Painted in Petals
THANKS FOR A GREAT 2024!
I want to express my heartfelt thanks to our clients for their incredible support throughout 2024. Your trust and confidence have made it possible for me to be recognized as the top producer at Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty Bainbridge Island branch. As we step into 2025, I am excited to continue serving your real estate needs with unwavering dedication and a spirit of collaboration.
Beckey Anderson
A L I N A K O R O T K I N A
Since our last issue hit the streets, PNW Bainbridge editorial crew are (physically) new and improved. I got total knee replacement in late November thanks to years of competitive running, skiing, far too many impact sports to count and a healthy dose of my dad’s arthritis-prone genetics. And in February, Connie got a new hip, which I can only guess was necessitated by her being ridiculously smart and overly adorable. (George has kept busy tending to us both and picking up the slack with his reliably good humor.)
In addition to our new bionic physiques (which will hopefully give us both many spry and active years ahead), our upgrades definitely shed light on the fact that none of us are getting any younger.
Case in point: My husband and I are about to be empty nesters as our daughter heads off to college in the fall. That happened fast. Neither of us can tolerate the cold or the heat like we used to, nor hear or see for squat. As much as I love it, spicy food really does a number on me and by 7 p.m., I’m eyeing the clock to calculate when’s the earliest acceptable time to go to bed. Most importantly, however, the hallmarks of aging have been a beacon that our days aren’t numberless.
For my husband, that looks like playing pickleball every spare minute—an opportunity for him to learn something new, run off some of his maniacal energy, buy an inordinate amount of new gear for a sport that’s ideally about as simple as they come, and make new friends. For me, it looks like getting outside to walk—simply for the sake of looking around, paying attention to the wind in the trees, being delighted if I cross paths with a bunny and stopping to chat with other walkers (bonus points if they have a dog) without looking at my split time or caring if I’ve closed the rings on my Apple Watch. In my 50-plus years, I realize I’ve missed a lot of the good and real stuff.
My wish for us all as spring pops up around us—hopefully in the absence of orthopedic surgery—is to eat up those days and savor our impossibly fortunate sliver of a sesame seed in time. As one of my Gen X idols Ferris Bueller famously said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Allison
Allison Schuchman Editor in Chief
OWNER & EDITOR IN CHIEF Allison Schuchman
D IRECTOR OF SALES & COMMUNITY RELATIONS
Stephanie Reese
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Connie Bye
George Soltes
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Gisela Swift
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Mark Swift
WRITERS
Christy Carley, Stephanie Farquhar, Jeff Fraga, Kerrie Houston Reightley, Luciano Marano, Sampson Murchie, Elle Schuchman, Sophia Soltes, Bajda Welty, Anne Willhoit
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Keith Brofsky, Anna Carson, David W. Cohen, Annie Graebner, Dinah Satterwhite
CONTACT
(206) 486-4097 • pnwbainbridge@gmail.com Instagram @pnwbainbridge Facebook at PNW Bainbridge
high notes
Letters From Stephanie Reese
300 Lashes
I’m going to get my lashes done for my dog. Yes, you read that right. Obi, my sweet, 175-pound Great Dane wants me to get my lashes done.
Last year ended for me in a fog of numbness and exhaustion. In addition to the usual holiday stress, I worried about LA friends and family as the city went up in flames and dealt with family medical emergencies close to home. Clothes and makeup lost their importance. Sleepless nights piled up and I took to walking around the house. As I did, my sweet boy Obi shadowed me. If I so much as sniffled or shed a tear, he would magically appear to wander with me or snuggle in my arms until I fell asleep.
I’m watching Obi now trot along the Oregon coast. He has had a rough week. He had seemed a little off and we noticed two lumps in his neck. A trip to the vet led to a devastating diagnosis of stage 3 lymphoma. There’s no cure, just ways to buy time, perhaps six months to a year. With very little good news, we booked a trip to his favorite place: Cannon Beach.
Now it’s me shadowing Obi. I want him to see the vibrant, social, singer mama who wears too much perfume and sports long, beautiful eyelashes. I want him to see that I am OK so that he knows he doesn’t have to look after me.
I will be the one who takes care of him. No more moping. Goodbye sweats and hello lashes.
{weissinger}
spring 2025
departments
Editor’s Letter 4
High Notes 5
Contributors 9
Epilogue 9
Calendar 62
secrets
Something Fishy 11
Share your new knowledge as a salmon docent
Singing for Here and Beyond 12
Agate Pass Threshold Choir aims to ease end-of-life transitions
sHORTS
Bee Seasons and Reasons 16
Mason bees create buzz on the island and elsewhere
Rising in Style 20
Middle school grads get royal treatment
Reduce, Use, Share 24
BI Flashdrie gathers what we no longer need and keeps it out of landfills
In Living Color 26
Company guides interior and exterior color choices
Full Tilt 30
Catch pinball fever
Time to Awaken 33
Spring calls us to action
Silver Lining 36
Teens help elders solve tech problems
RECIPE
Breakfast Shake Up 38
Upgrade your morning with crumpets
Rare Ford fire truck gets loving restoration
Magic Moments 56
Chicks are peeping again at Bay Hay & Feed
In Focus 64
Rescue operation kicks in when the power goes off
ABOUT THE COVER
Pete Saloutos captured this delightful, perfectly pink (yet fleeting) scene of the Kwanzan cherry blossoms at Battle Point Park. The veteran photographer said that Battle Point is his favorite springtime location.
Doc’s Marina Grill Islander Marketplace
| EPILOGUE |
Nothing makes us happier than to see our friends and neighbors succeed… and when they hit it out of the park, it’s our pleasure to climb atop our moss-covered rooftops to sing their praises.
In the Fall issue, Connie Bye wrote about two literary events, the Bainbridge Book Festival and the Poulsbo Kids Book Festival (One for the Books, page 16). Islander Suzanne Selfors, noteworthy children’s author and owner of Poulsbo’s Liberty Bay Books, reported back that more than 1,400 people (not counting babies and toddlers) came through the doors to the kids’ event, which was held at the Sons of Norway Hall. (Photo below.) Thirty authors and illustrators (still abuzz from visits to Kitsap County schools the prior day) were on hand to meet with kids and families and sign books. The event was an undeniable winner, with attendees lined up for more than a block in the cold and damp. Once inside, parents bought books by the armful. Truly a community event, Sluy’s brought over doughnuts for the authors and illustrators, a local coffee shop provided coffee and tea and Town & Country Poulsbo delivered box lunches. Also, from the Fall issue on page 20, we introduced readers to islander Dr. Narinder Dhaliwal, who specializes in early intervention and consulting for families who have a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or ADHD. This past January, she gave a seminar at BIMA touching upon the evidence-based strategies she uses to navigate ASD and ADHD, and to provide an overview of what to expect in the educational journey from kindergarten to college. “Post diagnosis, I help parents make the recommendations they’ve received come to life in therapy, school and at home. I am long-term focused on the skills needed in academics, behavior, executive functioning, social skills and sensory processing. And although every child’s pathway is unique, there are ways to successfully support your child all the way,” said Dhaliwal. Sound intriguing? Look for another seminar coming to BIMA this spring.
Pete Saloutos
Selected as one of Nikon’s “Legends Behind the Lens,” Pete Saloutos is a 40-plus year veteran of corporate, advertising and stock photography, and is an experienced instructor, lecturer and author. His award-winning images have appeared in materials published by Fortune 500 companies, businesses, magazines and agencies worldwide, including such diverse subjects as sports, medicine, landscapes, architecture and underwater photography.
Stephanie Farquhar and Sampson Murchie
Stephanie Farquhar is a public health professor at the University of Washington and Sampson Murchie is a senior at BHS who will be heading to California for college this fall. The mother-son team, and first-time contributors to PNW Bainbridge magazine, enjoy running and reusing things. Read their story about their family friends, Kathy McGowan and her sons Roan and Bo Brumwell, who are spearheading BI Flashdrive, an island initiative to keep pre-loved items out of landfills and instead into homes where they’ll continue to be used.
Annie Graebner
Annie Graebner is a portrait photographer who captures moments, life and stories, blending a mix of candid and lifestyle elements. She was born and raised in the greater Seattle area and received her undergraduate business and master’s degrees from the University of Washington. Before her career as a CPA began, Graebner lived in Siena, Italy where she studied photography and fell in love with the craft. In September 2007, she launched annie g photography. Graebner, her husband Kyle, and their three kids moved from Queen Anne to the island in 2020. They are thrilled to be a part of this wonderful community.
Something Fishy
Have you ever considered becoming a Kitsap County salmon docent?
Colorado transplant Anna McClelland, water stewardship coordinator of Washington State University’s Kitsap County Extension, said working with the salmon docent training program is “my dream job.”
“Our goal is to increase environmental literacy in our region by bridging the gap of peer-reviewed literature and research information only available through a paywall or if you’re part of a university, and making it available to the public,” said McClelland, who holds a master’s degree in marine biology conservation.
Registration for the program is available online. For a nominal fee, participants receive four days of training with local and regional experts on topics including ichthyology (a branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish), salmon anatomy, habitats, watersheds, human impacts and climate change.
Once trained, salmon docents have numerous volunteer opportunities, such as working with the Hood Canal Salmon
Enhancement Group, which aims to renew the abundance of wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest. This mission is achieved through eco-system research, habitat restoration and environmental education. Volunteer slots range from data collection to support of education programs, and collection of DNA samples.
For more information PHOTOS
Docents may also participate in Kitsap Salmon Tours, sharing their newfound knowledge with the public across seven locations in Kitsap County, including the Suquamish Tribe’s Merle Hayes Salmon Enhancement Center in Indianola and the Keta Legacy Foundation Rhododendron Preserve in Bremerton.
