#Harvest House Friday Afternoon Club

[in-sightjournal]

Ask A Genius 987: A Silty River, the Fraser River and Colorado

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I was mentioning how the cemetery was a place I used to walk around, and you mentioned you go there with your poodle, the mental. There’s another part of my town with the Fraser River running through it. It’s a silty river, thick, cloudy, and muddy. People used to jump off the bridge all the time; I did when I was 16. I remember there were a couple of benches along the…

[lisarichardsonbylines]

How to Tell Your Husband You’re a Witch

Witches we need you. Now more than ever. In the time of COVID-19 we can find respite in place-based reverence, plant magic and the divine feminine. So writes Lisa Richardson, who came to witchiness with nothing but white hetero straight-lacedness and a crush on a yoga teacher.

Lisa Richardson | Longreads | April 2020 | 15 minutes (4,084 words)

On a Friday afternoon, pre-COVID-19, my husband dropped some ice-cubes into glasses, ready to make us screwdrivers and cheers to surviving another week of working/parenting/wondering where the hell the years were going, only, the vodka bottle was empty.

“Oh yeah,” I said, my eyes sliding sideways, trying to not cause a fuss, “I used it for medicine.” The previous week, the kitchen counter had been cluttered with a giant mason jar full of oily plant matter. “Balm of Gilead!” I explained, brightly, as he wiped away the breakfast crumbs around it.

“But what is it?”

“Cottonwood tips in oil.”

His eyes had flicked, then, over to the brand-new bottle of extra virgin olive oil that was now nearly empty, as I enumerated the medicinal benefits of this old herbal remedy (and all this from a tree in our backyard!). Twenty-four years together means I could hear the abacus in his brain clicking, as he wordlessly calculated the cost per milliliter of a gallon jar of plant matter masticating in top-shelf olive oil, against the cost per unit of a bottle of generic aspirin tables, overlaid with the probability of me losing interest in this project.

First the olive oil. Now the vodka for dozens of little jars of tinctures — garden herbs and weeds soaking in now-undrinkable booze. My midlife quest to attune more deeply to the rhythms of the natural world was starting to incur unexpected, but real, costs.

He was quiet, as he opened the fridge and pulled out a beer instead.

* * *

In my defense, I could have pointed my finger at Natalie Rousseau, a yoga teacher living in my 5,000 person village, who I��d first encountered leading a solstice yoga class billed as a way to survive the madness of the holidays (in slightly more gracious language). Thanks to her offerings of insight I did survive the commercial horror of the “festive” season, and a few months later, as the new moon entered Aries (whatever that actually means), I plonked down $200 to subscribe to her online 13 Moons course — my foray into “slowing down and being more present,” as I pitched it to my husband when he inquired about the strange entry on the credit card statement.

But I did not deflect the simmering tension between us by naming Natalie as the instigator of these “kitchen witch” experiments. Even though I am not a member of any kind of coven or cult, (I don’t think book club counts), I know deep in my bones to never throw another woman onto the fire for helping you. That has been done too many times.

But there it is. The word. Witch. The wound.

* * *

Every day, after COVID-19 entered our world, Natalie Rousseau has responded with an offering, a teaching — a meditation, an ancient mantra of protection, a yoga practice for managing anxiety, a how-to video on harvesting poplar medicine. It’s as if she’s been resourcing herself for this moment to develop the richest arsenal imaginable, to navigate, not the public health crisis, but the billion personal crises each of us is forced to confront as life as we know it slams into pandemic mode. It’s not what I thought a witch would do, if I ever thought about them at all.

Natalie doesn’t look like a witch either — not in the way I conceived it for last year’s Halloween costume, with my long black skirt, dollar-store pointy hat, and heavy black eyeliner, walking alongside my 6-year-old vampire-werewolf. Natalie is petite, just a few inches over five feet, her long blond hair still evoking the decade she spent living in a west coast surf town, her chest and lean muscled arms bright with full sleeve flowery tattoos and Mary Oliver quotes. She moves like a dancer, demonstrating yoga poses as if she’s transcending gravity. As a teacher, she speaks exactly, even in Sanskrit, and guides movement precisely, padding gently and soundlessly through the room, making an adjustment here, offering an instruction there.

So, I was surprised when she used the word “witch” to launch her new online offering, The Witches Wheel. The lure was irresistible. Natalie was claiming the word “witch” without flinching, without anger, without provocation, not as a way to reclaim feminine power and stick it to the men, warranted as that may be: It was essentially an invitation to observe the cycle of the seasons.

A threshold beckoned.

* * *

Natalie, a recent empty-nester, lives with her husband Paul and two dogs in a modest townhome, with a creek and a dozen rogue gardens installed by various residents running behind it. The garage is full of motorbikes. The porch is swept clean on the day I visit, six months into the 13 Moons program, wanting to talk with her about this radical word and why, in a world still unsure what to do with powerful women, she’s not afraid that she’s exposing herself to pitchforks and fires, haters, and trolls.

Even though I am not a member of any kind of coven or cult, (I don’t think book club counts), I know deep in my bones to never throw another woman onto the fire for helping you. That has been done too many times.

A tea blend of her own mixing — vanilla chaga chai — is brewing on the stove in an open saucepan. She tends to it, as I settle in, sneaking glimpses around the room, looking for evidence of witchcraft — pentagrams, cloaks, bottled frogs. Nothing. The space is uncluttered, a throw-rug on the armchair, a couple of stark white deer skulls are mounted, European-style, on a wall against a reclaimed barn board — definitely more Soho chic than occult-goth. Her husband returns from town, where he has picked up fresh croissants for us. He’s tall and strong, with a tightly cropped red beard — he looks like a guy you’d run into at the gym, at the surf break, at the hardware store.

“So, what’s it like living with a witch?” I ask him as Natalie attends to our tea, a light-hearted question sprouting out of the great compost of fears I am thinking. Is it impossibly hard to be with a woman who comfortably claims her own power, magic, cycles, voice? What kind of a man can love and honor a witch? And lurking deep beneath it all: Will my husband be one of them?

Paul rolls his eyes, overly-dramatically, pointing up to the light fixture in the kitchen — light bulbs housed in mason jars of all sizes, evoking summer cabins and fireflies and Kinfolk magazine dinner party lanterns. “I made this for her because everything ends up in jars. Have you seen inside these cupboards?” He walks around the house, in faux-exasperation, opening doors to reveal neat stacks of jars, full of dried petals, leaves, syrups, tonics, salves, salts. “And there’s more upstairs!” If it hadn’t been for the dinner party they’d hosted the previous night, most of their apartment’s horizontal surfaces would be covered in jars, he tells me, and the front porch would have housed a dead raven and a dead Cooper’s hawk.

“She’s always sending me out in search of dead things,” he jokes. He picks up roadkill in case she can salvage feathers or skulls.

“When he first met me, I was already a skull collector, and now he goes and finds them for me and brings them back,” says Natalie. “He’s gotten really good at living with witchy stuff.”

The two of them are remarkably self-sufficient — an animal lover (“he loves animals more than people”), Paul realized veganism left him tired and undernourished, so took up hunting to procure his own meat humanely; one of the deer skulls mounted on the wall was harvested this fall, its meat now fills their freezer. They grow a garden, wildcraft, eat well. There is an ease between them — a tidal push and pull as they navigate their modest shared space and the morning routine, without evidence of fake niceness, of power trips or struggles.

Witchcraft, in Natalie Rousseau’s mind, is too non-dogmatic and non-hierarchical to submit to a single all-encompassing definition. “As a practice, it’s so highly individual,” she says, “but across the board, it is very place-based, land-based and body-based. For me, it’s about cultivating a relationship with your own body, your own mind, your emotions, and subtle sensing faculties. It’s learning how to trust your intuition. It’s about reclaiming your own instincts, but also being able to feel: this is what stress feels like in my body, this is what relaxation feels like, this is what it feels like to say yes to something out of a sense of obligation or pressure, this is what it feels like to have a boundary. This is what it feels like when I’m safe. These cues come to us from our bodies. It has to be, for it to work well, otherwise, you’re always reaching outside yourself for another authority.”

This is what she wants to help women, particularly, to reclaim: their sense that they are the first authority on themselves, that they can trust their bodies’ wisdom.

“The biggest thing I want to share with people,” says Natalie of her teaching and online courses, “is how to trust themselves. Everyone can very easily make the medicines that their household would need for common household complaints — colds and flus and chest colds and menstrual cramps — so many basic things that anyone can make very simply, quite affordably. I’m not anti-pharmaceutical. There are many medications people have to take daily to live. And if I have a serious infection, I’m going to take antibiotics; if I am seriously ill, I am going to go to the doctor; if I have any kind of trauma, I’m going to be so grateful for that form of medicine. But I believe the role kitchen medicine has is in the maintenance and prevention of illness.”

One of her biggest laments, though, as she makes videos and handouts and shares them with her online community, is that even people who have paid to do her course don’t feel that they have the time to take it into their kitchens. “Making a tincture is literally pouring vodka over plant materials and leaving it on your counter for four weeks!” she says. But it is easier for most people to just buy one online and have it delivered to their doorstep. “I am saddened by how easily women give their power over. This is the biggest thing I’ve noticed as a teacher in the past couple of years — how quickly women will say, ‘but how do you do this? I don’t know how to do this! I’m afraid to try this because I might not be good at it, I might be doing it wrong. I’m an imposter.’ I really struggle with this. Where is it coming from?”

But she knows. We have relinquished our power, over a thousand years or more, of wounding, of witch-burnings, of patriarchy either convincing us we have none or forcibly stripping it away, (hello Harvey Weinstein), until all we feel empowered to do, now, in 2020, is consume. And we’ve been doing that with all our might.

We override the listening, we ignore the nudges, we push through, like good soldiers. “Most people are running so hard,” observes Natalie. “Our culture is so focussed on productivity. We are so overly heroic — it’s all or nothing. I can’t do something unless I’m an expert. I don’t want to try. But this is a craft. It’s a path of education.”

Natalie’s invitation is gentle, and she’s crafted her online course to serve that: Start with one plant and learn its taste, its smell. Spend five minutes a day on meditation or in conscious ritual and begin to notice what’s going on in your nervous system, in your mind, in your body.

“When he first met me, I was already a skull collector, and now he goes and finds them for me and brings them back,” says Natalie. “He’s gotten really good at living with witchy stuff.”

Don’t get so distracted by the word witch, that you fail to notice that it is connected to craft. Witchcraft, for Natalie, is a path of learning “how to trust and problem solve, from within, knowing that we are in a system of power that, for better, for worse, will strip us of any ability to trust ourselves and to always feel empty so we have to keep buying more stuff.”

When she says this, a deep thrill of recognition hums in me, accompanied by a shiver of fear. Those are revolutionary things to say out loud, to cast into the open air. I recognize it viscerally as the kind of talk that gets people in trouble.

* * *

Last summer, before I met Natalie, I had stepped from my backyard patio stones onto freshly cut grass and spied the sinuous form of a wandering garter snake. I leaned in quickly, excitedly, about to call my 6-year-old over to glimpse the garden visitor before it shimmied away. But it was eerily still. Ugly slash wounds marked its body. It was dead. Innocent victim to the ride-on lawnmower. Obliterated by our oblivion.

“Oh no,” I muttered. “I’m so sorry!”

I had already begun to wake up to the natural world, it’s rhythms, it’s offerings of medicine, it’s otherness, but it had come with a shadow side, a growing despair at what we were doing to the world. Even without a malicious intention, I was causing death and destruction — just mowing the lawn, drinking my coffee, wiping my ass: My actions, all our human activity, had compounding impacts that were destroying the snakes, the ocean, the atmosphere, the forests, the icecaps — beyond repair.

I wanted my garden to be a habitat. I wanted the bees to waggle-dance directions to my sunflowers to their hive-mates, I wanted the wandering garter snakes to nest in their hibernacula through the winter and bask in the long grass in the summer, I wanted to lie on my back and watch butterflies dance through the flowers and the hummingbirds zoom in and out, I wanted to inhabit innocence again.

I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. My penitence froze me in place, scared to make a move for fear of ruining something else. Then, regret overriding my squeamishness, I fetched the flat-bladed shovel and edged it under the dead snake. I carried her body over to the vegetable patch, and in a space between the beds, where the mower never goes, I laid her down. I picked marigolds and calendula from around the garden, where they’d been planted to keep the snails away, and lay the bright orange blossoms in a circle around her.

Grandmother snake, I whispered, hoping that some force that exists beyond the definitively dead snake at my feet, might spread the word among the entire species, “I’m sorry. We didn’t mean it. I will try to be more careful.”

It was a made-up ritual, the kind that a kid might perform deep in her dream world at the bottom of the garden, and it made my 44 year-old-self feel a little bit better. At least I’d made a gesture of repair, had expressed my desire to return into balance with the living world around me. If it had any effect, I’d never know. I went back inside, said nothing.

A few days later, out in the garden, my husband tripped over the skeleton of a decomposing snake, ringed by wilted flowers, half consumed by ants.

“That was spooky,” he confronted me. “What’s going on? Are you some kind of witch?”

* * *

* * *

Natalie has always been comfortable with the word. Now she’s having fun inviting people to consider the archetype, circle it, unpack it, stumble upon some kind of recognition: Wait a second! Maybe I am a witch!

“It’s cool how people in the western world can take a description that has been used mostly as a slur, and turn it around to use as something empowering,” she says.

For thousands of years, witch was a term used to incite violence against women. By the most conservative estimates, half a million people, mostly women, were executed in the European witch craze between 1300 and 1650. Accusations of witchcraft were used against women, says Rousseau, “in ways that were extremely dangerous and terrifying. It was really about getting power from them, and getting land back. So, to use a word like that in an empowered way, even today, you have to know you’re safe to do it. And it’s important to realize that in many places in the world, it’s still not safe for women to say that. But if we can, in safe places, take that word and turn it around, that, to me, is extremely powerful.”

I wanted the bees to waggle-dance directions to my sunflowers to their hive-mates, I wanted the wandering garter snakes to nest in their hibernacula through the winter and bask in the long grass in the summer, I wanted to lie on my back and watch butterflies dance through the flowers and the hummingbirds zoom in and out, I wanted to inhabit innocence again.

Natalie herself embodies empowerment. Not in the traditional way I have come to recognize power — as someone standing over, dominating someone else, her source of power comes from within.

She doesn’t need to take any from her partner.

“Do you find this relationship at all emasculating?” I joke to Natalie’s husband.

“I don’t. Not at all. No,” he replies.

“We’ve always given each other space to be ourselves.”

But that’s not always a guarantee of safety.

If it is dangerous to be an empowered woman in the world, then it’s dangerous, too, for the men who love them.

Lyla June Johnston is an author and activist of Diné and European heritage. Her inquiry into her disowned European heritage led to a realization: The millions of women burned alive, drowned alive, dismembered alive, beaten, raped and otherwise tortured as so-called, “witches,” were not witches at all. They were the medicine people of old Europe. Her lens, as a contemporary indigenous woman, and as a survivor of sexual violence, helped her identify that those were the women who understood the herbal medicines, the ones who prayed with stones, the ones who passed on sacred chants. And the all-out warfare of the witch burnings didn’t just harm the women. It had a profound effect on the men who loved them, their husbands, sons, brothers. She recognizes the echo of this in the story of her own time, of her own people. “Nothing makes a man go mad like watching the women of his family get burned alive. If the men respond to this hatred with hatred, the hatred is passed on. And who can blame them? While peace and love are the correct response to hatred, it is not an easy response by any means.”

How many men have kept their women down, tried to keep them at home, have become the handcuffs that the women fought against because they were answering to their own unarticulated primal instinct to keep them safe?

Natalie Rousseau speculates, “I am sure historically you had lots of husbands telling their wives to tone it down, not because they didn’t respect their power, but because they were genuinely afraid. I’d apply that to any women described as uppity — getting involved politically, or getting involved in local stuff that’s happening, fighting for the environment: Stop getting noticed so much. This could be dangerous.”

Some dangers are too great to be able to protect each other from. And so we turn the fight on each other — little domestic power-trips that distract us from the fact that we’ve relinquished all our power any way to the Great Machine.

* * *

My tentative inquiries into witchcraft, becoming fluent in my own moods and emotions, and paying attention to the seasons, barely prepared me for the abrupt slow-the-fuck-down order that came when COVID-19 landed in British Columbia, in my village, as school broke for spring break. The emergency handbrake was pulled. Everything came to a squealing stop — all my plans, canceled; all the stores, closing; the whole damn world, under house arrest and in a panic. The whiplash from the stunning speed of that shift has left my whole being hypersensitive to any sudden movement, to being jerked around. But the first things I have staked my trust in, in that space of uncertainty, were Natalie’s teachings: First, trust your body. Pause. Listen.

In self-imposed isolation with my husband and just-turned-7-year-old, I dance with anxiety and curiosity and disconnection and too-much-information. The well-trodden pathways we have all been racing along, flexing our power and exercising our entitlements as consumers, are suddenly bordered up with emergency tape. This invitation that Natalie has been dripping out, month after month, takes root. There is far more potency available to us, than shopping, driving, holidaying, consuming, endlessly moving around the planet.

There is potency in all the feelings that have been showing up at my door. Oh, good morning frustration. Ah grief, yes, I suppose you’d like a cup of tea. Hello there, existential terror, I wondered when you’d pop by. There is potency in sitting with my back against a huge cedar tree and listening, in slowing down so much that I can give my 7-year-old my full attention. There is potency even in my words, when I soothe him down from a tantrum by saying, “you know, this is a really hard time for everyone in the whole world right now because no one knows what’s going to happen and no one can play with their friends. I’m really proud of you.” And I can feel his body relax into this space of being acknowledged in his struggles and his efforts.

I don’t know if there are any medicinal properties in the tincture of St John’s Wort and valerian that I drop into water and hand my husband, to gentle his nervous system. Or in the jar of immune-boosting oxymel, that I brewed up with grated ginger and turmeric and orange peel, and shake every day. But even if it’s a placebo, there’s a relief for me in feeling I can do something, can offer my people some kind of healing intention in a little glass, that I can acknowledge that this is hard for my husband too, and that acknowledgment isn’t a concession that takes away from my own sense of struggle.

For decades, we’ve bought into the illusion that our power is as consumers. Now that stores are closing and the shelves are emptying and we have to stay home and not immediately indulge every whim that arises, we all feel powerless. But that was never our truest source of power. There’s another source that we can all plug back into, our deep relationship and interbeing with the life force. Maybe, this is our threshold moment. Maybe, this is a chance to craft a few little spells, to speak the words of the world we long to inhabit — a place where the currency of kindness and wonder flow, where humans return to a deep memory of belonging among the plants and creatures, and to brew up a cup of tea, light a candle, and dream it into existence. Maybe it’s an invitation to say, “I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to, I will try and be more careful,” and to build a little altar, even if you feel kind of cray cray doing it. Let your nervous system settle as you invent some small ritual, (just ask your inner 5-year-old for guidance, she probably remembers exactly what to do), and make a gesture of repair.

“I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have on my Apocalypse team,” I tell my husband, the night the global virus countertops 400,000. He’s been chopping wood, auditing the pantry, getting our kid across the finish line of the LEGO project that has absorbed him for four days. My husband was a farm kid. He’s always been practical, my polar opposite. Even when we have battled each other, (am I giving up too much of my power to him? If I acknowledge his pain and his needs, will that cancel mine out?) I’ve always known he would do anything to keep me safe. “Not that I can request an upgrade now,” I joke. “But I bet you’re glad to be stuck with me. One always wants a daydreamer at your side in a pinch.”

“Oh yeah,” he spoofs me: “’ The stock market is collapsing, let me just go check my Tarot cards.’”

We laugh. And hold each other. We can’t buy our way out of this. None of us. Our entire species, our global community, is being vividly reminded that we are all in this together, inextricably connected, epidemiologically entwined, in our vulnerability and our sweet potential. We didn’t need Amazon and airlines and online shopping to know what the witches have been telling us all this time. All the power we need is right here — between us, around us, within us. We just have to remember it.

* * *

Lisa Richarson

is a senior contributor to Coast Mountain Culture magazine and a columnist for Pique newsmagazine and edits the hyperlocal websites,

TheWellnessAlmanac.com

and

TracedElements.com.

She’s deep into a decade-long mission to slow the fuck down, but still optimize life for happiness and productivity. Born and raised in Australia, she has lived as a guest on the unceded territory of the Líl̓wat Nation since a ski vacation went rogue 20-odd years ago.

Editor: Carolyn Wells

Posted by

Lisa Richardson

on

April 8, 2020

https://longreads.com/2020/04/08/how-to-tell-your-husband-youre-a-witch/

[myownsuperintendent]

Fic: “Next Year” (Fifth in the “Welcome” Series)

In the year following their reunion as a family, Mulder, Scully, Emily, and William navigate their relationships. I wrote the first four parts of this series before Season 11, based on some rumors that turned out to be extremely false, so now it is officially AU.  In continuing this story, I wanted to keep it in line with the earlier sections, so I haven't included new things that we learned in Season 11 (William's new name, the Van de Kamps now living in Virginia, Baby #3) and have kept details the same even if they were contradicted (William was a redhead in Parts 1-4 and remains one here).  Rated T, also here at Ao3.  The full series is here.

.....

September

Will tries to keep his desk neat—even now, he remembers the people who were his parents telling him to clean his room—although he’s not that great at it. He can usually find what he needs, though, if he goes through the stacks of papers.  He thought for a while about what pictures he wanted to keep there, and he eventually put one of him and Emily.  They took it right after they adopted her, so she’s eight and he’s one; she’s holding him, and they’re both looking at the camera with the same What the heck? expression.  It’s always made him laugh.  They look alike there, really alike, which is something he never thought much about until last year.  Maybe he was stupid.  He could never have guessed the whole thing, he thinks, but maybe some of it.

He keeps his computer at his desk too, and right now he’s sitting at it, talking to Dana and Mulder over Skype.  He’s been telling them about his logic class; they have a test coming up.  “There’s a couple other people on my hall in it,” he says, “so we’re going to study together, I think.  I feel pretty good about it, though.”

“That’s good,” Dana says.  She and Mulder are sitting on the couch in their living room; the computer must be on the little table, he thinks.  It’s a space he knows now, even if he doesn’t quite call it home.  He tells people Wyoming when the inevitable where-are-you-froms come up.  Sometimes he says he lives in Virginia now, sometimes not.  “And you like the class?”

“Yeah,” he says. “It’s really interesting stuff. It’s so big, though.”  He can handle that part, though—the classes here aren’t like high school classes, but the work isn’t too hard for him and that change would have happened anyway, he tells himself.  It’s only all the changes being mixed up that gets to him, makes him stop sometimes and try to figure out just how he got here.

“What about your other classes?” Mulder asks.  “Are they still going well?”

William nods. “I like all of them,” he says. “Well, my history professor, his lectures are kind of boring.  But there’s some good stuff in the books for that class, anyway.”  He tries to think of what else they might want to know.  “I joined a debate club.”

“Hey, that sounds great!” Dana says.  “That’s a good way to meet people, too.  How’s it going so far?”

“Good, I think,” he says.  “We’ve only had two meetings.  There’s a lot of rules and things.  Ways you have to debate, I mean.  You can’t just yell out whatever you want.”  He grins.  “So it’s a learning curve.”

“It’s probably for the best, having some debating rules,” Mulder says.  “Sounds like something we could use, actually.  Right, Scully?”  He nudges her.

“Speak for yourself,” she says, nudging him back.  Will watches them.  He knows he wants to learn something.  He isn’t sure what.

“But the president of the club, she’s really nice,” he says.  “She helps us out a lot.  So I’m getting there, I think.”  

“I’m sure you are,” Dana says.  She smiles at him.  He smiles back.

“How about the two of you?” he asks.  “How are you doing?”  He never used to ask his parents that, not back when he was a kid.  That’s another one of the changes that he isn’t sure about, that might have happened anyway.  

“We’re good,” Mulder says.  “Back at work now.  We went to Arizona on a case—just got back this afternoon.”

“Oh,” he says. “I hope you’re not too tired.  We could have talked tomorrow instead, if you wanted to.”

“Of course not,” Mulder says.  

“We wanted to talk to you,” Dana adds.  He knows they’re pretty serious about this.  Whenever they make plans to talk, they’re always calling him right on the dot. He wonders if they know that he’s noticed.  

“What was your case about?” he asks.  “I mean, if you can tell me.”

“Some ghosts in an old fort,” Mulder says.

“They were not ghosts,” Dana says.  “I hope you’re not going to put that in the report.  William, it was like this…”

He knows their work stories should probably be the weirdest part of all of this, but whenever they tell one, he doesn’t want it to be over.  He listens to their words, for the moment not thinking at all about what’s changed.

October

They’ve been parents again for a year now, incredible as that still seems.  Even if they don’t get to see them every day, they unquestionably have two children.  Emily out in Wyoming: she calls a lot, texts them pictures, tells them she loves them (it’s still almost more than they could have hoped for).  William up in Boston, at school: they have their regular Skype dates, and they talk so much more easily now, and this weekend they’re driving up to visit him, to see him for the first time since August.

“Wake up,” Scully says, nudging him, early on Friday morning.  Mulder opens his eyes, rolling over and looking at the clock.  “We should get ready to get on the road.”  

“Yeah,” he says. “You want the shower first or…?”

“You can go ahead,” she says.  He kisses her before getting out of bed.

They’re out of the house pretty quickly, on the road to Boston.  Driving together, just the two of them: it’s by no means a new experience. It’s almost never like this, though. Almost never for something like visiting their son at college: something that’s simultaneously as ordinary as can be and as thrilling as it can get.  Neither of them says how excited they are, but it’s in everything they do. The way she turns the radio up loud, some 70s pop music thing that should be annoying as hell but isn’t; he finds himself humming along and sees that she is too, and when they roll down the windows it’s warm for October.  The way he decides to order a milkshake when they stop for lunch at a diner; they drink it with two straws, but they don’t linger, getting themselves back on the road.  The way they kiss when they get to their hotel, before they head back out, because right now they have somewhere to be.

“Should I try not to cry?” Scully asks him when they’re driving over to the campus.

“I don’t know,” he says.  “Should I? Are we those embarrassing parents?”

“I think we’re the cool parents,” Scully says.  “We have sexy jobs…”

“Oh, yeah, flukemen and autopsies,” he says.  “Real sexy.” She laughs; he loves how she looks, how she sounds.  “Face it, Scully.  We’re the parents you…don’t want to bring home to meet your parents.”  The sentence got away from him somehow, but she’s laughing again, and they’re some kind of parents, anyway, which makes all the difference.  When they get out of the car, there are a lot of other parents around, heading towards campus, and for now they blend right in.  He texts Will—We’re here, we can meet you by your dorm.  The text comes back: OK, see you in a few.

And he’s standing there: him, William, their son, with his height and Scully’s hair, once a baby they held and now a person they’re getting to know.  He waves as they come up.  “Hi,” he says.  “It’s great to see you both.”

Mulder hugs him close; he hangs on as long as he can, embarrassing parents be damned, and then he lets Scully have her turn.  He watches them as they hug, mother and son, and wonders if anyone else would know what a beautiful sight this is.  He takes Scully’s hand after she lets go, as they all start to talk.  Neither of them is really crying.  Maybe a few tears.

 November

“Your grandmother always made this stuffing,” her mom tells her as they’re taking things out of the oven.  “It was her big thing.  I think the two of you would have liked each other a lot.”

Emily smiles. “I can’t wait to try it,” she says. “Will,” she calls into the living room, “what are you doing in there?  Can you come and help us carry things?”  And among the four of them they carry the dishes into the dining room and arrange them on the table.  “Do you want to do the I’m Thankful For’s?” she asks Will quietly.  Their family’s always done it, going around the table.  Of course, they’re used to having a lot more people there, but things are weird now; it’s not like their Aunt Hilda had anything to do with trying to harvest their cells, but the whole thing’s hard to explain, and their relationships with the extended family feel tentative now, even though they’ve know these people all their lives.  And now neither of their parents has much family, so it’s just the four of them.  It was the four of them last year too, but she didn’t even try to broach the topic of being thankful then.  She cried after dinner, muffling her face with a kitchen towel so no one would hear. She heard Will crying too, later. She doesn’t like to think about it much.

He’s quiet for a moment, and then he says, “Sure.”  She tells their parents about it when they sit down, and then they all go around; they use different words, but they’re all pretty much saying the same thing. They’re glad to be here, together, having a Thanksgiving where hopefully nobody cries.

