Walk the Beach!
Many approach walking as exercise, however there are still many who walk for their souls and their body tags along. It is a form of meditation, shifting from overdrive into soft time, quieting the chatter in the head, solving problems – taking long strides, concentrating on the slow, steady rhythm of breathing, comforted by interior silence. Looking and listening – letting go of expectations and life unfolds. Step by step.
Walking the beach is a bit different. You walk to find a treasure, to exercise the limbs, and soothe the soul. To marvel at the birds that play against the sky and clouds. To watch the waves. To simply smell the salt air, to feel the sun and wind against your face, and to run from the foam grasping for your feet. To think and reflect. And no matter how far apart your visits might measure, you are always free to renew an old acquaintance with yourself.
There are those who diligently comb the beach for agates, jasper, arrowheads, special rocks, driftwood, shells, and beach glass. They walk the beach with their heads down. They can’t help themselves. They are collectors.
Many beaches in the islands are highly promoted and/or visible. Some are not. Good examples of the latter are Deadman Bay on San Juan Island, Judd Cove on Orcas, and Watmough Bay on Lopez. Get a map. Check them out!
Secret Gardens in the San Juan Islands
As you drive around the island, you may not think many islanders are into gardening. To the contrary, due to the abundance of wildlife, gardens here tend to be hidden from plain sight. Many take advantage of the topography, views, and trees or simply have an abundance of potted plants on the deck.
A visit to a garden can be a journey. The garden embraces you as you arrive and quickly transports you from the everyday world into a whole new dimension. Your senses are immersed in the experience – light changes, vistas open and close, and you become aware of sounds, colors, and textures all designed to engage and delight.
When designing a home garden, many feel it is essential to relate the house to its surroundings. People tend to spend much of their time indoors and keep this in mind when designing a garden, bringing the garden into the house with compelling views through the windows.
For some, the words art and gardening never mesh. To them, art is something found in a museum, a theater or a concert hall. Art outdoors might be a sculpture park, where the plantings are merely a background. For serious gardeners, art is an everyday experience. Their artistic vision sees beauty in the plants – they create a garden experience where scent, sight, color, sound, and texture combine to make a three-dimensional symphony that continually grows and changes.
Gardens should be spaces that invite gathering, entertaining, and relaxing. Gardens are for living.
Opening Day of Boating Season!
May brings us Opening Day of the Boating Season, but actually boating is pretty much a year round thing in the islands. The many moods and embracing presence of the all-encircling sea is seductive, to put it mildly.
Boating is a way of life in the islands. The San Juan Islands are truly the consummate playground for boaters. The islands’ rich history, natural beauty, rare wildlife, and secluded anchorages as well as moorage opportunities and full service marine docks appeal to those who love being on the water.
Greg King has many clients who have opted to purchase homes with docks or perhaps access to community docks. Some may keep their boats here year long and some opt to use their dock specifically for the shoulder season as a means to cruise/sail the islands in the quieter off season.
Islanders may use their boats to go fishing, maybe a quick run to Lopez for breakfast or lunch at the Orcas Hotel with a stop at the irresistible store at the Orcas Landing. Some visit friends on outer islands. Some head to Sidney for dinner or the Gulf Islands for the weekend! The fun never ends.
When you read that Greg King services all the islands in the archipelago, did you ever wonder how he actually did that? He has a boat! And, transportation on outer islands. Not rocket science…
Spring!
As much as we may yearn for it, Spring can take us by surprise. We wait and we wait. And then, finally we open our eyes one morning to a coppery dawn, a stretch of sky burning with color and drenched with glory making magic with the sea, a heavenly fresh breeze, glowing greens, colorful blossoms, birdsong, and the very feel of Spring.
The first whisper of Spring holds such promise. Our smiles deepen, our laughter increases, our hearts open. We feel stirrings of hope. As Winter’s cold begins to retreat, easing its grip upon our imagination and inclinations, slowly our spirits awaken, along with the natural world. We anticipate a new beginning, a fresh start – a new chapter in life waiting to be written.
It is time to laugh, play, and create. It is a time to revise and change.
Change can ambush, upsetting our comfortable routine. But, at this time of year, change is expected – perhaps, even invited. Not a time to be shy or reserved, we flirt with the opportunities and possibilities. Trust yourself. Act on your instincts. To hold back, hesitate, and halt is to snuff out the spark.
