Japanese Garden Seeks National Heritage Designation

The following article appeared in the July 24, 2013 edition of the Lethbridge Sun Times newspaper and website.

By Judy Westcott

The Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden has been providing a sanctuary of inner peace and serenity to visitors from around the world for 46 years and now plans are underway to have it designated a national heritage site by 2017.

Photo by Tom Buchanan

“We have a fiftieth anniversary committee working on plans for 2017,” says Lindy Rollingson, executive director of the Lethbridge and District Japanese Garden Society, which operates the Garden for a fee on behalf of the City of Lethbridge.

“We are also in the process of applying for municipal heritage status, which will lead to applications for provincial and then national heritage designations,” she says.

The heritage designations will be the icing on the cake for Nikka Yuko, which has received numerous awards from Communities in Bloom over the years and has been voted as one of the top 10 Canadian gardens to see by MSN’s Canadian travel website. It is also ranked 21 out of 330 Japanese gardens in North America by Sukiya Living Magazine, a bi-monthly English-language print publication dedicated to the special world of Japanese gardens and Japanese architecture.

Changing Focus of Blog

If there's one thing I've learned about life, it's that nothing ever stays the same and this blog is no exception.

Effective immediately, the Retro Junction blog is changing focus to better showcase those who are involved in my freelance writing and designing business and I will be blogging under my own name.

This all comes about as the result of a decision I made about a year ago to close my vintage shop on Etsy because of the problems arising from shipping. 

It was very frustrating that no matter how well I padded, bubble wrapped and planted boxes inside boxes, it seemed too many of my vintage (sometimes valuable antique) items were arriving crushed and broken at the customer's doorstep. One package even looked like it had been run over by a delivery truck. 

Of course, the only way to keep a happy customer and maintain an impeccable reputation on Etsy is to completely reimburse the entire item cost - plus the charges for shipping. Unfortunately, the mail service doesn't cover breakage, only lost packages.

So you can see where shipping was impacting my bottom line and turning an enjoyable hobby of buying and selling into a losing, stressful enterprise. Items that had survived 30, 40, 50 or more years were being shipped off by me to their quick demise. I felt like an assassin. 

Raising the shipping charges to add insurance coverage was not an option, as customers simply won't pay the rates needed to cover the losses. I decided I'd rather keep the item than have it destroyed. 

But that's okay too. I think I was ready to move from online retailing back to what I was really good at - writing and designing. 

The bonus is now I have a lot of really cool items dispersed throughout my home for my own enjoyment, thanks to my golden rule of collecting only items I would like to get stuck with if they didn't sell. Items that inspire creative thought, bring back wonderful memories or simply make me smile at their whimsy.

And so, while this blog takes on a new life - one thing that won't be changing is my love for vintage!

Vintage Comic Books

Today's post is dedicated to all the artists, illustrators and writers who worked in the vintage comic book industry during the last century.

It's amazing to think this artwork was created well before computers revolutionized the graphics industry. I imagine an illustrator sitting at a huge drawing desk with a colored pencil kit close by, one behind the ear and a coffee cup close at hand. Amazing!

Here are a few samples from a box full I recently acquired at an estate sale. Enjoy!

Results Are In!

Just wanted to give an update on the previous "Earth Day" post. 

The first monthly water bill has arrived from our municipality and we have officially dropped our water usage by more than half with the install of our new Stealth toilet! This amounts to a savings of $25 per month! At this rate the unit will pay for itself in a year. It also flushes smoothly, quickly and quietly!

Saving energy and resources is proving addictive, but it could also get expensive as we're now looking all around our home to see where we could improve our energy footprint. 

I'll keep you posted!

Happy Earth Day!

As much as I love vintage, sometimes it just makes sense to go modern. 

Our 1960s home has many of its original vintage features and fixtures that we've been carefully preserving as we go through minor renovations. 

However, we're very excited to be getting rid of one vintage feature that has been a source of constant frustration and costing us lots of money - the old 1960s American Standard toilet in the main floor bath. 

It has been a water waster to the max using close to 23 litres of water per flush. Recent flapper valve problems and leaky seals have been plaguing us and parts have been impossible to find.

So, in a few days we'll be replacing the world's most inefficient toilet with the world's most efficient. Soon we'll be sitting on a new Profiency toilet (also marketed as the Stealth toilet) that uses a mere three litres of water per flush. 

It's Canadian designed and qualifies for two LEEDs points. It's supposed to be quick, quiet and compact. Online reviews are extremely positive and it should pay for itself by reduced water charges in two years. 

It might make me weird, but I'm really excited about our new toilet. And it's a fitting way to celebrate Earth Day 2012!