Hi, just a quick note to say that the Weekly Climate Walk has moved to Tuesdays! Join us tonight (and every Tuesday), if you like, at the Embassy Theatre, at 5.30pm, to walk to the Parliament and have a cup of tea on the lawn.

Wow, this looks fantastic! Looking forward to the exhibition, 17th – 22nd November, at Thistle Hall, cnr Cuba and Arthur Streets.

Before we forget all about it, we should really tell you about our little visit to Victoria and Vancouver in British Columbia.

Getting into Victoria by ferry from Seattle was really nice, and arriving in Victoria felt quite a bit like coming home. It feels very similar to Wellington, with its Victorian style houses, and its seaside setting. Once you’ve done the touristy stuff around the waterfront, it’s probably a good idea to head towards Fernwood, up the hill.

Cornerstone Cafe (cnr Gladstone Ave/Fernwood Rd), run by the “Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group“, is a good starting point to explore the Victorian neighbourhood, around Gladstone Avenue and Fort Street. Apparently, Italianate and a Folk Victorian houses still live peacefully side by side here:

Downtown Victoria is quite cute and has nice Cafes and Galleries and shops, especially around Pandora Ave and Government Street. Smoking Lily (569a Johnson St) is the tiniest store in Victoria, literally a whole in the wall, and has great, locally made clothing. Next street over is Solstice Cafe (529 Pandora Ave), which has free wireless, which was a lifesaver for us .

Next street over again is Victoria’s China Town (or should I say “China Street”?). Walk through the cute Fan-Tan Alley, where you find Boucherat Gallery, which had a fantastic exhibition on when we were there. “Seeker teacher dancer dreamer”, by Vancouver’s Peter Taylor; beautifully made, enticing drawings:

Victoria also has its own nood shop, 546 Yates Street, and Capital City Cycles, 1419 Broad Street, which sells nice dutch style city bikes. Aah, so much to see/get and not enough time/money/baggage allowance.

Alright, if you do want to get out of the city a bit, go to East Sooke Park. It was a drizzly day, but seemed to be perfect for sea wildlife -  we saw whales, seals and a sea leopard, all in one afternoon.

Ok, it was off to Vancouver for us after a few days, and unfortunately we didn’t have much time at all left for Vancouver. Our main goal for the afternoon we had was to find a nice, cheap (as we had 20$ left) place to eat, and we were rewarded by stumbling upon Donburiya, 1329 Robson Street/West End. Absolutely yuuuuummy, friendly, and affordable! And their lamps were a true craft-work, made out of bowls with their bottoms cut off:

We walked once around the waterfront, and came across red men and a snowy wonderland. We left just before the storm hit, knowing we’ll be back in the creative Northwest again sometime.

Thomas

A perfect day – last Saturday, 24th of October, was the International Day of Climate Action, and 350.org.nz organised a huge festival around it for everyone to participate and to show their support for science based emission targets and a sustainable future.

And what a day it was!

A big thanks to all 350 organisers who made this festival turn out perfectly, and to everyone who turned up on the day. Here are a whole lot of photos from the day, beautiful, from dawn service to a huge human sculpture forming a Kiwi on Odlins Plaza. Inspiring to see so many different people take part, from school kids to grand parents.

It was great to take part in the great harbour cycle from Eastbourne to Odlins Plaza in Wellington, with a turn out of about 190 people, and a perfect, beautiful day for it. Yeay, New Zealand!

Yeay, another Craft2.0 is juts around the corner! Come to Craft2.0 at The New Dowse tomorrow!

The Maranui surf club needs your help! They are collecting signatures to make a strong case for having the building repaired – all details here: http://maranui.co.nz/. This weekend (17th and 18th October) they’re collecting signatures outside of Moore Wilson’s on Tory Street, and, I think, Deluxe.

This iconic Wellington building has to be saved, so make your voice heard!

A pity that you have to travel all the way to Seattle to find a really well sorted building demolition yard with amazing finds.

But, boy, do they have amazing stuff – a problem we were facing was: how do we get those floorboards back to New Zealand? Or, how exactly do we manage to take those wooden children’s lockers as hand luggage? There is a fantasmic range of materials, and amongst it, brilliant pieces. We recommend anyone who’s going to Seattle to visit this store.

www.re-store.org

Hannah’s favourite: the wooden lockers.

My favourite: the phone booth.

But see for yourself (below).

While in Seattle, you should also visit Anthropologie. The overall style is an eclectic mix of urban/eco/restore, and they present a collection of fashion, accessories and furniture. The displays are put together in very intricate and clever ways and often are design pieces in themselves. Very nicely done, I could have easily spent the whole day in there.

Seattle has a lot going for itself, and would even more, if the Alaskan Highway viaduct right on the waterfront was finally gone. If you can’t help it, go on one of the Underground tours, which will give you access to an entertaining show on Seattles history and an insight to what people will dump into sideways if they can. But, ahem, don’t expect any amazing underground shop fronts, with wonderful antique window displays (with skeletal mummified cats), that’s not gonna happen.

Just heard about another crafty market in Christchurch:

Stash reHash is a fabric, haberdashery and crafty supplies market. It will be held on Sunday November 8th, 11am – 2pm at the Scottish Society Hall in St Albans, Christchurch. Entry is free.

There will be over 25 stall-holders including hoarders, collectors, crafters and artists, clothing designers, fundraising groups, retailers and inheritors of grandmother’s craft stash. There will be an eclectic collection of old and new goods for sale including hard to find vintage treasures, imported designer fabrics, beautiful hand dyed yarn, notions, patterns, kits, tools and gadgets, all manner of handiwork and fibre-arts supplies, buttons, retro textiles, plenty of bargains and no doubt some weird and wonderful surprises.

Arthritis New Zealand are having a fundraising stall selling an amazing range of donated goods.

A cute little clip from the bay area:

Yeay! There’s another Pecha Kucha coming up in Wellington!

Doors open 6.30pm / start 7.30pm // $9 cash only