Guemes Island

For our fourth anniversary, Tim and I rented a yurt at the Guemes Island Resort.

Wednesday afternoon, we drove up to Anacortes to the ferry dock at the north end of town. This is a different ferry than the big Washington state ferry that goes out to the San Juan Islands. Instead, it is a small ferry operated by Skagit County. The ferry holds around 20 cars and runs every half an hour. It's just a short hop from Anacortes to Guemes, so close that you can see the other ferry dock across the channel.

We got there just in time to get on the 4:00 ferry; we were the second to last vehicle to drive on.

Fifteen minutes later, we drove onto the island and headed north to the resort.

Here is a picture of our yurt.

 

It included a very nice deck.

The other yurts were named Dot, Hat, Jack, and one other that I can't remember.

After unloading the car, we walked down to the beach. I found it rather disorienting to be looking east and seeing water. Living in Seattle, I'm accustomed to seeing water to the horizon only when I look west. 

Scattered among the rocks on the beach were a lot of shells. Many were in pieces, a few were mostly whole, and some were in perfect condition.

We also walked along a short trail near the yurt, and saw this rather large mushroom. I estimate it was 5 to 6 inches tall.

Thursday morning, the first thing we did — even before breakfast — was to go climb Guemes Mountain. This is the beginning of the trail . . .

. . . and here is the view from the top.

Along the way, we had to be careful to avoid many slugs. However, we also encountered an actual snail on the path, which I do not often see in the Northwest.

Along the way, there was lots of new growth on the evergreens.

I remember the first time I noticed new growth like this — the brighter green and how soft the new needles are, not stiff and prickly like I expected.

Later on, in the afternoon, we drove back down to the ferry landing to check out the island's general store.

We had come pretty well provisioned with food and beverages, so did not really need to get anything. Besides a cup of coffee for Tim, however, we did get a couple of fancy chocolate bars and I bought two CDs issued by a label in Anacortes. Beyond the capsule descriptions by the CDs, no one could really tell me more about them, except that the musicians had probably played there and were relatively popular. So, based on just that limited information, I took a chance.

One is "Doc Pyling and the Creosotes" and the other is "One Heart Left" by Sfuzzi East/West.

After leaving the store, we decided to take a different route back to the yurt. We had a map of the island. It's not very large with only a few main roads. Along the way, we saw nearly as many deer (four) as cars, and possible more dogs than cars.

The island seems to not have a leash law. Fortunately, the dogs we saw trotting around were well mannered.

Another thing the island lacks is a stoplight. Many stop signs, but no stoplight. And very little traffic.

Thursday afternoon, we borrowed a kayak (included in the rental) and paddled out into the bay. We did not feel adventurous enough to try to go across to Jack Island, choosing instead to parallel the shore.

The water was pretty calm, and it was very pleasant being out on the water.

Friday morning, we packed up the car and at Tim's suggestion took a more scenic route home. We drove south over Deception Pass, stopping at a turnout to walk across the bridge and check out the historical markers.

We stopped in Oak Harbor to walk around the old downtown, and had lunch in Coupeville, where I ordered Penn Cove mussels.

Then on to Clinton where we boarded the ferry toward Mukilteo and home.

Mystery Flower

Yesterday evening, Tim and I were taking a post-prandial stroll through the neighborhood.

As we were heading back home, we passed a tree a couple of blocks from our house. The flowers on it caught my attention. I had never seen anything like them before.

Tim snapped a few pictures with his phone.

Can anyone tell me what kind of tree this is?

A Very Nice Day

There have been a few unusually warm days so far this year — once or twice even into the 70s — but today has verged on summery.

Tim and I ventured out to Green Lake Park this afternoon. If it had been a weekend day, the path around the lake would have been packed with people. But on a "school day," it wasn't nearly so congested.

The turtles had already come out of hibernation on previous warm days, but they were out in force today.

  

I had an eye out for the early brood of ducklings I had seen a week or so ago. I did not see them, but there were two broods of Canada geese paddling around, closely monitored by two sets of parents.

And I want to know why only dandelions grow in our lawn, but not cute little daisies.

Weekend Miscellany

A little about a lot of different things.

SOCKS

Today, I finished the "first" sock of the pair I was knitting for Tim. Now there are two.

I finished the knitting part last night. That just left stitching up the toes and weaving in the ends.