After they eat, they sit around in the living room, and she’s not even sure what they’re talking about when Will brings it up.  “Um…I was wondering…I know we haven’t talked about it before…do you guys have any pictures? From when I was a baby, I mean.”

Their parents look at each other.  “We do,” their mom says, so simply, as if such a thing could never be in doubt. “Did you…would you like to see them?”

“Yeah,” Will says, nodding.  “If that’s all right.”

“Of course it’s all right,” their mom says.  “I’ll get them.”  She gets up from the couch and goes upstairs, and the other three of them sit there silently until she gets back.  It doesn’t seem like the moment to talk.

She comes back with a box, which she holds out to Will, and he takes it and opens it.  This is his moment, Emily knows, and at first she makes herself sit back against the couch and give him his privacy, but after a minute she’s curious and she leans in to look at the pictures too.  She remembers Will as a baby, but not quite this little, and there are so many photographs, with dates written on the back in their mom’s handwriting.  Will sitting in one of those bouncy seats.  Will in their mom’s lap next to a Christmas tree, clutching a stuffed lamb. Will bawling next to the same Christmas tree; she hears him laugh faintly at that one.  She’s not jealous, she’s not.  At the bottom of the box, Will, with both of their parents, so very, very small.  He holds on to that one for a long time, just looking.  “I didn’t know you kept all these,” he says, finally.  She can tell how much it means to him from his voice. She wonders if their parents can tell, when they haven’t known him as long.

“We did,” their dad says.

“We would’ve never…” their mom says, and then she breaks off.  Emily’s starting to wonder if she should get up and pretend she’s going to wash the dishes.  

He picks up one of the pictures again; there’s another one stuck to the back, which he pulls off. “What’s this one?” he asks.  

But she knows, even before their mom says, even before she sees the name on the birthday cake. She tries to take it from his hand without grabbing.  She’s never seen a picture of herself from before she was eight, but she knows her own face.   She looks at the candles; she must be three.  Her smile’s still the same, she thinks.  “Did you…” she starts, and then she breaks off.  She can’t put it all into one question.

“The Sims took it,” her mom says.  “Your adoptive parents, the first ones.  And when I was looking into their case, I found it and I took it with me.  To try to figure out what was going on.  And after you…”  She swallows hard.  “Well, I kept it.”

Emily holds it in her hand, carefully with her fingers around the edges.  She stares at her three-year-old self, from a time she can only remember in brief moments, in images and sensations.  This picture of her has always been there, she thinks, in this box on the other side of the country from her, even when she didn’t know it, even when she was thinking about other things.  She’s always had these people.

She’s always had a past.

 December

Emily tells her about a tradition she’s had ever since she was eight: she and Mrs. Van de Kamp would drive into the city to see The Nutcracker, and after that they’d go shopping for Christmas presents.  “Were you ever in it?” Scully asks her.  “One of the kids?”  It’s been forever since she’s seen The Nutcracker herself, but she knows there are a bunch of kids in it, and she knows Emily took ballet for ten years.  She’s seen pictures, a small Emily in a pink leotard, a teenaged Emily in a deep blue tutu.

Emily shakes her head. “I started kind of late,” she says. “And I wasn’t really that serious, I guess.  But I would have liked to be.”  She’s half smiling.  “I always used to get so excited about the costumes.  I wanted to wear something like that.”  She turns her mug of tea between her hands.  “Anyway.  I know it would be kind of last minute.  But I was wondering…while I’m here…would you like to go?  The two of us?  It’s always kind of been my…my thing at Christmas…and I’d like to go with you. If you don’t think that would be weird, since, you know, I used to go with…”  She breaks off.  “Well, you know.”

She’s so touched that Emily would ask her this.  There’s a sense in which everything they do together still feels charmed, impossibly special, but the idea that Emily wants her to be part of this tradition seems especially important, even so.  “I’d love to go,” Scully says.  “Let’s see about getting tickets.”

Emily smiles. “That would be great.”

“And Emily?” Scully adds.  “I know we’ve talked about this before.  But I really don’t mind if you want to talk about your other mom.”  She’s never sure what to call her—it’s hard for her to accord full maternal status to someone who was ultimately using her children—but Mrs. Van de Kamp did raise Emily and William for most of their lives, from everything they’ve said taking good care of them, and she doesn’t want either of them to feel like they have to pretend that never happened.  Emily did talk about the Van de Kamps more, back when Scully and Mulder were staying in Wyoming, all of them trying to get to know one another, but recently she seems to have shied off.  Scully doesn’t want to force the issue; she just wants Emily to know that she doesn’t have to keep quiet on her account.  “I know how important she was to you.”

“Thanks,” Emily says. “But that’s okay.”  Scully isn’t sure what, exactly, is okay, but then Emily starts looking up The Nutcracker on her phone and asking about what would be a good day for them to go, and it doesn’t seem like that line of conversation is open right now. She’s quiet, sometimes, about these things.

They drive into DC together on the big day; a matinée is planned, and then the shopping and eating. Emily is wearing a dark blue dress and has put her hair up; she looks beautiful, and Scully tells her so. “Thanks,” she says, smiling widely. “You look wonderful too.”

The Nutcracker is very enjoyable—Scully recognizes enough of the musical themes to share to some extent in Emily’s sense of familiarity, even if she doesn’t see the ballet every year.  They walk to a department store afterwards and are soon immersed in the challenging business of choosing presents.  “Should I get Dad a tie?” Emily asks.  “Would he like a tie?”

“Please do,” Scully says.  “He can’t be trusted to choose them for himself.”  Emily giggles at that, looking through the ties on a rack.

“How about this one?” she asks, giggling even harder.  It’s bright orange with a cactus pattern.

“He’d probably love it,” Scully says.  “But that doesn’t mean you should get it.”

She usually doesn’t like shopping, but she feels light-hearted as they go through their expedition, looking through stores together, debating options.  Emily shoos her away when she tries to follow her through the bookstore— “I’m getting your present!” she calls back over her shoulder—and she goes on her own to look for something for Emily, finally settling on a nice edition of Sense and Sensibility.  

When they’re done shopping, they squeeze themselves and their purchases into a restaurant booth, ordering hot chocolate.  “This was a lot of fun,” Scully says.  “Did you have a good time?”

Emily nods.  “It was really nice to do this again.  Since we couldn’t last year.”  Their situation as a family had still been fraught, at best, by this time last December; she imagines Emily hadn’t felt right proposing this kind of outing.  She’s not quite smiling when she speaks, even now.

Scully nods too. “I’m sure it wasn’t exactly the same for you.  But I’m glad you had fun.”  Emily doesn’t answer; she’s fiddling with her cocoa cup, and her good mood from earlier seems to have dissipated.  Scully tries to think of what to say.  “Emily,” she finally tries, tentatively.  “It’s okay if you miss her.”

“No,” Emily says, and her voice is suddenly loud.  “It’s not okay.”  She’d been taking a sip of her cocoa when Scully spokes, and she puts the cup down hard, so the saucer rattles, so a little bit of liquid sloshes over.  “It’s not okay at all.”  

“Emily, I—”

“It’s not okay,” Emily repeats.  “Maybe you…you think that.  And I know you’re trying to be nice about it.  But it’s not.  I don’t want to miss her.”  She’s caught up in what she’s saying now, the words following one on top of the other, her voice harsh in a way Scully has never heard from her.  She’s seen Emily worried, sad, upset, but this is unquestionable anger.  “I wanted to do this with you so it could be our thing now.  So it wouldn’t have to be my thing with her anymore.  Because I don’t want to miss her.  She wanted to—she didn’t care about me and Will at all, not really.  So why should I have to keep caring about her?”  She’s shaking.  “And most of the time I really don’t.  I don’t miss them.  I have you and Dad and I don’t miss them.”

“Emily,” Scully says, trying to be gentle, not to check Emily if she doesn’t want to be checked, not to make her any more upset than she already is.  “That’s all right too.  However you feel is—”

“But I know that’s awful,” Emily says, and this is another thing Scully has never seen from her, the way she drives on through with what she’s saying, interrupting where she’s usually so carefully polite.  “I know I should…I should forgive.  That’s what a good person does.  But I can’t.  Sometimes I think I don’t want to.  And maybe that means I’m not…”  Her voice is unsteady, and she doesn’t resist when Scully reaches over and lays a hand on top of hers.  

“You’re a very good person, Emily,” she says.  “One of the best I know.  You shouldn’t blame yourself for being angry.”

“They’re the ones who taught me that,” Emily says.  “About forgiving.  That’s the thing—there’s so much that’s from them, things they taught me and even little things like this.  Like how we did the Christmas shopping.  And how can I—there’s just so much of them.  And I’m so…I’m so…I don’t want to be mad all the time.”  She’s quiet then, looking down.  It seems to be all she can get out.  Her shoulders start to shake.

Scully slides out of the booth and goes over to the other side, to put her arms around her daughter.  She can hear Emily crying quietly.  “I’m right here,” she says gently.  “I love you, Emily, and I’m right here.”  For a moment, as she holds Emily, the years seem to fall away.  She remembers those days in San Diego.  She didn’t know Emily then; now she knows her a lot better, but she can tell she still has more to learn.  Emily sobs, leaning her head on her hands on the table, and Scully holds on. A waiter comes by and stares at them, and Scully glares until he goes away.

Emily stops crying eventually and wipes her face on her napkin.  “I’m sorry,” she says.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Scully tells her firmly.  “I’m your mom.  You can…you can share these things with me.”  Emily’s still wiping her eyes.  “Have you felt like this for a long time?” Scully asks her, because when she’s talked about the Van de Kamps before it hasn’t been like this.  

Emily nods, after a moment.  “Not right away, maybe,” she says.  “Not when you first came, I mean.  But for a while.”

“You could have told me,” Scully says.  She worries she sounds too accusatory, so she tries to rephrase.  “If you had wanted to, I mean.”

“I didn’t…I felt wrong about it,” Emily says.  “I didn’t want to feel like this.”

“I understand,” Scully says, and she thinks she does; she knows a lot about self-blame.  She hugs Emily tight again, saying, “Just please know that you haven’t done anything wrong.  And that if you want to, you can talk to me.  And I’m sure that goes for your dad too.  We both love you.”

Emily wipes her nose and tries to smile.  “So much for making this our fun tradition, huh?”

“We can try again next year,” Scully says.  “If you want to.”

“I think I do, actually,” Emily says.  

She disappears into the bathroom to fix her makeup while Scully pays for their drinks, and then they drive home.

 January

 Will’s half working on problems for his chemistry class, half Skyping with Emily.  She’s giving him grief about that, of course.  “If you have to study, you should study,” she says.  “We can talk later.  I don’t want you to be reading when I’m trying to talk.”

“It’s fine,” he says. “I can finish later.”  He makes a big show of picking up his papers, stacking them neatly, and putting them aside.  “See?”

She makes a face at him.  “Fine. How are your new classes, anyway?”

“They’re good,” he says.  “Everything’s busy already, though.  I can’t believe I’ve only been back five days.”

“Yeah,” Emily says. “It’s always like that.  I remember, from when I was in college.”  She talks like that was about fifty years ago, instead of just three.  “Did Mom and Dad drive you up again?  Or did you fly?”

“They drove me,” he says.  “I…you know. I think they like doing it.”  He knows that’s true, anyway, that Dana and Mulder will jump at any chance there is to spend time with him, even if that means seven hours in a car.  But it’s true, too, that they’re not the only ones who want that time.  For him, it’s another chance at figuring them out, at making this whole thing into something real.  Sometimes, in the way they move or smile or speak, he sees something that he’s always done, and that’s something to grasp at, to store away.  He doesn’t know how to say all this to Emily.  “And we got here a couple of days early and did some Boston stuff.  Kind of the tourist thing.  Museums and all that.”

“You haven’t already been to all the museums?” Emily teases.  “I would have thought you’d do them all in the first week.”

“You know me,” he says.  “I’m always studying.  Always hard at work.”  He smiles, and she smiles back.  “What’s going on with you?”

“Nothing much,” she says.  “We’ve got a lot of snow out here.”  

“Send me pictures,” he says.  That’s one of the things he misses most: their farm, their town, the place itself. He knows he wouldn’t be there right now, anyway, but it still feels lost to him.

“Sure!” she says. “I was going to put some from this weekend on Facebook, anyway.  Steve dragged me skiing.  We went with Jill and her husband.”  

“I hope you didn’t injure yourself too badly,” Will says.  “I should be grateful you’re still here talking to me.  And not in a full body cast or something.”

“You’re the worst,” she says, but she’s grinning.  “We did have fun, though.  Steve was a good sport; he hung out with me at the lodge a bunch.  I like that better than the actual skiing.  We were at that one with the hot tub, so we spent a lot of time in there.”

“Gross,” he says. He doesn’t actually think that; he likes Steve, whom he’s known almost as long as he can remember, and he knows he makes Emily happy.  But she’s his sister and he has to tease her, at least sometimes.

“Oh my gosh, Will, there’s nothing gross about it,” she says.  “We were fully clothed in that hot tub, if you must know.”

“That’s weird,” he says, “getting into a hot tub fully clothed.  Did your ski pants get all waterlogged or—”

“Stop,” she says. “You know what I mean.  Bathing suits.  Anyway, aren’t you a little old to be all ‘ooh, cooties’ about everything?”

“Never,” he says, giving her his most winning smile, and she sticks out her tongue.

“You really are the worst,” she says.  “Any love in your life?  Or are you too cool for all that?”

“Nah,” he says, shaking his head.  He doesn’t mention Alexandra Ng, who’s the head of his debate club, because until he can figure out how to string more than two sentences together when he’s talking to her, he doesn’t think that really counts.  Emily watches him narrowly, but she doesn’t ask any more questions about it.

“Your break’s in March, right?” she says instead.  

“Yeah, that’s right,” he says.  “Middle of there somewhere.”

“Well, send me the dates when you get a chance,” she says.  “Maybe I’ll try to get some time off and come and see you.  If you’d like.”

“Yeah, sure,” Will says.  “Dana and Mulder are going to come up here too, I think.  But we could all do something together.”  It’s different, when it’s all four of them.  He feels steadier then, like they really are some kind of a family, like he belongs in a way.  When it’s just him and Dana and Mulder, it’s not bad, not anything like that, but he still feels uncertain, like he’s trying for something, like he doesn’t know what’s around the next corner.  

“That sounds great,” Emily says, and this is still what feels the steadiest of all—when it’s just him and her talking—because he can’t remember a time before Emily.  

 February

Mulder’s still lying in bed when Scully wakes up.  “Morning,” she says, smiling at him.

“Morning,” he replies, smiling back.  “Happy birthday.”

“Oh, right,” she says. “That.”

“Yeah, that,” he says. “What, you’re not excited about your birthday, Scully?”  He starts kissing her neck.  “Hold still,” he says, when she starts to roll away.  “I have to give you fifty-six kisses.  For your birthday.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she says, but she’s still smiling, and she doesn’t try to roll away again.  “Are they all going to be in the same place?” she asks after a few seconds.

“They don’t have to be,” he says.  “It’s your birthday.  Where do you want me to kiss you?”

“I’ll show you,” she says, pulling him towards her, and they don’t get out of bed for a while.

There’s a package on the front steps when they finally go downstairs for breakfast, with Scully’s name on it and Emily’s address written neatly in the upper left corner. He takes it inside.  “For you,” he says, handing it to Scully, and then he takes a seat at the table next to her and watches her open it, sees the happiness in her eyes and the smile spreading over her face.  There’s a card at the top, which she reads carefully, which she props up in front of her carefully as she goes through the rest of the package. A note on a slip of paper—Happy birthday, Mom!  I promised I’d make you something, and I did!  Hope you like them—and then a hat, light purple and blue wool, with earflaps and a little pompom on the top, and a fringed scarf to match.  

Scully pulls them on immediately.  “How do I look?” she asks, turning to model them for him.

“Perfect,” he says. “And they’re just right for today, too. It looks like we’re going to get some snow.”

It’s still early in Wyoming, so Scully waits until around noon to call Emily and say thank you, and then the three of them talk for a while.  Mulder and Scully go out to walk around the property after that; the snow is starting to fall, but lightly, and it’s nice walking through it, Scully still wearing her new hat and scarf.

He knows she’s thinking about Will, that afternoon, when they’re back inside, lying on the couch, watching an old movie on TV and chatting idly.  He knows she’s not going to bring it up or complain—not Scully—but that she’d hoped he would call today.  That she wants that, to make her birthday all it should be.  He wishes he could give it to her.  Maybe he should have talked to Will, he thinks, earlier this week, asked him if he would call and wish Scully a happy birthday.  But he’s not sure—he doesn’t think it would cause real friction, not at this point, but still, there’s a part of him that feels like he doesn’t have the right, that he can’t make demands of Will.  He knows Scully feels the same; this is on them, the two of them, they’re the ones who have to put themselves out there.  So she won’t say anything, he knows, not even to him, about wanting Will to call.

He pulls her closer to him on the couch.  Strokes his fingers through her hair.  She leans her head into his chest, and they stay that way for the rest of the movie.

It’s ten-thirty; she’s in the bathroom, and he’s settling into bed.  The phone rings, and he picks it up.  “Hello?”

“Hi.”  It’s Will, after all.  “Is Dana there?”

“Yeah, she’s here,” Mulder says.  “Just a second.”  He calls over towards the bathroom.  “Scully? Will wants to talk to you.”

She hurries out of the bathroom, her face still half-covered in some kind of lotion, and grabs the phone from him.  “Hi, Will.” She’s sitting on the bed next to him, and he watches her again, that same melting softness in her face from when she opened the package.  “Thank you, sweetheart.  I’m so glad you called.”  She’s smiling into the phone.  “Don’t even worry about it.  You know, I’d known your dad for four years before he even acknowledged my birthday. So you’re way ahead…It’s been a really nice day, thanks.  We had some snow.  How about you?  How’s your day been?...That’s great.”  She listens to something else he says and then laughs.  “It happens.  I’m glad she caught you, though…Absolutely.  Well, have a good night, Will.  We’ll talk to you later this week, okay?...You too.  Bye.”  She hangs the phone up.  

“So he did call,” Mulder says, reaching out and touching her hand.  They can mention it, now.

“Yeah,” she says. “He didn’t remember it was today. But Emily called and reminded him.”

“That’s our Emily,” he says.

“Yes,” she says, still smiling.  She looks radiant.  He pulls her against him, lotion be damned, grateful, glad.

 March

She hasn’t been on a college campus since she graduated, and she takes her time looking around, absorbing the scene.  It’s cold, though, and right now they don’t really have anywhere to be.  

“Should we…do you guys want to get something to eat?” Will asks.

“Sure,” their dad says, and Emily and their mom nod.

“We can…there’s a café in the student center,” Will says.  “Let’s go there.”

They go inside; Emily wipes the snow off her boots, carefully.  They get sandwiches and take them over to a table.  “How was your flight, Emily?” their mom asks.  “I didn’t get a chance to ask you before.”

“It was pretty good,” she says.  “I’m getting used to the whole thing, now.”  She flew for the first time just this past summer, when Will and their parents moved to the house in Virginia; now she’s been back and forth a bunch of times, for visits.  “It’s not so exciting anymore.”  Then she frowns; that didn’t come out quite right.  “Not that I don’t love seeing you guys.  That’s always exciting.”  She turns to Will.  “What do you have planned for the break, Will?  Besides hanging out with us.”

“Just a lot of homework,” Will says.  “It doesn’t feel like a break, really.”

“Oh, that’s such a pain,” Emily says.  “I guess you’ll have to wait for summer to have the real break.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Will says.

“Maybe you can come out and see me then,” Emily says.  “Do the flying for a change.”  

“That sounds really good,” Will says, eagerly.  “I’ve really missed home.”

She sees the looks on their parents’ faces, and she knows Will must too, even though she can tell they’re trying to hide them.  Will didn’t mean it to hurt them, she knows—it’s not like it was in those first days, anymore—and she knows that if she asked them about it they’d say that they understood, that of course Wyoming is home for Will, that they wouldn’t expect anything different.  But it’s one of those moments.  A little bump.

“I’ve missed you too,” she says, because that’s true, and it’s easier to say right now than anything else.  “It’s not the same without you around.  When did you get so old, anyway?”

He grins at her. “You’re just sorry you can’t tell me what to do all the time.”

“Well, I bet you’re sorry you don’t have me around to help you out,” Emily says.  “Be honest with me.  How often do you do laundry?”

“Enough,” Will says.

“That’s not an answer,” Emily says, and they both start laughing, and their parents laugh too. They’ve cleared that moment, she thinks. They’re in smooth territory.

A guy stops by their table.  “Will! How’s it going?”

“It’s going good,” Will says, as they high five.  “You?”

“Good, good,” the guy says.  “This your family?”

“Um…yes,” Will says, and the guy keeps looking at them.  But Will is silent.

“Hey,” he finally says, when Will doesn’t say anything else.  “I’m Jake.  Will and I live on the same hall.”

“I’m Emily,” she says. “Will’s sister.”

“And these are Dana and Mulder,” Will says, and his voice is maybe a little too loud, and their parents nod, maybe a little bit too stiffly, and Jake seems to take the hint that this situation isn’t picture perfect.

“See you, then,” he says, and he goes off to another table.

They’re all quiet. She should say something, Emily thinks; it would be easiest if it were her.  She’s the one who should be able to deal with this.  But she can’t think of anything to say, right now.  “Will,” she finally says; that’s all, and her voice is quiet, and she’s worried that she sounds disappointed.  Maybe she is, a little.  Not in Will, though.  Just in the way everything’s happened.

“What?” he says, sounding defensive.  “We’re not…that’s who they are.  Right?” She doesn’t like the way he’s talking about it, like their parents aren’t sitting right next to them at the table. “It’s not a bad thing.  It’s not an insult.”

“I know,” she says. “I just…”  There’s no way she can say what she’s thinking without doing the same thing.  She wants to tell him that she knows this isn’t his fault, but she wishes he wouldn’t hurt their parents’ feelings.

“Emily, it’s okay,” their mom says.  “We’re fine.” That’s a lie, Emily can tell easily.

“We get it,” their dad says.  “We do.”

“Like we’ve said,” their mom says, “we’ll take our time with this.  As long as it takes.”

But Will’s shaking his head.  “That doesn’t help, you know.”

“Will…” their mom says, softly.

“I just feel like you’re always waiting for me,” he says.  “It’s…I know you don’t say anything.  You’ve been really good about that.  But, still, I know you’re waiting for me and I can’t…”  He breaks off.  “Look, I’m sorry.  But it’s not going to make this happen any faster.”

“We’re not trying to—” their dad says.

But Will cuts him off. “I know.  I know,” he says.  “I…I can’t explain it.  And this isn’t really the best place, anyway.”  He glances around the café, and the rest of them do the same, instinctively. Emily would be glad if this doesn’t end up being a public scene.  She doesn’t know if she should feel bad about that.  

“We could go back to your dorm,” their mom says.  “Or the hotel.  If you want to talk to us.”

“I don’t, really,” Will says, and Emily doesn’t think he means that to be hurtful either, and she knows it is.  “Not right now,” he amends.  “Maybe I’ll go back to my room, though.  Like I said, I have a lot of homework.  And then we can have lunch tomorrow.  Like we talked about.”

“Are you sure?” their dad asks, and Emily can’t stand the way his voice sounds.  So sad.  She wants to tell them that they should make Will stay, make him talk to them, not let him close himself off like this.  She knows it’s hard for them, because they don’t want Will to feel like they’re telling him what to do, because they’re still a little nervous, maybe, that all this will go away.  But their other parents would have, she knows, if Will were acting like this; they’d have been understanding but a lot less conciliatory.  She wonders if she should do that now.  If she should be the one to make Will stay.

But maybe she can’t do that either.  So she just sits there, as he says, “Yeah.  I’ll see the three of you tomorrow,” and gets up and walks away. He doesn’t even look at her.  She wonders whether he still sees her as an ally.

She wonders whose ally she’s supposed to be.  “He’ll be okay tomorrow,” she says to their parents, tentatively.  “He’s…he’s like this, sometimes.  You know that.  I know he’s happy we’re here.”

“Thank you, sweetie,” their mom says, and their dad pats her shoulder, but it all feels very half-hearted.  They finish their sandwiches, in this café where they don’t belong.

 April

Will calls, when she’s not expecting it.  “Hi, Dana,” he says, when she picks up the phone.  “How are you doing?”

“I’m doing well,” she says.  “Not too busy this week, thankfully.  I just got back from taking Dagoo for a walk.”  Next to her, Dagoo barks at the sound of his name.  “He says hi.”  She wonders if she’s being cheesy, embarassing.  Decides she doesn’t care.

“I say hi too,” Will says.  “How’s Mulder?”

“He’s doing well too,” she says.  “Did you want to talk to him?  He went grocery shopping, but he should be back soon.”

“No, that’s okay,” Will says, and then he’s quiet.  She can hear him breathing.  

She waits for a minute, but he doesn’t say anything else.  “How are you?” she asks.  “Busy with your classes?”  Sometimes she hates it, wasting any of the time she has with him on this kind of small talk.  She knows she can’t expect every moment to be profound, though.

“Yeah, pretty busy,” he says.  “I have a paper due Wednesday for English.  So I’ve been working on that.”

“What’s it about?” she asks.

“Hamlet,” he says.  Another little silence.  “Dana?”

“Yes?”

“This is kind of…it’s a dumb question, I guess.”

“You can ask me,” she says.  “I’m…that’s what I’m here for.”  She wonders what kind of question it’s going to be.  One of those conversations you expect to have with your kids, maybe, and that she thought she’d never have.  She guesses he’s too old for The Talk.  God, she hopes so.  Whatever it is, it must be serious, she thinks, because he seems nervous about asking; he hesitates again.

“I did try to look it up,” he says.  “Online. Really.”

“I believe you.”

“But I couldn’t really find anything,” he says.  “So…how do you use an iron?”

She almost laughs, but he sounds very serious about this, so she stifles it.  “Oh, that’s not so bad.  Do you have an iron now?  On hand?”

“No,” he says. “I wanted to ask you that too. Should I get one, do you think? Or just see if I can borrow one from someone?”

“Depends on how often you’re planning to use it, I guess,” she says.  “Do you think any of your friends have one?”

“I don’t know,” he says.  “I don’t think so.”

“Do you need it right away?” she asks.

“Before Friday.”

“Well, you could try asking around,” she says.  “But if not, there’s that housewares store we went to, right?  When you moved in?  I’m sure you could get one there.”

“Is there any special kind I should get?” he asks.

“I don’t think so,” Scully says; she’s not exactly an iron variety expert herself, if it comes to that.  But he’s looking to her now, trusting that she’ll have the answers.  “Whatever they have is fine.  I don’t think you need to spend a lot of money on this.  And then when you’ve got it—”

“Hang on a second,” he says.  “Let me just grab a pencil.  So I can write this down.”

She walks him through the steps of ironing.  Answers his questions.  Cautions him about burns and laughs when he says, “I know that, at least.”  She can’t help it.  She’s his mom.  

“You think you’ve got it now?” she asks, at the end.

“I think so,” he says. “But can I call you again if I have more questions?  Later?”

“You can call me any time, Will,” she says.  “You know that.”

“I do,” he says. “Thanks.”

They’re quiet for a moment, but she decides they shouldn’t linger there: there’s a part of her that’s wary of making things too intense.  “Good for you for even trying this,” she says.  “I don’t think I ever ironed anything when I was in college.  Is it something special?”

“Just a shirt,” he says.  “For the debate tournament.”  He clears his throat.  “Anyway, I should probably go.  But thanks, Dana.”

“Of course,” she says. “Have a good day, Will.  Call us after the tournament, if you have time—I’d love to know how it went.”

“Sure,” he says. They say their goodbyes, and he hangs up, and she hangs up too.  She ruffles the fur behind Dagoo’s ears.

 May

Will really isn’t thinking about it, when it happens.

They’re sitting in a diner near campus, a place he goes sometimes with his friends for late-night food.  He kind of likes showing it to the two of them.  It’s a place that’s his and yet that doesn’t have any baggage from the past.

They packed up his stuff this morning—they’ll start driving back to Virginia after this—and they’re talking about how the semester finished up when he hears a voice next to the table.  “Hi, Will!”

