Orcas Island Community Church’s Christmas Eve candlelight service encapsulates all that Christmas is about. At the end of the service, we turn off all of the lights. One candle is brought forward and from that one, each person lights the next candle. It goes on until every person’s candle is …
Aeronautical Services sounds like some NASA-marine-spy agency that works pseudo-undercover in white vans. Actually, they are one or our package delivery services. Everything gets to Orcas Island by small plane (aero) or ferry (nautical), then is distributed by either the Post Office, FedEx, or Aeronautical Services. Thank you to all …
Between going to Christmas plays and concerts, and cozying at home with my family, it just doesn’t get much better than this. Orcas Christian School’s Christmas play… Crow Valley String Band’s dauntingly great performance at Orcas Center… And my favorite, the gift of home… The Christmas Eve candlelight service at …
I can’t believe it’s a few days from now! If you need some last Christmas gifts, there’s a pop-up shop where Sequel used to be, next to Ray’s Pharmacy. Painter and photographer Deb Jones, cardboard illustrator and beach trash artist Brook Meinhardt, and basket weaver Maria Bullock have their beauties …
Meet Jan Pliler. I just did in Darvill’s Bookstore. You may have met her over the course of your life here. She and her husband honeymooned here, they came here every year with their kids, her kids grew up paddling across Cascade Lake to what they call “Gummy Bear Bridge” …
I just love this. I gave each child in my youth group a ball of clay, a manger scene figurine to mimic if needed, and 20 minutes to sculpt. That’s a really short time to make art, but that’s what we had. The next week, I gave each child paintbrushes, …
Last year I homeschooled our boys in conjunction with the OASIS program, which meant our younger son was able to attend Mandy Randolph’s beautiful Farm-to-Classroom program, assisted by garden keeper Colleen Stewart. Wow. Mandy has endless creative hands-on ideas for the kids. I was so impressed. I wish our kids …
This is a post my cousin recently put on Facebook, worthy of being repeated here… “Makes me so sad to see adults on television and on Twitter and Facebook posting news articles and sources calling out and trying to discredit or demean a 16 year old girl who was selected …
I had no idea Martha Farish painted all of those beautiful pieces I pass all the time at Outlook Inn; I had no idea she painted at all! Nor had I heard of The Huntress Guild! Those are just a few things I’ve gleaned from the website about this new …
Thank you, Michele Rodriguez! You have made my recent Saturday afternoons a blast! I’ll always be a kid at heart, and I’m sure loving roller skating at the new old gym! What a blast to spend THREE HOURS skating with my kids! Michele says that a prerequisite of the rebuilding …
After a hungry hike up Turtleback and down, we arrived at the Lum Farm on Coffelt’s Farm Preserve borderline hangry, trying to fit too many things into the day without enough meal planning. Had we filled our tummies adequately, we would’ve loved to enjoy the wintry farm feeling, the lovely …
I’m a daily walker. I like to cover a good distance and take it all in. But our dog is quirky. She doesn’t like to walk in certain places. She stops. It’s gotten to the point that I have to carry her for half of my walk until she goes …
The night before I went into labor with our firstborn, I asked my husband a really embarrassing question… “Will you give me an enema?” You see, our baby was several days past due and kept growing by leaps and bounds in utero. The skin of my stomach was beyond taut …
Eastsound is a tiny little town. Here’s a quick time-lapse my son took while skateboarding to his church youth group this morning. This will give you a swift idea of how the place is laid out if you’ve never been here before…
This family makes music that will stun you. We just got our tickets for their December 20th performance at Orcas Center, and we rarely miss them when they play. Between Crow Valley String Band (the family) and Brograss (their teenage sons), you can’t believe their talent. We’ve been watching them …
The Annual Children’s Christmas Market was a beautiful thing. Almost 60 kids participated, and their creations and displays were beyond impressive. It was a lucrative day, too, for many. Here’s a photo tour of some of the carefully crafted items for sale… I do my best to avoid showing children’s …
Now that the Christmas season is upon us, make sure you stop in the library this Saturday (November 30th) between 11:00 and 2:00. Local kids have been busy this month building up their stocks of creations to sell at the Annual Children’s Christmas Market. If you haven’t been before, it’s …
