Welcome to the Busy Season

Winter is really over, and spring has finally arrived. At the new Blue Mountain News office at 242 E. Main Street in Dayton, we're busy getting ready for warmer weather. We've finally gotten the old lettering scraped off the windows (and we'll be washing them soon). And we hope to even do some sidewalk gardening.

We're mostly moved in to the new office, so everyone is invited to stop by for a visit. In a previous issue I said we were moving into the back part of the building, but we changed our minds and ended up moving into the front, next to Jacci's Yarn Basket. (When you own your own newspaper, you get to change your mind when you feel like it.)

When spring arrives here in the Touchet Valley, there's lots to do. Days of Real Sport in Waitsburg and Dayton Days in (you guessed it) Dayton, will be happening before you know it. In Walla Walla, the Spring Release weekend for the wineries and the Balloon Stampede are both coming up in May as well. There are concerts, plays, art openings and lots more.

In the Blue Mountain News Community Calendar, starting on page 18, we've tried to provide a comprehensive and detailed listing of everything that's happening in Dayton, Waitsburg, Prescott and Starbuck that people might want to know about. We've also started a separate section of arts and entertainment events happening in Walla Walla. If you're in the mood for a concert or a play or any of the other things happening there, why not hop in the car and take a drive to Walla2?

In spite of our best efforts, however, we've undoubtedly missed some things in our calendars – we can't know everything that's going on. We rely on our readers to clue us in when there's something happening that needs to be publicized. If you have a community or arts-related event coming up in June or July, please contact us and we'll gladly add it to the calendar.

You can email us at news@bluemtnnews.com, or call us at 540-2752, or just stop by the office. If no one's inside, that might be me out front washing the windows.

Additional calendar items

I'm writing this just hours before press time, so it's too late to change the calendar, but a couple of items were brought to my attention that weren't included there. There's a little space left to fill here, so I'll mention them now:

As I said earlier, the Walla Walla wineries are holding their Spring Release Weekend May 3 and 4. Most of the wineries in the Walla Walla area will be open for tasting. Many of them will be hosting special art shows and/or music performances. Many visitors will be here from out of the area – in the wine world, this is a big deal. So if you like wine and you haven't toured the Walla Walla Wineries before, I recommend it.

Also, All Wheels Weekend is coming to Dayton in June, and that's already on the calendar. But the organizers asked that we also mention an important date in May. The All Wheels "Early Bird" registration deadline is May 15. All entrants registered by that date will be included in a special "early Bird" drawing to win a Coca-Cola pedal car. You can learn a lot more about All Wheels Weekend on the event web site at

www.allwheelsweekend.com.

So go out and enjoy lots of fun activities in the next few weeks, but try not to overdo it!

Ken Graham