This winter time of year is a time for many of us to fill our homes and offices with lots of spruce, fir, hemlock, pine and cedar — in boughs, trees, wreaths, swags and more.
The smell is divine, isn’t it? Around here, we start collecting them with the first November blow-downs and then they stay up for at least a month after the holidays. It’s what gets us through the winter!
I recently had the pleasure of hearing Carl Safina speak. He is the author of “Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Speak.”
He started his journey of learning about various wildlife species by talking with a researcher who had studied elephants in Africa for decades. He wanted to know her perspective on elephants based on their similarity to humans, and what we can learn about ourselves.
We think often about the climate changes we are going to experience in our lifetimes. This is no longer a phenomenon that will be happening sometime in the future; it is happening now.
The wonderful celebrations in Kingston all focus on the things that make our community and our nation wonderful places to live. We are blessed with values that uphold community spirit; neighborly love and respect; and care and concern for every citizen of every age. All of this comes through to me in the community celebrations around the holiday.
Around North Kitsap, a lot of one’s time spent outside could be involved in what we term “passive” recreation, such as walking, birding, nature photography, etc. We have the beaches and trails to create many lovely days’ activity. The Olympic Peninsula is just a hop away and provides even more of the same.
It’s the time of year that we become the most giving, thoughtful, and concerned citizens, friends, and relatives we can be.
While cleaning up after the Stillwaters Used Book Sale, (yes, it went well and we raised $7,000 – thanks for asking) I came across the little novel, “Skipping Christmas,” by John Grisham. I decided it was time to re-read this book that I often recommend to others.
I was recently involved in a discussion about big cities and small towns.
Many of us grew up with the myth and mystery of “The American Dream.”
We could greatly decrease our fossil fuel energy consumption with solar panels on a couple of our roofs.
There is a lot of speculation on the part of marketing and business people about what will make us happy. They want our business! So they want to make us happy!
One hundred years ago, in 1914, we lost one of the most famous and influential persons in the work to preserve our natural world, John Muir.
I do advocate for constant self-assessment and striving to improve oneself.
Unfortunately, travel can make a significant negative impact on the health of Earth
Here at Stillwaters, we tend to think of humans as part of the food web — just one more critter in the woods. Because we are
Whether we like it or not, summer has left us and fall has arrived.
Book sale is every Friday to Sunday until Oct. 13.
Did you know that at least 60 percent of the solid waste going to landfills could be recycled?
One of the things many people love about living around here is that they truly feel at home and know their place here. They have what we call “A Sense of Place” about Kingston or Kitsap.
People sometimes compare Stillwaters to a church community, because we have become, for some, their Earth community.
You might think some of these questions have been answered years ago. We just got back from a short trip where we discovered there are lots of people still wondering about very simple questions.
Right now, there is a very big project going on in Budd Inlet in Olympia, at the southern end of Puget Sound.
I hear that many people still make New Year’s resolutions. I also hear that by February, many have broken them or given up already.
