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Don't mess with a soprano  

Riding the winds of change

She breathes in the crispy morning air and enjoys the crunching of her footsteps along a narrow rut among thousands of pinot noir grapes ready to harvest. 

The sun promises a perfect day.

Tuscany?  California?

No, West Kelowna at Annabel Stanley’s homestead and vineyard. 

This is not a winemaking story, although it plays an integral part in this tale. Annabel is a natural fibre sculptress, mother, grower of vigneron grapes, and a sphere of optimism and light for those who know her.

This is the story of a woman who told me, “I don’t understand the word ‘I can’t.’” 

My kind of human.

Annabel was born in Worcester, England, to a family with significant history. 

Her father’s granduncle was Sir Edwin Lutyens, a distinguished architect who designed the government buildings in New Delhi and the cenotaph on Whitehall in London in 1919 for the First World War memorial.  Her grandfather followed in his footsteps.

Her mother, Bridget Lutyens, was a horticulturist and instilled a love for all things growing while her dad left the family tradition of architecture and became a teacher. 

Annabel studied horticulture and became a florist in London.  She was busy for four years non-stop with her famous clientele, Tiffany’s, Harrods, and even decorated the Christmas tree for the Duke and Duchess of York. 

“We used their ornaments along with ours,” she said.

Like a seed carried by the wind, she let travel take her to Australia for some much needed R&R, and met her husband to be, restaurateur Grant Stanley, there.

Landing somewhere, putting down roots, and then leaving while adding bits and pieces of who she was became the pattern for much of her life.

Marriage came in 1990 in Whistler, where she opened a florists shop and discovered skiing, which would become important to her family life later.

In flew the winds of change.

They moved to New Zealand and spent 12 years there, but a breeze of change still blew. Annabel worked for the Cloudy Bay Vineyard in the fields and learned propagation while Grant left the restaurant business and studied winemaking.

Their son, Francis, was born in 1997. Annabel opened a successful florist shop in Martinborough, Wairarapa and began weaving natural fibres out of necessity.

“I didn’t want plastic toys in my flower shop, so I began weaving.”

The winds of change, once again, carried them to Vancouver and finally to West Kelowna and their present-day vineyard in 2004.

This move was to be different. All her love and energy needed a different focus because Francis suffers from epilepsy and autism. When she introduced him to skiing, both their lives changed. He loved it and was the fastest Special Olympic cross-country skier at the Thunder Bay, Ont., National Games 2020.

Annabel started as a volunteer, then assistant coach until today she is the coach for the Canadian Special Olympics’ Cross Country team.

Her roots, as a weaver-artist are finding fertile soil here in the valley now that she has time. The material for her art grows among her grapes.

She grows pinot noir grapes for SpearHead Winery, harvesting more than seven tons of grapes last year. If you want to taste the captured sun, buy a bottle of Coyote Pinot Noir, Spearhead Winery, made from 100% of her lovingly tendered grapes.

Vines, once pruned, leave a mass of rubble just waiting to be turned into art.

She uses these canes to make sculptures. She uses nature, birds, animals, hearts and especially the sphere as inspiration.

Her favourite quote by Alex Lieberman encapsulates her interest in the sphere. “I consider the circle as the simplest, purest elements of visual research. The circle is common property for the two infinities, from the immense sun to the infinitesimal atom, above all the circle is the purest symbol because it is instantly visible in its totality.”

The sphere and other sculptures can be seen all around Kelowna. The Lavender Farm has several of her works on their grounds. Perhaps you would like to make one yourself. She is available for COVID safe workshops.

COVID, the stingy freedom buster, has, however, allowed the winds of creativity to soar in her mind. She has not stood still.

She would love to turn her homestead into a retreat centre where writers, artists, and creators can spend time, sharing, learning, and growing. 

She is working with Dogwood Nursery to create hidden magical areas for reflection along the garden path.

She is also hard at work on a secret project that she promises to reveal as soon as she can.

Though the winds have carried Annabel and her family around the world, she has never lost sight of her relationship to the soil.

“There is no original idea," she said. “It is how you adapt that idea to your style and your heart.” She is adapting.

To meet and spend time with Anne is to capture the sun and be warmed by its heat and perhaps a glass of wine. Ah!

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.



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About the Author

Sue Skinner is a singer of opera and musical theatre, a choral conductor and a teacher/coach of voice. 

She has travelled the world, learned many languages, seen every little town in Alberta and supported herself with music all her life.

She has sung at weddings, funerals, musicals, operettas, opera, with symphonies, guitars, jazz groups, rock bands and at play schools. 

Skinner has taken two choirs to Carnegie Hall, sung around the world, and teaches for Wentworth Music on Zoom.

[email protected]



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The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet does not warrant the contents.

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