Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX, Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally. As well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at IanLindsay.ca. 

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter. Here comes Dave. Oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So much laughs and insights everywhere. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics. Alright, join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.

Peter McCully: It's the first pulse podcast of the new year, 2025 hard to believe we're already a quarter of the way into the new millennium. Welcome Dave “Will he run for prime minister” Graham? 

Dave Graham: And it's Peter “He can't run to the corner “McCully. Good morning, sir. 

Peter McCully: Now, now, now, now, on this episode, we'll be chatting with Robert Bateman, who has a new show coming to the Cowichan Valley in the spring.

Robert Bateman: I got in the water and was snorkeling around this little island, and on the far side, the furthest from the zodiac, I found the shark, or the shark found me. I would turn around and face it and go, boo, as loud as I could, but I'm wearing a snorkel. And so it came out, moo, but the noise startled it. I would get a few strokes further and then I would turn around there, it would be following me again. Obviously, I'm here today, I made it back into the Zodiac without it finding me. 

Dave Graham: And we'll be talking to Meghan Stewart of the award winning True North Distillery in Qualicum Beach. 

Meghan Stewart: We have a lot of fun at what we do. We're relaxed in the sense of if we try something different, it's not going to knock us out of the business. Honestly, after COVID and all of that, we're still standing. And so that's given us some confidence to try different things. We just do things a little bit different. 

Peter McCully: Congratulations to Jennifer Narayan, who won a $25 gift certificate from Thrifty Foods for guessing correctly where the Tickle Trunk was. The question was, where in the Parksville Qualicum Beach area can you have your picture taken with Bigfoot? 

Dave Graham: The answer being the Meadowwood Store, proprietors Chris and Stephanie Burger. The area that the store is located in you see, this isn't just coincidence. That area is known for Sasquatch spottings, especially along the ridge, more recently along the creek, or when you meet one, I'm an optimist, try to remain calm, don't run away, do not yell at the Sasquatch, do not try to feed the Sasquatch, if you do get a picture or some video. It'll turn out to be fuzzy and shaky, but that's the way it should be. 

Peter McCully: You are an optimist. There's no doubt about it. We have another clue for you as to where the tickle trunk is. Send us your correct guess and we'll put your name in the draw for a 25 gift certificate. And Dave, the new clue is?

Dave Graham: This is a place that was the scene of manufacturing starting in 1911 where they took clay from nearby fields. Coal was brought in by barge and the final product was taken away by barge. Almost all evidence of this is long gone, but visitors to this place today are able to still see examples of what was made. You'll find these things entangled in the roots of the trees that now occupy the space. You can walk or kayak to this spot. Good luck! So, Peter, how are you doing on your New Year's resolutions? 

Peter McCully: Well, Dave, my resolution this year was to lose 10 pounds, so I only have 15 more to go. 

Dave Graham: Well, you inspired me with that cookbook that you got for Christmas, so I made a resolution to expand my food choices. I now know three new takeout places. Thank you very much. 

Peter McCully: And sometimes that's better. We also chatted on the last podcast about my resolution to have Ryan Reynolds follow me on social media. And in order to do that, I thought the best way to do it would be to have a picture taken of me trying to squeeze into a dead pool outfit, despite the outcry that I heard. Unfortunately, I could only get one leg up to my knee, so I guess maybe a few more pounds to lose than ten or so. 

Dave Graham: Ah, there we go with the images again. You know, this could be a six degrees of separation thing. There must be someone out there who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Ryan Reynolds. And if Ryan is truly the Canadian nice guy that he appears to be, then he will take pity, or maybe take interest, or just take a moment, drop us a line. Wouldn't that be fun? We don't need any autographs, Ryan, no personal items, just a hello, follow my friend Peter. I mean, is that too much to ask? 

Peter McCully: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by M&N Mattress and Furniture Gallery. All mattresses at M&N Mattresses are made in British Columbia. The latex comes from rubberwood trees in Sri Lanka. Take the 60 second rest test at parksvillemattress. com. Visit the showroom at 291 East Island Highway in Parksville. If you're interested in joining our growing family of sponsors for the Pulse Community and Skookum Kid Stories podcasts, let us know. Email peter at thepulsecommunity. ca. He's a nice guy. 

