Apparently, the world did not yet end and we’re still here.
Please take a moment to stop doom scrolling and enjoy these gorgeous pics my son snapped of springtime around his ‘hood in the Pacific Northwest.
I asked him to take photos of the famous cherry blossoms at University of Washington but he said it was so packed with tourists that he avoids the area when he teaches, even though his office is near the Quad.
Olympic Mountains
Heavily loaded container ship west of Shilshole Bay Marina in Puget Sound.
I don’t know how it happened since I had all the vaccines; flu, pneumonia, and Covid – but I got sick!
Fever, chills, headache, congestion–all the worst symptoms. I’m feeling better after a few days of antibiotics. When I didn’t have much to do except look through old photos, I found some of my favorites from the Pacific Northwest. I sure wish I was there!
Sunrise through the trees.
Sunset on Shilshole Bay with the beautiful Olympic mountain range in silhouette.
Overlooking the marina.
It doesn’t ALWAYS rain, sometimes the weather is absolutely magnificent.
It looks to me like they’re just lazily going around and around in directionless circles on Puget Sound/Salish Sea in Seattle, but I guess there’s a purpose to it…
The Italian word regatta means “contention for mastery” and comes from the Latin word regattare, or “to compete, haggle, sell at retail.” Regatta came to specifically mean “boat race” — and the many social events related to it — in the late 1700s.
Off in the distance, it looks like there’s a container ship, but sadly, no whales…
Whatever it means, and whatever they’re doing, it makes for pretty photos, credit to my son, high above the marina on Shilshole Bay. The clouds over the snowless Olympic mountain range create a magnificent backdrop.
This poem by Mary Oliver makes me think of the Pacific Northwest where blackberries grow freely on every fence and in every alley and all along the path we take to walk to the Salish Sea.
The Angel kids, as they carefully pick blackberries to avoid thorns, their faces and hands stained purple, turn now and again to share, “Here’s a nice big one for you, Grandma!”
August
When the blackberries hang swollen in the woods, in the brambles nobody owns, I spend
all day among the high branches, reaching my ripped arms, thinking
of nothing, cramming the black honey of summer into my mouth; all day my body
accepts what it is. In the dark creeks that run by there is this thick paw of my life darting among
the black bells, the leaves; there is this happy tongue.
We can’t stop the passage of time nor the movement of the tides, no matter how much we might want to halt the inexorable inevitability.
This proverb appeared about 1395 in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Prologue to the Clerk’s Tale but I also found a source that said it was recorded as early as 1225 and is reputedly a quote from Saint Mahrer. However, it’s also believed that the expression time and tide wait for no man might be older than that.
My son sent me this photo while he was at Golden Gardens Park in Ballard, Washington on beautiful Shilshole Bay.
I did not take this photo but I wish I had. I think my son likes to torment me and send me pics of places I wish I was. He loves the Pacific Northwest, so different from growing up as a Southern California native, so much green! And rain, of course.
It’s as beautiful as a painting.
Whidbey Island is in Puget Sound, north of Seattle. The island’s rugged terrain spans beaches, hills and farmland. On its northwest tip, Deception Pass State Park offers clifftop views, forest trails and freshwater lakes. To the south, Fort Casey Historical State Park is home to a lighthouse and gun battery. The coastal towns of Oak Harbor, Coupeville and Langley have boutiques, cafes and galleries.
I have been there in the past and it’s absolutely gorgeous!
So…sitting right behind me is a SEMI famous local personality who has a cooking show on community television. Somebody else recognized him and said hi or I wouldn’t have even noticed.
I really really want to tell him to include more vegan dishes, that there’s a huge demographic out there that would love him if he included cruelty-free recipes, but he’s totally self absorbed and constantly texting on his phone. Additionally, he’s not THAT famous or he wouldn’t be sitting in the cheap seats, right?
His style of cooking isn’t my cup of tea, but I support his “I’m just a regular guy” niche of encouraging everyone to cook with the ingredients already on hand in the pantry.
So far I haven’t annoyed him, but I’m not at all a shy, timid forest creature. I have zero problem approaching anyone. For any reason. No matter who they are.
On the other side of me is a young man wearing a Stanford Medical School sweatshirt. He’s starting med school in the fall. (I asked.) How awesome is that! I told him I was proud of him. I’m sure you might think…who am I to share unwanted praise, right? But I did. Bright children who follow their academic/life dreams need our support and encouragement. It takes a village, yes it does, and it only takes a minute to utter a few positive words.
I was trying to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm but for some reason I couldn’t get my phone to enlarge to full screen, so a kind stranger directly to my right (an obvious techie) took my phone and messed around with it until he figured out what the problem was.
As terrible as the stories are on the news, in spite of the violence and Covid variants and all the rest, there are still kind and helpful people in this world.
Not a bad way to spend 2 1/2 hours. Not bad at all, especially when I arrive to THIS:
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 