Each week I make my grounds rounds on the island - I take care of a few houses and grounds for part-time island homeowners. One of the yards started sprouting striped coral root, so I’ve documented it’s growth progress week to week (and carefully mowed around it each week).
WEEK 1:
The first week’s growth, with a pooch photo bomber.
Week 1: bud close up
WEEK 2:
Week 2: more growth!
Week 2: bud close up
WEEK 3:
Week 3: In bloom!
Week 3: bloom close up!
The other day Jasper dog and I went for a wild flower hike with a neighbor. We came across the densest patch of camas I’ve ever seen, with a deer trail cutting through it and a resting spot at the end. The deer was long gone, but Jasper had to investigate!
Jasper the inspector
The deer trail led to a resting spot against the old building wall. What a dreamy deer resting spot!
Chocolate lily, always a favorite!
Our one native cactus. Very small, with even smaller pinwheel pink/white babies that look like candy!
A special island project in progress… built with scavenged materials as I find them, and time!
While it’s not always an easy life out here on a non-ferry served island, it’s always interesting and never boring. My absolute FAVORITE place close to home, especially this time of year, is what I affectionately call Flower island. An officially unnamed tiny island, accessible by boat, kayak, or a long hike and wade at low tide.
I can never have enough photos or videos of this special place!
So many flowers and grasses! I have 10 years of pictures and videos of this place in bloom. Never enough though!
Late spring is always the most bonkers time of year work-wise between the build, the fast growing grass and weeds in my yard and garden and in my clients’ yards and gardens - but I always take time out to visit the best wildflower island around outside of Yellow Island. This year my boys and I kayaked to Flower island.
Jasper is so happy! This is my new favorite pic of us!
In a few weeks when I’m not so busy I want to make a video of our visit to show you all the flowers in moving color and sounds, but for now here are a few snapshots!
Jasper’s first time in a kayak. Even though he’s an island dog, he dislikes water. So he was nervous at first, but settled in for the ride.
We arrived at low tide, but it was coming in fast!
This bright yellow spray of color in the forest stopped me in my tracks the other day. Swoon!
Omg, I found the hugest patch of the hugest morels I’ve ever seen in my garden yesterday!
What the what?!
On this island, morels are usually small and sparse. So this is a big deal! There were 12 good ones, 8 ones that were past their prime. I shared my find with a few other morel enthusiasts on the island, compared favorite recipes, and sprinkled the past-their-prime morels around my garden in hopes of a larger harvest to share with more neighbors next year!
A bowl-full of morels!
The ladies (L to R): Li’l Red, Big Red, Mabel, Bertha, Freckles.
This morning I made scrambled eggs, courtesy of my ladies, with garlic from my garden, shallots from a neighbor’s garden, the morels, chickweed from my garden and parsley from the garden. Yummmmm!
Happy April 1, the traditional New Years Day in the northern hemisphere; spring being the return of abundance, growth and birth after a cold dark winter season of rest. This lady bug couple doesn’t need a calendar!
My day’s scheduled work for a neighbor, which involved a barge coming to the island, was rescheduled for early next week. Suddenly Jasper dog and I had the morning free. The sun was out, so we wandered the forest trails down to the beach. It rained heavily last night so there were many puddles, Jasper’s preferred drinking water. His preferred hiking snack, new grass, is also plentiful in the spring.
So much new growth these days, tender shoots, lush moss & lichens. What a treat to wander among the plethora riot of life. My life has been so consumed with building and working to build these past 4 years, I miss communing with nature on the daily like I used to do! This is my last year of the construction, or at least I should finish it enough to be livable. And boy, do I look forward to living again!
A garter snake on the side of the trail tolerated my company for a bit. I don’t think it was quite warm enough for her liking yet. I say ‘her’ because look at that spot of blush under her eye! So cute!
Last night I was awoken by a pulsing light coming through the shed windows. There was a light in the clouds above the next island over that was rhythmically rotating from a central point, like a lighthouse light. I put on my boots and coat and went for a midnight walk in the dark to see it from a vantage point without trees in the way. After watching it for quite a while in the still of the night, I concluded it must have somehow been reflecting the lighthouse light at Cattle Point on the southern tip of San Juan island, two islands away. When I returned to my bed, I could still watch it through the windows. Eventually the clouds shifted and it disappeared.
