We took a lovely walk down to the turnaround this morning. It was pretty tough going, as the snow had drifted quite high in some places, and the weather had warmed up a bit so it was heavy, with a crust on the top. I have no idea what it would be like now; the amount of snow has almost doubled since we walked (I think we'll need to shovel a path for Nemo; he's having a little trouble figuring out how to deal with the snow). But we're grateful for it all, both the beauty of it and the fact that we STILL HAVE POWER! Yay!

The rains have begun, alas; who would know looking outside today how gorgeous it was here just two short days ago!

I did take advantage of that sunshine, and am happy to report I got this lovely photo of the Sears' bumper crop of Sweet Peas: a perfect tribute to Dick Cole.

September sunrise

It's so lovely to have the sunshine and clear skies back again after all the clouds, cold, and rain. Perhaps summer isn't QUITE over yet!

Hot August Morning

How is it that the heron seems to know exactly where he should stand to make the best possible photo?

Heron in Denial

Hmm. What if we just named the lagoon Denial? Then we could all be living ON Denial instead of IN Denial...

The beauties of funkiness

The chair of the planning commission is not the only person on Bainbridge who doesn't understand why we choose to live on the Sandspit. I distinctly remember meeting someone at a theater gathering once who, upon hearing I lived on the Sandspit, replied, "Why would anyone choose to live THERE? It's so FUNKY."

I confess that my first response upon hearing that was to pity the man. How sad, to look at sights like this one -- the sandspit yacht club on a beautiful summer's day -- and see, not the charm and the color, but the garbage can, the disrepair of the dock, and the questionable nature of Clem's boat's name. How sad to prefer an architect-designed craftsman-style boathouse to the brilliant turquoise of this corrugated wonder.

But then, I guess that's one reason I love living here so much: I LIKE funky!

Here, let me dig up your front yard...

Employees of the City of Bainbridge Island showed up unannounced yesterday morning at 8:30 to dig a trench in Steve and Pippa's front yard. If you look closely at this photo, you can see little Nola watching from the window.

It seems unfortunate that they came in and tore up the yard without any warning, though, to their credit, they did a reasonable job of putting it all back pretty much the way it was. But it was, I think, pretty hard on Pippa because Steve was out of town -- maybe even a little scary, though I'm sure she remained calm to protect Nola. And how did they decide whose yard to dig up?

Apparently they were sampling the soil to see whether they can get by with just digging a trench for the sewer instead of digging up the whole road. Did they dig up other yards as well? Did anyone else get warning of this?

Welcome to Egypt

I'm sure someone out there has a better photo than this of the amazing sunset we all watched this evening. We were out walking the dog, and I didn't have my camera with me; by the time I got home this was all that was left.

But what made the dogwalk for me, as much as the sunset, was the conversations we had with various neighbors about the planning commission meeting last night. My favorite story from the evening -- and there were many; I can't wait to hear more -- was the moment when the chair of the planning commission said we were all "living in Egypt."

Apparently people just stared at her, not knowing what she was trying to say, so she had to clarify. "You know, Denial is not a river in Egypt? -- why are you all investing in building down there? What about storms? What about global warming?"

We're thinking we need a banner at the top of the spit that says Welcome to Egypt! Or maybe we should just incorporate as a little town, like Rolling Bay, or Lynnwood, only name it Denial. We already basically have our own post office -- we could just build a little shack on the site of the old lighthouse, put all those mailboxes inside, out of the rain, and put a sign on it declaring it to be Post Office, Denial, WA.

Jerry, you're good at signs; maybe this could be one of those charming neighborhood projects the BIAHC is so eager to fund...

Red tide in the morning

Those of you who walk the beach regularly around the point are probably familiar with the tree that landed on our beach after falling from the cliff above the lagoon.

This morning it was looking particularly decorative; Chris actually took a water sample of this rather ominous-looking red tide, but Clem Furlong tells us it's just algae. Quite striking, whatever the source. I also photographed some streaks of it in the water from the ferry I took over to Seattle last Thursday. So the algae appear to be making the rounds...

Do you suppose the algae are the source of that weird odor the lagoon gets sometimes in August? Like this tree, I just want to point the finger at SOME body -- and it happens too regularly (and always in August) for it to be someone's failing septic system.

Red sails near sunset

This very small and utterly charming boat with reddish brown sails reminiscent of a Chinese Junk passed by our deck last Sunday while we were entertaining out-of-town guests. I'm not sure which entertained them more: this boat, or the bright red house finch chittering constantly as he balanced on the Christmas lights still suspended from the roof over our deck...

Annual Fourth of July Parade

This year's Sandspit Fourth of July Parade began with a bang as the Meachams provided their annual 21 gun salute (ably assisted by numerous small children fitted with appropriate head gear.)