The tours, which may be guided or self-guided, are celebrations held each November to coincide with the return of salmon to Kitsap streams. The family-friendly excursions may include salmon dissection and anatomy discussions, treasure hunts, distribution of water-sampling kits and entomologist-led excursions to study bugs.
“The docent program is another way,” McClelland said, “to connect and share information with our community.”
secrets Singing
for Here and Beyond
The vision for the international 200-chapter-strong Threshold Choir is to provide “a world where all at life’s thresholds may be honored with compassion shared through song.”
STORY AND PHOTOS BY
KERRIE HOUSTON REIGHTLEY
Enter Bainbridge Island’s Agate Pass Threshold Choir, APTC, directed by Judy Friesem, a therapeutic musician, artist, and author of “Summoned by a Stroke: An Homage to Love, Relationship, and Living Life Fully.”
“We bring the beauty of song into liminal places where comfort and solace might be needed,” Friesem said. “We are kindness made audible.”
The inspiration for Threshold Choir came in 1990, when founder Kate Munger cared for a friend dying of HIV/AIDS. Terrified, she sang for several hours straight, providing comfort to them both. Munger started the first Threshold Choir in California in 2000. The local APTC chapter formed in 2015.
APTC is a diverse group comprised of 13 women and three men. Among them are master carpenters, health-care professionals, a fashion designer, and holders of Ph.Ds and master’s degrees. Their musical backgrounds range from being raised in a veritable von Trapp family, to performing in coffee houses in the ‘60s, to professional training in bel canto, a technique of projecting one’s voice without the use of microphones.
In groups of two-to-four singers, APTC regularly visits Bainbridge eldercare facilities. They’re partnered with Island Volunteer Caregivers, and whether singing in a private or facility setting, their service is free of charge.
Twice a year, APTC performs an hourlong a cappella “sound bath” of healing songs. Their repertoire includes “sacred lullabies,” such as “I Wish You Grace,” “Deep Peace,” and “Mojuba,” an Ethiopian word meaning “I praise.”
Friesem says her work is about “connecting with each singer and building trust. It’s connecting with listeners, in the spirit of keeping hearts open, and helping to ease breathing and tension. It’s connecting with something greater. Call it as you will.
“This is my healing. The choir is my hearth.”
For more information thresholdchoir.org/agatepass/
now and then A RARE OLD TIME
Don Mac Leod’s 1919 Ford fire truck, one of only 100 made, took quite a journey before finding its way to Bainbridge Island. After serving in the Army Air Corps, it was sold as surplus, traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast, spent time in Jay Leno’s Burbank garage, then trundled up to Northern California, before moving east to Idaho.
BY GEORGE SOLTES
Somewhere along the way, it got painted orange.
“Fire trucks just can’t be orange as far as I’m concerned,” Mac Leod said.
When it comes to old vehicles, Mac Leod, a retired UPS pilot and licensed aircraft mechanic, is a stickler for authenticity. “Nothing rubs me more wrong than to have somebody take something old and try to modernize it,” he said. “I like it stock, the way it was meant to be.” A collector and restorer of Model T Fords, Mac Leod couldn’t resist the new addition. “I’ve always wanted a fire truck,” he said. Making the truck seem as if it had just rolled off the factory floor required help from woodworkers, mechanics and painters, among others, to restore and recreate the original parts. “Instead of just cleaning it up,” Mac Leod said, “we took it down to the last nut, bolt and cotter pin.” The project took two years and cost more than $100,000.
Mac Leod, who often displays his Model Ts at the Bainbridge Fourth of July parade, hasn’t decided what he’ll do with his latest vehicle, which is (of course) now painted fire engine red.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “It’ll just be something else to play with.”
PHOTOS COURTESY DON MAC LEOD AND BY DINAH SATTERWHITE
Photo: Erin Fisher
Bee SEASONS REASONS and
Mason Bees Becoming All the Buzz on Bainbridge
“Want to hold a baby bee?”
It’s one of Thyra McKelvie’s favorite questions to ask the kids she teaches at schools around Bainbridge Island. As she hands each child a bee cocoon, they carefully cradle it while watching a video of the bees chewing their way out of their protective coverings. “Mason bees are like butterflies,” she explains to her rapt audiences. “They hibernate in a cocoon all winter long and then wake up from their sleep to emerge in early spring.”
McKelvie said that the mason bees’ shimmering blue-green iridescent bodies have even earned them the affectionate nickname “mermaid bees” from the kids.
BY ALLI SCHUCHMAN
Each year, McKelvie visits dozens of elementary, middle and high schools, as well as garden clubs and community events, offering hands-on lessons in which she highlights the vital role mason bees play in pollination and shares simple, effective ways to help them thrive.
McKelvie’s tender approach to teaching began when her now teenage daughter was just 8. “She was terrified of bees,” said McKelvie. “To help her overcome her fear, I brought home a mason bee house along with some cocoons and taught her about these gentle pollinators. She held a ‘baby bee’ still nestled in its cocoon and was fascinated as she
watched them emerge and fly in and out of the bee house. She quickly grew to love them, turning her fear into curiosity and admiration.”
When McKelvie moved to the island in 2020, she began helping neighbors and local farmers by providing native mason bees to support their gardens and crops. Her outreach sparked an idea for her own version of a farm stand—Bainbridge Mason Bee Program—which offers mason bee pick-ups each spring right from her home on the island’s south end. Her program also offers a convenient fall cleaning service to ensure healthy bees for the next season.
McKelvie said that one reason mason bees are so popular is that they’re easy to host in backyard settings. They don’t have a queen or hive to protect, are non-aggressive and don’t sting and are exceptional pollinators. McKelvie explained that when the mason bees bellyflop onto flowers, their hairs collect loose pollen, which allows them to pollinate an incredible 95 percent of the blooms they visit, compared to the 5 percent achieved by their honeybee cousins. The super pollinator mason bees are vital for fruit trees and gardens and play a critical role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. Luckily for the bees, “Bainbridge is home to some of the bees’ favorite foods, including madronas, bigleaf maples, fruit
PHOTOS COURTESY
BAINBRIDGE
ISLAND PARKS & TRAILS FOUNDATION
trees and the hundreds of beautiful gardens that dot the island,” she said.
McKelvie pointed out that while millions of bee “hotels” are purchased each year with good intentions, many are made with the wrong materials and
lack clear instructions for proper care, inadvertently putting the bees at risk.
“Bamboo tubes and drilled logs, for example, can’t be opened for cleaning and often become damp and moldy over time,” she said. “It creates the perfect
environment for predators and harmful pests, such as pollen mites, Houdini flies and mono wasps, undermining their purpose entirely.”
In addition to her farm stand, McKelvie also runs Rent Mason Bees, the nation’s largest solitary bee company, which provides kits, supplies and an annual cocoon cleaning service with the rental of its nest blocks. Mason bees live just six to eight weeks, laying about 15 to 20 eggs in their lifetimes. After the bees’ springtime labors are completed, McKelvie and her team retrieve the nest blocks, cleaning them alongside upwards of 3 million other cocooned babies. While they hibernate, the baby bees are kept safe until the following spring when they’re returned to her customers’ homes on Bainbridge and across the country.
Over the years, McKelvie estimates that she and her team have released more than 160,000 mason bees across Bainbridge, at sites such as Wacky Nut Farm, Bloedel Reserve, Heyday Farm, Johnson Farm, Blakely Harbor, Grand Forest, Winney Farm and many Parks & Rec locations, in addition to 200 homes.
“I’m just happy to help future generations of these vital pollinators emerge and thrive,” said McKelvie. “It makes me feel great when I can get others as excited about bees as I am.”
To learn more about year-round bee care or renting bees, visit BainbridgeMasonBees.com.
Rising IN Style
Graduating Middle Schoolers Get the Royal Treatment
For many, graduating the 8th grade is little more than a box to check on the way to high school.
BY SOPHIA SOLTES
Students at Woodward Middle School, however, mark the milestone in a more memorable way. For more than 65 years, 8th graders completing their middle school careers have gathered to celebrate their achievements at the 8th Grade Banquet—an event that has evolved over time from a modest spaghetti dinner to an all-out extravaganza.
“Every time that you bring the 8th Grade Banquet up to anyone who’s experienced it themselves, it instantly brings a smile to their face,” said parent volunteer Ali Keys, who is co-chairing the 2025 Banquet alongside fellow volunteer Renee Fitzgerald.
The unique Bainbridge tradition is far from your typical middle school dance. “The goal is really to have it look nothing like the school looks on a normal day,” said Keys. With floor-to-ceiling decorations in the Woodward cafeteria, gymnasium and other areas of the school, all carefully crafted to align with the chosen —and completely classified— theme of the year, the 8th Grade Banquet transports rising high schoolers far away from the familiar hallways that they’ve walked over the last two years.
“I think it’s a really magical time to do this one big last celebration with everybody together,” said Keys. For those who attended Woodward, the sensation of awe felt at the 8th Grade Banquet is unforgettable. “I’ve been to lots of dances in high school
and college, but the 8th Grade Banquet is the only dance where I remember exactly what I wore,” said Catie Gillet, Class of 2006. “Twenty-two years later and I can still remember how important this very first dance was to me.”
The banquet, with its elaborate decorations, dancing, food and games, wasn’t always the grand affair it is today. “It actually started as a parent-run spaghetti dinner,” said Keys. “When the middle school was still in Commodore, parents would come and serve the kids spaghetti and have a big, family-style meal as their banquet.” Over the years, even as the event has grown ever grander, it has rested upon the same foundation: the unwavering support of parent volunteers.
