Erin Kenny of Cedarsong Nature School has so much knowledge of local flora and fauna, you’d never starve if you took one of her classes. You’ve read her columns in the Beachcomber, read articles about how her immersion programs have profoundly affected some autistic children, and are probably aware she offers walks and intensives from time to time. Well, the time is coming!

Thank you to Bill Rowe, the poolmaster of Vashon Athletic Club and simultaneous kitchen manager of The Harware Store Restaurant. You see, twice a year the pool goes through a big ole clean-out which he masterminds. I have tried to keep a swimming habit and when I went for my swim not too long ago I completely forgot the pool was closed for maintenance, even though Bill had warned me in advance (as had the club signs). I was left high and dry, literally!

Now, it’s open and gorgeous and without murk. The only buzzkill about going for a swim has nothing to do with the facilities; the downer I find are the people who fail to honor the protocol that’s posted (I tell ya, I read that stuff. I care. I follow it, when it’s posted!).

Let me preface this by saying I have a pesky little neurological condition that makes swimming pretty much the only form of serious exercise my body can presently handle. Swimming is, in essence, my means to longevity, the way I see it. I gotta get in there for the benefit of my nervous system, endurance, strength, etc. (That and samba!) So I go, and when it’s crowded, I wait my turn. When it’s busy, and in winter it is VERY busy, I observe people will:

1. Bamboozle their way into lanes ahead of those waiting…no regard or respect (see Rodney Dangerfield!). Nobody wants a confrontation so we just tend to wait more.
2. They’ll swim in the water-walking lane. FYI it’s the outer half of the ”stair lane” nearest the locker room entrance.
3. They’ll get in the pool without really soaking down their hair and bods (have you ever tasted someone’s shampoo, or perfume, or lotion while sharing a lane? It is truly disgusting!).
4. They’ll slip in the lane with you without the courtesy of a visual or tactile cue, making you the full-body-contact target by default.
5. They’ll let loose their beautiful mermaid hair that needs to be tucked in/tied up/held back, not splayed out (lest Bill’s hard work be damned!).
6. Exceed 30 minutes, despite the crowd. When nobody else is around, no matter, prune out. Bask in the chlorine glow!

Show the love. Read the rules. Follow them and don’t make people who try to do so feel stupid. Think Post. Think Vanderbilt. If all else fails, have a great swim!

Riddle me this: If our Island has a population of 9,000 (or 10k on a summer day), and there are approximately 20 known residents with clinically definite Multiple Sclerosis, and only one in about 1,000 are typically diagnosed with MS worldwide, wouldn’t that make Vashon a cluster area? Some information on MS and cluster clues can be found here. Some studies suggest these are geographic areas lacking Vitamin D; others suggest it’s environmental factors such as industrial fallout. All I know is there are too many folks suffering, and there must be an answer out there somewhere.

George looks over his evening eats for a sold out dinner Saturday

carnivore's delight: la boucherie's prix fixe fixins on fiyah!

Saturday La Boucherie enjoyed a sold out crowd at its $75 prix fixe dinner. If you were in a one-block radius of Vashon market it was nearly impossible to NOT smell that barbecue goodness. On the hand forged spit and rotisserie were a leg of beef and two chickens. The beef cooked all darn day. It was treat to check out!

Islander Cathy Fulton is giving you three, count ‘em, three months to get ready for a workshop that puts politics where your mouth is. If you’ve read any books by Michael Pollan, Raj Patel, etc., this will interest you. She writes:

I know this is a bit in advance, but mark your calendars for March 5-7, 2010 to attend the Vashon Island Food Summit. Billed “…for people who eat,” it will be a conference style summit in which all Islanders can explore ways to eat better­-both for themselves and their families and for the Island as a whole. The summit will feature guest speakers, panel discussions, workshops on a variety of topics, good food, and some surprises! There will be three workshop tracks:

Raising Food

Acquiring and Preparing Food

The Food Economy

Raising food and food preparation will be key areas of information. We will also explore how the way we eat is ultimately a political act and we will learn ways to “vote with our forks.”
 
Current co-sponsors of the event include Sustainable Vashon, Vashon Island Growers Association (VIGA), the Food Security Working Group, and VashonBePrepared. We expect more co-sponsors to join us soon. If we receive enough funding to meet our expenses, admission to the entire weekend will be free!
 
