We are disappointed with the direction that San Juan County is taking in regard to cannabis farming.
We’re all ready for the new Exchange. It’s a vital part of our community, moving toward a zero waste goal.
Even in a place as radiant as the San Juans, the monotony of routine can get to the best of us.
Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday filled with family and friends. The 2015 Legislative Session began Jan. 12. Here are my top priorities for this year.
It’s a new year and with it comes possibilities and the always returning resolutions to better ourselves. We make promises to lose weight, exercise more, be kinder and find balance. Are these fresh starts attainable? Some say no.
Every year, we ask our readers to tell us what they hope for in the new year. For some, it’s about fitness and health. For others, it’s about finding balance in our daily lives.
At the Sounder, we are well aware of the powers of the pen. So it came as no surprise to learn that Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” was one of the major influences that has instilled the idea of Christmas as a celebration of family and friends in addition to it being a religious day.
As the season of gift-giving descends upon us – Hanukkah, Solstice, Kwanzaa and Christmas – you might be having trouble thinking of the right present for a frail older person.
Thank you for the care and kindness you brought to Orcas Island!
My wife and I have lived in the San Juans for seven years and we are now asking our community for help.
A preemptive apology to readers. This article is chock full of sentimentality. I tried to edit out any hint of schmaltziness but the task feels insurmountable.
When it happens to something very familiar, something very important, like travel on the state ferry system, change may seem even that much more of a headache.
We’ve all heard the phrase “the spirit of Christmas,” but its meaning is sometimes lost amid the barrage of consumerism that has come to define this national holiday.
Quite simply, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. This is especially true in real estate and even more so in the islands where so many of the potential buyers may only be here for a limited amount of time.
Every year we gather together with friends and family to express gratitude. Thanksgiving is about socializing and eating, but it’s also a great time to truly think about what matters in your life.
We can learn many lessons from watching how other people age — what they do and don’t do right, their attitudes, their coping skills. Mainly, aging successfully — or as I say, “deliberately” — takes planning.
I made a terrible mistake.
I knew my child’s friends and where she was every minute of the day. But I made a bad assumption. I thought she was safe at school. I was wrong.
It’s a universal feeling. The hours have whisked by and suddenly it is lunch. You are starving and the thought of eating that thick tomato soup or fresh salad makes your mouth water.
I met Sgt. Gil Frazier during the war in Afghanistan. I was an embedded journalist and he was a Marine. One of the reasons I am alive today is probably, in part, thanks to him.
We’ve written before about the need for streetlights in Eastsound. It is dark by early evening when the streets here are still busy.
Starting Jan. 5, 2015, reservations will take effect for vehicle travel between Anacortes and the San Juan Islands. Reservations may be made starting Dec. 2.
Recent TV ads promoting I-594 tell us that it will close a “loophole” which lets felons and other violent persons acquire guns at will, without going through any kind of background check or other control.
Sometimes in small-town elections, things get a little fierce. And it would seem the sheriff’s race is one of those times.
I have been carefully considering the letter of initiative that everyone recently received after Sept. 18, 2014 from the EWUA Manager Paul Kamin.
I don’t write much about telephone elder scams — it’s like warning against the ocean. Those who need to hear the message aren’t listening, and the rest seem already on top of it. Hmm, maybe not.
We supported San Juan County’s property tax levy five years ago and we are endorsing it again now.
How many times do you drive down Orcas Road wondering what will happen when you make that left turn into the ferry terminal lanes? How many times has your heart plummeted on a Friday afternoon as you see that all six lanes are full?
As an avid hiker, I often find myself alone in the woods. I find it peaceful among the trees where I am soothed by the smell of pine and fir.
If you want to learn mountain climbing, you won’t start with Mount Everest. If you yearn to become a great cook, I doubt you’ll begin by hosting a huge dinner party. For all things that are complicated and worth knowing, it takes time, education, practice and patience to learn the tricks, absorb the subtleties and understand what’s really involved.
I awaited every spring with one thing in mind: when would the box of baby chickens arrive. I fed them, stroked their soft feathers, cried when the weak ones died and rejoiced when the others grew up strong and feisty, laying eggs for us all year long.
Jim has been a guiding light and role model – both as a community minded guy and a friend to so many. Even though it is the last thing on his mind, I hope y’all are able take a minute and thank Jim. I am looking forward to his next “mission”!
There seems to be two periods in my life: the one before I met Adia and the one after.
For almost two years I have been an unofficial mentor to Adia Dolan, a vibrant, talented and now 16-year-old overall superstar, whether it comes to soccer or theater or enjoying life in general.
Garlic mustard is a flowering herb that was introduced to North America from Europe as a food and medicinal plant.
I have officially become a fogey. How and when I slipped down that slope is a conundrum to me, but all the young wonder-kid reporters working for me have confirmed my fogeyness.
Immersion experiences in wild places – “breaking the suction of town” – can run the gamut: tranquil moments, exhausting climbs, wading swollen creeks, the endless play of light and clouds, pitch darkness, hunkering under a tarp in a downpour, senses heightened and evidence all around of the ephemeral nature of life.
Alex MacLeod of Shaw Island has had three letters published by island news outlets over the past couple of months. They detail the OPALCO Board’s chicanery and apparent dishonesty.
July 4: At 7:30 p.m., OIFR responded to Raccoon Point neighborhood to assist a 67-year-old male in cardiac arrest. After CPR and other significant emergency medical procedures were administered, the patient did not respond to resuscitation attempts and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Robin Williams not only said those words but he lived them to the fullest. His madness made him one of the most brilliant comedians of the last century. Devastatingly, that spark went out when he took his own life on Aug. 11.
The only thing better than seeing bears is talking about seeing bears. Viewing such an animal and living to tell the tale is perhaps a throwback to the days when our ancestors roamed the earth living in true fear of these large predators.
When my parents moved to an assisted living community in their late 70s, my mom lived in a special memory unit because she was severely disabled from Alzheimer’s. My dad lived in his own apartment down the hall and up one floor from her, and he visited daily.
