast so they don’t fall upon another object in the collection.

5

Edit ruthlessly Clutter is the enemy. There’s no rule that says every single item of any collection needs to be on display all of time. Focus on just a few pieces to be the stars of the show.

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SERENITY AT THE SEASHORE

QUALICUM BEACH

COOMBS

No time for a proper holiday? A “shortcation” to Parksville Qualicum Beach offers the respite you’re craving.

By Joanne Sasvari

A change,

they keep telling me, is as good as a rest. Well, there has been a lot of change over the past couple of years and none of it has felt particularly restful — at least, not until recently, when I took a two-night “shortcation” in Parksville and Qualicum Beach.

Now I understand what everyone was on about.

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here’s something wonderfully soothing about this place.

Perhaps it’s the gentle rhythm of the tide washing over the endless sandy beach or the playful breeze whispering among the Douglas firs. Maybe it’s the art that seems to be everywhere, or the wilderness on its doorstep, or the farm-totable dining scene, best enjoyed in a plush bathrobe.

Heck, it could just be that it’s an easy two hours’ drive from Victoria, with no ferry lineup involved.

I’m certainly not the first to discover the picturesque beauty of Parksville Qualicum Beach. In summer, thousands of visitors, especially young families and older guests, are drawn to the area’s friendly beach culture. Lineups snake outside the ice cream stands and chowder joints, and traffic along the Old Island Highway slows to a crawl of out-ofprovince licence plates.

But visit in the shoulder season and it’s a different story. There’s room to breathe, to soak in the scenery, to meander peacefully.

Ahhhh. Now isn’t that just what we all need right now?

HEALING WATERS There’s plenty to do here in what’s charmingly known as Oceanside. You could take in the coastal views of “Lighthouse Country” up around Bowser, or enjoy the mountainous playground of Mount Arrowsmith Regional Park further inland, or join the more than a million visitors who stop each year to glimpse the goats grazing on the Old Country Market roof in Coombs.

Then again, you could also do pretty much nothing at all.

And a good place to pretty much nothing is at the Grotto Spa at Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Spa Resort. Tucked amid the arbutus trees along Resort Drive, not far after the Parksville exit off Highway 19, this spa is a destination unto itself. Year after year, it perches on top of all the “best of” lists and wins hampers full of awards.

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the epic sunrises over the Salish Sea that make this place so restorative.

The real reason to stop here is for the Dip & Dine, an experience you can enjoy nowhere else in Canada.

It starts with a soak in the healing waters of the pool, which is designed to look like a stone grotto, complete with waterfalls and a steamy whirlpool. Then, just before you’ve completely dissolved into a puddle of relaxation, you change into your bathrobe — it’s the only attire permitted — and hop an elevator up to the Treetop Tapas & Grill.

You’ll be happy you wore the bathrobe because you will then proceed to graze your way through a 15-course feast of small plates of, say, gnocchi with duck confit or demitasses of sablefish chowder or cubes of crisp pork belly, all of it made even better with a glass or two of B.C. wine alongside.

From there it’s a short stroll — to be fair, it might be more of a waddle by this point — to your cozy room, where the wind and the waves will sing you to sleep.

The Dip & Dine at Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Spa Resort starts with a soak in the Grotto Spa’s mineral pool, then, once you’ve slipped into your bathrobe and slippers, continues with a selection of gourmet small bites at the Treetop Tapas & Grill.

Graze your way through a 15-course feast of small plates of, say, gnocchi with duck confit or demitasses of sablefish chowder, made even better with a glass or two of B.C. wine alongside.

A BRUSH WITH NATURE On this protected eastern side of the Island, chances are good that you will wake up to sunshine. It’s a good thing, too, because rain or shine, hot or cold, you’ll want to hit one of the epic beaches. When the tide goes out, sand spreads as far as the eye can see; when it comes back in, the sea slips shallowly over that sun-baked sand, making this the warmest bit of ocean in Canada. Talk about healing waters!

At this time of year, the water’s still not warm enough for me to want to dip my toe in it. But plenty of other critters are enjoying the opportunity.

Whales, seals and dolphins frolic offshore, pursuing a giant shoal of herring. Meanwhile, high above, eagles, gulls and other birds follow the Pacific Flyway, including the small Brant geese that flock here every spring, pausing on the way to their breeding grounds up north.

They’re the focus of the Brant Wildlife Festival (April 1 to 9 this year), which seems like a good reason for a return visit.

But when nature and humankind come as close together as they do here, sometimes they collide in unexpected, and unfortunate, ways.

