Wednesday - June 26, 2024 - New winery on the horizon in Langley

🌧 High 19C

Good morning!

I have never minded spoilers. I often need to flip to the middle of a book before I borrow it, or come across a few memes from a movie before I click play. It is the reason why I primarily like old things—old books, like Lord of the Rings or Pride and Prejudice, or old TV shows like Bewitched and M*A*S*H.

For the most part I want my recreational media to be comforting. I do not need the jump scare. Very rarely do I crave the shocking plot twist. I find there is enough of that in real life. All I need from my fiction is to let me be prepared for what comes next, in a way that real life rarely offers. After all, we don’t typically get spoilers for our own lives.

–Grace

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

A visitor's guide to Lytton—and a contemporary festival

It’s finally time for tourists to return to Lytton.

Saturday will mark three years since the devastating fire that destroyed the village. It will be a reminder of how little rebuilding has taken place, and locals will mark the day with a ceremony and barbecue.

But the weekend will also be the best chance tourists have had since the disaster to acquaint themselves with Lytton and the surrounding area.

With a day-long Indigenous culture festival nearby, a re-opened major provincial park to the west, established food and tourism businesses in the surrounding area, and a less-apocalyptic townsite, local residents and leaders say visitors are welcome to return.

• Today, we have a post-fire visitor’s guide to Lytton.

• Plus, Tyler talks to the artistic director of the Movable Feast Indigenous culture festival, about the ideas, people, philosophy, and art behind this weekend’s event.

Related

Need to Know

🛑 Three Fraser Valley Conservative MPs are criticizing the federal government’s decision to deny millions in flood infrastructure funding for Abbotsford [Abbotsford News]

✊ Everett Herald journalists are on strike after Carpenter Media laid off half the newsroom [Everett Herald] / Carpenter Media currently owns most of the Fraser Valley’s community newspapers; we reported on the company last week [FVC]

🚒 An affordable housing complex in Langley caught fire over the weekend [Langley Advance Times]

⚖ Teachers testifying against former Chilliwack Trustee Barry Neufeld in his upcoming human rights hearing will have their identities protected [Chilliwack Progress]

🚓 Abbotsford cops didn’t do anything wrong when a man stopped breathing during an arrest in 2022, BC’s police watchdog said [Abbotsford News]

🧯 Mission will buy a $75,000 drone to help the city fight local wildfires [Mission Record]

🔎 Wesley Bosman’s family is asking for anyone with information about the missing Abbotsford man to ‘do the right thing’ [Fraser Valley Today]

👉 Harrison Hot Springs Resort workers will go on strike for increased pay, better medical benefits, and fair scheduling [Agassiz Harrison Observer]

💰 BMO will fund a new UFV project to provide sophisticated research to community organizations and Indigenous groups [Fraser Valley Today]

🔥 Extreme wildfires are twice as common as they were two decades ago, an analysis of satellite data has shown [Nature]

🏒 In light of the Edmonton Oilers’ Stanley Cup defeat, CBC has created a graphic showing how close each Canadian team has gotten to the cup since 1994 [CBC]

SPONSORED BY THEATRE BC

Six nights of live performances

Mainstage is coming to Chilliwack! Six different plays to see from July 1-6 - a week of entertaining performances as part of the Provincial theatre festival. Each night of Mainstage features a performance chosen as tops in its region - the best of community theatre in BC. Choose the individual shows you want to see, or a full week package; get Mainstage tickets today via the Chilliwack Cultural Centre box office.

Mainstage 2024 also offers a variety of acting and directing workshops, led by professionals associated with the Arts Club of Vancouver.

Mainstage is one of the longest running theatre traditions in Canada. This year’s festival is hosted by the Chilliwack Players Guild at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre.

The Agenda

New winery on the horizon in Langley

A farm property off Glover Road in Langley could be the home of the town’s newest winery and tasting lounge.

Heritage 1909 Farms, located near Crush Crescent on Glover Road, has plans to become a “leading wine producer” in the province. It aims to create a “destination in the heart of the Township of Langley” by creating a lounge, tasting room, and retail store alongside a wine manufacturing facility, a report to the Township said.

The plan is to create a 130-person lounge in a building already on the property. It would include an outdoor patio, and allow patrons to purchase full-sized drinks. An adjacent tasting room would offer smaller samples. The lounge would be open 9am to 11pm, seven days a week, and would pair the wine with what Heritage 1909 Farms calls “fresh sustainable comfort food.” There are also plans for live music and local DJs.

The lounge would be separate from the wine manufacturing building, which is also already on the property. It is not clear how many grapes would be grown on the 10-acre property, as a large portion of the land is already taken up by buildings.

Although the Township of Langley held a public hearing for the proposal, they can only endorse or oppose the project. It will be up to the BC Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch to make the final decision on the winery and its lounge.

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SPONSORED BY THE FORT LANGLEY JAZZ & ARTS FESTIVAL

A tribute to Duke Ellington with the Fred Stride Jazz Orchestra

Swing by the Fort Langley Community Hall for an incredible big-band jazz concert by the Fred Stride Jazz Orchestra, in a Tribute to Duke Ellington, July 25, from 1-3pm!

The 16-piece orchestra will deliver a performance true to the original music of the one and only, Duke Ellington.

Get your tickets here!

📸 Current Cam

Each week we showcase a different photo from across the valley and invite readers to share their best guesses about where it was taken.

Think you know where this week’s Current Cam was taken? Fill out this form.

🗓 Things to do

Books and borscht: The next Books and Borscht event at the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Abbotsford will be with author Janet Boldt on Thursday, June 27. Call 604-758-5667 to register, as seating is limited. Details online.

Board games: Get competitive with board games at Abbotsford's Boardwalk Cafe and Games' Board Game Blitz on Thursday, June 27. The casual-but-competitive meet-up happens on the last Thursday of the month. Players earn points to become the night's winner, and potentially the season's board game champion. Register online.

Social work: Get help navigating health care, housing, financial challenges, and food security at the Mission Library every Thursday. A social worker will be at the library each Thursday from 9:30am to 12:30pm. Details online.

Have an event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted here.

Catch up

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