The Simon­son and Zam­brovitz Team at Cold­well Banker San Juan Island send along their real estate mar­ket snap­shot for the San Juan Islands for December.

The total num­ber of home sales on San Juan Island is 40 per­cent less than dur­ing the same peri­od last year, but prices are near­ly 25 per­cent higher.

Contributed photo

Island cel­list Sasha Von Das­sow will per­form both clas­si­cal and hol­i­day music in the Main Salon of the San Juan Island Library on Thurs­day, Dec. 8, start­ing at 4 p.m.

If you aren’t able to attend this week’s event, Sasha will also be per­form­ing at the Library next Thurs­day, Dec. 15 — also at 4 p.m.

Fri­day Har­bor’s Old-Fash­ioned Hol­i­day Mar­ket returns this week­end — Fri­day, Sat­ur­day, and Sun­day — at Brick­works. The event fea­tures more than two dozen ven­dors offer­ing an array of crafts, food prod­ucts, health sup­ple­ments, and oth­er gifts for the holidays.

Fam­i­lies can enjoy hayrides on Sat­ur­day and pony rides on Sun­day. Local musi­cians will be per­form­ing through­out the event.

The hol­i­day mar­ket runs from 3–7 p.m. on Fri­day, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sat­ur­day, and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Sunday.

The orga­niz­ers of Fri­day Har­bor’s pop­u­lar Chardon­nay Shop­ping event send along details about this year’s edition.

Please join us for Chardon­nay Shop­ping and shop local­ly this Thurs­day, Dec. 8. Many of our local busi­ness­es, retail­ers and restau­rants are offer­ing won­der­ful spe­cials just for the Chardon­nay Shoppers.

You don’t actu­al­ly have to drink Chardon­nay to be a Chardon­nay Shop­per, so come out and enjoy the day. The event kicks off at 1 p.m. at Haley’s Sports Bar & Grill — 175 Spring St. Have lunch at your favorite restau­rant before, then hit the stores. Near­ly 50 local mer­chants and restau­rants are tak­ing part this year.

Click here to view this year’s shop­ping guide, which lists all of the par­tic­i­pat­ing busi­ness­es and their spe­cials. You can also check out the video that explains the pro­gram.

One of Fri­day Har­bor’s longest-run­ning busi­ness­es shares news about their new owner.

For 43 years Grif­fin Bay Book­store has been promi­nent in down­town Fri­day Har­bor, con­tribut­ing in myr­i­ad large and small ways to the lit­er­ary, cul­tur­al, and social lives of our island com­mu­ni­ty. It has been our mis­sion to pro­vide islanders with the books and lit­er­a­ture they trea­sure, cater­ing to the unique pref­er­ences of loy­al cus­tomers. Our shelves have always been stocked with a wide range of books, a col­lec­tion that is con­sid­ered curat­ed in trade par­lance. And though there have been many changes in island life since 1979, there has been con­ti­nu­ity of mis­sion and pur­pose. Under wise and care­ful stew­ard­ship, the three own­ers — Chris Schmidt, Susan Eye­r­ly, and Lau­ra Nor­ris — have stressed hands-on cus­tomer ser­vice, bring­ing friend­ly, knowl­edge­able, and help­ful staff to the book­store, bib­lio­philes ded­i­cat­ed to find­ing just the right book or gifts for customers.

Lau­ra Nor­ris and staff extend a great thank you to all our cus­tomers for their loy­al­ty and on-going sup­port for the last 16 years. We have weath­ered fraught times togeth­er — a reces­sion, a pan­dem­ic, and sig­nif­i­cant changes in Fri­day Har­bor as well as San Juan Island. And as we have said before, adapt­ing to uncer­tain­ties and chang­ing cir­cum­stances is no small feat for any of us. Now new and refresh­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties are com­ing to the bookstore.

This month there is new own­er­ship at Grif­fin Bay. Lau­ra Nor­ris has passed the torch to San Juan Island res­i­dent Mae Can­non effec­tive Dec. 5. While there will be some­one new at the helm, there will be the steadi­ness of con­ti­nu­ity, the steadi­ness of mis­sion and pur­pose and in staffing. You will see famil­iar faces behind the counter — Allyson, McK­ay­la, Shaw, and occa­sion­al­ly Cather­ine and Lau­ra — and Nan­cy behind the scenes. Busi­ness will con­tin­ue unin­ter­rupt­ed as usu­al. Rest assured, all gift cer­tifi­cates will be hon­ored and spe­cial orders ful­filled. The store is well-stocked for your Christ­mas gift-giv­ing needs.

