About the Author
Ian Byington

I’ve been writing this & adding to it since 1997, and it has morphed into what you see now during that time – a collaborative effort between our community and me to tell the story of what makes an island tick, and to celebrate the cool things that happen.

Recent Posts by Ian

Dateline Victoria: The ferry to Sidney is running again!

April 7, 2014 at 6:02 am

Vic­to­ria, BC — OK, we’ll admit it: it’s been tough not hav­ing the easy ride to the island, the last three months. Josie & I think of things to do, plays to see, peo­ple to hug, and the Sidney/Anacortes/Friday Har­bor fer­ry has­n’t been sched­uled since ear­ly January…but now it’s back. One of the parts I like  Con­tin­ue Reading

Dateline: Victoria — ho, ho, ho

December 17, 2013 at 6:07 am

This is part of a con­tin­u­ing series by Update reporter Ian Bying­ton to explain the ways of Cana­di­ans to my broth­er & sis­ter San Juan Islanders, so that you think it’s a good idea to get on the fer­ry, ride for an hour & ten min­utes, and wahoo! you’re in a cool new place that’s  Con­tin­ue Reading

Review: Jill’s “Two Room Flat” is a winner!

November 18, 2013 at 5:50 am

It’s always fun to read some­one’s first nov­el, if only because you feel you know them a lit­tle bet­ter after fin­ish­ing it. Islander Jill Urbach has put togeth­er a sweet sto­ry called Two Room Flat which spot­lights two peo­ple who know each oth­er’s loss­es too well, and are thrown togeth­er by fate and oppor­tu­ni­ty. She tells  Con­tin­ue Reading

Islanders in stories from around the ‘Net.…

November 17, 2013 at 12:38 pm

It’s fun to see friends from the island pop up in sto­ries — let’s check them out:  You know how Jes­si­ca Old­wyn has been wrestling (and win­ning!) with that brain toom­ah for the past three years (check her incred­i­bly well writ­ten blog for the lat­est). Well, last week, she had the Bud­dha stat­ue from her front  Con­tin­ue Reading

Herbicide to be Used to Benefit Rare Butterfly

October 30, 2013 at 7:56 am

The Nation­al Park Ser­vice plans to apply her­bi­cide to Cana­da this­tle infest­ing crit­i­cal habi­tat for the island mar­ble but­ter­fly at Amer­i­can Camp, an area of crit­i­cal impor­tance to the island mar­ble but­ter­fly, announced Super­in­ten­dent Lee Tay­lor . The treat­ment will tar­get 1.5 acres east of Pickett’s Lane and one acre south of the Redoubt Road. This  Con­tin­ue Reading

Free Willy, twenty years ago this year! What have we discovered, what have we learned, what’s left.…

October 2, 2013 at 4:32 am

Do you remem­ber where you were, the first time you saw Free Willy? For me, it was in a movie the­atre in Eugene, OR, with a packed house that screamed & cheered & clapped when Willy gets away at the end (see the poster at right, for spoil­er). It was a foot­ball game where the  Con­tin­ue Reading

Former islander Joe Bongiorno’s new album — it’s out!

October 2, 2013 at 4:24 am

When I first heard Joe Bon­giorno’s new release, The Flight of a Dream ear­li­er this month, I knew that he had a win­ner on his hands. I’ve lis­tened to it now maybe six mil­lion times…but that’s been a cou­ple of weeks, so I had time. It’s great! (Click here to hear sam­ples — you’ll get it!) Joe  Con­tin­ue Reading

Dateline: Victoria…check our neighbour out in the fall!

September 12, 2013 at 1:19 pm

I was hop­ing to impress on you how autumn-like it was in Vic­to­ria, so I chose the warmest week of the year — this week it hit over 80 degrees Fahren­heit (27 C.), with peo­ple I meet in the streets say­ing, “Is it like this all the time, here?” Since I want them to know  Con­tin­ue Reading

Gearing up for the next 40 years — Go, Wolverine football!

September 10, 2013 at 6:09 am

  Sat­ur­day after­noon brought sun­shine, a foot­ball game with Ana­cortes High, and a flood of mem­o­ries as the Wolver­ines cel­e­brat­ed 40 years of foot­ball at Fri­day Har­bor High School. It was great to see the guys who helped get the pro­gram going & cheer for them, and see the Wolver­ines come oh-so-close as they dropped  Con­tin­ue Reading

Around the island

August 15, 2013 at 8:40 pm

It was cool to get a chance to drop by the island for the past few days — dur­ing the vis­it, I ran into folks who had sto­ries to share. Here’s a quick run­down: Last month, Mer­ritt & Janet Olsen came back to the island to vis­it, so it was­n’t too sur­pris­ing to run into  Con­tin­ue Reading

Recent Comments by Ian