Gabriola Gumshoe. Back by popular demand.

Sunday, September 14 | 4:00 pm

Darien Edgeler recently performed to a very impressed audience at the Gabriola Theatre Festival.  We heard so many rave revues about his performance, that we decided to join forces with him and sponsor another performance.  He's busy preparing for his upcoming performance, we're hoping to see you there enjoying a few laughs!

Here's the blurb from his performance about the Theatre Festival, so that you know what it's all about.

It’s 2025. Gabriola’s first and only Starbucks goes up in flames a mere two days after its much-ballyhooed grand opening. It falls to Nanaimo’s last remaining private detective to investigate the inferno. Join Trent Trowel as he hits the mean streets of Folklife Village and encounters a colourful cast of characters including Monique the impossibly perky barista, Joel the über-chill delivery driver, Adrian the hothead activist, and neighbourhood busybody Mrs. McRobertson. By turns touching and hilarious, and featuring thoughtful insights into issues as far-ranging as pipeline construction and cuts to ferry service, Gabriola Gumshoe is one show you won’t want to miss!

Written and Performed by Darien Edgeler (Gabriola Island, BC)Rated: Family Friendly | Length: 60 minutes, no intermission

“Darien Edgeler is superb. He has a real ear for dialogue. And, as a performer, his charismatic physicality is reminiscent of a young Michael J. Fox.” —North Shore News
“Darien is impressively watchable on stage, particularly in mountings of his own work.” —Bard on The Beach veteran Dean Paul Gibson, honouring Edgeler with his fifth Theatre BC acting accolade
Darien Edgeler is an award-winning playwright, thespian, director, dramaturge, producer, improv instructor, event MC, voiceover artist, fight arranger, and stage combat coach. Gabriolans may remember seeing Darien in The Exquisite Hour at The Rollo Centre, in The Malcolm Lowry Project at The Haven’s  Phoenix Auditorium, or in his highly acclaimed comedy, Master & Mistress, at The Port Theatre in Nanaimo.

There's fun in the Trunk!

The organizers of the Gabriola Theatre Festival have been working hard to create an amazing event and would love a good turnout for the kids day that they have planned (Sat, Aug 16). Specifically, the show/musical on the Saturday morning, Trunk! They say it is really quality fun and they want to make sure as many kids get to see it as possible.

The age range is suited for kids 3-12, but enjoyed by all ages!
Trunk! is a family show — all tickets are $10.
Here’s what the organizers have said, “I really loved it because the cast is so talented, and musicals are so inspiring, so I'm sure the parents will as well :) Kerploding Theatre is really excited to be coming to Gabriola"
Here's a link for more info: http://artsgabriola.ca/theatre/gtf-main-stage/trunk/
We're looking forward to seeing the entertainment in the Trunk!

Slaying the BRICKYARD beast.

If you've ever cycled around Gabriola, you'll be familiar with Brickyard hill, if you rode up it, you'll know the hill that I'm talking about.  In honor of this hill, Islanders have created one of the toughest 10km road races in Canada, The BRICKYARD BEAST, quite the sunday morning challenge. 
It is fun(!?!) and a well planned event, there is a strict code of silence while climbing the beast (until you catch your breathe) and a great station at the Gabriola Golf Course, where you can enjoy a simple cool down as the Island kids spray you with their water guns.  When you get to the finish line, you'll be greeted by spectators and  you can soak up some community spirit at the Commons, where there is an after party- complete with pizza and music.
There is still time to register, so throw on those runners, stick on a smile and head to the hill - I'll see you there, on my second beast slayer run, if I'm not talking - I'm just trying to get my breathe!

Submitted by Tina.

Gabriola. Searching the Sea.

We had the pleasure of taking a few kids out on the boat for a few hours yesterday,  within a short time frame we viewed an amazing amount of sea life.  We started our adventure by pulling the crab traps first, and we were pleased to find they liked the bait.  We then went and pulled the prawn traps and although they didn't overflow, there was enough there to please the kids.  We found an octopus in one of the prawn traps, which was an amazing sight for the kids.  We ended our trip with a little jigging, and managed to get a quillback in the boat.  The 9year old kids ended up with a nice little goodie bag of treats from the sea, and were pretty proud to be providing dinner for their families.  The shores of Gabriola are rich with fresh seafood and have an abundance of experiences waiting for you to discover! 

