Carlton

Esteemed poet E. E. Cummings could have been waxing poetic on the Methow Valley when he said, “The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.” In the quiet morning, ice crunches softly underfoot while migrating birds hop about budding trees. Say’s Phoebes, swallows, orioles and robins trill their morning chorus. In the late morning sun, the sound […]

On snowy Sunday afternoons, my family would watch old movies on a local television channel. My favorite was “The Nutty Professor,” a 1963 film starring Jerry Lewis and Stella Stevens. Stella played Stella Purdy: smart, strong, and fast with the witty comebacks. Rebuffing the romantic advances of Buddy Love, Professor Julius Kelp’s ego-centric alter ego, […]

The Shafer Historical Museum will present “Our Methow Home: Carlton” on March 3 and 4 in Carlton and Twisp. The first showing is Friday, March 3, at The Local Church in Carlton at 7 p.m. The second showing is Saturday, March 4, in the Twisp Valley Grange at 2 p.m. The 90-minute presentation is the […]

Apricity: the warmth of the sun in winter. It is a great loss to the English language when this obsolete word fell out of use centuries ago. Look up “words for winter” and every entry is cold, severe and harsh. We need to bring a beautiful word back into our lexicon to describe these days […]

These last days of January are the peak time to catch a dragon by the tail. Comet C/2022 E3 will make its closest approach to Earth for the first time in 50,000 years. The last time Comet C/2022 E3 swung this close to Earth was during the Ice Ages and the Upper Paleolithic period. To […]

The best perk of living in the Methow Valley is the gift of knowledge people share with each other. Years ago, Randy Lewis shared his “golden cream” recipe, a beverage he discovered while visiting friends in Turkey. As snow piled up underneath the eaves and a cold damp fog rolled in to obscure the trees, […]

The Met-Low has a charismatic new art shop on the downtown corner of Highway 153 and Old Carlton Road. Jodee Adams Moore owns and operates Kaleidoscope Coyote, an art gallery and shop featuring local artists alongside her own Bat Cave Pottery creations. The shop has the ambiance of a barter faire and is open Friday […]

Full transparency, I have this overwhelming feeling of gratitude gumming up the works while I take a stab at the annual Festivus tradition of the Airing of Grievances. All this gratitude is getting in the way of the spirit of the season. It’s truly annoying. But, like any true American, I will power through this […]

I’ve been pronouncing Pateros all wrong for so long. I blame my northern accent. Goooo to PaterOHs, oh ho! No, no, no. Pateros is much more inclusive. The correct pronunciation is “Pa-tare-us,” with an “us.” Sierra Golden set me straight and then sent me down the rabbit hole wondering how Pateros is pronounced in the […]

The down side to writing a column is that I’m sitting here in the present writing about the future and by the time you read this, it will be past. According to Albert Einstein, it’s all relative anyway: “People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is […]