The regular monthly meeting of the Comox Valley Naturalists Society will be held November 16, 2008, at 7:00 pm at the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Avenue, Courtenay. The featured speaker will be noted author, Chris Czajkowski, who will present on her life in remote areas of Northern British Columbia, as well as her newest book “A Mountain Year”.

In 1988, Chris Czajkowski walked into British Columbia's Central Coast Mountains to build a homestead, a business, and a life. Raised in England, Chris was in her thirties when she moved to a remote location some 300 miles north of Vancouver. There, she single-handedly cleared the land and - despite a total lack of experience - built her own home. Many books later…
A Mountain Year is a beautifully-produced art book full of original paintings, sketches and diary entries, offering an awe-inspiring glimpse into the life of this independent spirit and the landscape that she calls home. In this illustrated journal, Czajkowski intimately describes the splendour of seasonal transformation with her trademark expressiveness; each day brings new obstacles and surprising revelations. At the start of the year, she writes, "The night was bright with a silvery soup of moonlight refracted off snowflakes fine as stardust." Spring arrives with breathtaking beauty and summer brings company from abroad. In the fall, Chris travels back to her first autumn at Nuk Tessli when she views "an extraordinarily beautiful moment. The clouds hung low enough to almost touch the water . . . and a wonderful, bluish, pearly luminescence covered everything."
Prepare to witness the magnificence of a year in British Columbia's high-altitude wilderness, a place of astounding natural beauty like no other. Please come and join us to become better informed, and how you can help CVNS provide education and protection for B.C’s natural environment.

Meetings of the Comox Valley Naturalists Society are held on the third Sunday of most months at the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton, Courtenay. Meetings are open to the public, including youth. A donation of $2.00 is suggested for non-members, and new memberships are always welcomed. Meetings are not held in December, July, and August. The CVNS January presentation will be: Jan. 18, 2009, with Richard Drake, speaking on the “Cumberland Constructed Wetlands”, aka “Cumberland Wetland and Wildlife Sanctuary”. The February 15 meeting is a ‘Member’s Night’, with several short presentations, our AGM will follow.

Please come out and join us for these important environmental topics. For more information on CVNS please visit the website at www.comoxvalleynaturalist.bc.ca