Our family’s Thanksgiving tradition since moving to Orcas Island is to luxuriate in a few days free of cooking and walk over to the Oddfellows Hall for their late afternoon Thanksgiving potluck feast (and come home to a clean kitchen!). Turkeys and potatoes are donated by local businesses and cooked …
Our tech-loving teenager saved the money he earned from working for Orcas Island Youth Conservation Corps this summer in order to buy a 3D printer. It just came three days ago and he is more than thrilled, as he’s been designing, printing, and painting a chromium atom for a school …
…at Troller Point Fisheries.” That’s what his wife, Daphne, wrote on Facebook. If you don’t live here, Troller Point Fisheries is a family fishing business, and a boat comes over to Orcas Island a couple times a year to sell their beautiful, conscientiously-caught fish from Alaska. A lot of us …
In my teens I used to wonder if people ever sat around reading the bible. I grew up in a Catholic family. We were taught to be loving and good, but we never opened a bible together, so I didn’t know if it was ever done. If people were actually …
You’re oh-so-familiar with the ferry landing if you live here. If you don’t, here’s a look at where you land when you reach Orcas Island, and where you depart from when you leave (unless you fly). My son was helping someone with their devices, so I walked around capturing the …
Except for an hour-ish walk by myself each day, my every moment since the birth of our first child has been filled. Until now. It’s been a wonderful thing, all these years. I’m all or nothing, so I was never interested in doing my own things when it meant I’d …
When I look out our windows at home, the colder November sights I see are always accompanied by the sounds of A Winter’s Solstice or Celtic Christmas by Windham Hill – a few series of CDs I’ve played since college. In my junior year, one of my roommates was playing …
At night, all is quiet in a way you can’t really comprehend unless you’ve been here. It’s so quiet you can stand out in the forest, look up at the stars twinkling through, and feel like you’re the only one in existence. Sometimes you feel like your normal speaking voice …
Clay Cafe is a pop-up ceramics-painting workshop in the public high school’s art room that happens twice a year in November and April. It is hosted by art teachers who are volunteering their time to raise money for the A-OK program. You go in, choose a blank bowl, plate, tea …
A walk around the neighborhood…
This is the last photo taken on the way home from the team’s final meet of this Cross Country season, crossing the Deception Pass Bridge after South Whidbey Island’s district championships. Sighhhhh…. What a nice team; it’s sad to see it already ending. Girls, we need some of you next …
I just love the morning fog and the sun’s rays that characterize the dawn skies in the interior part of our island. You’re almost always guaranteed some amazing sights if you venture inward between Fowler’s Pond and OrcaSong Farm.
The other day in the library, I was admiring a very professionally carved pumpkin that was sitting on the counter. “Who did this?” I asked. “She’s right over there,” pointed the librarian. The artist happened to be a few footsteps away. Her name is Laura Hanks and I asked her …
I love these photos taken on Halloween by Denise Thomasin! Great idea, girls!
Actually, the day began with pouring, blowing, sideways rain, unlike the usual pitter-patter of Orcas. In the middle of a morning walk, I ducked into Darvill’s Bookstore so as to avoid getting soaked, but realized I’d be camping out for quite some time. I accepted the idea of being drenched, …
I am “mainstream.” I don’t live in an off-the-grid yurt clad with solar panels. I don’t grow my own food. I live in a house, use my heater in the winter, and own a car. I learned these things from birth from my culture, which taught me to live easy, …
As my siblings and I were carrying our mom’s things to the U-Haul for her move to Texas, a big, beautiful buck walked up to her window and looked right at her as if to give her one last gift from this magical place. Deer are everywhere, but this doesn’t …
Some of our common sights…
I’m starting a new series of quasi-interviews in which I email questions to a local person I’d like to know more about. Here are Michael Armenia’s answers, in his own words… Edee: I see you around town and in the library a lot – what do you do and what …
Reminiscing about our children’s younger years has brought me to photos of our fall fun at Mimi and Steve Diepenbrock’s farm five years ago… Thank you so much for the memories, y’all!
