For the third consecutive year, Magnolia Garden Center has assembled a showcase of creative garden design featuring the work of outdoor artists from Bellingham to Ashland, Ore. The "Artist in the Garden," which offers a variety of functional and decorative works, runs now through Labor Day, Sept. 5.According to the folks at Magnolia Garden Center, this annual event is inspired by the cultural boom of sorts going on in the garden art world, with homeowners and gardeners alike increasingly making demands for unique artwork spurred by dozens of home and garden "makeover" shows on television. On such shows, decorative accents, artwork and artistic structures are touted to be just as big a part of outdoor living spaces as are plants and patios.
It used to be that I viewed spas as total indulgences.Whenever I'd enter one, I felt immediately awash with guilt. It seemed decadent to spend the time and the money on what I saw as a frivolous luxury.But over the years, I began to notice the positive results that occurred after experiencing various types of treatments, and now I'm a devotee of these hallowed palaces of rejuvenation for body, mind and spirit. Massage, in particular, has a powerful effect on me, and helps to relieve unnecessary stress and tension that's built up within my body. Relaxing and soothing, massage allows me to take leave of any emotional baggage I might be carrying around. Equally important is the feeling of being nurtured through touch. Traditional day spas fall into two categories: upscale, posh affairs that strive to impress with their ambiance and amenities as well as their services; and basic, bare-bones facilities focused solely on delivering treatments efficiently.The bottom line for me is the therapist's ability to work his/her brand of magic on my body. Of course, it's lovely when the environment also plays its part, because then the experience is doubly rewarding.Finding spas that offer gifted therapists in a truly special atmosphere can be challenging. When I do discover one of these jewels, I rejoice at my good fortune. The key is to be willing to search and to explore the myriad possibilities that exist. In my hunt for the ideal combo, I came across Tasbey Farm, a massage retreat located in Clinton on bucolic Whidbey Island.
This summer there is a different pitch from the mound for women's baseball in Western Washington and the Seattle area: women's overhand baseball has returned.The new league, the Washington Women's Baseball Association (WWBA) is an alternative to what its founders termed the less authentic forms of the sport - softball and underhand fast pitch. However, unlike these successful hybrids, women's overhand baseball has long struggled for legitimacy across the nation.
The slow but steady drippings from the rain coupled with the constant booms of the neighborhood fireworks collections announced another Fourth of July weekend in the Northwest. The slugs and snails were ecstatic. The cats and dogs were severely annoyed. The rest of us were kept quite busy making hourly contingency plans. Having put this uniquely American holiday behind us, we now know that the warm, long days of summer will steadily unfold, causing great sleep deprivation - for who wants to miss the beautiful, lingering light of the summer evenings? Being so light-deprived for so many months, our bodies just seem to gravitate toward soaking up as much of the summer light as possible.
The Supreme Court ruled a year ago that detainees at Gitmo (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) have the right to challenge their detention. A year later, not one person has seen a lawyer. Many have been prisoners without representation or legal status for years. Isn't this how the Soviet Union did business?"Whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it." - Henry David Thoreau
"There is no such thing as the collectivity of the aged; the aged are a heterogeneous collection of people as diverse as the population itself."- J.H.ShultzSome readers may recall the classic pun poking fun at the jock-college that recruits football players based upon brawn not brain, which goes something like this:On graduation day, the proud student-athlete stands at the podium, eyes searching the crowd for his parents, and speaks with gusto: "Four years ago, when I came here, I didn't even know how to spell the word 'engineer,' and now I are one!"Personally, I should rephrase that joke to fit myself. Years ago I was a young academic embarking upon a career in educational gerontology. I selected this field of study because I was frustrated in my Dean of Instruction position in Nevada.One of my key responsibilities was publishing the annual college catalogue. I had been given charge of the city's senior center and it was requested that I introduce classes for them. Little data existed to help me figure out which courses older persons might wish to study. I applied for a grant, and off I went to the University of Washington to seek knowledge and wisdom about the needs of the elderly. I took course work in every major academic department, attempting to learn what it meant to be "old" in our society.
One small step for The Seattle Times, one big kick in the craw for metropolitan Seattle.Regardless of the legal validity of the state Supreme Court's June 30 ruling stating, yes, the Times can include financial losses from 2000 and 2001 in exercising an escape clause in the Times/Post-Intelligencer Joint Operating Agreement (JOA), the real story is that Seattle has just inched closer to becoming a one-daily-newspaper city.
It's that time once again.The Fourth of July has passed and the Seattle summer can officially begin. In addition to weekend barbecues and sunny afternoons at the community pool, Magnolia residents can participate in the Magnolia Helpline's 14th annual Bike the Bluff fundraiser taking place Saturday, July 16, at 9 a.m. The event is open to everyone.
The Seattle Port Commission has narrowly approved a controversial plan to transform its 57-acre North Bay property so that it includes research and development, office space and retail uses. The 3-2 commission vote on June 28 followed through on an earlier decision to eliminate housing from the mix - despite a staff recommendation to include residential uses.Space for existing and future maritime use would almost double under the proposal, 2.2 million square feet would be reserved for R&D; and related manufacturing, 1.1 million square feet would be targeted for office use, and 100,000 square feet would be set up for retail businesses.