He looks up, but he doesn’t even need to look to know who it is.  Alexandra Ng, head of the debate club.  Definitely one of the smartest people he’s met here. Definitely one of the nicest.  And yes, he thinks she’s cute.  He considers himself lucky that he’s able to debate when she’s around.  Non-debate conversation seems like a more formidable challenge.

But she’s here now, and smiling at him, and there’s nothing to debate.  “Are you going home for the summer?” she asks.

“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, I’m leaving today.  Oh, um, this is Alexandra.  She’s the head of the debate club.  Alexandra, these are my parents.”

 He doesn’t make any conscious decision in the moment. He doesn’t realize what he’s said, at first.  But when Alexandra smiles and says, “Hi.  It’s nice to meet you,” and he catches a glimpse of their faces, hears them stumbling over their responses, he realizes it then.  He doesn’t know if he would have chosen to say it, if he’d thought about it.  But he’s not sorry that he did, except for the part where they’re acting weird, and Alexandra is there to witness it.  

“How about you?” he asks.  “Are you going home too?”

“I’m going home in August,” she says.  “I’m staying here to work at one of the summer programs for now.  It should be fun!  I’ve never stayed in Boston for the summer before.”

“You’re from California, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” she says.  “And you?”

“I live in Virginia,” he says, which is the simple answer, right now.

“Not too long a trip, then,” she says.  “Well, have a great summer, Will!  I’ll see you in the fall, right?”

“You can count on it,” he says, which is terrible, and cheesy, but she smiles again as she walks away, so maybe it’s not the worst.

Then he turns back to…to his parents.  They don’t want to make a big thing of it, he can tell, but they’re having a hard time acting normal, still.  She’s sniffling a little, and he’s squeezing her hand, and he’s tearing up too, when Will looks closely.

He smiles at them, and they smile back.

 June

Will’s been back with them, since school ended; so far he’s been mostly hanging around.  Earlier this week, though, he got a call from one of his friends back in Wyoming.  Apparently they used to work at one of the local farms together, during the summers when they were in high school; the friend’s working there again this summer, and they’re short on staff.  He says Will should come out there.  He says Will could stay with him.

As far as Mulder knows, Will didn’t give him any kind of definite answer.  He told the two of them about it, and when Scully asked what he’d said, he said that he wasn’t sure about it.  In the past couple of days, he hasn’t given the two of them any more information, at least about what his plans are.  He’s told them a little about the job, though, said he always liked working there.  Emily called yesterday, and she said that Will had mentioned it to her too, but she didn’t know any more than they did.  “I’d love to see him,” she said.  “But if not, maybe we can visit some time this summer.”

Of course Emily would love to see him.  He’s her brother, after all, and has been for most of her life—longer than Mulder’s really known him, if he’s being honest.  Maybe he should let them be together this summer.  Maybe he’s being selfish.

Because he doesn’t want Will to go, of course he doesn’t, and he knows that Scully doesn’t either.  Especially not now, when it feels like he’s just gotten home, and when they’re closer than they’ve ever been.  He calls them Mom and Dad now.  He gave Mulder a Father’s Day card, the first one he’s ever gotten (he keeps it on his desk, where he can see it every day).  It’s not easy to think about him leaving.

But often that feels like hypocrisy.  He left himself: he remembers that often, when Will mentions something from growing up, something that he wasn’t around to see.  It’s as bad for Scully, if not worse.  They’ve held each other, in their room at night, tried to talk through the guilt in halting voices.  “I want to ask him to stay,” Scully said.  “But can we…can we do that?”  And neither of them was sure.

Scully’s still asleep, this morning, when Mulder goes downstairs for breakfast.  Will’s sitting at the table, doing something on his phone; he puts it aside as Mulder takes a seat.  “Hey,” he says.  “Good morning.  I was just talking to Mike.  My friend back home.”

“Yeah?” Mulder says. “Are you still thinking about that job?”

“Yeah,” Will says. “He really wants me to come out. Says it’ll be like old times.”

“How long did you work there?” Mulder asks.

“Three summers,” Will says.  “During high school.  It’s a good job, too.  Pretty good money.”

“So do you think you’ll go?” Mulder asks.  He wants to say that he hopes not, doesn’t want to say it in a way that’s burdensome.

Will’s quiet for a minute.  “I don’t know,” he says.  “I’m still not sure, I guess.”  He looks up from his cereal.  “What do you think I should do?”

Maybe he should tell Will that it’s up to him; maybe Mulder can’t decide for him and doesn’t have the right to.  Maybe he should think about Emily, wanting to see her brother, or this unfortunate short-staffed farm.  But right now, Will is asking him.  Maybe he does have the right to say what he thinks.

“I think you should stay here,” he says.  “Your mom and I…we’d really like that.”

Will nods, pushing his spoon around the bowl.  “Do you think there’s anywhere around here I could get a job?” he asks.  “For the rest of the summer.”

“I’d think so,” Mulder says.  “I don’t know what’s out there, exactly, but I’d think there’d be something.  I can help you look,” he adds.  “If you want.”

“Sure,” Will says. “Sure, that sounds good.”

 July

Emily kind of wanted to talk to her mom, but she was out when she called, so she’s talking to her dad instead.  She could just call back later, she guesses, but she set aside this time, so now she figures she should see it through.

“I’ve been…I’ve been thinking about what I should do,” she tells him.  “Next.”

“What you should do next?” he asks.

“With my life,” she says.

She knows the statement sounds hopelessly vague, and she’s not surprised when he chuckles and says, “That’s the million dollar question, Em.”

“I know.  I know,” she says.  “It’s tough.”

“Any specific parts of life?” he asks.  

“Well, there’s work, first of all,” she says.  “I like my job.  I do. But I don’t know how much longer I want to stay there.”

“Yeah,” he says. “I know you’ve been thinking about that.”

“How?” she asks, because she hasn’t talked about this with him, at least she doesn’t think so. She wonders if he has some kind of telepathic powers.  It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to happen in their family.

“You mentioned something about it,” he says.  “Back when we met.  Well, not when we met—you were three.”  He laughs, and so does she.  She still has vague memories of that day; she knows that he made her smile.  “When we met again, then.  I think it was that first time we had breakfast together. You were telling me and your mom where you worked.  And you said you liked it, but you weren’t planning to stay forever.”

She doesn’t remember saying it, honestly—there was a lot going on in those first days—but it makes her happy to know that he does.  “Oh,” she says.  “Well, that sums it up, I guess.  It is a good job.”  She thinks about all the days she’s spent at the optician’s—she’s been there more than two years now—about the coworkers she likes, the tasks she knows well, the customers she helps.  “But I feel like I could be doing something else.”

“Anything in particular you’re thinking about?” he asks.

“I was thinking,” she says, “that I might go back to school.  For social work.”

“I didn’t know you were interested in that,” he says.  He sounds pleased.  He studied psychology, she knows, and she wonders if that’s why: if he’d like her to be like him.  She thinks she’d like that too, the idea that she takes after her dad.  She knows their situation isn’t what people usually think of when they say that.  Mulder didn’t raise her, and he’s not her dad in the same strange way that Dana is her mom. But not everyone has to know that. People might look at them, maybe, not knowing anything about it all, and say it: Emily takes after her dad.  And they could smile and nod.

“I’m still not sure,” she says.  “But I like the idea.  I’d want to work with kids.  With families.  Since, you know…I kind of have experience with that kind of thing.  Maybe in a weird way, but moving around to those different families and…everything with us.  You know.”

“I do,” he says.

“So I’d like to help other people,” she says, “if they’re going through it.  I think…well, I think I could be good at it.”  She hopes she doesn’t sound like she’s bragging.

“Em,” he says, his voice serious, “you’d be great at it.”

She smiles, when he says that.  “Thanks,” she says softly.

“I mean it,” he says. “Are you looking at schools now?”

“A little bit,” she says.  “I’ve just started looking things up.  But that’s the other thing.  I have to decide where I want to be.  I was looking at some places out east, because it would be nice to see you and Mom and Will more often.  But then there’s Steve too, and he’s here.  I don’t know how he’d feel about long distance.  I haven’t talked about this with him yet.”  Before last year, she wouldn’t have guessed that this would happen, that she’d have people she loved in all different places.  

“You have time,” he tells her.  “To talk about it.  To decide. We’d love to see you more often too, of course.  But wherever you end up, we’ll come and see you.  And whatever you decide, we’ll be really proud of you.”

That makes her smile too.  She knows she can trust it.  “Thanks, Dad,” she says.  “And thanks for letting me talk through it.”

“Any time,” he says. “Everything else going well?”

“It is,” she says. “How about you?”  They talk for a little bit about what they’ve been up to before they say goodbye.  She asks him to say hi to her mom and to Will, to give them her love, and he says that he will.  So much love, she thinks, travelling over the phone.

 August

It’s a hot day, the sun bright.  Scully slathered herself in sunblock before they went out, sharing a bottle with Emily. “I always burn so bad,” Emily said.

“Me too,” Scully said. “Always have.”  They shared a smile.  “I remember one time in high school when I was waiting for my sister outside—it couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes, but my whole neck was bright red.”

“One time we went to a carnival,” Emily said, “and I was wearing a sleeveless dress, and my shoulders got so burned.  And the next day Will kept putting his hand on my shoulder, just to be a jerk.”  She shot him a look, and he grinned back at her. And they all laughed.

But now they’re protected against any such misfortunes, at least for a while (Emily put the bottle in her bag, so that they can reapply later), and they’ve walked out to the edge of the place.  The Van de Kamp home—her kids’ home, still, at least in some sense.  The place where they did their growing up, where they became who they are.  They’re none of them sure what to do with it, because of that: they’ve talked about it some, tentatively, about selling it or renting it out, and Scully knows that that would probably be sensible, because it’s a big place and it needs a lot of upkeep. But she knows, too, that it’s still a rough subject, especially for Will, and it technically belongs to the kids now, after all.  So they’ll take their time.  

And today she’s glad of that, because it really is a beautiful place.  There’s so much land here, so much space, and it makes all of them lighter.  The kids especially; she can tell from the way they smile at each other, trading jokes. But that makes her feel lighter too, seeing them like that, and she knows it’s the same for Mulder.  A family thing, she guesses.  She can say that now.

They packed a picnic lunch: Emily directed most of the cooking, and Mulder made the deviled eggs, which he claimed were his party piece, even though Scully has never, in twenty-seven years, seen him host a party.  They set out the blanket now, Scully holding two of the corners and Will the other two, gently shaking the edges to lay it flat, and then they sit down. They take the food, and Emily pronounces the deviled eggs really delicious.

“High praise from you,” Mulder says, smiling.

She’s sitting next to her son, and he’s talking to her about his plans for the beginning of the school year; she’ll miss him when he goes back, she knows, but she’ll see him again. She’s sitting next to her daughter, and she’s telling her about how she’s been looking at different grad schools, starting her applications; she mentions some places near Washington, and Scully relishes the thought of having her close.  And she’s sitting across from Mulder; their eyes meet, in the midst of the picnic and conversation, and she reaches out and squeezes his hand.  He doesn’t need to tell her what he’s thinking. She knows.  

[hoppingaccrossthepond]

NAPA VALLEY, NOVEMBER 2020:

Our Trip: We did 5 nights. Flew into SFO, drove to St. Helena for 2 nights, spent 2 nights in Yountville, then an overnight in Sausalito before a flight out the next day. If I did it over, I would spend 2 nights in Sausalito, too. On the drive from SFO to St. Helena, we stopped for lunch at Oxbow Public Market (highly recommend – lots of fun to walk around the different venders and really good food – we ate at Hog Island Oyster Bar – excellent food, nice sitting outside on the patio looking out at the valley.

Because we were there for a short time and because we wanted to get a big bang for our buck, we visited (and did tastings) at 4 wineries each day! It was a lot but also a lot of fun! We rented bikes and biked around all day – didn’t drive. I’d recommend electric bikes. We had regular bikes which was fine, but e-bikes would make the biking between wineries much easier/faster/relaxing.

I used this website to find wineries and also relied heavily on recommendations from friends. The website shows you all the Napa Valley wineries, and you can filter on type of wine, which have tastings (by appointment only vs. walk-in), etc.

St. Helena

Hotel: Harvest Inn – beautiful setting right among the vineyards, we enjoyed walking the grounds. Each room is kind of like its own little cottage. Very quaint, good location, hot tub was nice way to unwind after drinking wine all day 😊. The hotel has discounts and free tastings at some of the neighboring wineries.

Bike Rentals: St. Helena Cyclery

Wineries:

• Rombauer – Beautiful scenery up on a hill, great tasting, pretty garden to walk through, fantastic staff and service.

• Duckhorn – One of our favorites, did a little food tasting pairing cheese and snacks with the wine tasting! Highly recommend! Gorgeous grounds. And great swag shop.

• Prisoner – more new-age which was a cool change of pace. The wines were incredible (and they gave us a lot of wine), but the environment/setting wasn’t anything super special compared to the others. Didn’t get to go inside because of covid, so maybe the inside is a more special setting. Of the 4 St. Helena wineries we visited, this was the least special.

• HALL Wines – This place was just spectacular! An amazing way to end the day as the sun was starting to set. Set facing the hills of St. Helena, the gardens and vineyard fields are gorgeous and just an incredibly relaxing and beautiful setting. Great service!

Breakfast: Station, The Model Bakery

Lunch: Gott’s Roadside Eats (beautiful setting, casual burgers and awesome milkshakes – good hearty meal when you’re slamming wine all day).

Dinner: Harvest Table (at Harvest Inn), Cook St. Helena (amazing authentic Italian spot!)



Sonoma

Hot Air Balloon: We had ours scheduled for St. Helena / Yountville area, but due to weather it got cancelled so we audibled to Sonoma (drove there for a half day).

Wineries: La Crema – Another one of our favorites! Really nice setting right among the vineyards, had the coolest server who treated us great, and we shipped some cases of wine home! Only place we ended up buying wine from – super tasty and had good Black Friday deals 😊.

Yountville

Hotel: Hotel Yountville – Luxurious!!! So so comfortable and over the top nice! Amazing pool area next to the spa (great massages). Rooms are top notch – everything was amazing! So glad we stayed here second as it was a significant step up from Harvest Inn which was already really nice. The hotel had complementary bikes for us to use, too.

Wineries:

• Silverado Vineyards – Absolutely EPIC! The estate house is set way up high on a hill with an amazing view overlooking the valley. We did a paired food (snack) and Cabernet tasting which was awesome! Amazing wines!

• Robert Sinskey Vineyards – Just down the road from Silverado. A newer-age, organic winery, but super cool. Very neat estate house with a great patio also overlooking the valley. I walked by a mother-daughter duo wearing a Cardinals hat and said “Go Cards!” to them. Ended up talking for a bit about our mutual love for the Cardinals, and she was a wine club member, so she said Bridgette and I were her “guests” so we got our tasting on the house!

• Robert Mondavi – We had an incredible (and surprising) experience here! The facilities and everything about Robert Mondavi were grand and beautiful. We did a winery tour first which was awesome (highly recommend), then I had booked a lunch tasting. Somehow (I’m not sure how), I had booked this private lunch that apparently they don’t do all the time. We were seated JUST US in this beautiful private garden, where the chefs harvest fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs for their restaurant. Then we were waited on hand and foot while having the most elegant lunch and rare, delicious wines – all at this single table intimately set for two in the garden. The chef even came out and spoke to us. It was called the Vineyard to Table Lunch and we were sitting in the Margrit Mondavi Vineyard Room Patio (I took a picture of this elegant lunch menu from that day). I have no idea how we just sort of happened into this one, but it was incredible. Highly recommend trying to do something like this!

• Stag’s Leap – We weren’t able to get a reservation here, so we didn’t go, but I’ve heard it’s awesome.

• Chandon – Ended up cancelling our reservation there to have some downtime at the hotel before dinner after our two tastings, but I think they had a fun Happy Hour thing (maybe live music) that we were excited about – could check it out!

Breakfast: at hotel

Lunch: Robert Mondavi Winery, French Laundry (we didn’t go, but it’s super famous and right in Yountville)

Dinner: Lucy – Incredible, luxurious food and ambiance in the hip Bardessono hotel! We did our Thanksgiving dinner here and it was memorable!

Sausalito

Hotel: Cavallo Point Sausalito – We stayed here as a sort of stop over on the way back to the airport from Napa Valley. Really wish we had spent a couple days here! The town of Sausalito is nearby and it is super cute – almost reminds me of the Amalfi Coast in Italy. The hotel is nestled at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. Old school, but still nice, quaint rooms – almost reminded me of Nantucket. We ate dinner and breakfast the next morning at the hotel – really tasty. Before flying out that afternoon, we rented these cool retro electric bikes and cruised up onto the Golden Gate Bridge and near the harbor for an epic view. Highly recommend staying here and exploring Sausalito vs. staying in San Francisco – very relaxing and fun.

[comfreycompost]

The Enigma of Wilderland

20 minutes south of Whitianga lies an anarchist community called Wilderland. Pine trees stud the gravel road, which is not council maintained and winds for two kilometres past several other farms. Pine tree roots have a symbiotic relationship with fly agaric mushrooms (Amanita muscaria), and as I walk up the road one winter night shortly after lockdown it is almost as if the toadstools are guiding the way. As strange as it sounds, it feels as though I am following some sort of Hansel and Gretel crumbs into fairyland.

[Caption: Amanita muscaria at Wilderland]

Every so often a handpainted sign reads “WiLDERLAND,” with an arrow pointing the way. A lot of people get lost finding it for the first time, and I am no exception. I am walking the road because I had taken a wrong turn and got my 1992 Toyota Starlet hatchback stuck in a farmer’s muddy field during a rainstorm. 

[Caption: The long and winding road]

Wilderland is an example of a self-sufficient community, of which there are many in Aotearoa. The difference is, while most such communities are closed, anyone can go to Wilderland. All you have to do is apply on their website and commit to a full month of work (unpaid, of course). New intakes arrive every second Sunday. With the exception of a handful of long-term residents, the 20-30 people living at Wilderland at any given time are always changing. If you are serious about learning how to be self-sufficient, or just curious to see if it is really possible, you can go to Wilderland and see how it’s done.

In 1956, the land on the property that became Wilderland was abandoned by its owner. A long-term resident called Ken, who is in his 60s, tells me that the reason was that the land was too difficult to farm. The original farmhouse still stands on the property, although it has been condemned by the council. Ken tells me that a family of six used to live there before it was abandoned 65 years ago. Today, the house is thoroughly overgrown with jasmine and stands in the middle of a forest. One needs a machete to cut through the jasmine into the house, and inside there are only two items: a 30-year-old newspaper and a picture book, Grandma McGarvey Goes to the Zoo.

[Caption: The original farmhouse]

In October, 1964, Dan and Edith Hansen purchased the disused block of land (roughly 170 acres) on the Whitianga Estuary and founded Wilderland. At the time, it was one of Aotearoa’s only organic farms. Before he died, Dan Hansen donated the land to the Wilderland Trust, meaning no actual person owns the land. The Wilderland Trust is a registered charity in Aotearoa and the farm holds the Organic Certification. There is a lot of accountability that goes along with all of that which is taken quite seriously. For example, drugs and alcohol are not allowed.

The farm is collectively managed by trustees and the long-term residents, each of whom have voting rights. Anarchism as a philosophy is generally misunderstood: far from lawlessness, it is actually a highly organised system where power is decentralised and given to the community to make their own decisions on anything that affects them directly. At Wilderland, there are multiple meetings every week, discussions ranging from who should be allowed to stay, how money should be spent, what produce (if any) should be sold, what projects should be prioritised, whether the cat should have a bell on his collar to prevent native bird casualties, and so on. Everything is voted on. There is always work to do and everyone has their own pet projects. Conflict is natural, but it is reduced compared to a typical eco-village, because no one actually has their own financial resources tied up in the community.

In January, 2017, a fire destroyed about 25 acres of forest and four houses that were on the property. “We've managed to save more homes than we lost, but I feel very sorry for everyone from that community... there's not much left,” a rural firefighter was quoted as saying at the time. In the aftermath, 4000 new trees were planted to begin the recovery process but many long-term residents left. Wilderland has faced many challenges in its long history, and it is something of a miracle that it still exists when most of the other 1960s communes failed. One can read about the history of Wilderland in detail in one of the many postgraduate theses that have been written about it, or on their website, so I will focus mainly on my experience. The fire is worth mentioning, though.

On my first day, I am inducted with the rest of the newbies. The visitor host, Khan (named after Genghis), shows us around. We are shown the various gardens, the orchards, the buildings, the compost toilets. The tour ends with us planting some spring onions outside the main hall. The community hall is a rustic, rectangular structure containing a kitchen (vegetarian only), extensive library, musical instruments, personal lockers, couches, tables, and art supplies. Food is cooked using a wood burner oven, which also heats the hot water for the shower. The fire is lit at 7 am and usually burns until past 9 pm. Herbs are hung upside down next to the fire to dry, destined to be brewed in tea or sold at the roadside stall on State Highway 25.

[Caption: Herbs drying in the community hall]

My accomodation is a metal shed which contains a bunk bed (long-term residents live in the houses, visitors sleep in cabins or tents or vehicles). I share the shed with a 22-year-old Australian man named Bryce. Over the month we live together, we become good friends. The shed is crawling with cockroaches and it becomes part of our nightly ritual to evict as many of them as possible using a jar. As soon as they are thrown outside they start coming back in through cracks in the walls. Cockroaches like to crawl on you during the night, and I regularly wake up in the night and turn on my torch to find myself surrounded. At times like these I simply read until the sun comes up and I can get out of bed. By week four, the sleep deprivation is really getting to me.

[Caption: A compost toilet and a cabin for sleeping (left to right)]

Every weekday morning at 8 am we meet in the community hall for porridge and the morning meeting. The main purpose of the morning meeting is to decide who will do what jobs that day. The work is varied and interesting, involving much more than just gardening: there is building and maintenance work, roads to be fixed, community lunch to be cooked (using food foraged from the gardens), a roadside stall to be manned, administration to be done, firewood to be chopped. Planting and harvesting is planned based on the phases of the moon and the solstices and such. At 1.30 pm every day, a massive bell outside the hall is rung by whoever made lunch that day and everyone finishes their work and eats together.

My first experience of the “lunch circle” is a bit of a culture shock. Everyone forms a circle and holds hands. Thankfulness is expressed. “Thank you for helping me today in the Dolphin Beds,” says one hippie to his helper that day. “Thanks for brushing your teeth,” says another to his girlfriend who stands slightly outside of the circle, brushing her teeth. Then announcements are made, and finally, when everyone simultaneously senses the moment is right, hands are lifted with a universal cry of “WOOOOO!” Then lunch is served. After what is sometimes up to five minutes of someone sweating into my hands, I always have to scurry off to wash my hands before lunch, so I am always last in line.

[Caption: The kitchen and the table where food is served]

The food is always incredibly good. Eating a diet of mainly fresh and seasonal produce is highly beneficial for physical health, and it gets me thinking about food — its effects on the mind, body, and spirit. Food is one of the most important needs of the human animal, after water but before shelter and fire. After a few weeks of eating food grown on the land I am living on, I begin to understand something J.R.R. Tolkein once allegedly said, according to C.S. Lewis:

❝ Tolkien once remarked to me that the feeling about home must have been quite different in the days when the family had fed on the produce of the same few miles of country for six generations, and that perhaps this was why they saw nymphs in the fountains and dryads in the wood — they were not mistaken for there was in a sense a real, not metaphorical connection between them and the countryside. What had been earth and air and later corn, and later still bread, really was in them. We of course who live on a standardised international diet — you may have had Canadian flour, English meat, Scotch oatmeal, African oranges, and Australian wine today — are really artificial beings and have no connection, save in sentiment, with any place on earth. We are synthetic men, uprooted. The strength of the hills is not ours. ❞

Time passes differently at Wilderland. It takes me about two weeks to adjust to the rhythm and the silence. In the afternoons after work I bathe in the rock pools or kayak in the estuary or try to learn a dusty accordian in the hall or do any number of other wholesome activities. Poetry club happens on Wednesdays. Every second Thursday is pizza night (cooked in the outdoor woodfire pizza oven). Every Friday night is Meat Club — a group of meat enthusiasts pitch in for some sausages and steaks from the Whitianga butcher and cook it outside on a fire far away from the hall, paired with lots of cheap red wine (another contraband). On the weekends everyone does their own thing — I spend mine exploring.

It is worth mentioning the stars. Being treated to blazing constellations every night with no sound but the morepork feels like a massive privilege. But it shouldn’t be. For thousands of years, humans looked to the stars to find meaning and our general lack of ability to do that nowadays is one reason why we are so spiritually impoverished. Bright stars are an innate human need and light pollution has taken that away from us.

As a layperson, my understanding of permaculture increases slowly. One day, I am working with Khan and he says something that connects a lot of dots for me. “Permaculture gardens are like tiny forests. There are tall things and short things and things that exist mainly underground. There is a throbbing animal and insect life and there is mycelium, a brain that connects everything like the internet. There is biodiversity. There are bees. And everything works together in the same way as a forest.”

[Caption: The Dolphin Beds — apparently a dolphin was buried here once]

[Caption: Hina Hina, where a famous battle took place in the 1860s]

On my first Friday morning, I have another culture shock. One of the strange traditions in this place is to have a “Dialogue” every Friday morning from 9 am until 10 am before work. In theory the Dialogue is an open platform where anything can be discussed, in reality though the main topics that get discussed at the Dialogue are “What is the Dialogue?” and “Why don’t we replace the Dialogue with x?” No one really knows what it is for. Newbies are thrown in the deep end and long-term residents regard it as sacred and any attempt to abolish or replace it as subterfuge. Emotions run high. People storming out is common, crying is common, and cigarettes are smoked afterwards.

[Footnote: Like any isolated community, Wilderland has its own unique politics. I adopted the renegade view of “Dialogue Abolitionist.” I suggested that a much healthier way of purging the tension of the group would be to have a fight club, but this was not well-received.]

It is my last day. Apparently I can’t just leave. Everyone gives me a hug; I am the recipient of several group hugs. A jar of local honey is pressed into my hands, entreaties are made for me to return. I realise that like the plants I helped to cultivate, I have roots here now.

[Caption: Saying goodbye]

What is Wilderland? Is it a hippie commune? An eco-village? A cult? It is none of those things, really. I see it as more of an educational community. It models self-sufficiency, although it is partially reliant on the outside world. It models anarchism on a micro level. It teaches the patience of permaculture to a world drowning in Roundup. Most of it all, it clearly demonstrates what is possible. It is no secret that dairy farms are causing Aotearoa excessive droughts. Importing and exporting and transporting food exacerbates the climate crisis and makes us reliant on the global economy (which as Covid has shown, is frighteningly fragile). Wilderland proves that things could be better. For 56 years, Wilderland has represented a choice — the possibility of a better world where nature is worshipped and humans have freedom.

[Caption: Scarecrows]

[northcountryschool]

October 16, 2020

Photo: Bryan helps Ella carry a turkey. 

At North Country School, the concepts of community and sustainability are woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. We honor these values in many ways, but they are particularly evident during our community farm harvests. This week our campus community took part in several different autumn harvest events, including the picking and storing of our annual carrot crop, as well as the harvest of the turkeys and chickens that will provide us with meat for the upcoming year. 

Vegetable harvest days are fun and joyful community events where we can enjoy the fruits of our hard work and patience, while the days we harvest our farm animals are filled with reverence, reflection, and respect. During our bird harvests, we recognize and appreciate the turkeys and chickens that our community has raised from chicks and cared for during daily barn chores. Bird harvests are “challenge by choice” opportunities, which allow students to be involved to whatever extent they feel able as they learn the steps that bring humanely-raised meat to our plates. They are powerful days for everyone, where students and teachers work together as we are reminded of the many hands it takes to support a community, the ever-changing cycles of farm life, and our own connection to the animals that help sustain us.

To learn more about this year’s harvests, see this week’s Farm and Garden section at the bottom of this post.

To get on our NCS mailing list, email communications@northcountryschool.org.

ACADEMICS

Top: Grace and Steven in Global Issues class. Middle 1: Nate in Global Issues class. Middle 2: Azalech and Teagan in Global Issues class. Bottom: Ella and Bing in Global Issues class. 

