Enjoy Holiday Cheer at the Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie! Illustration by Jane Valencia
November 2023
Back on Track: An Island Mom Rejoins Roller Derby – Part 1
By Jane Valencia Roller derby practice is tonight. After a full day as a mom, Alice Watson drops off her three-year-old son Sorrel with her co-parent Caelan at the tail end of his work day. Then she rushes off to the ferry with a drive to north Seattle on the other side, a 1½ hour…
Island Resilience, November 2023
Corporate Gift Cards? Give Cash!
By Jane Valencia The holiday season approaches, and with it, choosing gifts. If you’re like me, you often send gift cards to your teen and young adult loved ones, so they can purchase just what they want. But if you’ve been reading the “Cash On Vashon” articles these past months (see vashonloop.com), and striving to…
Book Review, Children, Literary, November 2023
Book Review – Icon: A Novel
By Jane Valencia On Thursdays, I head across the water to an Eastern Catholic church where I am learning how to write (paint) icons – sacred images in the Orthodox tradition considered to be “windows into heaven.” I also happen to love juvenile and young adult fiction. Imagine my delight when I found “Icon: A…
Health Matters, October 2023
Support Your Immune System
By Jane Valencia Note: Links within the article are to articles and recipes previously published in the Vashon Loop. As we enter Autumn and the flu season, a responsible thing we can do for ourselves, our loved ones, and our community is to ensure that we ourselves are in excellent health. Here are three avenues…
Announcements, October 2023
Clothing Drive at the Food Bank
By Jane Valencia If you stop in at the Food Bank on most Wednesdays, you’ll come upon tables arrayed with clothing, sleeping bags, blankets, and other gear, available for free. Your host is Daniel Hooker, who is not only a humorist, offering jokes as he does here in The Loop pages, but, when asked, sharing…
Editorial Page, September 2023
Now and Then
By Jane Valencia Autumn is in the air, apples are ripening. Kids are back in school, and we resume activity with renewed focus and will. As we anticipate the approach of cold and flu season, nurturing one’s immune health is, as always, a practical path. As one may expect, talk has resurged about COVID. Is…
August 2023, Children, Island Resilience
Herbs with Kids – Plant Safety Basics and a Few Summer Remedies
By Jane Valencia Are you curious about learning how to use herbs in your yard or around the Island for medicine? A great way to start is to learn with your kids. And here on Vashon, chances are they know some herbal remedies already. Start there! Do they have a favorite remedy for a nettle…
Literary
Una Oración a Nuestra Señora
By Jane Valencia Mis abuelos hablaban español, yo solo aprendí a hablar un poquito, pero ahora estoy tratando de aprenderlo. En honor a mis abuelos, me gustaría contarles una historia muy pequeña y decir una pequeña oración. ¿Les parece bien? Gracias, queridos lectores. Un día, estaba en el Jardín del Rosario en la Iglesia Católica…
Literary
Rose Hip and Snowberry – Part 4
In a time when technology has fallen away, Islanders are rediscovering the ways of the forest. In a frenzy of excitement and discovery, two children, Rose Hip and Snowberry, have yanked quantities of moss and licorice fern from a tree. When a licorice fern-being named Sweet Root berates them for their lack of consideration, the…