Growing Osoyoos landmark lands on T-shirts

An unofficial South Okanagan landmark is slowly taking over a telephone pole as well as the imagination of an Osoyoos entrepreneur.

The ‘vineyard monster,’ as some call it, is a thick growth of vines that have attached themselves to an overhead cable. The vines have been trimmed as a topiary to create a rather sinister-looking form that towers above a vineyard just north of Osoyoos.

The recent addition of a pair of eyes have added some drama to the form, which is easily visible from Highway 97.

Leslie Cade-Polidoro recently polled social media in Osoyoos to try and come up with a name for the vine, suggesting “Spooky.”

“I felt it needed a name, but everyone seems to have their own name for it, and there are so many names that nobody ever really knows what you’re talking about unless you say 'the pole that’s covered in vines with the eyes,’” she says.

Long before that, Megan Bell had her own idea.

“If you live in the area of the ‘vineyard monster,' it’s something you’re familiar with, and I see it every day on the drive to work. One day I said to my husband, ‘I need to put it on a shirt!’ and I guess the rest is history,” Bell said in an email earlier this week.

She tells the designs through her business Lake + Wild, which she started last year.
“I was on maternity leave, stuck at home and feeling isolated with COVID and I wanted to do something,” she says.

The original idea for Lake + Wild was to bring in items from other vendors but Bell decided to add a personal touch and create a line of clothing that celebrated British Columbia.

“I initially launched with three designs in crewneck sweaters, but I knew I wanted to do some kids stuff, as I have a one-year-old, and I wanted to put him in some of the designs," she says.

Bell’s T-shirts are currently up for pre-order on her website, lakeandwild.com, in toddler and youth sizes.

“I’ve had a lot of inquiries about adult sizes so I am currently looking into having the design tweaked and made into some adult shirts for those interested,” Bell says.

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