Steve Kilpack looked on, wearing the pants and drum handed down to him last year by Dick Cole (but a darker wig), and Steen and Laurence showed up in full regalia.

Tom Golon and a host of other flag bearers carried the Star-Spangled Banner to the park, where the parade crowd gathered on the lawn for the traditional patriotic sing, led this year by Susan Thatcher.

Pastor Marty, joining us for his last parade as a full-time resident, sang with Mark Scott while Joanna coached her grand-niece through the unfamiliar words.

Afterwards Gayle Robbins chatted up Margie Cole while Tom, Susan, Steen and Patti Devin admired past photos of Dick Cole leading the parade.


Dick is sorely missed, but hopefully his spirit will infuse us all, and we can all begin to adopt his habit of always having a smile and a kind word to share.

The Sandspit Marauder

Here she is in broad daylight, after having eaten some of Connie and Clem's strawberry blossoms, no doubt! (Be thankful I didn't post the picture of her peeing in the lagoon).

Evening view from the Meachams'

Rumor has it that our Fourth of July parade will happen as usual this year, though we all agree it won't be the same without Dick Cole to lead it.

Dan Devin and Steve Kilpack will be taking us down the Spit this year; be sure to join us at 1:00 at the Meacham's. This was the view from their house this evening as the weather began to change and the thunderclouds rolled in...

The Colors of Spring

Congratulations! According to Mary Clipsham, the garage sale was a huge success, raising a total of $1,789.51 for the American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Bainbridge. It was great to see the Sandspit community come together, both donating and purchasing items. Thanks to Connie, Mary and Susan for all their efforts!

Now if only we could have another sunny day or two before all the purple blossoms are gone on the Robbins' tree... This must be the coldest, windiest, grayest, wettest spring ever.

Randish Rhodies

I hear the Randishes have decided to move back after their sojourn in town; hope they're in soon enough to enjoy the annual explosion of color from those gorgeous rhododendrons of theirs.

Happy Garage Sale this weekend!

Viewed from Suquamish

Animal visitors

Last night we shared a wonderful crabfest at Joanna and Jerry's, and Renee Sears suggested I keep posting photos on this blog. So I'll try to be more regular about sharing the beauty I keep seeing in this lovely place of ours! Today I'm featuring some of our more recent animal visitors...

Good Morning!

People Like Us

I recieved a note from Susan Sivitz this morning, inviting people to a meeting to discuss what makes for healthy community. In the note she says, "those of us who chose to raise our children here did so for a reason--what's yours?" And I got to thinking about decisions.

So how did we decide to move to the Sandspit? Initially we moved to Bainbridge looking for a good education for our girls. We already knew it was an island, and we have learned from experience that we like the way islanders tend to pull together.

But we also did a lot of research in advance. We learned that Bainbridge was a community that welcomed newcomers, and that was important. We learned it was a community that cares for its own and that there are lots of people who believe in working for the larger good. That's important to us as well. And we learned it was a community with lots of opportunities and respect for artists -- which would of course be important to me.

And when we started thinking about the Sandspit we learned that it's a cooperative community -- it has to be, to survive the occasional bouts of bad weather -- and at the same time these people are a group of hardy individualists (who else would have the resources to COPE with that bad weather?) Which, you know, might make us a little wacky... and explain some of our silly traditions...

So those are all values we hold and share together. And now that we're here, I love it; love drifting in and out of each other's living rooms, love watering Joanna's plants, sharing tea with Connie, chatting with Ursula and waving and being waved to as I drive out. I love that Mary was willing to watch Nemo for us, love the Fourth of July festivities, loved the engagement party for Steen and Laurence.

And all those things happen because we build trust with each other and work together. Those of us who live here share a love of this community, a worry about what will happen if the sewer means lots of new houses or a wider road and lots more traffic, just as we share a love of the water that surrounds us and a hope that the sewer will help it stay purer...

Maybe what this is really about is the decision-making process, that if we make informed decisions, keeping the value of the larger whole in mind, we are less likely to go off track? I keep thinking of what Buckminster Fuller used to say about hands, bodies, or any living system (and I think a community is a living system) -- "What you see is not a hand...It is a "pattern integrity", the universe's capability to create hands."

I would like to think that community has become a value for all of us. It's why Chris puts so much time into the sewer project -- because he wants to do what's best to preserve this community. There's a good chance that the sewer is a good thing, but who knows -- the data is still out. And the only way you can really know is to stay involved; to seek out and work for community -- because I think we all have within us the universe's capability to create community.

But the most important thing, I think, when you are part of a community and want to keep it alive, is that you need to keep the values of the community in mind and not get too caught up in your own agenda. Scientists say that when a cell loses its social identity, the resulting "blind undifferentiated cell division...can ultimately threaten the life of the larger organism -- it is what we know as cancer." I think this can be true in a community, too. Not that we all have to agree -- it's just that our disagreements need to come from our convictions about what is best for the community.

