September 2009

Filming from the living room of his Ballard apartment, Ballard resident and film director Ian Stone is taking his passion for theatre and experience as an actor to the big screen in his upcoming short film “Foster Child.”

“It’s about protecting the ones you love,” Stone said. “The twisted bit is you basically have a woman who wants her foster child back after (the child) was placed back with the biological mother.”

Stone, who grew up on Whidbey Island, said it was a beautiful place to live, but he admits to leaving as soon as he could, exchanging the island life for the big city to pursue his acting dreams.

“Foster Child” will be his second short film with co-director, producer and lead actress Meredith Binder.

Having been involved in the same play writing workshop, friends always assumed they had known each other for years, Stone said.

“She stopped going to the writing workshop about two weeks before I got there,” he said. “Everyone figured we knew each other, it wasn’t until two years after I stopped going to that group that I met her at a bar.”

Stone said he called her a “bitch” and they’ve been working together ever since.

The Ballard High School volleyball team is sitting at 2-0 heading into conference play after dispatching Nathan Hale 3-1 on Sept. 17.

The Beavers won the first game 25-19, but Nathan Hale evened things up with a 25-18 victory in the second game.

Ballard was able to finish things off down the stretch, though it had another close call in its final game, winning the third game 25-16 and the fourth 26-24.

Ballard's Lisa Day had 19 kills and nine aces, and Audrey Pefferman added seven kills.

Monique Marques finished with 27 assists and three aces for the Beavers.

The volleyball team starts conference play against Eastlake at 7 p.m. on Sept. 21 at Ballard High School.

On Sept. 17, the Ballard High School football team suffered its worst loss of the still young season – a 45-0 shutout at the hands of Newport High School.

The Beavers are 0-3 this season and have been shutout twice. They have been outscored 125-12.

Ballard starts conference play against Inglemoor at 7 p.m. on Sept. 25 at Pop Keeney Stadium.

Beaver fans are hoping the team can turn it around and avoid a repeat of last year's nightmare season in which Ballard was outscored by 200 points on the way to a 1-8 record.

The Ballard High School cross country team dominated the competition in its Sept. 16 meet against Bothell and Inglemoor. The varsity girls, junior varsity girls and junior varsity boys all placed first with only the varsity boys breaking the string of victories.

Senior Erin Philbeck placed first-overall in the varsity girls race. Philbeck came in 42 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher and the Beavers came in 15 points ahead of second place Inglemoor.

Junior Natalie White and junior Norwegian exchange student Erle Lima placed third and fifth for the varsity girls.

Sophomore Alex Bowns led the boys varsity with a fourth place finish, and senior Aaron Hamilton was fifth. The team came in nine points behind first-place Bothell.

Ballard cross country races against at 4 p.m. on Sept. 23 at Kamiakin Junior High School.

After two straight losses to open the season, the Ballard High School boys tennis team earned its first win Sept. 17 against Bothell by a score of 4-3.

Neal Berg won his singles match 2-0. Berg has won all three of his matches this season, the only Beaver to do so.

Ballard's Charles Beaudoin won his singles match 2-1. It was his second win of the season.

Duncan Moore and Nate Hegerberg won their doubles match for Ballard, as did Banks Hunter and Kensei Kawamura.

Coach Charles Brenner said it was a great, confidence-building win for the team.

Ballard tennis takes the courts against Woodinville at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 22 at Woodinville.

The Ballard High School boys golf team got its first win of the season, beating Lake Washington 221-230 at Bellevue Golf Course.

Ballard didn't have either of the top-two individual finishers, but it didn't matter in the end.

Michael Day and Ray McCormick both shot a 43, leading the Beavers in a tie for third place. Ross Upton placed fifth with a score of 45.

The boys golf team faces Juanita at 3 p.m. on Sept. 21 at Wayne Golf Course.

The Northwest is home to many creative talents of all types, whether you’re baking bread or blowing glass, but there is still a difference in being artistic and being a true artist.

I’ve had the pleasure in recent years to get to know one of the true ones, a customer turned friend, Patty Steele-Smith.

Patty’s work encompasses many different forms: two and three dimensional sculpture, ceramics, art cards, installation gardens, and, you must have seen this one coming, miniature gardens.

Patty is an award-winning gardener for her life-sized gardens. She has won the Edmonds in Bloom award since 2002, The Golden Scoop Award from the Pacific Northwest Gardens in 2006, and the Edmonds in Bloom Garden Tour in 2007.

You can see her work on her website and this weekend up in Edmonds, too - but first, let me tell you a bit more about who she is and how we met.

A couple of years ago, Patty called me up one day asking about my mini garden classes. I didn’t have any that were scheduled, and she pressed about a one-on-one class. Sure! Why not? I never taught a solo class and she sounded like a keen learner, so we booked a day to meet.

This year’s sixth annual Sustainable Ballard Festival will focus on families and how they can become greener while at the same time saving money.

The event this year will take place Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 26 and 27 from noon to 5 p.m. at Ballard Corners Park.

The first stop parents and kids can take will be on Transportation Row, Jenny Heins, Sustainable Ballard President and festival coordinator said.

“Kids coming down Transportation Row get to check out the dog scooter, different vehicles and different interactive things,” she said. “For adults we have information about ways to save money by using public transportation, as well as do-it-yourself items like electrical vehicle conversions.”

There will also be Sustainable Bike Tours to give residents a chance to learn about the benefits of biking while meeting their neighbors.

This year’s bike tour is a two-hour round trip ride. There will be stops at chicken coops, shared gardens, P-Patches, rain barrels, green buildings, cider presses and more.

At the Green Home Center, kids will have a chance to turn cranks and see how much power they can generate, Heins said.

Residents anticipating the historic Alki Homestead restaurant's re-opening will have to wait a little longer. Alki Homestead’s owner Tom Lin unveiled plans at the Sept. 17 Alki Community Center meeting to reconstruct the historic structure following a Jan. fire.

Lin also explained how a bed and breakfast, a lounge-style bar and a spa might also come to occupy the 15,000 square foot property.

An investigation following the fire uncovered so much damage to the 100-year-old landmark—much of it related to the building’s age—that Lin presented reconstruction as the viable option over restoration.

While many of the original logs still rest in the same places as they did during the first decade of the twentieth century, many also do not. Rot and bug damage during the past 100 years displaced or rotted a majority of the timber.

Lin stressed reconstruction as the best option in lieu of restoration.

“People don’t want to lose Alki Homestead,” he said.

Federal Way’s boys are back and the rest of the South Puget Sound League may be in trouble.

The Eagle boys won their opener Wednesday, Sept. 15 by a 19-37 score over Decatur after going winless last year. Federal Way also won on the girls side, 24-31, to complete a sweep.

“This was a good opener,” said Eagles head coach Jean Licari. “The boys did not win any last year, so this was a very good meet for us.”

Also making it qualify as a “good meet” was the weather. Only showers took place during the action, but a downpour came immediately thereafter.

The girls ran first, with the Eagles taking three of the top four finishes.

Jasmine Johnson won the 5-Kilometer event in a time of 17 minutes, 27.90 seconds for Federal Way and Nichole Williams of Decatur came in right behind her in 18:20.00.

Mary Aleshchenko of the Eagles took third in 20:32.00 and Christine Hart finished fourth in 20:48.00.

Decatur captured both fifth and sixth, with Karen Mendez coming in fifth in 21:45.00 and Joy Lintelmann sixth in 21:49.00.