If you’re looking for a new set of anti-squint-making optical devices (sometimes known as ‘glasses’), you’ll be glad to know that our local optometrist is having a big blow-out sale.
Lynn Valley Optometry is the recipient of the 2012 best optical store award as judged by readers of both the North Shore News and North Shore Outlook (plus, they have a marvellous nespresso machine for fancy customer coffees!)
Check out the store’s blog for all the details on the sale, which starts August 28.
Lynn Valley United Church is continuing its community programming this fall with an even wider range of offerings for people of all ages, regardless of any church affiliation.
From youth groups to theatre sports to professionally led yoga classes to new community choirs, there is a lot happening at the church – more, in fact, that we can even list! So we’ve loaded up their fall programming guide here and invite you to take a look.
At LynnValleyLife we’ve long been a fan of both the yoga classes and Friday Night Live events, and we’re looking forward to seeing how these new ventures take flight. If you’ve ever hankered to make sandwiches for the hungry, learn healing touch, or take part in creative writing workshops, this may be a close-to-home opportunity!
Learn more about the people behind Lynn Valleyʼs bustling businesses!
Want to get hold of your local shopkeeper? Check out our business listings.
Shop local and save money with the help of these special merchant offers!
Nicole Palacios is best known in Lynn Valley for her personal training business. But that may change now that she’s also the author of her novel, Bel Air Bodies, available for sale as an Amazon ebook. We tracked Nicole down to ask her about her writing, her background, and her life here in Lynn Valley.
Tell us about your writing background…. has it been hobby, career, or both?
My writing career has been something that I didn’t realize I wanted to do until about seven years ago. I started writing fitness-related articles for magazines, then realized my passion for fiction. I always enjoyed writing fiction in my youth, but put it aside to focus on schooling and child rearing. Now it’s back in my radar.Now tell us about your fitness biz! (And, while you’re at, it, the rest of your life, too!)
I am a North Shore personal trainer; I’ve been involved in the fitness industry since I was 17! I started as a fitness instructor, then got my personal training certification and received my degree in Exercise Science. I train people in their homes/ outside or in my gym facility. I mainly work with females looking to get into shape/lose weight/etc. Since I was six I’ve lived on the North Shore (with a three-year break living in Minnesota of all places!) I have three beautiful girls, and an awesome husband. We are totally in love with Lynn Valley where we live!
What made you decide on the romance genre when you turned to fiction writing?
I wouldn’t classify this as romance per se, more of a “chick lit” novel. There is some element of romance, of course, but that is not the only theme. What fun is it to read a book without a little romance? It keeps things fun and light.What other kinds of writing do you do?
I write health and fitness articles for magazines such as Alive, Pregnancy (when it was still being published!), Fitness Business Canada, Personal Fitness Professional, the North Shore News, and a few others. I also maintain a fitness blog at: http://ptfitnesswriter.blogspot.ca/How did you find the self-publishing process? Why did
you go with Amazon?
It’s very difficult to get published with a mainstream publisher; you really need an agent first. They are hard to please! Amazon made it simple and was very easy to use.What were some of the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of self-publishing?
I would say all “pro”! It is very easy to do with a computer.Did you have any help, or is this a solo project from start to finish?
This was my own personal project. I wanted to finish a book; there are a few others that I have started and left hanging for a few years.What’s your goal for the book?
I would love to see it sell one hundred copies; that’s a goal. As well, it would be nice to just to have some people who I don’t know and didn’t tell about it to read it and hopefully enjoy it!What are some of your other writing goals?
I am currently working on a non-fiction book on fitness for baby boomers. I hope to publish that the traditional way and have it “in stores”.How will you be promoting Bel Air Bodies?
Twitter, Facebook, other blogs, word of mouth.Any advice for aspiring novelists?
Stick with it! Don’t give up and don’t let negative comments get you down.Anything else you’d like to tell us?
I am happy to be living on the North Shore and have such a great group of other writers and friends to bounce ideas off of! This community is so warm and welcoming and I really feel blessed to live here!
According to RCMP Cpl. Richard De Jong, a mixture of marijuana and magic mushrooms were behind the Saturday, Aug. 11 incident in which a teenager was seen naked and bleeding in the Mountain Highway and Kilmer area.
Emergency services received several reports from people who saw the agitated young man at about 5 p.m. on an otherwise typical Lynn Valley summer evening. While some people in the neighbourhood were worried that he had been attacked, it turns out the man was not an assault victim after all.
Responders located the 17-year-old and learned that, after ingesting the illegal drugs while visiting a friend, he became “mentally and emotionally distressed,” stripped naked, and leapt through the residence’s plate glass window in an attempt to run home.
Police always find these kind of incidents concerning, said Cpl. De Jong, who noted that the teenager was taken to Lions Gate Hospital for treatment of the wounds he received during his drug-induced psychosis.
