Winthrop

I’m not often up and about during the wee hours of the night, but when I am I almost always see something unusual. The night has a life of its own, all shadowy and grayscale. Last week I rode a night shift with a Methow Trails groomer. At the Power’s Plunge warming hut the snowcat’s […]

Last Friday night someone left Winthrop heading west on Twin Lakes Road and, thinking they were following directions to Wolf Creek Road, turned right a quarter mile too soon and drove onto the Winthrop Trail, which is groomed for Nordic skiing in the winter. It wasn’t the first time this has happened, particularly in this […]

I was out on foot before dawn last Wednesday morning. Pinpoints of starlight popped against the black sky and a waning moon, still high in the sky, reflected off the snow so brightly that I didn’t need a headlamp. Almost immediately I saw a shooting star. Not just a flicker and fizzle, but a long […]

The Methow Valley Ciderhouse is hosting its first annual snowman making contest on Wednesday, Dec. 21, from 1-3 p.m. The Ciderhouse is offering participants free coffee and hot cocoa, as well as 10% off menu prices for those who choose to order. “Bundle up and bring your littles to build your best and most creative […]

Saturday was a good day for the food chain — or bad, depending on where you are located on it. Early in the morning out on the unplowed county road I spotted a fragment of what I assume was a deer’s leg bone, dragged to the shoulder of the road and picked almost clean. Upon […]

I recently helped with a writing workshop in eighth-grade classrooms and was reminded of something about 13- and 14-year-olds: they have quirky senses of humor. Their teacher, Kelly Grayum, is guiding them through the process of composing pieces of creative non-fiction based on events, moments and other aspects of their lives. The organizing structure was […]

To prepare for this year’s Thanksgiving column I revisited the columns of gratitude of the past few years, an effort that yielded precisely … nothing. Last year was all pandemic gratitude blah blah blah, 2020 was not even in my files (although I’m sure I wrote one), and 2019 was pre-pandemic naivete. With those flimsy […]

If your bucket list includes ambitious family hikes, you’d better be prepared for that bucket to overflow. Debby Orsini, mother of Winthrop resident Caroline Orsini, wanted nothing more for her 73rd birthday than to hike the Inca Trail with her family. Not everyone was game for the trip, but Debby, Caroline, her two sisters, and […]

It’s somewhat hard to believe, since she does a triathlon every summer, but Linda Mendro is turning 80 this week. If you know Linda, you’re already aware of her kindness and generosity, her passion for music, and her dedication to humanitarian causes — most notably the Peniel House Orphanage, which Linda and her husband, Wayne, […]

Last Thursday, somewhat by accident, I ended up at Wenatchee’s Sarge Huber Honor Festival: an annual multi-county, multi-school celebration of bands, choirs, and youth music programs in general. Elementary, middle school and high school students from 31 schools around the region — including the Methow Valley — are selected to participate in choir and band […]