“Now, with all of the parent involvement, there are so many hours of volunteer time that make this crazy transformation,” said Keys, “A lot of the extravagance comes from the parent volunteers.” Every year, it takes hundreds of volunteer hours to set up the banquet, with the work beginning months before the event at the end of the school year. This year is no different, with Keys, Fitzgerald and other parent volunteers already deep into the planning. “We’re kind of the people who are connecting the dots behind the scenes to make sure that the date works OK,” Keys explained, adding that she and Fitzgerald are responsible for coordinating food, ticket sales and DJs, among other items on their long to-do list.
Most important on their agenda, though, is curating the best experience possible for the graduating 8th graders. “One of my favorite parts of the Banquet is how much people are willing to come together to make this such a special night,” said Keys. “And, you know, it’s inclusive to all the kids.” With a variety of activities, including the popular casino room, she said that there is something there for every student to enjoy. Parent volunteer Tanya Black agreed with the sentiment. “Through imagination, creativity and hard work, it becomes a completely different place where all are included. What a great message for a kid to see and feel.”
“I remember it more than my prom,” Keys reflected of her own 8th Grade Banquet in 2004, which was “Feeling Groovy” themed. “I’m so excited to see the kids’ faces.”
This year’s annual 8th Grade Banquet will be held on May 31, tickets were to go on sale in January for $85 each. However, no child will be turned away, as the Woodward counseling department will make sure that everyone who wants to attend will have the opportunity.
For information on how to donate or volunteer, visit bainbridgeptos.org/ event/2025-eighth-grade-banquet/
Adam Foley
Reduce, Use, then Share
Bainbridge Island Flashdrive
gathers what we no longer need and keeps it out of landfills
The closure of the Goodwill donation truck drop-off at the Bainbridge Island Ace Hardware left islanders with fewer options for giving away clothes, toys and appliances that are no longer in use. Kathy McGowan and her sons Roan and Bo Brumwell, however, have offered up a hyper-local remedy: BI Flashdrive.
BY STEPHANIE FARQUHAR AND SAMPSON MURCHIE
PHOTOS BY DINAH SATTERWHITE
The trio understood that not everybody can afford fee-based at-home recycling pick-up programs and that BI residents may not have the time or ability to make recycling deliveries themselves.
“We began to notice that the simple act of donating used items was becoming more and more inaccessible. BI Flashdrive was made to bridge that gap,” said Roan, a senior at BHS. They hoped the program would also serve as a reminder that what we buy and use—and then no longer want—has the potential to find a new home and stay out of garbage cans.
During its development, BI Flashdrive considered three dimensions of giving: Cost, convenience and awareness.
Launched in Spring 2024, the mom-and-sons team wanted to supplement the robust recycling and donation programs that already exist on Bainbridge Island, such as Sustainable Bainbridge, Waterfront Thrift (located at the Senior Center) and Seattle Children’s Bainbridge Bargain Boutique.
BI Flashdrive features a different recycling program every month that is free and (often) local. In November, BI Flashdrive collected washcloths, unused medications and infant pack ‘n plays for West Sound Wildlife Shelter. In December, it gathered and donated 200 pairs of shoes in great shape that will be worn by others to run, walk on the beach or walk into the office. And in January, BI Flashdrive collected small electronics, such as tablets, home security devices, cell phones, fitness trackers, Bluetooth speakers and chargers to drop at Amazon’s Free Small Electronics Recycling Program.
Once registered on BI Flashdrive’s email list or as a fan on its Instagram page, followers receive a “flash” or notification letting them know what is being recycled, details about what is needed and accepted, which free recycling program is being featured and the specific pick-up date and time window. Participants then simply email biflashdrive@gmail.com to add themselves to that session’s list.
On pick-up day, BI Flashdrive asks that participants place their items outside their front doors, and the McGowan-Brumwells will swing by and take it from there.
In the United States we drop more than 11 million tons of clothing into landfills each year. Eventually 85% of all textiles get thrown out, generating about 81 pounds of textile waste per person annually. And, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as a nation we dump between 300 and 400 million electronic items per year, which leaves plenty of room for improvement through programs such as BI Flashdrive.
“We like the snowball approach—encouraging people to let their neighbors, HOAs and community groups know when a Flashdrive is happening,” McGowan said. “We love how this approach seems to build community, link people together around taking care of each other and the environment and gets things done in a day.”
Upcoming spring 2025
BI Flashdrive Collections:
April: Books
Donated to: Spread the Word Nevada www.zappos.com/about/zappos-for-good/ spread-the-word-nevada
May: Women’s clothing
Donated to: Madewell Forever madewellforever.thredup.com/pages/about
June: Dog leashes and collars
Donated to: Lengau www.lengau.org/
For more details, email Biflashdrive@gmail.com or follow bi_flashdrive on Instagram.
In Living COLOR
Local Hue Guru Guides Islander’s Paint and Décor Selections
What’s your favorite color?
It’s a simple question but not always an easy choice. Polls show blue and green are common answers, but which blue or which green? The options seem endless—especially after agonizing over paint swatches. Benjamin Moore’s website features 619 greens and the difference between, say “Celtic folklore” and “tasty apple” might elude the untrained eye. Then there’s the way a certain paint color looks on a wall and the way it changes throughout the day with the light.
BY CHRISTY CARLEY PHOTOS BY ANNIE GRAEBNBER
that influenced how they felt in a space. Often, though, selecting colors and envisioning them in a room was tough.
Prior to launching her business, Curran completed a color theory, lighting and design certification course with Leatrice Eiseman, former islander and executive director of the Pantone Color Institute,
“Color is a byproduct of everything we see in nature,” said Amy Curran, a color consultant and fourth generation islander. “Humans are always striving to re-create certain colors.”
Last April, after years of working with Furnish Bainbridge, Curran launched Island Color and Decor, a business that offers interior decorating and helps clients select both interior and exterior paint colors.
Curran says her fascination with color is “probably genetic.” Her father worked as a contractor on the island. On the side, he nurtured a passion for cars and took to auto body painting, formulating his own colors by mixing paint himself.
“Color influences so much in our lives,” said Curran. “In the home, color excites our visual sensory, evokes feelings of nostalgia, stirs up emotions, defines a space and creates a sense of security and continuity.”
While working at Furnish Bainbridge, Curran noticed that clients often noted color as one of the most important elements
famous for its color of the year, selected to reflect the zeitgeist of the moment. (Mocha Mousse is 2025’s chosen hue). Pantone’s color matching system is used to standardize and communicate about colors across industries, often in the digital realm. While understanding the technical aspects of color can be important, Curran’s work centers on the personal.
“The home is an extension of who we are,” she said, “since color is so personal and can elicit an emotional response or a connection to something.”
“[Working with Curran] was a very luxurious and wonderful opportunity to create a space that was just about me,” said Kerry Grant, who recently moved to the Grow Community and is living alone for the first time in decades. While Grant had an idea of what she wanted, Curran was able to identify furniture pieces that matched Grant’s desired palette: a combo of what Grant called a “rose-clay” color and a mossy green.
Grant said part of her inspiration came from observing the natural world and identifying plants with colors she liked. Her other inspiration was an unlikely object: a felted candle holder from Norway—a gift from her sister-in-law. Grant showed Curran the object and Curran got to work looking for pieces that would match the colors.
But not all her clients have such specific ideas about how to color their spaces.
Wanda Mager resides primarily in California, but shares a family home on the island inherited from her father. When she and her siblings decided there were elements of the home they wanted to change (the living room, for example, felt too formal), Mager got in contact with Curran.
Curran transformed the space by swapping 1980s coral decor for blues and greens that mimicked the waterfront surroundings and accentuated the paintings on the wall—mostly done by Mager’s mother.
“I love blues and greens, but I never would have thought of blue,” said Mager. “Amy knew where to look.”
Sometimes, clients’ color-related considerations are practical—a client once asked Curran to find an upholstery fabric for a sofa that matched her dog’s fur. More often, concerns relate to the ability of a homeowner to sell their house later if they plan to move, prompting them to choose paint colors that don’t go out of style. Ultimately, though, Curran says her work centers on getting to know her clients.
“Being a color consultant is not just about knowing colors and putting together an eye-pleasing color palette,” she said. “It’s about asking the right questions and listening to people’s story.”
FULL Tilt
Island Entrepreneur Hopes We All Catch Pinball Fever
The Bainbridge Brewing Taproom is relatively quiet early on a wintry Wednesday night, with a smattering of patrons seated around the bar, munching on snacks and sampling pints of the brewery’s signature craft beers.
BY GEORGE SOLTES
PHOTOS BY DINAH SATTERWHITE
Head up the back stairs, though, and things get a little louder. Beeps, clinks, thuds, clanging bells and competing electronic melodies fill the second story space. Glowing images of Batman, Ninja Turtles, cowboys and partying rafters shine from a row of pinball machines against the wall. Ten competitors keep the balls in motion as Rob Frease, the ringmaster of tonight’s event, emulates a pinball himself, bouncing around the room greeting players, announcing matchups, opening machines to poke around at their innards and taking his turn at the flippers.
Frease hosts the International Flipper Pinball Association certified tournament every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Bainbridge Brewery, where all ages and skill levels, from beginners to world-class players, are welcome. For a $5 entry fee—all of which is paid back out to the winners—newbies receive an IFPA world ranking (albeit at the bottom of the pack) and the opportunity to compete against some of the top pinballers on the island.
The best players are “probably going to beat you if it’s your first time,” said Frease, “but they’re also wanting to share their love of pinball and grow pinball, so they’re going to tell you exactly what you need to do to beat them.”
Frease didn’t set out to become a pinball wizard. A third-generation islander, he returned in 2013 after completing college and became retail operations manager and co-owner of Bainbridge Brewing. His pinball inspiration came in the form of a 7-foot-tall former NBA center from Winnipeg. “When I was at the brewery, I was behind the bar quite often,” Frease recalled, “and my friend Todd MacCulloch would come in. And if you’ve ever met Todd, the topic of pinball will come up at some point in the conversation, guaranteed.”
