Inside Bainbridge

by Leigh Calvez I thought it would be easy, putting everything in a box and moving it one Honda Civic car load at a time. As it turned out the month-long move was the hardest thing I’ve done in a while, and it took more out of me than I expected. We moved into our…

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by Leigh Calvez I stumbled out of bed, slipped my coat over my pajamas, pulled on my Bogs, and grabbed my camera. I am not an early riser by habit, and I wondered if I was losing my mind. What was I doing, going out on this frigid morning, leaving the warmth of my down…

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by Leigh Calvez Today, eight years ago, I was in a coma fighting for my life. Two months earlier, I had been on a five day backpacking trip with my husband, our baby daughter, and some friends. A picture of me from this trip, before this coma, hangs on the wall of my hospital room….

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by Leigh Calvez August 25, 2012 12:02 p.m. I have always been a bit of a science geek. I’m fascinated by biology, somewhat by chemistry, and I love to try to understand quantum physics, even though I usually end up with a headache. I like quantum mechanics partially because these physicists often end up looking…

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by Leigh Calvez July 25, 2012, 9:24 a.m. Here on Bainbridge Island we are blessed with 53 miles of shoreline. Growing up in the landlocked Midwest, I prided myself on the amount I’d learned about the ocean during my years working on the water studying whales and dolphins. Sure I’d walked the beaches and coves of…

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by Leigh Calvez March 2, 2012 Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m a dyed in the wool (literally), really and for true Midwestern girl. I grew up on a sheep farm in Ohio where spring arrives in mud in April. And even though I’ve been on Bainbridge nearly seventeen years, I still can’t get used to…

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by Leigh Calvez January 20, 2012 At this time of year, when the weather is cold, rainy, and snowy; the nights are long; and the days are gray, I find it difficult not to admire the lifestyle of a bear: specifically, a white black bear, known as a Spirit Bear, found along the coastal rainforests…

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by Leigh Calvez November 22, 2011 Recently, on one particularly stormy afternoon, I sat in my cold house cocooned in blankets on the couch. Any visitor would have noticed my forehead pinched with worry. I listened to the wind swirling around outside as it pushed aside a swing, branches, loose fences. I stared outside at…

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by Leigh Calvez September 27, 2011 Have you ever driven down Point White Drive to that little inlet just past the Treehouse Café and stopped to admire the majestic presence of Mount Rainier tinged pink by evening sky, as if Mother Nature herself favored our little corner of the world? Or looked the other direction…

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By Leigh Calvez April 21, 2011 I sat on the western shore of San Juan Island at Lime Kiln State Park, aka Whale Watch Park, waiting for the party to start­­­­—literally and figuratively. A harbor porpoise and seals fished in the round tidal swirl of smooth water in front of me, as I scanned the…

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by Leigh Calvez July 29, 2012 Early one Sunday, I sat on my deck overlooking Rich Passage, enjoying my morning cup of tea. I watched the many boats that buzzed by on one of the rare days of sunshine last spring. I sat back in my chair, put my feet up, and turned my face…

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