In December, night comes earlier, temperatures are colder and lights cast halos in the mist. Sounds are muffled as people file off the Kingston ferry, mesmerized by the iridescent world of exotic sea creatures and spellbinding aquatic gardens, all made out of tiny … read more

If you think chrysanthemums are only the daisy-like, yellow flowers in pots that are regularly seen at big-box stores September through fall, you would be surprised to see what they can really look like. The big-box stores sell mums that are forced to … read more

This could be a very complicated subject, but let’s make it easy and take it down to simply hanging a painting on a wall. What painting and in what location? A general rule of thumb is that framed prints and original watercolors should … read more

If you have honeycomb shades, such as Duettes by Hunter Douglas, in some of your windows, try to catch a malfunction before it becomes a major problem. Sometimes one or more of the cords in the pull-tassel will come undone. Stop using that … read more

According to Benjamin Franklin, the wild turkey would have been a more fitting symbol for our young country than the bald eagle. Franklin thought the eagle a “good-for-nothing” scavenger. The wild turkey, on the other hand, was intelligent, a formidable opponent and able … read more

In the 1980s I worked for the Tacoma Park District at the W.W. Seymour Conservatory and at the Point Defiance Greenhouses. We had a little gift shop at the conservatory with plants for sale. Occasionally we would get a customer who wanted advice … read more

On Jan. 2, the phones start to ring at our office. People are done with the holidays and feeling the pinch of needing more space — so they want to remodel. When do they want to start? Oh yes, what we jokingly refer … read more

Each year, thousands of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) return from feeding in the open ocean to the stream they hatched three to five years earlier. In Gig Harbor, the chum salmon migration takes place in the late fall and early winter, long after … read more

My experience with apples did not extend much beyond Fuji, Honey Crisp and Jonagold before attending the Peninsula Fruit Club’s Fall Fruit Tasting Show this October at the Silverdale Community Center. I was thrilled to see 175 different types of apples grown in … read more