Before Bremerton’s La Fermata Restaurant opens for business in the late afternoon, locals out walking their dogs or going for a run pause to wave through the windows at owner Sam Schicker, as she goes about her front-of-the house preparations. Schicker seems to know everyone. From the owners of newer neighborhood businesses like Elixir Fixer, […]
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
How to Choose Your Perfect Wedding Venue
You’ve seen the big-screen wedding movies. Setting is important on the movie screen. It sets the tone and establishes the mood. In “Wedding Crashers,” the nuptials took place at the stately Inn at Perry Cabin in Maryland. The movie “Bridesmaids” filmed the ceremony in the bucolic Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Garden. And four […]
Posted inFood & Entertainment
Concerts at the Barn Create Community around Music
The inspiration for a singer-songwriter concert series in a countrified Kingston barn began with a wedding. When Poulsbo’s Chuck and Stacie Power decided to get married, they knew they wanted a local, rustic setting. Conveniently, Chuck Power’s cycling buddy, Mark Schorn, and Schorn’s wife, Lynn, had a barn on their Kingston property and enthusiastically agreed […]
Posted inPeople & Places
The Art and Science of Phoenix Design South’s Etched Glass
Around Belfair, it’s still called Hippie Hill Community. Some old friends and the price of the land drew glass artist Randy Calm and his wife, Cathy, from Chicago to Hippie Hill nearly 47 years ago. Then, there were 13 homesteading families and no electricity. The couple lived in a teepee while hand-building their house with […]
Posted inPeople & Places
The Great American Eclipse
This is a banner year for rare, once-in-a-life-time astronomical events. In February, NASA announced the discovery of seven Earth-like planets orbiting their own sun, serious evidence that life may exist in outer space. Dec. 13 will bring the king of meteor displays — the massive Geminid meteor shower, which will make an appearance this year […]
Posted inPeople & Places
Bremerton’s Art Deco Buildings a Nod to a Different Era
At first glance, it’s their exterior colors that make them distinct: the cobalt blue of Bremerton’s Pacific Planetarium, Admiral Theatre’s color scheme of empire gold and rockwood red, and pale yellows of the city’s downtown library. Then it’s their lines — curves, sculptured reliefs and geometric forms. If you are lucky enough to go inside, […]
Posted inAround West Sound
Paint Out Poulsbo and Bainbridge: Watching Plein Air Artists at Work
French painter Claude Monet was an accomplished early proponent. So was his compatriot August Renoir. Because French Impressionist painters were the ones who took the act of painting out of stuffy French drawing rooms and studios and into the great outdoors, the art of painting outside is called en plein air — French for in […]
Posted inFood & Entertainment
Jake’s Pickup — Gourmet, Organic Food in an Unorthodox Location
It’s Cinnamon Roll Saturday at the Bainbridge Island eatery Jake’s Pickup. The business’ Facebook page is live with streaming video of owner Jake Angel, working the kitchen of his deli/takeout or dine-in/espresso bar and explaining the difference between a bench knife and a bowl scraper and how to get French dough to “come clean off […]
Posted inAround West Sound
The Meditation Labyrinths of Kitsap County
Overlooking a bluff with a view of Puget Sound, Bainbridge Halls Hill Labyrinth and its Community Tibetan Prayer Wheel is a peace-filled oasis of Asian-themed landscaping complementing an artist-built labyrinth and hand-cast bronze prayer wheel. Not easy to find if you don’t know the island’s backroads, it’s one of six labyrinths accessible to the public on […]