British Columbia Magazine

I had a chance to chat recently with the always-entertaining Nick Bantock at his Saltspring studio/gallery, The Forgetting Room. The creator of the best-selling Griffin & Sabine series of books, whom I profiled in our Spring 2009 “Nick Bantock’s Saltspring” article, was hosting an opening reception for an exhibition of his drawings for a new Penguin edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. 

While talking to Bantock about our Summer 2009 50th-anniversary editorial, “50 things to do before you die,” I couldn’t resist asking him to share one of his own top B.C. experiences. Here’s his colourful reply:

“I love the island I live on, so it’s hard to choose a favourite B.C. place outside of Saltspring, but I’m going to try. A few years ago, I had my birthday dinner on the restaurant balcony overlooking the Burrowing Owl Estate Winery in Oliver, B.C. At sunset, the shadows chased across the landscape like blue-clad Cossack horsemen. The sky glowed orange and the honeysuckle released its evening scent. With a belly full of fine food, a glass of great wine in hand, and kind love by my side, I knew I had been made Tsar.”

Click here to view the 10 drawings and cover artwork Bantock created for the re-release of The Canterbury Tales.

Visit ShareYourBC.com and tell us your favourite thing to do in B.C. for a chance to win–more than $23,000 in travel adventure prizes! Entry deadline: Sept. 8, 2009.

If you love dogs and you love British Columbia wineries—and, more specifically, dogs AT wineries—finally, there is a wall calendar just for you.

The 2009 Winery Dogs of BC calendar, compiled by CBC Radio wine columnist Troy Townsin, features pooches of all varieties. There’s Filbert the dachshund from Oliver’s Golden Mile Cellars, Maggie the Labradoodle from Naramata’s Lake Breeze Vineyards, and Bruno, a rottweiler-Labrador cross at Silkscarf Winery in Summerland.

“[W]hen you are out visiting these world class wineries a big part of the experience is the interaction with the people and, of course, the dogs who live and work at each winery,” says Townsin in a release. “In fact because the calendar features dogs who actually live at the wineries it is possible to plan a whole wine tour based solely around the dogs you would like to meet!”

The calendars may be purchased online or at participating wineries. Partial proceeds will be donated to the BCSPCA.

(Or, British Columbia Magazine subscribers can wait for their free 13-month 2009 wall calendars to arrive. While we won’t have any dogs or wineries in the mix, readers can expect wild owls, cougars, and stunning B.C. landscapes among the images we’ve selected to knock your socks off.)