As we all know here on the island, anything you want to do on the mainland will mean an all-day trip no matter what – a 45-minute dermatologist appointment, a 25-minute 5K run on the Cross Country team, a dive into Costco for needed supplies, a haircut, a movie, you …
Walk in nature for an hour or so with my husband, blend up a kale-banana-peanut-butter-date smoothie once home, set it in my bike basket along with my computer, bike down to the Co-op to buy a warm loaf of Endswell Bakehouse sesame or wheat and brown sugar and oats bread, …
There’s no place like Orcas Island in the fall. Here’s a glimpse of Salmonberry School’s celebration of it when our kids were five years younger. Oh so magical.
I’ve been looking at our family photos here in the islands from Octobers past. Here’s a glimpse of early fall…
One of the perks of homeschooling last year was seeking out dreamy opportunities. My son happened to notice the 3D printer at the Funhouse one day when he was at Running Club, so he asked if we could stop by sometime and ask if anyone was allowed to use it. …
It feels like eons since I’ve posted anything. My computer has gotten so elderly that it no longer allows me to access my blog. But as fall tends to bring, change is in the air, and the blog (or “blob,” as my mom thinks it’s called) has been set aside …
You’ve probably noticed a big change when you drive by Orcas Christian School on Enchanted Forest Road – the green, grassy field in front that used to be the play field is now a permaculture garden in the works, bursting with color and edibles. The brainchild and design of Alex …
Three years ago, I was trying to figure out some kind of short-term mission trip we could take as a family to help people. The point of it would be to find some talent our kids have that they can use to benefit other people. I mentioned to a friend …
My mom turned 85 in July and it’s probably the last birthday I will get to celebrate with her. She lived out her dream of moving to Orcas Island, and she will soon be moving to Texas to have closer proximity to health care and assisted living situations near three …
A Different Kind of List You Won’t See on My Resume… I have deep memories of how I felt for my first love at 13. I held my beloved dog on my lap as she slowly and convulsively died. I loved a guy with every cell of my being for …
I love that people come together at The Village Green in the middle of Eastsound for all kinds of very Orcas-y gatherings, from Saturday Farmers’ Markets and Sunday night music concerts all summer to open-air movie nights with lawn chairs and blankets. The Orcas Island Film Festival organized three such …
13-year-old’s entry fee: $5 corn dog, elephant ear, and cotton candy: $19 three rides on Gravitron: $15 vomiting at 2AM: priceless (…if you remember the MasterCard “priceless” commercials)
My mom moved here about six years ago, thanks to a rental literally hanging over the ocean. It’s the bottom floor of a beautiful home and the madrona trees hold it in place on its breathtaking precipice. My mom always said she wanted to live in the forest and look …
Kids on this island are so fortunate because the world comes to them. We were recently treated to a planetarium show in the public school cafeteria, thanks to our library and the Pacific Science Center. We entered this mobile, inflatable dome, which became the night sky complete with constellations and …
Exo has been gone for some time now, but I’ve finally taken the time to upload some videos of his Parkouring with Orcas folks. Enjoy…
This is Exo. Super nice guy. You may have seen him flipping off walls here and there around the island, followed by burgeoning parkour enthusiasts. What’s parkour? It is “the activity or sport of moving rapidly through an area, typically in an urban environment, negotiating obstacles by running, jumping, and …
Last week our local Community Church put on our annual Vacation Bible School. This year’s “Roar” African theme meant decorating all of the church’s rooms with appropriately patterned fabrics and rattans, sunset silhouettes of giraffes and rhinos, and colors galore. It was my role as a “safari guide” to accompany …
My mom and I were just reminiscing about my brother’s first visit to Orcas Island five years ago. She happened upon a tiny journal he kept while here and then left for her to have. It encapsulates all the unique and magical summery things every tourist and local revels in. …
I asked my husband, who used to be the cartoonist for his college paper (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo), if he’d draw something that was on my mind. Here it is… It’s too small to read, so I’ll break it up for you… Thank you, husband. Well done.
