Explore The Comox Valley Collective Magazines
The Comox Valley Collective is our inaugural magazine and is created and published by ROAM Media Inc. Launched in the winter of 2014, it is a quarterly publication focused on the Comox Valley region that releases on every solstice and equinox (mid March, June, September, and December).
THE FLAVOURFUL CHICORY FAMILY
If your knowledge of chicory is limited, allow me to introduce you to this family of vegetables full of complex, ...
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EVERYONE CAN (AND SHOULD) MEDITATE
Cultivating stillness
We experience so much in our lives. Sometimes life’s momentum is so fast that we miss ...
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CVOX: COMOX VALLEY COMMUNITY RADIO
Our devices can bring music and news from almost everywhere in the world. But most of the content is ...
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REFLECTIONS OF A YARD CAR
When I first rolled off the assembly line decades ago, I couldn’t wait to hit the road for a life of adventure. ...
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HANDCRAFTING LINEN
LIVING FROM LINEN
I’m Karla, and I create linen. That’s right, I start with a handful of unassuming flax ...
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THE HERRING GOLD RUSH OF 1979
In 1979, a certain smell sustained the herring gillnetters of British Columbia. It hung from their bibs and clung ...
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BUILDING COMMUNITY WITH LITTLE FREE LIBRARIES
A steady stream of people stops in front of a typical home in Courtenay’s Old Orchard neighbourhood. They come by ...
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OUR COMMUNITY RUNS ON HUMAN CREATIVITY
A BEAUTIFUL MOSAIC
This is my first time writing in my own magazine. Writing has never been a passion of ...
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A PLAN FOR HOME-GROWN DOCTORS
Finding a family doctor or health care professional is difficult enough in urban centres, but it’s even harder for ...
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SEASONAL GOODS: WINTER
The ROAM team has selected some of their favourite winter items that we think everyone should know about. All are ...
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WHEN THE BURNOUT IS REAL
In the summer of 2023, approximately 70 local emergency services personnel from the Comox Valley were deployed to ...
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LIVES OF LOGGERS AND FARMERS
The earliest inhabitants of the Comox Valley lived lightly on these lands for millennia and didn’t capture their ...
TO CHOOSE THE TREES
i will always choose the trees
if i have to choose
between society
or the forest.
it makes sense
to me in ...
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A LONG AND WINDING ROAD
As I’m writing this, it’s October 24, and it’s snowing—the earliest snowfall I have experienced in the Valley—and ...
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ELDER VALLEY: RADICAL TRANSFORMATION
Reflections from an older resident.
Congratulations to the Comox Valley Collective on ...
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LITTLE VALLEY: EXCITEMENT AND HOPE
Reflections from a younger resident.
As I hear my feet crunch on the frosty ground beneath me ...
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FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER: KALI WEXLER
Born and raised on Hornby Island, Kali Wexler is a self-taught Canadian wildlife conservation and nature ...
FEATURED ARTIST: JARED POPESCU
Jared was born and raised in Saskatchewan but spent his adult life in various pockets of British Columbia before ...
An Update on Some of Our Very First Stories
The Comox Valley has undergone some big changes since we published our first issue back in December 2014; many of ...
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BEAUTY BEFORE AMBITION
When I catch up with concert pianist Sarah Hagen, she is sitting on the floor of an airport concourse, halfway ...
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THE ILLUMINATION OF FIRE
In October 2023, I had the chance to speak with Wedlidi Speck. Wedlidi is Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu-cha-nulth, and ...
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HARD-SKINNED FOR THE WIN
I’m here to talk about winter squash: the wondrous genetic diversity they display, the dedicated farmers who grow ...
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INGRAHAM
I was asked to share my story with you, and to keep it short at that. Bit of a hard ask for an old clock, but I’ll ...
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GUYS TALKING
Men’s broadly defined health issues—heart troubles, diabetes, liver disease—are deadly. So is depression. Many of ...
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40 YEARS OF VOLLY PATROL
Paul Vroom grew up on Vancouver’s North Shore, ripping the slopes of Mt. Seymour. As a kid, he loved hanging out ...
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COMOX VALLEY TRANSITION SOCIETY
Comox Valley Transition Society (CVTS) was founded in 1987 by a group of caring community members concerned that ...
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FOUR WHEELS OF FORTUNE
Imagine two scenarios. The first is a quiet suburb of single-family homes—the Canadian dream—but with vans, ...
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PACIFIC REMEMBERING
There is pure magic when the storm winds begin to blow from that direction. The sky glows and the air smells ...
