Daily Find
You’ve procrastinated enough on your Mother’s Day gift and have now resigned yourself to picking up flowers on your way to brunch. From budget friendly to not so budget friendly, follow these tips for delivering festive florals to the mom in your life.
By Natalie Bow | May 9, 2007
Daily Find
I'm afraid Best Buds may soon become Madison Park's worst kept secret. But as a shopping sleuth I feel like it's my duty to tell you about the best shops and buys, and this is definitely one of them.
By Kathy Schultz | February 6, 2007
Holiday 2006
The key to giving good host/hostess gifts, according to hospitality experts, is purchasing something slightly novel – a luxury your gift recipient wouldn't likely buy for themselves. When it comes to deliciously scented soaps, candles and lotions, Fremont's Essenza has you covered. Check out its ample supply of L'artisan candles, 1.2 ounces for $16 each, in flavors as varied as wild blackberry and fig tree. A dainty package of black and white Maria Evora soap is another great option, particularly the $12 set of eight soaps in alternating scents of carob/sea salt and beach rose. Cote Bastide body cream is also a delicious gift idea, available for $20 in amber, fig and rose.
By Sarah Jio | December 12, 2006
STEVENSON -- You need to look near and far to fully appreciate spring hiking in the Columbia River Gorge.
What grabs your eye immediately are the expansive textures of a precipitous chasm created millions of years ago by basaltic lava flows and burnished into its current form by epic glacial floods 9,000 to 12,000 years ago.
However, if you focus your vision near at hand, you'll also notice a variety of colors, say the rose-purple fairy-slipper blossoms of calypso orchids, or the showy yellow blooms of balsamroot.
By Greg Johnston | May 11, 2006
Seattle Style File
Want to wow your sweetie this Valentine's Day? The odds are that the usual cards and teddy bears won't get you very far. Instead, think unique, personalized, and exceedingly romantic. Both men and women expect romance on Valentine's Day —and a gift that will remind them that they're loved beyond February 14. We enlisted Cupid's help and scoured the city for gifts that said "be mine."
By Sarah Jio | January 31, 2006
Take a Walk
Location: Federal Way
Length: About a mile of interlacing trails.
Level of difficulty: Flat to moderately hilly gravel trails.
By Cathy McDonald | January 26, 2006
Hike of the Week
If you like trilliums, there are so many blooming along the Miller Peak Trail right now that you'd think the stars fell out of the sky. Hikers commonly see trilliums on the west side of the Cascades, but they also are all over lower elevations in the Teanaway on the east side.
By Karen Sykes | May 19, 2005
Location: Mount Vernon.
Length: Over a mile of trails.
Level of difficulty: Level-to-moderately steep, dirt/gravel/bark trails (muddy after rains, although many trails have an absorbent top layer of bark).
By Cathy McDonald | April 14, 2005
Short Trips
La Conner is all about love. It started with the love of a husband, John Conner, who named the Skagit Valley town for his wife, Louisa Ann Conner.
Today, it continues with the love of its 780 or so residents for their town's historical and geographical charms. La Conner honors its past, through archival photos, preserved buildings and museums, just as it fosters its present and future, with public art, cultural events, and creative shops and boutiques.
By Kristin Dizon | March 17, 2005
The outing:
It should not come as a shock to anyone's system — anyone, that is, who has lived for any number of years in Western Washington — that there are plants that don't lose their leaves in winter.
Or that the Yuletide Camellia sends forth gorgeous, dark-red, flat-pedaled flowers with starry-gold centers in December. Or that there are pansies that defy the pejorative meaning of the word and rage against the dying of the light we call winter.
But it does — come as a shock.
By Terry Tazioli | December 30, 2004
