Book review - Blood on the Breakwater · Sunday October 8, 2023 by colin newell
Although better known for its tea rooms, English architecture, and a seemingly inexhaustible 12 month blooming cycle, Victoria has rarely been thought of as a petrie dish of murder and intrigue – and yet, award winning journalist Jean Paetkau hits us squarely in the face with a bracing and salty tale of betrayal, dogged journalistic determination, and a hundred year old family scandal!
In her debut foray into crime fiction, Jean has successfully made the leap from children’s books into a very crowded genre often crying for originality. And while I often have the skepticism of a character from a Mickey Spillane novel, I found myself hooked within the first few passages of chapter one.
In Blood on the Breakwater, our heroine, Helene Unger, an often exhausted and bedraggled solo parent, finds solace and comfort from sunset walks on our historic waterfront. And while Victoria and its horizons seem to have sprung from a Toni Onley painting, something more sinister awaits waterside. Her life with “Vancouver Island Radio…” has been one of routine and ritual soon to be shaken up with the appearance of a lifeless woman, Lucy Marino, floating off shore.
To my delight, Jean leaves few Victoria anchors uninvolved and outside the realm of suspicion; the arts, the business of city blooms, bakeries and coffee shops! For residents of our fair garden city, Blood on the Breakwater appears to touch on every hot button issue facing our privileged gilded boulevards – whether it’s bike lanes or ferry traffic or street parking!
While our Helene might be a couple of Fluevog foot steps behind any number of suspicious characters, closely on her heel is Detective Kalinowski who has the shop worn cynicism of a gumshoe twice her age, the twitchiness and suspicion of too many encounters with the dark side of humanity.
Honestly, Blood on the Breakwater is as much a surprising thriller as it is a banter masterclass in the witty/pithy exchanges between detective and civilian investigator (Helene).
Suspects dodge and weave with the unpredictability of sedans in the Douglas-Hillside-Government intersection. I found myself held in place, by the scruff of the neck, as the denouement approached like a runaway steam train over the Malahat. It was exhausting and ultimately satisfying. Begging for more, I only began to imagine the potential sequel and pathways our heroine would uncover in future volumes and adventures.
Blood on the Breakwater is a breezy and tantalizing read – and a must have for Island residents. The book is available at all of your favourite shops – from Munro’s to Bolen Books to Russell Books and, oh yes, very online at Amazon.
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident and writer of words online since 1995. Always on the hunt for a choice piece of fiction, his hand is either holding a coffee cup or a paperback!
Stamping out breast cancer with Erica and Sue. · Saturday January 27, 2018 by colin newell
Join Erica & Sue
– Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators, for an afternoon of stamping in support of breast cancer research.
Make six all occasion greeting cards while learning a few cardmaking techniques.
When – February 25, 1 PM-5 PM
Where – Cedar Hill Recreation Center
How Early registration: $50 / after Jan 31 until Feb 11: $55
Seating is limited so register early
Proceeds to be donated to the Run for the Cure – including 25% of sales (minus material costs)
supplies by Stampin’ Up!
bring an adhesive (tape runner or liquid glue)
materials pre-cut and packaged
You DO NOT have to be crafty to take part. Just come and enjoy the company of friends and have fun.
pick up Stampin’ Up catalogues
view sample projects
hourly prize draws
thank you gift
Contact Event Coordinators Erica or Sue to register. Erica: 250-686-3402; ericaedney@shaw.ca Sue: 250-661-5680; suephilipcda@gmail.com
Local artisan series chapter one - Alfons Furniture · Monday August 8, 2016 by colin newell
When we first moved into our new house, one of the first neighbours to pop by was Alfons.
He lives on the street parallel to our and shares part of a back fence. An enthusiastic gardener and outdoorsman, Alfons represents all the good things about good neighbours – engaged, good humoured and genuinely interested in what is going on in the World around us.
As it turns out, Alfons is a fine furniture maker and designer – a guy who makes some very unique and breathtaking pieces that would grace and compliment any home or business. He completed an apprenticeship program in fine furniture in Germany in 1987. After several years working with a variety of senior masters in the craft, he returned to school to obtain a Master’s Diploma in furniture making.
Alfons came to Canada in 1998 and honed his craft in several different work shops in the Victoria area before setting up his own woodcraft design lab in 2005. Alfons focus is on traditional European design and the Contemporary interpretations within North America.
Alfons’s shop and ideas area is in the heart of Rock Bay in an old multi-storied warehouse that contains guitar makers, digital labs and an assortment of high end maker spaces.
We had lunch together recently after getting a tour of his unassuming work space and environment where many of his great ideas come together. There was something about the positive energy and youthfulness of the space that resonated with me – and I imagine that this contributes to the overall quality of everything that comes from this building and his creation space.
