The Culmina Family Estate Winery in Oliver in the beautiful South Okanagan Valley was founded by Don and Elaine Triggs with their daughter Sara, in 2007. A year earlier,  the well-known Jackson-Triggs Winery founded by Allan Jackson and Don Triggs had been sold to Vincor International. As Don quipped "he was not a golfer and retirement didn't suit him" and he wanted to get back to the wine making that he was so passionate about.

Since I seldom eat breakfast out on weekdays and my mid-morning meetings tend to be at coffee shops rather than at full service restaurants, I didn't know that Provence Marinaside serves breakfasts.  But searching for a location in walking distance from home, with a water view for a celebratory and farewell breakfast with family, I found out that Provence Marinaside is open from from 8 am to 10:30 pm and has a great breakfast menu.

Wine and chocolate is an irresistible combination and I couldn't resist the temptation to go back for another salted caramel chocolate at the Apothic Wines event. The event was held at one of Vancouver 's newest nightclubs, Twelve West on Granville Street which bills itself as an elite night life venue. I've often noticed the line ups to get in, while I am walking home from dance classes in the evening but have until now not had the occasion to go into the venue.

Vancouver, BC. While a thunderstorm rages over an isolated log cabin deep in a forest, siblings Bobby and Betty, come together ostensibly to clear out a tenant's property from the cabin. But this is no Hansel and Gretel story of innocent siblings threatened by a mean step-mother and a cannabilistic witch with a fairy tale happy ending. Instead it is a dark exploration of the truth and lies  behind the emotions of an big sister-baby brother relationship, now connecting as adults.

A professional ballerina turned professional chef, who has just authored a cookbook in which Vanilla is the star! That announcement hit three of my hot buttons - dance, cuisine and my favorite flavour and aroma, vanilla. And as someone who turned to working in the arts after a thirty years in science, I was fascinated to learn about how and why a ballerina of 30 years duration became a chef. 

Vanilla - a lush sweet aroma and flavour that inevitably entices me to indulge in more sweet or frozen desserts, cakes and chocolates than I probably should. It's hard to resist those sweet treats.  But I hadn't thought much about vanilla in the context of a savoury dish, until I saw a listing of recipes from Natasha MacAller's Vanilla Table.

Vancouver, BC: The premise of this show had me hooked from the beginning. It's early 17th century England and theatre abounds. Companies of players are performing comedies and tragedies with meaty roles for the players to tackle - but only if the players are men. Women are not allowed to perform and if they risk it and are caught on stage, they are subject to shaming by the church. This gender-based prohibition does not sit well with Miss Judith Shakespeare (Amanda Lisman) the feisty younger daughter of The Bard.  She gathers together her band of female friends in the basement of  The Cave Tavern and persuades them to rehearse with her to perform a play which she writes.

Vancouver, BC: I was happy to get a chance to see this show as I missed it on each of my New York trips and I really enjoyed it a lot. I liked the musical variety with Latin rhythms, salsa, merengue and rap,  the energy of the salsa and hip-hop dancing. Not so sure about the overall storyline though.

This was my first time back to the A to Z Challenge since I completed it in 2012. I chose for my theme, to revisit my Amazon River Cruise  through the Peruvian Jungle in 2013 which I had partly documented on my return -  here is a post that showed the excursions during this journey - taking the opportunity to add more information  and details.

Vancouver, BC: I have always been bemused by the terms "fairy tales" or "children's stories" used to describe the collections of German folk lore compiled in the 19th century by the appropriately named Brother's Grimm, Jakob and Wilhelm. Although sanitized and glamourized into gentler, happier and pretty versions  as in the animated Disney films that even young children love to watch, the actual stories tell of violent acts and cruelty that don't always end with the protagonists living "happily ever after."