MacCulloch, an avid player since age 10, started collecting machines during his NBA career and later, after he was sidelined from professional basketball by a foot ailment, began rising through the ranks of competitive pinball. When he settled on Bainbridge in 2008, he made it his mission to spread his love of the game to his new home.
“I’ve come to learn since then that he’s very selfishly motivated,” Frease said, “because he gets people hooked on pinball in whatever way possible.”
MacCulloch readily admits guilt. “I joke that I give people an STPD,” he said, “a socially transmitted pinball disease, just to expose them and hope that they take to it.”
After attending MacCulloch’s pinball-themed birthday party in 2017, Frease “got bit by the bug really hard.” He soon bought a machine himself, which quickly multiplied into two and then three. Being of an entrepreneurial bent (and mindful of likely spousal discontent if he tried to squeeze all the games into their one-bedroom condo), he placed two of the machines at the brewery, splitting the proceeds with the business.
When COVID put a halt to that revenue stream in 2020, he pivoted, renting out a Jurassic Park game to a
customer who had often played it with his sons at the brewery. From there, Frease said, “it snowballed pretty quickly,” with more machines and home rentals following. In early 2023, he stepped down from the brewery to stay home with his two small children so that wife Brianna, an entrepreneur herself, could focus on her own business, Frease Catering, and to devote more time to his burgeoning pinball enterprise.
Bainbridge Pinball continues to grow and evolve, currently operating 12 pinball machines, with more in the pipeline. Besides the weekly tournaments, the company maintains two games at the brewery while renting out the remainder for homes, businesses and special events. Frease recently added a brokerage service to help individuals buy and sell their own machines.
“I’ve been surprised how it has resonated with people,” he said, “but at the same time, not surprised, because I know how hard it bit me. Our little pinball community is growing quickly, because people are discovering how wonderful it is.”
Frease is already working on recruiting the next generation, hoping that son Harvey, 5, and daughter Emma, 3, will also catch the pinball bug. “My only regret right now is that I’m fully booked and don’t have any pinball machines at home,” he said, “which means my kids don’t have anything to play.”
More at bainbridgepinball.com
A TIME FOR Awakening
Replace stillness and glacial inertia with intensions and goals for the rest of the year.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY BAJDA WELTY
Mud yields to sprouts, bees and butterflies emerge, frogs and birds sing.
The batteries have been charged this winter. We did our work of slowing down and soaking in the dark and the rest so that our cells are replenished for spring.
The green light of a fully charged cell flips on in our hearts as the snow melts and the sun returns. The rains of March, April and May create rainbows in the skies and puddles on the ground.
Spring is the season of the wood element. The characteristics of this element are growth, vision, strength, flexibility, warmth, generosity and cooperation, but also impatience, frustration, confinement and anger. The liver and gallbladder organ systems are ruled by this element and this season.
Maybe you are feeling a bit pale, insecure or unconfident during this emergence. Exert some bee energy and get working. Be brave and crack through the shell of your awakening. Your needs are important and need tending. Make a few goals: weekly, monthly and seasonal. Just go on blind faith at first. You will rally! This season is all about the will to overcome, year in and year out, and to emerge new again.
Waking up from winter takes a minute as we bring our introspective gaze upward and outward. We experience an awkward and much needed change from the blue, black and watery winter and welcome the muddy, green, budding wisps of spring.
Here are a couple of practices:
First, release winter by doing a short cleanse (mental and physical). For just one week (or up to three if wanted), clean out your diet by eating lots of leafy greens, lemon juice (in water or salad dressing), nettles, cilantro, celery, asparagus and brown rice. Eliminate meat, dairy, sugar, processed foods and alcohol.
On each day of your cleanse, forgive something. This could be yourself, another person, an object, an event, a circumstance, an experience or an expectation. Make a list as you cleanse, then read it through and throw it away.
Second, bring in spring with a joy practice. This involves taking a breath in while smiling, then humming as you exhale. Repeat a few rounds throughout your day.
Welcome the sun, both inside and out.
March 13 , 7:30 PM
Tembembe Ensamble
Un Fandango Barroco
In partnership with Early Music Seattle
March 15 , 11 AM
Around the World in 80 Drums with Antonio Gomez
In partnership with Early Music Seattle
March 16 , 2 PM Melanie Beth Curran
March 20 , 7 PM Jim Cauter Presents: Ravi Shankar – Bridging Worlds Through Music
March 22 , 7 PM Gansango Music & Dance
March 29, 7 PM
Rhythms of Latin America: Deseo Carmin
1. Use Proper Nesting Material: Avoid bamboo or drilled logs. Use stacking trays or cardboard tubes.
2. Food: Plant early-blooming flowers and keep dandelions for emerging bees.
3. Placement: Mount the house on a shed, fence or wall. Not on trees.
4. Sunlight: Choose a sunny location with morning to afternoon sun.
5. Height: Place the house 5– 6 feet off the ground.
6. Mud: Provide clean, chemical-free mud. Nests do not stay out year-round. Remove after spring. Scan QR code to learn more.
Silver LINING
Teens help elders solve tech problems
Margie Dir came with questions about using FaceTime and Zoom.
question, it might be a bit harder to explain, but it’s usually pretty easy.”
BY CONNIE BYE
PHOTOS BY ANNA CARSON
“My friend and I do FaceTime, and I wanted to see if I could use my iPad, too,” she said with a smile, after getting help from teens involved with Silver Tech, a service project of the Bainbridge High School Key Club.
On the first and third Mondays of the month, Key Club members volunteer their expertise at the Bainbridge Island Senior/Community Center.
Trinity Flescher, a sophomore at BHS, started helping in October. Partly, it was a way to earn service hours for National Honor Society, but “I also know a good amount about tech, and I can help people.”
Frequent questions involve transferring data to a new phone and learning to use a smart watch, Flescher said. “If it’s a harder
The program originated with Bainbridge Youth Services, said Georgia Hansen, Key Club secretary, a sophomore at BHS and the person who now shepherds Silver Tech. When BYS dropped the program, Hansen thought it was too valuable to let go. “I reached out to a librarian and asked if (Key Club) could continue this.”
Tressa Johnson, adult services librarian at the Bainbridge Public Library, said Reed Price, executive director at the Senior/ Community Center, asked several years ago if the library could manage a program that supplies answers to tech questions.
“That really was outside the scope of the library,” Johnson said. But with the teens on board, the program moved ahead.
Price said, “The glory of Silver Tech is that it opens the eyes of young people to see that they have a wealth of information.”
Jonnson said, “I’m so impressed (with Hansen). And I’m so glad she took this on. It’s a much-needed service.”
The Senior Center lets Johnson know how many people have requested help, and she passes that along to Hansen, who enlists Key Club members to answer questions and offer guidance.
“Connecting across generations is good for everyone,” Price said. “Intergenerational connections are golden for fighting loneliness and for community-building. Kids learn about some aspects of aging, and elders learn that kids aren’t scary— they’re delightful.”
Price also emphasized that Silver Tech is open to anyone on Bainbridge Island, not just seniors, because it’s offered at the Senior/Community Center.
The program operates after school on Mondays, because that’s the early-release day for public schools. “We can just walk down (to the center) together,” Hansen said.
Evan Kuykendall, a senior at BHS, acknowledged that teens are at ease with technology since it’s a big part of their everyday lives. “But everyone is capable of understanding technology. It’s just not so obvious to the older community.”
Kuykendall has answered questions about laptops and phones. “And we just helped a person understand the difference between Wi-Fi and cellular. Even if you are old, you can still learn new stuff.”
Kuykendall said he’s happy to be able to share his knowledge with people who need it. “I also gain knowledge from them. They’ve been living in this world way longer than I have.”
Hansen said helping someone faceto-face is “very personal. Some people share things in their lives with you.”
Hansen is looking for ways to expand the program, perhaps through a collaboration with the Suquamish Tribe. “We’ll see,” she said. “It’s a relatively new idea.”
Flescher said helping other people is its own reward. “When I understand something, I like to share it. At school, I’m sometimes reluctant to share my thoughts, but here, I’m confident.”
Need Silver Tech assistance? Call 206-842-1616 to make a reservation.
Here’s to a great apartment that’s walkable to downtown Winslow, and a community that allows you to live your best life. Come and go as you wish. Don’t feel like cooking or doing laundry, no problem!
No matter where you are on your journey, we have you covered. And as always, your furry friends are welcome, too.
Simple crumpets offer breakfast options
Does your morning routine need a little shaking up? Here’s a simple recipe that proves you don’t need many ingredients to make something with a lot of flavor. Filling the spot of your usual morning toast, crumpets can host sweet or savory toppings. All that blackberry jam you have stashed in your pantry? Spoon it on. Add a little honey sweetened ricotta too (a la Pike Place’s crumpet shop) and you’ll be so happy you did.
Sturdy enough to take along on an adventure, crumpets travel well and, piled with a fried egg and whatever else you like, make a nice sandwich. Wrap them in the fridge to either reheat or just grab in the morning. You can freeze individual crumpets and defrost them in your toaster or, for a hearty homemade convenience food, freeze the whole sandwich. You can make thin crumpets and use two for a sandwich or, when you get the hang of cooking them, make them thicker and split them.