King County Executive Ron Sims describes a recently revealed proposal to move Southwest Airlines flight operations to the King County International Airport from Sea-Tac as "a once-in-a-generation opportunity," though others - including King County Council members Dwight Pelz and Larry Phillips - don't see it that way.Talks between the low-cost carrier and Sims' office have been going on since 2003, the executive wrote to council members last month. "The discussions with Southwest have recently led us to the point where we believe there is a possibility of reaching a tentative agreement," he added in the letter.According to Sims, the move would help stabilize finances at Boeing Field, as the airport is also known, but he concedes there are many issues that need to be worked out before an agreement can be forged between the county and the airline.
Alex Jamieson, author of the new book "The Great American Detox Diet," wants the world to know that what we choose to eat matters on many different levels. Food choices affect our physical body, mental health, the human rights of others and our personal impact on the environment."Morgan likes to say that every time you eat, you vote with your fork," says Jamieson during a phone interview from Los Angeles, reinforcing her point and quoting her fiancé, Morgan Spurlock, director and star of the hit documentary "Super Size Me."If eating is truly voting with your fork, then "The Great American Detox Diet" is a powerful voters guide.
Summertime in Seattle. Time for the Gilbert & Sullivan Society once more to spread their "innocent merriment" over our fair city. In this, their 51st year, the Society opens with a production of "Patience" on Friday, July 15, at 7:30 p.m. at Seattle Center's Bag-ley Wright Theatre. "Patience" is a spoof of the "aesthetic movement" and its devotees that took England by storm in the latter half of the 19th century. First produced in April 1881 at the Opéra Comique, the opera was later transferred to open the new Savoy Theatre, that momentous occasion when electricity was first introduced into theater in Great Britain. It is an exaggerated burlesque on a cult that began, probably, as a reaction to strict Victorianism and had for its supporters many who are now famous names in the literary and artistic worlds - Oscar Wilde, Whistler and Walter Crane. W.S. Gilbert's irony is directed against those who carried the fashion to an extreme. Sir Arthur Sullivan's music for this opera is some of the best he ever wrote, and the work will live as a perfect caricature of the Pre- Raphaelite movement. To quote a circular issued by Richard D'Oyly Carte in 1881: "In satirizing the excesses of these (so-called) aesthetes, the authors of 'Patience' have not desired to cast ridicule on the true aesthetic spirit, but only to attack the unmanly oddities which masquerade in its likeness. In doing so, they have succeeded in producing one of the prettiest and most diverting musical pleasantries of the day."
G A M E 4June 30 - Rival Queen Anne and Magnolia 11-year-old all-stars met Thursday night before last for local bragging rights and the opportunity to move on in the District 8 tournament. In a hard-fought battle, the QA stars came back from an early 2-0 deficit to beat Magnolia, 3-2.Magnolia jumped out quickly with two runs in the top of the first, but starting QA flamethrower Joseph Jacobson settled down and got the clutch outs he needed as he and the QA defense left two Magnolia runners stranded in scoring position. The QA stars broke out their bats in the bottom of the first as Ben Tenenbom hit a one-out single. Blair Henning drilled a shot to third that the third basemen couldn't handle, putting runners at first and second. Glenn Zieve then blasted an RBI double to the right-center-field fence, scoring Tenenbom and moving Henning to third. Gavin Lewis followed with a walk, loading the bases, but the Magnolia defense stiffened to prevent any further runs from scoring.
Now that the warmer days of summer have finally visited the Northwest, it's nice to carry about a cooling, frozen treat to nibble on as you troll the sidewalks.Thoughts of Popsicles and ice cream bars always begin, for me at least, with childhood memories of my mother filling an ice-cube tray with Kool-Aid. She'd then insert a stick into each cube when it was still only half-frozen.Later, probably after she'd read one of her many mail-order catalogs, she found a rubber mold that she would fill with orange juice or some other healthy drink, and it would make four Popsicle-like bars at a time. I'm sure we didn't get store-bought Popsicles and ice cream bars until after we'd started school.
My last day in London, July 7, just happened to be the first day of the G8 Summit. Neither my day nor the Summit's has gone according to plan. My plan was to go to the Ravens-court Park Station, get on the Under-ground and get off at the Russel Square Station. I was looking forward to a second visit to the British Museum since my first one was much too short.However, I slept in a bit and dilly-dallied around taking a bath, doing my e-mail and typing the order of service for Sunday at the Rainier Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation: I'm going to be the jet-lagged service leader at Evensong. When I finally got to the Ravenscourt Park Station, the gates were locked. There was a notice scribbled in crayon that the Underground was closed due to a "security alert" and advised people to take buses. So I went to the nearest bus stop and asked a man what buses I would need to take to get to Russel Square. "Madam, you cannot go to Russel Square this morning," he asserted. "That's in Central London. There are bombs going off all over Central London."