Lau­ra express­es great thanks to all the book lovers who’ve browsed our shelves over these many years. “With a full and grate­ful heart, I am leav­ing Grif­fin Bay Book­store steeped in the con­fi­dence that its future is secure in the hands of new own­er Mae Can­non,” Lau­ra says. “She is a devot­ed bib­lio­phile with a wide breadth of tal­ents and exper­tise which will suit the book­store and read­ing com­mu­ni­ty well. It has been my hon­or to serve the island com­mu­ni­ty which I grew up in and love so much for these past 16 years, but I know the time has come to wel­come in the next gen­er­a­tion and I trust that all of you will join me in sup­port­ing Grif­fin Bay Bookstore’s new owner.”

Mae has loved Grif­fin Bay Book­store since the first time she and her hus­band came to vis­it Fri­day Har­bor. A res­i­dent of San Juan Island for the past sev­er­al years, Mae loves books and has a per­son­al col­lec­tion across a vari­ety of gen­res. Own­ing a book­store has been a life­long dream, and from her per­spec­tive there is no bet­ter place than on San Juan Island. Mae will be in the book­store begin­ning today. Please stop in and join us in wel­com­ing her.

“I am excit­ed to keep the tra­di­tion of Grif­fin Bay Book­store strong. My desire is for the store to con­tin­ue to be a place where all peo­ple feel wel­come and can come to learn about the trea­sures of our island and beyond, “Mae says of her vision for the book­store. “I look for­ward to being involved in the island com­mu­ni­ty as well as being a part of Fri­day Harbor’s busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty. I salute Lau­ra Nor­ris for her years of run­ning the book­store, and I am grate­ful to learn from her exper­tise as I embark on this new adventure.”

The Cham­ber of Com­merce shares news about the return of a pop­u­lar island hol­i­day tradition.

The mail­box for let­ters to San­ta is back! You can drop off your let­ters to San­ta in the big, red, sea­son­al mail­box in front of Van Go’s Piz­za at 180 Web St. Every year, a team of ded­i­cat­ed vol­un­teer elves assist San­ta in respond­ing to the hun­dreds of let­ters from our community’s youth.

The orga­niz­ers remind par­ents and care­givers that the let­ters to San­ta must have a return address to receive a response, and the child’s name needs to be clear­ly print­ed or it will be addressed to My Dear Friend. Return times may vary — even by house­hold. The vol­un­teer elves try to respond to let­ters in the order they come in, but the elves work at dif­fer­ent paces as their own lives allow. To get a child’s orig­i­nal let­ter back, include a stamped enve­lope with return address and a note request­ing it back.

Each elf cre­ates a few orig­i­nal sto­ry tem­plates for reply let­ters to get through the hun­dreds received. For more per­son­al­ized respons­es, kids can ask ques­tions, or a care­giv­er can sneak in a note about what the child has done that year. The elves do not address a child’s gift request out of respect for care­givers’ choic­es and finan­cial situations.

The dead­line to drop off a let­ter and receive a response is Tues­day, Dec. 20.

This pro­gram is run entire­ly by vol­un­teers who put their love and free time into mak­ing it hap­pen. They do not get paid and do it for the love of Christ­mas. Fri­day Har­bor Trad­ing Post, the San Juan Island Cham­ber of Com­merce, and Van Go’s Piz­za are this year’s sponsors.

Dear Fri­day Har­bor community,

I have writ­ten pre­vi­ous­ly that I love the hol­i­day sea­son. The bright lights, fes­tive dec­o­ra­tions, and amaz­ing cook­ies are some of the tra­di­tions of the sea­son I enjoy most. Sure, the tem­per­a­ture might be drop­ping, but there is still so much to cel­e­brate. This is espe­cial­ly true in your schools.

The last two years we mod­i­fied sched­ules, wore masks, and close­ly mon­i­tored COVID out­breaks. This Sep­tem­ber, how­ev­er, stu­dents returned to a school that resem­bled what life was like pre-pan­dem­ic. Hall­ways were full, col­lab­o­ra­tive projects in class­rooms resumed, and cus­tom­ary events were restored. High school stu­dents expe­ri­enced the home­com­ing parade and dance, the mid­dle school­ers hiked on Orcas, and the ele­men­tary school host­ed a Day of the Dead cel­e­bra­tion as well as a veteran’s assembly.

The most excit­ing news is that the boys soc­cer team brought home the class 2B state cham­pi­onship — the only oth­er title in school his­to­ry was in 1986. Con­grat­u­la­tions to Coach Brett Paull and all the athletes.

