Is hugging trees good for you?

A recent study of Puget Sound-area residents found that engagement with nature can be linked to overall happiness.

Scientists across the world have long reported a link between spending time outdoors and an improved mood. Going for a hike in the countryside is not only good for your health, but it also may be essential to your happiness, research indicates.

“The well-being of human communities is inextricably linked to the health of the earth’s…

Having spent most of the past few months making our way from one outdoor venue, music series and homegrown festival to the next and then back again, we’ve been treated to a steady diet of mostly soul, funk, bluegrass and folk music, all bathed in the golden glow of a seemingly endless summer.

But summer is ending and we’re taking our show indoors for the foreseeable future.

For whatever reason—perhaps because children are no longer at risk of exposure or maybe our collective…

In “Evidence,” the current show at Smith & Vallee Gallery, two exceptional artists give us their views—David Blakesley, of a world that might have been or what it might become, and Kathleen Faulkner, images of the forest, examined close-up and transformed by the creator’s eye. Although each artist’s medium and conception are vastly different, the works the gallery has chosen resonate magically together.

Both Blakesley and Faulkner have long been identified with Edison and the…

I’ve always felt incredibly lucky to live within walking and biking distance of downtown Bellingham. It’s where I head when I go to work, bank, shake my booty, listen to array of music, check out original art, see live theater, shop for groceries, dine out and meet friends for cocktails or craft beer, and my life is richer because of it.

But even if the urban core of the City of Subdued Excitement wasn’t within view of my York neighborhood abode, I’d still make it a point to visit…

When rain fell late last week, and again over the weekend, it was the first time in almost three months that Whatcom County had any “wetting rain”—rainfall that was widespread over an extended period of time.

And although the soggy Saturday likely threw monkey wrenches into outdoor weddings, music festivals and other long-planned get-togethers slated for the typically sunny skies of late summer in the Pacific Northwest, the cooler temperatures and consistent moisture falling from…

Got a skill? Want a skill? Got a thing? Want a thing?

Skill-sharing is about teaching and learning all kinds of useful, handy and practical skills. Bartering is about offering things you have and know to receive things you do not have and do not know.

“Years ago, lots of people knew how to repair and sharpen tools, make a braided rug, raise chickens, make soap, build a fence, make simple toys and much more,” Skillshare Faire organizer Terri Wilde says.

Now in its sixth year, the…

James Dean died in a tragic automobile accident in 1955, but the actor has never been forgotten. The same goes for actresses Grace Kelly and Jayne Mansfield—both of whom were in deadly car wrecks when they were at the either at the height of their fame, or were so well-known their names were already a part of the modern lexicon.

But what happens when talented people expire before they get noticed by the world at large? Do they live on in the memories of those who saw them share…

Writer/director Darren Aronofsky wants to have his commercial cake and chomp down on some vexing personal issues, too, in Mother!, a very Rosemary’s Baby-like intimate horror tale that definitely grabs your attention and eventually soars well over the top to make the bold concluding statement that, for some creators, art is more important than life. How the film’s compelling star Jennifer Lawrence may feel about this sentiment is another matter, but this is a tale that, like any…