From long history written in deep rocks, in high glaciers, in dark starry arctic nights, we might know the temperature of the Earth.

Geophysicist Henry Pollack spent years measuring the temperature of rocks drawn from deep bores. He trekked mountain glaciers and the polar reaches of Antarctica. He fetched water from the Great Lakes and Colorado streams. From these samples and many others collected from remote locations and sources, overlaid each one on top of the other, the University of

It is true that, not long ago and for many years, I did not favor Christmas music.

To be clear: I’m no Scrooge. I have plenty of seasonal spirit. I love the twinkly lights and the smell of the Christmas tree and the baking of cookies and the watching of It’s a Wonderful Life and the pictures with Santa and the mistletoe and almost every bit of holiday magic I can get my hands on. I’ve even managed to steadfastly cling to my love of giving and receiving gifts despite my creeping suspicion

Eric Carabba and I climbed out of his sturdy Volks­wagen on a little-used county road near Wickersham. Eric explained that this section of bottomland might have once been the easiest route for early settlers to penetrate this valley in eastern Whatcom County. He knows this area well: His home is just an arrow’s flight from here, tucked into a quiet hollow against a hillside. Hardy and intelligent, Eric belongs on this land.

The awesome early journey of visitors to this area was once

Since its inception in 1997, the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum has established an influence on fiber arts from the Northwest across the Pacific to Hawaii and Japan.

These are not your grandmother’s quilts. Fiber artists weave, hook, sew, stitch, draw, dye and knot, creating rich textures and three-dimensional compositions—it’s enough to make a mere painter throw down his brush and weep.

The “quilt museum” on the hilltop in quaint La Conner now hosts “Abstracted,” a show by 44

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I went to the Bellingham Farmers Market with a clear mission: I wanted to find fresh brussels sprouts for the big feast that was just around the corner.

As I entered the bustling Saturday-morning melee, I knew it was likely I’d go home with more than the small green cabbage-like vegetables. The sun was out, and it highlighted the natural beauty of the late-season produce.

Cauliflower in small clumps gleamed from a large woven basket. Giant turnips took up

If you’re one of those people who’s only been inside the Bellingham Sportsplex for a community garage sale on the soccer grounds, you may not be aware that the large building on Civic Field Way also boasts a whole lot of ice.

“I am shocked to hear time and time again that people are surprised to find there is a rink in Bellingham,” says longtime Bellingham Figure Skating Club member Karyln Hungate, who’s also a coach and one of the artistic directors for this year’s winter performance, “The

In that transition period between the joys of summer hiking and the pleasures of ski and snowshoe, I find it useful to turn my back on the mountains and set sail to the west, to visit those emerald islands of the
northern San Juan archipelago.

The so-called off-season in the San Juans offers up the kind of island experience that I love: lonely coves where the only neighbors are snorting sea mammals, outrageous storm-filtered light and the relaxing rhythms of the Salish Sea.

After a frenzy of

The rusted-out soul of steel-town America and the ghosts of the 1970s post-Vietnam Hollywood cinema haunt Scott Cooper’s Out of the Furnace, a starkly powerful drama that in some ways feels like an Iraq-era bookend to The Deer Hunter, with bare-knuckle boxing substituted for Russian roulette. A much darker and less audience-friendly package than Cooper’s Oscar-winning 2009 debut, Crazy Heart, but graced by the same lyrical sense of worn-down American lives, this slow-burning drama should

Sini Anderson’s razor-sharp The Punk Singer profiles the career and impact of Kathleen Hanna, a feminist rock icon (via bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre) who abruptly dropped from view in 2005. This exciting assemblage of archival and interview materials recalls the considerable influence (and sometime public trivialization) of the 1990s Riot Grrrl movement while showcasing the role of its cofounder and most charismatic leader.

Leaving behind a problematic family background, Hanna arrived as