Islander

Some new books of local interest will be valuable additions to my library. A Perfect Eden: Encounters by Early Explorers of Vancouver Island, Michael Layland, TouchWood Editions, Victoria, 2016, 240 pp. $39.

This column first appeared in the Victoria Daily Times on Dec. 14, 1940. Miss Minnis knew that the girls in the office talked about her. She even knew the nickname they had given her and did not resent it.

On a Thursday morning in November, four kayakers paddle against the current under Gorge Bridge. “I’ll race you,” one says to another.

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without the annual light-up at Butchart Gardens on Dec. 1, a day that doubles as the unofficial start of the holiday season.

By the time Erin Spencer was delivered to Victoria General Hospital, she had hemorrhaged more than half her blood. Paramedics on land and sea had battled through stormy weather and rough seas to save her life.

University of Victoria biochemistry student Luke Neufeld got a rare look into his possible future professions after a Victoria surgeon saved his life. It was late summer 2014 when a routine sinus infection abscessed.

Victoria Hospice has kicked off its annual Celebrate a Life campaign, an opportunity for the community to celebrate loved ones during the holiday season, Thursday at Hillside Shopping Centre.

You couldn’t blame Cory Young for appearing so surprised by the multitude of Christmas trees that awaited him at the Fairmont Empress on Thursday.

Leonard Clarke is a native of Cork, Ireland, a town founded in 923 AD. He grew up surrounded by “so many old things,” he told me. I spent the morning with him at Pacific Antiques, his shop at 829 Fort St. (250-388-5311, pacificantiques.com ).

This column originally appeared in the Victoria Daily Times on Dec. 16, 1939. Never have I seen more ideas floating around for Christmas gifts, showing that the war with its consuming anxieties has not dried up the creative imagination of our women.