Horne Lake Caves

Crystal clear water and Vancouver Island’s coolest outdoor adventures makes Horne Lake an outdoor-lovers dream. Two parks offer a wide range of activities for all ages and abilities including camping, canoeing, rock climbing and cave tours.

Horne Lake Caves

Crystal clear water and Vancouver Island’s coolest outdoor adventures makes Horne Lake an outdoor-lovers dream. Two parks offer a wide range of activities for all ages and abilities including camping, canoeing, rock climbing and cave tours.

Winter 2010 NeighbourWood Walks Registration

Editor’s note: This morning’s post on making felt fortune cookies to celebrate the combo of Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day (both Feb. 14 this year) was so much fun. You can check it out HERE. Now, it’s time to finally get back outside as we get down to the business of registering for our [...]

Roll with Local Veg and Cabbage Rolls this January

Good morning. While I was wandering the aisles at the grocery store the other day I had a very uncomfortable moment of consciousness when I looked down into my grocery basket and saw very little fresh food.
It’s that time of year – the dead of Winter – when it seems like the possibilities for local, [...]

Sunday Morning Walks – Winter Museum Walking

You have to admit that, some days this time of year, heading outside for an adventure in the perpetual downpour is not on the list of things to do. But, needing to get out of the house is going to be the one thing that keeps everyone from going off of their rockers in the [...]

Book Review – Favorite Stories to Celebrate the Solistice

Editor’s Note: Good afternoon. If you missed out on the morning post, you can check out Rebecca’s post on Waldorf Kindergarten classrooms HERE. Now, we’ve got four of my favorite books to celebrate the solstice with your kids through stories.
Although we are just short of a week away from celebrating Christmas, one of my [...]

Sunday Morning Walks – Finding Swans

The truest sign of Winter’s onset for our family is the return of the Trumpeter Swans. Right after Halloween we move from salmon and skeletons to full-on ornithologists looking for our friends headed South from Alaska for their balmy vacation from the Northern cold.
They’ve become like the neighbors who only live in town half the [...]

Kids Book Review – Winter Gems for a Roaring Fire

Editor’s Note: If you missed our morning post, Gayle Bates gives us a peek into holiday traditions around the world and how to take part in some global giving HERE. Now, we’re checking out two Winter children’s book faves that are a part of OBE’s holiday events at the Filberg Lodge.

Chestnuts roasting on the fire [...]

Sunday Morning Walk – Courtenay Riverway

Good Morning. Hopefully, the strange fog that’s been dominating our days is headed in a different direction as we look forwarded to a bit of sunshine. But, in the mean time, checking out the cool effects of light and clouds – all while getting a front-row seat to hang out with some of the most [...]

Winter Nutrition From The Grocery “Garden”

Another new year! But with the remnants of snow it is hardly a time to be gardening. So I thought we’d take a look at a few common foods available at the grocery “garden!”
Typically the new year ushers in new year’s resolutions, and eating healthier is a common goals after the onslaught of Christmas [...]

Nature Journal – Family Listening Walks

Good morning. Between sickness (mostly mine), insane amounts of snow and the general hibernation-like blah blahs this Winter, it’s been a tough sell to get us out the door every day and into the fresh air lately.
It’s not that we don’t want to (in fact, we all well know how squirrely each of us gets [...]

Family Craft – Waldorf-inspired Winter Birds

I am a bit of a Christmas scrooge when it comes to taking down the decorations. The pile of pine needles on the floor and the clutter from the holidays send my brain into crazy mode and generally everything comes down within 24 hours of the big day.
This year was just the same, and we [...]

Mommy Talk – Cure Post-Holiday Blues

It hit me about 9 a.m. yesterday morning – Christmas is over. All the wind up, the preparation, the crazies (which I could have totally lived without) and sugar rushes are now just a memory and, whew – I feel a little low.
While we kept it all pretty darn modest this year – no big [...]

Book Review – Winter Tales of Survival & Hope

Ken was horrified that I’d brought a book like this home from the library. While I went for what was shaping up to be a long visit to the midwife on Tuesday, he and the tiny person broke into the latest stack of books and CDs that had come home with us from the library [...]

Nature Journal – Winter Tracks

Up earlier than anyone in the house this morning, the tiny person sprinted to the window, wrenched on the blinds and gasped that stunning “Oh my goodness” moment when she realized that yesterday’s snow hadn’t washed away.
Nearly impossible since we got nearly a foot – with a bit more on the way I’m told – [...]

Movie Adventures & Family Flick Favourites

I am more than a bit under the weather today, reluctantly submitting to at least a few days of bed rest as while the tiny person in my belly seems to be A-OK, my body is struggling a bit through this part of pregnancy.
Being mostly couch bound is not really my speed. But, when the [...]

