Music of Nature

When you step outside the door at the cabin you hear the serenade of hundreds of black birds. Now the humble black bird is not much to look at, although the red winged black bird is rather interesting. However, when you put a whole bunch of them in the trees on top of the bank and all trying to out sing their neighbor, the sound is rather amazing. You have this total wash of bird songs and it is breath-takingly beautiful. You have to look hard to see them in the trees but they are there. I have no idea how long they will be gathering before they make the final statement and head south, but I certainly am enjoying their songs at present. Let's face it, sea gulls are not the most wonderful singers on the Island, so the black birds are a welcome change.

The salmon are still running. This morning Doug was gone less than two hours and came home with 3 fish...and yes there were two people in the boat. Nice looking, about the 4 to 5 pound variety I would guess. They cleaned them in the waves so that the gulls cleaned up the mess. Then they brought them up onto the bulk head and got out the pressure washer and blasted the scales off them. That was a new concept but it seemed to work well from my perspective. At that point they were filleted and taken into the house to freezer probably. Oh it makes me jealous when they do that. Particularly when I know I have a fisherman that would love to be doing the same each and every morning. It will happen eventually but not this season. Poor LJ, he probably is not enjoying reading this now, but so be it.

The beach certainly offers me a different pallet on which to make my day. I think I needed the change because I am really enjoying something different. And it is fun to have Amy around occasionally. She is my side kick a couple of days a week, and she is a fun little side kick to deal with. Tomorrow Linda is bringing Logan and James and I have Claire and Amy, we are going to get together at one of the parks and let them have fun. Then home for naps each in their own space. It should be a fun outing for all of us.

Canning is beautiful

You know, in a world of many beautiful things I find one of the most beautiful things to be canning placed on a shelf. The jars are canned peaches and/or peach pie filling awaiting a trip up to the house to be placed lovingly on the shelf. Canning and I have a love/hate relationship. I always go through the full spectrum of feelings while I can, I hate the mess but I love the results. I am empowered by the process but annoyed by the slowness. Yah, I hit them all, but nothing is as beautiful as shelves full of good food. And as a side light, if you can pale peaches you get pale product, if you can a peach with good color you get a good colored product. These are O'Henry peaches and they are vibrant before canning and can up beautifully. Or maybe I have been canning too many pears recently when you aim for as near white as you can get.

That all said, I need to go teach some piano lessons. Like canning, it is a love/hate relationship. I love it when the student is prepared and wanting to do better, I hate it when I am pulling them through the literature. Yah....doesn't that describe life in general.

Even birds take naps

The morning was well underway when I saw this great Blue Heron on the post. His head was drooped down and he looked to be sleeping. I was talking to Emily on the phone so I hung up and located my camera. By the time I got the camera he was starting to wake up, (and of course I have the pictures posted backwards so number 2 is actually number 1) and the second pose is his full attention on the sounds I was making. I will have to admit he had probably been out hunting for food for many hours before I saw him, but I had never seen such a tired bird on a post before.

There are days that I feel the same way, but give me something to occupy my brain and I come right to attention. He was not sure if I intended to eat him or just watch him and paid close attention until my intentions were clear. And then he lost interest and headed out into the air to find a more private place to take his nap.

One thing I can not complain about is the neighbors at the cabin. When you can claim blue heron as your closest neighbor then you know you are living in the right place. There are at least 3 on the beach all the time, foraging food or just watching the coming and going of tides.

news flash

My family has lived in the Maxwelton Valley for over 100 years. My mother kept track of the high and low marks in the valley for well over 50 years on a daily basis, prior to that it was just on observation but not recorded. She said she had seen 99 degrees but never 100, and she had seen 1 but never 0. Well, today we broke the century mark but good. I saw 105 on the thermometer in the kitchen for most of the afternoon! No, that is not a typo, that is really what I saw. It is hot beyond belief and has been all week, building to this record breaking day. According to the news folk it has shattered the recorded temperatures in Western Washington. Shattered by several degrees records that have stood a long time and, with a little bit of luck, will stand forever or until I no longer care. What a miserable day to be trapped in heat beyond reason! There is nothing one can do. Even the pool is so hot that dipping in the water offers no cool, and the sun is burning down enough to burn the most tanned of bodies. Yah, this day will be one to remember and one that I want to forget really soon.

