The Pacific Northwest is a region of rich natural abundance. Plants grow abundantly in the plentiful gentle rains, and gardens grow happily in the rich soils. We have feasted on locally-grown fresh raspberries, blueberries, goat cheese, eggs, greens, and more.

====Vashon Island--Small Scale Growers====
One connection leads to others: the joy of networking among good folk working towards sustainability and community. We taped two "unscheduled" Peak Moment shows on our last day on Vashon. Karen Biondi and Joe Waling's KJo Farm was a sheer delight of outbuildings which Joe had made almost entirely from salvaged materials, happily painted by Karen in purples and sunshine. We taped among rows of hearty-sized vegetables, four goats and their small kids, the thirty-odd chickens, and the truly-hot compost. Karen and Joe regaled us with stories hilarious and heart-rending. What they've done with one acre is miraculous and a model for small-scale farms.

We taped Dana Illo and Catherine Johnson in the garden beside the fragrant lavendar beds. Dana owns Crow's Fee Lavendar Farm, and Catherine is on the faculty of Leadership Institute of Seattle. Dana spent a month in Australia with Joanna Macy, whose vision that this is the time of The Great Turning uplifts many, many people. There Dana met John Croft with his "Dragon Dreaming" process. She brought him to work with Edible Vashon in envisioning food security for the island. Everyone's ideas fit somewhere within a four-stage process, which becomes a kind of blueprint for action--and a connecting validation of all the ideas, each in their own time. The four steps: To Dream, To Plan, To Act, To Celebrate. Consider those for your own group or project--and don't forget to Celebrate, as you return to re-envision the dream.

====Bainbridge Island: Ideas for the Coming Times====
We ferried the placid waters of Vashon to the mainland, crossed the bridge to Bainbridge Island just west of Seattle. Our had met Neva Welton at the Relocalization Network gathering in Willits last April, and at her invitation we videotaped David Korten's presentation of his new book, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community last May in California. Neva welcomed us to her charming home surrounded by close green woods. For Robyn, a native of Olympia, Washington, it felt just like her childhood home.

We taped two superb interviews with wise women at the forefront of the new society. Sarah Van Gelder is the editor of Yes! A Magazine of Positive Futures. Celebrating ten years of publication, this independent media magazine carries no advertising, and brings the good news of world-changing, grassroots activities in environmental and social justice arenas. From her unique "catbird" seat, Sarah is excited to view and report on the new sustainable society being built from the ground up.

Jill Bamburg is the dean of Bainbridge Graduate Institute, whose MBA programs in sustainable business are growing by leaps and bounds. Structured for working adults, the programs teach a triple bottom line: not only financial sustainability, but also environmental and social. The students meet each month for several days, and work online between-times, so they develop the bonds of a learning community. We expect them to be entrepreneuring and intrapreneuring sustainable business practices for a sustainable future.

====Sustainable Ballard=======
Our friends at Vashon told us about Sustainable Ballard, so we hopped on the internet and emailed them. To our delight, David Wright responded and invited us into his freshly painted new apartment for our taping. We took over the room with cameras and mixer and microphones and studio lights, and taped a lively conversation with David, Vic Opperman and Andrea Faste. Ballard is a neighborhood area of Seattle with about 70,000 residents. The Sustainable Ballard approach is to communicate and work with existing organizations, seed ideas, and partner with others. They see their work as a Blueprint for Everytown, USA. In 2005 they co-sponsored a technical forum on Electric Vehicles to Grid (if I understand it right, the idea is to use EV batteries to store renewably-generated energy, which can be fed to the grid when needed.) We're pleased that Vic will be working to get Peak Moment shows on the Seattle community-access TV station.

===Rest Days===
Overcast skies swept through Seattle on Sunday, people flooded into the Ballard streets for the weekly growers market (lush local berries, sea-fresh fish, beautiful vegetables and fruits, colorful floral bouquets) and their annual Seafood fest with vendors and booths galore. We sequestered ourselves under the electro-magnetic wi-fi spell in the grass-roofed public library to catch up on emails and business.

===Coming: Orcas Island and Bellingham, Washington===
Stay tuned!