Devices and video games are so prevalent that some kids can’t imagine a day (or sadly an hour) without them. When we were traveling in the Cook Islands, we met a woman who works with addicts and some of her main clients now are parents of screen-addicted kids. Some of …
I’m proud of Island Market! They are now, as of today, charging 25 cents per paper bag. Hooray! Get sewing, ladies and gentlemen! All the bag money they do receive will go toward critical needs here on the island. Thank you, corporation, for making sensical change! Keep it up!
Cathy Ellis is a firecracker of a lady. You’ve seen her biking all over the place, living life like a 20-year-old. You’ve probably signed petitions she’s shown you on the ferry in order to protect the Orcas. Perhaps you went to her talk a few years ago about her volunteering …
Do we really get to live here? Taken at 9:21 tonight on Turtleback Mountain. Thank you, Jude Nash, for permission to post this. Dreamy, fairytale, heavenly, speechless.
I love when I am given complete freedom to create. I also love hearing the stories of missionaries; they are celebrities in my mind (along with doctors, teachers, etc.). The missions group at our church lets me design the mission board, and I have such a ball doing it. The …
We don’t have a human mayor here on Orcas Island. It can be a dog, a cat, a whale, a donkey, just about anything. Our current mayor is Tinker, a rabbit. (Lucky us, he’s our neighbor.) Soon, we islanders will choose a new honorary mayor by voting with our dollars, …
Dear Children of the World, Be encouraged by our president. He is proof that you can do anything in the world that you want to do, regardless of how you choose to live. His life was not lived morally, and he now stands for truth and justice. His ego was …
It’s now over, but thanks to Susan Slapin’s colorful photos, we can relive our locally-made Cirque-US a little bit longer…
I love that on Orcas Island, you can pick just about any stunning place to go on a beautiful day and you’ll be some of the only people there. Our younger one decided he wanted a birthday party in the woods. We planned plant-potting, woodsy-house-building, bouquet-making, scavenger hunting, and edible-plant …
I’ve been trained by my culture to be mindless. I’m retraining myself. Will you join me?… STORE BAGS About 10 or 12 years ago, I started bringing my own bags to the store. At first, I’d forget them in my trunk, wander the aisles, and remember to go back to …
It’s an all-day affair for an Orcas Islander to simply go to a doctor’s appointment on the mainland. Ferry line at 6:15, arrive in Anacortes at 8:15, drive to Burlington, Bellingham, or Seattle, then barely make it into Safeway before getting back in the ferry line for the voyage home. …
WOW. I went to Cirque-US the other night at Orcas Center. Talk about DYNAMIC! Probably the best show I’ve ever seen here on Orcas Island. It was NONSTOP, BIG entertainment – WILD costumes, FABULOUS makeup, COOL freakiness, IMPRESSIVE choreography, and people stepping out of their comfort zones to do AMAZING …
There are a lot of sources of goodies here on the island – a lot – but one thing we lack is a little, affordable bakery with good muffins, cookies, and donuts. People often open businesses here that you just know will go under within months. Tragically, we watch it …
Bread was seen as evil in my house growing up. We never seemed to eat it much. I think it was thought only to bloat and plumpify. That’s fine, I guess. Most of it’s crap – white, bleached, dead stuff. Unless I’m eating warm garlic rolls at an Italian restaurant, …
Every now and then when the weather is gorgeous, we opt to catch the 15-minute ferry to Shaw Island for the day. We walk on, get the kids an ice cream cone at the little General Store, and then we spend the afternoon walking a few miles to the sandy …
Most people experience it when their children are young, but today is the first day in almost 14 years that both of my children have gone to school all day. It’s Test Drive Day at the Christian School, so they’re getting a feel for what 3rd grade and 8th grade …
A few days ago, it was hot summer. Yesterday was chilly fall. Today was half and half. I’m sure the garden is a little mixed up. So am I. Either way, I’m loving spring and visiting Lorna’s nursery a little too often. Our garden under the forest canopy has made …
One life-changing hour…
Scenes of Orcas Island in this beautiful spring weather…
