2010 Calendars and Directories are Available!

The 2010 Sandspit Calendars and Directories are here: you can pick them up from us or from the Thatchers (at the other end of the Sandspit). Directories are $5 apiece, and calendars are $15 apiece.

For now we ask that you just take one directory per household and let us know if you'll be wanting more, because we want to make sure everyone gets one before we start ordering additional copies (they're easy enough to print).

I shot the Calendar Cover during that cold snap we had last week, so there's a little mist rising off the lagoon to remind you that not EVERYTHING about winter is bad!

Happy Holidays; hope to see you soon!

Diane

Welcome to Winter!

High tide season's here again, and Kevin and Susan Lee, the new owners of the Cole's place, have a boardwalk that keeps floating out into the road.

Mike Meacham retrieved it a couple of days ago and tied it up, but it floated off again this morning; here he is driving a stake into the ground to hold it in place.

Welcome to Winter! --

and Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Farewell to June

Greetings to all --

Dan Devin has asked me to note here that June Carey died peacefully on Wednesday evening, September 2nd. We will let you know when a decision has been made about a memorial service. In the meantime we extend our condolences to her family; we will miss her friendly waves as we drive by.

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The sunrise was particularly beautiful this morning... reminds me of William Blake's line, "Colours are the wounds of light."

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Late night noises

Last night we were awakened just before midnight by a loud grinding and roaring noise outside our window. ("And from the lagoon, there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter!")

Peering out the window into the starlit but moonless night, I could see that someone had attempted to enter the lagoon as the tide was going out -- in the dark, with no lights -- and, when the inevitable happened he assumed that by gunning the motor loudly (digging it deeper into the sand) he could somehow extricate himself from his plight.

After listening to several rounds of motor gunning I finally gave up and called 911, but they never sent anyone and eventually the tide subsided enough so that even in the dark I could see the light sand being exposed around the boat and hear their footsteps as they climbed reluctantly out and trudged home.

Sadly, it took me until 4 am to get back to sleep, but, seeing the boat this morning, anchored and drifting quietly in the lagoon as if the tension and noise of last night had never happened, I choose to follow its example and let the frustrations and challenges of the night before be released, to float gently on the surface of today. I think I'll just relax into it, do what I can, rest when I can, and keep floating.

And now I see that the boat's owner -- whom I do not recognize -- has kayaked over to the boat to usher it home. All's well that ends well!

Happy Fourth of July!

Coyotes on the Sandspit

We ran in to Bruce and Cheri Ziebart (they're at 15671) at the Rotary Auction preview and they invited us down to a family picnic at Fay Bay this evening.

We drove down because we were running late (we've been doing some house cleaning because we have friends coming over tomorrow to go kayaking). We met some wonderful people and had the best baked beans EVER (Bruce won't share his recipe though) and fabulous beef, pork, salads, brownies, cupcakes -- quite a spread!

So I decided to walk home to work off some of those carbs. The good news is I ran into Connie Golon; the bad news is the warning she shared -- apparently several coyotes have been seen on the spit over the last week or two. (No, I didn't take this picture; found it on the internet at Encyclopedia Britannica).

So keep your cats and small dogs confined if you can. Our Alex won't accept confinement so we're feeling a little anxious... And if you spot a coyote please call Connie Golon and let her know.

See you all at the Pancake Breakfast! -- and I'll have some leftover calendars there if you're interested... and in honor of all that bacon Bruce puts in those baked beans, here's an unusual bacon recipe!

Diane

July 4th Pancake Breakfast to support Relay for Life

Come one, come all, bring your family and friends to the Sandspit Fourth of July Pancake Breakfast!

Location: Thatcher’s Beach Deck
15615 Pt. Monroe Dr. NE
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

100% of the donations from breakfast will benefit the American Cancer Society’s Bainbridge Island Relay For Life "Spitters & Friends" Team Fundraiser.

The Spitters & Friends team is participating at the American Cancer Society's Bainbridge Island Relay For Life Event scheduled for July 18 at 4:00pm at the Bainbridge Island High School Track & Field. All Sandspit family and friends are invited to come join and walk a lap or just come and support the Sandspit team. If interested in walking a lap contact Connie Golon or Mary Clipsham; visit the Relay for Life website for more information about the Relay.

The goal of the Relay is to bring awareness of early detection and to raise funds both for cancer research and for programs offered to support those touched by cancer. Cancer remains one of our greatest health concerns: only by working together will we be able to eliminate this devastating disease.

For further information about the Pancake Breakfast, contact Connie Golon at 842-4096 or conniegolon@yahoo.com

We're delighted to see June's lawn has been set up as a croquet field in honor of last weekend's birthday celebration. But we're saddened that one of those chairs is empty now with the loss of her daughter. Our condolences go out to her: it must be very hard to outlive your child.

Sunset reflections

Haven't our sunsets been GORGEOUS lately?

Update on the collapsed boathouse

Before I begin I thought I'd share this lovely shot of the Furlong's garden --
taken (of course) before all this crazy rainy weather we've been having...

