I recently heard a local country singer on the radio talking about the difficulty of hitting it big in the music business. He shared how, one day, feeling tired and discouraged, he’d heard his phone ring and decided not to answer it. Later, when he listened to his messages, he discovered that...
Is there a difference in the health benefits between practicing yoga and going to the gym? Yes, there are many, but if your goals are just to keep fit and/or lose weight they can both accomplish that to varying degrees...
Independent, proactive, tenacious, innovative, adventurous, courageous, energetic, creative, spontaneous, curious, confident, persistent; all essential qualities for an entrepreneur or business mogul.
I bet you have something “Britt” in your house, like a poster. Britt posters adorn the walls of the Bella Union going back to the 1960’s. The Jacksonville Inn has collected autographed posters from the days of the Festivals within a Festival—Jazz Festival; Dance Festival and more. Jacksonville Elementary School has several framed posters adorning their...
Ordinarily, my column is about the “style” of a garden. This month, the “style” I encountered was not at all what I expected. It’s amazing to me how gardens “evolve” and how one’s gardening side naturally pops-out. Bonnie Selvitella will be the first to tell you she’s not a gardener.
This month next year, my lovely wife and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. That’s a quarter-century ago. It’s also the same year we started a life and business in Southern Oregon. As we grow older, more and more people ask us how we met, how we got started, how we made it all work.
It’s easy to add splashes of color to empty and challenging spaces on patios, porches and decks. This time of year, with flowers and landscapes in-bloom all around us, open spaces on patios, porches and decks can be challenging to soften due to a lack of color and/or greenery. One of […]
An area rug can serve to warm-up a tile or hardwood floor area, anchor a seating area, establish a dining or play area, and add character to nearly any indoor or outdoor space.
United Van Lines recently published its inbound and outbound moving data for the year of 2013. The winners are Oregon and the Carolinas. The losers are New Jersey, Illinois and New York.
We may live in an historic town, but I’ll wager that when studying history in school, you hated it. Was your history class like mine, consisting of nothing more than memorizing important dates of people and bigger-than-life events? King George may have been a bad king… at least from the American colonists’ point of view, but what were we taught about the man himself? Very little!
Maybe you’ve noticed. You’ll be watching the final moments of a television show. Just as the characters arrive at the quintessential pinnacle of dramatic closure, a pop song that isn’t part of the normal background music springs forth. The scene continues without dialogue, using the power of song to enhance the emotions playing out on screen.
It’s Britt season, so what better subject for summer’s Pioneer Profiles than Peter Britt, whose pioneer homestead is now the site of Britt Festivals, the Britt Gardens, and portions of Jacksonville’s Woodlands Trail System. Perhaps best known as the pioneer photographer who documented Southern Oregon’s people, activities, and landscapes from the 1850s to 1900, Peter Britt was also a visionary, a painter, a respected horticulturalist, a vintner...
It’s now “summer in the city” as the pace of our small town life picks-up and town bustles with events and activities galore! From the Taste of Summer Celebration, incredible Britt concerts on the Hill, the Historic Home and Garden Tour, to our charming Farmers Market and so much more, this is high season and our time in the sun.
I learned early this morning that I am a success. A story on NPR related how certain wingless mosquitos in Antarctica survive under the most miserable of conditions, awaken out of semi-dormancy, live for ten days, mate, and die. In the animal world, the reporter noted, this is considered a successful life. You have reproduced. You have won.
How much time do you spend feeling happy? Not just thinking about unlikely scenarios that could make you happy, like winning the lottery. The fact is that right now, in this moment, you can choose to live your best life and […]
Merchandisers began promoting color as the Depression came to an end. Americans were more than ready to trade in their dark-colored vehicles, clothing and kitchenware and everything took on vivid hues.
I grew up with my mother’s 1930s Singer sewing machine. It’s a classic—black with gold scrollwork, nestled in a solid walnut cabinet. I watched her pull out the arm hidden under the left side, flip the top open and secure it flat on the arm, then lift the machine out of its compartment. That’s all it took to get ready to sew.
I first met Old Jim back in the early nineties when commercial Jacksonville was struggling to survive. The only enterprise with consistent lines out the door throughout the year was Loaves and Fishes, the community food kitchen next door serving hundreds of seniors every week.
The real estate market in Jackson County continues its recovery with the median price of a home growing by 4.2% for the first quarter 2014 to $187,500. The number of homes sold in the first quarter of 2014 has actually decreased to 345 compared to 389 sold in the first quarter 2013.
It began with a wind chime and bird feeder! Pam Wright moved here last August to her home on 8th Street to get away from “stucco condo” life in Orange County, California.
Most of us in Jacksonville love having a thick, lush and beautiful lawn! This is a great time of year for planning, preparing and implementing turf care. Here are a few spring tips that will make your grass healthy, green and lush.
Most of us are familiar with natural fertilizers and […]
As late as 1851, the Rogue Valley was still very much “the realm of Indians,” writes Stephen Dow Beckham in Requiem for a People: The Rogue Indians and the Frontiersmen.
Can you feel the buzz in the air…the energy as our micro-town emerges from its winter slumber? This month and all summer long, there are so many events and positive things happening—thanks to great people who are making a difference.
Starting in May, anyone interested in history is in for a treat as multiple seasonal events […]
We made a mistake.
Two seasons ago, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival presented “Animal Crackers,” the Marx Brothers masterpiece that stormed Broadway in 1929 and hit Hollywood in l930. We’d heard how great the OSF production was. But we were busy. We missed it. And […]
When we watch Antiques Roadshow, we all hope that the painting we have in our own garage is the “big” one. Although it could be, 9 times out of 10, it’s not.
