Port Gamble is a community of transformations. The two jade-green water towers, historically the source of the company town’s water supply, currently serve as its greeting sentinels. The old meat and vegetable market adjacent to those structures now houses The Artful Ewe, modern-day Port Gamble’s longest-operating business. And inside the shop, owner and artist Heidi […]
Ann Randall
A well-traveled international election observer and independent traveler, Ann Randall spends at least two months annually venturing to out-of-the-way locales, from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe. She has recently taken up travel sketching as a way to savor the journey in an attempt to see if pictures really do speak a thousand words. A former educator, she observes international elections and does NGO volunteer work in India. Her articles have appeared in online and print publications and she maintains two blogs. PeregrineWoman.com is about her adventures as she travels the world from festivals in Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico to German Christmas markets in Canada and Easter in New Orleans. ExplorationKitsap.com covers her wanderings and wonderings about her home turf, the beautiful Kitsap Peninsula.
Posted inPeople & Places
Fifty Years of Making Kitchens — And Cooks — Happy
She’s definitely the island’s small-biz matriarch. The Berry Patch Kitchen Store turned a half century old last year, and Jane Pomeroy, the longest-continuous solo owner of a Bainbridge Island retail shop, has been present ever since — unpacking boxes, rearranging displays and assisting customers. On Winslow’s main drag, where many of the long-standing retail shops […]
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From Stainless Steel and Bronze to Inspired Art
Dedicated in March 2019, Ancich Waterfront Park in downtown Gig Harbor is both a remembrance of the town’s pioneering Ancich family and a dedication to the commercial fishing boats that shaped much of the community’s history. The park’s landscaping plan included public artwork and, when considering how to proceed, the city decided to keep the […]
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A Weekend Adventure on Marrowstone Island
It’s a three-bridge, two-island drive from Kitsap County to bucolic Marrowstone Island in Jefferson County. And only 35 minutes by car. The three bridges span bodies of water, each of them a geographic demarcation line. Hood Canal forms the boundary between Kitsap and Jefferson counties. Portage Canal separates Naval Magazine Indian Island (most of it […]
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West Sound’s Co-Op Art Galleries Feature Collective Talent
Historically, co-operative art galleries have served two functions: as a small-town network for local artists and as an alternative to the established, more conservative artworld. The still-active Carmel Art Association in the California village of Carmel was founded in 1927 to provide support for far-flung artists living on the Monterey Peninsula. It claims to be […]
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Ars Poetica — Showcase Fuses Written and Visual Expressions
“Ut pictura poesis,” wrote the Roman poet, Horace. In his seminal guide for fellow poets, “Ars Poetica” (The Art of Poetry), he urged them to write poetry with the same deliberation a painter would give a painting. “As is painting, so is poetry,” he instructed. With Horace as their muse, in 2011, the West Sound […]
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Stories Get Wings at Tango Zulu
How did codes of the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet inspire the name of a pair of globally sourced fair-trade shops operating on Port Gamble and Winslow’s main drags? According to Tracy Zhu, owner of the two Tango Zulu shops, it was her search for an exotic name that matched her initials and the far-flung origins […]
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Three Unique Stores, One Eco-Minded Entrepreneur
Buy American-built furniture and upholstery slipcovers to reduce your impact on global warming. Not the typical sales pitch if you’re in the market for a new sofa. However, a conversation with Bainbridge Island entrepreneur and designer Mary Terry can be very convincing. You’ll find yourself seriously considering an eco-friendly, Instagram-worthy, marine-blue sofa posing with a […]
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Learning and Creating Collaboratively at BARN
Nobel prize winning author Thomas Mann once said, “Art is to the community what dream is to the individual.” For Bainbridge Island’s BARN (Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network), it was the shared dreams of the area’s artists and makers that built a uniquely Bainbridge artisan space and outlet for collaborative learning, teaching and creating. The vision […]