Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 365
It is finally fall and a great time to come to the library to check out a new book or re-read an old favorite and remember, if we don’t have the book you are looking for, we can get it for you from one of our partner libraries. Check out these exciting new books: Coming Soon! local author Shanna Lowe’s newest book, “Lotte Skale and the Wyvern Hatchery.” Lotte Skale and her father run a hatchery for magical and endangered wyverns. In an era when magic and magical creatures are forbidden, their actions are punishable by death. When her father...
The world premiere of “Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers” is one of the many highlights of the 12th annual Friday Harbor Film Festival this weekend, Oct. 25-27. The 16 full length documentaries and 21 short films are shown twice on five screens at three venues. “Fish War” covers over 50 years of indigenous tribal fishers fighting to secure their treaty rights with legal battles ending in the U.S. Supreme Court and now the fight to save salmon. “Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers” producer Philip Grabsky is coming from London for question and answer sessions. T...
The Museum of Northwest Art was awarded a major capacity building grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust of Vancouver, Washington in September to fund the new position of director of curatorial affairs and curator of Northwest art . The new director will provide strategic vision and managerial oversight for the museum’s exhibition program and collection, a position essential to advancing and fulfilling the museum’s mission. This transformational investment in MoNA’s growth lays the foundations for the museum to develop a compr...
Arts Alive! 2024 kicks off its 39th anniversary show “Along Salish Shores” 1-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25, in Maple Hall, 104 Commercial St., La Conner. Opening reception begins at 5 p.m. Arts Alive continue from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27, and Monday, Oct. 28. More info: artsalivelaconner.com. “This Machine is Made for Earth”: The Madrona Project at MoNA. Poets will converge at the Museum of Northwest Art, 121 S. First St., La Conner, from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, to offer a reading and discussion from the...
Though best suited for a Mediterranean climate, figs can be successfully grown in the Pacific Northwest. Gardeners are always looking for a captivating new plant to add to their gardens. One such beckoning horticultural challenge is the edible fig tree. Although edible figs are widely grown in the Mediterranean basin, our climate is too cool for many varieties. However, figs are part of NW Fruit’s experimental planting program and can be found at the NW Fruit Garden on SR 536, west of Mount Vernon, next to the Master Gardener’s Discovery Gar...
If ranked-choice voting becomes a reality in Washington state, you can thank former La Conner resident Kit Muehlman. Muehlman, who raised children, made pottery and taught yoga in greater La Conner for 42 years before moving to Bellingham in 2016, is spreading the word about this system of voting, now used by 60 U.S. cities and the states of Maine and Alaska. Ireland and Australia have been using ranked-choice voting for over a century. A proposal to use ranked-choice voting is on the ballot in Oregon this fall. Under this system, when a race...
Timothy Egan, from Seattle, and Rena Priest, of Lummi Nation, are among the winners of the 2024 Washington State Book Awards. Egan’s “A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them” won in general nonfiction/biography. Priest won in poetry for editing “I Sing the Salmon Home: Poems from Washington State.” Matika Wilbur of Swinomish and Tulalip was a general nonfiction/biography finalist for her “Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America.” Other winners in the seven categorie...
Skagit Community Band presents: “A Musical Passport.” Director Vince Fejeran opens the 2024-2025 season with selections from composers around the world, including Jan Van der Roost, Samuel Hazo, Gustav Holst, Ary Barroso and many more. Skagit Community Band’s two concerts are at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18, at Maple Hall in La Conner, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20, at Brodniak Hall in Anacortes. Free Admission, donation gladly accepted. More info: Skagitcommunityband.org. Beer & Bingo: Skagit Habitat for Humanity Joins Garden Path Ferme...
Last week's article on the Skagit River Poetry Festival ended with us giggling over the smell of ponies; Moses stepped into our lives; and we were stupefied by the violence of war. The Skagit River Poetry Foundation's bi-annual festival Oct. 4-5 at Maple Hall was attended Friday by over 130 students from Oak Harbor and Whatcom and Skagit counties school districts, as well as a supportive and paying public. The festival, though, is "just the icing on the cake" said Executive Director Molly...
Surprise! Art’s Alive is two weeks early this year – which looks like a sound decision. With the coming weekend a literal washout and November trending damp, it’s just possible that Oct. 25 will bestow a generous slice of lovely late-fall weather on the annual event, planned and produced by the La Conner Arts Foundation. This year’s show is actually three shows in one. As usual, the Invitational Show downstairs in Maple Hall will showcase eleven artists, five of them new to Art’s Alive. The late Thomas Stream, whose work graces this year’s post...
The Museum of Northwest Art will open its latest exhibition on Saturday, Oct. 12: "Peter Millett: Built Forms." Millett, a Seattle-based artist, has been exploring the mystery of common forms in his artwork since the late1970s. Curated by Greg Bell, Built Forms is the first major institutional survey of Millett's work, which spans decades of artistic practice and intentional engagement with forms in space. Millett was born in Evanston, Ill., in 1949 and grew up in the Chicago area. He attended...
"Wick Peth: 'The Original Rodeo Bullfighter' and the History of Rodeo in Skagit County" opens at the Skagit County Historical Museum in La Conner on Oct. 12, with an all-day reception from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. A world-renowned Rodeo Hall of Famer, Peth was a pioneer in professional rodeo bullfighting. He elevated the sport with skill, athleticism, courage and finesse while protecting bull riders. The first rodeo in Skagit County was in the mid-1920s in the field of the Peth Ranch in Bow. Skagit...
