Editor’s note: Just in time for the upcoming camping season, the camping experts at Carhartt shared their favorite stories with WestSound Magazine readers. Check them out as you’re planning your next camping trip. Use at your own risk! There are few things better than telling scary stories around the campfire. Seeing the terrified faces of […]
outdoors
Posted inGarden
Bainbridge Bounty
On a quiet street in the middle of Bainbridge Island, Darren and Kari Murphy have sprouted a garden filled with fruit trees, grapes and vegetables of all sorts. While not a rare sight, theirs exudes an underlying passion for heirloom and unusual varieties and community service. Many of the plant varieties they grow are rare […]
Posted inThe Outdoors
Trail Etiquette Tips for Hiking Around West Sound
We need to be sensitive not only to the environment surrounding our trails, but to other trail users as well. Some of the trails are also open to mountain bikers and equestrians. When you encounter other trail users, whether they are hikers, runners, bicyclists or horse riders, the only hard-and-fast rule is to follow common […]
Posted inGarden
Ambergardens Provides Food for Body and Soul
Life’s journeys are unpredictable. People’s interests and talents steer them down a path that may seem pretty clear, but life will always offer up some crossroads and detours to spice things up. Laura Ambers Pittman-Hewitt started out on an artistic path, studying music and visual arts in college. The economic realities of the early ’80s […]
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 […]
Posted inThe Outdoors
Trails for Fun and Fitness in Your Big Backyard on the Kitsap Peninsula
Let’s face it: Whether you’re a hiker, walker or runner, life can get in the way when it comes to putting time in on the trail. Far too often, it’s hard for most of us to set aside an hour — never mind a day or even longer — to hit the trails of our […]
Posted inGardeners Corner
What West Sound Landowners Need to Know About Noxious Weeds
As a gardener and homeowner, I consider myself a steward of the environment, and with that comes the responsibility of choosing plants for my home landscape that are not invasive or noxious. Noxious weeds are non-native plants that were introduced in the State of Washington by individuals who planted them as ornamentals, and they now […]
Posted inGardeners Corner
Why Does the Northwest Need Rain Gardens?
Here in the Pacific Northwest, we all love looking at the mountains and ocean, lakes and creeks, our huge evergreen trees and silvery sagebrush, and the vast fields and endless horizons stretching out both east and west of the mountains. That is why we live here, why we call the Northwest region home. Out here, […]
Posted inGarden
Winter Kitchen Gardens
“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 […]