Lilac-laden Vavenby and Birch Island

On a drive through central BC, I passed a sign for the town of Vavenby. On a whim, I turned off to explore the side road. By a one lane bridge across a small river, I asked a boy with a dog if there was a coffee shop in town. "I don't think so," he said.

I crossed the bridge anyway, and drove up the mountain to visit a sheep farm cum Bed & Breakfast, then came back by way of another tiny town called Birch Island. Both places were full of lilacs at the peak of their bloom.

Facts I learned: Vavenby was meant to be called Navenby, after an English village in Lincolnshire. Unfortunately, due to somebody's bad handwriting, the name was recorded as Vavenby, and nobody bothered to change it.

The settlement of Birch Island, which held its centennial in 2015, was named by Sarah Holt, the only woman living in the area a century ago when the first passenger train came through.