Victoria is best appreciated as a collage of small pauses, says the writer of a new book on the city.
“This city wants you to stop and pause,” said Anny Scoones. “It’s actually begging you.
“Why do you think we have so many benches everywhere? We’re not the City of Gardens — we are the City of Benches.”
Scoones recently completed Hometown: Out and About in Victoria’s Neighbourhoods.
It’s a soft-cover book, liberally punctuated with watercolour paintings by Victoria artist and Times Colonist art columnist Robert Amos.
The book is already in stores but an official launch party is scheduled for Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Winchester Galleries Humboldt Valley, 796 Humboldt St.
Scoones, 56, spent her childhood in New Brunswick before moving to B.C. and eventually settling on Vancouver Island.
She lived on a heritage farm and was a municipal councillor in North Saanich before deciding to move into the city to James Bay about two years ago.
Not long after her move, when she was looking for a way to be introduced to her new community, Scoones’s publisher — TouchWood Editions — suggested she write a book about Victoria.
But the goal was to write it from a personal perspective, based on feelings inspired by various areas of the city.
She and Amos would collaborate by swapping ideas and early drafts from time to time.
But mostly, they worked on their own — Scoones exploring, and Amos painting, keeping his eye on a wider view.
Scoones soon discovered a city that she says is best characterized by its countless small details: small city-tended rose gardens tucked between buildings; homes sporting funky planters made from bicycle helmets; a man standing in Fernwood blowing giant bubbles.
Beginning in James Bay, Scoones said, she began to walk the streets carrying a notebook, leaving herself open to impressions and ideas as she went.
“I like to call them ‘my little thinks.’ I found myself looking more and more at the little things, little details and their little ambiances and nuances,” she said.
For Scoones, her local corner store gained a quirky personality that set it apart from corporate convenience stores.
Its hand-packaged bags of peanuts for sale, its imported English candies and the local history books sitting in the open made the shop almost home-like.
“Where else can you go on a Sunday morning in your pyjamas?” she said.
“And, in fact, the owner probably knows you, will recognize and might even have a pleasant little conversation with you. There [were] all these little community things I was able to discover.”
Various neighbourhoods also revealed their own personalities.
Scoones likes to think Fairfield, being socially conscious and environmentally responsible, will always compost the pumpkins left over after Halloween.
She imagines James Bay, on the other hand, would rather sail the old pumpkins out to sea on a raft, maybe even compose a poem, Ode to the Pumpkin.
Scoones said one of the happiest surprises was Quadra Street, which she explored from its southern tip to Rithet’s Bog in Saanich. She had put it off until last because she was unsure of what to write. But after the walk, she was bowled over by its diversity.
From grand old churches, to ethnic delis, working-class neighbourhoods and natural parks, Quadra Street seemed endless in its possibilities.
Quadra Street “was one of those moments when I just ran off the page with observations,” Scoones said.
Living in Victoria still offers its irritations. There is the man who never looks up from the ground, though they pass every day. And there is the bag of trash she collects in the morning as she walks her dog to Clover Point. No place is perfect.
But what Hometown tries to capture are the joyful moments available to everyone ready to find them, Scoones said.
“I go on and on about how good it is to pause and have a little think, but that’s more difficult than people think,” she said.
“You won’t see things unless you are open, but it’s an amazing world when you pause with an open mind.”
