Soup is a welcome meal during these chilly, wet days. One favorite is Hungarian Mushroom soup that is warm, comforting, flavorful and satisfying. The Northwest is blessed with abundant mushrooms. I …
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It’s the lucky person who has childhood memories of time spent in a tree. In our family, it was a crabapple tree in the backyard that was easy to climb and a great place to disappear and read a …
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Following my own advice from an early January column, this past weekend, a friend and I drove up to the Skagit Flats, southwest of the town of Mount Vernon. My friend had never seen Snow Geese or the …
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In keeping with my goal of experiencing joyful things this year, I sometimes let my imagination take me where I physically cannot go.
For all the wonders of my home base in Thurston County, when …
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In cold, rainy winter months it is sometimes difficult to get outside for family activities. One of my favorite January projects with my children, when they were young, was to prepare food together, …
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By Shannon Beigert
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1/22/24
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My brief, unscientific survey of why people garden turned up one over-arching truth: There are as many reasons to garden as there are gardeners. Each of us has our own list of explanations about why …
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Like the salmon, Billy Frank, Jr. swam against the stream, leading fish-ins and other demonstrations. And as with the salmon, the challenging journey upstream led to success.
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About two years ago, the publisher of The JOLT , Danny Stusser, had an idea. He thought his publication should include a column about birds and bird watching. Soon, we were meeting over lunch to talk …
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We are now halfway through the first month of the new year, so let’s take a look back at 2024. So far, we have had freezing weather, rain, snow, and high dangerous winds that brought down a …
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By Kathleen Anderson
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1/17/24
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This is a savory casserole that can be a side dish paired best with chicken or fish, or as a protein-rich main course served with a green salad and crusty bread. It is warm and comforting on these …
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Bloom where you are planted. That is what Lauren Howard did, helping those near her, first her family and then those around her, throughout 21 years as an Army wife of a Green Beret soldier. She …
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By Shirley Stirling
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1/12/24
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William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919) was a crazy rich gardener – or, more accurately, a crazy rich man who paid other people to garden.
He was the scion of a family that took root in 18 th …
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When one reaches the third ‘30’ of life, a lot of living has taken place. When one’s family is lucky, stories, memories, and seemingly everyday events are recorded for posterity to …
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It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?
Henry David Thoreau
It’s January 9 th and research shows that just six days from now (on …
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Happy New Year!
I can’t believe we are already into the second week of January! My recipe this week is a family favorite, Eggplant Parmesan. It is the perfect comfort food for chilly days …
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By Shannon Beigert
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1/8/24
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It’s hard to enjoy winter, especially when it’s damp and dreary for days on end. Northwest natives often take pride in our purported fondness for this season, but right now many of us are …
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The single best Puget Sound birding area, in my view, is the Skagit Flats, located west of I-5 north of Everett. And the single best time to go there is now, in winter. That’s because this …
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And here we go again…the usual New Year's rant… things I need to get off my chest before I can happily start a new year.
Once again, for the past few weeks, we have been inundated …
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One of the priorities of The JOLT is to tell stories no one else is telling, stories about the great things people are doing here in Thurston County. Neglected and untold stories are my specialty, …
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Last month, the American Ornithological Society (AOS), the professional organization responsible for such matters, announced that beginning in 2024 it plans to change the common English names of …
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