Dave Graham: Hey, it's time for our first guest. At last, Marilyn, who is in the green room? 

Ian Lindsay & Associates: Waiting patiently in the green room is Meghan Stewart of True North Distilleries. The award winning craft distillery is located in Qualicum Beach. 

Dave Graham: True North Distilleries is British Columbia's first female owned and operated craft distillery. Clearly, Megan, this distinction is important to you. 

Meghan Stewart: Sure it is, but what is most important to me is that I get to work in BC Craft, which is such an honor. It's a great community. 

Dave Graham: So let's back up a little bit and maybe describe this craft environment in which you work. What defines that? 

Meghan Stewart: BC Craft is fairly new. It is about 14 years old. We were one of the first ones to get licensed for this and BC Craft has certain rules. So we're not commercial. We are set, we have a limit of what we can make for alcohol in a year and the most important thing to me is that whatever we put in our stilts It has to be BC sourced. The commercial people, they can get the cheapest and go all over Canada or into other countries to get their product, but we need to be in BC. And that's just turned out to be a really fun thing. 

Dave Graham: How did you get started in this business? 

Meghan Stewart: I've been in the back of my mind for a long time, and I am a bit of a geek when it comes to chemistry and physics. And it was just an opportunity that came up, because I'm a bit of a shy person, I felt brave enough to give it a try, and I ended up purchasing a water distiller. And I played around with that for a little bit, and then it just went from there. 

Dave Graham: You say that a lot of the fun in this is playing around and experimenting.

Meghan Stewart: Yes. One of the things that we do and we thrive on is that we do small batch. So that means that we're not making hundreds of liters of one thing, that we can have a small amount of fruit, grain, something that somebody in the community has come to us with, and we can play with it. We did a small batch of stone fruit brand. We used a few different things, including peaches and nectarine. It was different than anything we had tried. With small batches, unfortunately, when it's gone, sometimes it's gone because we can't get the fruit. We had an award winning, a double gold national award. It was a cherry muscat. It was a special muscat grape. If anybody knows about muscat, then they probably know that the Australians have won award after award. They're at the top of their craft, but it's very sweet. The Australians call it Christmas cake or Christmas pudding in a glass. We wanted to go a little shy of that sugaryness. I wanted to bring it down to Canadian palettes. We ended up talking with a local vineyard. He did a whole bunch of test vines, and so he ended up selling us this white varietal of a muscat grape. It wasn't as sugary sweet, so I'd love to say, oh yes, I planned it this way, and I knew it was going to be a gold winner, and a lot of it is you try your best, what you're putting in, and then we ended up with this. What happened was he sold the vineyard, so we haven't been able to make it again, so. A little, no pun intended, a little bittersweet there. But that's the fun of it is that it, you never know what you're going to come across. 

Dave Graham: You touched a couple of times on awards. What's the most recent you've picked up? 

Meghan Stewart: Oh, the most recent is Most Innovative Craft Distillery of 2025 from the Corporate Vision Canadian Business Awards. And it's a national award. We just can't tell you how excited we are. 

Dave Graham: What do you attribute that win to? 

Meghan Stewart: I would say that we have a lot of fun at what we do. We're relaxed in the sense of if we try something different, it's not going to knock us out of the business. Honestly, after COVID and all of that, we're still standing. And so that's given us some confidence to try different things. We just do things a little bit different. We don't use or produce sulfites. To a lot of people, I would say they think that's pretty innovative. 

Dave Graham: What I know about your business, I think I've learned off moonshiners. It is that essentially though the process, what they're doing, what you're doing.