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A LINK TO THE PAST
One of the oldest buildings in the Comox Valley stands silent vigil on the highway to Campbell River. You can see ...
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NEWCOMERS’ BOOK CLUB
A group of women were gathered around a propane fire pit on Kye Bay in the fall of 2022. The sun was setting; they ...
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A (SNOW) SHOE-IN
The mountains beckon me throughout the year, but somehow their call in winter is different and holds a special ...
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FROM THOUGHT TO REALITY
As we go into our 10th year of publishing this magazine, I am stepping out of my comfort zone. It’s often assumed ...
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GRIT AND GRACE
Tyler and I stood crouched at the start line in Winnipeg this past April. Snow blew sideways, but our nervous ...
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KEEP IT GREEN
Communities in the Pacific Northwest are essentially human settlements in logging clearcuts. Whack down trees, lay ...
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FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS
A curtain flutters through broken glass as fiery flakes litter the snow-covered ground. Despite the cold, ...
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DRIPPING IN CULTURE
As the owners of The Lost Faucet Sauna House in Courtenay, we are constantly seeking out more knowledge and ...
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THE SEA IN THEIR BLOOD
In the fall and winter, most people don’t immerse themselves in the Salish Sea, but for geoduck divers, it’s ...
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A CARING PRESENCE
PHOTOS BY GWEN MONNET, SANDI PHYE, & CRAIG SOROCHAN
We respectfully acknowledge that the land we gather on ...
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ELDER VALLEY: NESTING INSTINCT
Reflections from an older resident.
I grew up and lived for much of my life in northern ...
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FROM VENTURE CAPITALIST TO VINTNER
Alex Guertin is the newest proprietor of Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery. On a warm evening in July, he tours ...
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LITTLE VALLEY: FROM ONE NEST TO THE NEXT
Reflections from a younger resident.
Nests are everywhere when you spend lots of time ...
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FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER: CHUCK BURDICK
Chuck Burdick is a self-taught photographer working in multiple genres including macro, landscape, and abstract ...
FEATURED ARTIST: SARAH CLARK
As a creative generalist working in an array of art practices, Sarah Clark is less interested in becoming an ...
CAMP ROAD SPECIAL
It was late summer when my husband and I first rolled into Cumberland in our old Ford pickup. The year was 1996 ...
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WHY WITCHCRAFT?
Many witches, including myself, when asked how and why we became witches, will answer that they didn’t become a ...
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ANODIZED DOWNHILL DAYS
The year was 1990. On the steep, raw edge of a Mount Washington ski slope, summer wildflowers stood in stark ...
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GIVE BEETS A CHANCE
I’m writing these words in the height of summer, when I barely have enough time to juice a cucumber. But it will ...
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THE SEA AS MUSE
Nature, specifically the ocean, has long been the undercurrent of photographer and sailor John Kelsey’s life. It’s ...
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OLD HOUSE ON THE RIVER
Darren Howlett is sitting in Locals Restaurant, a place he has a long history with. He’s worked in this dining ...
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FOSSIL FASCINATION
It is a universal truth, I think, that the further you move through adulthood, the more you’re aware that life is ...
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A WORK OF COMPASSION
Since 1983, Comox Valley Hospice Society (CVHS) has been working to support the physical, psychological, ...
ECHOES IN CHINATOWN
At Cumberland Chinatown’s peak in the years just after the end of World War I, around 1500 residents bustled down ...
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THE ART OF DRYING FLOWERS
The practice of pressing and drying flowers and herbs dates back centuries and is part of many Indigenous cultures ...
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FALLING IN LOVE WITH FUNGI
“Fungi make worlds. They also unmake them. There are lots of ways to catch them in the act. When you cook mushroom ...
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THE NEXT RIGHT THING
My husband and I sometimes travelled with our kids when they were tiny. If we ever stayed in a motel, we would ...
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REMARKABLY UNSINKABLE
It was April 1912 when Hilda Mary Slayter packed her travel trunk with an elegant trousseau in preparation for her ...
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THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT
Paige Whitehead was 13 years old when she saw bioluminescence for the first time, during a midnight dip in the ...
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BRIDGING THE ART/TECH GAP
Did you know that in the heart of Courtenay, a local recording studio—decked out with audio and video gear, and ...
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ANY WAY YOU SLICE IT
In my opinion, no fruit or vegetable epitomizes all that is sweet and ephemeral about summer better than the ...
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ELDER VALLEY: PIQUANCY AND JOY
Memories from a life well lived.
It started prosaically enough. Frances, at our dinner table ...
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