It’s the beginning of Christmas craft fair season, and it all starts up at the Lake.
The Lake Cowichan Christmas Craft and Bake Sale is being held on Saturday, Nov. 5 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on both levels of Centennial Hall beside the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena on South Shore Road.
“It is a lot of fun. It’s worth the trip,” said organizer Nadine Reeves of the event, in its second year. “It’s a very good sale.”
Reeves saw a need for a Lake Cowichan specific Christmas Craft and Bake Sale as the CVRD doesn’t host one in the area.
“So, as a private citizen I came forward to do it last year,” she explained. “I organized it and it went well so I’m doing it this year as well.”
Last year, despite a mask mandate, the event was very well attended.
“Hundreds and hundreds of people came,” Reeves said.
This year she’s expecting even more.
“Our sale is the first one in the whole stream,” she noted. “I think maybe that’s why we are so busy.”
This year more than 45 tables featuring vendors from Cowichan Valley and Victoria area will be set up for those looking to get a head start on their Christmas shopping.
Those wanting lunch can head over for chili as well.
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The Cowichan Valley Naturalists present Once They Were Hats: A Brief History of a Radical Rodent, on Monday, Nov. 7 at 9:30 a.m.
Frances Backhouse will talk the history behind our present-day dealings with beavers.
“The conflicts we’re working to manage today are in many ways a legacy of the colonial fur trade,” says a press release for the free online event. “And the beaver benefits that we’re still learning about are rooted in millennia of beaver presence on this continent.”
The history lesson will begin 37 million years ago, and fast forward through early species, zeroing in on what’s happened to North American beavers since Europeans showed up 500 years ago.
Backhouse studied biology in university and worked as a park naturalist and biologist before becoming an environmental journalist and author. She has written seven books, including two about beavers. Go to www.backhouse.ca to learn more.
To attend, request the Zoom link from cvns@naturecowichan.net