Russ (3 weeks after starting as the Alliance's Development & Program Manager) and I are in Seattle working out plans for this year's conference, and the trip isn't complete without a visit to Hedgebrook and their director, Amy Wheeler.

Russ and I take a short drive from Seattle to the ferry to Whidbey Island. It's a gray day, what you'd expect in the Northwest, but beautiful still. Back in the car, we pass small shops, diners, quiet life. The rain comes as we approach Hedgebrook and we dash into the office, greeted by a slow-moving dog and Amy. As we tromp around the woods, huddled under umbrellas, Amy points out the organic vegetable garden (where much of the residents' food comes from), paths that arc through the trees, Useless Bay. Stepping inside one of the cottages is like entering another world--a quiet room of one's own, complete with wood-burning stove. Amy mentions that there was no hardware used to build the cottages, no nails or screws, just tongue-and-groove, wooden pegs, and the like. It's not the kind of thing you might notice on your own, but you feel it--the seamlessness, the humble reserve, the uncluttered canvas like a blank page.