The Blue Tree Picture

In the summer I don't think of this as a particularly striking tree, but in the winter its vine-like branches create a unique silhouette.

Puget Sound

Last January we had an inversion that resulted in the temperatures in the mountains being being a lot warmer than in the lowlands. Lizziviggi took the girls on a hike up Blanchard Mountain to take advantage of the weather. A hang glider launch on the mountain offers fantastic views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula on the horizon.

SkyWatch Friday: White Bird

This seagull was eying a park ranger eating lunch at the Marine Park to see if he had a chance at some scraps. The ranger obliged and the gull and several of his buddies had a feast.

Click HERE for more SkyWatch Friday images.

Haiku Workshop

winter haiku group
more people
than chairs

Lake Whatcom Sunrise

A flock of canada geese have a front row view of the sun rising over the hills at Lake Whatcom.

Whatcom Creek

This piece of creek is quiet.
Too near the ocean,
the salmon have gone by it
And this piece of creek flows on,
Indifferent to the messy miracle upriver
of births and deaths that continue forever.

Bellingham Theatre Guild

The Bellingham Theatre Guild, one of several community theatres, is one of the oldest continuously running theaters on the west coast. It has been operating since 1929, and since 1944 has been located at the old Congregational Church on G Street. The old church was purchased from Aimee Semple McPherson, the colorful founder of the Foursquare Church.

I try to get to a show at the Theatre Guild once or twice a year. Yesterday I enjoyed their take on the farce "Taking Steps," by Alan Ayckbourn. It was quite funny-- a good, local show for the price of a movie ticket.

Bellingham Bay

There's gold in them hills... Olympic gold that is. Home to the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Canadian Pacific Range looms beyond Bellingham Bay.

Mutual Curiosity

My youngest daughter and I were wandering around Fairhaven yesterday enjoying the mild weather when we passed a shop that was being remodeled. The carpenter building shelves caught her eye so we stopped to watch for a bit. We caught the eye of the carpenter's dog and he returned the favor.

Skywatch Friday: Lake Louise

On yet another remarkably warm day for January, I couldn't resist a quick stop at Lake Louise when I was out in Sudden Valley recently. With the birdsong, the mild breeze, and the sun warm on my skin, it felt a lot more like spring than winter.

There is some concern over the warmth of our winter-- the folks in charge of the Olympics at Whistler, just a couple hours north of us, are particularly nervous. Also, we're not building up the snowpack necessary to keep up our water supply come summer.

Still... it's awfully hard to get too worked up about it when it's such a beautiful day.

Click here to see other skies.

Going to Pot

Curly branches sprout from the mouth of a big red pot outside The Fountain, a new coffee and wine bar in the Fountain District. Note to locals-- the house salad is delicious!

Winter Warmth

The pile of firewood sits untouched
like a lonely game of pick-up-sticks,
and the windows are open
to let in the warm breeze.
It is fifty-seven degrees.

Are we sure this is January?

Looking Toward Spring

The rising sun tints my paperwhites blue and pink.

We Had Oatmeal For Breakfast

In case you were wondering.

I'd like to apologize for my complete lack of a CDP presence-- life has been even more chaotic than usual, and I haven't been able to visit my CDP friends. I hope to get back to my normal routine soon, and will try to catch up. Thanks, everyone!

A Small Dose of Reality

After yesterday's flashback to warmer times, it seems a bracing dose of January chill is in order. A winter fog rolled in yesterday, partially obscuring a row of maple trees.

May Flowers

After digging through folders of dreary winter rain pictures, I was ready for something a little brighter. This iris graced our back yard with its presence last May.

Skywatch Friday: Fractured Sky

Bare winter trees mimic many things:

a map of an ancient city, a dry lake bed, or the veins of the eye.

For more Skywatch Friday images click HERE.

Business As Usual

A member of the family business at Griffith Furniture ambles across the doorway. I think he was going to answer the phone.

A Place for all Faiths... Including the Lack Thereof.

This stained glass window is in the chapel at the Skagit Valley Hospital, where I spent much of my morning yesterday supporting my good friend Alex while she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Like all hospital chapels, it's a place for people of any faith to come for quiet and comfort.

