By Pam (Gates) Johnson Sometimes, living in an apartment doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Let me give you a little backstory. I’ve been living on my little farm since 1975. It has a house (duh), a barn, an orchard, a garden, a big lawn, and fenced pastures. My life-long dream was to live on…
Seán Malone & John Sweetman Seán and I grew up on different islands, but shared so much of the same experiences. We always knew the “warning signs” of summer, which arrived in July, not June, which was typically a gloomy month. The signs of summer were not merely longer daylight hours, warm days, and the…
By Jane Valencia A few months ago, in a conversation between herbalist and frequent Loop writer, Kathy Abascal, and co-editor Caitlin Rothermel and myself, we spoke about the ability of plants to work on the entire spectrum of our health from the physical, psycho-emotional, to the spiritual. We speculated: if herbs can address dis-ease on…
By Chef Julia This cookie recipe has a special place in my heart … and my kitchen. I originally taught it during my time at Le Cordon Bleu, and it never failed to win over even the most refined palates. These cookies strike a beautiful balance: the hearty chew of old-fashioned oats, the sweet creaminess…
By Suzanna Leigh It was the summer of 1999, and we had just set the anchor in Longbranch, a little bay in the South Sound. We hadn’t taken the sails down yet when a gust of wind caught the mainsail and nearly sailed us into an odd collection of boats rafted together. The anchor held,…
By S. E. Reid lake-cold is its own moment,a sleeping aquifer yawning underfootinvisiblebut we can feel it; this wateris thousands of years oldand yet we—finite things—swim unaware in eternity,dragonflies dodgingin the heavy summer stillness. the dogs shake,glitter flies,fish dart away from our kicking feet, and up high,the humming planes look down on usswimming breast-stroke through…
By Anne Cotter Moses Jackson and Fiona have seven pets between the two of them. Steve has twice as many pets as Jackson. Steve has five more pets than Fiona. How many pets do the three children have all together?
By Alex Soriano The Observant Frog’s Log by Alex Soriano
By Daniel Hooker This joke comes from Bob at Ace Hardware: A customer is at the checkout stand, and the cashier asks, “Paper or plastic?” The customer answers, “You choose.” The cashier replies, “Baggers can’t be choosers.” ~ At the Olympics I saw a guy carrying a long stick. I asked, “Are you a pole…