Some of you may not be aware that, when I am not composing best-sellers, I am a practicing therapist. I don’t always lead off with that particular title because painful experience has shown that the word “therapist” can be, shall we say, off-putting for some folks.
Congratulations to blues singer Cee Cee James, winner of the 2014 Rising Stars competition.
With daffodils and crocuses blooming, it’s a great time to freshen-up the interior of our homes. We’ve all heard the expression, "Spring Cleaning," and for me, there’s more to it than just cleaning!
When preparing your home for sale, there are many inexpensive improvements that will bring you greater value and help sell your home faster.
When you make a mistake, do you beat yourself up emotionally or can you forgive yourself and let it go? Or are you quick to blame someone else or a situation?
Your kitchen is the “Heart of the Home”—make it a feast for the eyes! Lighting is essential to creating a functional and stylish center for nourishing both body and soul. No matter your personal style—without great lighting choices, a kitchen can remain lackluster...
"Each morning, I’m reminded how blessed I am to live in a town surrounded with trees, gardens, flowers, birds, and a slew of gardeners that would rather putter in their gardens than battle the freeways. Jacksonville’s gardens are exciting and varied.."
Growing up, my dad had a funny way of teaching me to be both accountable and self aware; when things went awry and I proceeded to blame someone or something else, he would say, “I don’t want to be the one to mention names, but the initials of the person at fault is Michelle Elizabeth Gregg,”
Words are powerful. Words hold the course of life and death, redemption and judgment. Words are the molecular building blocks of creation and human interaction. Words seal transactions, heal transgressions and are more potent than destiny...
In today’s world the question arises… what is the definition of ethics, for often it seems to be lacking in at least some of our public officials. At least the daily headlines keep telling us that...
Make plans now for one of the most entertaining and tasty events of the summer! Our “Best of Britt” benefit on Thursday, June 26, is an evening filled with all the best parts of Britt—great music, great food and great wine!
I was out with a friend the other evening, enjoying a real Manhattan in a real bar (at night no less, and mid-week; the stars must be in some rare alignment), and in the course of conversation my friend said—in a rather Eeyorish way (witty, humorous and severely cynical) that he could see his future, and what he saw looked a lot like a trailer park.
I’ve been working on this article since Christmas Eve when our dog of 12 years passed away. Since then and up until the last couple weeks, we’ve been grieving and I’ve been trying to make sense of why we are all so broken-hearted over an animal?
The days are getting longer, the sun a little warmer, the daffodils and buds in the trees are peeking out. If we pay attention, we can feel and see that Nature teaches us about the most important part of Life itself: Awakening!
Contrary to local lore, James Clugage and James Pool did not make the initial gold discovery in Southern Oregon. However, they may well deserve credit for triggering the Southern Oregon gold rush of 1852, and they definitely deserve credit for staking claims to what proved to be a different kind of gold mine—the donation land claims that became the City.
In the mid-1800s, the promise of gold and free land lured fortune seekers and settlers to the newly formed Oregon Territory. They were soon followed by merchants who amassed their own wealth selling supplies to the miners and farmers. This ongoing series shares the stories of these pioneers and their times. Henry Klippel was one such immigrant.
In the early 1900’s you could scarcely open a newspaper or magazine without seeing an advertisement for Brilliant Cut Glass. In the form of a vase, ice cream dish, a goblet, or fruit bowl, several glass companies wanted the consumer to buy their beautiful cut glass items for the bride or for Christmas gifts.
This month, I was amazed and delighted by a treasure of a garden that exceeded my expectations. Ron and Aurelie Danko, on South Oregon Street, have a small and unique wedge-shaped lot, on which they built their home with a Tuscan mustard-colored stucco retaining wall surrounding it.
After a record-setting dry and cold winter with little-to-no precipitation and some of the coldest consecutive days on record, it’s a good idea to check how your plants have fared.
We’ve barely received enough moisture to keep temperamental plants alive through this dry winter. I found myself watering some of my […]
One key to growing old gracefully is limiting television to network evening news and the Turner Classic Movie channel. Network anchors are all attractive, middle-aged or older men and women. Most commercial spots on the news sell pharmaceuticals to older, attractive men and women. Teenagers, twenty-something’s and even thirty-something’s are pretty much absent, making the process of denial so much easier.
For years, the primary retirement plan was a company pension plan. At retirement, a retiree would receive a fixed sum, or a pension, paid by the employer. By offering a superior pension plan, employers, the government and labor unions attracted good employees...
An incident occurred on my recent vacation that some might call coincidence… but I know better. My wife and I were strolling around a crowded street fair in Palm Springs when, quite unexpectedly, we heard a voice behind us cry out, “There’s the mayor of Jacksonville.” Sure enough, it turned out to be a couple who were also vacationing from Jacksonville.
In our Unfettered column last October, we told you we were looking forward to five movies scheduled to open before the end of 2013. We hadn’t seen them; they weren’t in theatres yet. We chose them because of the buzz they generated, and because their trailers, which we watched on the web, seemed tantalizing.
I hate snakes. Hate is a strong word, but there it is. So imagine my excitement this time last year when we entered the year of the Black Water Snake. I knew it was going to be a wild ride, and not just because I hate snakes: I knew it because a year whose symbolic energy is turmoil and transformation ain’t going to be easy. Your best shot is to embrace your inner Bette Davis and croak, “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy year.”
If you are already off track with your New Year intentions, your foundation may need some work. Our bodies are exquisitely designed with a map of energy centers, referred to as Chakras, that can help us be aware of what needs our attention...