From the kitchen of Lynn O’Malley – Summer is a time of great intentions; we want to hike the wilderness, build a backyard deck or tree fort, host a marvellous B.C. Day party, teach our children the Latin names of all the local flowers and catch up our photo album. Then a heat wave hits, and it’s all we can do to throw some Wonder bread and a jar of peanut butter at our children before retreating to the basement again with a wet cloth on our head.
But sometimes you have to step up and provide vittles for a crowd. For times like that, here’s a great, crowd-pleasing recipe that makes it seems like you’ve been working much harder than you have. Make it several hours in advance, or even the day before, so it’s well frozen when you unveil it. (And FYI, it’s a great birthday cake for the wheat-intolerant!) Do you have any favourite hot-weather recipes, an easy, stove-free main, perhaps, or perfect patio drink? Please send them to [email protected], and I’ll share them here!
The Best Ice Cream Cake
2 c. Rice Krispies
1 c. coconut
1 c. chopped pecans
1 stick melted butter
1/2 gal. vanilla ice cream
1 sm. bottle caramel syrup
3/4 c. brown sugar
Mix together Rice Krispies, coconut, pecans and butter. Bake on cookie sheet at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and mix 3/4 cup brown sugar to mixture. Spread about half the mixture in the bottom of 13×9 pan.
Spread with 1/2 of caramel (I don’t usually add nearly this much caramel …. and at this point I usually drizzle some chocolate syrup on top, too!) Cut and place ice cream until it covers bottom of pan. Pour more caramel to taste and the remainder of the mixture on the top of ice cream. Freeze and eat.
By Dylan Wendt, Coast Pest Control
If you have unwanted pests at home and want to try the natural approach before calling a pest control company; then try these tested home remedies. If they don’t solve your problems, then give the professionals at Coast Pest & Wildlife ControlLtd. a call at 604-908-2040 for a free estimate.
Tip #1 Fruit Flies
For those pesky Fruit Flies grab a bowl and fill with ¼ cup warm water, ¼ cup vinegar, and 3 to 4 drops of dish soap (be sure to mix with water to activate). Then cover tightly with plastic wrap and using a fork puncture several holes. The vinegar smell attracts the Fruit Flies and as they fly into the bowl they become trapped in the mixture and cannot find their way out.
Tip #2 Insects
Keep all foliage cut back from the home by at least six inches to prevent a wide variety of insects from entering the home. This will provide a chemical-free barrier for the entire perimeter of the home.
Tip #3 Wasps
To help prevent wasps from building a nest in your backyard or patio area, try placing a fake wasp nest that can be purchased at your local hardware store. This works as a deterrent because wasps are territorial; seeing a nest will prevent them from building another.
Tip #4 Travellers’ Bed Bug Prevention
When travelling, a constant concern for many people is bringing home bed bugs. To help prevent this, always keep your luggage and clothing off the floor by using either hangers and/or the luggage stands that are provided my most hotels.
When North Van District Assistant Fire Chief Curtis Bremner set out to research preventable deaths in North Vancouver, he was surprised at some of the facts he discovered.
First, a report from the BC Coroner Office revealed that the average age of people who are victims of an “accidental” death in North Vancouver District is 60 years old. “I thought that was a bit high,” he says, and kept teasing out the numbers. It turns out that one factor pushing that number up is the fact that the average age of people who die in a fire in North Vancouver is 70 – fifteen years older that the average in the rest of Metro Vancouver.
That was just the kind of information Bremner was looking for. The assistant chief, in charge of professional development and training, is in his second year of the National Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program, and was searching for a research topic that would address some aspect of community risk reduction.
More information emerged from another source. During an energy audit program designed to assess the energy efficiency of residential homes in Blueridge, the Fire Department used the opportunity to assess the level of fire safety awareness in the typical residential home in North Vancouver.
These home inspections revealed that all but one home had a smoke alarm. However, none of the smoke alarms were tested regularly and only a few residents actually changed the batteries annually. Many of the alarms were past their expiration date and 35 per cent of homes had inadequate coverage. When he found that the unknowing home owners were often seniors, Bremner knew he’d found his project.
Now he will be investigating smoke alarm programs for seniors, and is looking for volunteers who are 65+ to help him out. Since Lynn Valley has the highest density of seniors in all of North Vancouver, he’s hoping LynnValleyLife readers will answer the call.
Whether you live in a single-family home, a garden apartment (ie a three-storey walk up), a highrise or a townhouse, Bremner and the District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services are offering to come out and do a home safety audit, check your existing smoke alarm or match you up with a better one if necessary, answer questions and give information on fire safety in your home and how to respond correctly in the event of a fire.
It’s all part of his research, which will be turned into a stringently reviewed, published paper that will add to the body of knowledge shared by firefighters throughout North America. Once that’s done, he will be halfway through the demanding four-year program.
If you’d like to help Bremner with his project, and improve your own home safety, please contact him at [email protected]. He will be out of the office from Aug. 17 to Sept. 6, and hopes to begin the project Sept. 15, so the sooner you get in touch, the better. No doubt we’d all like to see those preventable death statistics drop dramatically in the future.
– Peggy Trendell-Jensen, editor