Yesterday I was running into the Island Market to get some dinner greens. In front of the store was a mouth-watering spread of goodies to raise money for 3rd-8th graders from Orcas Christian School for their end-of-the-year trip to Victoria. It’s a common thing here on the island to walk …
For years I’ve wanted to make a stunning costume out of junked materials for the Trashion Fashion Show here on the island. While I didn’t have time to devote to it this year, I nevertheless contacted the woman who makes it happen – Asifa Pasin. I thought that perhaps I …
Things are warming up here on Orcas Island. Not just the weather. Flyers and sandwich boards are proliferating with events and quintessentially Orcas kinds of things. I just love the talent shows here – Orcas Has Talent for adults, Whale of a Show for kids, and now this – the …
This past Sunday at 1:30 was the annual Spring ROAR at Camp Orkila. (ROAR stands for Rogue Obstacle Adventure Race.) It’s a really short, fun, family-friendly race that Orkila started hosting several years ago. Everyone has a blast doing it. You’ll probably recognize a lot of faces…
Yesterday Time for Three, a super dynamic and charismatic trio, performed for the Orcas Island Public School kids at Orcas Center. Double bassist Ranaan Meyer, violinist Nick Kendall, and violinist Charles Yang wowed us all with their combination of skill, improvisation, and easy humor while playing classical and modern mixes …
When I was 12, I wrote National Geographic and asked them what it would take to be a National Geographic photographer. They actually responded with a fairly thick packet of information. The cover letter was written expressly to me, or so it seemed, and in a nutshell, it basically said, …
I love the way Bob and Iris Eastman love each other. When you marry, it’s about the two becoming one. While it may be hard for some people, Bob and Iris do it naturally. They complement each other and fill in each other’s gaps. They help each other and support …
Out of respect for Anthony the Dancer, who choreographs the Island Inspiration All-Stars, I will not show you snippets of what happened tonight at Orcas Center. He prefers that audience members refrain from taking photos. It was fantastic. As usual. What especially stood out to me were the songs sung …
Done. Yay! Bucket list item – check. 8:03 – 8:16 PM. 50 questions. 15 seconds each. Enough time to read and type an answer. Not enough to retrieve things long buried deep in the brain. Answers like Amy Tan, saturated, March Madness, Tolstoy, possibly Pinochet, and oh so many I …
“Mom, no more grafting, lambing, or farming classes from now on,” said my older son in a playful tone as we pulled up to the Orcas Island Historical Museum. “Besides, I already know how to graft.” True. Lost one. He walked home. Younger one and I walked in to join …
It’s been rainy and gray lately, so I have a few recommendations for your entertainment. Upon watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty the other night, the one by Ben Stiller (it’s $4 on Amazon if you have Prime), I realize I am the female version of this guy. Or …
I’ll never forget taking a career assessment in high school. After filling in all kinds of bubbles pertaining to my skills and interests, the computer thought about it and spat out an answer. Biologist? No. Environmental Scientist? No. Photographer? No. Acrobat. That was my deeply-computed destiny. All those good grades …
One of the wonderful things about Orcas Island is its talent shows. I just love them – A Whale of a Show, Orcas Has Talent, and Seniors Have Talent. Competitions they are not; celebrations they are – people blossoming into the things that give them joy as the rest of …
I grew up watching Jeopardy! every night with my parents. I loved it. It was a bump up from Trivial Pursuit – I could answer a lot in the latter, but few in the former. When I was about 27 years old and living without a TV, my mom called …
In case you missed the Annual Science Fair now held at the Public School cafeteria (instead of the Funhouse) and open to any children on the island regardless of where they go to school, here’s a glimpse…
I can’t remember a time in Eastsound that was more forest-clearing and construction-y than right now. Walk a 20-minute circumference around the town and you’ll see a lot of change. Go hug your favorite tree today; it might be gone tomorrow.
