Idaho Voices

Bayview’s Vista Bay Marina on Lake Pend Oreille was experiencing an early season warm day. Just after 7 p.m. on May 14, 1977, a loud pop was heard from the boat docks. Suddenly, flames gushed out of the east boat sheds. When it was all over, 12 boats were destroyed.

’Tis the season, but it isn’t Christmas. Color and greenery will be featured as Vanhoff’s Garden Center opens Friday at 1844 Government Way. The 2,600-square-foot greenhouse and store with a large patio and outside sales area on the half-acre plot formerly was Pedal Pushers.

The wait at area bus stops will become a little more comfortable for Citylink riders if a Coeur d’Alene committee has its way. As part of the bus bench program, the volunteer group is attempting to find sponsors for about 140 benches to be built and installed on both sides of the street at the 90 stops along the 200-plus miles of Citylink bus routes.

If Jessica Ross had to pick someone to blow her horn, it wouldn’t be herself. The Lake City High senior softball and basketball player doesn’t gravitate to the limelight.

Now that we are planting, it’s a great time to add some plants to the garden that will attract beneficial predator insects that will eat insect pests this summer. Predator insects include ladybugs; lacewings; beetles such as soldier, tiger, ground and rove; true bugs such as assassin, ambush, big-eyed, minute pirate, damsel and predacious stinkbug; predacious hoverflies; parasitoid tachinid fly larvae and even wasps such as thread-waist wasps, yellow jackets and hornets. They will eat bugs like aphids, thrips, mealy bugs, spider mites, scale, and slugs that attack your plants. All you have to do is learn what they need and adapt your gardening methods to help them thrive.

The sport of BMX, or Bicycle Motocross, debuted last year as the newest Olympic sport at the 2008 games in Beijing. The sport began in California in the 1970s, when kids modified their 20-inch Stingray bicycles and started racing, emulating their motorcycle motocross heroes. Now it’s everywhere. Before long BMX included tricks and catching air. Now, a group of BMX enthusiasts want to build a course in Post Falls, but the question is where?

Andrea Rainey’s hobby store doesn’t quite fit the usual business mold. There’s the welcoming furniture just inside the entrance, hot tea and coffee for the taking in the back, and a make-yourself-at-home atmosphere that permeates the small shop’s multihued interior. While this may sound like a new coffee house, it’s Rainey’s new CDA Yarn and Fiber store, which offers everything from knitting materials to hands-on classes for enthusiasts of all levels. In the former home of DJ’s Coins and Collectibles behind Alton’s Tires, Yarn and Fiber is lined wall to wall with a wide range of knitting materials. Name a project and Rainey can offer an assortment of yarns and fibers to fit the purpose, including American-made Farmhouse and Brown Sheep brands and standard bundles such as cotton, linen and bamboo. The shop also features several unique fabrics including locally spun and hand-dyed yarns, as well as organic and recycled materials from such manufacturers as Frog Tree and Malabrigo in everything from alpaca wool to hemp to milk protein to reconstituted T-shirts and stainless steel wire.

It’s been nearly a year since the deflating loss at the State 5A high school softball tournament, and Coeur d’Alene pitcher Amber Coburn still tears up talking about it. Coeur d’Alene and eventual state champ Eagle were scoreless after seven innings, setting up tiebreaker play. The Vikings scored a run in the top of the eighth.

Downtown Coeur d’Alene’s Garden District is about to boast one more garden. A big one. Three vacant lots at the corner of 10th Street and Foster Avenue will be transformed this spring into Coeur d’Alene’s first Shared Harvest Community Garden.