Vancouver Island University
Education is available to most of us. Online, or bricks and mortar, mentors, teachers, visuals, in person, webinars, to listen and absorb our curriculum. Most of us can access and achieve our heart’s desires in the upper echelons of learning. Here on Gabriola, the Nanaimo based Vancouver Island University is about an hour away. Easy transportation from my place to there and back, I usually go by car. However, a friend of mind is a Professor in the VIU Faculty of Management, using shank’s-pony to the Gabriola ferry, then hope on the Nanaimo bus system, disembarking at the hub of...
Read MoreWelcome! Gabriola is my home.
I would love to share where I live with you as your REALTOR® and your friend, specializing in all things Gabriola. You can count on me. As you move through my web site, you’ll find a store-house of resources. Photos tell it all. We are a vibrant island full to the brim with just about every product and service you can imagine, and yet we’re decided to live here, a 20 minute ferry ride from downtown Nanaimo. And, you might ask why? To this I would ask you to come and find out! Gabriola will surprise you. Life on Gabriola can be as laid-back or solitary as you’d...
Read MoreThe Magic of Gabriola
Roger Christie’s cat loves her Gabriola home – O, yes she does. And, many a story circulates the neighbourhood. Her prow, and her complete abandon to anything but pure, unadulterated relaxation. I interviewed Roger Christie, or to be more accurate, Roger gave me his preamble not knowing I would ask for the opportunity as it presented itself. With Roger’s permission, I offer the love of living on Gabriola, humans and animals, pets and the odd pest. It is why a smattering of about 4,500 persons have chosen Gabriola as their home. Most have arrived from places far the...
Read MoreParadise Found
House for sale on Gabriola is only part of the picture. Honestly, I’m still surprised with comments like, “I never knew”; “Wow, what a place and you have it all here on your island, Gabriola”; “We sailed by, but hadn’t stopped in until today. Looking to rest our sea-legs, and find a home on Gabriola”. Just a few exclamations of what I hear every day. And so, I think it’s about time I entice you my island paradise. About now you would have recognized that I am a full-time resident on Gabriola, love it here! I’m also a REALTOR® full-time. A perfect...
Read MoreThings To Enjoy On Gabriola
Breathe in the sunsets at Berry Point; Reduce your stress and take a leisurely Kayaking tour on a summer’s evening amongst Salish Sea; Attend the incredible Gabriola Theatre Festival: fantastic entertainment August 18 – 20th; Respectfully explore approx. 80 petroglyphs carved in rock, thousands of years old; Swim in the beautiful clear water off Sandwell Park, or just sunbathe; Walk the boardwalk of Folklife Village, originally part of Expo ’86; Visit Good Earth’s and many farmers’ organic gardens and take home some fabulous vegetables; Take a walk amongst the...
Read More“We Serve”
Gabriola Lions Club is planning an Open House on Monday, May 8th at the Agi Hall. You’re invited! 6:30 – 8:30pm as is our usual meeting times. Refreshments provided. “We Serve” our Lions motto internationally, and to Gabriola, it is ingrained in everything we do. We have over 40 members, all ages, men and women. Our club has history: in 1975, over 40 years ago, Eric Boulton was approached by the Nanaimo Lions Club and they helped form our own club which has grown, and enveloped the almost 5,000 residents living on Gabriola. The Lions number more than 1.4 million...
Read MoreThe Reason Why.
Gabriola Art Council and why I live here.Gabriola’s Art Council is the breath of live, of energy on this “Isle of the Arts” community. I’m proud to be a sponsor and member, and an artisan of sorts. I love to write. The late night seems to be my most creative vibe. Turn on a Brazilian rap, lilt the ivories and sink into my keyboard. The words flow. A little of Hemmingway, a little of Wolfe, a little of Martin, a lot of Gabriola. Why do I live here? This ramble has more to do with the isle d ’Gabriola than me. Back a ways, in July I recall of 2002 maybe it was, I...
Read MoreWho Burnt the Toast?
My Gabriola Kitchen. Who Burnt the Toast in my Gabriola kitchen is really a lead in to the end of this article, however I think you might enjoy the journey sandwiched. Today my kitchen is quiet. December 27th. Cozy, warm, in hibernation mode. Simmering a pot of smoked sausage soup in a much too large a stock pot for one. So, I’ll share. Call up a few friends if they aren’t too full of the bird, put on the fireplace, candles for atmosphere. A simple repast. No kitchen is too small to create within. Elbows down, even in my family’s kitchen, 3 to 4 of us can harmonize,...
