Weeda Stamps: News


FOX TALES ON STAMPS Edition #481 Friday, October 16, 2009
Saltspring Island and Nick Bantock
	Saltspring Island is the largest of the Southern Gulf Islands and an excellent destination for a day trip from Victoria. We had a couple of stamp related appointments and a lunch date so we left on the 9:00 a.m. ferry from Swartz Bay in order to get an early start. Even though it was the (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend, this ferry wasn't completely full. This could not be said for the ferry to the Mainland. Due to a fire in a diesel generator on one of the large "Spirit" class ferries, one quarter of the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen sailings were cancelled for the holiday weekend. Some people ended up waiting for over five hours to get on. Oh, the idyllic island life! I wonder what kind of danger hEE OI was in? It was a calm, cool and cloudy sailing. In the distance you can see Washington State's Mount Baker glimmering in the early morning light. Navigating through the Gulf Islands can be a bit tricky. The numerous shallow reefs and rocks are usually marked with buoys and a token colony of cormorants for effect. As the ferry rounded the point heading for Fulford Harbour we could make out the unmistakeable silhouette of Mount Maxwell. After finishing our stamp appointments we dropped in on our friend Nick Bantock at his Saltspring Island studio "The Forgetting Room". Francis Ulysses Greig, his stuffed Bighorn Sheep, keeps an eye on things from his vantage point in the front window. Nick and I have known each other since the late 1980s when he first moved to Vancouver. Nick, as well as being an artist and author, is an avid and knowledgeable stamp collector. Nick's works are infused with a sense of historical and literary context as well as whimsey. His stamp collecting has allowed him to create some rather convincing, if tongue in cheek, philatelic masterpieces. Note that the cabinet in this photograph is a rare angled drawer typesetter's cabinet. This is a photograph circa 1990 when Weeda Stamps and Nick Bantock's studio were both in the same building at 420 West Pender Street in Vancouver. Nick is the one who actually made us aware of the storefront becoming available for rent. We jumped at the opportunity. Thanks, Nick! Best-selling author of the "Griffin and Sabine" series of books, Nick is presently concentrating on his art. He offers collage-art workshops in his studio on Saltspring and for the more intrepid check out what his workshops in Spain have to offer. See http://www.nickbantock.com/pdf/Workshop-2010-in-spain.pdf. After a lovely languid lunch with Nick at the Saltspring Inn, Andrew and I headed back to Fulford Harbour for the 3:50 p.m. ferry back to Swartz Bay. By now it was a nice sunny fall afternoon. As you can see from this photo not all floating things that can be classified as junks are of Chinese origin. Some of the weatherbeaten sheds on the foreshore take on a look all their own. Fittingly our view of the Fulford Harbour Post Office fading into the distance was our last view of Saltspring for the day. Check out these links for more information: http://www.nickbantock.com/index.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Bantock http://www.saltspringmarket.com/ http://www.saltspringisland.org/ http://www.bcferries.com/
The Salvation Army Quiz
	We show you a minute portion of the design of a postage stamp. You have to determine which stamp it is. Send us an email with your answer. We hold this contest every second week. For every correct answer we will donate $1.00 to our favourite charity, the Salvation Army. Click here to go to the The Salvation Army International Home Page to see what services they offer to communities around the world.
Answer to Last Week's Salvation Army Quiz
	We received seven correct answers to last week's stamp identification quiz. That means a $7.00 donation to Salvation Army. Here's the portion of the stamp we asked you to identify Here's the answer - Canada #469, the 1967 EXPO Canadian Pavilion issue.