The good news is that if you can make pancakes, you can make crumpets. The only thing difficult about this recipe is being one with your stovetop. You’ll have to fuss with the heat a little and use judgment to know when to flip. It’s best to use a cast iron griddle or heavy bottom pan over low heat. If your cookware holds heat well, you might even turn the burner off for a minute or two when cooking the crumpet’s second side, ensuring that the center is done but the outside doesn’t burn. Peek at the bottoms often, using an offset spatula, and make the necessary adjustments. No crumpet rings in your drawer? Butter the rings from wide-mouth mason jars. They work well. Crumpets are best eaten on the day that they are made but will keep for two days in the refrigerator or can be frozen after cooling.
CRUMPETS
Makes 10, but easily doubles
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp. honey
Room temperature salted butter for rings and pan
For the batter
1. Choose a lidded bowl that holds at least 4 cups. In it, mix the flour, salt, and yeast.
2. In a separate bowl or pan, melt the unsalted butter. Add the honey and mix until smooth. Next, stir in the water.
3. Add this wet mixture to the dry and stir with a rubber spatula. (It will be sticky!) Stir vigorously for a few minutes to activate the yeast.
4. Cover and let sit for an hour.
When ready to cook
Tools to have on hand: 3 to 4 inch metal rings, an offset spatula (egg turner), 1/4 cup measuring cup, two spoons, softened salted butter, butterknife, tongs and cooling rack.
1. Prepare your rings. Using clean fingers, take a dollop of butter and wipe the inside of each ring.
2. Begin to heat your skillet or griddle over low. (If using cast iron, this takes a full 5 minutes. If using another type of skillet, check your pan after 2-3 minutes.)
3. When the pan is ready, arrange the rings around the bottom and melt a little butter in each.
4. Using the 1/4 cup measure, scoop the batter and drop in the ring. Use the tips of two spoons to spread the batter out to its edges.
5. Cook for about 3 minutes on the first side. Flip and cook for an additional 3 minutes. During this time, check the bottoms with a spatula and look at the edges to judge when the doughiness is disappearing.
6. Set aside to cool on a rack.
Whole Wheat Crumpets
It’s easy to make a 100 percent whole wheat crumpet. The only things you must change are the flour and the timeline. Sub in whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour, leaving the rest of the ingredients the same. Mix up the batter the night before you want to cook, cover and refrigerate. In the morning, let it sit on the counter for at least a half-hour and proceed with recipe.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY ANNE WILLHOIT
Curating With Purpose
New leader sees Bloedel as a masterpiece EVAN MEYER
BY CONNIE BYE PHOTOS BY ANNIE GRAEBNER
For Evan Meyer, 39, landing the job as CEO and president of Bloedel Reserve last fall was a dream come true. “I’d always admired Bloedel as one of the country’s great gardens,” he said. “The vision set forth by Prentice and Virginia Bloedel was to create a garden that is a conversation with the land, not to impose a design on the land. It’s very naturalistic, a sculpted landscape.” The most sophisticated landscape designs in the world right now reflect that idea, he said. “It was way ahead of its time.”
Previous jobs, including at the Theodore Payne Foundation, the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University and UCLA’s Mathias Botanical Garden, helped lead him to Bainbridge Island.
You grew up on a farm.
My parents were kind of back-to-thelanders. It was an old hippie commune that was falling apart when they bought it. They weren’t professional farmers. My mom was a teacher, my dad was a carpenter-turned-antiques dealer. But gardening was a big part of our lives. We made maple syrup every spring, apple cider every fall. We picked vegetables from our garden. We also had an ornamental garden. So, being outside working was part of my life from a young age.
Your University of Massachusetts degree focused on biology, building materials and wood technology. How does that tie in with Bloedel?
When I was in college, over a summer, I built a timber-frame barn with my dad and some of his friends. It was an amazing experience. All the wood was locally milled—Eastern hemlock, white pine, local species from New England. That continuum of turning the forest into a structure made me want to pursue wood technology. But [the college program] was very much commercial. So, I switched to a biology major.
I’m interested in the footprint of our modern world and how it all derives
from nature. Bloedel is an institution that honors place.
What is Bloedel’s strength?
Its staff and the incredible knowledge base here. Together, they have over 350 years of experience.
You’ve worked with Indigenous communities elsewhere. Do you plan to collaborate with local tribes?
Yes, I’m excited to pursue that here. Look at the Suquamish Tribe, the Port S’Kallam Tribe. Their combined experience adds up to millions of years. They share a respect for the land, the plants and animals, and an understanding that it’s all connected. We’re in an environmental crisis and need examples to look to. Indigenous people of this region offer that.
Last year, there was a controlled burn here. Will that happen again? That was in our meadow. Along with local fire officials, we’re trying to figure out how to maintain a healthy environment
in the meadow. We’re trying to maintain ecologically sustainable practices. It’s a weird time to talk about this [because of the Los Angeles wildfires].
The meadow is a continuous experiment. People might not realize we’re trying to push the boundaries of horticulture here. Every day we learn something new.
What will remain the same?
The character of Bloedel and the things that make it great will always remain. Still, times change and things evolve. We’ve just completed our master plan— all about hospitality, education, visitor experience. We hope to implement some elements of that this year. Also, we’ve completed a forest management plan. And we’re looking at future projects.
Anything you’d like to add?
Bloedel is a masterpiece, a work of art, all 140 acres of it. You can create something beautiful by curating what nature has given you. It’s an honor to be here.
Five Island Artists
dive Talk Craft, Tech and Bainbridge
by Luciano Marano
GRAEBNER
Bainbridge Island is a community that values art.
From the page to the stage and every medium in between, one of the best aspects of living on (or simply visiting) the Rock is enjoying the latest seasonal offerings of the local scene.
That said, the less glamorous daily work of the people creating all that awesome art is often invisible. To truly know the experiences of working artists on Bainbridge Island you have to look outside the frame and beyond the lights.
Here, five island artisans, each specializing in different disciplines, share their thoughts on craft, technology and living on Bainbridge.
Wendy Armstrong is known for her bold use of color and emphasis on texture, although her precise painting technique differs from one series to another.
And that’s definitely on purpose.
“I often hear of the importance of being recognizable through style with one’s work, and, in theory, having a style sounds lovely,” she said. “I find it has been personally challenging to stick with just one style to depict the result I am looking for.”
Humor also remains a feature of Armstrong’s work, particularly her images of chickens and the COVID-era series of toilet paper rolls.
“Finding a way to express one’s fears and coping with challenges is beneficial, albeit often difficult,” she explained. “My more lighthearted works come from challenging times.
“The toilet paper series was finding a way to document truly hard times in a way to create a memory, but also offering a way to process the experience more as a ‘lesson learned’ and ‘be better prepared next time.’ My Rooster/Chicken series was created while caretaking for my father. It was a time of fear and loss and I also had very limited moments of work time in the studio ... I thought of the series as, ‘Don’t be Chicken.’ Take one day at a time, keep life simple, and find relief with bright color and humor.”
One factor suggesting a potentially difficult time on the horizon is the proliferation of generative AI programs, which, Armstrong said, cannot help but affect the world of visual arts.
“Quite honestly, AI is scary to me. I’m too old and have worked too hard to have to compete with a robot with way more computerized brain cells and speed than I could ever imagine … It will be a personal choice to adapt to AI. I just don’t plan to be seduced by it.”
Bainbridge, however, has her smitten.
“Bainbridge Island is a remarkable community due to the interest in the arts and aesthetic environment by much of its population. There are so many creative artists, writers, designers in the community, and this certainly influences a supportive environment to live and work.”
Wendy Armstrong
PHOTOS BY ANNIE
While her medium may be delicate, Amy Roberts certainly is not.
But can a person’s chosen material tell us anything about them?
“Virtually every artist in the glass field is concerned with light as primary element in their professional practice,” Roberts said. “For me, years of working as a glass blower has shaped my approach to mixed-media sculpture. When I use materials, I am concerned with light. Whether it is luminous, refracted, interrupted, or absorbed, my approach to working with visual elements is grounded in an inquiry into how light behaves. I am not interested in cultivating beauty…but in laying a visual groundwork for light to unify discordant elements.”
Of course, the PNW has a long history of great talents working in glass. But in the age of social media and mass communication, some have worried about homogeneity being the dominant style. Are we perhaps living in the last days of regionalism?
“Creative people are sensitive to trends and always in search of truth, whatever that might be,” Roberts said. “Isolation may spawn regionalism in the NW, but there is a common need to explore and reveal whatever seems most relevant at the time. All artists want their work to be impactful and to connect with viewers in whatever manifestation may be compelling at the time…The web may change individual’s visual approaches, but I think artists always look for authenticity in whatever manifestation.”
The experience of viewing glass in particular, she added, is difficult to replicate remotely.
“Ambient light conditions are always in flux and this shapes the viewer’s perception,” Roberts explained. “A photograph can accurately capture the artwork in the moment and communicate an idea, but the movement of light within an architectural space is interactive and dynamic.”
The average person probably doesn’t think much about “new technology” as it applies to the world of blacksmithing.
Understandable, said Ryan Landworth, but also a misconception.
“It’s a craft that has a specific formal context that can intentionally be integrated with modern technology by the maker,” he explained. “But the process itself, moving metal and forming it
simply with heat and pressure does not rely on any technological innovations beyond the primordial relationship between fire, metal and hammer.”
That being said, the marriage of craft with any given technology or material is a question Landworth endeavors to answer with every new project.
“Technology is a tool, and bound by the user’s input,” he added. “The ineffable qualities of life’s experiences, challenges and hard-won battles in the quest for mastering this time-honored craft, and attempting to communicate through it, lend a quality that tools alone, old or new, are hard-pressed to achieve.”
Regardless of a job’s scale, Landworth said that for him a major key to success is finding inspiration in the environment that will ultimately surround a piece.
“Context is everything,” he said. “From my experiences immersing myself in the mountains, the sea, the gardens and the immediate natural landscape surrounding me, I am a product of the Pacific Northwest. Subsequently, my work is also.”