What I also discovered about Alfons is his acute ability to listen and provide instant feedback on what I may have been trying to convey on some of my design ideas – which is an immensely valuable skill when designing items of furniture that may reside in a home for 100 years or more.
As Alfons pointed out to me over lunch at the Salt Chuck Pie nearby, “The customer relationship is the most important key to succeeding in virtually any project… whether it is building the perfect piece of fine furniture for their home… or making their computer work better in their business…” Yes indeed, I can certainly relate to that!
Have a look at Alfons’s website and photo gallery – I think you will agree that he builds and designs some of the most remarkable pieces of furniture in the South Vancouver Island marketplace.
You can find Alfons online or make an appointment with him via – Alfons Laicher
Alfons Custom Furniture & Woodwork Inc. – 2614 Bridge St. #223 • Victoria, BC • V8T 4S9
Phone: 250-361-4119
Email: Alfons@AlfonsFurniture.com
This is Chapter One of an ongoing series of artisan conversations – with the creators, makers and ideas people of Vancouver Island.
Katie and her World of beautiful cards for all occasions · Tuesday December 15, 2015 by colin newell
Katie is a lovely 19 year old girl who has Cerebral Palsy. Together with her mom, Sue, they have been making stamped cards since 2007. Prior to receiving assistive technology, Sue used to help her daughter stamp the images on the cards.
Katie has a head controlled stamping machine made for her four years ago by CanAssist. She is now able to stamp the images for her cards through a switch control using her head.
Card making is Katie’s thing and it brings her great joy. She loves making cards and sharing them. Making and selling cards has given her a unique way to connect with people in the community. Additionally, this also allows Katie to give back to the community with the profits from her cards. This year, Katie’s cards accounted for 100% of the festive seasonal cards that we sent out – and as you can see in the photo above, they are beautiful.
Katie had hip surgery a year ago which took her out of card making commission. Her story was featured on Global-TV and she was an instant hit – it put a smile on her face and to this day she is still very busy putting smiles on our faces.
At the time, her Mom, Sue and some of the neighbors put their heads together to see if they could come up with a plan to brighten her recovery. Sue suggested, “Since Katie will not be making cards for a couple weeks, I thought that it would be amazing if bright, beautiful cards made their way to her. Near and Far.”
“We have a world map up. Her sisters will open up the cards and we can mark on the map were they have come from. We have also created a box of inspiration. When someone sends a card if they could put in a single button or piece of ribbon – something cute that Katie can put on a card… That would be great. Once she got back to making her cards she had hundreds of pieces of inspiration from everyone around the globe to put on her cards.”
At the time the message was – “Please mark on the back of the cards were they are from. I know that Katie will want to look at each and every one for years to come. We are going to put the world map up in her room so she can always see it.”
If you feel like sending a card (or getting an incredible custom card for any and all seasons) from Katie, send your own card or a request for a price list to:
Katie Philip
6898 Central Saanich Rd.,
Victoria B.C.
V8Z 5V2
Canada
Katie has a website and point-of-sale PayPal thing for her cards over here
Katie thanks you!
BC Hydro where for art thou · Sunday January 18, 2015 by colin newell
We had a power outage from 7AM until around 11:30AM today.
And it was patently obvious that outages were widespread — but because of my naturally curious nature, I went over to the BC Hydro website to look at the outage map — and the site stated: If your neighborhood is NOT on the map, please contact us — which I attempted… via mobile phone…
and their system would not recognize my address or phone number… so I went to the website to report the outage online — which it would not let me do UNLESS I had a linked online account with BC Hydro — which I do.
So: In order to report an outage online I need to have a “linked” online account… which I do. But the website reported that I did not lave a linked account even though I was logged in and “linked”
Being an emergency coordinator with the CRD in Victoria, it is very important to me that people be able to report to the primary utilities that something is amiss – and the system needs to work. BC Hydro’s system, however, failed miserably.
For all I knew, there might have been a small handful of customers in my 1km circle out – in fact, there were hundreds of neighbors without power. I wonder how many of them, elderly and not-as-technicial, were fretting about when and if their power would come back on.
On the plus side, this was a good time to check my emergency radio equipment – and everything worked like a charm. I was able to reach out via our amateur (ham) radio community VHF/UHF repeater grid which allows me to talk to pretty much any corner of Vancouver Island with ease. As well, my HF (Shortwave) system allowed me to reach out as far South as California and out to Ohio in the East on very low power.
For those interested in emergency planning and ham radio: There are thousands of active (volunteer) radio operators in B.C. that engage in emergency radio networks on a daily basis, year around and even on Christmas day —
Ostensibly to help keep communities safe and connected.
Now if BC Hydro could figure out their system glitches that would be great – It kind of begs the question: With all these smart meters in place, why do I need to report anything online or via the phone?