Pacific White Sided Dolphins at Lime Kiln Lighthouse Habitat, another lighthouse on SJI.
Winter is coming, the prolific mushroom bloom underway tells me so! I’ve been ignoring them (and social media) in favor of getting all my good weather dependent outdoor projects finished before winter rains set in. But these purple corts stopped me in my tracks, as they always do.
The seasonal rain begins in a few hours. I have one final project to scramble and get done this morning before the rains begin. But then begins the season of indoor projects and the time to share them here, despite my poor internet connection! Ok, gotta go - dawn is breaking!
The ladies and the lads are getting bigger, and their feathers are starting to grown in! I made their pen larger today. We’re all looking forward to them going outside in a few more weeks!
After several iterations, This is the final first portable chicken coop!
Although I built the coop from scrap materials, it features a purchased metal roll-away nesting box.
Two projects have been at the top of my list lately: chickens & the wood stove alcove.
Heritage breed mutt chicks, hatched from a neighbor’s flock! In this pic, they’re one week old.
This year (finally!) I have all my garden beds, so I don’t have to build more. Now I have time for my newest yard project: chickens! Our HOA allows 6 hens. It’s looking like 3-4 of the 9 chicks will be roosters, but a neighbor outside the HOA can take the guys. As the chicks spend their first several weeks inside a pen in the temporary shed with Jasper and I, I’m finishing up their chicken tractor coop and have ordered the electric poultry fence to keep them safe from predators.
In progress! I try to do an hour or so a day placing large rock facades sourced from a neighbor, interwoven with smaller rocks sourced from the beach.
I should have all the alcove rocks placed in a few more days, and can then cut the wood trim surround in a neighbor’s woodshop when he returns from vacation, do the final grouting, place the wood stove and fire it up!
My bathtub arrives tomorrow on the water taxi. It’ll be a joy to heat the space while I’m working on the plumbing!
Two days of snow the other week here. Here’s what J-dog and I were doing then!
The past week we were visiting family on the mainland, so I’ve been busy utilizing the mainland high speed internet to update the online shop with many new paper prints and new canvas prints.
Reminder that I’m uploading recent short video adventures as my limited internet allows!
We’ve had freezing temperatures and clear skies for the past few days and for another few days, before we get back to the more typical overcast rain. A great excuse to stay inside, crank up multiple space heaters and get some artwork done! I’m working on an island summer deer-in-forest habitat piece that I began several years ago, but has sat in the flatfile drawers for several years while I was consumed with the home/studio build.
Mama and fawn. Possible Papa is also part of the scene, but not pictured.
Before the big freeze, I gathered goodies to make one last winter mushroom medley.
Mostly Laccaria, with some white coral fungi and black earth fingers, green lichen and (I think) yellow sulphur tuft mushroom centers.
This is the most challenging thing I’ve ever built: winder stairs to code. To meet code, measurements can only be 1/8” off. I’ve built and rebuilt each of the main components 3 times, sometimes because I got a measurement wrong, sometimes because I’d realize I could stuff more storage compartments inside. Whew!
Three winters ago I was bushwhacking through the forest and came across a small patch of 4 winter chanterelles. I crumbled them into bits and scattered them in the area, hoping to increase the bloom in later years. Yesterday I checked the area. Boom! A bigger bloom! I’ll be making these for dinner tonight along with onions and garlic from my garden, and salmon I purchased a few months back from the reef net fishermen on Lummi Island.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been uploading short videos to my new YouTube channel. Little slices of life out here, taken from phone footage from the past year. The latest installment features a neighbor’s saw mill.
Been busy working on the final floor plan for my home/studio build, but did manage to take a wee walk with Jasper this afternoon to see who was blooming!
Laccaria in the middle, along with yellow witches hats with dark grey gills, a mini orange-gilled hygrocybe, earth corals and white-tipped black wood fingers.
Late winter nights planning and replanning the home/studio floor layout, consulting Pinterest & drinking tea!