In 9th-grade Global Issues class, students have been learning about the United Nations (UN) and that international organization’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are seventeen interconnected goals that the UN has determined would serve as a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.” This week, students met in Walter Breeman Performing Arts Center (WallyPAC) with their teacher, Isaac, to practice their active communication, listening, and presentation skills during a “Face-Off” exercise. Students spoke with their partners about which SDGs they believed to be the most pressing in today’s world, offering their reasoning behind this belief. Some of the timely SDGs students chose to discuss with their peers included climate action, ending poverty, ending hunger, establishing strong national and global institutions, and ending corruption and establishing just political systems.

Top: Teagan watches a presentation in English class. Middle 1: Cocona presents her fallacy project from China. Middle 2: Landon watches a fallacy presentation. Bottom: Julia and Raia with their Title Trekker bookmarks. 

This fall, as travel restrictions have limited the ability to host some of our international students with us on campus, we have had to adapt certain academic and arts courses to accommodate dual-format education. One such class that engages students both in-person and remotely is 9th-grade English, where NCS students in China join in each day via Zoom to collaborate and interact with their on-campus peers. 

This past Friday, our 9th-grade English students—including those international students attending remotely—shared what they have learned about cognitive biases and fallacies in presentations given over Zoom to students in the NCS 4th-7th grade cohort. The younger cohort was able to watch presentations and ask questions of their older peers from their own on-campus classrooms, which allowed our students to connect and collaborate while maintaining the space necessary to prioritize health and safety. Using slides, comic strips, scripted conversations, and short original videos, the 9th graders presented their selected cognitive biases, which are thinking errors that are often subconscious, and fallacies, which are logical errors that destabilize an argument. The student-presenters also fielded questions about how those errors can lead to mistakes in reasoning.

ARTS

Top: Larry talks to students in Design and Build class. Middle 1: Intern Marcos helps Zachary with treehouse construction. Middle 2: Isha and Alejandro work on the treehouse. Middle 3: Colton and Koga cut tree branches by the treehouse. Middle 4: Design and Build students stand on their in-progress treehouse structure.  Middle 5: Courtney talks to her Impact theater class. Bottom: Impact students work on choreography for their original play.

For the past several years, one of the dynamic art electives offered to our older students has been Design and Build class, where students are able to work together to create and construct new additions to the NCS campus. Past Design and Build projects have included the Community Lounge climbing space, the Glass House playground and low ropes course, and the bridge over the stream in Dexter Pasture. This year’s Design and Build students have been hard at work alongside teacher Larry to take down and rebuild the campus treehouse—a longtime favorite play-space for NCS students and Camp Treetops campers that was beginning to show its age. The group has been using entirely reclaimed materials to rebuild the treehouse, starting from the ground up as they work on their new structure. This week we saw quick progress being made on what will surely be a beloved addition to our campus woods.

One of the many performing arts electives offered at North Country School is Impact class—a social-justice focused course where students work together to write an original play on subjects they feel passionately about. This week our Impact students, along with theater teacher Courtney, began to choreograph a scene for this year’s play where they will be using Janelle Monáe’s song “Turntables” to address the Black Lives Matter protests and racial justice issues taking place in the United States today. 

OUTDOORS

Top: Hiking the Mount Van Hoevenberg trails. Middle 1: Students on the Mount Van Hoevenberg summit. Middle 2: Langlang draws on the Mount Van Hoevenberg summit. Middle 3: Dance club meets outside. Bottom: JT bikes during out-time. 

This past weekend saw a group of students hiking to nearby Mount Van Hoevenberg, a beautiful Adirondack summit located across the road from the North Country School campus and surrounded by miles of wooded trails. The group explored the autumn woods around the summit before spending time at the mountain's rocky landing, relaxing in the sunshine, enjoying the views, and doing some drawing. Students also enjoyed the sunny outdoors during out-times this week, with one group congregating on the outdoor stage for the first meeting of a dance club, and another group skateboarding and biking by the tennis court’s new skate park. 

FARM AND GARDEN

Top: Tess explains Carrot Harvest. Middle1: James and Lucy harvest carrots. Middle 2: Harvesting in the carrot field. Middle 3: Monty picks a carrot. Bottom: A bin of harvested carrots.

Fall at North Country School brings with it the need to harvest many of the vegetables grown on our farm. Over the past few weeks our students have helped harvest and store onions, herbs, potatoes, and sunchokes, and this week our younger cohort of students worked alongside Garden Manager Tess to pick and store the remainder of our farm carrots. Planted from seed in July, the carrots were weeded and cared for throughout the summer by the faculty and staff living on campus, and this past week our students spent a beautiful fall afternoon picking the remainder of the crop. The 800 pounds picked this week were added to the carrots picked last week by a smaller out-time group, bringing the total harvest weight to over 1,000 pounds. The bounty of carrots harvested will be stored in our campus root cellar and used by our kitchen staff to cook up nutritious meals throughout the year. 

Top: Erica explains Turkey Harvest to the 9th-grade class. Middle 1: Wyatt carries a rooster. Middle 2: Katie helps Raia pluck a bird. Middle 3: Anatomy labels for the 9th-grade biology lab. Middle 4: Ani and Mia clean a bird. Middle 5: Elyssa helps Leo with a final bird cleaning. Bottom: Azalech weighs a cleaned and bagged turkey. 

The days when we harvest our farm chickens and turkeys are filled with mixed emotions for every member of our community. They are days when we come together with kindness, caring, and patience as we process the many birds that will help feed us throughout the coming year. Though traditionally our bird harvests have been all-school events, this year we restructured our harvests into smaller group sessions in order to prioritize the health and safety of our community.

Each harvest began with barn manager Erica gathering the students and teachers, grouped together by cohort, to discuss how the morning would look. She outlined what everyone could expect to see and experience in the hours ahead, and made sure that students knew that they would be able to choose their level of involvement. Erica explained the various stations, which include plucking, cleaning, bagging, and weighing birds, and reminded students that each station would have several adults there to support and work alongside them. For our 9th graders, the harvest also included a turkey anatomy lesson led by their biology teacher, Colin, who previewed what they would be seeing when they examined each bird. 

Many students chose to take birds through every step of the harvest process, while others spent the morning at the stations where they felt most comfortable. Students who decided to opt out of the bird harvest also spent the morning working for the community, moving and stacking the firewood that will be used to heat our buildings throughout the winter.  

For many North Country School students and teachers, this was their first time at an animal harvest, and the day brought with it many thoughts and feelings that were shared in conversations that followed. For others, the event has been a part of their lives for many years. For all members of our community, these harvest days are powerful reminders about how we can come together and support one another, and about the importance of taking the time to appreciate the many animals that help sustain us.

Check back next week to see what we’re up to on our mountain campus.

For more information about the #ThisWeekAtNCS blog, contact Becca Miller at bmiller@northcountryschool.org.

For general school information, call 518-523-9329 or visit our website:

www.northcountryschool.org

[losangelestravelgenie]

✅SANTA MONICA RESTAURANT WEEK

Included: 📞,💲📍

JANUARY 6-12, 2020

2020 MENU

Azulé Taqueria (The Gallery)

1315 Third Street Promenade

Santa Monica, CA 90401

(310)-598-5598

Open Daily

11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Duck Carnitas Taco Combo

Kumquat habanero marmalade, pickled radishes, Fresno chili. Served with rice, beans and a drink.

$12

Bergamot Cafe

2525 Michigan Ave, #A3, Santa Monica, CA 90404

(310)-828-4001

Open Daily

8:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Avocado, Kumquat and Candied Walnut Salad with Grilled Salmon

Crisp romaine lettuce tossed with fresh kumquats, feta cheese, candied walnuts and topped with a 6 oz. grilled salmon fillet. Tossed with honey white balsamic dressing.

$13.99

BOA Steakhouse

101 SANTA MONICA BLVD, SANTA MONICA, CA 90401

(310)-899-4466

Hours differ

Chef’s Bite

Crispy chicharrón with kumquat marmalade, wild rice, cured egg and achiote

$6

Calabra

Koji Fried California Quail

Kumquat and Calabrian chile sweet and sour, cilantro and mint

$18

Chinois On Main

Quail with Pineapple & Kumquat Sauce

Crispy glazed quail with grilled pineapple and kumquat sauce

$29.50

Colorado Kitchen

2501 Colorado Ave, Suite 120, Santa Monica, CA, 90404

(424)-330-3150

Monday-Friday 7:30AM-10:30AM & 11AM-2:30PM

Rosemary & Kumquat Focaccia Sandwich

Roasted pork, provolone, herb aioli, pickled onions, kumquat Giardiniera. Served with baby lettuce side salad with kumquat vinaigrette.

$11.50

The Curious Palate

Spicy Broccolini

Sautéed broccolini and water chestnuts topped with house candied kumquats and a Thai chili anchovy sauce

$10

Dolcenero Gelato

2400 MAIN STREET A3, SANTA MONICA, CA, 90405, UNITED STATES

(323) 540-6263

Sunday-Thursday 12:00pm-10:30pm

Friday and Saturday 12:00pm-11:30pm

Kumquat Sorbet

Creamy, soft, tender and citrusy sorbet

$5

The Dudes’ Brewing Company

395 Santa Monica Place, #304

Santa Monica, CA 90401

(424) 271 - 2915

Monday-Wednesday 12pm-10pm

Thursday-Friday 12pm-11pm

Saturday 11am-11pm

Sunday 10am-10pm

Goat Cheese Crostini

Herbed goat cheese topped with kumquats on toasted house made bread

$5

El Cholo

1025 Wilshire Blvd Santa Monica CA 90401

(310)-899-1106

Mon-Sat 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM

Sun 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Fish Tacos with Kumquat Salsa

Pan-seared Mahi Mahi with kumquat salsa on handmade corn tortillas

$18.95

Élephante (note: restaurant will be closed January 7 & 8)

https://www.google.com/search?q=elephante+santa+monica&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#

Kumquat and Fennel Salad

With taggiasca olives, arugula, red onion

$16

Fia

2454 WILSHIRE BLVD

SANTA MONICA, CA 90403

(424) 280 - 4196

MONDAY - FRIDAY : 5 PM - 12 AM

SATURDAY : 11 AM - 2:30 PM & 5 PM - 12 AM

SUNDAY : 11 AM - 2:30 PM & 5 PM - 9 PM

Roasted Duck, Spiced Turnips and Poached Kumquats

$46

FIG Restaurant at Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows

Charred Carrot Salad

Weiser’s charred carrots, JJ Lone Daughter’s avocados, kumquat, honey and chipotle

$16

The Independence

205 BROADWAY, SANTA MONICA, CA 90404

(310)-458-2500

BRUNCH: 10:30AM - 3PM, Sat - Sun

LUNCH: 11:30AM - 3PM, Mon - Fri

DINNER: 6PM - close, Everyday

AFTERNOON DELIGHTS: 3PM - 6PM, Mon - Fri

HAPPY HOUR: 3PM - 6PM, Mon - Fri

King Salmon Tartar

Cucumber, avocado, kumquat

$16

Spiced Kumquat Whiskey Smash Cocktail

$12

Kye’s

1518 Montana Ave.,

Santa Monica, CA 90403

(310) 395-5937

Open M - F 10AM - 8PM, S & S 11AM - 7PM

Kumquat Fruity Boba

Kumquats, coconut milk, Harmless Harvest Raw Coconut Water, preservative free boba, Medjool dates and vanilla

$8

Lanea

(424) 265-7437

LOCATION

217 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90401

HOURS

monday - thursday 5p–late

friday 5p-2a

saturday 11a–2a*

sunday 11a–late*

Kumquatargarita

Cazadores blanco tequila, Clement liqueur d’orange, citrus, house lime salt, muddled kumquat

$12

Little Prince

2424 Main St

Santa Monica, CA 90405

(310)356-0725

Dinner Sun - thurs

5:30pm-10pm

Dinner Fri + Sat

5:30pm-11pm

Brunch Sat + Sun

9am-3pm

Pumpkin Toast with Burrata, Kumquats and Pumpkin Seed Crumble

Seasonal farmers market pumpkin and notes of citrus on Clark Street Bread sourdough from the wood oven

$17

Little Ruby

109 Santa Monica Blvd

Los Angeles, California

(424)322 8353

Whipped Ricotta Toast with Kumquat Honey

$10

The Lobster

1602 OCEAN DRIVE

SANTA MONICA, CA 90401

(310) 458-9294

SUNDAY - THURSDAY: 11:30AM-10:00PM

FRIDAY - SATURDAY: 11:30AM-11:00PM

HAPPY HOUR (MON-FRI): 3PM-6PM

Kumquat Upside Down Cake

With whipped mascarpone and blueberry compote

$10

Longitude Bar + Restaurant at Le Méridien Delfina Santa Monica

Seared Duck with Candied Kumquats + Chef’s Choice Dessert

Pan-seared duck breast, candied kumquat with braised endives, in kumquat sauce and blueberry duck jus. Dessert included.

$68

Lunetta All Day

2420 Pico Boulevard Santa Monica, CA 90405

(310)-581-4201

Mon - Sat 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Sun - 8:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Tacos with Kumquat Salsa

Grilled Spanish octopus tacos, pasilla rubbed carnitas tacos, Wagyu steak tacos, marinated Jidori chicken tacos; all are served with a pineapple kumquat salsa & house made tortillas

$12 – $16

Lunetta

Duck Confit

Glazed baby turnips and kumquats, orange vanilla sauce

$19

Margo’s

Kumquat Roasted Chicken Breast

Roasted chicken breast, kumquat jus, green olives, Cipollini onions, roasted root vegetables

$29

Kumquat Margarita

Tequila, kumquat jus, lime juice, Cointreau

$16

Massilia

Pear & Kumquat Salad

Arugula, avocado, snap pea, quinoa, pomegranate seed

$13

Meat On Ocean

Duck Rillettes

With kumquat preserves and goat cheese

$14

Michael’s Santa Monica

Baja Style Wild Yellowtail

Crudo of diced, wild, inada (baby yellowtail) set in an aguachile sauce made of market chiles and kumquats, garnished with sliced kumquats, radishes and cilantro

$13

Obicà

Kumquat Mojito

Mint leaves, kumquats, fresh lime juice, simple syrup, white rum, club soda

$15

Red O Taste of Mexico

Spiced Kumquat Hot Toddy

Whiskey, cinnamon, cloves, kumquats

$12

Rosti Tuscan Kitchen

Kumquat Marmalade Flat Bread

Flat bread with gorgonzola cheese, mozzarella cheese, kumquat marmalade spread, heirloom cherry tomatoes, arugula and fresh burrata cheese on top

$16

Scoops Ice Cream & Treats

Kumquat Caramel Date Ice Cream

Hand-crafted ice cream made with fresh organic kumquats, Medjool dates and a lightly salted caramel swirl

$6 single scoop, $8.50 double scoop

Seaside on The Pier

Kumquat Glazed Salmon

With kumquat roasted parmesan potatoes and mixed vegetables

$20.95

Kumquat Kombucha Margarita

$14

California Kumquat Salad

Mixed greens, kumquat agave vinaigrette, kumquats, feta cheese, pistachios, sun-dried tomatoes, avocado

$14.95

Socalo

Salmon Poke

Kumquat ponzu, serrano, cucumber, rice, fennel and sesame seeds

$16

Sonoma Wine Garden

Moulard Duck Breast

Pan-seared with preserved kumquat jus, Meyer lemon infused celeriac puree

$28

Kumquat Lemon Drop

Tito’s Vodka, St. Germain, lemon, Fair Kumquat Liqueur

$12

Stella Barra Pizzeria & Wine Bar

Baby Greens and Shaved Fennel Salad

Tossed with Tropea onions, Sicilian capers, kumquat vinaigrette

$14.95

Sushi Roku

Fluke Kumquat Sashimi

Thinly sliced sashimi topped with kumquat jam and yuzu vinaigrette

$12

Tiato

Winter Kumquat Salad

Roasted Brussels sprouts, kale, red cabbage, grapes, red onion, walnuts and ginger kumquat dressing

$12

Upper West

Curry Spiced Butternut Squash

Fennel chow chow, pea tendrils, kumquat marmalade, lime

$11

[nwbeerguide]

It’s “Oktoberfest Season” in the Quad Cities

Press Release

Quad Cities – Fall is the season of leaves, cooler temps, pumpkin spice, and Oktoberfests!  There are a lot of different versions to this fun classic event in the Quad Cities.

Cruise the Mississippi on the Oktoberfest cruise on September 19, 2019, with Barefoot Becky & the Ivanhoe Dutchmen.  This band will get toes tapping and everyone out on the dance floor!  You can expect a mix of your favorite Oktoberfest polkas and waltzes and a mix of some party favorites.  Even the crew joins in!  This lunch cruise on the Celebration Belle riverboat departs at 10:30 a.m. from Moline, Illinois.  For more information, visit www.celebrationbelle.com  

Oktoberfestbier returns to Crawford Brew Works, 3659 Devils Glen Rd. in Bettendorf, Iowa, on Friday, September 27 from 12-9 p.m. with a day of fun planned with food, live music, specialty mugs and t-shirts, and of course, beer.  Enjoy Floyd's Burgers & Slider food truck in the afternoon and Zeke's Island Hopper food truck in the evening.  From 1-3 p.m. there will be a polka band and from 6-9 p.m. Muzik Krauts will play music with prosts and sing alongs.  For more information, visit www.crawfordbrewworks.com

Roktoberfest is Wake Brewing's take on Oktoberfest on Saturday, September 28 from 12-8 p.m. outside at Wake Brewing, 2529 5th Ave. in Rock Island, Illinois.  They will release their traditional Oktoberfest beer served in take-home beer steins.  Also if polka music isn't your thing, they will have live rock music, and food served by The Dark Side food truck.  A portion of money made from beer sales that day will go to Kings Harvest Pet Rescue No Kill Shelter.  For more information, visit www.wakebrewing.com

Dogs get in on the fun too at Dogtoberfest!  Free doggie bags for first 150 visitors through the gate on Sunday, September 29 from 12-3:30 p.m. at Crow Creek Dog Park, 4800 Devils Glen Road in Bettendorf.  Live auction, raffle baskets, food and drink for sale.  For more information, visit www.bettendorf.org

On Thursday, October 3, 2019, enjoy unlimited pork, beer and seasonal specialty drink samples at Hogtoberfest featuring local establishments competing for various awards at the RiverCenter, 136 E. 3rd Street in Davenport, Iowa, from 5:30-8:30 p.m.  Guests will also be treated to a silent auction, beer pull, grub grab, live entertainment, giveaways, games and more. The funds raised at this event will benefit the programs and services Friendly House provides to Quad Cities families.  Admission is $40 per person in advance and $50 at the door.  For tickets and more information, visit www.friendlyhouse.org

Put on your best lederhosen because Shoptoberfest is making its debut in historic downtown LeClaire, Iowa, on Saturday October 5, 2019.  Starting at 2 p.m., the LeClaire shops host the Midwest's best breweries so you can sip, sample, and shop your way through town.  Enjoy delicious Oktoberfest craft beer samples from a 5 oz. souvenir tasting glass.  Meet at Green Tree Brewery in LeClaire for the after-party with raffling prizes to raise money for the North Scott Rotary Club!  Prizes will be given for best Oktoberfest costumes and we will have a Stein Holding Competition as well.  Tickets are $20.  For tickets and more information, visit www.facebook.com/shopswithhops/

The Bierstube restaurant, 415 15th St. in Moline, Illinois, celebrates their Oktoberfest on Friday, October 11, 2019.  They’ll celebrate from 8 p.m. to midnight with live music, food, drink, games, and prizes.  For more information, visit www.bier-stube.com

The Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, 2815 W. Locust Street in Davenport, Iowa, hosts its first Oktoberfest on Saturday, October 12, 2019.  Doors open at the huge, indoor event hall at 12 p.m. and there will be food, drink, and live music all day from North Of 40, Dani Lynn Howe, Casey Muessigmann, and Dirt Road Rockers.  For more information, visit www.mvfair.com

Snowstar Winter Sports Park isn’t covered in snow just yet, and they are ready to celebrate fall with an Oktoberfest event on Saturday, October 19, 2019, from 12-8 p.m. with food, beer, music, and games.  Play Snowstar-themed Oktoberfest games that will lead up to a tournament.  Enjoy food from renowned Barley & Rye Bistro in Moline.  There will be a vendor fair and craft market, bounce houses for the kids, and traditional Oktoberfest music!  Tickets are $8, and that includes a goody bag and free drink ticket.  Children under 12 years are free.  For tickets and more information, visit www.skisnowstar.com

The German American Heritage Center, 712 W. 2nd Street in Davenport, Iowa, hosts a fun-filled evening of Cheers & Biers from 6-8 p.m. on Saturday, October 19, 2019, with German style home-brews you can’t get anywhere else and brat baskets from Jerry’s Meat Market.  Beer from our friends from MUGZ, The Powder Keggers, REFS, and Trade My Homebrew will be available to test, compare, and enjoy!  Admission is $15 per person in advance and $20 at the door.  For tickets and more information, visit www.gahc.org

With all the Oktoberfest events featuring beer, we can’t overlook the number of great microbreweries in the Quad Cities.  As you’re celebrating Oktoberfest, get rewarded by following the new QC Ale Trail.  Get your QC Ale Trail passport stamped at each local brewery you visit and receive QC Ale Trail prizes.  Craft beer enthusiasts can pick up a QC Ale Trail passport from the participating breweries, Visit Quad Cities Visitor Centers, or download the passport at www.qcaletrail.com.  This passport serves as the guide to the 14 local breweries (and counting).

Contact Visit Quad Cities at 800-747-7800 or visit their website at www.visitquadcities.com.  The Quad Cities is located on the Mississippi River and is made up of the riverfront cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa, and Moline, East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois, and surrounding area.  The area is just a 2-½ hour drive from Des Moines, Iowa, and Chicago, Illinois. It is easily accessible via I-80, I-74, I-88 and several major state highways.

[kevinscottgardens]

14 October through 3 November 2019

I didn’t realise how long it had been since my last update. Well, I was in France and Italy last week. In France I paid a long overdue visit to Matt and Will near Limoges. We had a very nice few days together, doing some autumn chores; I met Will’s parents who moved to a nearby village earlier this year, escaping Brexit (which didn’t happen - again - on Halloween); visiting a château; and playing lots of cards.

I flew back to Stansted where I checked into the Holiday Inn Express and awaited Ginny who arrived later that evening. I passed the afternoon reading American Eden for book club. I really enjoyed the book. We watched the Great British Bake Off final then early to bed. We flew to Perugia for our annual visit to Casa Luciano.

This year was quite different than years past - part due to there being no olives to harvest due to a very bad spring when all the flowers were knocked off in heavy rain and freezing weather - and several new people were invited, so we enjoyed hikes, games, getting to know each other, and a Halloween costume party more than doing outdoor work. Thursday and Friday we managed to prune all the trees in front of the house. Elizabeth and Rob purchased all the surrounding land this year so we also did a bit of exploring of the newly acquired property.

I missed the annual comradery of everyone pruning, harvesting, clearing and the ensuing bonfire. There was a lot of rain, so we didn’t even manage to burn what little we did prune. Of course we all ate very well and imbibed delicious wines.

In the weeks since my previous update, we have been focused on winter protection and the Index Seminum. I’m sure there is more winter protection waiting for me. The Friday before I departed for Limoges, Elizabeth, Alessia and Paul visited the garden then we all went to lunch at Maze Grill down the street.

I’ve been working on getting the seeds for Index Seminum on Iris and I hope this makes producing this year’s catalogue faster. I’m meeting with Robert tomorrow.

Plant ident on sages by Nell and Allison:

Lamiaceae Salvia canariensis

Lamiaceae Salvia confertiflora

Lamiaceae Salvia discolor

Lamiaceae Salvia haenkei 'Prawn Chorus'

Lamiaceae Salvia involucrata

Lamiaceae Salvia leucantha

Lamiaceae Salvia officinalis

Lamiaceae Salvia ‘Phyllis’ Fancy’

Lamiaceae Salvia regla

Lamiaceae Salvia uliginosa

Plant ident on fragrant plants by intern Valentina:

Asteraceae Helichrysum italicum

Cannabaceae Cannabis sativa

Ginkgoaceae Ginkgo biloba

Lamiaceae Lavandula x christiana

Lamiaceae Salvia 'Phyllis' Fancy'

Onagraceae Oenothera stricta

Rosaceae Filipendula ulmaria

Rosaceae Rosa rugosa 'Frau Dagmar Hastrup'

Solanaceae Brunfelsia pauciflora

Solanaceae Nicotiana sylvestris

Plant of the week

Lamiaceae Callicarpa japonica Thunb.

common name(s) - East Asian beautyberry, Japanese beautyberry; Japanese Murasakishikibu synonym(s) - Amictonis japonica (Thunb.) Raf.; Callicarpa caudatifolia Koidz.; C. japonica f. albibaccata H.Hara; C. japonica f. albiflos Konta; C. japonica f. angustifolia Miq.; C. japonica var. japonica; C. japonica f. taquetii (H.Lév.) Ohwi; C. mimurazakii Hassk. [Invalid]; C. murasakii Siebold [Invalid]; C. taquetii H.Lév. conservation rating - none native to - China, Japan, Korea, Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan location - embankment west, accession _____ leaves - simple, opposite flowers - can range from pink to white in late summer; producing purple drupes in autumn habit - small, rounded, deciduous shrub to 2m tall and wide with slender, upright branches habitat - no information found pests - generally pest-free disease - leaf spot; black mould hardiness - to -10ºC (H4) soil - well-drained moist soil sun - full sun to light shade propagation - seed; semi-ripe or hard-wood cuttings pruning - flowers and fruits on the current season's growth and so any pruning is best done whilst the plant is dormant nomenclature - Lamiaceae - gullet, the name in Pliny refers to the gaping mouth of the corolla; Callicarpa - callos (beauty), carpos (fruit); japonica - from Japan or Japanese NB - fruits are not edible for humans, but provide food for birds and deer; leaves can be used to make herbal tea; essential oils are the most common use for the plant, though not for aromatherapy, oils, which contain at least 67 different compounds, have been found to be useful for repelling insects like ants and mosquitoes.

References, bibliography:

Gardenia [online] https://www.gardenia.net/plant/Callicarpa-Japonica-Japanese-Beautyberry [4 Nov 19]

Gledhill, David, (2008) “The Names of Plants”, fourth edition; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-52168-553-5

IUCN [online] http://www.iucnredlist.org/search [4 Nov 19]

Plant List, The [online] http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-30810 [4 Nov 19]

Plants for a Future [online] https://pfaf.org/User/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Callicarpa+japonica [4 Nov 19]

Superfoodly [online] https://www.superfoodly.com/beautyberry/ [4 Nov 19]

Useful Temperate Plants [online] http://temperate.theferns.info/plant/Callicarpa+japonica [4 Nov 19]

Wikipedia [online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callicarpa_japonica [4 Nov 19]

Ibid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callicarpa [4 Nov 19]

Plant of the week

Plantaginaceae Lophospermum erubescens D.Don

common name(s) - creeping gloxinia, Mexican twist synonym(s) - Asarina erubescens (D. Don) Pennell; A. lophospermum (L. H. Bailey) Pennell; A. purpusii (T. S. Brandeg.) Pennell; Besleria scandens Sesse & Mocino ex D. Don; Lophospermum chiapense W. J. Elisens; L. purpusii (T. S. Brandeg.) Rothm.; L. scandens D. Don; L. spectabile Hort. ex Vilmorin’s; L. turneri W. J. Elisens; Maurandya erubescens (Don) A. Gray; M. erubescens var. glabrata I. M. Johnston; M. erubescens var. purpusii (T. S. Brandeg.) I. M. Johnston; M. glabrata (I. M. Johnston) Ramirez; M. lophospermum L. H. Bailey; M. purpusii T. S. Brandeg.; M. scandens (D. Don) A. Gray; M. scandens var. erubescens (D. Don) A. Voss; M. scandens var. glabrior A. Voss; M. scandens var. spectabilis A. Voss conservation rating - none native to - Mexico location - dicotyledon order beds, accession 2019-0280 leaves - twining leaf-stalks (petioles rather than tendrils or twining stems), triangular leaves flowers - solitary, trumpet-shaped rose-pink flowers to 70mm long, summer and autumn habit - climbing evergreen perennial (usually grown as an annual in the UK) habitat - in the margins of seasonally dry Quercus or Quercus-Liquidambar forests, including forest edges created by roads, or on canyon walls at elevations between 1,000m and 2,200m pests - generally pest-free disease - generally disease-free hardiness - to 1ºC (H2) (it will survive if its base and roots are protected from freezing in the winter) soil - moist and well-drained, moderately fertile sand or loam sun - full sun propagation - seed sown at 19ºC to 24ºC in early spring pruning - cut back after flowering nomenclature - Plantaginaceae - plantago - foot-sole-like, feminine termination of planta (ancient Latin, plantaginem, for the way the leaves of some lie flat on the ground) cognate with the French derivative, plantain; Lophospermum - crested-seed; erubescens - shamed, blushing, turning red, erubesco, erubescere, erubescui NB - has been cultivated as an ornamental plant since at least 1830; Lophospermum erubescens has been confused with Lophospermum scandens, partly because the earliest illustration of L. erubescens was labelled as L. scandens. Among other differences, L. erubescens has a more climbing habit than L. scandens, with many twining leaf stalks; also the sepals are broader and joined at the base for only 2–3 mm rather than 7–11 mm.