No need for impatience. Preparatory steps are necessary. Quiet your mind, carve out time to dream and express yourself. It is pretty amazing what a little shift in perception can do.
If all else fails, go to the beach!
Winter Birds in the Islands
To many who live in the Northwest, Winter is synonymous with hibernation and dormancy. Those who live in the islands tend to let Winter weave her wondrous spell. The stunning ordinary in the simply overlooked.
The San Juan Islands are fortunate to be blessed with a spectacular array of birds that only visit between Fall and Spring. Trumpeter Swans are the most obvious as they are the largest and most conspicuous of water fowl and are commonly spotted on ponds, lakes, and marshes. To see them flying in V-formation is a sight to behold.
But, there are other Winter birds that may not be quite so obvious. Their colors tend to be subtle, although stunning. Some border on extravagant! Great beaches to spot these birds on San Juan Island include Fourth of July Beach, Cattle Point, South Beach, Roche Harbor, Jackson Beach, False Bay, Jakle’s Lagoon, and Lime Kiln Point State Park. The spit of Fisherman Bay Preserve on Lopez is good as well as Crescent Beach and Waterfront Park on Orcas.
All of nature seems to be at peace. This is the time to dream. In the natural world, Winter is typically the season of rest, restoration, and reflection. But, not for the Winter Birds in the islands!
Soon, the sun will shine and the temperature will rise above freezing. Grab your binoculars and maybe a bird book, then head out to explore for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.
A Place in the Islands
Sacred partnerships arrive in our lives in many forms; sometimes consisting of wood and stone, rather than flesh and bone. There is a deep peace and contentment to be found in the intimate connections with places as well as people.
Every relationship we have – with other people, with our work – reflects in some way our soul’s intimate union with ourselves. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the relationships we have with a home. We deserve to live in a home that welcomes, embraces, nurtures, delights, and inspires.
When we find ourselves there, we recognize it. It is a vision of something we have had in our mind and the discovery, quite often, has the characteristics of an epiphany. We have the feeling of coming home. It wraps itself around us.
The same is true of a getaway – a haven, a retreat, a refuge – a special place that offers a sense of sanctuary. Families, couples, and singles – regardless of gender – share an urge that borders on primal to have what can be called a getaway. Whenever we find this special place, we add a richness to our wondrous, but sometimes hectic, lives by following our vision to create a getaway of our very own.
To live on an island is to experience a life apart. The island home reflects the owner’s reason for escape. Island homeowners are individualistic, socially conscious, and creative with every home fulfilling its owner’s dream of privacy, harmony with the surroundings, and more importantly, providing a chance to take a closer look at the world.
Living at the water’s edge is an almost universal desire. It is different – where two worlds meet; a little piece of infinity. Magic!
The Friendly Isle – Lopez Island
Lopez Island is truly a magical place, eliciting in many an almost ethereal response to its sheer beauty, its substance, and its peace. It is a different way of life: the pace is slower, the world quieter, the people approachable. Many from near and far have discovered Lopez and found it irresistible.
A rural patchwork quilt of fields and pastures, interrupted by sections of velvety forest rolling down to the edge of the sea, with its quiet pace, reminiscent of days gone by, Lopez boasts a well-developed sense of community. To understand the present, you need to understand the past – understand the island’s history.
In the beginning, Northwest Coastal Indians spent Winters in cedar-planked loghouses and used the warmer months for hunting, fishing, and cultivating/gathering plants. Later people came to Lopez for a variety of reasons – prospectors returning from various gold rushes and passing through the islands, relatives and friends of residents, respondents to advertising – those hoping for a better life.
As people moved to the islands, three main communities formed: Port Stanley, Richardson, and Lopez Village. These communities all boasted steamer service, a store, and a post office. A smaller area known as Mud Bay also had a post office and a school. People were, by necessity, self-sufficient. Survival depended upon community; they bartered and shared. And now, as then, the best way to make a living on Lopez is to wrest it from the land or from the sea.
The story of Lopez is the story of community. Living self-reliant lives while helping friends, neighbors, and newcomers. Lopezians created a unique community character that abides today. It is this which has shaped the island’s history, far more powerfully and significantly than we may realize. The island continues to echo those early times.