Articles written by anne basye
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 128
By 
Artists displaying in First Street retail spaces
When Chenoa Urness heard that channel-side space in the Pier 7 building was available, she jumped on it. “It was now or never,” said the Stanwood resident and former social worker for Indian Child Welfare in Snohomish County. Then she spread the wor...
Notice new retail on First and Morris streets
Like La Conner, the remote town of Skagway, Alaska, depends on tourists. Unlike La Conner, those tourists come on cruise ships – descending in May and vanishing in September, leaving just 1,200...
New businesses brighten your day
A new dog is greeting visitors entering La Conner. Rowdy Dog Antique Lighting, in the Tillinghast building at Morris and Maple, is one of a dozen businesses to open in town since last fall. It’s also one of two businesses that trace their roots to M...
La Conner sisters win blue ribbons for county fair pies
Every four years, Maggie Wilder finds herself weeping during the Olympics. “I’m moved by the glory of it and that I never won anything,” she said. “I always wonder what that would feel like....
First Tesla roof in state on Best Road
A few years back, Valter Pavoni bought some Tesla stock. Then he named his new dog Tesla. Next came a Tesla car. Now, the Pleasant Ridge resident and his wife Eva are the proud owners of the first...
More food than ever to enjoy in La Conner
Since purchasing the Scone Lady bakery from Christie Eichler in January 2020, D.J. Gallegos and Keneisia Smart-Gallegos have gotten some puzzled looks. When customers ask Smart-Gallegos whether she is the Scone Lady, she politely says no, she is the...
Heat hurts some farmer harvests
For three or four days, Dean Swanson could hear the corn grow. The corn he planted Saturday, June 26 was up four days later. Stalks that was already a foot tall doubled in a week. “It was fun to w...
Businesses that expanded during pandemic
Some of the world’s best-known businesses started in depressions, recessions and other hard economic times. Three La Conner businesses followed their example last year, expanding their operations w...
Outdoor commencement shines brightly on La Conner high graduates
It has often been dark and gloomy during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Friday was not one of those times. At least not for members of the La Conner High Class of 2021 and their families and friends. It...
La Conner writers win, place and show in ‘Magic Skagit’ contest
Most of the poems 4-year-old Lenore Micka-Foos dictates to her dad find homes with her admiring relatives. The first-place poem she wrote for the Great Hunt for Magic Skagit Stories will find a home...
Tulip and daffodil festivals left everyone smiling
“We’re still big smilin’ even though the bloom is done for the season,” said Tulip Town’s May 14 Instagram post. “Such a great year sharing color and creativity with all our guests and digitally connected friends!” Cindy Verge, executive dir...
Christianson’s new farmers market opening
The Skagit Valley Farmers Market at Christianson’s Nursery makes its debut May 30 on a site once central to the pea harvest on the Skagit Flats. The market will be open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. most Sundays through the summer. The new kid-and-dog-friendly mark...
Mavrik’s big new building allows big new projects
Mavrik Marine’s new building on Pearle Jensen Way is complete. Already the aluminum boat manufacturer is making big progress on new, large-scale projects. The building itself is large scale. About 6...
Farms, merchants ready for Tulip Festival to bloom
Wind, rain, cold and hail made Sunday pretty miserable, but growers did not complain. “Some daffodils were bent, but they will straighten out after a couple days of sun,” said Brent Roozen of the Was...
Anelia’s is closing but memories remain
No one in La Conner ever met Alice Yantos, but she is about to be missed in a big way. Alice’s granddaughter Jennifer Ferry has been cooking her grandma’s signature pierogis, cabbage rolls and oth...
No Tulip Parade but … local color substitutes
A dozen La Conner shop windows are in flower as organizers prepare for a somewhat restrained Tulip Festival. “Last spring, our flower growers lived through multiple contingency plans that ended in ‘we...
Skagit Ag Summit looks at growth, water, mental health
“In 1960, all the people in Washington (state) could fit into King County today. That’s how much we’ve grown.” Director of Skagit County Planning and Development Services Hal Hart was address...
Daffodils, tulips will bloom; festivals still iffy
Daffodils will begin blooming in March. Tulips will arrive in April. Whether tourists will be allowed to follow is up in the air. “What we’re telling people is, we know we’ll be open, we just don’t...
Lucy Kelly and Mary Davis leaving core Morris Street businesses
Davis will turn lights off for last time Mary Davis Vintage Lighting is the brick-and-mortar embodiment of a four decades-long passion. By day, in her younger years, Davis pursued a retail management...
The scoop on cow power
Since 2009, half a million kilowatt hours of electricity have been produced on Beaver Marsh Road. The source of that power? Cows. While the plant just north of Summers Drive still produces up to 750 kilowatt hours a day – enough to power 550...
Online music classes have different rhythm
The Gilkey Square tree lighting. Fall and spring concerts. Regional music educator festivals. Christmas wreath sales. Pep band. Maybe Disneyland. COVID-19 wiped the 2020-21 school music calendar...
COVID-19 makes final farewells difficult
The Feast of All Saints and other celebrations make November “the month for the dead,” says Father Paul Magnano, senior priest of Skagit Valley Catholic churches. Congregations pray for the deceased by name at the beginning of mass. Day of the Dea...
Suffragist Linda Deziah Jennings honored with signage at Pleasant Ridge cemetery
But not as lengthy as the campaign to secure for women the right to vote, a decades-long fight whose leadership ranks in Washington state included the daughter of a pioneer La Conner family. Linda...
Local pumpkin stands thrive, cracking COVID-19’s new normal
Moonlight and pumpkins set the stage for the first-ever Locals Night at Gordon Skagit Farms last Thursday. A first-quarter moon loitered over the barn. Tea lights illuminated a display of green...
PPE, PPP prevent COVID-19, financial problems for local farms
La Conner-area farmers used Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other measures to keep COVID-19 out of their workforce. Many also embraced the U.S. government’s Paycheck Protection Program (...