That’s why the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre exists. It’s the creation of Robin and Sylvia Campbell, who, back in 1985, rescued an injured great horned owl they found caught in a barbed wire fence. Now they have eight acres up near Coombs, where they rehabilitate injured and abandoned animals — 24,850 so far, including dozens of orphaned bear cubs — and release them back into the wild.

When you wander the grounds, though,

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you’ll come across a number of permanent residents. These ravens, ducks, eagles, owls and black bears are too badly injured or too used to humans to survive on their own. It’s a bit magical being this close to a ghostly white raven or an imperious bald eagle. Mind you, as Sylvia says, it’s hard to know if we’re watching them, or they’re the ones watching us.

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Get close to owls, eagles and other rescued animals at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre.

AN ARTFUL GETAWAY Ocean, forest, mountains — the wilderness is never far away here. And the great natural beauty of this area is, perhaps, what inspires so much art.

I’ve dropped into The Old School House Arts Centre (TOSH) in Qualicum Beach, which is holding an exhibition of local art “from the attic,” mostly works by local artists, professional and amateur. (There is, as you can imagine, a wide range of quality.)

Illana Hester, TOSH’s executive director, estimates some 35,000 artists live on Vancouver Island, and a goodly number of them reside in and around Oceanside. She’s all about fostering their work and giving them gallery space so that visitors like me can enjoy their pieces.

Many local artists languish in relative obscurity; not so Robert Held, the famous glass artist whose studio is in Parksville.

A curtain of artist Robert Held’s glass orbs creates a dreamy backdrop at the Qualicum Beach Café.

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His colourful vases, bowls and paperweights are inspired by the likes of Gustav Klimt and Tiffany, and can be found in famous collections around the world — even the late Queen Elizabeth collected one of his commissioned pieces.

I love dropping in and watching the master at work at his furnaces, then browsing through his shop on the way out.

I spy more of Held’s work at the Qualicum Beach Café where his handblown glass orbs dangle from the ceiling like vintage fishing floats, a curtain of shimmering sea colours. It’s a fitting backdrop to this modern restaurant where West Coast meets Italy at the junction of welcoming hospitality. The view of the Salish Sea from here is so pretty, they hardly need to make any effort at all, but they do, and I’m so glad for it.

It’s the same story at The Beach Club in Parksville, where Pacific Prime Restaurant & Lounge is serving up fine fare in outdoor domes next to the boardwalk until the weather gets warm. It’s like sitting inside a crystal ball, enjoying lunch or dinner with the ocean just metres away. And there’s even more good eats to be had at the French Press Coffee Roasters, Q Burger, Fern + Cedar Brewing Company and so many more places.

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And there we have it. When a change means a soothing spa, a brush with nature, some beautiful art and delicious food, in a picturesque setting just a short journey from home, it really is as good as a rest.

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SCENE

The Unscripted Dave Morris Taking improv to the fringes at Paper Street Theatre.

By David Lennam | Photo by Jeffrey Bosdet

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here’s the improv you know and the improv comedy comes out of the fact that the audience you don’t know. Victoria’s Dave Morris will is watching you take their suggestions and turn introduce you to the latter. them into Shakespearean language or turn it into The 41-year-old founding artistic director a Jane Austen.” of Paper Street Theatre is moving improv into Morris says he tells his performers that, given theatrical territory, letting his troop riff on the choice between funny and beautiful, to always everyone from Tennessee Williams to Quentin choose beautiful.

Tarantino.

“Choose the beautiful moment because the Improvisational acting is typically identified funny moments will happen. I don’t need you with TV’s Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the sort to make this audience laugh. I need you to make of loosely competitive Theatresports games that good art.” promise a quick and easy laugh.

The form he works breathes rarefied air.

But Morris understands there’s more value in Patterson says the only people she knows who are stretching the structure well beyond what many presenting works this way have been trained by would think of as its breaking point. Paper Street is Morris. delivering a rare brand of long-form improv built Simply put, it’s hard to do, and it requires around a narrative style. Think a full play that’s immense focus, practice, training and rehearsal. entirely made up, with sound and lighting design, “Improv’s on the fringe of theatre and Paper even an intermission.

Street is on the fringe of improv,” Morris says.

This takes improv far beyond the expected “I’m trying to get as fringy as I can.” skewering of clichés and tropes, even farther than Considering he does improv based on Samuel standard long-form structure such as the Harold Beckett, Franz Kafka and Martin McDonagh, improv method, which was first performed in 1967 I joke about his audience being made up of and introduces characters and pipe-smoking, eccentric themes, allowing them to recur intellectuals, the leatherin a series of connected scenes. elbow-patch set, maybe I guess you could say of a roomful of Bertrand Morris, the play’s the thing, Russells. where the story follows one I’m not too far off. A bit protagonist through to the tongue-in-cheek, Morris The best laugh for end. And in that, he’s trying to reveals his ideal audience is, me is from perfect honour the style of whatever the basically, his sound designer, recognition, where improv play is about, rather than Dan Godlovitch, who has a you come up with the mocking it or doing a parody.

