According to McHughen, many people have romantic, storybook notions about farming and food production, but it has never been idyllic. Farming is messy, not clean and pure. One can’t make a living in this way and the average Canadian farm is over 1,000 acres. By 2080, we will need to produce enough food for between…
A map of present day South East Europe provided the focus for guest speaker, Martin Wood’s, informative and very interesting presentation on his eleven years in Bosnia and Kosovo, working as part of USAID. With the use of maps and photographs, he clarified both the geography of the area and its complicated history. In October…
“How do we learn about history?…Burrow into it and learn about the lives of the people.” This was the focus of Ian Bruce Robertson’s presentation at our June 5th meeting. Robertson, author of “The Honourable Aleck: Love, Law and Tragedy in Early Canada”, dedicated the morning’s presentation to his grade 5 teacher, who had an…
If anyone was sleepy the morning of May 1st, they woke up quickly as soon as Dr. Reg Mitchell started speaking. One could certainly understand why thousands of children across BC were mesmerized by Dr. Zonk, the green-wigged “mad scientist” who made chemistry fun for over 25 years on TV and for local school groups. Now an…
Professor Emeritus Ed Ishiguro, retired from the University of Victoria for almost ten years, gave those present at the meeting on April 10th a fascinating and entertaining description of our immune system and the vaccines designed to both protect us from, and treat diseases. A gifted scientist, Dr. Ishiguro made what could be baffling topics easy…
There’s a new face in our community. He’s a commercial pilot, but he’s in the Royal Canadian Navy; he circumnavigated the world twice, first sailing eastwards in 1991 and then heading westward via a combination of planes & ships in 2002 and he plays the trombone! He is the new Commander of the Canadian Forces Maritime…