By March Twisdale Prior to moving to Vashon, my family helped develop a Cohousing Community in West Seattle. We lived there for four years. During that time, I fell in love with our Community Work Parties. Twice a year, all 23 families would set aside a weekend to work together to improve, beautify, and maintain…
By Dr. Leigh Siergiewicz Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are considered a weed by many, but if you have them, rather than toss them in the compost when you pull them up, use them as free food! Take them from clean yards or woods; they may accumulate a lot of exhaust and roadside gunk if you take…
By Emilia Flor Spring is the season of Air, so I am focusing on the sacred breath of Life. Using my breath to reach stillness.Disconnecting from the external world.Disconnecting from my mental chatter.Getting still. Being quiet. Going deep within. And listen, listening.In the deepest moments of stillness and presence, it’s all there.Peace, love, safety, and…
By Craig Bailey, “Fiddlehead Bistro,” Saranac Lake, NY Ingredients • 2 cloves garlic, halved • 1 star anise • ½ tsp anise seed • 1 tsp coriander seed • 1 tsp cumin seed • 4 peppercorns • 1 tsp mustard seed • 1 very small piece of cinnamon stick • 1 bay leaf • 2…
By Daniel Hooker Before crowbars were invented, crows used to drink at fresh streams and rivers! ~ Q. What do you call two crows fighting on a fence? A. Attempted murder! ~ Our family name is Hooker, but it used to be Baker. For obvious reasons, we were into baking. But eventually we had to…
By Ivan SnowaTranslated by Marc J. Elzenbeck I see you on the beach so healthywith umbrella yellow and the sunheating strong and rolling overinto my skin with pleasant panic. You’re with the babies smilinglaughing but beckoning me backfrom the waves where I’m drowningI snap awake and grab the wheel. Scraping the mile marker post47 just…
Mukai Farm & Garden’s fifth annual Haiku Festival will kick off on April 1, 2024. Each year, the event draws hundreds of haiku submissions from Vashon residents and poets from abroad. In 2023, Mukai received over 500 hundred haiku submissions from Vashon residents, as well as poets from 13 countries. According to Leah Mann, Mukai…
By Claudia Hollander-Lucas I love how history can teach us – if only we’d remember it for current times – especially with rising tension around the upcoming presidential election, (re)surging wars on a global scale, and democracy under threat. This alphabet poem is in remembrance of the twentieth century when modernist art-invention, feminism, two world…