Methow

As a kid, my summers were filled with harvesting and preserving food for winter. Different “stations” were set up in our tiny kitchen: washing, chopping, drying racks, vacuum sealed bags, and canning jars. At the end of the season my mother’s work was a brilliant reflection of art and taste: jars of red tomatoes, orange […]

Ahhh, early fall. That time of year when both the temperature and the leaves drop. Sweaters and jackets come out of storage, iced coffees are swapped out for hot teas, and clothing lines try to convince everyone that plaid never went out of style. It is that time of year when “fire prep” and “winter […]

One of many beautiful gifts in the Methow Valley are pristine rivers with public access. The upper valley river winds through a flat-bottomed valley, narrowing into the lower valley where the river rushes through steep canyon walls to join the mighty Columbia. Ten bridges crisscross the river from Carlton to Pateros. On hot, smoky days, […]

I am not the “sky is falling” type of gal … but folks, the sky is literally falling. Despite the smoke and ash, my mental health is best when kept outdoors. I’ve sat on the porch after work every day this week, watching ash fall from the sky and drift onto my clothes, my bare […]

In the early hours of the morning, I awoke to crashes of thunder and brilliant lightning flashes. I started counting. One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand … five one thousand, boom! Five miles away. Another flash, another countdown. I calculated the size and age of burn scars around us. Was it enough […]

“Recently someone graciously referred to The Methow Store as a much needed third space in the valley. That really spoke to us and our original idea of creating a community gathering space,” wrote Shayne Naudi and Allen Giernet, reflecting on the second anniversary of revitalizing a community space in a restored 130-year old general store. […]

“We Survived the Night: An Indigenous Reckoning,” by Julian Brave Noisecat, is the selected reading for the Methow Valley Interpretive Center’s summer book club. This stunning book may well be, in my humble opinion, the great American novel of today. In turns poignant, humorous, heartbreaking, and uplifting, Noisecat combines investigative journalism, folklore, and personal memoir […]

Mazama columnist Shelley Smith Jones was right about the pine cones of abundance this year. I used a snow shovel to clear them from around our house. Not just any snow shovel, but the “Big Scoop Pusher” from Ace Hardware. It’s like a snowplow without the combustible engine. Every time the season changes, I say, […]

One of my favorite walking trails is getting a “spring cleaning” with a prescribed burn. I was bummed that I couldn’t walk my favorite haunt, but then I realized I had free will and could walk elsewhere, so I ambled away. I thought back to 2014 when the 2014 Carlton Complex fires burned to the […]

In a note to a friend, Emily Dickinson wrote, “I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.” March through May is the annual spring migration for many birds returning to northern climates. The Methow Valley provides a lush corridor with alpine forests, wetlands and meadows. I sat on the […]