This annual event is a super reminder of both our roots in the area, and the chances for a positive future, as First Nations folks come to visit…here’s more from Stephanie Buffum from the Friends of the San Juans: This Thursday-Sunday over 200 coast Salish tribes will be paddling through the San Juans from Vancouver  Continue Reading

Just got this note from Amy Traxler with the Marine Stranding Network: Once again, harbor seal pupping season in San Juan County is fast approaching. Pups in the San Juans are born on off-shore rocks and reefs and depend on their mother’s milk for the first 3-4 weeks of their life.  At that point, the  Continue Reading

With royal weddings & basketball playoffs & hockey playoffs & all kinds of other things going on, let’s don’t forget that there are people hurting in the South, where those tornados tore stores & houses & dreams from their foundations and scattered them across the countryside. Most of my family graduated from the University in  Continue Reading

Well, the sun’s out & the sky is blue, so it’s time for paddling, too! Here’s more from Martha, as they get underway this week: You don’t have to go to Hawaii to paddle a Hawaiian-style outrigger canoe!  The San Juan Canoe and Kayak Club has a Youth Paddling Team. From April 28th to June  Continue Reading

I love it that there are people like Stephanie (she works at Harrison House/Tucker House) who think up ideas like The Great Island Cleanup & then make them happen – it’s people like her who make this a great place to live! Thank you, Stephanie! She filed this report about how it all turned out:  Continue Reading

years ago, when I went to university there was this poem, scribbled & sketched & written on a scrap of paper on the wall in the first room i ever stayed in away from home i remembered it so i could read it my eyes closed, and my heart open here it is, as words  Continue Reading

Time to plan the birthday cake. Then plan how many mouths can we feed. Really. As the sun rises on our beautiful island, I hope you have good & meaningful things planned for this day celebrating the planet that holds us, that sustains us, that offers us the wonder of the colors of changing seasons,  Continue Reading

On Thursday night, islander Peter Corning made a presentation at Griffin Bay Bookstore in support of his new, internationally distributed & acclaimed book, The Fair Society, in which he talks about his sense that people, at bottom, DO try to share & work together to make things more equitable in the world. A major point,  Continue Reading

These are some daffodils I saw yesterday just round the corner at Harbor Rentals, where I took my lawn mower to get it ready for the season….beginning to look like spring around here, with equinox in a couple of days.

Here’s the scoop from The Whale Museum: Marine Naturalist Training Program Spring 2011 The Marine Naturalist Training Program, presented by The Whale Museum, is now accepting registrations for the spring class.  The program dates are Saturdays, April 30, May 7, 14, 21, and 28, and Sunday May 29. The object of this program is to  Continue Reading

In the light of last week’s tsunami & the disaster in Japan, the County’s Department of Emergency Management director Brenden Cowan offers these thoughts: Quakes, Tsunamis, and the Islands A practical take on disaster preparedness Last week’s earthquake in Japan has grabbed headlines across the world for obvious reasons. The scale of the destruction is  Continue Reading

Jim Maya caught some incredible pictures of foraging yesterday as J pod trundled through the strait, but says he did not sight J1 (Ruffles) in the pod…killer whale fans & researchers have not seen the father & grandfather of many in the three resident pods since November.

This is beautiful photography & a beautiful animal, with pilot & falconer Ken Franklin checking out how fast the bird can go (Suzanne is in the film, too…). His falcon Frightful clocks in at over 180 miles an hour in one test, and over 240 a week later. This vid has over 1,600,000 visits, which  Continue Reading

The light dusting of snow began last night but really opened up this morning, making the island a winter wonderland for most of the day. The forecast has a storm, more snow, and freezing weather ahead for this late afternoon, tonight & tomorrow.

There was a 3.2 magnitude quake on San Juan Island this morning – did you feel it? Here’s the data…

“When despair for the world grows in me, and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be – I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. “I come into the peace of  Continue Reading