There’s a humanity to her unique artistic process—turning clothes into memorial quilts for grieving families—that’s impossible to ignore, particularly when you’re standing in front of the quilts themselves. How it must feel to spend most of one's time making things that one won't likely ever encounter again…

By infusing the Ghost Walk with robust lessons in history, Cody Yeager manages to create a strangely grounded event—this despite the amount of time we spent talking about, say, the ghost cat who lives on the 3rd floor of the old Gates Hotel building.

“We love to hear people say they drove by our house and they loved the decorations or that their kids really like Frosty,” said Stephanie Hoffman. “I would miss coming home in the evening or leaving in the morning and seeing the lights. I would miss watching cars slow down to look at the lights. I believe the decorations help people get in the Christmas spirit. As a kid, my parents used to drive us around to look at lights. It was one of my favorite things to do.” 

“It’s kinda hard for me to do this—it’s a lot of work—but I do enjoy doing it, and I do it because the kids come by and they like seeing everything. I have people who will pull up in front of the house at night and stay for 5 minutes just taking it all in,” said Dorothy Waters. “Some years I think, Well, maybe I shouldn’t…But I always do. Recently a neighbor said, Boy, I’m glad you do this every year, it’s so nice to look at.”

“My husband Nathan and I started decorating the year we purchased our home (2003),” said Nancy Hansen. “We started out with a lot of inflatables and then slowly moved to what you see today in our yard and part of our neighbor’s yard. (Yes, part of what’s in her yard we do for her since we had extras, and she loves it. She added the snowman this year.)”

Life is in the details. And this week’s column by Sarah Cook calls out many of those in our own backyard. It’s easy to get tunnel vision and want to just get from A to B. But Cook shows us, if you take your foot off the gas for a moment, and grab a local guide app, there is some pretty cool stuff we walk past in TD without even noticing.

Sarah Cook reveals the simple steps to printmaking after a crash course with Maggie Middleton, Apprentice Printer at Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts in Pendleton, who gave the demonstration at The Dalles Art Center. Check it out. Maybe it’s time for you to gouge away.

“It has helped me to process things when I’ve submitted my own stuff,” Colleen Ballinger said about her occasional contributions to the Poetree, which change in response to seasons and current events and depending on the amount of work she receives from others, including strangers.

“The daunting and implicit expectations we sometimes have of our loved ones interfere with our ability to care for them, let alone for ourselves; I would not have the framework for attempting to embody this way of living, loving, and showing up if it were not for bell hooks.” - Sarah Cook

Sarah Cook is melding her career of advocacy and her expertise in literature and writing to offer locals a chance to refine their writing - any writing. All people have an ignition switch - a voice inside that is fascinating and interesting. Why not share it? Sarah aims to put a flame to that pilot light to get your prose burning a hot blue flame. And it doesn’t have to hurt.