Meghan Stewart: Except for we do a whole bunch of paperwork. The government knows what we're doing at all times and we don't do it in the bush. The fun of it is that, especially with BC craft, I think we have over 19 BC craft distilleries on the island. And that opens up creativity for all of us because you get word of mouth from people about what they're growing, what they're doing. In Tofino, I don't know if they're still doing it, but they're making gin with seaweed. It's like you use what you have and you give it a try. I find, especially with being a fairly new industry within a larger, very old industry, it's just like as much excitement and passion as you have. To move forward, you find something fun to do that you hadn't necessarily thought about before. And it is a small community of BC crafters and they're so much fun to talk to and see what they're doing. And then we also help each other out because BC craft, we're fairly small and we're restricted, of course, of how much we can make in a year. So that means that we don't get in to the government liquor stores because of their rules and their amounts that you have to provide, put aside. So you have to produce all of it and put a large part of it aside. So we'd get calls from different craft distilleries from around the lower mainland, especially after COVID. We couldn't find bottles and that kind of thing. Hey, I'm buying in. Do you want to buy in with me? So for us, for our experience, very much a camaraderie was built and everybody does something different.

Dave Graham: Is there a product or a flavor or something that you have pursued that has eluded you to date? 

Meghan Stewart: One thing that was difficult to do and took three times to succeed at it was making our eau de vie. It's a pear eau de vie, and for those who don't know what an eau de vie is, it's considered a fresh fruit brandy. So when you think brandies in general, you think heavily oaked. This one doesn't go into oak. And that's one of the reasons why we were really wanting to pursue it. Because we do a low to no oak profile overall with our different alcohols and whiskeys. It takes many months to do. And you have to keep the humidity at the same level. Because things can be going very smoothly. And then you can lose all the batch in one night. And we did that twice. And the third time, it worked. It's a ghost of pear. It's very popular in Europe. They call it schnapps. It's actually on the drier side, but it's quite lovely and soft. 

Dave Graham: You develop some products that are catered to the female palate?

Meghan Stewart: I wasn't a big whiskey fan before we started playing, and what it turns out to be for me is oak. Heavily oaked products, so there's some wines that are heavily oaked. And then, of course, you have to put it in a barrel. We didn't want to do that. And maybe where this is some of the innovation comes from, too, is we were willing to try. What's the worst that can happen? And it ended up being an award winner in the category. It was national category for young rye. And we didn't oak. Everybody else oaked in it. And we won. 

Dave Graham: You intentionally moved to the island how long ago and why Qualicum Beach? 

Meghan Stewart: Oh, four years ago and a little bit of the universe sending us where we needed to be instead of where we necessarily thought we would be. We thought at first we would be maybe going to the Duncan area, closer to Victoria and fairly close to Nanaimo. Our family landed in Parksville. It just the feel of Parksville and Qualicum Beach was so great that we started to look around. Because when you're dealing with You basically have to find a home for your distillery before you can do anything else with the government. We heard about this new building being built in Qualicum Beach in what's going to be, and especially at the time, the East Village, and I fell in love the second, this is Geek Distillery talk, the second that I saw how tall the ceiling was, because our different holdings for our alcohol can be really tall and huge. And when we were in the interior, we ended up with a building that had been everything in this small town. From a sub shop, to a tanning bed, to a pizza joint. Very short. So when I saw this place, I was like, I'm in love. It's mine. And the landlord was looking for us, was looking for a craft distillery. He had a vision of what he wanted. And when he met us, it just, all of a sudden it clicked. 

Dave Graham: When you say it clicked, that was pretty much right on my mind in that I was about to say, it seems like you're in the right place and doing the right thing and at the right time. And it's all working out for you. 

Meghan Stewart: Yes, and that's so much fun for us. We love to give back to the communities that we're in, and you get that love back. I love to give people opportunity and choices of what they get and the size, in this case, of what they get. And we were finally able to source out, just this last year, 50 mL bottles. So you can buy a little bit, either for yourself to see if you want more of it, or for gift giving. We make a clean, fun product, and we go as local and as organic as we can. 

Dave Graham: Sounds like you're doing a good job at it.

Meghan Stewart: Thank you. We love what we do. 

Dave Graham: It goes a long way, doesn't it? 

Meghan Stewart: It really does. 

Dave Graham: Wow. Thank you, Megan. 

Peter McCully: Dave, I thought that was pretty interesting that all of their product is made from ingredients sourced in British Columbia, and indeed a lot of those from the local area.

Dave Graham: Thank you. And, you know, here's a call out to our listeners. What do you find interesting? Perhaps that last piece was of interest, or maybe you have something else in mind. You can share that with us. Thanks to this new fangled technology. That allows you to tell us what you think. It's called speak to us. Look for the link and then you can use your phone or your computer and speak to us in your own words in your own voice. Or if that's a bit much, you can also text us. So if you have a comment on an interview, a suggestion for a guest or you'd like to reply to a question we might have, just click on the link, please.

