PORT TOWNSEND — Writers are invited to participate in the Ekphrastic Write-In at the Northwind Arts Center, 2409 Jefferson St., at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

All are invited to spend some quiet time in the gallery and respond to individual works or to the show as a whole.

The host, Bill Mawhinney, will hold the space open until 8:30 p.m.

Ekphrastic poems begin with inspiration from another piece of art and with an intuitive understanding that art begets art, according to a new release.

In a sense, the art object, whether paint, stone or photograph, becomes the rough draft of the poem.

All are invited to write about other art forms as a way of translating feelings and reactions.

Attendees will have a chance to return to the gallery and share responses Thursday, Aug. 21, at a public reading of works generated at the write-in.

For more information, phone Mawhinney at 360-437-9081.

Picnic fetes past, current breastfeeders

PORT TOWNSEND — World Breastfeeding Week is Aug. 4-9, and the 2014 theme is “Breastfeeding: A Winning Goal for Life.”

Jefferson County Public Health will support the annual global celebration with a picnic at Chetzemoka Park from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6.

Breastfeeding moms (current and former), babies, families and friends are invited to come to the picnic and bring their own lunch.

For more information, visit the World Breastfeeding website at www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org or phone Jefferson County Public Health at 360-385-9400.

Great Strait Sale planned in September

JOYCE — The seventh annual Great Strait Sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13.

The Juan de Fuca Scenic Byway Association sponsors this 61-mile-long yard sale on state Highway 112.

Sande Balch, event chairm, encourages people to participate by having private or neighborhood yard sales or by bringing sales to the community sites at the Joyce Depot Museum parking lot or the Clallam Bay Visitor Center (next to the Clallam County Park).

“The annual Great Strait Sale continues to grow in the number of sellers and buyers,” Balch said.

“We want to invite all of our neighbors to this event for block-party fun while the sellers make a little money and the buyers find some treasures.”

More information will appear on www.highway112.org by early September.

The printed flyer will be available at CoCo’s Market (formerly Wagner’s on U.S. Highway 101, just east of the junction with Highway 112) the week before and at the community sites the day of the event.

The cost of listing a sale or fundraiser in the flier is $10.

The deadline to submit an ad for the flier is Aug. 25.

To sign up for a Great Strait Sale listing in the flier or for other questions, email Balch at sandrabalch@olypen.com.

Student on dean’s

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Lisa Rowan of Port Townsend is one of 745 students who made the dean’s list at California Lutheran University for the spring semester.

Rowan is an interdisciplinary major.

Students qualify for the dean’s list by maintaining a 3.6 grade-point average in their academic subjects.