July 3, 2022 by thornbush2013

Time Flies–the last eleven weeks

Sheesh. Had no idea it’s been this long. Thought I just had to review June. Who can remember what happened in May let alone the last two weeks of April? Hope I took some good pictures. Maybe I was just waiting for something interesting to happen. Very little did. The weather has been lousy (although we did have some nice wildflowers this Spring) Covid hit the island hard in May but has abated some. I will look to my journal for some highlights.

April 16th, the last day I posted, we went to a Roger McGuinn concert. April 20th, friend Liz from Seattle visits–nice hikes around island. May 6th, sister-in-law Lil and her sister Paula visit. Very fun showing off the island. Lots of zoom meetings in between. Birthday zoom as well and then out for pizza. working on cottage and started tapestry and regular walks with friends with dogs. big windstorm on May 18th. May 24th, an 18 year old shot up an elementary school in Texas. (it’s all bad news after that).

June. Spending a lot of time with Transition San Juan Waste Reduction Team. Hosted a booth at the Farmers Market, posted on Facebook for “Plastic Free July”. Wrote emails, attended Port meeting and many Zoom meetings. Made more beeswax wraps with Tina.

Art Studio Tour Weekend–Went to four studios of friends, mostly. Bought some pottery. Bought new tires in Anacortes, new gutters for the cottage, streamed a lot of shows. January 6th committee begins hearings. Three little chicks are hatched, two survive. More rain and wind storms come through. Grass grows tall but nothing else is growing, no pears at all this year, fewer apples, everything two or three weeks behind.

June 14th. The Sun comes out. Book club is so excited they insisit on an in-person meeting outside on my deck. First in-person meeting in a year? June 17th, Willow Basket teacher, Maria Bullock arrives from Orcas to teach class on Grange deck. She stays in cottage. Basket class a success. June 20th–Summer arrives-finally! June 24th, Roe v Wade overturned. June 25th, long-time Metro friends Nancy and Mary arrive. Fun ensues. We go to Orcas for the day on 27th.

Meanwhile, Roger busy with tons of Grange stuff including blackening cedar and making and teaching how to make biochar. Also, mowing, mowing, mowing.

See? Very little happened.

April 16, 2022 by thornbush2013

April Adventures

April First. Grandtwins turn sixteen. Celebrated with Pho lunch in Burlington.

April Sixth: Road Trip with friend Francie and her dog Chulo. First Day, made it to Wenatchee with stops in Index and Leavenworth.

April Seventh: Wenatchee to Republic with stops at Dry Falls, Bridgeport and Omak.

April Eighth: Republic to Kettle Falls with visits to Rachel in Rose Valley and April, Tony and James in Curlew.

April Ninth: Kettle Falls to Spokane (Colbert): Stopped on Lake Roosevelt beach, toured Joe and Cheryl’s place, stopped Colville, Chewelah, Loon Lake. Stayed at Mary’s.

April Tenth: Colbert to East Wenatchee via Highway 2, Grand Coulee Dam, Ephrata, Quincy. Worry about pass conditions spurred us westward a day earlier than planned, eliminating our exploration of Spokane.

April Eleventh: East Wenatchee to Friday Harbor via I-90 with blizzard in Vantage, stop in Ellensburg.

Of course I’m leaving out tons of pictures of scenery and family, but this gives you an idea. We covered most of Northeast Washington. We laughed, we cried. I’ll make a photobook like the one I made for our trip to Olympic Peninsula in 2019.

April Fourteenth: I got a haircut

February 19, 2022 by thornbush2013

I went to the desert in February

My friends Diane and Craig live in Palm Springs half the year and I decided February was a good time to see what it was all about. And yes, I took Covid Rapid tests going and returning. And yes, we wore masks when we were inside. Diane took me to Moorten Botanical Garden to check out the desert flora.

I arrived in time for a birthday celebration in the secret room of the Tonga Hut

We decorated golf cars for a Valentine’s Parade around the Community Center where they live. First prize went to the Tiki Car and 2nd to the Queens of Hearts.

They took me lots of places including a Farmers Market, a Vintage Market, nice restaurants. But my favorite day was when we went to Joshua Tree National Park.

Thank-you Diane and Craig for a wonderful sampling of your desert life. It felt good to get out of the rain.

January 26, 2022 by thornbush2013

Fourteen Years of Retirement

on January 31, 2022 I will have been retired for fourteen years. That’s one year more than the time I spent in Metro Operations as a driver and first-line supervisor and three shy of my time in Service Development. So many of the people I worked with and trained in Scheduling have since retired. The ones that are left have been working remotely since March 2020. I’ve been back to Seattle just twice since the pandemic started almost two years ago.

my retirement party–the twins are almost 16 now

It was a quiet Christmas at Thornbush, but it wasn’t woe be gone. No one died and we were not stuck at an airport for three days like some people I knew. It snowed so there was just the three of us, Roger, me, and Eric. My washing machine broke mid-cycle and Eric was able to finish washing the clothes. I guess you could say I got a new washing machine for Christmas. It came on the 12th Day.