Peter McCully: Have you been out foraging in the woods behind your place for fresh haggis? You know, Robbie Burns night is coming up. 

Dave Graham: Oh, that's where haggis comes from. Is it kind of like truffles? I hadn't thought about that. No, I know haggis comes from Scotland. 

Peter McCully: We'll have to see if we can get Brian Weiss on the podcast from Qualicum Beach. Brian recites the “Ode to the Haggis” or “Addresses the Haggis”, which is the highlight of any Robbie Burns dinner.

Dave Graham: I bet you have seen one or two of those in your time. 

Peter McCully: I've probably been to more than 25. 

Dave Graham: Oh, wow. Yeah. So are you a fan of the dish? 

Peter McCully: Oh, yes, yes. Love Haggis. Yeah, it's great. Especially when you can get it with Drambuie gravy.

Dave Graham: Oh my. Well, you really are a gourmand. As a cultural event, I've found it to be a wonderful experience as a culinary thing. Well, you know, we all know haggis is kind of infamous for being what it is. I actually found it palatable, but I looked it up this morning and it said haggis is a savory pudding containing oats and sheep's pluck. I didn't have time to look up what sheep's pluck is. Maybe I'm better off not knowing. What do you think, Peter? 

Peter McCully: Yeah. I think you're better off not knowing. 

Oceanside CWeed: Oceanside Seaweed, that little pot shop, is Parksville's first licensed cannabis store. Since April 2022, Seaweed is under new ownership. With a product expert at the helm, that includes two decades of retail mastery and seven years in the cannabis industry, Seaweed is a legacy in the making, with cannabis products regulated by Health Canada. Community minded seaweed is a member of the Parksville Chamber of Commerce, the Parksville Downtown Business Association, and the Retail Cannabis Council of British Columbia. Those 19 plus can drop by the store at 154 Middleton Avenue next to Tablet Pharmacy. Open Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm. Weekends and holidays, 9am to 7pm. Visit the online store at seaweedoceanside.ca. 

Thrifty Foods: At Thrifty Foods, we love to help non profits, charities, and schools. Our Thrifty Foods Smile Card Bulk Program allows organizations to immediately save up to 6 percent on the purchase of smile cards in bulk. Allowing you to keep more money in your organization's pockets. Ask for details at Thrifty Foods in Parksville. Let's check and see who 

Dave Graham: Marilyn, who is waiting in the green room to talk with us next. 

Marilyn: In the green room is one of Canada's best known artists and naturalists, Robert Bateman of Salt Spring Island. Robert will be bringing a new show of work to the Cowichan Valley in the spring of 2025.

Peter McCully: Thanks for joining us on the podcast today, Robert.

Robert Bateman: You're welcome. My pleasure. 

Peter McCully: You must consider yourself extremely lucky to be able to share your paintings for as many years as you have. I know you started painting when you were just twelve. Do you have any of those paintings from your youth? 

Robert Bateman: Oh yes, I still have the one I did for my mom, I think it was for Christmas, it was an elk, which I had never seen, but I got it from a National Geographic article, it was a herd of about 20 elk, each elk was less than half an inch. So I took one of the elk out of the herd and made it big, and then the tree was a birch tree from our backyard, and the distant snowy hills with clumps of trees was a golf course north of Toronto. So that's what I did then. My first one that I can really remember, and that's what I still do. I combine different sources and put them together in one piece. 

Peter McCully: So I understand a few of those made it to a show this past summer. 

Robert Bateman: Yes, other wonderful people such as Kate organize the shows and put them together and I just do what I'm told and just show up. It's was at the Penticton Art Gallery. 

Peter McCully: I understand that show is going to be on Salt Spring this coming spring and as well at the Cowichan Valley Museum this summer. So folks will be able to see some of your early work. 