Read MoreNovember on Gabriola.
Lost between the October Ferry to Gabriola and December, lies November. Like nothing happens here in November? Get on the bus-Gus. Of course it does! Here’s my November as an example of nothing happens here, so pour yourself a java and put up your feet. Dream if you will and ask me again, “Why do I love it here”. Besides the dark nights, really-really dark-dark nights, and hardly a noise ‘cept the odd car. Most Gabriolans happily are tucked in for the evening, me by my fireplace toasty warm. Fact is, I just got home from Iyengar Yoga with Karin Young. Twice a...
Read MoreWhere’s Gabriola, You Say?
Here’s a clue! Starts with “G”. In the Gulf Islands, west coast of Canada. Surrounded by the Salish Sea. On the south side, you can see Nanaimo, Cedar, Ladysmith. On the north side, you can see Whistler and draw your eye along the horizon to Vancouver. From our highest peak, you can see Saltspring Island, also part of the Gulf Islands. In a matter of elimination, we aren’t Galiano or Ganges. We’re Gabriola. So let me show you how to find us, how to plan your visit to us, and how to get around on our beautiful island. This is going to be a comprehensive review, so put your feet up...
Read MoreArtisans of Gabriola
In the clearest, broadest sense, Arts Gabriola “A creative, engaged, and inclusive community sustaining Gabriola’s vibrant island culture, oversees the importance of arts in community and individual development—both social and economic”. When I was scanning the scape looking for gifts for buyers and sellers of real estate properties here on Gabriola, I discovered right before my very eyes, Allana Thorne, creator of The Thorne Crate Co. Established in 2012 as a start-up she focuses on quality Gabriola-made juicy items stuffed into nifty baskets, all wrapped up spiffy so you can see...
Read MoreToo Far From The City
Did I hear you utter under your breath, “Too far removed from the city for me.” I know you’d be gobsmacked with our “Gabriola emergency services infrastructure”. And, this is what I’m going to call it because moving here without much thought to what would happen if: I locked myself out of my house, out of my car, the campfire got out of control, found my neighbour running down my driveway with his hand slit open from his band saw, hadn’t heard from my elderly neighbour for weeks, witnessed through the autumn mist a crush of Highland cattle herding themselves down Burnside...
Read MoreSingles Buying On Gabriola
Should I? Should I? Why not? I did! And here are a few pointers about buying on Gabriola, single or not. I’ll admit I was green about the edges; completely taken with Gabriola; totally unaware of country-life in a rural community, much less an island. I won’t go into the cushioned, city-girl lifestyle, 24/7, but you get my drift. And yet, I knew this was for me, moving from the city to the country. Couldn’t be all that different, I mused to myself. Just a bit more ‘hands-on’. What does it mean to be a steward of your own land? It sounded more ethereal than down to earth or real....
Read MoreCider Is The New Beer?
Right under my very nose … I had driven by many times and had thought to myself, “Oh! What industrious people who’ve moved onto Gabriola.” New barn – impressive! Planting acres of apple trees and cultivating 25 varieties of apples seemed an enormous venture to me, the drive-by observer. Ravenskill Orchards has been tending, grafting and watering over the past few years and has evolved into the most expansive pedestrian orchard ever, right here on Gabriola. Keith and Martie Mackenzie saw the dream. They bought 27 acres of undeveloped land in 2002. Through clearing and cleaning,...
Read MoreVanessa’s Gabriola Vacation
Gabriola vacation with Vanessa. Admittedly, I was at 6’s and 7’s when the time came. It was Friday, July 10th. “What does she like to do?” I asked my son, Matt. “Oh, Mom! Everything. And, she loves the beach.” Quick hop and a skip, hugs, with smiles and laughter all around and I, being her grandmother, scooped her up. The anticipation of my seven year-old grandchild for the weekend was something we’d been looking forward to and here we were, finally. A backpack hoisted, way too heavy for whatever a little girl needs for the weekend of all of 2½ days, and off we trundled to my...
Read MoreWomen in Hats
Summer on Gabriola … I love the beaches especially. There must be a dozen or more beaches, and who knows how many beach access paths to lookout points, secret spots for lovers, and book writers. If you asked me which is my favourite, it would be Drumbeg Park at the south end of Gabriola as my numero uno in beaches. Second would be Gabriola Sands, or locally called Twin Beaches because the road access is through an isthmus with two beaches either side. Cool, eh? Then, if you asked my third and fourth choices, they would be Descanso Bay and Sandwell Beach, with a fifth of Joyce...
Read More