BREEZING INTO SPRING

 

 

 

Ah, spring. It’s the time when the light begins to spill over our valley again—a little longer every day—and the air is filled with possibility.

April showers bring May flowers? Please. We’ve gotten through a whole winter full of cloudbursts. And the flowers started blooming in February. We’re Islanders. That rule does not apply.

My son describes spring as “a sigh of relief,” and I agree. It’s a time for optimism, imagination, freshly-laid plans, and renewal. This issue is a celebration of this season of air. We take to the skies with a history of the Courtenay Airpark, we explore the bird life of the Courtenay estuary (did you know we live in an Important Bird Area?), and we visit MARS’s new home.

Music is in this issue, too. We learn about the art of hand-crafting jazz guitars, and we go down under (the stage) to find out exactly what a pit orchestra is.

We celebrate the humble, beautiful egg, and paint a picture of how Cumberland might look in 2040—based on both current plans and some great blue-sky thinking. We look at the zero-waste movement that’s gaining local momentum, and we go back to 1970s Merville to see how local food co-op organizers were way ahead of the game on this front.

As for adventure, we take you into the mountains on touring skis, fly with a BASE jumper, tell a couple of sailing stories, invite you to feel the breeze on your face with an e-bike, and cross swords at a local combat guild.

The clouds that have been our Eeyore-like companions for the past months have disappeared, revealing the great blue expanse above us. Once again, suddenly, the sky is the limit.

May this issue inspire you to take a deep breath, and then take your own leap into spring.