Robert Bateman: I think I'll be able to be there and meet and greet and chat with people. One of the delightful things, maybe about being old and also about having been a teacher, is I have “This Is Your Life” rolling before my eyes at these gatherings. People I haven't met before. Even thought about maybe for decades, suddenly there they are. And sometimes they say, remember me? And of course they were 15 and now they're 55. At any rate, it's really gratifying to be at my age and having been a teacher all these years and to have my old acquaintances appear.

Peter McCully: Robert, you mentioned being a teacher. I know you were an art teacher and a geography teacher in Ontario before you could make your art pay full time. What did you love most about teaching? 

Robert Bateman: I've always loved sharing ideas, telling stories. I know I've been told of ideal teachers, and I knew one or two who were superb, who never told stories. They were all so very well organized, they'd step into the classroom, they'd point to a kid who would do something, and point to something written on the blackboard. The whole thing would unfold because they were so well organized. But I was not like that at all, although I thought it was admirable. I would often tell stories and the kids seemed to enjoy it, and I did too. It's all about the stories. I think that's what life is about, it's stories. 

Peter McCully: You must have had a few stories after traveling around the world. I think it was 1957 you went around the world for more than a year. I read about this. You were in a Land Rover with your friend J. Bristol Foster, painting and sketching your way through Africa, India, Southeast Asia. and Australia. So you must have a few stories to tell there. 

Robert Bateman: Oh, tons of them. And I wrote a book on them. And Bristol was shooting 16 millimeter film the whole time. But in those days, there wasn't wildlife films all over the places or on TV now. It was Audubon Screen Tours. And he would go around to high schools and different communities with his film and show the film, which was not a talkie and talk while the film is going on and then answer questions. So the whole thing has been recorded in movies, and I recorded it in slides and paintings. 

Peter McCully: You two must have been pretty good friends squeezed into a Land Rover for more than a year. 

Robert Bateman: Absolutely. Yes, we were. I don't want to say it's amazing. Bristol had one characteristic. It's a total virtue. We never complained. I think he had this thing instilled in him from his parents. Fosters do not complain. And he had all kinds of reasons to complain from time to time. For example, he had Asian flu, it was going around the world time, with a raging fever. He wouldn't even let me take the wheel of the Land Rover because he said it was bought by his father. If it was going to be crashed, he wanted to be the one behind the wheel. So he didn't let me help out with that unclaiming, cheerful guy for the entire trip. We had met each other just as a brief acquaintance at a naturalist club meeting in Toronto. And he wanted to go around the world because he was about to go on and get his master's degree. And he thought he could take a year off. I was teaching high school art and geography. In those days, you could get a teaching job anywhere, anytime. There was a huge demand for teachers. I knew I could take a year off and just step into any place I wanted to live. I chose Burlington as the place I wanted to live. I had been teaching in Thornhill, but I chose Burlington, partly because of the Niagara Escarpment, because it's the closest rough country to Toronto. 

Peter McCully: That trip around the world, I can only imagine the diversity of wildlife and countryside you came across.

Robert Bateman: Yes, but the main thing was peoples that are now extinct. Such as the so called pygmies, the Bambuti of the Aturi forest. They became extinct. China had not invaded Tibet yet. And there were still Tibetans. We didn't actually get into Tibet, but Tibetans were coming out to trade in northern India. And we spent some time with a Tibetan encampment where they had their Tibetan mule train carrying stuff down into northern India to trade. It's a totally different world now than it was then. How about Australia? Australia's like Canada. I don't think Australia has changed except the way the whole world has changed, got more human population and that kind of thing. I don't think nature in Australia has changed. They're pretty good at protecting Australia as we are in Canada.

Peter McCully: Robert, what are the most challenging paintings to create when you're painting in your former style? 

Robert Bateman: I don't find paintings a challenge to paint. I am blessed with being full of ideas. I got way more ideas. I got more ideas almost a day than I would ever have time to paint. Just from looking out at what's around me. It used to be I was groping and searching for ideas, but not anymore. Now that I'm using this realism style, I stopped exploring styles. At one time, of course, I started out as a realist as a kid. And then I went into, uh, impression, post impressionism, and then cubism, and then finally I was an abstract expressionist for a while and all of those have become part of me. But you can't really express in nature in big, slashing, sloppy strokes or dribbles like Jackson Pollock did. That doesn't work. express particularity in any kind of bird or leaf or anything of that sort. It's just a decorative surfaces. I think any artists worth their salt depict what is important to their world and their life. And with me, it's particularity in nature. So that's why I have to do this style. 