Nature Journal – Winter Bird Feeding Walks

I saw the light in her face the first time our daughter and a chickadee made eye contact – and it was pure magic.
We’d walked the Lazo Marsh loop what seemed like a thousand times before then – through a Summer of sunshine and a mild Fall. But, the birds hadn’t made their debut until [...]

Holiday Gems for the Heart (& The Kitchen)

I like to think of our family as a crew of non-traditional traditionalists.
We love Christmas and birthdays, presents and sweets. But, in ways that present the age-old traditions of those times with a classic sense of heart, not necessarily a classic point of view.
After falling hard for Eve Bunting’s holiday gem The Night Tree this [...]

Nature Journal – Trumpeter Swans

When I was a kiddo, nature and I had an odd relationship. Growing up at the base of the mountains, the grandeur of nature’s “big-ness” struck me every time I walked outside. I wanted to explore, just to be left alone to check out the world.
On the other end of the deal, a mild [...]

Holiday Crafts – Old Skool Snow Flakes

When I was a kid, scissors were the coolest thing ever. I would, literally, spend hours during the holidays cutting out snowflake after snowflake in an effort to coat every inch of window space in our house with the white stuff.
Growing up in the Rocky Mountains, snow for the holidays was never an issue. But, [...]

Stained Glass Twinkle Lights

Has pregnancy ever sent you into the cave of solitary confinement? It’s like I know I won’t be capable of making it through more than two or three hours in any given day without some narcoleptic moment so I don’t even try to plan to do anything more than the basics any more.
The tiny person [...]

Diet Is Key to Keep Children’s Ear Infections Away

Editor’s Note: With the Comox Valley nearly on the eve of the municipal election, we received a timely letter (now posted in our Letters section) about school trustee races from Valley parent and educator Brent Reid offering his perspective on critical races that are in voters hands.
Brent’s is one opinion on a very heated [...]

Building Immunity for Children, Naturally

A week ago, my little guy and I were walking by Thrifty’s and I was showing him how the leaves on the two big trees out front where changing from green to yellow, and how when we walked over the leaves on the sidewalk, they made this beautiful crispy, crackling noise.
Yesterday, as we walked [...]

Book Review – The Magic Forest

I am in love with the forest.
Growing up in – and living most of my life surrounded by mountains and wilderness – something deep inside always resonated profoundly with me.
Strangely I didn’t really begin to understand why until I started plugging into nature from a kiddo’s perspective.
Getting on your hands and knees to look up [...]

10 Ways to Enjoy a Rainy Day, Outside in the Comox Valley

Lately my commitment to getting the tiny person outside for at least an hour a day has gone the way of the dodo. I’d blame it on the holidays or the mad rush of company that invaded our house the last few weeks. But, since the holidays were actually pretty chill, and we had no [...]

Arctic Tales

I don’t want to be a part of the generation who has to some day explain why Canada’s amazing north vanished in our lifetime. How the mighty creatures of the Arctic and the intensely rugged Inuit culture literally melted away.
Never in our history have we as a society been more aware of our direct impact [...]

Winter Break Projects for the Whole Family

With the Santa countdown about to officially begin, family and friends about to gather and joy to commence there is a rather un-joyful reality that families often get at least a wee bit agitated when piled in the same general vicinity for long periods of time.
I’m no Scrooge, and I totally love getting the whole [...]

Holidays Around the World – Winter Solstice

A Winter chill is in the air. The days are short. Vacation planning to warm February destinations is at its peak.
And, by the end of next week, much of the world will be in the midst of mid-Winter celebrations that range from the simple placement of special gifts of food on Winter dinner tables to [...]

Holidays Around the World – Hanukkah

For the next few days we’re going to spend some time checking out other holidays celebrated by children around the world this year. When I was a kiddo, some of the most memorable experiences I ever had included experiencing the different holiday celebrations of friends of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds.
Giving your kiddos the opportunity [...]

Kayaking Tofino

I know, I know. All of you were expecting Dr. Ivey today, and I planned on it – I promise.
But, the lure of the beach, the crisp of the air and honestly my unwillingness to think about anything other than where I’m at while on vacation means Dr. Ivey’s debut will have to wait until [...]

Rainy Day Survival Guide – Hit The Pool

I used to dream of pools.
Big ones, that would take me what seemed like hours to swim the length of.
Diving for pennies.
Bobbing like a buoy.
Sneaking a trip to the snack bar to eat Tangy Taffy until my teeth fell out.
Except for the Tangy Taffy, pretty much nothing has changed.
So, when we jumped in and got [...]