It seems like it’s been raining ever since we got back from South Carolina. There may be an occasional break, but for the most part it’s been gray, dark, and downright gloomy. On this particular Tuesday rain and clouds were still in the weather, but for some reason the sun decided it needed to break through. Laura declared that we were both suffering from cabin fever and kicked me out of the house with my camera while she did some Furman work. I wasn’t sure where I was going when I set out, but I wound up at Deception Pass.
Category: Washington Sabbatical
Samish Island has a very active community. There are events year-round at the small community center on the northeast side of the island. This past Sunday Laura and I headed to the center to hear stories about the history of the island in the first session of Samish Island Stories.
The Illuminati – the “Enlightened Ones”. It may be an overused plot point for adventure novels and conspiracy theories, but the general idea of gaining enlightenment isn’t that bad. In this case it was literal enlightenment, a means to dispel the gloom of the long winter nights of the Pacific Northwest. With that in mind I joined other light-deprived citizens for the 4th Annual Mount Vernon Illuminight Walk.
It’s been a solid week of music. We had our Bring Your Own Guitar session on Wednesday at Empire Ale in Mount Vernon, followed by the Bellingham Folk Festival this past weekend. I had a great time learning new things and meeting other musicians in the area. There were even a few connections with folks from back home. That’s quite a bit for one post, but I’ll try to wrap it all up here.
In an earlier post I mentioned that Laura and I had travelled up river for the Skagit Eagle Festival, only to find that most of the eagles were right here around our little island. This past week while Laura was working on her sabbatical material she sent me catch some “action shots” of our local eagles. Later she joined me for a couple of other excursions out with binoculars and long lenses.
We made it back to Washington after the holidays and I dived right into the music scene. The Sunday after we returned there was a Scottish music session at Littlefield Celtic Center, followed by a practice session Monday afternoon. Since other musicians had been encouraging me to attend one of the practice sessions (and I’m still not sure how to take that) I decided to go to Monday’s session as well.
This blog post has no photos. That in and of itself should highlight the unusualness of the past few weeks. Our holiday trip back to South Carolina was..strange, and our return to Samish Island only heightened the limbo-like quality of the past few weeks. I’m sure that will change as we get back into a routine. Until then, here’s a photo-less recap recent happenings.
It was a Sunday afternoon and Laura was still in South Carolina. Later in the evening the Swinnomish Yacht Club would be holding a lighted boat parade along the waterfront of La Conner. I decided I’d check it out.
Laura had to head back to South Carolina just as the weather was improving here. Over the week or so that she was gone I took the opportunity to head out and get some photos. I couldn’t do much because of my foot, but I could drive around to interesting places to shoot sunrises, sunsets, and lots and lots of birds. Here are some of the random shots from those excursions.