Summer is over.

This photo of the pier near the ferry landing in Edmonds, Washington, does not give a hint that summer is over. I took this last week. Yesterday the air was clean, crisp, clear. And cool. Summer is over - at least in this neck of the woods.

I was left to my own devices all day long - not necessarily a good thing. After walking about the Alderwood Mall for several hours and buying only a monopod for my camera, I figgered it was time to head back to the home base. The restless feeling was still there, and the sun was making a beeline for the horizon, so I thought it might be time for another Mukilteo sunset.

(Do you know what a "beeline" really is? It's a straight line, taken from the observers of bees, flying from the flowers back to the hive.)

This shot (left) of the Olympic range has all those perfectly delicate pastel colors I try to recreate in my drawings but never quite master. (This was what I saw at the ferry landing when I began thinking it was time to consider something rash, like running and jumping on a departing ferry boat.)

On board the ferry heading for Whidbey Island.

OK, so grab the camera, something warm and the car keys. Amazingly enough for a Friday night, the line to the ferry was practically gone! I found a place to park and went to Ivar's and ordered a small shrimp and french fries. As I was sitting by myself, I thought, "Why don't you just get a walk-on ticket and take a ferry ride? It's a nice night, not too windy, no one has to be asked 'Can I?' and maybe you'll get some interesting shots." I went quickly to the ticket window and the fellow said "If you hurry you can get on this one, $4.10 please, and be back here by 8:30." Deal.

Arriving at Whidbey Island.

I was feeling a bit lonely and whenever I get to that place, I find if I do something for someone else, I always can bring myself back to center. Healing me, I heal others - like Reiki which works in reverse. I decided I would take some pictures to share with a particular blog friend who suffers with MM, and who has other challenges which make mine seem infinitesimal by comparison. So this story is for B, not the B belonging to Feresknit, but a B nonetheless - perhaps more of the B-line, since this individual is such a straight-shooter.

The ride over was brisk - brisk by speed standards and easily by temperature standards. The air has a bite from the north which makes the  photography especially crisp, but also nips at one's fingers like an ice puppy making a down vest very desirable.

Waiting to take the same ferry back to Mukilteo.

I loved watching the sky change color and tried to get a clear shot here, but the ferry passenger waiting spot doesn't have great views. The land mass on the horizon is Everett with the Cascade mountain range faintly seen.

Then as the ferry boat whistle blew, I went to the other side to catch this shot (below) of the pink clouds and their light on the water. Really, who could take a bad shot of sunset anyhow? As I listened to the churning of the motors below, I got that same kind of excitement I used to get when we got underway from the harbors in the South and I knew we had an adventure in store. There is a new one ahead for me.

As the ferry heads back across the Puget Sound to
Mulkilteo, the last light of the sun catches the clouds.

But traveling just 20 minutes by boat doesn't constitute the bigger one of which I speak. This was just a side trip, a break in the routine, a short diversion from the longer journey. This was just helping me get myself back on center by sharing something lovely with someone I wished could be sharing it with me... not any friend, but a special pal who listens and gives me feedback. Now that is a Friend indeed!

Arriving after sunset at Mukilteo.

As I walked off the ferry, the fellow who had to help me figure out how to scan my ticket and kept  his calm while the line handlers were impatient to let go and let the ferry get under way greeted me as if I was returning from an around-the-world adventure. "How was your trip?" he asked.

"Quite lovely," I replied. "I had a great time." His smile equalled mine. "That's great! Have a nice evening."

I held up traffic for just a second while I snapped this last shot coming off the ferry and walking toward the parking lot. It sums up my day. We cannot make shore without the beacons of our friends, guiding us toward their light, their unspoken caring pulling us into a safe harbor and calmer waters. And like lighthouses, we don't need many. 

Mukilteo Lighthouse still shines for sailors.

In a few days, I will pack my suitcases and head south - far south... back to South America for a couple of months. I will miss the turning of the leaves, the impending cool of winter. Instead I will be in 75 degrees every day for several weeks and then will come back to the absolute chill of November. Another adventure in the making. More stories to tell.

I will be sharing those travels as I have access to the Internet, so I hope you will check in now and then.

What I Saw Today

Sometimes I go looking for things to cheer up my MM readers and other friends, sometimes I simply stumble onto a special sight, and occasionally I rant and rave about an issue near and dear to my heart. No more rants for now.... here's something I thought was special.

As I walked out of my apartment this afternoon, the light caught my eye and when I focused in on it, this is what I saw... an elegant weaving by Mistress Spider in a filament so fine that if the light wasn't shining on it, I would have probably walked right into it - echhhhh.

Grabbed the camera and caught it.

It's Mukilteo Farmer's Market day so I wended my way to the landing. Luck was with me and I got a parking place pretty quickly. And fortunately I wore a fleece jacket because the wind had picked up and was whipping up the waves as well. In fact, the incoming ferry had to stand off because they probably had a following wind and made it to the landing more quickly than expected. Can you see how the dock sections are pitching up and down? More than a few people were walking out on them to have a bit of a ride - but for some it was wetter and a little bit more than they expected and they wobbled their way back onto land rather quickly.

But then I noticed something else rather special, only I wasn't sure at the time why it might be. If you look closely you can see an older man filling up a plastic bag with sea water. I put that shot here for you.

Then I watched him try to carry it and it spilled out. He went back and refilled it. The next time he was successful and he began walking up the ramp with it.

