“Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself?” ~ Henry David Thoreau Ever since people stopped wandering and put down roots, there has been a special place set aside from which they cultivated herbs, flowers, vegetables and fruit for the stuff of daily life. As our […]
Featured
Featured Articles from the West Sound. These are the highlighted articles from WestSound Magazine.
Posted inThe Garden
Sustainable Rose Growing
Sustainable growing means different things to different people. In organic gardening and farming, a sustainable growing system minimizes what enters and leaves the system, using only what is sustainable to the environment. Beyond that, sustainability is a local concept. For example, collecting water in rain barrels is considered sustainable in Western Washington but not in […]
Posted inThe Home
Table Runners
Table runners — what an unexpected journey. In our wildest dreams of dreams, there are things we never think of, not in a million years. The most commonly overlooked items are often those we see every day yet never really notice, or those we keep even though they are obsolete — like well-warn oven mitts […]
Posted inAt Home
How to Downsize with Valuable Household Artifacts
An estimated 4.2 million retirees downsized and moved to a smaller home in 2016. But for most of us, when it comes time to clean out the closets, downsize, move away or move on, the reality of making decisions about what to do with a lifetime of accumulated artifacts can seem overwhelming. Here are some […]
Posted inThe Home
Color of the Year for 2017 — Shadow
Benjamin Moore announced its Color of the Year — Shadow 2117-30, a rich, royal amethyst. The company also unveiled Color Trends 2017, a palette of 23 sophisticated hues ranging from muted pales to saturated deeps. In curating the palette, the Color Studio lent significant consideration to the pairing of colors and relationships between color families, […]
Posted inThe Outdoors
Valentine’s Day is Time for Hummingbird Courtship
Female Anna’s hummingbirds begin building their nests in February. They will be searching through gardens in the West Sound region, looking for nesting materials. Portions of seed pods from last year’s clematis blossoms are popular. These are the feathery tufts still clinging to the old vines. The plants flower later in the summer. Waiting to […]
Posted inPeople & Places
Morrison Gravel — 70 Years of Success
In marking 70 years in business in 2016, Morrison Gravel is an example of a company that has evolved adroitly with the needs of Kitsap County. Through the years, it has diversified from a gravel pit to a full-service gardenscape supplier. The Morrison family moved to Port Orchard from Idaho in 1944. When World War […]
Posted inThe Home
A Sophisticated Farmhouse
This sleek, contemporary farmhouse challenges ideas of home and takes one on a journey of discovery. The owners are as unusual as their custom home — a corporate couple who traveled the world for business and pleasure and lived in several countries. Their exposure to international cultures and “hotels from $100 a night to $1,000” […]
Posted inPeople & Places
The Belfair Community Trail System
The Belfair community might soon be recognized as one of the best places in the state to take a nature hike. A trail system currently runs through the Theler Wetlands on a 5-mile loop connecting the wetlands to the Belfair State Park, and now there is a new plan to extend the trail. It would […]