Too hot already

I live in Washington for a reason and that reason would be the fact that I am a wimp when it comes to heat. With that statement made, I do not approve of the weather that has settled onto the Island this week. Today I have seen it as high as 94 degrees and it is not as hot as it will get...but more than hot enough to heat me plenty. If I wanted to live in the heat I would move to it, it does not need to move to me! And they say it will get worse before it gets better. They are talking a three day climb before it breaks at the end of the week. We will see if this all happens....but lets hope it doesn't!

Last week Kristin and I went to Sun Lakes to enjoy some time in the sun, and, of course, it rained. I get used to this kind of stuff but it still makes me laugh when it happens yet one more time. Eastern Washington in July should be pretty dependable but it can not trump my ability to find bad weather to camp in. The Connie P solves that problem however, it really could care less if there is rain or not. We enjoyed the weather from the inside looking out....and even got some time to go swimming between the showers. Or rather Kristin did, I sat that one out. I am certainly a fair weather swimmer in my old age!

the Brides of yesterday and tomorrow

Many years ago I decided that I wanted to have a picture taken of all my daughters in their wedding dresses. I decided that this would happen when the last one married. Well, Nancy did that this past December so I felt this was the summer to do this. And everyone was to be here on the 4th of July so we celebrated the 3rd of July with Bridal pictures. And let me tell you, it was one of the funniest picture shoots you could possibly imagine! Spain has the running of the bulls and we had the running of the brides...all documented of course....as we came from the porch and down the hill to in front of the roses.

And, as might be expected, some of us did better getting into our dresses than others. Nancy is the most recent bride but she has lost weight with her training for yet another marathon so her dress was rather loose. Linda's dress was too big when she wore it and still is, but looked beautiful on her all the same. Michelle has a 5 month old baby which explains her challenge with zippers really well. Emily has 5 babies from 3 to 11 to justify her situation and I claim the 32 years between wearings to explain the fact I could not zip mine. The future brides didn't have those concerns!

Kristin wore the dress that matched Nancy's (She wore a bolero jacket at the wedding but it was hot so we omitted the jacket for the pictures). Claire wore the dress that matched Linda's wedding dress (worn by Kristin in the actual wedding pictures) and Amy had a beautiful white dress that Emily came by. They were as excited with this day of dress-up as we were!

Then we did individual shots with the husbands in shorts etc. and the wives in wedding dresses. An interesting combination that showed the true spirit of the day. We did a serious picture and then some really stupid ones....and stupid we do really well! The final Amen came from Nancy as she did a full lay-out back summersault on the trampoline while in her wedding dress. It was breath taking. When I think of all the money invested in those dresses it just makes me smile to know we can have fun with them.

I have decided our next visit with these dresses will be at the next wedding in the family. Several years away at this time, but we will need several years I think to better what we have already done! Sometimes you just have to take a step backwards and see the fun in it all...we did and it was a great day.

paper or paperless

All bank statements and other bills of the sort always ask if you want paper or paperless. Nice thought but does it really work? I always check paperless in that I can print things off at home if I truly want them. Being of the paper generation I prefer to have things in a hard copy for my files, so I do opt to print most things at home. However, if it is paperless then how come I spend so much of my time shuffling papers? Seems like I sit down to my desk and there is always this collection of papers that need attention. They need to be filed, they need to be paid, they need to be read and so the list goes. And my complaints are minimal in the grand scheme of things, after all, my life is not that complicated!

The radio keeps talking about help getting folks out of debt and that makes me wonder how much paper the average person has to deal with. I don't have a fraction of what many have. I wish the world knew the simplicity that used to exist before Credit cards. You had the money, you purchased the item, no money no purchase. It was a pretty simple formula but it did not give the financial institutions the scope to make massive profits. Credit cards came into being and banks sprouted up like dandelions in the yard. Where there was one bank there are now eight banks, and all seem to be doing quite well as far as I can tell. Of course, they are all working off of my money, mine as in a tax payer, but their top echelons have to have their yachts and bonuses you know! Boy would I love to close all banks but a couple and then have the CEO make no more than double the line worker. All would win and maybe we could stop spending what we don't have.

Back to my papers and then to a walk. Should do it the other way around but I am waiting for the day to warm up a little before I take off.