References, bibliography:

Catalogue of Life [online] http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/species/id/df4b1711c48c990e104c630b9975ee88 [13 Nov 19]

Gledhill, David, (2008) “The Names of Plants”, fourth edition; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-52168-553-5

IUCN [online] http://www.iucnredlist.org/search [13 Nov 19]

Plant List, The [online] http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2498793 [13 Nov 19]

Plants of the World online [online] http://plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:279831-2 [13 Nov 19]

Royal Horticultural Society [online] https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/44861/i-Lophospermum-erubescens-i/Details [13 Nov 19]

Wikipedia [online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lophospermum_erubescens [13 Nov 19]

Plant of the week

Lamiacaeae Plectranthus zuluensis T.Cooke

common name(s) - Zulu spurflower synonym(s) - none conservation rating - none native to - South Africa, Swaziland location - tropical corridor, accession 2018-0472 leaves - ovate, coarsely-toothed, textured, lime-green flowers - spikes of blue to pale mauve, tubular, spurred flowers are borne on dark purple stems above the foliage from late spring into summer habit - erect or sprawling, much-branched, four-angled, hairy stems, evergreen, frost-tender, plant to 1m tall and wide habitat - summer rainfall areas that experience little or no frost; often common along stream banks and deep river gorges pests - generally pest-free disease - generally disease-free hardiness - to 1ºC (H2) soil - fertile, well-drained loam or sand sun - part to full shade, sheltered propagation - seed or by cuttings taken in summer pruning - deadhead spent racemes to promote flowering; trim back after flowering or in spring to promote bushy growth nomenclature - Lamiacaeae - gullet,  the name in Pliny refers to the gaping mouth of the corolla; Plectranthus - spurred-flower; zuluensis - from Zululand NB - characteristic pungent smell when crushed; once established, plants need little watering; feed with 2:3:2 every three months in summer to keep plants healthy.

References, bibliography:

Gledhill, David, (2008) “The Names of Plants”, fourth edition; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-52168-553-5

IUCN [online] http://www.iucnredlist.org/search [13 Nov 19]

Plant List, The [online] http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-158614 [13 Nov 19]

Plants of the World [online] http://plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:454800-1 [13 Nov 19]

Royal Horticultural Society [online] https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/105029/Plectranthus-zuluensis/Details [13 Nov 19]

SANBI [online] http://pza.sanbi.org/plectranthus-zuluensis [13 Nov 19]

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 2/22/2019

Good MORNING  #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Friday 22nd February 2019. Remember you can read full articles for FREE via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS) OR by purchasing by purchasing a Weekend Nation Newspaper (WN).

LAYOFFS ‘FIRST PHASE OF REFORM’ – The recent separation of workers from the Public Service must not be seen merely as retrenchment, but as the first phase in modernising the public sector. Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations Colin Jordan said Barbados could not achieve a 21st century service ethos by sticking to rules, regulations and structures with “old wineskins” that have not changed much since Independence. He was addressing the consultation on human resource development at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus. Noting that the comment was not designed to trivialise or minimise the hurt and pain still felt by those who have lost their jobs, the minister said that Government was in the process of detailing a modernisation programme with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). (BGIS)

MILLIONS OWED TO NHS – The Government is owed more than $9 million in rent by residential and commercial tenants.  This was revealed by Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development George Payne in response to questions posed in the popular Saturday Sun’s Question Time column that targets those in authority to hold them accountable. Payne said that a sum of $6.2 million was owed to the National Housing Corporation (NHC) while the Crown was owed just over $3 million in rent, with commercial tenants owing just over 90 per cent of the latter. On the other hand, prior to the Government’s BERT programme, the Government owed private landlords $44 million as of July last year. The bulk of that money, $35.24 million, is owed to the National Insurance Department and a $4.78 million share to Barrack’s Construction, the company with which the Government has been locked in a battle with over the office building at Warrens, St Michael. (WN)

RETRENCHED WORKERS NOT FORGOTTEN – Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations Colin Jordan is promising laid off workers that Government has not forgotten them. Jordan said the recent separation of workers from the Public Service must not be seen merely as a retrenchment exercise but as the first phase in the modernisation of the public service. “Government is in the process of detailing a modernisation programme with the Inter American Development Bank that is intended to utilise many of the persons who recently lost their employment in the public sector,” he said. Jordan was speaking at this morning’s opening ceremony of the consultation on Human Resource Development in Barbados, at the main conference room at the Cave Hill Campus, University of the West Indies, where he said that Barbados could not achieve a 21st century service ethos by utilising old wineskins that have not changed much since Independence. The minister said his comment was not intended to minimise the sense of loss on the part of those who are now without jobs. He stressed that his ministry’s policies were designed to effect changes in the quality of Barbados’ workers and in the regulation of Barbados’ labour market. He said human resource development, or workforce development, which was more comprehensive conceptually, moves beyond just education and training and promotes the ambition of an efficient labour market where employers are able to obtain the skills they need and job seekers are able to get the jobs they like and could succeed in. “Employability, which was a core objective in the original HRD Strategy 2011-2016 must again be a signal outcome while life-long learning will be the bridge that facilitates continuing employability. Workforce development is key to achieving three sets of important outcomes that are critical for Barbados in the context of government’s transformation agenda: increasing social inclusion, raising productivity, and preparing the economy for the future, principally through the stimulating and the formation of skill eco-systems,” he said. Jordan also said that the development of relevant skills must not be perceived simply as investing more in training programmes, as Barbados has been doing since Independence. The minister said Government has created a Structure of Work Sub-Committee as part of the Social Partnership, from which recommendations on the new strategies and systems are expected which could be implemented in order to promote and enhance the quality of service delivery. The committee was also ordered to identify the supporting mechanisms required to facilitate new working arrangements, in addition to examining leave in the public service, particularly, the root causes and effects of absenteeism, including excessive sick leave, and identify ways to address them. The committee has also been asked to make recommendations in respect of workplace design.  (BT)

DYING TAX – Government’s decision to make Barbados a low-tax jurisdiction across the board will not go down in history as a make-or-break moment for Barbados’ economic sustainability, Prime Minister Mia Mottley has assured. As a matter of fact, she has predicted that based on global business trends, in the future Government will be significantly less dependent on corporation tax for survival. Mottley suggested that Barbados was positioning itself to be weaned from the fast-becoming antiquated system of revenue collection. “The truth is that corporation taxes will become something that is going to be less and less relevant to a Government’s capacity to survive. This is because of the fluidity and mobility of companies globally. We are moving towards actual objects and services that are capable of being taxed at point of delivery or point of sale. So Barbados is on the cutting edge of where we intend to go with our development,” she said this morning as she delivered the feature address at the 22nd annual conference of the Barbados Association of Office Professionals at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre. In outlining the new tax system last November, Mottley said the scheduled taxes would be “revenue neutral”, while outlining that the adjustments would make Barbados compliant with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the club of the world’s wealthiest nations. This morning, the Prime Minister again painted a picture of Barbados being backed into a corner by external forces. “We had a problem with the fact that the rest of the developed world didn’t like that too many of these countries in the region were doing too well with respect to international financial service. Like bullies in the schoolyard, they blacklist and point at you and say ‘enough is enough’, such that those who hear the commotion don’t come to find out the real story but assume that you are a pariah, and [are inclined] to go the other way,” she said, noting that the only way to ward off such threats was to reposition the corporate sector. The decision to abolish the 30 per cent tax previously paid by Barbadian firms and placing them in the same category as offshore companies which pay 5.5 per cent, has left several economic pundits questioning how Government will make up the shortfall. Last November, Carlos Forte, a former Central Bank of Barbados official who emigrated to Canada, predicted that Government’s massive corporate tax cut would lead to a higher cost of living for Barbadians, as a shrinking tax base would foist even more burden on the citizenry. “My expectation would be that the new imposition of taxes to come would translate into increased cost to Barbadian consumers, and essentially translate into a higher cost of living, which is already high in Barbados. It is likely to result in a more regressive form of taxation as opposed to a progressive form of taxation where, in the context of income taxes, those who earn more pay more,” Forte said at the time. (BT)

2019 SUGAR HARVESTING MAY NOT BE SO SWEET –This year’s sugar cane harvest will fall significantly short of expectations. And to make matters worse, there is uncertainty about whether reaping will begin on time, if farmers are not paid outstanding monies for last year’s harvest. General Manager of the state-owned Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) Leslie Parris said this afternoon it is now expected that over 9,000 tonnes less than what had been projected would be reaped this year. He said the previous forecast of 146,000 tonnes of cane from the harvest has been substantially scaled down to 137,000 tonnes. And even that, Parris warned, could drop further by the end of harvesting. “We were looking at 137,000 tonnes of cane. However, based on the lack of rainfall, it might be lower than that. The lack of rainfall would have been one of the main reasons. The drop from 146,000 to 137,000 would be significant, as you would appreciate,” he told Barbados TODAY. Parris said the impact of cane fires on the crop has not been as significant as in previous years. This time around, he said, an average of between 10 and 20 tonnes of cane has been lost to fire. Last month, the sugar industry executive had said that based on the original forecast for the 2019 harvest, the crop should produce over 11,000 tonnes of sugar. However, this afternoon he said he preferred to wait and see what the sugar output would be. “We can only tell you that when we process the first deliveries of cane and are able to properly evaluate the sucrose content,” he explained. To add to the uncertainty, Parris said that next week’s scheduled start of harvesting will be in danger if the Mia Mottley-led administration does not come up with outstanding payment to farmers for the 2017-2018 crop. “The start of the crop will be subject to certain matters currently being considered by Government, related to payment to farmers for cane supplied in 2017-2018 . . . —that is, the final cane payments for that period,” the BAMC boss said, although he declined to say how much money was owed. Parris said he expects the Government to address the outstanding payment issue today, but was not in a position to say how it would be worked out. “So, subject to that being dealt with . . . we will be in a position to start by the end of February,” the BAMC boss said, adding that the island’s only functioning sugar factory – Portvale in St James – was ready to start trials by next Monday, after which it should be “full steam ahead”. Meanwhile, Mark Sealy, chairman of the Barbados Sugar Industry Limited (BSIL) – the organisation which represents the independent producers – is insisting that his members be paid the outstanding monies before a single cane blade is cut.   “We will be ready for the crop. Having said that, we are still to be paid certain monies for the 2018 crop. Obviously, we would need to get those paid before we can start crop…and we would also need to have a price for our cane prior to the start of crop, which would be around the end of February, early March,” Sealy said.   “We have only been paid $80 [per tonne of cane] so far for the crop last year. There is a further average $70 to be paid, and we are also due [payment for] the Enhanced Cane Replanting Incentive Scheme (ECRIS). Yes, it would be very important that we receive that money prior to the start of crop,” he emphasized. (BT)

BRIDGETOWN JETTY IN NEED OF REPAIR TOO – Fishermen, boat owners and fish vendors all agree that while the announcement that the Bridgetown Public Market will get a facelift is long overdue, they would like the jetty fixed as a matter of urgency. The fishermen were responding to the statement made by Minister of Maritime Affairs and Blue Economy Kirk Humphrey in the Estimates Debate where he asked for $5.2 million to be allocated to the renovations of the fish markets across the island. Humphrey said the countertops at the Bridgetown complex would be changed to stainless steel and cupboards repaired all by April this year. Speaking to Barbados TODAY frustrated fisherfolk said to do the repairs in the height of the fishing season was illogical. A fish boner in the market for over three decades said Government is seeking to renovate the Bridgetown Public Market at the height of the season when dolphin, flying fish and shark are plentiful. “They want to renovate the market at the wrong time. Fish coming in and they are going to stop people from making their little money. Them should renovate in the hurricane season when the boats are hauled up and no flying fish or dolphin coming in,” she said. While noting that she cannot instruct Government how to handle its business, the longtime vendor suggested that the schedule for repairs be reconsidered. Fish vendor Tyson Bourne has been operating his stall at the Bridgetown Fish Market for the past 21 years. He said that while he supported the renovations they would put fisherfolk out of work. “It would be a good thing to get in here renovated, once they do it the right way. Only thing is that while renovating they may put someone like me out of work for a little bit,” Bourne said. The veteran vendor said he would like Government to compensate fish vendors who are unable to operate while the renovations are being completed at the Princess Alice Highway facility. “They would have to sit down with the workers and tell us what is really going on,” he told Barbados TODAY. The frustrated fisherfolk also referenced the issue of renovating the crane at Oistins, saying that they need to have berthing facilities in the Bridgetown facility which holds over 400 boats since they incur high charges when seeking to berth their vessels. Another fish vendor told Barbados TODAY: “The crane should be down here because down here is where got all the boats. They need to get these old boats that on the land moved. Nobody ain’t repairing them. Right now, we are paying too much money to haul up the boats. “We got a boat down there for four weeks you are paying $3000 for a month and that is not good, and the boats need repairing bad. The boats hitting the jetty and they have a sign up that you are at your own risk and that is a bad thing for the fishermen,” he said. He called on Government to fix the jetty and improve security in the area to prevent persons breaking into fishermen’s boats at night. The fisherfolk also agreed that there is a dire need for attention to be paid to replacing the missing tyres along the jetty which cushion the impact of the vessels. A boat owner, a 20-year veteran of the industry said: “We need to do something with the jetty. The jetty breaking away and there are no tyres in some parts,” he said. Despite hearing his colleagues’ reservations about the Government’s vow to repair the Bridgetown Public Market, boat owner Hallam Mayers told  Barbados TODAY the fishing industry was being rescued by the new administration after years of neglect. “We are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. For the first time the industry getting rescued,” Mayers said. He was supported by fish vendor Sharon Bellamy who said that she was happy that the fish market was being given a facelift. (BT)

BARBADIANS URGED TO GET ON BOARD WITH PLASTIC BAN – With Government’s proposed ban on single-use plastics and Styrofoam set to take effect on April 1, BICO’s Executive Chairman Edwin Thirlwell is encouraging industry stakeholders to embrace the project which has the long-term goal of protecting the environment. He said today that while it might seem biodegradable and compostable packaging are more expensive than the traditional plastic and styrofoam, the damage and cost of the latter are much greater in the long run. Thirlwell acknowledged that it was not practical for all plastics to be immediately eliminated, but said every effort should be made to reduce their indiscriminate use. “We know that even here at BICO we still have some ice-cream packaging containing plastics and we are currently doing our research and discussing with suppliers as to what can be done to reduce or eliminate those. So we have to wait for those developments in packaging technology. But, in the meantime, we must do what we can to reduce plastic contamination,” he said. “We’ve just begun a campaign to encourage consumers to reduce, reuse and recycle any remaining plastic packaging, including any of our ice-cream containers that qualify.” Thirlwell was speaking at BICO’s Eco-Pak Biodegradable Expo at Cricket Legends, Fontabelle, St Michael. He said the event was designed to showcase the wide and varied possibilities in environmentally-friendly packaging. In 2016, BICO introduced such packaging with the Vegware brand, and called on industry stakeholders to reduce contamination of the environment from plastic and styrofoam, by using more compostable packaging. (BT)

NO SYMPATHY – The public relations officer (PRO) of the Future Centre Trust has no sympathy for local packaging firms crying out for more time to get rid of thousands of dollars of product ahead of a national ban on the importation and use of Styrofoam and single-use plastics. An unapologetic Kammie Holder said companies had years to prepare for this but refused to do so. Last month, some of the packaging firms told Barbados TODAY that while they could meet the April 1 deadline set by Government, they feared they would have substantial stock still left on their hands once the ban was in place. At least one packaging firm confirmed that it had a 20-foot container on the way to Barbados with 1.4 million bags and two containers with styrofoam products, which were ordered at the end of last year. However, speaking this morning at BICO’s Eco-Pak Biodegradable Expo which showcased a wide range of high-quality eco-ware to food industry representatives at Cricket Legends, Fontabelle, St Michael, Holder said more than enough time had been given for companies to get with the programme. “There was ample notice for importers and manufacturers. Some of them had the audacity to say that they imported container loads last year, knowing that this ban was coming,” he said. “This initiative was first started in 2010 when we first had No Plastic Bag Day. And last year, we amplified what was coming, and some of them still went ahead and ordered stuff. So I have no sympathy.” The new policy will see single-use plastic cutlery, including cups, knives, forks and spoons; stirrers; straws; plates; and egg trays being banned. Holder thanked the Government for understanding the need for sustainability and for keeping its promise to put the brakes on the use of plastic and styrofoam in the country. “This opportunity cannot be seen—or should not be seen—as a negative. Just as there is something called the law of unwanted benefits, there are many benefits also to be had from this initiative. This opportunity provides small farmers and one of the greatest landowners in this country the opportunity to provide bagasse, by producing more sugar cane. “And we can now provide bagasse to Trinidad which plans to have a manufacturing plant to make bagasse-based food containers,” the PRO said. Holder said there was also an opportunity for many small businesses to start making bags from old clothing. He also maintained that the ban was good for the health of Barbadians. “Persons use Styrofoam containers in the wrong way….You are heating food in a styrofoam container. You are buying chips in a styrofoam container and it is melting. Styrene [a chemical contained in Styrofoam] is what is known as a hormone disruptor. People don’t think about those sort of things, and sometimes we have to seek to protect people from themselves. “This ban could not be a day sooner. To wait a day longer would cause the country a tremendous amount of money,” he contended. Holder pledged his commitment to the effort to promote alternatives to Styrofoam and single-use plastics and called on corporate Barbados to play its part as well. (BT)

EASE COURT STRAIN – The backlog in Barbados’ judicial system could be significantly reduced by making amendments to the law and giving magistrates more power, two senior jurists have suggested. While some matters can only be heard by a judge in the High Court, a senior judicial officer and Queen’s Counsel Michael Lashley want legislative amendments made to allow magistrates to grant bail for some offences committed under the Sexual Offences Act and in matters involving small quantities of ammunition. They are also in agreement that indictable offences such as murder, firearm possession and treason should be dealt with at the highest level. In an interview with Barbados TODAY, a magistrate who spoke on condition of anonymity said the powers of those presiding over the lower courts should also be extended to deal with some matters under the Offences Against the Person Act and the Theft Act. “Those are offences which magistrates can deal with at the lower court instead of having them being dealt with at the High Court,” the source said. “If a person is charged for having a single bullet, or a certain amount of ammunition, that is also a matter which can be dealt with in the lower court. There’s no reason why an accused charged with having one bullet can’t be dealt with at the Magistrates’ Court,” the magistrate added, although maintaining that due to the significant increase in firearm-related offences, matters under the Firearms Act should be heard only in the High Court. But the judicial officer also contended that if the law was to be amended to allow magistrates to deal with those matters, increased security, among other issues, would have to be considered. “If magistrates are going to be dealing with ammunition-related offences and given extended powers, certain conditions should come along with that, such as better salaries and better security, because our jobs would become riskier.” The jurist also called for an end to murder accused appearing in the Magistrates’ Court. “Matters that are strictly indictable, like murder and firearm-related [cases], should go straight to High Court for trial instead of coming here. Those matters can’t be dealt with by magistrates so it makes no sense them coming here because all we can do is remand them and wait for the file before sending it off,” the magistrate said. Lashley, meantime, told Barbados TODAY that expanding the jurisdiction of magistrates would allow for a more efficient judicial system. “By giving them more powers you would help to alleviate the backlog. That backlog is not at the lower court, it is at the High Court. “While I agree firearm matters should remain in the hands of the High Court, a magistrate should be given the power to deal with certain ammunition cases where the quantity is not excessive,” he said. The attorney maintained that magistrates should be given the authority to grant bail in all assault matters. The former government minister also said he would like to see a timeline set for pre-trial disclosures to be presented. He said many cases were being held up due to police tardiness in handing over these documents to the defence. “I want to see a law put into place which would limit the time when these disclosures can be made available. I think the prosecution should be given between six to eight months to present these files so we wouldn’t have a case where a year or two years pass and an accused still has not been served with disclosure,” Lashley said. “Situations such as these are putting a strain on the judicial system and helping to contribute to the backlog. (BT)

NOT SO MINISTER, SAYS UNION – President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), Sean Spencer is pushing back on claims by Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw, that his union failed to formally report the environmental concerns at Milton Lynch Primary, which apparently led to a two-day sickout by teachers.  This afternoon, Spencer told Barbados TODAY that if the minister was in the dark, it was because his union was denied the opportunity to broach the issue. “The meeting that the minister was referring to was a courtesy meeting and we were told that we were not getting into the meat of matters,” said Spencer, who revealed that “to the best of his knowledge teachers were back on the job today.”  Yesterday, Minister Bradshaw told Barbados TODAY that she met with the BUT as recently as last month, but none of these issues was raised then. “What I can tell you is that back in January I would have met with Mr Spencer, President of the BUT, and the issue of the Milton Lynch School was raised in relation to some roofing issues we had earlier in the year. No other environmental issues had been raised at that time nor any other concerns in relation to that specific school. So, the ministry has not been alerted formally as it relates to any outstanding issues,” said Bradshaw. But the BUT president also referred to another meeting late last year with the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education, when the issues at Milton Lynch were on the agenda. However, Spencer charged that at that meeting they were told that work was to begin at the school. “We had that preliminary meeting chaired by the Permanent Secretary on the 22nd of November and looking at the agenda, it states among other issues, Milton Lynch health and safety. When we got to the topic of Milton Lynch, the Chief Education Officer said ‘don’t worry about Milton Lynch, work starting tomorrow’. She did not specify nor did she articulate any further, so we decided to leave it at that,” said Spencer, who added that the school’s issues go back many years. The trade unionist vowed that in light of the minister’s comments, in future meetings with the Ministry of Education, the BUT would not be taking cursory responses but would instead be “forceful in fully articulating its concerns, ensuring that they are wrestled to the ground.” Spencer said he believes that in the short term, staff at the Christ Church school will feel a little more comfortable if the school was industrially cleaned. Yesterday, Minister Bradshaw explained that in this financial year, which ends on March 31, the Ministry of Education had spent over $50,000 in relation to various works at the school. Those monies were spent on issues such as termite control, industrial cleaning and roof repair. She contended that the eight-month-old administration is doing its best to grapple with the needs at school plants across the systems, which have not been maintained for years. In the meantime, the minister revealed that a potential cow-itch problem at the school had been referred to the Ministry of Health for resolution. Additionally, construction on water tanks at the school has been restricted to weekend work only, as the machinery used to cut steel was also identified by the principal as a problem. However, Spencer while he welcomed the curtailing of construction during school time, he questioned why the minister had not extended the same courtesy to other schools that were having these tanks built. “That is not the only school that these tanks are being built at. So, if you are doing it for one school then one would think it prudent to extend that courtesy to the staff at other schools where these tanks are being built,’ he stressed. (BT)

SCHOOL SURVEILLANCE URGENTLY NEEDED, SAYS FORMER BUT BOSS – Former head of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), Pedro Shepherd, is calling on the Ministry of Education to install surveillance cameras at schools across the island, following two break-ins at the Wilkie Cumberbatch Primary School in as many days. Shepherd, a teacher at the Pine, St Michael school, charged that security measures there and at other educational institutions across the island are far from adequate. “We need to move towards surveillance cameras, even if it is on the periphery. This is something which I have called for many times, because you can at least replay the footage to see who would have entered the compound at a time when they should not have been there. We need to look at securing our schools because we have office equipment and other things that persons would want to get their hands on,” he said. Shepherd also contended that while the physical presence of a watchman is important, one guard may not be enough for some schools. He also advocated for the installation of burglar bars and the use of safes. “I really believe that security needs to be beefed up at schools, especially at nights. My position is that you need to have watchmen on the compound and where there are large schools you may need more than one. Case in point, we have a watchman [but] the admin block has no burglar bars, and once you pry open the door you can have access. Luckily, most schools have safes and those are relatively secure,” said Shepherd, noting that thieves’ attempts to break into the safe at the Wilkie Cumberbatch Primary School were unsuccessful. Classes at the school were called off today after janitors discovered that the administration block had been broken into. According to reports reaching Barbados TODAY, students and teachers were locked out of classrooms for most of the morning, as the keys for those rooms could not be located. They were found on the playing field hours later. “We had to wait until the police arrived before we could open any classroom. Officials from the Ministry of Education also came, and then the decision was taken to close the school,” explained Shepherd. The former BUT boss revealed that it was the second straight day police had to be called to the school to carry out investigations. On Tuesday night, thieves also broke into the classrooms, removing fans and two kettles. In last night’s break-in, the intruders got into the principal’s office, staff room, and canteen.  (BT)

NOT TOO LATE FOR DEVIANT YOUTH – All is not lost for Barbadian youths who have been labelled as deviant, and as a matter of fact, many can be brought into the fold of productive members of society, says Prime Minister Mia Mottley. However, this could only be accomplished if all Barbadians recommit to the motto of taking a village to raise a child. “Pulling back requires each of us in this country to go beyond our duty to country, to family, to self, to community, and to recognize that we all have a duty to be able to raise this village, to raise these children, to raise this family called Barbados,” said Mottley. The Prime Minister, who was delivering the featured address for the 22nd annual conference of the Barbados Association of Office Professionals, held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre this morning, contended that the issues of deviance issues did not start overnight. Instead she placed much of the blame on the ten-year tenure of the previous administration. “You can’t not provide opportunities for young people, to not train them for 10 years, no forms of training outside of what a parent might decide to do for that particular child, and expect that they know exactly where to go, what to do and how to feel,” lamented Mottley, who went on to detail how the youth was let down. “We used to spend $5 million a year training people from St Philip to St Lucy, cultural and sports training to complement what they learnt in school. To teach them that they have to soar together and play together. To know that I can be older than you, but still you can beat me in a game and I still have to respect you, basic things in life that make us work better, allow us to soar together. “Instead we did all kinds of things. We found jobs for the big people. We made sure contracts could come for the big people, and we forgot that the youngsters were there and needed our support and our guidance. We forgot that things left to their own devices often go astray,” she said. The PM noted that quite often members of the extended family will need to step up and fill voids that are sometimes left by parents. Mottley explained, “The group of persons who are badly in need of our guidance, our support, our love and our discipline are those between the ages of 15 and 21, many of whom look like strong, strapping adults, but who we know are full still of doubt and full still of wondering. They will not show it but are usually thankful for this support in whatever way it comes.”  (BT)

GRANTLEY ADAMS CHAIR SWITCH – George Griffith, the former head of the Barbados Family Planning Association, has been appointed the new chairman of the Grantley Adams Memorial School. He was introduced to staff on Thursday when the Ministry of Education conducted an all-day meeting with the teachers and ancillary staff at Erdiston Teachers’ Training College. Griffith replaces former chairman Dr Jonathan Lewis. An official who did not want to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to the media said the meeting was as a result of the investigation of the school which was conducted two weeks ago by Ministry officials and the full inspection which was conducted last year following a stabbing incident at the school. Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw spent the day involved in the meeting through video conferencing from Miami, where she is receiving medical treatment.  (WN)

