Which birds might I see today? Hummingbirds Perhaps the reason I love hummingbirds so much is that I grew up in England where there aren’t any. I never tire of watching them seek out nectar from our feeders or the flowers and shrubs in the garden. Four species of hummingbird can be seen here...
Which bird might I see today? The Swallow Many people consider the return of the first swallow the first sign of spring. This year the first swallows were seen in Kelowna on March 9th and more will be arriving any day. Six swallow species return here from wintering in the south to take advantage...
Note to Readers: We are so happy to have Ian Pooley join our ranks as a Guest Blogger. Ian, a local educator and historian, first wrote for us during Heritage Week when he submitted Heritage Afloat. Welcome Aboard, Ian, we hope to hear a lot from you in the future. Logging Chutes in Lake Country...
We are so fortunate to have a new Guest Blogger for this site: Pam Laing, local birder and photographer, has agreed to share with us A Year of Okanagan Birds. For those of you who attended Pam’s lecture at Creekside Theatre in February, you’ll know you’re in for a real treat....
Have you heard of the Okanagan Rail Trail initiative? The railway line between Vernon and Kelowna recently ceased operations, and we now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn the old railway into a multi-purpose trail. It would stretch all the way from Coldstream (next to Vernon),...
The Era when Okanagan Centre sent passengers, mail and fruit by the Lake Back at the beginning of the 20th century, the farmers and ranchers in the Winfield-Ellison area faced a dilemma – south of Wood Lake the only way to move hay and fruit was by wagon road. When Price Ellison, the Vernon MP,...
Land development in Lake Country was initiated by the Maddock brothers who, in 1892, bought up thousands of acres of land spanning a good part of Lake Country, an area from the Rainbow Ranche south to McKinley’s Landing, and from Okanagan Lake east to the flats of Winfield. Vincent and Homer...
Now who is this Dr. Chase? In the nineteenth-century manner, Chase earned his fame and fortune with equal parts of hard work and self-promotion. Born in New York State in 1817, Alvin Chase came to Ann Arbor in 1856 to pursue a medical degree after a career as a traveling peddler of groceries and...
Dan Bruce, our Curator, bought this little booklet to complement our patent medicine collection. It doesn’t have a publication date but there’s a rudimentary ‘Baby Book’ with a place for a picture and some birth statistics. Written in pencil is the notation that Our Baby was born March 19th,...
I have always liked arrowroot biscuits but I didn’t realize the history behind them until I started researching the museum’s can of Montserrat’s Arrowroot. Arrowroot has a long history of cultivation in the Caribbean as a food staple. Arrowroot thickens at a lower temperature than does flour or...
I thought that Zam-Buk might be boring. I vaguely remember a tin of it at home when I was a child although I don’t remember it being used. It was just there. According to the script on the tin it is used “for cuts, bruises, scratches, burns, scalds, athlete’s foot, piles, ulcers, eczema, sores,...
This medication was first manufactured by Hazeltine & Co in 1864 apparently started out labeled as a remedy for consumption although it was really only ever a cough remedy and the jury is still out on that. One source says “Piso’s was essentially a pretty good cough and cold syrup” and...