He reports that they are very warm. Well, they should be. Have you ever seen a cold alpaca? (I stole that. He said it first.)

I'd like to start another pair, because I really like knitting socks. But I should get back to my sweater instead.

GARDENING

Today, we planted the seeds for what we hope will be our summer garden. Two kinds of lettuce (red and green), zucchini, pumpkin, and leftover California poppy seeds.

I could have posted a photo, but there's nothing to see yet. Just potting soil in little planter cups.

I also have a bunch of sunflower seeds that I harvested last year, that I will just plant in the ground. And the raspberry canes are leafing out nicely. I hope their output is better than it was last year.

GREEN LAKE

After a week of mostly rain, it cleared up this afternoon. That prompted me to suggest that we head down to Green Lake for a walk.

The turtles have been out of hibernation for a few weeks now. I thought there would be more of them out sunning themselves, but only a few made an appearance.

However, on the other side of the lake, we did see something a little out of the ordinary.

 QUILTING

I managed to get out to the studio for an hour or two. The project I am currently planning involves using leftover strips of fabric that I have collected over the past several months. I am sewing them into longer strips and trimming them to various widths.

I have drafted a larger version of this block, as well as a diagonal version, and will sew the strips together to make a quilt of a size yet to be determined. It will be unplanned, spontaneous and random. Very different from what I usually do.

FLOWERS

This has been a good spring for flowers. It seems like there have been more crocuses and daffodils in our front yard than in years past.

The dark purple crocuses showed up first, followed by lighter purple and white crocuses.

Then came the daffodils.

  

Soon, there will be tulips.

Last weekend, we enjoyed the warmest day so far this year. It was a beautiful spring day — the warmest day so far this year with a high of about 65 degrees. We were out and about around Capitol Hill and took a stroll through Volunteer Park. Many flowers there to see.

Lastly, inspired by our visit to Vashon Island a couple weeks ago and the Seattle Distillery where we purchased a bottle of their coffee liqueur (scroll down), I found a recipe for homemade coffee liqueur which I will try out, with some adjustments.

Today, I prepared the cold brew coffee and purchased two vanilla beans and a bottle of vodka. Stay tuned . . .

Back to Vashon

Today, Tim and I took the ferry to Vashon.

We first visited the island last summer. Today was a good day to go back. It was one of my days off, and work has been light for Tim, so he had some free time as well. Plus, the weather forecast was promising — partly sunny with high temperature in the 50s.

And, I admit I had an agenda. Primarily, I wanted to go back to Island Quilter to see if they had one particular fabric that was in the fat quarter 10-pack I purchased last July that I recently turned into a quilt top.

I wanted to get it for the binding, and also see if they had a good fabric in keeping with the coffee theme of the quilt for the backing.

And indeed they did!

The diamond print is what I plan to use for the binding, and the word-y fabric is for the backing.

An Accidental Discovery

Yesterday, I accidentally learned about a feature of my point-and-shoot digital camera.

It happened while Tim and I were taking a Stairway Walk through the Maple Leaf/Thornton Creek area of north Seattle. A signature feature of the walk is Thornton Creek itself, which has undergone daylighting over the last 15 years or so.

Much of the walk meandered through residential neighborhoods (not very interesting), but the walk led us by a pond with a beaver dam and through a small wetland oasis.

Beaver dam

Pond next to beaver dam. You can see steam rising from the water.

Wetland

Buds

Mossy log

Our route, following the guidebook, also took us through the area by the Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel. While I considered it pleasant to walk through, it is not without its critics.

Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel

In addition to the environmental aspect, there was some fun public art to look at.

Spires

Glass mosaic circles in the pavement

Floaty things

Globes

Anyway, back to my accidental discovery. At some point, in taking a picture, I hit a button on my camera which caused a display called "Exposure compensation" to pop up on my screen. It took me only a minute or two to figure out that it was controlled by pressing on the wheel control on the back of my camera next to this symbol.

Intrigued, I took a series of test photos this morning of this is the pile o’ yarn.

Its the intended destiny is to become this sweater, called “Better Than the Real Deal” from The Yarn Girls' Guide to Knits for All Seasons.

Here are the test photos. The only difference is in the shutter speed. I can see where this feature might be handy when taking a picture where the subject is against a window and the light outside is too bright.

The yarn is not as pink as it appears here. It's actually more of a brick-y red.