Like I said, it snowed– a lot! My friends were not able to make it up here for New Year’s between the snow here and in Seattle, the new Omicron virus and need for testing, and the ferry system which has been understaffed and canceling trips right and left.

We finally got to see the kids to open gifts on January 9th. Masks and all.

I helped teach a second class on how to make beeswax wraps for the Transition San Juan Waste Reduction Team.

And now that the snow has finally melted I’ve been outside harvesting willow. Hopefully, I will have time to make some baskets this coming year.

Work on the cottage bathroom continues. This week I finished painting and most of the varnishing. Roger repaired multiple pipe breaks under the cottage from our freezing weather. Oh, did I happen to mention the frozen pipes over Christmas? He’s also spent a great deal of time building the kiln that will do everything: make biochar, heat the house, dry the wood, make wood vinegar, and perhaps bake some bread as well.

Maggie Mae and I have taken some great walks by ourselves and with our friends and their dogs. I’m trying to get a couple miles a day in or one mile and some yoga. My life here at Thornbush is very rich. Even under lockdown. Life in Seattle, in an office, at a desk seems very remote indeed. But not that remote. I had another busdriving dream just last night. You can take the girl off the bus but cannot take the bus out of her psyche.

December 17, 2021 by thornbush2013

2021 Wrap Up

Warm Wishes from Roger, Anita and Maggie Mae

Strange year (again). Roller-coaster of believing Covid-19 was behind us and finding out that was not the case. We were vaccinated in January and February, actually travelled a bit in May to visit with family. We spent much of the year working on the cottage and milled and put up all the siding on the cottage addition, had it painted and tiled. And then we boostered again in Dec.

One highlight for me was my 50^th High School gathering in September. Roger focused on building a new kiln to replace our “turbo-burn” which heated out house for the first 18 years of the 20 that we have lived here. We had some good visits with kids and grandkids. And of course, Maggie Mae played a big part of our mental health in dealing with lockdown and social isolation. In August, she and I participated in a dog show, one of a few outdoor activities that we felt safe enough to participate in.

The beauty of the island and of Thornbush in particular is a blessing and a comfort in good times and bad.

We have plans for an active, productive, and more social 2022. Be safe and well, everyone!

September 28, 2021 by thornbush2013

August and September went to the dogs

August started off with Maggie Mae entered in the Community Theater Dog Parade Fundraiser. The next week I attended the Island Childrens’ production of “101 Dalmations”. And every Monday for a couple years now, friends with dogs have joined me for a walkabout at Thornbush. so . . .

My friend Francie came to craft with me on Fridays along with her dog Chulo. And I played around with making an owl for a friend.

Our local museum had a fabulous display of African photographs by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher. Ms Beckwith spoke at the museum one night but Covid restrictions limited the audience to the big donors.

It was a little escape but I had an actual field trip later in August when my Transmission Waste Reduction Group travelled to Orcas and Lopez Islands to learn about their recycling options. (They do it a lot better than we do)

In September, the paint finally came in for the cottage and work began both on the outside and in tilework on the inside. I’m still painting trim around windows. And the tiling is moving at a snail’s pace, but —progress!

Went to my 50th High School Reunion in Seattle and stayed a few extra days to visit friends. The Reunion had two events that I attended. One at Angelo’s Italian Restaurant in Burien where I grew up. And the main event at a place near the airport called Cedarbrook Lodge. We had a relatively small class at Kennedy HS of 173 and a large percentage of these came from my grade school as well. So some of the folks I knew back when I was six. Not enough time to really catch up with folks, but had some great conversations over the two nights. Masking during the evening was not all that fun and brought on some anxiety due to the Delta Variant spike. Must have worked out because two weeks out, I feel fine.

A highlight was taking in a Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives concert with friends later in the week. We had to show our proof of vaccination and wear masks during the show. But very worth it to listen to great musicians doing live music.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Fall posting without mentioning the “Tyranny of the Harvest” . Yes, it has arrived. We’ve been dehydrating fruit non-stop. Picking apples and nuts. The quince and asian pears are not quite there yet. I made a very interesting jelly out of aronia berries.

This is the last week we can walk around Zylstra Lake Preserve. The preserve is closed to dogs for six months to protect waterfowl. And who wants to walk there if you can’t bring your pooch?

July 25, 2021 by thornbush2013

Kids These Days

Tried to take a picture of a fox in our yard–but someone interferred.