Running on Gabriola

View from our Berry Point Rd. on Gabriola

On Wednesday morning, we usually head out to Berry Point Road and meet the rest of the GRUNTS (Yes, the runners under ninety) and go for an 8km run.  I missed the run this morning, but it is one of my favourite things about Gabriola.  We park by the lighthouse, do our run, and come back and pile 8 people or so into a VW van to share home baked goods and drink our coffee. 

Hockey Day in Canada (well, the Gabriola Library actually)

I'm always amazed at the number of great things going on at the Gabriola Branch of the Vancouver Island Regional Library.  They have a great afternoon lined up on Sat, Jan 18 from 2:30-4:30 to celebrate Hockey Day in Canada.  They are bringing over members of the Clippers Hockey team to read from their favourite books and may challenge our island players to a little hockey after, game on!

Movie night at the Library

It's movie night tonight (Wed, Oct. 16) at the Gabriola branch of the Vancouver Island Library,  in the Folklife Village.  They will be playing ET at 6pm, get out the kleenex and pull up a seat.

CycleArt:Downtown Nanaimo

On Sunday June 9th some fantastic organizers from the Nanaimo Design Nerds and a graphic artist team from Awarewolf Creative organized "Cycleart".  It was great, we met up at Maffeo Sutton waterfront park and painted a mural, decorated our bikes and pedalled through downtown on a scavenger hunt to the downtown businesses and ended at the Nanaimo Art Gallery.  We had a great day at this family event and we're now keen to plan a neighbourhood bike parade on Gabriola. To top it off we won some fantastic prizes (thank you New York Style Pizza & Cayo Fashions) and a huge thanks to all those that made this event happen.

Enjoying Earth Hour on Gabriola Island.

Earth Hour

Last night (March 18 2013) we celebrated Earth Hour with our kids on Gabriola.  We turned off the lights between 8:30-9:30 pm and played a game of Catan by candlelight.  It's a way to show the kids that it is possible to do small things that make a big change against climate change.  If you haven't had a chance to play Catan, it's a great game about building, settling and resources for kids and adults alike.

Twenty Five Walks on Gabriola - Sandwell Park

Sandwell Park, Gabriola Island

The Gabriola Land and Trails Trust published a great brochure with 25 walks on Gabriola.  We're going to try and do the 25 walks listed this year and share them you.
Over the holidays we took the kids to Sandwell Park (walk #15 in the brochure), a beautiful sand and pebble bay on Gabriola.  To get to the parking lot, you drive to the end of the Strand.  You'll see a yellow gate and a wide path, a 5-10 minute walk gets you to the bay, there is a steep part so watch your footing.  At the bay there are outhouses and an expanse of beach and driftwood lies before you.
It took us about an hour with kids in tow to walk down the path and along the beach, of course we stopped and beachcombed along the way.  There are some beautiful clear winter days when you can see down to Mt. Baker, we were lucky that this was one of those days.

The GYM @ Twin Beaches

It's been a bit wet on the trails lately and when the rain pours in the morning I sometimes reconsider my plan to put on my runners and step outside.  I've been contemplating a gym membership but because I love to be in the outdoors, I've kept putting it off. Yesterday, after I finished a course my husband picked me up with this punch card to the gym @ Twin Beaches on Gabriola.  As you can see I haven't used it yet, but it looks like a great gym that I look forward to going to.

Gabriola's coffee culture

We are lucky to have some fantastic places to sit and have a tea, coffee or hot chocolate with friends.  On rainy afternoons, we like to make a little stop and sit down at Mad Rona's.  It's a beautiful, upscale coffee bar with great coffee, lots of atmosphere and delicious baked treats as well as soups and sandwiches.  Next time your feeling like a little treat or catching up with friends, I'd suggest a stop here.  My kids we're pretty ecstatic to see their hot chocolates coming out with orange sprinkles and chocolate syrup on top of the whip cream (there's also a great little green space right outside in case they hit the sugar wall).

Night RIDE on the trails

There are so many adventures waiting right outside the door, it's just finding enough daylight hours.  We ran out yesterday, so we decided to try out the bike lights and head out on the trails.  We went on the trails off Degnen & South Road, the paths are wide and have a few good size puddles, which just make for more of an adventure.  We'll definitely make this an activity that we do more often and hope to drag some of our friends with us on our next night ride.  One more thing to do on Gabriola !.

