- Learn how to preserve your harvest and stretch those summer veggies well into fall and winter. Burnaby Food First and the Burnaby Village Museum are hosting chef and holistic nutritionist Andrea Potter on Sunday, Aug. 23, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the museum’s meadow. The free, drop-in workshop teaches participants how to make low-cost, healthy and delicious snacks from your garden’s bounty. This event is part of the Homegrown Harvest workshop series. The museum is at 6501 Deer Lake Ave.
- Get outside this weekend for some serious hiking with the Burnaby Outdoors Club. The group of outdoor enthusiasts regularly organizes out-of-town daytrips and hikes. On Saturday, Aug. 22, they are heading to Al’s Habrich Ridge Trail in Squamish for a 11.6-kilometre hike, and on Sunday, they are going to the Chain Lakes Loop in the Mount Baker area. Membership in the group is $30 a year, and members carpool and hike together, so it’s a great way to meet new people, get some exercise and go on amazing hikes. The club also organizes several multiday trips each year. For more information, go to http://www.burnabyoutdoor.com.
- Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing, and if that’s what you’re interested in, we suggest heading down to Barnet Marine Park for a lazy afternoon on the beach. Better yet, pack a picnic, sunscreen, a blanket and a good book and you’re set to kill an entire day. This park tends to be less crowded than Vancouver’s beach hotspots, so it’s the perfect place to relax. The beach is very family friendly, but head east around the small point if you want to join the younger crowd. The nearby park has a picnic area, playground and washrooms. At press time, the forecast called for more sun on Saturday, but higher temperatures on Sunday, so anytime this weekend is perfect beach time.
- This one’s for the film buffs. In the age of Netflix and Youtube, you can watch movies without leaving your home, but some of the old classics, especially those from the Criterion Collection, are impossible to find online. That’s where the Burnaby Public Library comes in. They have a ton of films, and you can take them out for free. We recommend Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai or Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows or Jules and Jim, both French new wave classics. There’s also Alain Resnais’s Hiroshima Mon Amour and Mamma Roma by Pier Paolo Pasolini. If you prefer more contemporary titles, we recommend Her, a brilliant artificial intelligence love story directed by Spike Jonze. The best thing is to head to the Metrotown Bob Prittie library branch, because they house the largest collection, and just browse the shelves and pick some interesting titles. If you’re into binge watching, they also have a large collection of popular TV series, like Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Borgen (a super popular Danish series), and there are tons of documentaries, too. This is the perfect way to wind down after your relaxing day at the beach doing nothing if you followed our previous suggestion.
- Catch the two Pacific Junior B Hockey League exhibition games this Saturday and Sunday at the Burnaby Winter Club. The Grandview Steelers, from Burnaby, take on the Aldergrove Kodiaks on Saturday, and the Port Moody Panthers on Sunday. Both games are at 4 p.m. The club is at 4990 Canada Way.