And of Bainbridge specifically.
“The Bainbridge Island community has a dedication towards the arts, craft and nature,” Landworth said. “The progressive cultural awareness of Bainbridge Island has afforded me the supportive opportunities to create work that I am deeply connected to.”
“My eyes were always on something else, until I got older.”
So it was relatively recently that Norimi Kusanagi discovered her love for pressed flowers.
“I was not a ‘flower girl’ nor ‘flower lady,’” she said. “When I happened to be in Japan visiting my family about 10 years ago, my sister-in-law showed me samples of the pressed flowers she had been collecting. That was my first encounter with pressed flowers and I immediately fell in love with them.”
Amy Roberts
Ryan Landworth
Kusanagi’s designs are often inspired by traditional Japanese art, and as such, negative space is crucial.
“Unlike watercolor or oil painting, one of the benefits of pressed flower art is that I am able to move, remove and rotate all pressed flowers on the paper until I obtain a desirable composition,” she explained. “Then, if necessary, I carefully select the background colors from watercolor, pastel or/ and Japanese washi paper.”
It’s a process both extremely personal and somehow emotionally removed, Kusanagi said, but one that’s ultimately difficult to replicate digitally.
“The process of searching, cutting and pressing flowers and leaves is an important connection with nature that I would lose by solely using the digital photo method,” she explained. “Although my pressing flower kits are simple and low-tech, they are essential tools with which the process has become my therapy. I believe using the actual pressed flowers instead of digital images better allows for their self-expression rather than me being overly involved. In other words, I hope not to interfere with the simplicity of design by mixing it with my own feelings and emotions.”
Instead, it’s the different types of flowers themselves that set the tone.
“All the flowers emit certain moods and feelings, depending on colors, sizes and textures. Bigger size petal flowers. like peonies, camellias, and roses. are gorgeous, playful and a bit showy, while small-size petal flowers, like forget-me-not, cherry blossoms and hydrangeas, emit more calmness and fragility.”
Cheerfully moody.
That’s how one critic described the monotypes of printmaker Wendy Orville.
And that vibe seems to have struck a wide chord, because Sarah Harvey, director of Harris Harvey Gallery, said there is no “typical” Orville aficionado.
“A typical Wendy Orville collector is someone who appreciates her aesthetic of quiet, meditative scenes that connect them to nature,” she said. “People are generally quite fascinated with Wendy’s monotype process, regardless of their familiarity with printmaking techniques.”
Sometimes misdescribed as photographs or paintings, Orville’s “cheerfully moody” images are technically neither. And every one is unique.
“Art made by hand feels especially important in this era of AI images,” Orville said. “Human touch and having an authentic, specific voice is a powerful antidote to much of the generic, soulless quality of AI art.
“Something happened when I started making monotypes that opened up a different side of me,” she added. “I felt tremendous freedom to experiment, play, fail and figure things out in my own way.”
Some of her scenes are from far-flung locales, while others were found closer to home, but Orville said living on Bainbridge has been an important step in her artistic journey.
“We live in an amazing place,” she said. “After many years driving to other places for inspiration—Port Townsend, Nisqually, Willapa Bay—my latest series of monotypes explores the homegrown beauty and mystery of forests and parks on Bainbridge: Battle Point Park, Blakely Harbor and the Grand Forest.”
The Fab Five
Wendy Armstrong: painter; wendyarmstrongart.com
Amy Roberts: sculpture (glass and mixed media); amyrobertsart.com
Ryan Landworth: architectural blacksmith; ryanlandworth.com
Norimi Kusanagi: traditional Japanese-style pressed flowers; norimispressedflowers.com
Wendy Orville: monotypes; wendyorville.com
Norimi Kusanagi
Wendy Orville
Keeping the Faith with Planet Earth
Take it from a scientist:
Climate change isn’t all maps and graphs. It’s also a uniquely spiritual crisis.
BY AUDREY NELSON
COURTESY MIKE COX AND BY ANNIE GRAEBNER
That’s according to Mike Cox, a former EPA bureaucrat who helped found the local Interfaith Climate Circle advocacy group. Now in its third year, the Climate Circle is a project of the Bainbridge Island-North Kitsap Interfaith Council. The group holds both private meetings and community events with a mission to address dimensions of climate change that can sometimes get lost in numbers and news.
Much like the Circle itself, Cox is a study in contradictions— earnest and self-deprecating, rational and passionate. He still rejects any notion that he’s in charge of the Climate Circle—“too cultish,” he said—even as Kathryn Lafond, a fellow member, affectionately calls Cox “our ferocious leader.”
A 25-year island resident, Cox came up with the Climate Circle idea in 2022. “A number of us in the community had, for
PHOTOS
a number of years, been trying to bring people together to talk about climate change and what we could do individually and collectively,” he recalled. “A couple of us started going, ‘You know, we really haven’t reached out to different communities.’ And we said, ‘Well, how about the faith community?’”
There were practical reasons to make inroads into local places of worship. “It’s like the bank robber thing,” Cox said, laughing. “Why do people rob a bank? ’Cause that’s where the money is. Why do they go to churches? ’Cause that’s where the people are.”
But there were also more spiritual reasons. Cox is a member of Cedars Unitarian Universalist Church, and he knew that people across many different faiths believe in an “interdependent web of life.” Those people, he thought, would be well-equipped to discuss and tackle climate-based challenges.
Right away, the concept of an interfaith climate advocacy group appealed to many islanders—especially to those already in Cox’s orbit. Fran Korten, a fellow Unitarian, was all in as soon as she heard Cox’s name. “He organizes a lot of things [at Cedars],” she said. “And everything he organizes, I tend to join.”
Cox’s first step was to pitch the Climate Circle to the Interfaith Council, which represents 21 local faith communities and has existed in its current form since 1997. As a parent organization, Cox said, the IFC gave the Climate Circle “some legitimacy, so people didn’t think we were a bunch of crazies. It also granted the group “an avenue into the churches.”
Self-described spiritual ecologist Jennifer Wilhoit still remembers Cox’s first visit to the IFC. “It felt very coincident with some longings I had had to be working on these issues locally,” Wilhoit said. “There’s so many environmental groups here on the island in various ways doing amazing work…When Mike presented I realized I wanted something that had that interfaith piece as well.”
Gradually, the present-day Climate Circle began to take shape.
“When we got together, we were more just learning from each other about why people were concerned about this and what they wanted to do,” Cox explained. “But then we got more concrete.”
Even as the intimate Climate Circle—an email list of approximately 25 people—met monthly for discussions on climate change’s impacts, they were also looking outward, building relationships with local congregations. The group now holds “Climate Conversations” with many of these congregations, which can take the form of sermons, workshops or more casual conversations about faith and climate responsibility.
As a Climate Circle representative, Wilhoit noted that when she gives a sermon or leads a workshop for a place of worship, she’s careful not to overstep. “We aren’t banging people over the head or saying, ‘Let us in your door and we’re going to do this, that and the other thing,’” she said. “We really want to build relationships with the various faith groups…and then be able to have conversations that are really tailored around whatever that faith group is working toward.”
In addition to Climate Conversations, members of the Climate Circle facilitate public “Climate Cafes”— gatherings modeled on the Death Cafe, a nonprofit that holds group-directed end-of-life discussions over coffee. During Climate Cafes, Kitsap County residents share their climate anxiety and grief—“whatever is in their heart,” Fran Korten said—in a supportive, nondirective setting.
Despite their gravity, the cafes often end on an optimistic note.
“It’s tempting to say, ‘I can’t do anything about [climate change]. It’s beyond me. It’s too much,’” said Climate Circle member Phil Favero, a Quaker who’s been involved with interfaith advocacy since 2012. “But I think from a faith perspective, there’s an element of hope.”
The Climate Circle also offers more structured “Web of Life” gatherings at places of worship across the county. The most recent gathering, open to the community, attracted upwards of 70 people—which Favero said points to a serious community need.
“I know that a spiritual perspective is not for everyone,” he said. “We live in a secular world. But there are people who are looking to engage on the basis of their spiritual convictions.”
And the Climate Circle has plenty of upcoming offerings for them. The organization plans to seek out more collaborators across the region, and to set up a booth at the farmers market. A newsletter and a climate-themed reading group are also in the works.
Cox sees it this way: The more conversations taking place across the island, the better. His EPA experience only cements this. “First thing I learned is you gotta figure out what the values [are] of the people you’re going to talk to,” he said. “In other words, when I went to Eastern Washington and
When we come together [for meetings and retreats], we try to really drop into that deep well within us and bring our wisdom, our knowledge, as well as our grief for what’s happening in the world and what is lost.
—Kathryn Lafond
talked to the farmers about climate change, I didn’t even mention climate change…I asked them, ‘What are you doing?’ And they [said], ‘We’re getting [more] rain in the winter and less in the summer. We’re needing to store more water for irrigation,’ and on and on. They were the ones on the ground.” He’s clear on this: “You gotta talk to the people on the ground.”
Even as they lay this practical groundwork for change, members of the inner Climate Circle are tapping into a sense of spiritual connection that fuels their community work.
“When we come together [for meetings and retreats], we try to really drop into that deep well within us and bring our wisdom, our knowledge, as well as our grief for what’s happening in the world and what is lost,” Lafond said. “We really spread a full, full arm around everything that’s happening.”
That often takes the form of personal disclosures from members. “There have been a number of times where we’ve gotten together, someone’s been facilitating, and it just opens everyone up to a much deeper kind of sharing, awareness, connection,” Wilhoit said.
Even analytically minded Cox, surprising himself, has found value in these more private conversations.