I saw two people out in the lagoon at low tide with clipboards, making notes about the boathouse, so I (perhaps foolishly) assumed that it was the Coast Guard responding to our concerns and that they might be planning to do something about it.

No luck, I guess -- and it must have been pretty challenging for the Scotts to waterski around the floating wall and the boathouse during their daughter's party this weekend. Perhaps it's time to contact the fire department and ask if they might be willing to burn it?

At any rate Dan Devin and I would love to track where that floating wall is going. If you happen to see where it's lodged, could you let one of us know? We should probably at least try to tie it up somewhere so it's not a boating hazard.

Also the Scotts had to prop up the Partins' northwest fencepost after someone knocked it down in the night (it was tipping out into the street). If you happen to know who hit the post, could you let me or Cindy know? Thanks...

Further adventures with the boathouse

Dan Devin called this morning to thank me for posting the photos of the collapsed boathouse. But he had a problem to report as well: a wall of the boathouse has now floated loose, and is lodged against the pilings of his house. He was thinking of calling the Coast Guard for assistance, but first we thought maybe we could all go out there and chop it up and burn it at low tide (apparently the owner's house is in foreclosure, so it's unlikely he'll be doing anything about it).

But Renee Sears pointed out that there's a burn ban on so I called the fire department, thinking this might be a good practice burn for them to manage. I did manage to fight my way through all the menus to a real person, who seemed interested, but he informed me that I would need to call back on Monday and speak to either the fire marshall or the chief.

Unfortunately some of the pilings have been floating loose as well, and we are all concerned that with each high tide the probability grows of pieces floating loose and either blocking the lagoon, impacting someone's house pilings or damaging someone's boat as they leave the lagoon, so we are back to square one and Dan Devin will be contacting the Coast Guard to see if we can solve the problem any sooner. Stay tuned for more information!

Sandspit Sea Lion

I promised the Sears I would post these pictures of the sea lion that visited us last month...

It was March 12: I was taking Nemo for his customary walk, and he turned right off the boardwalk instead of left as he usually does. Okay, I thought, no problem, I can be flexible about this. But when we were in the middle of the Meacham's portion of the beach this lovely lady lumbered out from behind the giant driftwood stump that sits in front of Joanna and Jerry's house.

Though you can't tell from this photo, she was close to seven feet long, and almost four feet high standing up (if you can call it that). What amused me was that Nemo -- who (as many of you know) believes he owns the beach, and exerts his authority by barking and chasing anything else that dares to step on it, whether human, bird or dog -- was struck speechless. He stopped dead in his tracks, planted his butt firmly in the sand and just stared -- and mama lion stared right back.

Eventually I was able to drag him away, but he kept looking back as we headed home. You could almost see his doggie wheels turning: What WAS that thing? Should I be defending my beach? Is it coming after me? He was so stunned he forgot to pee, and Chris had to take him out again later. I went along, of course, with my camera...

And up on the roof there arose such a clatter...

...that I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter!
And what to my wondering eyes should appear...

This morning I noticed a lovely fog dancing across the surface of the lagoon and went out to take a picture. It wasn't all that photogenic, but the sunrise was, so I turned to photograph the sunrise just as a seagull flew into the image, and I got this perfect shot.

But this post is not about the perfect shot, but the one that got away.
Because while I was taking this picture, I heard a huge clatter, and turned to see two eagles who had apparently been battling -- or perhaps mating -- in mid-air and had gotten tangled up and plummeted onto the roof of that boathouse just across from us, by the entrance to the lagoon.

I wasn't quick enough to photograph them on the roof -- I turned just as they were sliding off into the water. One of them managed to extricate herself before she hit the water; I got this (very bad) shot of her sitting on the ladder of the boathouse watching the other eagle trying to extricate himself from the water (have you ever watched an eagle try to swim?). So I got another shot of the waterlogged eagle sitting somewhat bemused and bedraggled on the bank after crawling out.


End of story -- or so I thought -- until 2 hours later I heard another huge crash and banging, and thought perhaps the eagles were now battling it out on my roof. But Nemo started barking and wouldn't stop, so eventually I went out into the living room to see what was up. It still wasn't obvious, but he was staring fixedly at a point just beyond our boardwalk so I stood next to him to see what he was focused on and couldn't believe my eyes: the boathouse had just completely collapsed into the water!

I called Joanna, but she hadn't seen it happen (though she'd heard it), so we decided to call 911, as we didn't know who owned the boathouse. We worry that if it were to float loose from its moorings it could effectively seal off the channel. So the police came by to investigate, and I showed them the before and after pictures. Pretty funny -- I heard the dispatcher ask the policeman over his walkie-talkie if he had gotten the license numbers of the marauding eagles! My policeman assured him that if he caught the perpetrators he'd be sure to haul them in...

I tried tracking down the boathouse through Google maps with no luck, but found what might be the owner by going to Zillow, the real estate site and called the agent who is listing what I think may be the house that owns the boathouse (the listing does say it has a boathouse, though there's no photo). Such fun to be a detective! And so I've done my best to notify the owner. If anyone knows for sure who it is, they might want to call and find out what the plan is to take care of the problem...

Like the song says -- My Lord, what a morning!