This morning, the memory of that softly silent, warmly lit chapel evokes surprisingly strong emotions for someone who is not religious. My two chief emotions are opposite and extreme. I want to thank whoever, whatever, for the miracle of a perfect new life. Yet on the same day this one new life was given, thousands were taken away in the most awful, devastating way. How many baby girls lost their lives in Haiti yesterday? How many grandmothers, how many dads? How many people are still buried under the rubble, crying for help? I would ask why, if I believed there were anyone to ask.

On the Waterfront

The marina is one of my favorite places in Bellingham to walk around and explore with the kids, but getting down to the water is not pedestrian friendly with a stroller or bikes due to limited access roads and the train tracks. As part of the waterfront district development there will be a pedestrian overpass installed about where this picture is taken. The location of the overpass will make the walk to the marina almost a straight shot from our house.

Crimson Carts

The long line of cherry carts

reminds me of red berries,

A streak of summer color

on a grey January day.

Sunset on Horizon

Last August, a worker cleans the windows of Horizon Bank for one of the last times.

***

Our sleepy hamlet of Bellingham has earned the distinction of being home to the first bank failure of 2010. Horizon Bank was shut down by federal regulators on Friday after a prolonged struggle to raise capital after being catagorized as "significantly undercapitalized".

***

Founded in 1922 as the Bellingham Savings and Loan Allocation, Horizon Bank had grown to one of the largest banking establishments in Whatcom County. The bank was also at the heart of a recent controversy over the bank's plans to finance and build a housing development on a parcel of land known as the 100 acre wood in the Chuckanut mountains.

***

Click HERE for the story in the Bellingham Herald.

Thistle, Field and Sky

In an empty lot, a patch of thistles wait patiently for the first warmth of spring.

Skywatch Friday: Ghostbuster Sky

A rather ominous sky boild over Bellingham. Gozer, is that you?

For more Skywatch Friday photos click HERE.

It's A-Boat Time...

...I posted another picture of the Bellingham Marina.

Oh, that's bad. My puns are so mast up.

Sorry. I'm ahoying to stop now.

Doorway to Downtown

Behind this door you'll find

wintered salty air

gulls settling in on the docks

theater-goers in hats and scarves

the sun fading at 4 o'clock

and me

going home to dinner in the crock-pot.

Rainbow Houses

There's no sun shining through the rain

to create a rainbow

These colorful houses climbing the hill

are a nice stand-in though.

White Mountain

Mount Baker, our local glacier-covered volcano. Part of the North Cascades Mountain Range, it rises 10,778 feet above sea level. According to the U.S. Forest Service, it is the second most active volcano in the Cascade Range. The first is Mount St. Helens. Mount Baker holds the world record for the most snowfall in one season-- 1140 inches (2895.6 cm) in 1999.

For Handel

For Handel

1975

sculpture by Mark di Suvero

The campus at Western Washington University, where I spent the better part of a decade, is home to an extensive collection of sculpture. Standing before the entrance to the Performing Arts Center, For Handel is perhaps the most recognizable installation on campus.

Click Here for more on For Handel and other sculpture at WWU

Bellingham Polar Bear Swim

Some of the crazier people in Bellingham celebrated the beginning of 2010 by running around Lake Padden and then running into it for the annual Polar Bear Swim. And although I'm not in this particular shot, I was one of the crazies rushing into the water. We were very lucky this year-- it's been unseasonably warm, and while the water was COLD, the air was 52 degrees... which is 20 degrees warmer than last year!

Happy New Year!

January 1 Theme Day-- Changes

My sister snapped this shot of snow softly falling on a portion of our mom's tombstone. It made me think a lot about change-- how my world is continuing to change, and how much I wish she were here to experience all the changes with me. So much has changed since she died in April-- my youngest daughter is talking up a storm, my older daughter is almost reading. I've written the first draft of a novel. I started doing this daily photo blog. We've been working on the house, and actually have walls in our dining room. How I wish she could see all these changes, and was here to see 2009 become 2010. For me, the world is changing... but her world will forever be the same.