I am sending this to you now, to encourage you to become involved in the weekend event in a way that will be rewarding for you. We have a “Call for Presenters” out asking for proposals for our break-out sessions: workshops, demonstrations, educational displays, and more. There are also lots of volunteer opportunities as well. Go to our web site to learn more about our call for presentations and/or volunteering for the event:  http://mariposagardens.org/FoodSummit

If you have any questions, please contact one of the Food Summit co-chairs:
Cathy Fulton <cathy@MariposaGardens.org> 463-5652
Jessica Lisovsky <triling@mindspring.com> 463-1941
Emily MacRae <egmacrae@yahoo.com> 408-7072

Thank You!
Cathy Fulton
Mariposa Gardens

Good boys. Trails look great! We collected thousands. Seriously.

A smiling, toothless, army-trench-wearing Merlin hawks Real Change newspapers at 6th and Olive in Downtown Seattle, near my office. We started a friendly banter not too long ago because even from the 14th floor, I can hear him hollering (and breaking my concentration!) like the old school hawkers–and I told him so; he bested me by saying someone on the 17th floor can hear him, too.  This week, “for my troubles,” he insisted I take the latest issue because it was a good one.  The headline story opened a scab for Vashon, just a little. It was entitled “Living in a State of Denial,” and the story’s first two words were “Vashon Island.”

Micheal Specter was the center of the article. This author of his recently published book, “Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet and Threatens Our Lives,” rekindles the national sensation caused by reporter and colleague Donald McNeil seven years ago in his story for the New York Times citing a fact that 20 percent of Island parents declined to vaccinate their children. 

In the Real Change interview, he goes on to call the autism-vaccination link total misinformation, and those who buy into it “willfully ignorant” and the notion “very damaging to the kids.”

Other topics in Specter’s interview (and book)  include medical advancements and the role of race in genetic predispositions, the aversion to genetically modified food and imminent starvation based on population growth (and the need to yield more from the land we already have), and Big Pharma’s persuasive direct-to-consumer advertising, among others. Sounds a little like Raj Patel’s “Stuffed and Starved” to me mixed with other hot button issues.

Check it out!

Oooh la la. It was tasty.

Behold!

Our FIRST matsutake find and still the chanterelles were out! We were shocked. It’s cold. It’s December. But this island is magical. By now, any left out there are mushroomcicles.

I am getting off this Airsoft topic after this post, I promise!

David Warren, a wonderful advocate and steward of Island Center Forest, spent time with us on Saturday while we supervised the kids at our “basecamp” serving hot cocoa and cider–and standby first aid, which fortunately we did not need!

What was not known to any of us at the time was that Island Center Forest also frowns upon Airsoft. David W later found this out after posing the question to forest management and called me this morning with the verdict (Now we know — just like VPD — trial by fire).  Signs will be posted and that’s a wise idea; as I know from our regular hikes here,  Airsofting has been in the forest well before this event ever was.

We will return only to do what we normally do at ICF and that is hike around (and this weekend, pick up any remaining pellets we see)Fortunately, we concentrated the play area to one very limited section of the forest!).

A GREAT outcome of this event worth mentioning was we realized a majority of the kids who came out last weekend had NEVER VISITED ICF!  Now they’ll want to come back. It’s a maze of trails, great for mountain bicycles, and the mother of all hide-n-seek places, great for geocaching. Oh, and it’s a den for fungiphiles (my GPS is marked and memory embedded!).

Three things are clear, in retrospect, and like I said before, let me be your case study:

1- Airsoft is only for private property on Vashon (hey Sportsman’s club, whadya say?!).
2- Retailers could help parents who buy the ammo, by stating this in shelf talkers as a PS for everyday folks who want to do the right thing AND whose rural-yet-non-airsoft-friendly parks don’t post such guidelines on site.
3- If you dare have an Airsoft gathering, make sure it’s a REALLY REALLY big piece of private property.

THANK YOU ICF/people for all you do. -h

Continued from the below. 30 boys. Picture says the rest. No liabilities. No eyes pelted. All in safety gear and ground rules laid out. It rocked!