PhD in applied mathematics, best character name “If there’s comedy in what builds digital instruments that actually sounds we do, it doesn’t come from us and makes really abstract, making fun of Jane Austen,” obscure electronic music. like a Jane Austen says Morris. “It comes from us “That’s my ideal name, like Thomas screwing up. The joke should audience,” he laughs. “SuperBumbercount, and never be at the style’s expense. pretentious artists, that’s everyone laughs.

The best laugh for me is from who I’m aiming at.” perfect recognition, where Morris has intentionally you come up with the best character name that guided Paper Street through two phases. The first actually sounds like a Jane Austen name, like was a decade of simple genre work (film noir, Thomas Bumbercount, and everyone laughs.” science fiction, Christmas classics, zombie movies, And they laugh because of how perfect it was, Wes Anderson, Edgar Allan Poe). The second, not because you made fun of Jane Austen, adds which is happening now, is to take what they’ve Morris. learned from those genres and apply it to other Actor Christina Patterson, a veteran of more works. than 20 shows with Paper Street, explains that “I’ve always tried to push improv to that level long-form doesn’t rely on gags. of theatre, a little cerebral and artsy, to challenge “When you’re doing short-form improv, you people a little bit more. Next year, one of the shows know you’re going to walk out on stage, you’re I want to do is a Sylvia Plath-inspired show.” going to do something silly and fun, you’re going I ask him what the coming evolutionary leap for to get a bunch of laughs and you’re going to walk Paper Street might be. off,” she says.

“It’s funny to think of what’s the end point? Like Long form, however, means studying the source people thinking their goal is to get to retirement material, knowing the style to present it in and so they can spend the rest of their days on a beach. rehearsing even though there are no scripted Me, I don’t. Improv is not a product; it’s not a thing. lines. Patterson says it’s more about setting the It’s a process. And I’ve always been process-focused nuances of the author or genre, “so when you get as opposed to product. I don’t care about the thing on stage and you tell that story from the beginning at the end. I focus on the activity and action of to the end in, say, an hour and 15 minutes, you doing it. That’s where I get the love of life that want the audience to think that they’re watching comes from doing things, making stuff. For me, it’s something that was written by that person or like I don’t see an end point ’cause there’s always directed by that person. more stuff to make and further to go.”

“Sometimes,” she adds, “it’s heartbreaking and He’s got a huge grin and he starts to laugh. sometimes it’s hilarious. But a lot of the time the “I guess the end point, I’ll die.”

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73

PERSPECTIVE

Parking Meters of the Past YAM takes a closer look at one of Victoria’s last remaining hitching posts.

By Joanne Sasvari

S

would be tied up while the rider or driver went off to conduct their business. (Mind you, back then, there wasn’t an app for that.)

Posts were made of wood, granite, concrete and cast iron — indeed, the 300plus black fence posts that line the Inner Harbour are descendants of the original cast-iron hitching posts, though most have been replaced with lighter, easier-tomaintain aluminum.

Most hitching posts were simple rings or hooks; others were more whimsical, like the decorative cast-iron horse head posts you can still spot at Point Ellice House. The city even had its own design, which featured two iron hooks and two rings; what’s believed to be the

last of these was spotted on Quadra Street in the 1960s, but disappeared decades ago.

What doomed the hitching post was, of course, the advent of the automobile. By the 1910s, it was already the dominant mode of transportation, and horse-drawn vehicles soon galloped into history.

So we were delighted to stumble across this iron ring attached to one of the city’s original granite hitching posts. It’s located on Rockland Avenue between Moss Street and Linden Avenue.

If you happen to be out gazing at the magnolia blossoms on this pretty street, look a little closer and you, too, can be hooked by this post from the past.

JEFFREY BOSDET/YAM MAGAZINE

troll along Linden, Olympia or Rockland Avenue, and if you look closely enough, you can spot an intriguing link to the past. Heck, you could even hitch your wagon to it.

What are likely Victoria’s last three original hitching posts still linger in these historic neighbourhoods, iron rings and hooks attached to granite or concrete posts or, in the case of Olympia Street in James Bay, embedded directly in the sidewalk.

Back in the 1800s and early 1900s, there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of these posts all over the city. They were the parking meters of their day, where saddle horses as well as horses pulling carriages or wagons

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