| Situated as we are at sea level, even as the mountains above us are covered with snow, many years we don't experience snow fall at our home, let alone, snow that "sticks". The first months of 2021, though, we had enough snow that we could slide down a hill on one of our parcels. Grandpa and grandson especially enjoyed it. |
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| Dad introduced the one-year old to "catching air". |
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| Within a couple of weeks the snow had melted around the house. On to new experiences. |
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| In the spring, Bowen showed his son Bobo how to work the garden. The "apple doesn't fall far from the tree". A picture from the archives is that of John showing Bowen how it was done when Bowen was around Bobo's age. |
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| We are prety comfortable living side by side with local wildlife. We rarely take pictures, but here are a few, a western toad, identified as a species of concern nationally, but doing just fine around here, also a barred owl. |
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| A couple of largish, formerly wooded parcels south of our conserved area have been recently logged of their timber, then developed for housing. We think that this has resulted in wildlife moving north to our still-wooded areas in greater numbers. This particular bunch we call our Lawnmowers. |
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| At our condo in Wyoming the wildlife falls more under the heading of charismatic megafauna; when there is adequate cover close by, this cow moose and yearling are as at home in a condo courtyard as are the deer wending their way across our lawn. |
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| As farms in our Sequim-Dungeness valley have been subdivided for housing, large-scale dairy farms, with their associated hay fields mostly have disappeared. Some of the farmers who remain in the area have transitioned to crops more suited for smaller-acreage, higher-value crops. Here's a lovely picture of one such field. Farmers participate in the annual summer Lavender Festival which brings tourists to sample the products while they enjoy the sights and smells of fields in bloom. |
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| I'll close with the usual sequence known as "where our food comes from": a limit of spot prawns fresh from the sea, a satisfied fisherman with a ling cod, and king salmon (chinook) "in the box". |
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| But wait, there's more to the story of where food comes from: There are inevitable maintenance tasks to keep one's gear ready for duty. The first picture shows the boat having had a new coat of barnacle-resisting bottom paint. Lastly, a long trip home at sunset, hopefully having landed aforementioned food. |
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Shop Locally; source your food close to home .