TEMPORARY RELOCATION OF QEH PHARMACY DEPARTMENT –The public is asked to note that from Monday, February 25 through Tuesday, March 5, 2019, the outpatients section of the Pharmacy Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital will be temporarily relocated to the QEH’s Infectious Disease Building, at the hospital’s Enmore Compound, Martindale’s Road, St Michael. This interim relocation is to facilitate the industrial cleaning of the department. During this relocation, outpatient dispensing will be closed on Tuesday, February 26, to facilitate the department’s move. Outpatient dispensing services will be provided from the QEH’s Infectious Disease Building from Wednesday, February 27, through Friday, March 1, from 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 2, and Sunday March 3. The Pharmacy Department will be closed again on Monday, March 4, 2019, to facilitate the department’s return to its designated area. The pharmacy will be open on Saturday, February 23, and Sunday, February 24, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to provide an extended dispensing service. Patients are advised to have at minimum a seven day supply of all medications prescribed. As such, this extended dispensing service is simply a precautionary measure to ensure patient care is not compromised. The public is also reminded that QEH prescriptions may be filled at their nearest polyclinic. The public is also asked to note that dispensing services for inpatients, staff and patients of the Artificial Kidney Unit will be provided from the appointments section of the Medical Imaging and Radiology (X-ray) Department on Wednesday, February 27, through Friday, March 1. During this time the scheduling of X-ray appointments will take place in the Medical Records Department Inpatient Admissions Office; and Medical Records inpatient admissions will be facilitated in the central Medical Records Department.  X-ray appointments and Medical Records inpatient admissions will resume normal operations on Tuesday March 5. Additionally, all dispensing services will recommence from the Pharmacy Department on Tuesday, March 5. (WN)

DISTRICT A COURT CLOSING EARLY TODAY – Members of the public are advised that the District “A” Criminal Court and offices at Coleridge Street, The City, will close at 12:30 p.m. today, Friday, February 22. They will reopen for regular business hours on Monday, February 25. Additionally, members of the public are also asked to note that all matters to be heard at the District “A” Criminal Court, Coleridge Street, on Saturday, February 23, and Saturday, March 2, will be heard at the St Matthias Magistrates’ Court. This is to allow work to be conducted at the Coleridge Street premises. Any inconvenience caused by this temporary relocation is regretted. (BGIS)

POLICE PROBE BURGLARIES AT WILKIE CUMBERBATCH PRIMARY – Police in the Bridgetown Division are continuing investigations into reports of two burglaries at the Wilkie Cumberbatch Primary School located at Lascelles Terrace, Pine, St Michael. According to lawmen, an unknown culprit or culprits entered a number of areas on the school premises and removed a number of items belonging to the school. Anyone with information that can assist police should contact the District ‘A’ Police Station at 430-7242 or 430-7246, Police Emergency at 211, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIPS (8477) or the nearest police station. (BT)

MURDER ACCUSED REMANDED – Lloyd Allan Leacock was today remanded to HMP Dodds after appearing in the District ‘D’ Magistrate’s Court on murder charges Leacock, 47, of Clifton Hall, St Thomas is accused of the murder of 74-year-old Patrick Barker of Walkspring, St Thomas. Barker was the victim of a cutlass attack, which occurred on February 12. Leacock will reappear in court on March 29. (BT)

ST. PHILIP MAN NURSING GUNSHOT WOUND – Police are continuing investigations into a shooting in Ruby Tenantry, St Philip that occurred around 9:30 last night. Twenty-eight-year-old Neico Omali Blackman was attacked by two masked men at his residence and was shot in the abdomen. He was transported to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital by private vehicle. The culprits drove away Blackman’s car, which was later recovered in a cart road at Harrow Plantation, St Philip. (BT)

WANTED: KAREEM O'BRIAN CLARKE – Police are seeking the public’s assistance to locate a man wanted in connection with a serious criminal matter. He is 19-year-old Kareem O’Brian Clarke, alias Frog whose last known address is Johnson Road, Workmans, St George. Clarke is approximately five feet, 11 inches tall, and is dark in complexion. He is advised that he can present himself to the Oistins Police Station, Oistins, Christ Church accompanied by an attorney-at-law of his choice. Anyone who may know Clarke’s whereabouts should contact the Oistins Police Station at 418-2612 or 418-2606, Police Emergency at 211, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIPS (8477), or the nearest police station. The public is reminded that it is a serious offence to harbour or assist wanted persons; any person caught committing this offence can be prosecuted. (BT)

ST JOHN MAN ADMITS TO DRUG HAUL ON BATH BEACH – A St John resident currently on remand at HMP Dodds pleaded guilty to several drug offences in the Supreme Court today three years after he was charged. Jody MacDonald Watson, of College Savannah, admitted before Madam Justice Pamela Beckles in the No. 5 Supreme Court to possession, trafficking and importation of 445.1 kilogrammes of cannabis. In outlining the facts at the Cane Garden, St Thomas court this morning Crown Counsel Neville Watson revealed that officers from the drug squad, acting on a tip, ventured to Bath Beach, St John on January 16, 2016. On arrival they observed Watson and another man attempting to pull a pirogue to shore but on seeing the police they fled the scene. Some officers stayed at the location while the others went in search of Watson who they knew. They found him at his home and took him back to the scene and questioned him about the 22 polythene bags containing vegetable matter suspected to be cannabis which were discovered on the boat. “I only know the other man by the name Gangster. He get on the boat in St Vincent with me, he from St Vincent,” the accused Watson reportedly said back then. Following the facts Justice Beckles ordered a pre-sentencing report on the accused. He will return to court on April 18, 2019. (BT)

FINAL SHOUTS – Angela Best, the mother of the late Corey Antonio Best, told the coroner’s inquest today that she did not hear, neither did she see, “any commotion” while she was at the Oistins Police Station where her son died three years ago. Under questioning by Coroner Manila Renee at the Cane Garden, St Thomas court Best revealed that she could hear her son in the cell from the waiting area where she was sitting. “I could stand and hear my son’s voice from where I was. I could not understand what he was saying . . . but I heard his voice, he was shouting,” Best said. Asked by the magistrate if her son was screaming, the mother said: “No . . . it sounded like shouting at the top of your voice.” Best also revealed that she does not know how long her son was shouting as the door to the cells through which she was listening was subsequently closed. The body of the 33-year-old former Hopefield, Charnocks, Christ Church resident was found hanging on April 13, 2017. According to evidence given by police in November last year, Corey had been detained and interviewed about a burglary, which had occurred at his mother’s home on February 27. It was reported by Corey’s cousin David Kola, who was visiting from Canada, that a metal cash tin had been stolen after someone had broken in. Today, Best told the inquest that Station Sergeant Leslie Arthur was the officer who took her son to the cells. However, she said the officer “did not look different” to her on his return. “Because I was not looking for anything like that. I did not notice any scratches, any bruises, no difference in his appearance.” “While you were at the station, from where you were sitting, did you see any commotion, anything amiss?” the coroner asked the grieving mother. “No ma’am,” Best responded adding that when she was escorted to officer Arthur’s office she had to go a short distance towards the cells before making a turn. “I cannot remember seeing anyone in the area going towards Arthur’s office . . . . I did not notice any commotion,” the mother explained saying when she got to the office the officer began taking items out from a cash tin. “While he did that he was talking with me. He asked me if my son was mad? I asked him why did he ask me that and he told me that my son had cuffed him and I asked him if he cuffed him back and he said ‘yes’ that nobody hits his mother’s child,” Best recalled. She also revealed that officer Arthur offered her a ride home sometime later and she accepted. “At the time I did not know why he offered me the ride . . . [but later] I said to myself he wanted to get me from the police station as fast as possible.” Her attorney Tristan Elcock then asked why she had formed that opinion. “After I heard that my son had hanged himself,” was her reply. She then recalled her second trip to the police station to identify Corey’s body. “When I entered the cell I started to cry . . . and I placed my face on my son’s face and took my hand and rubbed it behind his head and neck searching,” Best said as she cried. “I asked them how did my son get up by the window at the top of the wall and Inspector [Carolyn] Blackman-Alleyne said that my son climbed up on a chair and hanged himself,” she revealed saying that she was shocked by that disclosure. In earlier testimony today the mother revealed that she arrived at the Oistins Police Station around 1:09 p.m. and found Corey sitting on a bench and “he looked alright and in good condition to me”. “He whispered to me not to believe what Arthur was saying that he would talk to me when he come out,” said Best who disclosed that that was the only communication she had with Corey that day. After taking evidence from three other witnesses Coroner Renee adjourned the inquest until March 7. (BT)

FOUSA TO KNOW FATE ON MONDAY – A Canadian woman is behind bars awaiting her fate after using an Xbox game console to smuggle two kilos of cocaine into Barbados. Valarie DaRosa Fousa arrived at the Grantley Adams International Airport around 9:05 p.m. on Wednesday, February 20 from Port of Spain in transit to Canada. She was stopped, interviewed and referred to customs where her suitcase was checked. Two packages wrapped in transparent and vacuum-sealed bags containing a solid substance suspected to be cocaine were found concealed in the Xbox and stashed among the clothes. The 22-year-old from Ontario was charged with importation, possession, possession with intent to supply and possession with intent to traffic all of which she pleaded guilty to before Magistrate Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell today. Fousa, who was represented by attorney-at-law Angella Mitchell-Gittens, was remanded to Dodds prison and will reappear on Monday, February 25 when she will be sentenced for the substance, which had a $100,000, estimated street value. (BT)

SKERRIT VS CAMERON – Ricky Skerritt is seeking to end Dave Cameron’s six-year reign as president of Cricket West Indies (CWI). The former West Indies team manager, who hails from St Kitts and Nevis, has thrown his hat in the ring and will challenge Cameron at the CWI elections in Jamaica on March 24. On the ticket is president of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association, Dr Kishore Shallow, for vice-president. Both candidates’ nominations were supported by the Leeward Islands Cricket Board and Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board. Cameron, of Jamaica, and vice-president Emmanuel Nanton of Dominica have been nominated by the Windwards Islands and seconded by Guyana. (WN)

FOR BARBADOS AND ABROAD – Barbadian soca artiste Shaquille’s 2019 release, Fine Wine, is sweet and smooth as red merlot. The single is a Bajan-Lucian collaboration with production by Minor Productions and Jus D Music and lyrics crafted by the vocalist himself, Shaquille Layne. Although the track was released in November 2018, its official launch is slated for March this year. The 26-year-old singer/songwriter who is known for soca songs like Collateral and Arms Wide Open says Fine Wine is his attempt to change his tune. Known for his witty, lyrical content, Shaquille ‘dumbed’ it down for Fine Wine. The focus of the song isn’t its lyrics but rather the ‘vibe’ or feeling it gives the listener. “The song was basically a freestyle; when I heard the beat, I sang the first thing that came to my head. I wanted to try a new style, something different because everybody is accustomed to me singing songs that have a lot more lyrics content than Fine Wine. This one is more about the vibe,” he told Bajan Vibes. The song has gradually garnered interest and will be further promoted ahead of Crop Over 2019. Shaquille disclosed that while staying true to his sweet soca style, he will be experimenting with different sounds this year. He is focused on mastering his music so it will be well received in local and international markets. “I’m trying to bring a more international sound as well because I’m trying not to [produce] music solely for Barbados but outside of Barbados and put Barbadian music on the map worldwide. We have a lot of hit songs here in Barbados but when I travel you hardly hear any of these songs that were ‘hits’ locally,” he said adding, “I’m trying to do music that will appeal to people locally and internationally because I don’t want it to be a case where you get a hit in Barbados and as the Crop Over season finishes then basically you are finished as well.” Shaquille revealed that he was working with a number of young soca artistes “to help them to bring out positive music” for Crop Over 2019. Shaquille, who is also a sought after songwriter during the season, expressed that the young artistes sought to create music that will be etched on the global scene. “We are trying to create that music that will take Barbados from here and carry us across the map so people will know what Barbados has to offer.” (BT)

SDA CHURCH CRIES SHAME ON FRAUDSTERS – The Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church is crying shame on fraudsters who are seeking to exploit the church. President of the Barbados-based East Caribbean Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Danforth Francis raised concern about what he said was an alarming trend, on the heels of an incident at the Government Hill SDA Church last Saturday. According to reports, church members were left stunned when a man tricked one of them out of $100. He had approached the church, saying he wanted to make a donation to its Prison Ministries but that he only had a $100 bill and would need it changed. “It seems someone attempted to change the money and gave him $100 in change without receiving $100 from him. Apparently, the man said he would have to go out to his car and get the money and then he disappeared,” said Francis. The pastor said he was concerned that even the House of God was being targeted. He added that the willingness of some church members to “open their arms” and trust strangers made them easy prey. “A church is an entity that seeks to reach out to all aspects of the community and so we don’t turn people away from the church. We don’t have to know you to allow you to come into our churches, because that is the nature of the institution. We are a welcoming community, we want to share love and because of that, sometimes people abuse the situation. “This particular situation is the first I’ve heard about, but we’ve heard of situations where people come to the church seeking help and they may not be individuals who need help, but are using the same concept of us being a loving, sharing and helping community and thinking that they can abuse those circumstances,” said the head of the administrative body for all SDA churches in Barbados and Dominica. Pastor Francis said the local SDA churches will be beefing up security and increasing vigilance. “We have to be careful and smart and the church needs to put in place a number of precautions for security. Let no one think that because this happened that any church in Barbados is open for that type of behaviour. I reject that because there is no excuse, regardless of how poor you are. We don’t have to steal and we don’t have to abuse each other,” he said. In light of the recent upsurge in crime, Pastor Francis fears that Barbadians could lose their sense of community and become like people in some other parts of the world. “In some countries further north, people are so afraid to let others into their sphere of operations and it becomes a very cold society. I don’t think that is what we want to have in Barbados, but with everything that is happening, we run the risk of eroding the love and people becoming hard hearted,” he said. Francis however gave the assurance that the church remained committed to meeting the needs of those in the community, albeit more cautiously. “We want a society that is more humane and we want people to be honest. If you are honest, you’re not going to steal from me. Instead, if you have a genuine need, tell me the genuine need and I will help you if I can help you. But don’t try to mislead me and deceive me to get help. Treat others like you would like to be treated,” he urged. Francis called for an all-round effort to rid the country of the criminal element. “We all have a responsibility as parents, children, other leaders – political and religious; all have to work together. We have reached a stage where some people feel that if they don’t agree with you, they must eliminate you….That can’t be the way. If someone does not agree with you, there is no justification for inflicting grievous bodily harm on you. “In North America they say they need guns for hunting, but I don’t know why they need guns here,” the pastor declared.  (BT)

For daily or breaking news reports follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook. That’s all for today folks. There are 313 days left in the year. Shalom! #thechasefilesdailynewscap #thechasefiles# dailynewscapsbythechasefiles

[blockheadbrands]

A Day in the Life of a Cannabis Lounge

Chris Roberts of Leafly Reports:

The morning sun barely clears the Berkeley hills east of the San Francisco Bay today, yet the Volcano vaporizers are already warm at the public cannabis lounges across the region.

Over at Barbary Coast Collective on Mission St. in San Francisco, the staff sets out cleaned ashtrays and psychedelic silicone bongs that suction cup onto the table so customers can’t knock them over. The plastic still smells faintly of a rubbing alcohol wash.

At Magnolia lounge in Oakland, they make coffee and set out tea, cream, and sugar.

When the doors open at 9 a.m. over at SPARC lounge on Mission St., lawyers and pensioners alike stand in line to show their ID, pick up a grinder, and sit down to hit Volcano bags. Some stop by before their shifts at work. Others come straight from government housing where federal laws prohibit medical cannabis use.

As the dim morning light filters in through the stained glass windows, the Volcano bags inflate with the brrrrrrrr of miniature air pumps. Bic lighters flick and touch joints. The first dabs touch down on quartz nails with a sssssssssSSSSSSSSS. Jay-Z’s ebullient “Big Pimpin” chimes in over the Barbary sound system. You hold it in. Stifle a cough. Try to exhale cooly. Then cough for real.

Aside from the music, this early it’s quiet like a church or a library. A staffer in plaid dusts the houseplants.

Another day of legal seshing, unlike any other place in the world, has begun.

There are only nine places on planet Earth where you can go to a cannabis consumption lounge like you would an alcohol bar. San Francisco has seven. Oakland has one. Denver — one. That’s it. For the Earth.

And “San Francisco has the best regulations of anywhere,” said Charles Pappas, a Berkeley medical cannabis commissioner.

The famed coffee shops of Amsterdam are seedy and merely “tolerated”. The semi-private clubs of Barcelona don’t have city and state permits displayed on the wall. Sorry, trailblazers Washington and Oregon. The future is happening here — again.

This September, the San Francisco Department of Public Health will issue updated rules for its world-class lounges, which have been around since at least 2010 in a medical capacity and went recreational on January 1. Even more lounges are in the planning pipeline, Leafly has learned. State officials, as well as staff from the cities of Los Angeles and Sacramento, have been spotted at Barbary Coast this summer taking notes.

Harvest Off Mission hosts a discrete members-only lounge. (Jamie Soja for Leafly)

Lounges Fight Stigma, Ignorance, Prohibition

Bay Area lounges aren’t as insanely popular as they might be, given their global rarity.

Sure, the usual happy hour of 5 p.m. weekdays tend to get crowded. Friday afternoon happy hours will draw lines out the door. But despite 2018 stories in the Associated Press and UK Guardian, most Bay Area locals have never set foot in a lounge. They don’t know how, said Robbie Rainin, retail director at SPARC.

“I have the same problem with the gym. I want to go, but I don’t know how to use the machines. And you don’t know the culture.”

There’s lingering stigma too. Potential patrons fear they’ll be put on some list, Rainin said.

“I saw a family of tourists walk by and decide to come in, but one family member stayed outside, saying ‘I’m not going in there.’ It still feels like they’re doing something wrong.”

Lounges can’t advertise like bars, operators said. And the lounges might just be playing it cool amid the Trump Era. Officials in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Nevada and beyond have all rejected cannabis bars, for fear of public health and safety, and federal reprisals, they say. They worry about drugged driving, or lounge-related crime, or overdoses or smoke exposures.

Erich Pearson, the CEO of SPARC, said they’ve had one incident in eight years. He calls those concerns “just more prohibitionist crap, essentially.”

Lounge Safety — Drugged Driving and Crime

The ranking lounge criticism involves people smoking at a lounge and driving. What is society to do? Wheels needn’t be reinvented, it would seem.

“We do have something we can adapt to use for cannabis intoxication — and that’s state alcohol regulations,” said Magnolia Wellness director Debby Goldsberry.

Pappas notes that, “If bars are safe why can’t lounges be safe? A lounge owner can say, ‘OK you’ve smoked enough, that’s it.’ Just like a bar.”

Indeed, Magnolia Wellness adapted state alcohol intoxication protocols to get its Oakland lounge permit. There are four stages of intoxication, said Goldsberry. They’ve cut off a couple people, and called a couple Ubers. “Nobody ever gets to stage four. We just don’t allow it.”

Most people take mass transit to Bay Area lounges, said Rainin. And with ride sharing apps, people have plenty of alternatives to driving.

Cannabis also carries less crash risk than alcohol (1.6 vs 17), with more tolerable effects that peak in eight minutes versus 90 minutes for alcohol.

Early data shows access to legal cannabis cuts down on reckless driving, primarily among young, male nighttime weekend drivers who would otherwise be drunk. “The first full year after coming into effect, [medical] legalization is associated with an 8–11 percent decrease in traffic fatalities,” researchers found in 2013.

As for lounge violence, Pearson said “we haven’t had any problems or concerns.”

His one incident at SPARC in eight years, involved a person on prescription medication. By contrast, he said, nearly all municipalities “sanction and permit alcohol establishments, and those have incidents on a nightly basis.”

Most folks buy flower or extracts before heading into the lounge to sample them. (Jamie Soja for Leafly)

Lounge Health — Getting Too High and Smoke Exposure

By far, the biggest issue lounge operators deal with is people getting too high.

“Most problems can be solved with a glass of water,” said Goldsberry. “We have an abundance of water.” Others need fresh air, too.

“It can be scary, but they’re typically fine in 15 to 20 minutes,” Rainin said.

Since January, anyone 21 or older can enter a lounge, so budtenders more vigilantly police newbies. To reduce acute THC exposures:

Barbary Coast uses 30-minute time limits

Magnolia employs a registered nurse

And all lounges throw out anyone trying to “party”: get rowdy or really high, or use other drugs including tobacco or alcohol

“The people consuming are usually very respectful and private and keep to themselves as they consume,” said Jesse Henry, executive director at Barbary Coast.

Lounges might also appear to undercut decades of hard-fought gains to clear California workplaces of smoke. So all use have high-powered ventilation systems, and San Francisco’s health department plans more clean air rules in its release this month.

Many say workers should be exposed to zero smoke, just like tobacco. One day the federal OSHA might step in. The solution there is simple. “Just do it outside. On a patio. Then there’s zero problem,” Goldsberry said.

Unless you’re a neighbor. Magnolia is in an industrial part of town where no one cares. Future lounges will also have to master odor control to pacify garrulous neighbors.

The neighborhood around SPARC is deserted at closing time, 10 p.m. every night. Most lounges set a 9 p.m. last call for bongs and Volcano bags.

As the last regulars file out, the evening shift clicks off the vapes and e-nails, puts away the snacks and empties the ashtrays into trashcans, and the trashcans into dumpsters outside. They fill the dishwasher with vaporizer mouthpieces and parts, set the machine to “sanitize” mode at 180 degrees Fahrenheit, and flick the lights off for a bit — until the morning sun summits the Berkeley hills again.

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON LEAFLY, CLICK HERE.

https://www.leafly.com/news/lifestyle/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-cannabis-lounge

[cannannabis-blog]

The morning sun barely clears the Berkeley hills east of the San Francisco Bay today, yet the Volcano vaporizers are already warm at the public cannabis lounges across the region.

Over at Barbary Coast Collective on Mission St. in San Francisco, the staff sets out cleaned ashtrays and psychedelic silicone bongs that suction cup onto the table so customers can’t knock them over. The plastic still smells faintly of a rubbing alcohol wash.

At Magnolia lounge in Oakland, they make coffee and set out tea, cream, and sugar.

When the doors open at 9 a.m. over at SPARC lounge on Mission St., lawyers and pensioners alike stand in line to show their ID, pick up a grinder, and sit down to hit Volcano bags. Some stop by before their shifts at work. Others come straight from government housing where federal laws prohibit medical cannabis use.

As the dim morning light filters in through the stained glass windows, the Volcano bags inflate with the brrrrrrrr of miniature air pumps. Bic lighters flick and touch joints. The first dabs touch down on quartz nails with a sssssssssSSSSSSSSS. Jay-Z’s ebullient “Big Pimpin” chimes in over the Barbary sound system. You hold it in. Stifle a cough. Try to exhale cooly. Then cough for real.

Aside from the music, this early it’s quiet like a church or a library. A staffer in plaid dusts the houseplants.

Another day of legal seshing, unlike any other place in the world, has begun.

There are only nine places on planet Earth where you can go to a cannabis consumption lounge like you would an alcohol bar. San Francisco has seven. Oakland has one. Denver — one. That’s it. For the Earth.

And “San Francisco has the best regulations of anywhere,” said Charles Pappas, a former Berkeley medical cannabis commissioner.

The famed coffee shops of Amsterdam are seedy and merely “tolerated”. The semi-private clubs of Barcelona don’t have city and state permits displayed on the wall. Sorry, trailblazers Washington and Oregon. The future is happening here — again.

This September, the San Francisco Department of Public Health will issue updated rules for its world-class lounges, which have been around since at least 2010 in a medical capacity and went recreational on January 1. Even more lounges are in the planning pipeline, Leafly has learned. State officials, as well as staff from the cities of Los Angeles and Sacramento, have been spotted at Barbary Coast this summer taking notes.

Shop the Most Popular Strains of San Francisco on Leafly

Harvest Off Mission hosts a discrete members-only lounge. (Jamie Soja for Leafly)

Lounges Fight Stigma, Ignorance, Prohibition

Bay Area lounges aren’t as insanely popular as they might be, given their global rarity.

Sure, the usual happy hour of 5 p.m. weekdays tend to get crowded. Friday afternoon happy hours will draw lines out the door. But despite 2018 stories in the Associated Press and UK Guardian, most Bay Area locals have never set foot in a lounge. They don’t know how, said Robbie Rainin, retail director at SPARC.

“I have the same problem with the gym. I want to go, but I don’t know how to use the machines. And you don’t know the culture.”

There’s lingering stigma too. Potential patrons fear they’ll be put on some list, Rainin said.

“I saw a family of tourists walk by and decide to come in, but one family member stayed outside, saying ‘I’m not going in there.’ It still feels like they’re doing something wrong.”

Lounges can’t advertise like bars, operators said. And the lounges might just be playing it cool amid the Trump Era. Officials in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Nevada and beyond have all rejected cannabis bars, for fear of public health and safety, and federal reprisals, they say. They worry about drugged driving, or lounge-related crime, or overdoses or smoke exposures.

Erich Pearson, the CEO of SPARC, said they’ve had one incident in eight years. He calls those concerns “just more prohibitionist crap, essentially.”

Lounge Links

·      Harvest

·      Barbary Coast

·      SPARC

·      Urban Pharm

·      Magnolia Wellness

(Jamie Soja for Leafly)

Lounge Safety — Drugged Driving and Crime

The ranking lounge criticism involves people smoking at a lounge and driving. What is society to do? Wheels needn’t be reinvented, it would seem.

“We do have something we can adapt to use for cannabis intoxication — and that’s state alcohol regulations,” said Magnolia Wellness director Debby Goldsberry.

Pappas notes that, “If bars are safe why can’t lounges be safe? A lounge owner can say, ‘OK you’ve smoked enough, that’s it.’ Just like a bar.”

Indeed, Magnolia Wellness adapted state alcohol intoxication protocols to get its Oakland lounge permit. There are four stages of intoxication, said Goldsberry. They’ve cut off a couple people, and called a couple Ubers. “Nobody ever gets to stage four. We just don’t allow it.”

Most people take mass transit to Bay Area lounges, said Rainin. And with ride sharing apps, people have plenty of alternatives to driving.

Cannabis also carries less crash risk than alcohol (1.6 vs 17), with more tolerable effects that peak in eight minutes versus 90 minutes for alcohol.

Early data shows access to legal cannabis cuts down on reckless driving, primarily among young, male nighttime weekend drivers who would otherwise be drunk. “The first full year after coming into effect, [medical] legalization is associated with an 8–11 percent decrease in traffic fatalities,” researchers found in 2013.

As for lounge violence, Pearson said “we haven’t had any problems or concerns.”

His one incident at SPARC in eight years, involved a person on prescription medication. By contrast, he said, nearly all municipalities “sanction and permit alcohol establishments, and those have incidents on a nightly basis.”

Check San Francisco Cannabis Deals with Leafly

Most folks buy flower or extracts before heading into the lounge to sample them. (Jamie Soja for Leafly)

Lounge Health — Getting Too High and Smoke Exposure

By far, the biggest issue lounge operators deal with is people getting too high.

“Most problems can be solved with a glass of water,” said Goldsberry. “We have an abundance of water.” Others need fresh air, too.

“It can be scary, but they’re typically fine in 15 to 20 minutes,” Rainin said.

Since January, anyone 21 or older can enter a lounge, so budtenders more vigilantly police newbies. To reduce acute THC exposures:

Barbary Coast uses 30-minute time limits

Magnolia employs a registered nurse

And all lounges throw out anyone trying to “party”: get rowdy or really high, or use other drugs including tobacco or alcohol

“The people consuming are usually very respectful and private and keep to themselves as they consume,” said Jesse Henry, executive director at Barbary Coast.

Lounges might also appear to undercut decades of hard-fought gains to clear California workplaces of smoke. So all use have high-powered ventilation systems, and San Francisco’s health department plans more clean air rules in its release this month.

Many say workers should be exposed to zero smoke, just like tobacco. One day the federal OSHA might step in. The solution there is simple. “Just do it outside. On a patio. Then there’s zero problem,” Goldsberry said.

Unless you’re a neighbor. Magnolia is in an industrial part of town where no one cares. Future lounges will also have to master odor control to pacify garrulous neighbors.

The neighborhood around SPARC is deserted at closing time, 10 p.m. every night. Most lounges set a 9 p.m. last call for bongs and Volcano bags.

As the last regulars file out, the evening shift clicks off the vapes and e-nails, puts away the snacks and empties the ashtrays into trashcans, and the trashcans into dumpsters outside. They fill the dishwasher with vaporizer mouthpieces and parts, set the machine to “sanitize” mode at 180 degrees Fahrenheit, and flick the lights off for a bit — until the morning sun summits the Berkeley hills again.

Harvest has two lounges in the Mission and Geary neighborhoods. (Jamie Soja for Leafly)

Shop the Most Popular Strains of San Francisco on Leafly

(Jamie Soja for Leafly)

Shop the Most Popular Strains of San Francisco on Leafly

Barbary Coast Collective also has a dab bar for sampling the extracts you buy. (Jamie Soja for Leafly)

Shop the Most Popular Strains of San Francisco on Leafly

(Jamie Soja for Leafly)

Shop the Most Popular Strains of San Francisco on Leafly

(Jamie Soja for Leafly)

The post A Day in the Life of a Cannabis Lounge appeared first on CANNANN.