I think that's why we celebrate the Fourth in the first place -- because it's a reminder that democracy is special, and our forefathers were willing to die for the values it represents. And those reminders -- parades, patriotic songs, the flag, traditions and rituals -- are a way of keeping the democratic value system alive. You could say that those same rugged individualist forefathers broke away from THEIR community -- the British Empire. But I think the reason it worked (assuming you think America works) was because the values they fought for were good ones.

I am hoping my girls will someday be lucky enough to find communities like this, too. And that they will work to build and uphold them. Which is why I suggested to you the other day, Ali, to leave encouraging notes around for people: it's a reminder that you're all in this together, all struggling, and that what helps make things bearable when the temperature is below zero and you're far from home is that sense that you're part of a community: in this case, a community of people like you, who care about the arts, who value education, who prefer rural environments, who have some silly traditions, and who are ... well... a little wacky!

I keep thinking of that song from David Byrne's bizarre Talking Heads Movie, True Stories :

"People like us"

There's something special 'bout people like us

People like us
(Who will answer the telephone)
People like us
(Growing as big as a house)
People like us
(Gonna make it because)

We don't want freedom
We don't want justice
We just want someone to love.

Time to change the channel?

As I was leaving the house the other day I passed another spit resident who was peering out across the lagoon toward the little boathouse across from our property.

"Do you think the channel is getting narrower?" she asked.

I didn't quite know what to respond; we rarely take a boat through the channel, and usually it's just a canoe, so I'm not sure I would notice if it were getting narrower. But, thinking about it, I can't help but remember those floods we had earlier this winter, and all the water that was pouring down of the hillside. I should think the probability would be high that we got an extra dose of silt out of that.





























So I went out to photograph the channel at low tide yesterday afternoon. I don't know what it's supposed to look like, but it did seem there were more chunks of clay on the exposed sand (I saved one: remember the clay babies we used to pick up on Shaw?), and it looked like the shells were buried under a new wash of sand in a few places. I suspect the truth will emerge when more people begin boating again.

I know on the east coast they actually dredge channels like this but I'm not sure what the environmental impact of that might be, or even if that's the best solution. But it does look like that will be another issue for the community to deal with before long...

But hey, wasn't it a GORGEOUS day?

Nemo

Though his glucose count still needs to drop and he needs to lose six more pounds (he's already lost 5), the good news is that Nemo's water consumption is back to normal and his appointments are now every three weeks instead of every two. Yay!

So now that my toe is better, Nemo is better, the weather is warmer, and it stays light longer, we actually made it all the way to the turnaround on a recent nightly walk. And on our way back, June, who lives in the cute yellow house with the purple door, came out to say how glad she was to see Nemo out walking again. I guess Connie had told her about his diabetes -- but isn't that sweet? We were very touched that she came out and asked about him...

Shoulda used a tripod

Though you can't tell it from this photo, we had an absolutely breathtaking lunar eclipse a couple of nights ago. I know Ali saw it in Vermont -- did it happen in Taiwan as well? don't know how that works... And even if it did, could you see it from your roof in the city?

Anyway, amazingly enough, it was a clear night, so we could watch the whole thing, start to finish, just sitting in the window seat looking out over the lagoon. It reminded me of the last lunar eclipse I can really remember: we were in New Jersey, at Grampa's house, for Thanksgiving, I think, and you guys were pretty little. Do you remember?

Unfortunately in the early part of the evening, when it was still fairly light out, the moon was obscured by clouds. And by the time the moon rose over the clouds it was so dark out that my camera couldn't really handle the brightness of the moon against the darkness of the sky. I suppose a tripod would have helped, but I was too lazy to set it up -- plus, as you know, your dad has this way of suggesting I just enjoy things without photographing them...

But you know the wonders of Photoshop -- I couldn't resist mocking one up to show what it really looked like! So I found a moon shot from another night with a similar low cloud layer and just darkened the moon a bit. And this is what the eclipse REALLY looked like to me: it was amazing.

An antidote to homesickness

Good Morning!

Since both of you have complained lately about being homesick, your dad suggested that we set up a sandspit blog, with pictures, observations, and occasional bits of humor, and then, since we know the other residents like my photos, we can just let them listen in.

Connie Furlong has frequently suggested that if we had a newsletter it should be entitled "As the Spit Turns" so that's what we're calling it (Thanks, Connie!) Hopefully this will NOT mean the blog has a soap-operatic tone...

I believe we should begin as we mean to continue, so to celebrate the dawn of this new era, I am offering a a couple of my favorite photos from this winter. As Joanna's phone message says, "Here it comes!" Or maybe I should quote Mrs. Doubtfire: "Brace yourself, Effie!"










Sophie watches the ducks swimming under the deck



















Winter light makes everything pretty