More than 12 Northwest breweries will be pouring beer or cider in Maple Hall Saturday during the La Conner Chamber of Commerce's Brew on the Slough. Besides "the best of the region's craft beer scene," the CC Adams Band will be playing. Get started at 3 p.m. by buying a VIP admission at $50 and earning a more intimate tasting experience. General admission is $40, with doors opening at 4 p.m. The Chamber promises "the top names in Northwest brewing," including Boneyard Brewery, Pike Brewery,...
Hayes and Tate Matty and Oliver and Warner Bohnet-Knue clambered on fire trucks while firefighters and EMTs served spaghetti last Saturday at the McLean Road headquarters of all-volunteer Skagit County Fire District 2. Firefighters and volunteers shopped, cooked, served and cleaned up after hundreds of diners during the annual Spaghetti Feed, whose proceeds support the district's work. Every Thursday night at 6:30 pm these brave men and women practice deploying hoses, operating pumps and...
Skagit Fisheries presents the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, at the Lincoln Theatre, 712 S. First St., Mount Vernon. The Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group brings the Wild & Scenic Film Festival back with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by the film at 7 p.m. The Film Festival will feature short films that will delight the senses and inform our minds. Manieri Jazz and the Anacortes Public Library present Jazz Second Sunday Series featuring Greta Matassa Quintet at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13, at the Anacortes Public...
The Camano Island Library Friends hosts Robert Dugoni for an author talk 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, at the Camano Center, 606 Arrowhead Road, Camano Island. Dugoni is a recipient of a Nancy Pearl Award for fiction. He penned the Tracey Crosswhite detective series, the David Sloane legal thrillers and the Charles Jenkins espionage series set on Camano Island. His standalone books include “The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell” and “The World Played Chess.” La Conner’s Seaport Books will sell Dugoni’s books, including his latest release “Beyond Rea...
Decades before "The Addams Family Musical" played Broadway, another weird family made theater audiences gasp and laugh. And generations before Freddy Kreuger slashed his way around the silver screen, Boris Karloff frightened movie goers as Frankenstein. Theater aficionados know that the Brewster family in the 1941 smash hit "Arsenic and Old Lace" was oddly dysfunctional and frightening in different ways, with a sinister psychopath brother who has had plastic surgery to look like Boris Karloff....
The poets are coming, the poets are coming! Lori Buher is ready. She is one of 20 La Conner-area residents who will be hosting a poet during this weekend’s 12th Biennial Skagit River Poetry Festival. Her guest, Lorraine Healy, is an Argentinian poet-photographer who lives on Whidbey Island and teaches in the Skagit River Poetry Foundation’s Poets in the Schools program. Healy is one of 35 poets, some internationally famous, gathering for workshop sessions, discussions and readings in intimate La Conner venues. The Festival opens at Maple Hal...
The La Conner Swinomish Library announces extended library hours. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Closed Sundays. 39th annual Lynden Lions Club Model Train and Toy Show, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 5 and 6, Northwest Washington Fairgrounds, 1775 Front St., Lynden. Show features 50,000 square feet of model train layouts, exhibits and vendors. Tickets: adults $8, seniors $6, children 6-12 $5, children under age 6 free. Skagit Fisheries Presents: The Wild & Scenic Film...
"No one who cooks, cooks alone," the novelist and food writer Laurie Colwin once wrote. "A cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past ... [and] the wisdom of cookbook writers." A cloud of wise "cooks past" certainly surrounds the talented new cooks and farmers showcased in the new cookbook "Genuine Skagit Cooking." Published in April, "Genuine Skagit Cooking" was written and compiled by Blake Van Roekel of Genuine Skagit Valley and writer Stefanie LeJeunesse, with photos by...
Fall is definitely in the air! The kids are back in school, the weather is getting cooler and the leaves are starting to change color; all signs that the season is turning and it’s time to curl up with a good book from the library. Fall is also a season of change for the library, with Katryna retiring. We will miss her a great deal, as she has truly been the heart of our library and has touched the lives of so many in our community. We wish her the best and hope she comes back to visit often. We say hello to our newest employee, Jinda, who s...
Theater Arts Guild offers "Arsenic and Old Lace" for three weekends starting Sept. 27. A 1944 film, famously directed by Frank Capra and starring Cary Grant, the play opened on Broadway in 1941. The show is cast as "a spooky (and hilarious) tale" for the Halloween season. What is drama critic Mortimer Brewster to make of the corpse in his elderly aunts' window seat? Then he learns – spoiler alert – they killed him! There is the brother who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt and the brother using pla...
These jays are often liked for their bright blue color, which is created by iridescent feathers. They also can be disliked for their noisiness in backyards. Sometimes there might be a reason for their loud screeches, because they warn others if there is a predator around, for instance, a hawk trying to get a small bird or mammal. They themselves are omnivores. While liking nuts and berries, they also eat nestlings and eggs. When feeding on bird feeders in yards, Steller's jays use their...
The monthly Madrona Poetry readings at Pelican Bay Books resumes 7 p.m. Saturday at 520 Commercial Avenue, Anacortes. Reading are Bill Ransom and Jory Mickelson. Ransom is the author of the short stories, poetry collections and science fiction novels and wrote "The Pandora Sequence" with Frank Herbert. Mickelson has published three collections of poetry and received an Academy of American Poets Prize. Source: Madrona Poetry Series...
Mark your calendars for these upcoming arts and entertainment activities. Get out your bibs, it’s the Skagit Tidewater Boil! Celebrate the food, farming and fishing communities of Skagit Valley with fine food, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, at the La Conner Marina. Tickets on sale at genuineskagitvalley.com. Joseph Gregory Rossano Artist Talk: “Portraits of the Divine” at MoNA, a 30-minute guided walkthrough of the exhibition followed by 15 minutes of Q&A with the artist. 12-12:45 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, 121 S. First St. La Conner. Skagi...
