Editorial | Sixteen pages of spring

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 6, 2026

It’s glorious outside, isn’t it? Finally, we can drive with the windows down again. The trees are leafing out, the gardens are waking up, the days are stretching longer, and the whole island seems to be taking one big deep breath after a long, wet winter.

This is the time of year when I keep remembering — sometimes mid-commute, sometimes walking to the post office, sometimes just sitting in the sun for five minutes — how lucky we are to live here.

There is a certain end-of-year buzz in the air right now. Schools are heading into their final stretch. Gardens are getting serious. The beaches are filling back up. Even quick errands feel a little more cheerful when the sun is out and everyone seems to be carrying around that first bit of summer energy.

I hope you got outside this weekend. I hope you opened a window, took a walk, pulled a weed, sat in the sun, watched the ferry go by or found some other small excuse to enjoy it.

This week’s 16-page edition feels a lot like the island right now: busy, bright and full of life.

Inside, we take a closer look at the school district’s renewed conversation about student cellphones — a debate that touches learning, safety, mental health and what students actually need from the adults making decisions around them.

We visit Little Bird Gardens, where a nursery and apothecary have come together behind the green building on Vashon Highway, making a little more room for plants, medicine and friendship.

We remember beloved islander Foss Miller, hear the Vashon Community Street Band at a May Day action, and peek inside Donald Cole’s art studio.

It is a very Vashon mix: school policy, protest signs, garden starts, art studios, music in parking lots, community memory and a whole lot of springtime activity packed into one paper.

That’s part of the fun of this job. Every week, the island gives us a little bit of everything. This week, it gave us 16 pages — and, at long last, some real sunshine.