There are so many suc­cess sto­ries just from the first three months of school I could share that warm the heart. We real­ly do have an amaz­ing school com­mu­ni­ty. This is not to say, how­ev­er, that we haven’t expe­ri­enced our share of dif­fi­cul­ties. COVID remains a con­cern and the dis­trict con­tin­ues to fol­low guid­ance giv­en by the state and local Depart­ments of Health. In addi­tion to COVID, the reg­u­lar viral sea­son is upon us caus­ing high­er than nor­mal absence rates. Although we want all stu­dents here every day, stay­ing home when sick is a good deci­sion. We appre­ci­ate the fam­i­lies sup­port­ing us in this man­ner and the flex­i­bil­i­ty of teach­ers work­ing with stu­dents who can­not attend.

No mat­ter the sit­u­a­tion we are fac­ing, the dis­trict is com­mit­ted to con­tin­u­al improve­ment. Stu­dents deserve it. To that end, this month we begin cre­at­ing action plans for the two goals in our strate­gic plan.

Con­tin­ue Reading

The San Juan Coun­ty Coun­cil will hold a reg­u­lar meet­ing on Tues­day, Dec. 6 at 10 a.m. at Lopez Cen­ter for Com­mu­ni­ty and the Arts, 204 Vil­lage Road on Lopez Island.

The meet­ing includes a pub­lic hear­ing for the 2023 bud­get mid-bien­ni­al review. Items up for dis­cus­sion or action include:

• Adopt­ing Coun­ty staffing lev­els and pay and ben­e­fit plans for 2023
• Con­vey­ing a con­ser­va­tion ease­ment deed on the Lopez Hill Addi­tion prop­er­ty to San Juan Preser­va­tion Trust
• Human Ser­vices trans­porta­tion update
• Request­ing autho­riza­tion to apply for a Recre­ation and Con­ser­va­tion Office Grant for the Hunter Bay Marine Facil­i­ty project

Because the meet­ing is being held out­side of the Coun­cil Leg­isla­tive Hear­ing Room, a live stream of the meet­ing will not be available.

Long-time islander Michael­Jean Smith is still look­ing for some help after a major stroke in Feb­ru­ary caused paral­y­sis on both sides of her body.

“She has pro­gressed to using a wheel chair, and is alert and aware and able to speak,” says Min­nie Knych, a friend of Michael­Jean’s. “She is in reha­bil­i­ta­tion at a care cen­ter in Everett. She is improv­ing slow­ly, but still needs 24-hour care, and her med­ical bills con­tin­ue to grow.

“Her hus­band Sid goes every week­end to be with her in Everett, and has fer­ry, food and gas, plus hotel costs to cov­er with his job as mechan­ic owner/operator of San Juan Air Main­te­nance, along with reg­u­lar home expens­es and mort­gage. They real­ly could use some help this hol­i­day season.”

Michael Jean’s church has cre­at­ed a Ban­ner Bank busi­ness account to pay care expens­es not cov­ered by insur­ance. Dona­tions can be made to the account, end­ing in 2419, direct­ly at Ban­ner Bank. Online dona­tions are also being accept­ed.

The Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Soci­ety of Fri­day Har­bor shares a look at the adopt­able ani­mal of the week — Robin, a two-year-old chi­huahua mix.

Hi there, my name is Robin. As a female, I am vast and I have many sides, but most press­ing right now is the title of young new mom.

Although there are many things that a new mom must decide, one of high­est impor­tance is choos­ing a name for her child, so when I found myself bear­ing my first lit­ter, I just knew I had to get it right in pick­ing their names. I start­ed to think of my own name, Robin. I have always been so grate­ful to have it as it was giv­en to me in hon­or of a beloved fam­i­ly mem­ber. Addi­tion­al­ly, I always liked the asso­ci­a­tion with the bird of the same name — a quin­tes­sen­tial North Amer­i­can species known for being an early-bird.

Before long it occurred to me to use birds as name inspi­ra­tion for my babies, and although it was so dif­fi­cult to choose from all the avian options, I soon set­tled on their names:

• Jay — Blue jays are birds known for their intel­li­gence and tight fam­i­ly bonds.
• Raven — A bird that is a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Bal­ti­more, a place I’ve always loved.
• Star­ling — I’ve always been a suck­er for William Shake­speare and in the 19th cen­tu­ry these birds arrived in North Amer­i­ca thanks to the help of Shake­speare enthusiasts.
• Wren — Pacif­ic wrens are known for their larg­er-than-life, com­plex, and oh-so-beau­ti­ful songs.

Birds of a feath­er, me and my lit­tle ones flock togeth­er. My pup­pies will grow quick­ly — I am told by all moth­ers that it will go by in a blink — and before long they’ll be off on their own, with their new fam­i­lies while I too find my next adven­ture. But no mat­ter where we go, our con­nec­tion will for­ev­er be in heart and name. Where will we fly to next? Is it into your home and hearts? We hope so!

Con­tact APS to learn more about Robin.