My curiousity was too much... and I surrepticiously watched and waited to see where he was going with it. It appeared that his wife was waiting to clean the sand from her feet before putting her shoes back on, and he went to her and held the bag so she could put her feet in and clean them up. I think they may have had their son with them as well as he seemed to be helping, too. This touching effort was really a private thing, but like the Watcher on the Wall, I recorded it, to show that this seemingly small act can be replicated - for the good of all concerned. I know there are lots of MM caregivers who are prime examples of this selfless giving... hats off to all of you for all the symbolic bags of water you carry.

A Murder of Crows

"When two or more are gathered together..." they are called a "murder of crows." If you have a bunch of geese, they are called "a gaggle of geese." I forget what this phraseology is called right at the moment, but I felt like doing some serious damage to these insistent avian visitors to the formerly peaceful garden I was enjoying. They, on the other hand, were making a lot of noise, together and separately as you can see from the open beaks.

I am only guessing, but the cherries are in full ripeness now and there seems to be quite a bit of competition from the robins and the crows as to who is going to get the reddest one. I watched a robin carry a large piece of the fruit over to the shadows where it put the cherry down and pecked at it unobserved for a moment. Then suddenly it had to do a 'grab and go' as these much bigger bullies showed up.

The noise was too much so I left for the Mukilteo Farmer's Market down at Lighthouse Park. On another day I will take some time to investigate the lighthouse itself, but amazingly it was already mid-afternoon, and I didn't want to miss out on the fresh fruits and vegetables.

Here are some shots of the market, some of the organic food and the lighthouse. Don't those onions look delicious?

Van Gosh

This photo was pretty good all by itself, but I decided to play around with it, changing the contrast, the exposure and a few other elements. When I was done with it, I thought to myself, "It has a sort of Van Gogh intensity to it now." But I also noticed that the entities on the docks got their heads a little warped by the changes so they look more like aliens who are enjoying the setting sun... oh well. Weigh in on your impressions, please.... pun intended.

This was taken at the Mukilteo ferry landing a few days ago and the wind from the NW was brutal! I was smart enough to have a few layers in the car, but I noticed others were turning as blue as the water as the temperature dropped. But it is great temperature for sleeping under a quilt - I am not fond of those nights when the humidity and temperature are only a few degrees away from each other.

Living Dangerously

Yesterday, the first day when the sun started out shining and went on doing it all day long, I decided to actually "sunbathe!" Although sun is a known risk for a variety of ailments this was not the dangerous part of my day.

LEFT: VIEW OF ENTRY INTO BASEMENT APT

I have recently moved into a very cute basement apartment in a town near where I was living before and since it is part of a couple's house, I am totally blessed with a lovely backyard garden which is populated by a number of robins and crows. I have seen a few other birds, but these are the dominant species.

BELOW: VIEW OF GARDEN FROM ENTRY

The house, seen from the front at the top of this blog, is on the western edge of Puget Sound, north of Seattle. You say the name of the town this way: moo-kill-tee-oh and it's spelled like this: Mukilteo. One of the treats for this new area is that as I drive to and from their home (and my new digs) I find the views are spectacular, even on a grey day. Lots of flowers, lots of high-end dwelling units, and I do not have hundreds of people living beside, behind, above and below me.

So what was the dangerous part of the day? Well, as I was lying on the grass, half of me in the sun and half in the mottled shade, looking up through the cherry tree, I noticed one of several robins tugging on the fruit. Suddenly, "bombs aaaawayyyy!" And a cherry dropped right on top of me, followed by another 'gift' which I managed to avoid.

And here is one of the offenders, who was listening for sounds in the ground. Later I saw it merrily pulling away at a rather large-sized earthworm which was carried off to a nest in the fir tree next to the driveway.

It is so peaceful here and now that we are starting to have some summer, it is really much more enjoyable than it has been for several weeks. I leave you with this somewhat hazy view of Puget Sound... more to come!

Still Retired... but barely

Today Jey-hu took me to work with him. He had some wires to run on a boat and with my nautical experience, he thought I might enjoy the day and be of some assistance to him. As the sun was timid in the morning, I had no idea how lovely the day would become and by the time we finished at the marina, we had a lunch at a place called "Scuttlebutt's" where the clam chowder would make a Cape Codder blush!

Then it was off to Mukilteo (it is pronounced

moo-kit-ee-oh - I think the "l" is silent) to run some more line in a private home under construction. On the way, Jey-hu stopped at the park so I could get out and get my bearings. The view you are seeing here (the second picture to the right) is a little south of the Everett Naval Base station and the marina we visited can be seen just to the right of the jetty. Aren't the clouds magnificent?

After all these days of clouds and drizzle and then rain, it was really nice to have some sun again. Jey-hu says, "There's no place nicer than here when the weather is pleasant." I'd have to agree - today at least!

The worksite is along the waterfront with a view very similar to the photo above. The owner, a woman, wasn't there, but the site was bustling with men working on various projects. Jey-hu and I started running the lines and I wrapped the finished connections with electrical tape. Then he showed me how he installs the security lines for various doors and windows. Gee, I never realized how that was done!

As we headed for home, we drove past Boeing Airfield and he pointed out the large jet which is being used to ferry back to Everett the fuselage of the new 787 "Dream Liner." If you look at the large fin in this shot, you can get a sense of how huge the aircraft is they are building, never mind how enormous the one is they are flying it back in.

All in all, it was a most interesting day for this retiree, and while I actually did a little 'work,' it did not require me to turn in my retiree badge.