Don’t miss the “Ancient Egypt” exhibit at the Royal BC Museum

By Keith and Heather Nicol

 

    The latest Exhibit at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, BC is all about Egypt during the time of the Pharaohs and you have until the end of December, 2018 to see it. We have not seen many exhibits at this museum since we live in the Comox Valley and don’t get to Victoria that often but the ones we have seen we have really enjoyed. The last exhibit we saw in the spring of 2017 was about Terry Fox and we loved that presentation about Terry’s life.  With this new exhibit you get to walk back in time to ancient Egypt when Pharaohs ruled and built elaborate pyramids and temples. 

At the entrance to the exhibit

    There are many interactive displays and with more than 300 original artifacts, this exhibition covers many aspects of ancient Egyptian life.  Some pottery bowls and other artifacts date from 3500 BC making them over 5500 years old. Amazing! 

Samples of pottery dating back to the 4th millennium BC

      The elaborate display has numerous rooms dedicated to the following themes:  Landscape/Climate, Gods/Goddesses/Mythology, Pharaohs, The Citizens/ Private Life/Hieroglyphics, Architecture/Sacred Temples, Beauty, and Funerals and the Afterlife. There was even a chance to learn how to interpret their hieroglyphics with the help of a museum volunteer.

Hands on practice with hieroglyphics thanks to a volunteer

    We particularly liked the funerals and afterlife and had no idea the pharaohs reined for such a long period of time-close to 3000 years. Over that time apparently 170 pharaohs ruled Egypt and the surrounding lands!  And although everyone has heard of Egyptian mummies, we had no idea they were so elaborate. Likely no society before or since took so much time (up to 70 days) to deal body of a deceased person, cleaning and storing various organs in special containers. 

Elaborate coffins showed how much care they took with their dead

    This exhibit will appeal to a broad range of people and you can even see an IMAX presentation about Egypt at the same time. For more information see: https://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/ about this exhibit and other currently displays at the museum.

The McLoughlin Property is one of the newest parks in the Comox Valley

Fall crocuses in bloom

By Keith and Heather Nicol

    In the mid 1970’s Brian and Sarah McLoughlin began to create gardens that were drought and deer resistant along a scenic seashore landscape.The address is 814 Tasman Road in Merville in the Comox Valley and it is one of the newest Comox Valley Regional District Parks (CVRD).  The McLoughlin’s created an  11 acre ecological gift to the CVRD in 2016 as a pedestrian and cyclist only park and we found out about this park while attending  the Woodland Garden Artisans’ Festival the previous day -Sunday, Sept 2.  We spoke to Christine Dickinson about the location and she encouraged to visit it since she obviously thought it was a special place.  Christine was representing the group that has taken over maintaining the house and gardens of the park.

The house overlooks the Salish Sea

Finding the entrance was fairly easy (do a google map search for the address) and we ended up driving right to the end of Tasman Road.  It is roughly 15-20 minutes north of the Courtenay-Comox area.  There is parking for several cars and you can recognize the entrance by the small vertical sign post characteristic of CVRD Parks. The park is accessed by a 400 meter sloping driveway (that is quite steep in places) which leads to the beach accesses, the gardens and the house.  The house is now being used by a seasonal “artist in residence” programme which the McLoughlin Garden Society runs and Christine mentioned they are looking for volunteers to help with the gardens and general maintenance.

Cormorants sat on a rock just offshore

  We brought our lunch and had a beautiful view of the Salish Sea and just offshore on our visit was a rock that had attracted several cormorants .  We wondered around the gardens and came across a second beach access trail. We found some fall crocuses in bloom in the gardens and feel this would be a charming place to visit at other times when the rhodos and other plants would be in flower. We fully recommend checking out this new park and if you want to volunteer then see: https://www.mcloughlingardens.org/.   Also  https://www.comoxvalleyrd.ca/parks-recreation/comox-valley-parks-trails/sarah-and-brian-mcloughlin-park  has more CVRD information on the park.

The park has a couple of beach access points where you can beach comb or have lunch

Lots to see at the Artisans’ Festival at the Kitty Coleman Woodland Gardens

By Keith and Heather Nicol

We enjoyed the Irish music of David Somers

     Last year we attended the Artisan’s Festival at the Kitty Coleman Woodland Gardens for the first time and were very impressed by the range of artisans which presented their wares in a relaxing woodland setting. This year there are close to 80 exhibitors featuring  pottery to paintings to wood work and everything in between so there is alot to choose from. The exhibitors tend to be mostly located in small open meadows but some are in enclosed areas like Santa’s Barn. 

      From the map we could see that there are many trails that wind through the forest and so we will have to return for another visit to fully explore the gardens. We did take one side trail to the labyrinth which is a special spot worth investigating.  We also appreciated the musicians who were playing music along the way and each day of the festival there are different people playing at the different venues.  The festival runs from Saturday, September 1 to Monday, September 3.  The event is pet friendly and there is an ATM and food trucks on site.  The 24 acre Kitty Coleman Woodland Gardens offers a tranquil setting to enjoy nature and this weekend there is an added bonus of the artisans’ festival.  We are looking forward on coming back to see the gardens when the rhododendrons are in full bloom since they have one of the largest collections of rhodos on the Island.  The gardens are located about 15 north of Courtenay off the North Island Highway. For more information see:  http://woodlandgardens.ca/  

Heather viewing some of the creations of Red Cod Forge

 

You can even see Hyacinth the eagle at the MARS exhibit