Peter McCully: A number of artists I've met create in multiple disciplines. Do you work with other art forms at all? 

Robert Bateman: Yes. I played around with sculptor a bit. My first foray into nature art was bird carving. My mom sent me to the Royal Ontario Museum when I was a kid to give me, um, enrichment on Saturday mornings and there was a bird carving class run by a gentleman called Frank Smith at the Royal Ontario. That's where I actually did a few good bird carvings. I did one in particular of a screech owl that I think is very good. But that was not what was really important about that. It was going to the museum. I became a museum groupie. After the classes, one or two of us young guys Because the museum staff worked on Saturdays in those days. We'd go up and hang out at the ornithology department. Jim Bailey, who wrote a column for the Toronto Telegram, was in the ornithology department. He wasn't head of it, but he was very personable and sociable, and we became groupies, and we'd go on behind the scenes through Jim Bailey's door, just to hang around, find out what birds were around during migration, or if there were owls that had come down from the north or whatever. That's how I really became a museum groupie. And those kinds of people became what I call like on a species. More than art people, for some reason or other, I'm more connected to museum types than artsy types. 

Peter McCully: Robert, we met a number of years ago now when I was living on Salt Spring at one of your exhibitions, I think it was at ArtSpring, actually. And you had a huge print of a polar bear, it was probably five feet wide. And knowing that you sometimes work from photographs. Would I be correct in assuming that sometimes it's a long, cold wait out in the elements to get a photo like that because the animals don't necessarily follow your schedule? 

Robert Bateman: I wish I could say yes, but there's such a thing as zoos. I've seen them in the wild, but most Toro bears that I've seen up close have been in zoos. You get up close to a polar bear in the wild, you're going to be polar bear lunch. And cause they will attack and eat people. I really enjoy visiting zoos. I've visited most of the important zoos in the world. And hung out there quite a bit, taking photographs and sketching.

Peter McCully: You mentioned that if you encountered a polar bear in the wild, you'd probably be polar bear lunch. During those times of looking for the animals in the environment, did you ever find yourself in a scary situation? 

Robert Bateman: Yes. One was in the water. The one in the water was sharks, or a shark. And I had a shark, which can be a man eater interested in me. To demonstrate I'm interested in you, he has only really one thing on his mind, and that again is lunch. But I found that I was actually trapped in a sense. It was a little island. We were in a Zodiac, which we anchored off one corner of this island. And then I got in the water with my mask and snorkel, and was snorkeling around this little island. And on the far side, the furthest from the zodiac, I found the shark, or the shark found me. And so I decided it would be healthier to go back in the water with the shark. The shark was interested in me. I would turn around and face it and go, boo, as loud as I could, but I'm wearing a snorkel. And so it came out, moo. But the noise startled it. And so it would stop following me and back off a bit and then I would get a few strokes further and then I would turn around there it would be following me again. Obviously I'm here today I made it back into the Zodiac without it finding me. 

Peter McCully: As I mentioned you live on Salt Spring and Salt Spring is known for being An enlightened community with a very vibrant artistic population and it's geographically located in a very complex area as far as ecology goes. What led you there when you came Western Ontario? Was it those factors? It wasn't so much environmental factors, it was 

Robert Bateman: possibly more human factors. I wanted to move out west, and I was on a trip, Bristol would fiddle me these trips with him because he was Director of Ecological Reserves. The Ecological Reserves had not been designated yet, and he was exploring the coast of B.C. to find out what small places should be set aside for non esk parks. And not for people, just for the ecology of that area, because it was precious. So these are fairly small, a few acres and remote, but interesting. And so I was on one of these trips with Bristol. Looking at these ecological reserves, I got this BC-ophilism that was just so lush out in BC with all the variety of the mountains and the marine environment and so on. So I said, I think I might just put a down payment on some land in British Columbia for future. And as with Bristol and a couple of other British Columbia zoologists, I said, where should I start looking? Um, And they said, Salt Spring Island. And I said, what about Bowen Island? Oh, no, no, you don't want Bowen Island. The currents from Fraser come around and all those shellfish are polluted there. Start with Salt Spring. If you can't find anything, then you can go on to Galiano or some more remote island. Salt Spring is centrally located. I said, okay. We found this one place on Fulford Harbor on Salt Spring Island, put a down payment on it. Pretty soon we decided we're going to move west to Salt Spring Island. But back in those days, I had a whole bunch of money I didn't know what to do with. That is not a problem many people have, but I didn't really believe even the stock market. We had put some in land because you can't miss. God isn't making any more land. We had bought this acreage on this little lake called Ford Lake which I can turn my head and see from where I'm sitting. Eventually we decided Ford Lake was where we wanted to build our dream house. That's where we are and that's where we'll always be. 

