Winthrop

My neighbor, the potter Marcia Ives, has been making a lot of pottery during the pandemic, but with galleries and shops closed she’s had nowhere to sell it. Now, with a large stockpile at hand (a gorgeous and bright stockpile, I might add — I saw it last weekend and it made me want to overhaul my […]

Experiencing art just got more convenient for Methow Valley residents and visitors, with the reopening of the Winthrop Gallery last Friday (June 19). Although it is a “modified reopening,” says gallery board president and member artist Don McIvor, the Riverside Avenue gallery is open Friday through Monday each week, staffed by a member artist. An […]

Six years ago, I interviewed Cyndy and Jerry Oliver about the new shop they had opened at a prominent Winthrop location. Since then the Olivers have poured thousands of cups of coffee, cut hundreds of yards of quilting fabric, and hosted countless birthday parties, baby showers, and meetings. Now, 3 Bears Café and the 4 […]

On March 16, the last day that the Methow Valley School District was open for on-site learning for students, I picked up my kids after school. The parking lot was more vacant than usual, as many families kept their kids home that day, after hearing the governor’s decision about school closures three days prior. As […]

Kids have a way of putting things in perspective for some of us. On our way to Sunday’s impromptu vigil at Mack Lloyd Park in Winthrop, to sit in solidarity with protestors across the nation mourning the violent loss of black lives, I made an off-hand remark to my kids about how I couldn’t believe […]

On Thursday afternoon a Bellingham friend texted me and said “Brooke Lucy of Bluebird Grain Farms is on King 5 TV right now!” After hopping around in excitement for a while, I scurried to the internet and located the news clip. Yes! There was my longtime friend, Brooke, right there on K5, talking about increased […]

Last week I had a brief email exchange with a former high school classmate, with whom I had not communicated since the day we graduated from high school almost exactly 33 years ago. We emailed about a business matter, but we each threw in a few personal tidbits as well — families, jobs, and where the past […]

In an observation that is certainly being echoed by clergy everywhere, Jason Suter, pastor of the Friendship Alliance Church (FAC) in Winthrop, says “There is no chapter on how to lead a church through a global pandemic.” There is not, at least not yet, but Jason and the FAC seem to be steering a course […]

My freshman year in college, I sat next to a cute boy in a Western Civilization course. Let’s call him “Chris,” since that’s how I swear he introduced himself to me. We got to know each other a bit, Chris and I did, and late in the quarter we decided to go out. On the […]

When former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1993 and began chemotherapy treatments in 1994, she took to wearing fashionable turbans and head scarfs, launching a turban-wearing craze in both chic and bohemian circles in New York City. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to look like Jackie Kennedy. The same thing […]