That is always the question. For me, at least. When we moved here, we knew the hardest thing we’d be leaving wouldn’t be the year-round sunny weather but the school our older son attended. It was a small Christian academy where students were expected to work hard and have absolute …
Tomorrow the cast of Mamma Mia! will begin their second round of three weekend musical shows at Orcas Center. By the end of next weekend, they will have done 11 total performances. By around the eighth, I think my mind would get so loopy in deja-vu land that I wouldn’t …
This is our fifth day of spring. When it comes, you wake up one day to a whole new season – new birds singing, sun shining, blue sky, warm air, new scents, and a giddy feeling that overwhelms your being and pushes you out in the beauty. It happened Saturday …
According to the bible, the Sabbath day begins at sundown and ends the next day at sundown. The Sabbath is meant to be a day of rest (the Hebrew is Shabbat, from the verb shabat, which means ‘to rest’). It’s God’s fourth command in the Ten Commandments: “Remember the Sabbath day …
We left for a lunchtime walk and came back covered in snowflakes. It kept on until an hour or so after school pick-up. Silent, beautiful, and serene. It had almost all melted by 7 PM. It’s relatively rare here, so I savor it every time.
Art and my brother Jack go hand in hand. He’s always done it, always been good at it. Everything he’s tried has been impressive. He thinks in a way that I don’t, and always has an angle to a situation that I’ve never thought of, and that’s how his art …
Wow. Did we ever participate in an unforgettable Lambing and Kidding workshop this weekend. A friend of ours recommended it to us because she knows how much our younger son loves animals. I signed us up for it, not really knowing what it would entail. Though we were total fish …
We just took a paper folding class on Friday afternoon at Orcas Center from Bradford Hansen-Smith, who has been folding circular paper for decades, learning about an art that seems to have little to no history. How cool to find out that he is the brother of my friend Vicki …
We were out of town during the dramatic snowstorm that shut down the schools and the town and trapped people in their driveways, so we went out searching for leftovers at Mountain Lake and Cascade Lake…
About 23 years ago, I was sitting in an Anthropology class at UCSB called Romantic Love on the Island of Mangaia when the professor inserted a quick comment in her lecture. She said something like, “By the way, I’ve been everywhere in the South Pacific and if you want to …
We missed all the snow drama of the past two weeks, arriving back on Orcas Island late last night to a light covering on the ground at our house. We got word that school was called off for the past week, as well as almost all activities on the island. …
I can’t believe the sky was perfectly clear. We’ve had beautifully crystal-clear nights (and days) this winter. We watched intently from our back patio as the earth’s shadow slowly covered the moon. About a half an hour later, the clouds began to cover the moon as it started moving back …
The internal nature of winter here on Orcas, aside from bringing out our creativity, provides a wonderful excuse to cozy in and watch lots of movies. It hasn’t really been a tough winter, so the sun has actually pulled me outside much more than previous winters. But my mom and …
I love my life. I am grateful that I happened to be born into a loving, middle-class family in a free country. I never missed a meal, a night of sleep, or an educational opportunity. I am now 44 and the ways of living that I learned aren’t feeling right …
There are a lot of things that happen on Orcas that don’t happen anywhere else. Or at least I never experienced them until moving here. One thing that’s “so Orcas” is the monthly Community Dinners at Orcas Christian School every January, February, and March. These are not potlucks. They are …
The other day the wind was whipping and the ocean was crazily choppy. Not the kind of conditions in which you’d expect to look out your window and see someone kayaking out in the middle of the Sound. Alone. Dwarfed by whitecaps. My older son got out the binoculars. “I …
It’s mid-January. I’m having to remind myself of that all the time right now. Usually by this point in the winter, it’s been dark and gloomy for months on end, no sun or blue sky in sight for another month or three. Usually by now, I’ve gotten sick a few …