Peter McCully: I was chuckling, I was watching a video of you in your workshop on YouTube and you had mentioned Jackson Pollock in your conversation here a few minutes ago. I was watching this video. And as one might imagine, the floor is covered with spots and there's splotches of paints here and there, and on the floor was a little sign that said Jackson Pollock was here, and that told me a lot about your sense of humor. 

Robert Bateman: I should claim that it's my thought, but one of our former secretaries named Alexandra, she had a wry sense of humor. And she's the one that put that little sign there where dribbles were, yeah. 

Peter McCully: As a former teacher, Robert, it must have been pretty exciting for you to be invited to give a TED Talk because that's a pretty big platform. When you talked about the children of today and their disconnect with nature, you even coined a term, free range kids.

Robert Bateman: Yes, indeed. Kids spend way, way too much time on screens. Screen time should be rationed by parents. We have control over it. And not only is screen time, but screen quality. What are the kids watching on screens? I hope they're not playing video games. And obviously there can be a lot of bad stuff, harmful stuff to growing minds on screens. Spending time in nature, just going out and walking and inhaling nature, and especially getting to know some of the birds and plants and so on around them, adds value to them as developing human beings. That's been a major quest of mine. I believe in getting to know the names of the critters in nature. In a small organization, which I'm not mostly associated with anymore, it's called Get to Know, I used to say. You should get to know the names of your neighbors of other species. Some would know the name of a robin, or maybe a starling, or a pigeon, which should be called a rock dove, actually. But that's about it.

There's countless other neighbors, and as they know their names, they're much more likely to respect them and protect them. That has been one of my goals in life, is to get people to know and be able to identify maybe 10 or 20 of the commonest birds and 10 or 20 of the commonest plants. that share their space.

Peter McCully: And is that how you believe art can contribute to conservation efforts, becoming better aware of the world around you and the nature? 

Robert Bateman: No. It could be art, it could be photography, which is also art, really, in a sense. It could be Peterson Field Guides. I think art has a very limited contribution to make. I don't want to put on airs and say it's very important. It's of interest to some people, you know. People, um, take an interest in my art or in some other nature artist's art, and that connects them to help protect nature. That's a good thing, but that's not my goal particularly. 

Peter McCully: Your wife Birgit is an accomplished photographer, and your children all seem to have the art and teaching genes. Alan lives in Canning, Nova Scotia, as did 1970s. John's Woodworker. He's found a real comfortable spot now as an interviewer and a writer. Rob has a published book of drawings, and Sarah's a teacher of environmental studies, and Christopher's the head of the art department at St. Michael's in Victoria. They've all got the gene. 

Robert Bateman: Yeah, they seem to, yep, in their own ways, but none of them are imitating their father, which is just fine. Some of the kids are doing art, and son Alan, from my first marriage to Suzanne, has never had an employer other than himself. Doing art in Nova Scotia. 

Peter McCully: John and I went to the same high school, just a few years apart. I was on the four year plan. I think he went there in the early eighties. 

Robert Bateman: And of course my mom's roots are Nova Scotia and they go way back in history. There was a mystery called the Marie Celeste that was built by one of my ancestors. He didn't design it, but he built it. It's still one of the mysteries, one of the few mysteries of the sea. It was found off the coast of West Africa, abandoned in absolutely calm water with the table set for lunch. The cat asleep on the carpet under the table and not a soul on board. The lifeboat was missing. The theory is it was carrying a cargo of wood alcohol and there was a small explosion or a loud bump that possibly blew off the hatch and it was quite concerning the whole ship might go up. And so the captain and crew all jumped in the lifeboat, but they neglected to secure a line to the ship, and they rowed away from the ship for safety, and a little breeze came up, just a little breeze, and blew the ship. It was not anchored. And just kept blowing it away and blowing it away, and they never caught up with the ship, and captain and crew were never seen again.