Moonshine Mollys at the Old Crow Cafe

We have the Moonshine Mollys coming to the OLD CROW CAFE on Gabriola Island this Friday night (Oct. 26) from 8-10pm.  Cassandra Yeomans is a friend from my university days and has recently started up with this trio.  If you'd like a sampling of what they sound like, here is one of their songs.  The Old Crow will have a full dinner menu until 8pm, then an appy menu until 10.

Gabriola - on the water

We've found something to entice the kids to go fishing with us, tubing !  the last few nights we've managed to have a few hours to go fishing around Thrasher and the fishing has been excellent.  It's the perfect combination for everyone in the family and we've been lucky enough to bring home dinner from the sea both nights.

Celebrating on the Islands!

Last week we decided to have our son's birthday a little earlier than usual, so within a week we planned and hosted his party.  We found planning it within a short time was very liberating and forced us to be a bit more creative.  This year the kids were old enough to help us paint signs on pieces of driftwood we collected from the beach.  We silk screened a few shirts (that we picked up at the GIRO) with our "outback tour koala logo" and got busy turning a little "reef" in front of McConvey Road on Gabriola into the Australian outback.   You can walk to this beautiful stretch of sand when the tide is low from the Descanso Bay Campground picnic area, or take a kayak or raft in high tide. This is a beautiful place that feels like a deserted island, we've all decided it's one of our favourite spots on Gabriola. (Submitted by Tina Lynch)

Open Studio @ Feedlot- get ready for Christmas

Open Studios! Now Mondays & Wednesday Evenings at Feedlot Studios

Go and enjoy the warmth of Feedlot Studios (Gabriola) on Monday and Wednesday evenings this fall and winter from 6-9 pm for some good, semi-clean ceramic fun.
They'll get you going on some holiday gift making ideas and lure that Art Star out of you that you always knew you had in you! So start making a list and checking it twice... they can even show you how to make lumps of coal for the not so deserving recipient on your Secret Santa List.
The Fee for Open Studio is still only $10/hour and that includes your materials and firings.
Holy Yuletide! That's a steal of a deal!
We love to go to Feedlot, Mariko finds a way to make it a great experience for everyone (even if your intimidated to try something "artsy"), here's a ceramic pendant that I made in class.

It's picking time on the Island.

I was down to take a listing of a beautiful acreage on the weekend and while I was there I couldn't help but notice all the blackberries. The owner said I could come and pick blackberries, so I took my son,my dad and a few empty containers and headed over. The picking was great, there was lots of large berries, it was overcast and there weren't any wasps to speak of. We may have ended up with a few scratches, but nothing compared to the taste of our fresh sweet handpicked berries. I've frozen a few so that we can be reminded of the local summer harvests all year long. You'll find lots of blackberry bushes on the sides of the roads on Gabriola, or if you want your own patch you may just want to take a look at the acreage we just listed. Submitted by: Tina Lynch,

Launching a sailboat on Gabriola

It took us almost a month for my husband and I find a few hours together during the day to launch our little sailboat. On Friday that timed up perfectly with slack tide. We had heard that False Narrows would be the right place to launch our Nordica sail boat, so we thought we'd give it a try. The boat launch for False Narrows is located just off of El Verano on Gabriola. The launch couldn't have gone any better, the sandy bottom and the slack made it really easy for us. When we got to the dock we worked on rigging up the mast and the shrouds, not a bad job for our first time, but we'll have our neighbour come and have a look before we set sail. There are a few options for launching a boat on Gabriola, there is a place at the end of Gray Road (Degnen Bay), a small boat launch at Twin Beaches (Gabriola Sands), and you can also arrange it at Silva Bay for a small fee. With all the outer islands in such close proximity, Gabriola is the perfect place to begin your explorations at sea.

LasQuirkus Circus sets the stage on Gabriola

Well, my night definitely didn't go as planned. I set off for a quick jog after work and came across neighbours that we're all driving past headed for the Circus. I felt a little guilty about not taking the kids, so when I got back to my house at seven, i said to my husband should i take them to the c-i-r-c-u-s, the circus my daughter yelled and off we went. We arrived to a packed house and tonnes of entertainment, the troop consisted of stilters, clowns, ballerina's, giant puppets, jugglers, magicians, a fantastic band. They we're so engaging, hilarious and just tonnes of fun. I love attending these events and try to as often as I can, I think we're pretty lucky to have such great entertainment here and just want to support it any time I can. Submitted by: Tina Lynch