July 7, 2021 by thornbush2013

May and June zoom by

sometimes they go by because I have nothing to say and sometimes they go by because way too much is happening. I would say this time is more like the latter. Two whole months! How shall I ever remember and recount? Having a hard time remembering anyway–Covid brain, they call it. Or in the “before times” we would call these senior moments. Let’s see now . . .

Way back in May the big event was a mini-vacation to Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop Washington which is not all that far away in car miles but definitely over the mountain and through the woods. Roger and I stayed at the lodge with half the family some I hadn’t seen for a year and a half. We are all vaccinated now and could hug and go out to dinner with only a little trepidation.

What made the trip even more interesting is that I have friends in nearby Twisp and were able to meet up with them and a mutual friend for a long hike and a fabulous luncheon featuring a garden in a pizza. To top it off, they have a donkey named Maggie Mae.

It was great to spend time with my brothers and sister and their spouses, to hike among the wildflowers of eastern Washington, to shop (!) in the westernized town of Winthrop, and to drive over Washington Pass which had just opened for the season. Gorgeous.

So that’s pretty much it for May. Well, I should mention that we hosted a May birthday party for myself and some others and Roger and I went out to dinner at Duck Soup Inn. Those were giant post-Covid activities. In June, no trips–all my friends came to see me. One week we had five different visitors staying from one afternoon to five days. And no, the cottage bathroom is not finished. But there is water and a toilet. We’ve been working steadily on plumbing and tile prep. I’ve looked at tons of tile on line and on a trip to Bellingham. Crossing my fingers we have finally figured it out and ordered the tile. But I digress. It was fun to see my friends and to take a break from routine and actually sit on the beach for a few minutes. We do live in a beautiful place and nature does not disappoint.

Also, the groups I belong to are finally getting together in person. A dinner party here and there, a couple of potlucks, and now meetings in person, not just on Zoom. The Artist Studio tour was fun and well received. I belong to Transition San Juan in the Waste Reduction team and we are hosting Plastic Free July on the island. This includes setting up a table at the Farmers Market to introduce the concept and get people, businesses, and our local government behind the idea. Plastic Free July – Be Part of the Solution

The Northwest had a few days of intense heat under the “heat dome” and our island was not immune. Some towns in Eastern Washington got up to 118 degrees but our 102 to 104 was barely bearable especially as we do not have air conditioning. A couple of days were spent reading in my craftroom in the basement. The heat took its toll on birds, bees, flowers and trees. By all accounts its going to be a long, hot summer. No rain in sight.

One event that has opened up– the Fourth of July Parade took place. It was very last minute but our governor opened the State up on June 30th. And it you open it they will come. Two years ago my friend Francie got a lot of us together to push shopping carts down the street collecting food for the food bank and the Family Resource Center and we revised it again this year. The theme: Lending a Hand.

Looking forward into July–more visitors. Stay tuned.

April 29, 2021 by thornbush2013

Mostly Maggie Mae

Finished my rug this month. It’s a rep rug which is a Scandinavian style in which the warp shows and the weft does not. The weft alternates between thin and fat and I used Roger’s old tee shirts for the fat. I’ve made placemats in this style before, but never a rug so I’m pretty pleased with it.

Signs of Spring: frog in our fountain, wildflowers at American Camp.

March 28, 2021 by thornbush2013

edging back into normalcy

Back last summer I said I would only post if there is something interesting to say. Apparently, there has not been anything interesting in the last eight weeks—or else, maybe I’ve just been too busy?

So here is a quick summary:

We have both received the Moderna vaccine. We had a rough day after the second dose, but are fine now and edging back into normalcy. As you shall see . . .*

I’ve been weaving a rug now for a number of weeks. It is a new experience for me and I’ve been taking my time with it. Trying to enjoy the process.

Roger has been way busy with building a kiln to burn wood into biochar with the heat produced used to help heat the house.

Large limb over path from fir behind the cottage

It snowed in February and that snow stuck around for a week. I think it pushed Spring back a bit here at Thornbush but we are way in it now.

Our grandson Corbin got to come here for a sleepover on his 9^th birthday. We rode the ferries back and forth to pick him up and deliver him. *First time in over a year.

People have been asking about the cottage.* So here is a little of what we’ve been doing all winter:

Take a log from a pile of them in the woods and mill it into boards and battens.
Cut the lumber into the correct length and finesse it a bit with the table saw.

Put as much of it as we have on the cottage addition that same day

Look at Pinterest a lot to see tile ideas for when we get done with the outside. The shower parts are there but not installed. The tile guy is coming over this week to check it out. We have hot water and a sink and a toilet. Mostly but not completely insulated.

Ventured on to the mainland yesterday to pick up a yellow plastic kayak from a friend. Then got to visit with kids and grandkids and take the twins out to a real restaurant for their fifteenth birthday.*

*edging back into normalcy

Thornbush Report

retirement on a small island