[tsgmobilebayalabama]

May Scouted Calendar

The arrival of May brings beautiful weather and plenty of opportunities to take advantage of the exciting exhibitions, festivals, and charity events happening in our communities. From the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival to the first ever Cuban Festival to a Wine Tasting Beverage Academy here’s what we’re looking forward to in the Mobile Bay area this month. 

SALES

RAYFORD’S WAREHOUSE SALE - MAY 17th 18th & 19th 

Discontinued, Overstock, Samples, Displays and Old Inventory

Check, Cash + Carry

At or below cost

One of kind

Door + cabinet hardware

Bathtubs

Kitchen + Bathroom Sinks

No returns - all sales final

HALEY DERMATOLOGY  - MAY SPECIALS                                                                                                    

Neck Rejuvenation Package: Halo/BBL, Botox, Nectifirm Advanced $1800 ($380 savings)

Hand Rejuvenation Package: Halo/BBL, Radiesse, Lumiquin $2000 ($450 savings)

Get both packages (neck and hand) for $2900!* Halo/BBL, Botox & Radiesse Nectifirm & Lumiquin $1730.00 savings!

Halo, BBL or IPL Neck & Hands* Halo & BBL $1400 ($700 savings) Halo $1000 ($500 savings) BBL $400 ($200 savings) IPL $300 ($100 savings)

Kybella & CoolSculpting - 20% off chin treatment

Sunscreens, neck & hand products - 20% off

EVENTS

MOBILE BAYBEARS BASEBALL

April-September | Hank Aaron Stadium | Cheer on the BayBears, an AA affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Major League team.  Hank Aaron Stadium is home to the Hank Aaron Childhood Home and Museum. Learn More

$5 YOGA ON TAP

May 1st | 6pm - 9pm | Fairhope Brewing | Come try a fun yoga flow and hang out with your Soul Mates. Join Soul Shine Yoga for an hour of yoga and stay for awesome local beer and wine. Learn More 

BLESSING OF THE FLEET

May 1st | 10am - 4pm | Saint Margaret’s { Bayou La Batre } | This fun-filled festival honors the fishing community and includes hopes and prayers for a successful season.  Enjoy Vietnamese Cuisine, a Gumbo Cook-off, Arts & Crafts show, a Decorated Boat contest, Boat Cruises and more! Learn More

LIVE MUSIC: MATT NESSE

May 2nd | 6:00pm | BLUEGILL | Join Matt Neese on the Wharf Deck each Wednesday starting at 6pm. Beautiful sunsets and handcrafted cocktails plus incredible tunes from great local musicians nightly. Learn More

RICK BRAGG  BOOK SIGNING 

May 2nd | 6pm - 7pm |  The Venue | In “The Best Cook in the World”, Rick Bragg finally preserves his heritage by telling the stories that framed his mother's cooking and education from childhood into old age. “Because good food always has a good story, and a recipe”, writes Bragg, “is a story like anything else.” Tickets are $35 and include an autographed copy of the book. Learn More

CHILDREN’S STORY TIME

May 2nd | 10:30am (0-2years) 11:00am (3-6years) | Page & Palette | Kids will enjoy lapsit, rhymes and songs. 

MAYORS PRAYER BREAKFAST 

May 3rd | 7:00am | Daphne Civic Center | The Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce is excited to announce that the 2018 Mayors' Prayer Breakfast speaker is former University of Alabama and Dallas Cowboys football player and co-founder of the Palmer Williams Group, Sherman Williams. Join them to hear his inspiring message. Also, hear from the mayors of all three of the Eastern Shore Municipalities: Mayor Dane Haygood from the City of Daphne, Mayor Karin Wilson from the City of Fairhope and Mayor Mike McMillan from the City of Spanish Fort. Learn More 

GOV'T MULE WITH SPECIAL GUEST BLACK STONE CHERRY                

May 3rd | 6:30pm | Saenger Theatre | Legendary rock torchbearers, Gov't Mule, are ramping up their 2016 schedule with an extensive tour and the release of a new archival album entitled The Tel-Star Sessions, the band's very first, and never-before-released, demos made in June 1994 at Tel-Star Studios in Bradenton, Florida. These newly mixed and mastered recordings feature the original line-up: Warren Haynes, Allen Woody and Matt Abts. "Having listened to them recently, for the first time in decades, a big smile came over my face. These recordings capture the rawness and excitement of the earliest stage of Gov't Mule," explains Haynes. Learn More

14TH ANNUAL HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL 

May 3rd - 5th | 6:00pm | Tanger Outlets Foley | The Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival 

The event will feature more than 35 balloons from across the country! 

May 3 - Balloon Glow at Tanger Outlets from 6pm-7pm  May 4 - Festival Grounds from 2pm-10 pm  May 5 - Festival Grounds from 9am-10pm.                                                    

There will be opportunities to win great prizes. Children's activities, free train rides, live music, entertainment and 10 hot air balloons will be on site to glow at dusk. Learn More.

FRASCARA TRUNK SHOW 

May 4th & 5th | 10am - 5pm | Something New | There will be lots of great pieces for weddings and Mardi Gras! Call to schedule your appointment or stop in and take a look at all of the beautiful pieces! Learn More 

PIRATES BALL

May 4th | 7am - 11am | Pirates Cove {Josephine} | Bushwackers on the Beach with Live Music; It’s a pirates life for me! Learn More.   

JERRY SEINFELD

May 4th | 7:00pm | Saenger Theatre | Entertainment icon Jerry Seinfeld's comedy career took off after his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1981. Eight years later, he teamed up with fellow comedian Larry David to create what was to become the most successful comedy series in the history of television: Seinfeld. Learn More 

FAIRHOPE FIRST FRIDAY ARTWALK

May 4th | 6pm - 8pm | Downtown Fairhope | Begins at Eastern Shore Art Center, stroll through downtown Fairhope visiting merchants, art galleries and listening to music. 

1st HARVEST NIGHT CELEBRATION 

May 5th | 4pm - 8pm | Weeks Bay Plantation | This evening on the farm features blueberry picking, a vendors market, food trucks, live music performance by Seth Walker, local artisans, kids activities and more! It's a fun night for the entire family. Bring your blankets, chairs, BYOB and plan on spending the evening stocking up on organic blueberries, enjoying farm-to-table treats, watching the kids have a blast and listening to some amazing music under the stars. Admission to this event is FREE. Learn More 

YIN AND THE THREE VITAL ENERGIES OF YOGA

May 5th  | 1:00pm | Soul Shine Yoga |  In this workshop join Hilary Martin, 500-Hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher (RYT 500), in exploring all three using: Pranayama, or breath awareness; journaling and discussion; guided meditation; and Yin Yoga, in which primarily seated or reclining poses are held for several minutes with soft muscles. Oh, and refreshments!  Sign up

U PICK ORGANIC BLUEBERRIES

May 5th | Reoccurring Wednesdays - Saturdays | Weeks Bay Plantation | It's blueberry time! Come out and pick fresh, organic blueberries for you and your family to enjoy year round. Eat some now, freeze a bunch for later! They are the only USDA sanctioned organic blueberry farm in the region! Their blueberries are $8 a pound for the first pound and then $4 a pound for all additional pounds. Put on some outdoor shoes, a hat and some sunscreen and come on over – they’ll do the rest. And bring the kiddos – they’ll have a blast. Learn More

CUBAN FESTIVAL

May 5th | 10am - 5pm | Mobile Museum of Art | The first ever Cuban Festival, celebrating the shared cultures of Mobile and our sister city, Havana, Cuba. With a day full of family activities, MMofA invites all ages to experience Cuban culture and enjoy COMMON GROUND: Photographs of Havana and Mobile. The MMofA special exhibition features photographs of shared characteristics seen in our sister cities, through the lens of photographers Chip Cooper and Julio Larramendi. With free admission for all Mobile County residents offered all day, you can also check out some vintage Cuban cars that will be on display out front, tour the galleries with the artists themselves, enjoy lunch from a local food truck, learn to salsa, and end the afternoon with a film about the famous Buena Vista Social Club. Learn More 

MOBILE SPORTS AUTHORITY TOUR DE BAY CRITERIUM & FONDO RIDE

May 5th & 6th | 10:00am | Downtown Mobile | The Mobile Sports Authority & Team Share The Road along with Hargrove Engineers & Constructors are sponsoring the 2018 Mobile Tour de Bay and Fondo Ride. The Criterium will also serve as the Alabama State Criterium Championship. On Saturday the Crit Races begin in front of Wintzell's Oyster House and on Sunday the Fondo Rides willl start and end at the New Serda's Brewing Company. Learn More.

MARKET AT THE PILLARS

May 6th | 12:00pm | The Pillars | A fun afternoon of local makers, bakers, crafters and artists! Live music and local eats! This event is free and open to the public. Family fun and pet friendly!

COMEDY OPEN MIC NIGHT

May 6th | 7pm - 9pm | Merry Widow | Every Sunday, from 7pm to 9pm (that's from opening until the karaoke starts) they have a comedy open mic with occasional professional or semi-professional headliners. This is a FREE SHOW where anyone can try standup comedy. You'll see everything from newbies trying comedy for the first time (be gentle on them), to seasoned comics trying out new routines or polishing old bits. There will be a host keeping everyone to 5 minutes, so if you hate who's on stage, just have a drink and chill, they'll be replaced shortly. Also FREE CAJUN BOILED PEANUTS and DRINK SPECIALS Learn More.

20TH ANNUAL SUNSET SUPPER  

May 7th | 6:00pm | Fairhope Yacht Club | Come enjoy an evening of good food, good music, and great deals. They boast an exceptional silent auction which includes vacation packages, spa treatments, grills, clothes, jewelry, and much more. All proceeds go to to help victims in your immediate community. Learn More.

COCKTAILS & CREATIVES 

May 10th | 5:30pm | The Merry Widow | Connect. Inspire. Create. Cocktails & Creatives is a happy hour designed to unite Mobilians interested in creativity and creative pursuits—whether they be working artists, secret poets, tinkerers, or the merely curious. Learn More.

RESTORE: SOUL CARE  

May 11th | 11:30am | Soul Shine Yoga | This class is for anyone experiencing stress, overwhelm, or just too much “busyness” and not enough down time. Sound familiar, moms?! Give yourself time to turn inward, quieten down and rest. You’ll be amazed at how simple it is to reset your mind and body and find relaxation! Best of all, you’ll learn tools you can use at home to create this same sense of peace and calm. Sessions are in our unheated room and use a combination of yoga, mindfulness, reiki and aromatherapy. No yoga experience is necessary. Wear comfy clothing. Learn More.

THE UNDERHILL FAMILY ORCHESTRA

May 11th | 8:00pm | Southern Napa |  Under the big tent this year will be The Underhill Family Orchestra celebrating the release of their new album! Native to the Alabama delta, has been described as "outright anthemic" taking their compositions to "idyllic places" that make you want to "paint your face, forget your age, and kiss a stranger." Learn More.

6 WEEK SERIES YOGA - GO FOR IT! YOUR LIFE IS WAITING!

May 11th | 11:30am |  Soul Shine Yoga | In this six week series, we'll commit to ourselves (We're talking pen and paper), discover how we can find time in our weeks to find our path and explore what makes us truly come alive. They’ll dive deeper into what's holding you back, then they will 'cut the crap' to find your true self - including non-energy producing foods and unhelpful self talk. Lastly, you will make the plunge into your new, shiny life that's been waiting for you. This series is guided by Gabi Garrett, RYT-200 Yoga, Pilates, Aerial Yoga & TRX instructor who hopped out of her cubical and dove into her true passions: yoga and writing, and shed over 50 pounds in the process. This weekly practice is suitable for all levels. Sign Up

LODA ARTWALK

May 11th | 6pm-9pm | Lower Dauphin Street | LoDa ArtWalk takes place every second Friday of the month in the Lower Dauphin (LoDa) Arts District. On this evening, local art galleries, institutions, studios and unique shops open their doors for the public to come inside to view beautiful artwork, sample delicious foods, and hear the music of Mobile. This free family-friendly event is a staple of Mobile’s arts and culture.

THE FAIRHOPE ROTARY STEAK COOK-OFF

May 11th | 7pm - 10pm | Downtown Fairhope | The event kicks off on Friday evening when the gracious merchants along South Bancroft Street between the campus of Coastal Alabama Community College and adjacent to Fairhope’s French Quarter shutter their stores and relinquish the street to every manner of wood- and charcoal-fired grills, from custom BBQ trailers to Texas Smokers. Rules specify that only authentic wood grilling can be used, and as the coals are beginning to get just right, the festival attendees come through the gates and the band starts to get under way. It is like being invited to the most prestigious tailgate event and then getting to sample everyone’s steaks, while you enjoy their salads and baked potatoes, drink their beer or wine, and dance without having to worry that you are missing the game. Learn More.

CHILDREN'S CUP REGATTA

May 12th | 9am - 9pm | The 9th Annual Children’s Cup Regatta benefits patients from the Alabama Gulf Coast being treated at Children’s of Alabama. Sailing enthusiast and friends are invited to enjoy a day of sailboat racing, kids activities, a silent auction, dinner and awards at Fairhope Yacht Club. Learn More.

6TH ANNUAL 99 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE LAWN

May 12th | Southern Napa | The Eastern Shore's Only Craft Beer Festival Returns for Year Number 6!  Sample 99 different local, national and international craft beers. Ticket includes a commemorative tasting glass, beer samples, and live music. Breweries and Brewmasters will be onsite hoping (or may hopping!) to earn your vote in our for the top beer awards. Learn More.

CREEK FEST

May 12th | 10am - 2pm | Tricentennial Park | This is a celebration of Three Mile Creek, which was the city’s first source of drinking water. The event will include a cane-pole fishing tournament for ages 16 and under, along with other family-friendly activities. Live music, food and canoe rides also will be part of the half-day event as the natural beauty of one of Mobile’s historic waterways is showcased. LifeSouth will also be present again to conduct a blood drive. Learn More.

CREOLE CULTURE, CUSINE & CARNIVAL

May 12th | 4pm - 6pm | Mobile Mardi Gras Trail | A 2-Hour party with real history and real revelry. Tickets are $60/person. Begins and ends on Mobile Bay. Enjoy a festive bus ride with carnival revelry and complimentary cocktails on board, and stops at local restaurants for samplings of regional creole cuisine. Along the way, learn more about Creole culture and carnivals of the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean, from Mobile to New Orleans and from the Yucatan to Cozumel and Havana. ​​ Bead-throwing is required, masks are optional. Learn More 

MOTHERS DAY AT RUTH’S CHRIS

May 13th  | 11am - 6pm | Ruth’s Chris Steak House | Celebrate MOM on her special day at Ruth's Chris Steak House in Midtown Mobile for an incredible lunch featuring sizzling steaks, salads and so much more. Call for reservations.

LIVE MUSIC: MOBILE BIG BAND SOCIETY 

May 15th | 6:00pm | BLUEGILL | Two hours of big band favorites. The dance floor is always full, so come early, enjoy the great food and the music. 

MARC COHN

May 15th | 7:30pm |  The Steeple on St. Francis | Doors open at 6:30PM / Learn More

TRACY LAWRENCE

May 17th | 7:00pm |  The Steeple on St. Francis |  Learn More.

WHITE LINEN NIGHT

May 17th  | 7pm -10pm | Eastern Shore Art Center | Dress in your favorite white linen and join the Eastern Shore Art Center for White Linen Night where art will take center stage. Enjoy music by The Red Clay Strays, local fare from your favorite restaurants and a special beer brewed and labeled exclusively for White Linen Night by Fairhope Brewing Company. An exciting live auction will top off the evening and allow you to take home a special piece from a local artist. With their "Diamond in a Glass" opportunity you could even win a diamond from Stowe's Jewelers. All proceeds will benefit the Eastern Shore Art Center's ongoing mission to educate and promote the arts. Learn More

DUCK BOAT TOUR + PROGRESSIVE DINNER 

May 17th | 6pm | Sylvia’s at Fort of Colonial Mobile | A pairing an awesome Mobile attraction with some of the food and drink greats of downtown Mobile for one incredible experience ... and all for a great cause! The Fuse Project. They'll start with Happy Hour at Sylvia's (Fort of Colonial Mobile) and launch the boat promptly at 6pm. From there they will tour downtown Mobile - land and water - making stops at your favorite Mobile restaurants along the way. Each restaurant will feature a signature dish and drink just for us! Ticket price includes: - Gulf Coast Duck Boat Tour through Downtown Mobile - Food and Adult Beverage at four-five restaurant stops along the tour. Learn More. 

GRAND BEVERAGE ACADEMY: WINE TASTING 101

May 18th | 5:30pm - 6:30pm | Grand Hotel | Participants will learn how to use all of their senses while enjoying wine. Students will explore both red and white varietals. Learn More.

GRAND CULINARY ACADEMY: GRILLING BASICS

MAY 19th | 10am - 11am | Grand Hotel | Participants will learn the professional techniques of grilling meat, poultry, and fish. Learn More

HEALING THROUGH MINDFU MOVEMENT

May 20th | 1pm - 4pm | Soul Shine Yoga | Want to reduce pain, improve how you feel, and reignite the feelings of excitement, strength, connection and happiness in your life? Reconnect to the freedom you know is within. Join Sybil for her upcoming Healing Through Mindful Movement workshop and she’ll help you shift from sore, depleted and stuck to feeling alive, grounded and inspired. Sign up.

SUNDAY SUNSET SERIES 

May 20th | 6:00pm | Bayfront Park Pavilion | First of the series featuring Mobile Big Band Society. Learn More 

LUNCH & LEARN : TAX REFORM 

May 23rd | 11:30am -1:00pm | Bryant Bank Conference Room (Daphne) | Tax Reform Lunch & Learn Presented by Crow Shields Bailey, PC and Jonstone Adams LLCIN Partnering with The Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce. Learn More. 

LIVE MUSIC: FBR 

May 27th | 6:00pm | BLUEGILL | Live on the big deck at the Bluegill. The dance floor is always full, so come early, enjoy the great food and the music. 

DAVE MATTHEWS         

May 27th | 7pm | The Wharf Amphitheater | Dave Matthews Live. Learn More

[tacomawanews-blog]

EVENTS: Mon., Oct. 23-Fri., Oct. 29

TACOMA EVENT | TACOMA POLITICS Mon., Oct. 23, 6 p.m., Park Board Meeting at Metro Parks main office, 4702 S. 19th St. A study session begins before each meeting at 5:30 pm. The five-member Board of Park Commissioners governs Metro Parks Tacoma and is the policy determining body for the park district. The Board meets on the second and fourth Mondays of each month in the Board Room For more information contact Jennifer Bowman, (253) 305-1091. #TacomaEvents #Tacoma Politics # TacomaMetroParks

TACOMA EVENT | TACOMA MUSIC Mon., Oct. 23 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. The Malo Castro Band plays music from the Caribbean: Salsa, Son Montuno, Cha Cha, Merenge, and Guaguanco. They'll be at Clover Park Technical College in Building 23 SLSC. More TacomaWAnews Details.  #TacomaMusic #MaloCastroBand #TacomaCaribbean

TACOMA EVENT | TACOMA BINGO Mon., Oct 23., 7 p.m., Bingo at Tacoma Elks #174. This benefit/fundraiser happens every Monday night at the Tacoma Elks #174 Lodge Room, 2440 S Steele St, Tacoma, WA 98405. Proceeds to benefit the charities supported by the Elks. Event Info: (253) 272-1117. More TacomaWAnews Details. #TacomaBingo #TacomaElks #TacomaFundraiser

TACOMA MUSIC | TACOMA BARBERSHOP Tues. Oct. 24, 7-9:30 p.m. Come sing some Barbershop tunes with the Tacoma TotemAires Barbershop Harmony Chorus! Founded in 1946, the TotemAires Chorus is the longest-running barbershop chorus in Washington State. Our rehearsals happen every Tuesday night! Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 3315 S. 19th St., Tacoma, WA 98405, (253) 383-5515. More TacomaWAnews Details #TacomaMusic #TacomaBarbershop #TacomaSings

TACOMA EVENT | TACOMA LECTURE SERIES Tues., Oct. 24, 7-9 p.m. FREE Presentation: Where Have All the Prairies Gone? Andy Fritz, instructor of Environmental Sciences at Clover Park Technical College, tells through words and slides, how various organizations are restoring the prairie and oak savannahs that once proliferated throughout the South Puget Sound region. Presented by the Lakewood Historical Society at the Best Western Motor Inn, 6125 Motor Ave SW, Lakewood, in the meeting room. Refreshments served. More TacomaWAnews details.  #LakewoodEvent #TacomaLectureSeries

TACOMA CLASS | TACOMA PORTFOLIO HELP Tues., Oct 24, 5:30– 7:30 p.m. Get FREE feedback on your online portfolio or website in order to improve your image online. Event at: Union Club Tacoma, 539 Broadway, Tacoma, WA 98402. More TacomaWAnews details. #TacomaWebsite #TacomaPortfolio #TacomaImage

TACOMA CLASS | KOREAN CALLIGRAPHY Tues., Oct 24., noon- 4 p.m., Calligraphy the Korean Way, Moore Library Branch. Every Tuesday afternoon come awaken your inner artist and make new friends. Please bring a calligraphy brush, black ink, and paper with you. 215 South 56th Street, Tacoma WA 98408, Ph: 253.341.4848. More TacomaWAnews details. #TacomaClass #TacomaCrafts #TacomaKoreanArt 

TACOMA EVENT | TACOMA BOOK SIGNING Wed., Oct. 25, 7-8:30 p.m. Lecture, reading and book signing with “Hunger” author Roxane Gay on at the Lincoln High School Auditorium, 701 S. 37th St. in Tacoma. More TacomaWAnews details. #TacomaBookSigning #LincolnHigh #RoxaneGay

TACOMA HOMELESS ASSISTANCE | PROJECT HOMELESS CONNECT Wed., Oct. 25, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m., Project Homeless Connect provides free services such as health insurance enrollment, dental wellness exams, vaccines, vision resources and more. Community services provided include haircuts, veterans services and other benefit enrollment assistance.Tacoma Dome, 2727 E. D. St., Tacoma WA 98421. More TacomaWAnews details.  #TacomaHomelessness #TacomaFREEhelp #SoundOutreach

TACOMA EVENT | TACOMA YOUTH Wed., Oct 25, 3:30-5:30 p.m., Teen Hangout: Hang with your library friends, make a craft and grab a free snack. Event audience: Tween (ages 9-12), Parkland/Spanaway Library, 13718 Pacific Ave. S., Tacoma, WA 98444, (253) 548-3304, More TacomaWAnews details.  #TacomaEvents #TacomaYouth #TeenHangout

TACOMA EVENTS | TACOMA SPIRITUAL Wed., Oct 25, 6–7:30 p.m., Group Meditation with Monty Burgess. Monty Burgess facilitates this fun, uplifting meditation group and will begin by explaining how to get into a meditative state. Then he will take everyone on a guided meditation and will enable you to experience a silent meditation on your own with a sharing, question and answer period to follow. Everyone is welcome regardless of meditation skills. Monty’s expansive life experiences have simply reignited the wisdom, joy and compassion he holds within his soul. He extends that toward his clients and helps them understand and facilitate the same in their own lives. Crystal Voyage LLC, 3802 S Cedar St, Tacoma, WA 98409. More TacomaWAnews details.  #TacomaEvents #TacomaSpiritual #TacomaMeditation

TACOMA EVENT | TACOMA PUB RUN Wed., Oct. 25, 6-9 p.m. South Sound (Running) Pub Run at Point Ruston, 5109 Grand Loop Ave. Run along the waterfront 3 miles out and back, after which we will meet at 2Towns to drink and socialize! More TacomaWAnews details. #TacomaEvents #TacomaPubRun #TacomaPointRuston

TACOMA EVENT | TACOMA UFO Thurs., Oct. 26, 7-10 p.m. UFO Night 21+. Mark the 70th anniversary of the first UFO sightings in Washington with a night full of film, activities, and specialty brew! See a screening and meet the filmmakers of The Maury Island Incident, an award-winning independent film. Grab an extra special beer from local Three Magnets Brewing. Make your own “flying strawcer” with our friends from the Museum of Flight.  at Washington State History Museum, 1911 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, Washington 98402, More TacomaWAnews details.  Pre-registration $15, $20 at the door. #TacomaEvents #TacomaUFO #TacomaExtraterrestrial

TACOMA CRAFTS | TACOMA BEADING Thurs. Oct. 26-Sun. Oct. 29. 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Bead Fest Tacoma is back by popular demand! This 4-day experience offers the best in jewelry arts education and eclectic Expo shopping. Create studio-quality pieces at easy-on-the-wallet prices, all while soaking up the positive vibes of your supportive peers and instructors. Plus, explore seemingly-endless aisles of beautiful findings and gemstones from around the world, cutting-edge tools, unique beads, handmade finished pieces of jewelry, and more—all brought to you by leading artisans and exhibitors. Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center, 1500 Broadway, Tacoma, WA  98402. 253.830.6601 More TacomaWAnews details. #TacomaBeads #TacomaBeading #TacomaBeadFest

TACOMA SINGLES | SINGLES HALLOWEEN Fri., Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m. for the fun/single crowd in costumes, Comedian Lane Moore brings her live interactive/stand-up show Tinder Live: Halloween Edition at the Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, 253-591-5894. Buy your tickets online. More TacomaWAnews details. #TacomaEvents #TacomaHalloween #TacomaSingles

TACOMA HALLOWEEN | TACOMA HAUNTED HOUSE Fri. and Sat. Oct. 27 and 28 7-11:30 p.m. Tacoma's longest-running haunted attraction features two haunted houses - SHADOWS and THE REDEMPTION - for a full night of fright! Enjoy this ever-popular haunted house this Halloween season. Open 16 nights in October at Freighthouse Station, 2501 East G St. Ages: 12 and older, $15-$25. More TacomaWAnews details: #TacomaEvents #TacomaHalloween #TacomaHauntedHouse

TACOMA HALLOWEEN | TACOMA TRICK-OR-TREAT Fri., Oct. 27, 4-9 p.m. Bring your trick-or-treat bags because Tacoma Metro Parks celebrates Harvest Fest at STAR Center 3873 S. 66th St, by presenting FREE pumpkin-themed crafts. Costume contests. Games and more. (253) 404-3939. More TacomaWAnews details. #TacomaEvents #TacomaHalloweein #TacomaTrickOrTreat

TACOMA CLUB | TACOMA LOUNGE Fri. Oct. 27, 10 p.m.-1 a.m., Lounge Fridays happen every week at The Social Bar and Grill with DJ Nelson Estrada! Each and every Friday from 10 pm - 1 am, come enjoy drink specials and the electric sounds of DJ Nelson Estrada. No Cover, No Dress Code! Event Info: (253) 442-0874. Ages: 21+. Price: Free. More TacomaWAnews details.  #TacomaLounge #TacomaMusic #TacomaBar

TACOMA EVENT | FALL CELEBRATION Fri, Oct 27, 6-8 p.m. Celebrate fall at People's Center, 1602 MLK Jr. Way, where admission is FREE. More info at (253) 591-5321. More TacomaWAnews details.  #TacomaEvents #TacomaMetroParks #TacomaCelebrateFall 

TACOMA EVENT | TACOMA MUSIC Sat. Oct. 28, 8 p.m., Well-known violinist and conductor Andre Rieu, dubbed the “Modern King of Waltz," will appear in concert at the Tacoma Dome, 2727 E D St, Tacoma, WA. Tickets $39-$99. 253.272.3663. More TacomaWAnews details. #TacomaViolinist #AndreRieu #TacomaMusic

TACOMA BEER FESTIVAL | TACOMA WINTER BEER Sat., Oct. 28, noon: The 4th annual South Sound Craft Beer Festival will feature 40 Washington breweries pouring over 150 craft beers. Our Washington brewers will feature Halloween themed, harvest, seasonal and first taste of winter beers. This indoor festival happens at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall. Food will be available for purchase. Free Parking in Lot A. The Washington Beer Commission strongly encourages you to designate a driver. Designated driver admission is just $5 at the gate and includes complimentary water and soda. Ages: 21+. More TacomaWAnews details.   #BeerFest #TacomaBeer #TacomaCraftBeer

TACOMA COMEDY | TACOMA MYSTERY THEATER Sat., Oct. 28, 7-9 p.m., loosely based on the Salem witch trials, this mystery dinner theater is designed to benefit Radio Tacoma KTAH-LP 101.9 FM. More info: 253.590.6543. For all ages. Suggested donation: $25, with costume-$15 At the door Tacoma Friends Meeting address: 2508 S. 39th St., Tacoma. More TacomaWAnews details.   #TacomaComedy #TacomaMysteryTheater #TacomaWitch

TACOMA CRAFTS | TACOMA HOLIDAY Sat., Oct. 28, 4–5 p.m., Join us to make adorable spooky themed gingerbread houses out of chocolate graham crackers and an array of fall themed candy. Register to reserve a spot. Suitable for elders, adults, teens, tweens and grades K-5. If you register, arrive no later than 4:05 PM or your space is forfeited to drop-in attendees. Fern Hill Library Branch, 765 South 84th St., Tacoma WA 98444, Ph: 253.341.4724. More TacomaWAnews details. #TacomaHoliday #TacomaCrafts #TacomaGingerBread 

Now-Sun., Nov. 5 TACOMA EVENTS  |  TACOMA PLAY Saturday, Oct. 28., 11 a.m. - 2, Sunday, Oct 29, 2 p.m., The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (the musical). Adults: $15. Military/Students/Seniors $13. Children 12-and-younger $12. Tacoma Musical Playhouse, 7116 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, WA 253.565.6867. More TacomaWAnews details.  #TacomaTomSawyer #TacomaEvent #TacomaPlay 

TACOMA DOG | TACOMA PUPPY Sat., Oct. 28, 10 a.m. Puppy Kindergarten. 11:30 a.m. Puppy II (intermediate) school. Good CitZEN Dog, 207 N. I Street, Tacoma, WA 98403. 253-752-6878, To enroll call or email Kirsten at 253-752-6878 or kirsten@goodcitizendog.com. More TacomaWAnews details. #TacomaDogTraining #TacomaPuppySchool #DogObedience

TACOMA HALLOWEEN | TACOMA COSTUME Sat., Oct 28, noon-5 p.m.The costume parade begins at 4 p.m. Enjoy a bunch of different activities for the whole family! Ghoulish crafts and coloring. A pumpkin toss! All at Bass Pro Shop, 7905 S Hosmer St Tacoma, WA. More TacomaWAnews details #TacomaEvents #TacomaHalloween #TacomaCostume

TACOMA EVENT | TACOMA CHOCOLATE Sat., Oct. 28, 1-2 p.m. It's National Chocolate Day! Celebrate with a local chocolatier, Tease Chocolates. Listen to a fun informative talk, hold a cocoa pod, and nibble on some chocolate. $3 suggested donation. More details: Joey Furuto, joeyf@tacomaparks.com. This chocolatey event happens at the W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory,316 South G Street! More TacomaWAnews details.  #TacomaEvents #TacomaChocolate #TacomaChocolateDay

TACOMA EVENT | TACOMA THEATER Sat., Oct 28 (Nov. 2, Nov 3, Nov. 4 too) at 7:30 p.m., also Sat., Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. Theater at the University of Puget Sound. "The Seagull" by Anton Chekhov (1896; English version, Jean-Claude van Itallie) follows a Russian family and their friends as they negotiate love, rejection, art and the passage of time through the complex tapestry of their interwoven lives. The spirit of the play revolves around universal experiences of loneliness, longing, self-doubt, and hope. Happens at Norton Clapp Theatre, inside Jones Hall. Get $11 tickets at Wheelock Information Center, 253.879.3100, or online. More TacomaWAnews details.  #TacomaEvents #TacomaTheater #TacomaUPS

 For most current, up-to-the-day, events please follow us on Facebook! *Tell your friends where you heard about these events too* 

[gunboatbaylodge]

Things to Do in Vancouver this Weekend: October 5, 2017

Autumn is in full swing with festivals and feasts this weekend and there are many ways to toast your glass or stein to good harvests. For those of us who solidly believe that this is the most wonderful time of the year – Fright Nights begin this weekend, marking Halloween as just around the corner! There’s also music, circus performance, dance, and it’s not too late to catch some VIFF flicks!

Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing

Friday October 6

The Goblin Market

The Goblin Market Where: The Cultch What: A contemporary circus re-telling of Christina Rossetti’s poem, following two sisters, their temptation, sacrifice and eventual salvation. Lively circus is precariously balanced with gritty performances and candid story telling. Runs until: Saturday October 14, 2017

Harvest Haus

Harvest Haus Where: 88 Pacific Blvd What: Combining modern fare with authentic European harvest traditions, gather your closest mates for what may be the most gluttonous and gratifying Oktoberfest in the city. Runs until: Saturday Oktober 14, 2017

Terra and Beyond with Chris Hadfield and Danny Michel

Terra and Beyond with Chris Hadfield and Danny Michel (show 1 of 2) Where: The Orpheum What: Share Colonel Chris Hadfield’s viewpoint “Beyond the Terra,” with music and inspiring images from the International Space Station.

Thanks For Giving Where: Arts Club Theatre What: While Nan bastes the turkey and prepares the stuffing, her husband hides a freshly hunted bear in the garage and her troublesome daughter is raiding her purse again. To top it all off, her grandchildren have chosen this Thanksgiving to disclose some unexpected personal truths to the family.  Runs until: Saturday November 4, 2017

Fright Nights Where: Playland What: Misty, dark, dreary, and full of spooks and scares may not sound like everyone’s ideal night out, but to those of us who love Halloween, nothing could be better! Playland turns into an animated haunted carnival, including seven haunted houses and fifteen of its best rides; what better way to scream away all of your fears? Runs until: Tuesday October 31, 2017

North Shore Craft Beer Week Where: Various locations What: The North Shore has a rich history of craft brewing and was home to Canada’s first ever microbrewery – Horseshoe Bay Brewery in 1982. Download the Vancouver’s North Shore Craft Beer Week Passport, get a stamp at each brewery as you travel around North Vancouver sampling special craft beer menus and unique casks. With your stamps, you could win prizes! Runs until:  Friday October 13, 2017

Experimental Ink Where: Museum of Anthropology What: The award-winning Assembly Dance Theatre from Taiwan will perform the newest addition to their Dancing in Ink series, choreographed specifically for MOA’s Great Hall for their Canadian debut. They will be joined by Sammy Chien, a Taipei born, Vancouver based interdisciplinary media artist, and Kimura Tsubasa, a renown calligrapher from Japan, featured in the Traces of Words exhibition.

Improv Wars: The Laugh Jedi Where: Vancouver Improv Centre What: Vancouver TheatreSports takes you to a universe that exists outside of normal time and space – where unlikely characters co-exist. Hosted by a mysterious hooded figure, the players and the audience search for an individual of unique abilities – one with the power to cloud people’s minds, to slip into any role, to make intuitive connections at lightning speed – The Laugh Jedi.  Runs until: Thursday November 2, 2017

54-40 (show 1 of 2) Where: Commodore Ballroom What: You know them from Ocean Pearl and I Go Blind, this Canadian band is on for two shows on back-to-back nights.

1 Hour Photo

1 Hour Photo Where: The Cultch What: From the creators of Empire of the Son, 1 Hour Photo is the story of Mas Yamamoto, a man whose life was swept up by the major currents of the 20th century; from growing up in a fishing village on the banks of the Fraser River, to being interned as a Japanese Canadian during World War II, to guarding the Canadian arctic against Soviet bombers during the height of the Cold War. Runs until: Sunday October 15, 2017

Potter’s House of Horrors Where: Potter’s Farm & Nursery What: Gather your moteliest crew and drop into one of the area’s biggest and best-rated haunted houses, celebrating 15 years of screams! Attractions include two haunted houses (plus a “Li’l Haunters” attraction geared to kids 12 & under), a coffin ride, a haunted paintball shootout, and a photo booth. Partial proceeds go to Critter Care Wildlife Society. Runs until: Tuesday October 31, 2017

Vagabond Players presents Little Shop of Horrors Where: The Bernie Legge Theatre (New Westminster, BC) What: Meek and mild flower shop assistant Seymour Krelborn has stumbled across a peculiar new plant species, which he names after his stunning but vulnerable crush Audrey. The plant, Audrey Two, has plans that are far greater than Seymour can imagine as it grows into a bad-tempered, foul-mouthed carnivore who offers fame, fortune, the girl he loves, and an escape from skid row in exchange for feeding its growing appetite for blood. Runs until: Sunday October 29, 2017

Hyperlink

Hyperlink Where: Firehall Arts Centre What: A collaboration between The Elbow’s artistic director Itai Erdal, writer/performer TJ Dawe, and director Rachel Peake, Hyperlink delves into life online and the limits of digital empathy.  Runs until: Saturday October 14, 2017

Oktoberfest at the Vancouver Alpen Club Where: 4875 Victoria Drive What: The Deutsches Haus boasts German favorites from Spätzle to Schnitzel and the best selection of German beers and wines in Vancouver. Runs until: Saturday October 21, 2017 (weekends)

Jim Park: Unknown Terrain | SEPARATION, 2017, 36 × 48 inches, Oil & Acrylic on Canvas

Jim Park: Unknown Terrain Where: Kimoto Gallery What: The Northern landscape forms an important part of Jim Park’s practice. Park sees paint as a language; the memory of lived experience merges with the pictorial possibilities on the canvas. Runs until: Saturday October 28, 2017

Sarah Slean

Sarah Slean Where: The BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts What: Slean’s sound has been compared to Kate Bush, Fiona Apple and Tori Amos, while her deeply personal songs draw from jazz, classical, pop and global influences. 

Lab Art Show Where: Chinese Cultural Centre What: Up to 150 artists including local galleries and artists from over 20 countries including Canadian artists Chili Thom and Natacha Trottier.

  Saturday October 7

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Harvest Dinner

Harvest Dinner Where: Sea to Sky Gondola What: A cozy harvest dinner atop a mountain! Share the entire menu with your group, family style.

BC Lions vs. Ottawa Redblacks

BC Lions vs. Ottawa Redblacks Where: BC Place Stadium, 4:00pm What: It’s football. If you like football, go see it and cheer for these fellas.

Rare book, Photograph and Paper Show Where: Heritage Hall What: A curated event featuring twenty-three exhibitors with specialized collections of books, fine maps, photographs and interesting paper items.

LA Witch

LA Witch Where: The Fox Cabaret What: Rock from Los Angeles, on tour to support their debut self-titled full-length release.

Necromantix Where: Venue What: It’s a psychobilly show, playing with Deadcats.

Wild Salmon Caravan Parade Where: Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Society What: Bring your drums, regalia, town clothes, costumes, banners, flags, streamers and any other parade wares you need. Celebrate the spirit of wild salmon.

Terra and Beyond with Chris Hadfield and Danny Michel

Terra and Beyond with Chris Hadfield and Danny Michel (show 2 of 2) Where: The Orpheum What: Share Colonel Chris Hadfield’s viewpoint “Beyond the Terra,” with music and inspiring images from the International Space Station.

Fort Langley Cranberry Festival

Fort Langley Cranberry Festival Where: Fort Langley What: Experience the popular cranberry stomp, and play a host of cranberry and farm related games.

BP20YR Where: Pacific Colloseum What: Blueprint celebrates 20 years with Diplo, Zeds Dead, Showtek and more.

Hershe National Coming Out Day Party Where: Prive Nightclub What: Celebrate National Coming Out Day at this all-inclusive dance party.

East Side Flea Where: The Ellis Building What: 50+ local vendors, makers, vintage sellers, oddity finders. Play pinball and pool. All this, with a bar! Runs until: Sunday October 8, 2017

54-40 (show 2 of 2) Where: Commodore Ballroom What: You know them from Ocean Pearl and I Go Blind, this is the second of their two Vancouver dates.

  Sunday October 8

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Imagine Dragons

Imagine Dragons Where: Rogers Arena What: American millennial rock from Las Vegas with hits like Believer, with guests Group Love and K. Flay.

Bass Coast Festival Showcase

Bass Coast Festival Showcase Where: The Commodore Ballroom What: Basscoast DJs The Librarian B2B Mat the Alien, Michael Red, Barisone and SHAH.

Fred Penner

Fred Penner Where: The Orpheum What: He’s a Canadian icon of entertainment and inspiration for children and families. Who’s more stoked – adult millennials and gen-Xers or their children? Come find out.

Sumac

Sumac and Boris Where: The Rickshaw What: Japanese experimental music playing with sludgy growly metal.

  Ongoing

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The Christians Where: Pacific Theatre What: After taking his church from a meager storefront to gleaming megachurch, Pastor Paul overturns one of the most sacred tenents of his congregation’s beliefs, sending them reeling towards schism. As they grapple with the mysteries of faith, certainty, and what happens after we die, they must also face the reality of loving those whose beliefs have made them into sudden strangers. Runs until: Saturday October 7, 2017

Mount Pleasant Farmers Market Where: Dude Chilling Park What: Amble over and pick up some afternoon picnic supplies, groceries for the week, and Sunday dinner fixings from 25+ farms and producers. Each week you’ll find a fresh selection of just-picked seasonal fruits & veggies, ethically-raised meats & sustainable seafood, artisanal bread & prepared foods, craft beer, wine, & spirits, handmade craft, and coffee & food trucks. Runs until: Sunday October 8, 2017

Angels in America Where: Arts Club Theatre What: Witness the soaring conclusion to the acclaimed play that asks us what we do for those we love. Perestroika is a revolution against the politics and prejudice in the 1980s as the AIDS epidemic rages on, and the characters wrestle with their ideologies and an angel looking for an answer. In the centre of it all is Prior Walter, a man in a world of peril who chooses to live in his light. Runs until: Sunday October 8, 2017

East Side Flea Where: The Ellis Building What: 50+ local vendors, makers, vintage sellers, oddity finders. Play pinball and pool. All this, with a bar! Runs until: Sunday October 8, 2017

Traces of Words: Art and Calligraphy from Asia

Traces of Words: Art and Calligraphy from Asia Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology What: Words and their physical manifestations are explored in this insightful exhibition, which will honour the special significance that written forms. Varied forms of expression associated with writing throughout Asia is shown over the span of different time periods: from Sumerian cuneiform inscriptions, Qu’ranic manuscripts, Southeast Asian palm leaf manuscripts and Chinese calligraphy from MOA’s Asian collection to graffiti art from Afghanistan and contemporary artworks using Japanese calligraphy, and Tibetan and Thai scripts. Runs until: Monday October 9, 2017

Richmond Night Market

Richmond Night Market Where: Richmond, BC What: There’s a dinosaur park! Anamatronic dinosaurs! Also – live performances, carnival games, over 200 retail stalls and over 500 food choices from around the world. Runs until: October 9, 2017

Vancouver International Film Festival

Vancouver International Film Festival Where: Various locations What: In addition to over 300 of the best films from around the world, VIFF expands the frame to incorporate and celebrate some of the exciting new aspects of visual story telling. This includes events such as the world’s largest showcase of elevated YouTube content by digital-first creators and the Kronos Quartet performing a live score to renowned filmmaker Guy Maddin’s latest film The Green Fog – A San Francisco Fantasia.   Runs until: Friday October 13, 2017

North Shore Craft Beer Week Where: Various locations What: The North Shore has a rich history of craft brewing and was home to Canada’s first ever microbrewery – Horseshoe Bay Brewery in 1982. Download the Vancouver’s North Shore Craft Beer Week Passport, get a stamp at each brewery as you travel around North Vancouver sampling special craft beer menus and unique casks. With your stamps, you could win prizes! Runs until:  Friday October 13, 2017

The Goblin Market

The Goblin Market Where: The Cultch What: A contemporary circus re-telling of Christina Rossetti’s poem, following two sisters, their temptation, sacrifice and eventual salvation. Lively circus is precariously balanced with gritty performances and candid story telling. Runs until: Saturday October 14, 2017

Aileen Bahmanipour: Technical Problem

Aileen Bahmanipour: Technical Problem Where: Grunt Gallery What: An exhibition of mixed media drawings by Vancouver-based, Iranian-born artist Aileen Bahmanipour that explores cyclical political power and cultural identity. Runs until: Saturday October 14, 2017

Amphibia

Amphibia Where: Centre A What: Amphibia, Tromarama’s first solo exhibition in Canada, will transform Centre A into a hybrid physical and digital space using five newly commissioned works, ranging from site-specific pieces to pulse-sensing technologies that interact with our own physical, individual bodies. Runs until: Saturday October 14, 2017

Harvest Haus

Harvest Haus Where: 88 Pacific Blvd What: Combining modern fare with authentic European harvest traditions, gather your closest mates for what may be the most gluttonous and gratifying Oktoberfest in the city. Runs until: Saturday Oktober 14, 2017

1 Hour Photo

1 Hour Photo Where: The Cultch What: From the creators of Empire of the Son, 1 Hour Photo is the story of Mas Yamamoto, a man whose life was swept up by the major currents of the 20th century; from growing up in a fishing village on the banks of the Fraser River, to being interned as a Japanese Canadian during World War II, to guarding the Canadian arctic against Soviet bombers during the height of the Cold War. Runs until: Sunday October 15, 2017

Hyperlink

Hyperlink Where: Firehall Arts Centre What: A collaboration between The Elbow’s artistic director Itai Erdal, writer/performer TJ Dawe, and director Rachel Peake, Hyperlink delves into life online and the limits of digital empathy.  Runs until: Saturday October 14, 2017

Onsite / Offsite Tsang Kin-Wah

Onsite / Offsite Tsang Kin-Wah Where:  Vancouver Art Gallery What:  This large-scale composition transforms English texts to form intricate floral and animal patterns. The work draws from discriminatory language that appeared in newspapers and political campaigns in Vancouver during the 1887 anti-Chinese riots, the mid-1980s immigration influx from Hong Kong and most recently, the heated exchanges around the foreign buyers and the local housing market. Runs until: Sunday October 15, 2017

Oktoberfest at the Vancouver Alpen Club Where: 4875 Victoria Drive What: The Deutsches Haus boasts German favorites from Spätzle to Schnitzel and the best selection of German beers and wines in Vancouver. Runs until: Saturday October 21, 2017 (weekends)

West End Farmers Market Where: 1100 Comox St What: Located in the heart of Vancouver’s busy West End, this laid-back Saturday market looks onto beautiful Nelson Park and adjacent community gardens. Each week, shop for the best in local, seasonal produce, artisanal bread & prepared foods, craft beer, wine, & spirits, ethically raised meat, eggs, & dairy, sustainable seafood, wild crafted product, and handmade craft. Hot food & coffee on-site as well. Runs until: Saturday October 21, 2017 (Saturdays)

Trout Lake Farmers Market Where: Trout Lake What: This is where you’ll find the vendors who have been doing it since the beginning; what started as 14 farmers ‘squatting’ at the Croatian Cultural Centre back in 1995 has grown into Vancouver’s most well-known and beloved market. Visitors come from near and far to sample artisan breads & preserves, stock up on free-range and organic eggs & meats, get the freshest, hard-to-find heirloom vegetables and taste the first Okanagan cherries and peaches of the season. Runs until: Saturday October 21, 2017 (Saturdays)

Kitsilano Farmers Market

Kitsilano Farmers Market Where: Kitsilano Community Centre parking lot What:   A great selection of just-picked, seasonal fruits & vegetables, ethically raised and grass fed meat, eggs, & dairy, sustainable seafood, fresh baked bread & artisanal food, local beer, wine, & spirits, and beautiful, handmade craft. Kids and parents alike can enjoy entertainment by market musicians, a nearby playground and splash park, and coffee and food truck offerings each week. Runs until: Sunday October 22, 2017 (Sundays)

Contemporary Iranian Cinema Series Where: The Cinematheque What: Acclaimed and accomplished new films from Iran are in the spotlight in this new monthly showcase. Runs until:Thursday October 25, 2017

Jim Park: Unknown Terrain | SEPARATION, 2017, 36 × 48 inches, Oil & Acrylic on Canvas

Jim Park: Unknown Terrain Where: Kimoto Gallery What: The Northern landscape forms an important part of Jim Park’s practice. Park sees paint as a language; the memory of lived experience merges with the pictorial possibilities on the canvas. Runs until: Saturday October 28, 2017

Vagabond Players presents Little Shop of Horrors Where: The Bernie Legge Theatre (New Westminster, BC) What: Meek and mild flower shop assistant Seymour Krelborn has stumbled across a peculiar new plant species, which he names after his stunning but vulnerable crush Audrey. The plant, Audrey Two, has plans that are far greater than Seymour can imagine as it grows into a bad-tempered, foul-mouthed carnivore who offers fame, fortune, the girl he loves, and an escape from skid row in exchange for feeding its growing appetite for blood. Runs until: Sunday October 29, 2017

Fright Nights Where: Playland What: Misty, dark, dreary, and full of spooks and scares may not sound like everyone’s ideal night out, but to those of us who love Halloween, nothing could be better! Playland turns into an animated haunted carnival, including seven haunted houses and fifteen of its best rides; what better way to scream away all of your fears? Runs until: Tuesday October 31, 2017

Potter’s House of Horrors Where: Potter’s Farm & Nursery What: Gather your moteliest crew and drop into one of the area’s biggest and best-rated haunted houses, celebrating 15 years of screams! Attractions include two haunted houses (plus a “Li’l Haunters” attraction geared to kids 12 & under), a coffin ride, a haunted paintball shootout, and a photo booth. Partial proceeds go to Critter Care Wildlife Society. Runs until: Tuesday October 31, 2017

Improv Wars: The Laugh Jedi Where: Vancouver Improv Centre What: Vancouver TheatreSports takes you to a universe that exists outside of normal time and space – where unlikely characters co-exist. Hosted by a mysterious hooded figure, the players and the audience search for an individual of unique abilities – one with the power to cloud people’s minds, to slip into any role, to make intuitive connections at lightning speed – The Laugh Jedi.  Runs until: Thursday November 2, 2017

Circle Craft Christmas Market Preview Exhibit

Circle Craft Christmas Market Preview Exhibit Where: Net Loft building on Granville Island What: Circle Craft Gallery’s Fall exhibit will give Circle Craft Christmas Market lovers a sneak peek. Exhibitors in the Preview exhibition are: East Van Jam, G Ceramic & Co, Ludviks Designs, Lulu Fiedler, Market Canvas Leather, Misheo, Rosewell Woodworking, Susie Benes, and Yifat Jovani. Runs until: Thursday November 2, 2017

Thanks For Giving Where: Arts Club Theatre What: While Nan bastes the turkey and prepares the stuffing, her husband hides a freshly hunted bear in the garage and her troublesome daughter is raiding her purse again. To top it all off, her grandchildren have chosen this Thanksgiving to disclose some unexpected personal truths to the family.  Runs until: Saturday November 4, 2017

Intangible Where: Bill Reid Gallery What: Contemporary Coast Salish art is embedded within a traditional cultural framework that includes community, ceremonial life, territory, history and innovation. Six artists challenge our expectations and illustrate Coast Salish art as a thriving art tradition – a dynamic one that demonstrates both continuity with the past and exploration of new ideas and technologies. Runs until: Sunday December 10, 2017

Bill Reid Creative Journeys | Image via the Canadian Museum of History

Bill Reid Creative Journeys Where: The Bill Reid Gallery What: Celebrating the many creative journeys of acclaimed master goldsmith and sculptor Bill Reid (1920–1998), this exhibition provides a comprehensive introduction to his life and work. Runs until: Sunday December 10, 2017

Entangled: Two Views on Contemporary Canadian Painting | John Kissick burning the houses of cool man, yeah No.5 (hang the DJ), 2016 (cropped)

Entangled: Two Views on Contemporary Canadian Painting Where: Vancouver Art Gallery What: An insight into two distinctly different modes of painting that have come to dominate contemporary painting in this country. The origins of both can be effectively traced back to the 1970s, to a moment when the continued existence of painting was hotly debated. Runs until: January 1, 2018

Amazonia: The Rights of Nature

Amazonia: The Rights of Nature Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology What: MOA will showcase its Amazonian collections in a significant exploration of socially and environmentally-conscious notions intrinsic to indigenous South American cultures, which have recently become innovations in International Law. These are foundational to the notions of Rights of Nature, and they have been consolidating in the nine countries that share responsibilities over the Amazonian basin. Runs until: January 28, 2018

Tin and Gold: A 10 Year Anniversary Show Where: The Fall What: Celebrate 10 years of alternative music, tattoo artistry, and multimedia events. The art show includes artists Megan Majewski, Jenn Brisson, Alison Woodward and more. Runs until: February 1, 2018

City on the Edge: A Century of Vancouver Activism Where: Museum of Vancouver What: A photo-based exhibition exploring how protest demonstrations have shaped Vancouver’s identity from the Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers’ photo collection. These photographs are exceptional historical records of intense and transformative moments in the lives of Vancouverites. Runs until: February 18, 2017

Tasting History: The Traveling Tales of Tea Where: Roedde House Museum What: Tea is one of the most consumed liquids in the world, second only to water. But the beverage that brings much pleasure and calm to our 21st century senses is steeped in a turbulent history of politics and society. The exhibit will also feature stories from Vancouver’s modern-day tea community. Runs until: March 2018

Emily Carr: Into the Forest

Emily Carr: Into the Forest Where: Vancouver Art Gallery What: Far from feeling that the forests of the West Coast were a difficult subject matter, Carr exulted in the symphonies of greens and browns found in the natural world. With oil on paper as her primary medium, Carr was free to work outdoors in close proximity to the landscape. She went into the forest to paint and saw nature in ways unlike her fellow British Columbians, who perceived it as either untamed wilderness or a plentiful source of lumber. Runs until: March 4, 2018

The Lost Fleet Exhibit Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum What: On December 7, 1941 the world was shocked when Japan bombed Pearl Harbour, launching the United States into the war. This action also resulted in the confiscation of nearly 1,200 Japanese-Canadian owned fishing boats by Canadian officials on the British Columbia coast, which were eventually sold off to canneries and other non-Japanese fishermen. The Lost Fleet looks at the world of the Japanese-Canadian fishermen in BC and how deep-seated racism played a major role in the seizure, and sale, of Japanese-Canadian property and the internment of an entire people. Runs until: March 25, 2018

Chief Dan George: Actor and Activist Where: North Vancouver Museum What: An exhibition exploring the life and legacy of Tsleil-Waututh Chief Dan George (1899- 1981) and his influence as an Indigenous rights advocate and his career as an actor. The exhibition was developed in close collaboration with the George family. Runs until: April 2018

In a Different Light

In a Different Light Where: Museum of Anthropology What: More than 110 historical Indigenous artworks and marks the return of many important works to British Columbia. These objects are amazing artistic achievements. Yet they also transcend the idea of ‘art’ or ‘artifact’. Through the voices of contemporary First Nations artists and community members, this exhibition reflects on the roles historical artworks have today. Featuring immersive storytelling and innovative design, it explores what we can learn from these works and how they relate to Indigenous peoples’ relationships to their lands. Runs until: Spring 2019

What are you up to this weekend? Tell me and the rest of Vancouver in the comments below or tweet me directly at @lextacular

Inside Vancouver Blog

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Melania Trump’s Chic Gardening Outfit Included $1,300 Balmain Top & $50 Shoes

Melania Trump spent her Friday afternoon planting and harvesting vegetables in the White House South Lawn with the Boys and Girls Club of Washington. The vegetable garden was founded by Michelle Obama in 2009 to promote a healthy diet, especially in children. Trump shared at the start of the event that she agrees with the former first lady’s initiative. “I’m a big believer in healthy eating. I encourage you to eat a lot of vegetables and fruits. It is part of healthy living,” she said. It’s well known that the current first lady loves a nice pair of stilettos, but today she swapped her heels for a sensible yet stylish pair of navy Converse sneakers. Trump teamed the shoes with a sleek pair of skinny jeans and a plaid Balmain top ($1,362), bringing her on-trend fashion sense appropriately to the outdoors. Melania Trump wearing Balmain and Converses while gardening at the White House South Lawn. Detail of Melania Trump’s shoe. A fashion-savvy woman, Trump is a follower fan of high-end footwear designers — Manolo Blahnik is one of her favorites, but she has quite often been seen in Christian Louboutin and occasionally Chanel. This pair of sneakers may be the most accessible pair of shoes

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