By the time you read this it will officially be spring, although I see the weather forecast is for a cool and rainy weekend. No more record-breaking temperatures, so you can put your shorts away again. With climate change we can’t really count on anything. Even as I was out enjoying the unusual weather, uncertainty was in the back of my mind.
Thinking about that, I attended a meeting yesterday hosted by the Jellyfish Project. It is based on an initiative by the late Daniel Kingsbury of Roberts Creek and has developed into a nation-wide project to inform students about environmental issues. This meeting was about the movement to organise a Youth Climate Corps. The informative Zoom with four MPs included a nation-wide question and answer period. Briefly, the Youth Climate Corps would be a public program for anyone younger than 35 and would offer a two-year placement, with training and a living wage, doing meaningful climate work. It would be a government-funded program to train young people to transform our economy and climate for the better. Help is needed to make this happen and I hope this interests you, whether you are younger or older than 35. Visit climateemergencyunit.ca/climatecorps or [email protected] for more on how to advocate for this idea.
Okay, so let’s get back to celebration and spring. Most of us are uplifted by the signs of spring, like daffodils, plum blossoms and birdsong and we celebrate collectively at Easter with chocolate bunnies, coloured eggs and perhaps a visit to church. Persians and other ethnic groups from that area of the world get more excited about spring and celebrate with a weeks-long, world-wide, 3,000-year-old festival called Nowruz, or Persian New Year. This year, the local Persian community has brought Nowruz to Roberts Creek. So far there has been a film show and a fire jumping celebration. This Saturday at the Hall, there will be an evening of music, poetry and dance. You can celebrate the arrival of spring equinox and learn about the ancient practices surrounding Nowruz. Proceeds from this event will go to artists living in Iran. It starts at 8 p.m., tickets are $25 and available at nsun-collective.tickit.ca
Spring also means that Streamkeepers are recommencing their work removing invasive plants and planting native ones in their place. You can help on Saturday the 24th from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Bring eye protection, clippers, shovels and watering cans if you have them and you need gumboots! Streamkeepers would like to report that 2023 was an excellent year for pink salmon in Roberts Creek. If you want to know more about Streamkeepers’ efforts to protect our salmon, go to sunshinestreamkeepers.com.
There is great music coming up at the Legion. Friday (tonight), it’s Blue Western, a group of local musicians playing upbeat western music. Tickets $10 to $15. Tomorrow, you can return for something completely different. It’s a DJ night with Sweet Anomaly, Mandai, Deano and Mr. Music. Tickets $15 to $20.
Next weekend on the 29th, it’s the Unfaithful Servants. The Vancouver band that has a new approach to acoustic music including storytelling and high-powered vocals along with outstanding instrumentals. Their debut album was nominated for Canadian Folk Music Awards New Group of the Year and their line-up includes fiddle virtuoso, Quin Etheridge. Tickets available at Eventbrite.
Okay, well who remembers the Stanley Park Easter Be Ins? I was there, every year, grooving to Mother Tuckers Yellow Duck, Poppa Bears Medicine Show and Country Joe and the Fish. I look back on them with nostalgia and so do a group of Vancouver musicians who have formed a band, Rainbow Bridge, to celebrate the songs they grew up with. They stopped during COVID but they are back performing and they will be at the Legion on March 30 at 8 p.m. Tickets $10 to $15.
Other Legion news is that the kitchen is open again on Wednesdays and Thursdays so you can go for dinner and then enjoy Open Mic Night or Thursday night jazz.
In closing, I need to let you know that the Diabetes Canada clothing donation bin is being removed shortly. It was attracting a lot of unwanted items and our local thrift stores need our good donations.
Have a great week!
