Midweek, and getting over the hump….

At the baseball game the other day, a few weeks back, the girls from the Cedar Park Christian softball team got done with their game & came to cheer their boys....they all said hey to Archie Brooks, who tells me he knows a bunch of them and their pastor. It's always good to see friends on an island...I asked them to smile, and they did.

Around town, around the island, around the house….

• Wahoo – it’s the San Juan Singers at the Community Theatre this weekend! Here’s more from Jan at SJCT:

San Juan Singers Welcome Spring!

San Juan Singers is all about SPRING in their festive concert: Poems, Prayers, and Promises on Saturday and Sunday, April 16 and 17 at San Juan Community Theatre.

The community choir presents a varied bouquet of music, including light-hearted songs by Mendelssohn featuring larks, nightingales, and the way the beauties of nature seem to rise up and greet you when spring is in the air.  Song-settings of texts by e. e. cummings, Rumi, and other contemporary poets will touch heart and mind as gorgeous melodies breathe life into beautiful words.

The Singers jazz it up with settings of love poems in a 20th century update of madrigals.  John Rutter sets Shakespeare and Herrick texts to jazzy rhythms and harmonies, in honor of jazz-great, George Shearing resulting in a delightfully toe-tapping take on the ups-and-downs of love and loving.

”I feel a strong surge of joy and hope when spring returns—and there’s nothing like a good spiritual to express both,” said director Angel Michaels.  For that, the Singers present some familiar and long-time favorite settings of American spirituals and songs she calls “new spirituals,” such as Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters and Billy Joel’s And So It Goes.  “You’ll leave the concert smiling, humming, and maybe dancing your own little happy dance.”

The San Juan Singers

• What ARE those birds thinking? This is your chance to find out – here’s more from Fiona and the San Juan Nature Institute:

Gordon Orions

Gordon Orians is coming to Friday Harbor on Thursday (the 14th) to give a lecture in the 2011 Arthur Whiteley Lecture Series. It will be at 7 p.m. in the Commons and judging by the ‘buzz’ of emails about this, it will be a very fine event. I quote one message: “Gordon is “the historical authority” on social behavior of blackbirds; but, more important, his monumental work has had a huge conceptual impact on understanding many aspects of social behavior in birds and stimulating much research, especially with regard to issues of mate selection and breeding fitness.”

Do come to hear his talk on Decision making in Blackbirds.

Dominique

• There are three places at Roche Harbor run by Dominique, and they’re all open – here’s the scoop:

Roche Harbor Sportswear is open for the season, so come see all the great new spring collections for men and women! 10 to 5 daily.

Dominique’s House is open 10 to 5 daily, and Dominique is receiving new inventory for your home every day! “Take home color for spring!”

Roche Harbor’s new gift store is open! It’s called “Louella” Gifts and Memories, and Dominique has designed the new store for Roche Harbor and is the buyer and manager. There is a great children department, as well as a wedding accessories department, and a French country department. Open 10 to 5 Daily.

• The Spring Fling! Here’s the story from Jan:

Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (378-5000 or 298-2195) is holding its Spring Fling Rummage and Bake Sale t his Saturday!

Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center invites you to clean out your closets and garages to help raise funds for the upcoming Spring and Summer months – our busy season!   We will have a “Spring Fling Rummage and Bake Sale”, Saturday, April 16 from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm at the American Legion.  The Legion Auxiliary will provide burgers, veggie burgers and hot dogs for lunch and baked goods will be available as well.
Anyone interested in donating gently used items for rummage or baked goods for the bake sale should contact Jan Murphy at 378-5000 or 298-2195.  Your help is greatly appreciated!

Have you seen the art garden behind Island Studios? It's all spiffed up for the spring, and the goldfish are swimming & happy....there was a little kid last week who said it would be way cooler with a shark, but Claudia says she has no plans at present to stock 'em. (That's the sun in the reflection, last weekend...)

More from the art garden at Island Studios....it's free, just walk through the store to see it, in the back...

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