“I’m a scientist, very logical,” he said. “We have a large range of people that…come in from a different perspective than I am. That’s why I love listening to them. And they look at me and go, ‘Come on, come on, engage here. Tell us something about yourself.’ ‘OK, OK, I’ll try.’”
Unburdening yourself—and holding space for others to do the same—is hard, intensely personal work. In the context of the climate crisis, Cox said, it’s also necessary.
“First you gotta build trust,” he said. “Then you can go to action.”
A Family Home for All Seasons PerfectlyPlesant
It’s just three days before Christmas and the decorated tree is up. Indy and Toby, a couple of cats with backstories, wander in and out of the family room, while Cece, a characteristically lovely golden, cozies up on the couch to be near the conversation. The hush of low-hanging clouds, steaming cups of mint tea and the occasional nudge from Cece’s muzzle, set the peaceful backdrop as Sue Entress recounts how she and her husband, Jeff, (and their three kids, Emma, Nick and Eva) found their way to their home on Pleasant Beach.
Sue said that getting to Bainbridge all began with her brother, Frank Renna. “He had already made the jump from New Jersey to the West Coast, saying something like, ‘I’m burning rubber away from all of you.’ And then one by one, my whole family followed suit,” she said.
“I came out to visit Frank, and something clicked,” she recalled.
“Bainbridge felt like the perfect place to raise kids—a small, tight-knit community that still had access to culture and the arts. As a graphic designer, that was important to me. I loved the idea of being close to art museums, but also able to be out on the trails and just breathe. Bainbridge had that balance.”
So, after years living and working in New York City—and after Jeff completed law school in Michigan—Sue and Jeff decided to set down roots on the island, too.
Today, Entress’ sister, Pam, lives in Seattle with her daughter, and Sue’s parents live on the north end of Bainbridge. Frank, who notably holds the world record for the poorest job ever getting away from his family, lives on the south end with his wife, artist Ellen Wixted, and their three kids.
By Alli Schuchman
Photos by David Cohen
When the young Entress family first moved to Bainbridge, they lived in a little yellow farmhouse by Rolling Bay on Valley Road. Sue explained that Jeff dived headfirst into his career, working what seemed like endless hours. “There I was, with a baby and a toddler, feeling pretty lonely,” she said. Soon though, she found a group for moms of young kids where she said she found human connection more than anything else.
Sue began volunteering her graphic design skills for local nonprofits “just to get out and interact,” she said. “I couldn’t really commit to a regular job, but I ended up working with the Bainbridge Schools Trust (which later became the Bainbridge Schools Foundation) and did their annual reports for nearly a decade.” Sue went on to work with BIMA, the Public Art Committee and the Bainbridge Arts and Crafts board, slowly becoming part of the fabric of the island’s vibrant arts and humanities community. She also became heavily involved with BI Rowing, first as the mother of a rower, then as its marketing arm, then as a rower herself. “That’s how I found my tribe, little by little,” she said. “Bainbridge, with all its quirks, was exactly where we were meant to be.”
As the Entresses settled into island life, Jeff quickly gave up practicing law and transitioned into venture capital, while Sue leaned into her nonprofit work. Despite many of the pieces falling into place, the couple always hoped to find a home on the water. “Every time something came on the market, we’d take a look,” said Sue, “but it was always out of reach. The prices kept climbing and it felt like no matter how hard we tried, we could never quite afford it.”
Then, in 2011, during a brief dip in the market, a Pleasant Beach house came up for sale. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure. The property was breathtaking, but the house itself? The space didn’t quite feel like home,” said Sue. But the price was right, which was reason enough. And just like that, they were moving in.
Renowned Pacific Northwest architect James Cutler had designed the home, but his perspective was new to the couple. “When I first stepped into this house, I wasn’t totally in love with it,” Sue said. “At the time, I didn’t appreciate it.” For example, she explained that the window height felt low. “But when you sit down, the views just
open up. You’re surrounded by nature in a way I hadn’t expected. I started to see its magic”
Sue said that slowly but surely, she fell increasingly in love with the home. “The way the light changed throughout the day, how the breeze moved through the rooms, how everything seemed to be perfectly placed to show off the landscape. It was a combination of the house, the view and the way life just felt more settled here. Now I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
The home’s more discreet aesthetic was also a departure for the Entresses. “I’d brought all my little English antiques from our old farmhouse,” said Sue. “But they didn’t quite fit the vibe of this place. They’re still sitting out in the garage. But this house didn’t need any of that; it had its own character.”
Sue said that although they were able to afford the home, that
was about it in the beginning. “We couldn’t even afford furniture in the house, so we just made do.” But after their kids made it through college, they had enough wiggle room and bandwidth to finally renovate the house.
Although Sue and Jeff wanted to make some changes, she said they loved and appreciated Cutler’s work and wanted to honor its design and the home’s exceptional and intricate craftsmanship. “We spent a lot of time going though books about him and making sure that what we did was what he would have done,” she said. With a healthy idea of what they wanted, next was finding someone to do the work. The Entresses decided on Craden Henderson, owner and project manager at 2atera, to bring their long-awaited updates to life. Sue said Henderson was key in finding ways to execute the new design while balancing Cutler’s inspiration, plus bringing suggestions—and minimalist sensibilities of his own—to the project.
A major part of the redo included opening up the main living area that houses the kitchen, dining room and family room. “There were all these partitions,” explained Sue. “There was just a big wall across the front, and the back of it was a kind of a long pantry. The middle section was the kitchen, and then there was a little dining area, but you couldn’t see across at all.” Now a continuous room, the kitchen got relocated to one end and looks onto the big dining room table, (an important feature for hosting big gatherings of friends and Sue’s big Italian family) and beyond to
the stone fireplace at the other end.
For years after coming home from coaching and rowing in the frigid waters of Eagle Harbor, Sue would sit on the kitchen counter, soak her feet in hot water and gaze at the view onto Rich Passage. But since the home’s transformation meant the kitchen would be relocated, she requested a nook be built in its place in the middle of the sea-facing wall. Her daughter Emma, an architect, pointed out the window seat’s odd height, but Sue’s fond memories of the ritual won out. “It was a quirk, but the sun streams in right there,” she said, “and it’s such a nice spot.”
One challenge with the new and improved living area was working around the home’s wooden ceiling. It was vital that the runs of wood matched up from one end of the room to the other sans the partitions. Harris Fine Cabinetry took on much of the extensive woodwork—including the trim and doors—and the Entresses used Chris Mills of MillsWork to tackle the wood flooring, which, like the ceiling, had to dovetail together to painstakingly match Cutler’s work. “Even the guys working on the house said they’d never seen that level of carpentry,” said Sue.
The Entresses also reconfigured the end of the house where their bedroom is, taking over and enlarging the space that was previously a small office—which had also doubled as a bedroom—on the water side of the home, keeping the handcrafted stone fireplace intact.
Their former bedroom—which Sue described as having “a lovely view of the
garage”—became a study and now has a Murphy bed for when their kids are home or guests stay over. The bathroom was updated with modern finishes—a walk-in shower replaced the old bathtub—and the door to the closet was moved from their old bedroom into the hallway. On the opposite end of the home, the two other bedrooms got new finishes, as did the bathroom they share.
On the front side of the house is the freestanding garage as well as a little cottage from which Sue believes the original owner once ran a flyfishing shop. “It now has a bathroom and a little bedroom upstairs, so when my sister comes with her dog and her daughter, that’s where they stay,” she said.
From the back of the home, Puget Sound unfolds at the end of a long wooden walkway elevated on piers. “I just really became smitten with the idea of the house being a glass shelter, and the sense of being able to see right through it,” said Sue.
The entire home is right around 2,100 square feet, but since its renovation can easily host 20 or more people, which Sue said isn’t uncommon. Eva moved back after college, and Emma and Nick are often home too, with their significant others. Pam and her daughter are headed over later in the week and Sue’s parents and her brother and his family will convene there for Christmas.
It’s clear, that for the Entress home, the more the merrier isn’t just a theme reserved for the holidays.
magic moments A Real MOOD ROOST
Observant listeners can sense the arrival of spring before anyone else. Beyond the budding cherry blossoms, clearing skies, and awakening critters—as rain gives way to longer days and gardens come back to life—a telltale sign of the season’s return is the chirping of chicks at Bay Hay and Feed in Rolling Bay.
BY ELLE SCHUCHMAN
When Bay Hay’s former owners retired in 2021, they passed the business to longtime manager Els Heijne and her family—husband Jeff Groman, their daughter Devin Groman and her husband Nick Snyder. Despite the change in ownership, many of Bay Hay’s beloved traditions remain untouched. The iconic Bay Hay shirt, the vibrant nursery and garden center overflowing with a bounty of flowers, vegetables, herbs, pottery and tools, and, of course, at the store’s entrance, chicks peeping softly from their cozy brooder each springtime, delighting visitors with their tiny, fluffy presence.
Each season, the store brings in around 20 different
breeds of chicks, offering something for every backyard flock. Chicks are sourced from ethical hatcheries, ensuring that they are all vaccinated, said
Snyder, a local expert. A few of his favorites include Gold Laced Wyandottes, Cuckoo Marans and Golden Buffs. The variety of egg colors, from classic brown to deep chocolate, soft blue and even green, also fascinates customers. “People love picking breeds based on the eggs they’ll get,” Snyder said, noting how the spectrum of colors adds to the excitement of having chickens. Raising chicks comes with plenty of rewards—fresh eggs every morning, non-human companionship and camaraderie with fellow chicken keepers, to name a few—and Snyder believes the birds “give people a sense of hope for good weather and spring’s arrival.”
PHOTOS COURTESY BAY HAY AND FEED
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BY JEFF FRAGA
What’s up, Doc’s?