Peter McCully: Let's file this one under, you've been around a long time, when, I saw this post on one of your YouTube videos, quote, Robert Bateman was such an inspiration to me as a diorama artist that it propelled me to a successful career in film theater and music work. Now in retirement, I have settled back into the art form I have loved since I was a child.

Robert Bateman: Am I supposed to guess who said that? 

Peter McCully: Who said that? I didn't write down who said that. I just thought it was interesting that this fellow was inspired by you, had a full career. And then retired and you're still painting. 

Robert Bateman: Right. The art of doing dioramas, these big backdrops in displays in museums, is dying. They're too expensive. The Museum of Natural History in New York has fabulous dioramas or dioramas. The Royal Ontario Museum has two. And it's a wonderful art to give the illusion that you start in the foreground with ground and leaves and trilliums and things, and then when you reach the back of this little stage, you're supposed to make it look as if the leaves continue on, but now it's paint. And now you're looking at a whole scene of perhaps the passenger pigeons that came by the thousands. They darkened the sky back in the days, and now they're totally extinct because they slaughtered them for market. 

Peter McCully: Robert, what advice do you have for aspiring artists? 

Robert Bateman: Paint for the love of it. Paint your heart out. I would usually say, and I guess I would still say, paint because you love painting. If there is a market, it will be to pass your door. If there isn't one, keep doing it anyway. Maybe one will come along and maybe one won't. You should possibly get a day job just in case they don't be the path to your door.

Peter McCully: Thanks for your time today, Robert. 

Robert Bateman: You're more than welcome. Thank you. 

Dave Graham: Robert Bateman. What an inspiring man. I first saw him speak, must've been almost 40 years ago. Gosh, back then he was only in his fifties. Now approaching 95 years of age, still active and engaged and pushing out his message of conservation. Way to go, Mr. Bateman. We'll be back after this message for Ian Lindsay. 

Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX, Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996. Marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally. As well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at IanLindsay. ca. 

Peter McCully: Skookum Kids Stories podcasts are delightful original stories about a boy named Peter and his pet Eskimo dog, Gracie.They're always finding adventure. 

Dave Graham: And then there's Captain Dave of the Mellow Submarine in Deep Bay. He and his maritime matey, Larry the Lobster, find excitement above and below the water line. 

Peter McCully: It would be bad if Larry the Lobster happened to wander into my neighborhood, I can tell you. But you'll find those Pulse podcasts and Skookum Kid Stories On the pulse community.ca, s scum kids.com, apple, Spotify, I heard, and Amazon, 

Dave Graham: We are getting set to start a series of public appearances. Looking forward to this, we want to get out and connect and talk. So be on the lookout for Peter and I to be on the loose in public asking for your opinions, and they will be featured in upcoming podcast segments. Can't wait for that. 

Peter McCully: Yes, you might run into us in Nanoose. You could run into us in Bowser. Maybe out in Coombs or Errington, Parksville, Qualicum Beach areas. And Dave, for you folks who might remember the Get Smart Show, Dave is kind of like Agent 13. He'll show up in a fire hydrant or a mailbox and stick a microphone in front of your face and ask you, Hey, what's on your bucket list? 

Dave Graham: I have never been in a mailbox, at least not yet.

Peter McCully:  Well, something to strive for Dave. Maybe it's time to head down to the cafeteria and see what Mabel has on the schedule today. I'm hoping it's a fresh haggis. 

Dave Graham: Mm hmm. Sheep's pluck. I don't know. Maybe I'll just pick out the oats. 

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here come Peter. Here comes Dave. Oh, listen. Bringing stories, making ways, no missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave, so to speak. Laughs and insights everywhere, what a treat. Peter and Dave, they're on the mic, so alright. Join the ride, it's gonna feel just right.