Welcome to our second interview with a business owner who, despite her geographic location, still seems to lie well outside of Vashon Town, as the tourist walks. Join us in exploring the nooks and crannies of our abundant community. Past Snapdragon, one driveway beyond Euphorium, hides an eatery that has been serving Vashon for years….
The Dorsal Spin: Rare Vashon Superpod
When I lived on San Juan Island and interned at The Whale Museum in the early 1990s, I saw at least one Southern Resident killer whale (SRKW) superpod each summer. A true superpod occurs when every member of the Southern Resident community congregates, though sometimes the term is applied to a gathering of most, but…
Land Acknowledgment: Red Cedar – Tree of Life
Throughout the world, across time and place, cultures recognize a Tree of Life. The Tree may grow as a specific species, or express as an archetypal form, yet the gifts this Tree bears are not only of physical abundance, but of sacred relationship, generosity, promise, and well-being. Here in the Salish Sea (Puget Sound) region,…
Kitchen Medicine
“Kitchen Medicine” is my family’s system of natural healing: the right food for every physical condition, plus home remedies, plus exercises to exercise aches, plus vitamin therapy. We believe that by immediately eating, doing, and taking the right, simple things as soon as we first notice minor symptoms, we can avert or prevent major illnesses….
The Hawthorn Berries Are Ready
There are many hawthorns on Vashon, and their berries will soon be ready to pick – they are said to make the best medicine after a good frost. Most years, the small trees or shrubs are covered with berries that hang on well through winter. For some reason, few people bother to take advantage of…
Flying Donuts Versus Flying Saucers
In the summer of 1947, Harold Dahl, a tugboat captain from Tacoma, described the hollow-centered crafts he saw as flying donuts. Edward R. Murrow, the nation’s foremost journalist, flew out to interview eyewitnesses, and he reported what they saw as “flying saucers.” The phrase was soon adopted as common parlance. But doesn’t “flying donuts” sound…
School Bond Withdrawal Signals Transformation
On November 15, the Vashon school board voted unanimously to rescind the bond request for $19.5 million slated for 2023. Their decision was somewhat surprising, but in the finest and most refreshing sense, they elected to confront hard realities boiling down to a stew of bad timing. We should take this decision as a solid…
Loop Upgrade – How You Can Help
Since its inception, The Vashon Loop has been two things: free to all and primarily supported by the Vashon business community. We aim to keep the first and change the second, and we are asking for your help to do this. Our reasoning is simple: The past three years have been extremely challenging for small…
Rain Music
The melodies of tree rain are magical from the dull, droning Chinese water torture tunes to the scintillating syncopation of penthouse jazz and back street blues to the jaunty Harlem tap dance or the trotting gait of a Gaelic hornpipe The rain dances of the great trees are pure, sublime magic