Food, drinks and fun done right
Rumor has it that the establishment now occupied by Doc’s Marina Grill was once a bar called the Yodeling Oyster. How it got that name—or if it ever really did—has been lost to the mists of time. But the sense of humor and promise of fresh seafood behind the name make it uniquely Doc’s.
“Doc’s has been at this location for more than 20 years,” said Scott Masters, general manager. “We think of our menu as Pacific Northwest cuisine at its finest. Our seafood is the freshest, our beef and chicken are locally sourced, and our pasta is locally made. What’s more, our breads are from Macrina Bakery, an organic bakery in Seattle.”
The local connection continues with locally sourced liquors, beers and wines. “We have more wines from Columbia Valley than Napa Valley,” he said, adding that Doc’s also features Finnriver Ciders and beers from Georgetown Brewing and Bainbridge Brewing.
Doc’s waterfront marina view draws people in, but dishes such as its fish and chips and clam chowder convince them to stay. “We make everything in-house every day using nothing but the freshest cod, halibut and clams,” said Masters. And there’s more to Doc’s than seafood. “On weekends we offer a prime rib dinner,” he said. “Diners can get a 10-ounce or 14-ounce cut of prime rib with mashed potatoes and asparagus with horseradish sauce.”
In June 2012, Doc’s opened its second location at Point Hudson Marina in Port Townsend, bringing to Port Townsend its tradition of great service and food in a fun environment.
That noise you’re hearing—does it sound a little like a yodeling bivalve?
Doc’s Marina Grill, 403 Madison Ave S. 206-842-8339
feast on this
They’re serious about steak
And love fine whiskeys
How to create a great dining experience:
Start with the best ingredients, including grass-fed beef from the Pacific Northwest, sustainably sourced seafood and free-range chicken.
Never use genetically modified organism (GMO) ingredients.
And whenever possible, use organic produce.
Then cook everything to order.
And remember: Steak and whiskey is a classic combination.
“My wife Kristy and I purchased the Islander from Gerald Simonson just before the pandemic took hold,” said Cheston Overman. “But we believed we had a winning formula, so we kept cooking those beautiful steaks, serving fresh lobster tails, and offering vegetarians our delicious cauliflower steak.” Also popular
are the lumberjack burger, lamb chops and pork tenderloin.
“We’re here to say we made it,” he said.
Cheston believes the Islander serves the ultimate Surf & Turf special. “It offers two (or four) diners a choice of salads or soups, appetizer to share, Tomahawk steak, lobster tails, frites, roasted vegetables, creamy horseradish, melted butter and dessert to share.” To get the most from the delicious experience, Overman said that reservations are recommended and are not available for day-of dining.
Aside from that, the steaks and whiskeys are waiting for you.
Islander, 403 Madison Ave N., 360-674-0976
feast on this
Looking for a great gathering place?
Welcome to the Marketplace.
BY PETE SALOUTOS
“It was never our plan to open something on Bainbridge,” said Alexis Saloutos, who owns the Marketplace with her husband Nikos Spiliopoulos. “But when the old Marketplace closed, people from the community kept asking if we could bring the space back, or if we would reopen the wine bar—or do anything that could breathe life into the space. We decided we would take a look at it and see if it was a possibility.”
And here we are.
It turned out to be a perfect fit—Nikos grew up in Greece and has been around food all his life, including cooking at the Greek food market on Capitol Hill, the Shop Agora. Alexis’s background is
in nutrition. “I went to Bastyr, a naturopathic medicine college, for both my undergraduate and master’s degrees in nutrition.”
Soon the space was buzzing with ideas and excitement. The morning menu added breakfast dishes, such as avocado toast and bagels with cream cheese. Lunches began reflecting a Greek influence with spanakopita—crispy phyllo pastry stuffed with spinach and feta—and dinner diners can enjoy a chicken gyro or falafel wrap, among other choices. All the dishes are also available for take-out.
“People can expect to experience more and more of our Mediterranean influence as we continue to refine the menu and wine list,” said Alexis.
And speaking of wine, the wine bar is back with a new name: By the Glass. “Don’t be surprised to discover some excellent Greek wines,” Nikos said.
The vibrant space also reflects the sense of humor and whimsy that Pleasant Beach Village owner and developer John Jacobi incorporated into the area. Alexis and Nikos are delighted that the metal winged pig remains the focal point, embracing its quirkiness as it hangs from the ceiling of the Marketplace. “We’re honored to carry on John Jacobi’s legacy and excited to welcome people to this new adventure,” said Alexis.
“Since 2007, we’ve poured our hearts into the Shop Agora, creating a warm and inviting space for Mediterranean foods and wines,” she added. “Now, we’re ready to focus on our own community here on Bainbridge Island—a place we’re so grateful to call home.”
The Marketplace, 4738 Lynwood Center Road NE, 206-866-6122
PHOTOS
Spring
1. Eurydice at BPA
The classic version of this Greek myth recounts the journey of Orpheus, who descends into the underworld to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, after her untimely death. Sarah Ruhl’s theatrical retelling centers on Eurydice herself, exploring themes of loss, memory and love as she reunites with her father in the underworld.
Preview: March 6, 7:30 pm
Official show: March 7-23, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm bainbridgeperformingarts.org
2. SoundWave Festival at BIMA
Throughout March, BIMA is bringing the island an eclectic mélange of sounds, with music and stories from India, West Africa, Latin America and beyond. Both series passes and individual tickets are available. March 13-29, various times biartmuseum.org
3. Improv at Side Quest Stage
Launched last December, Side Quest Stage is BI’s newest hub for performing arts and collaborative storytelling. Taking the reins after the closure of WEAVE Presents, Side Quest offers monthly shows from Bainbridge Improv Collective. The troupe performs long-form improv and offers an after-show jam inviting audience participation. March 28 & April 18, 7 pm sidequeststage.com
4. DogEar Fest at BIMA
7. Earth Day Expo
Parks & Rec’s annual Earth Day Expo at Battle Point Park will feature live music, eco-conscious bites and an assortment of nature-centered activities. You can learn more about local conservation orgs and sustainable businesses and have the option of participating in an on-site work party. If news of wildfires and rising sea levels gets you down, this is a good reminder of the importance of (and joy in!) fighting for a better future.
April 26, 10 am – 2 pm biparks.org
8. ReFashion Sewdown at BIMA
Contestants at this year’s ReFashion Sewdown will have from 10 am to 5:30 pm to create a piece of clothing (or an entire outfit) out of textiles provided to them that day—like Project Runway, but with less drama. Prospective participants have until March 23 to sign up.
Show: April 27, 6:30-7:30 pm refashionbainbridge.org
9. Proof at inD Theatre
BIMA’s DogEar Festival is a celebration of all things print. The festival offers a wide array of events and activities, including letter-press printing, typewriter poetry, a musical performance from Seattle’s Bushwick Book Club and an edible book competition. Tickets for some events available online.
April 4-6, various times biartmuseum.org
5. Healing Through Creativity at BPA
Kick off National Poetry Month by learning about Pongo Poetry Project, a Seattle-based nonprofit that helps youth use creative expression to work through trauma. The event at BPA will include writing activities, creative exercises, hors d’oeuvres and cocktails (for purchase). Plus, you get to find out what a “poetry pharmacy” is and why you might want to visit one. Tickets available online.
April 6, 3-5 pm pongopoetryproject.org
6. St. Patrick’s Day Celebration with Celtic Crossroads
When Catherine’s father—a celebrated mathematician—dies after suffering from dementia, Catherine is left to reckon with her own mathematical brilliance, along with her fear that she’ll inherit his condition. Complex family dynamics along with a discovery of a groundbreaking proof amongst her father’s notebooks lend intrigue to this Pulitzer Prize winning story.
Thursday - Sunday, 7 pm, May 2-18 indtheatre.org
10. Community Lū’au at BIMA
BIMA’s first ever Lū’au promises a vibrant celebration of Pacific Islander culture, complete with local food vendors, cultural games and crafts, and lively music. You’re even invited to bring your own ukulele to play and sing along.
No Saint Patrick’s Day Celebration is complete without some spirited songs. Join Celtic Crossroads at the American Legion Hall for an evening of live music and local refreshments. If you can’t make it on the 14th, the shop also offers live music in its back room as part of the First Friday Art Walk.
March 14, 6-7:30 pm celticcrossroadsnw.com
May 3, 12-5 pm biartmuseum.org
10. Rescued Hearts Film at Lynwood
Humans have known about the healing power of horses since at least 400 BCE, when Hippocrates touted the benefits of equine therapy. “Rescued Hearts,” a documentary that premiers in May, re-examines the potential of the human-horse connection for both emotional and physical well-being. May 10, 4 pm rescuedheartsfilm.com
Back Off, Jack Frost in focus
We all remember where we were during the great Bomb Cyclone of 2024, when one day in late November the winds raged, the trees fell, the power lines snapped, and our community was plunged into cold and darkness.
For me, the crisis focused my attention on one overriding task: keeping Clover warm.
Last fall, when my daughter, Morgan, left for college in Los Angeles, she gave me two jobs: water her plants and take care of Clover, the Russian tortoise who had lived unobtrusively in her room for years.
In Morgan’s absence Clover and I bonded. While not the cuddliest of pets, I learned that she enjoys backyard grazing on pretty days, weekly spa time in a bin of warm water and scavenger hunts for bits of kale and lettuce.
With the house temperature plummeting (and PSE responding to update requests with the equivalent of a shrug emoji), I pictured Morgan’s face if I let Clover, who spends most of her time under a heat lamp, catch a cold. I leapt into action.
Before long, as pictured here, Clover was warm and cozy in front of a blazing fire. I feel that our shared adversity brought us closer together than ever.
Let’s not talk about the plants.
STORY AND PHOTO BY GEORGE SOLTES
