cascade mountains

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55 DAYS – August 14, 2017

Good morning my friends! We got a little rain yesterday and I mean a little, .01″, but it was enough to stop our record run of the most days without any measurable rain. The old record was 52 days and we smashed it this year.

Of course the bad news is, because we live on an island water is limited. We don’t have any snow pack, rivers, streams or large reservoirs, only well water. So to discourage wasting water on things like washing cars or watering lawns our water bill almost doubles.

You can really tell the people who don’t seem to understand all of this. Here’s what we don’t like to see. Probably just the opposite where you live.

Green Lawn

By contrast here is a beautifully kept lawn here in Coupeville on Whidbey Island. Oh, by the way, it’s mine 🙂

Home Brown Lawn

Moving on to this morning’s walk. With an on-shore breeze and a little rain, most of the smoke from the Canadian forest fires has been cleared out but that doesn’t mean our spectacular sunrises are gone.

I timed my walk perfectly this morning to be on the Coupeville Wharf right when the sun was breaking over the horizon, Cascade Mountains and Penn Cove. This first one is my friend “Frank”, the Great Blue Heron, sitting on his favorite lamp post with sailboats in the background.

Frank Sunrise Sailboats

A few minutes later the sun was up a little more and I captured this photo and I really like it.

Sunrise Sailboats

And then as the sun rose even more I was able to frame “Frank” in front of the sun making for a nice silhouette.

Frank Sunrise Silhouette

So that’s it for this Monday. I hope you have a great week ahead and we are able to walk some more as the week goes along. Thanks for stopping by.

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ANOTHER SUNRISE – August 4, 2017

I know, too much of a good thing but I just couldn’t resist getting some more sunrise photos with this smokey inversion layer that’s going on.

While I was waiting for the sun to pop up over the Cascade Mountains I walked down to the beach and took the following photos of the pilings that hold up the Coupeville Wharf.

Wharf from below

I move over to underneath the ramp that goes out to the wharf and thought this was kind of an interesting photo.

Pilings

It wasn’t long until the sun peeked above the mountains.

Red Sunrise over Penn Cove with Boats

I took a bunch of photos but I came back to this same spot for another one after the sun was up.

Red Sunrise over Penn Cove with Boats 2

And that was that! Now the sun is really up and it’s going to be another scorcher of a day. I’ll really be glad when this hot streak is over and we get our clear skies back.

Have a great weekend and try to say cool.

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SHERMAN’S FARM SUNRISE – January 19, 2016

This morning was another dark, cloudy morning but it looked like it had some possibility to turn into a spectacular sunrise. I rushed out the door and beat feet for Ebey Prairie. My plan was to get to the west ridge of the prairie for the sunrise.

Well I got there in time but the sunrise didn’t get the memo! What I ended up with was a shot across the prairie, Sherman’s Farm and the Cascade Mountains in the background.

01-19-16-Sherman-Farm

Walking on around to the other side of the farm I thought this photo of one of the barns with what look like hay rakes on the roof was pretty good.

01-19-16-Sherman-Barn

Earlier in my walk Front Street caught my eye. Even though Christmas is over and all the hoopla of New Years is gone the town is still lit up like a party.

01-19-16-Front-Street

I keep hoping for more light but will take what I can get. Have a wonderful day and as always; “Thanks for walking with me!”

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WATER VIEWS

Happy Friday! I hope you had a good week and are ready for the weekend. Of course being retired the days just sort of all run together 🙂

This morning I had my camera pointed toward Penn Cove and all the beauty that surrounds it. I hope you enjoy the photos from my little walk.

This is looking northeast toward the Cascade Mountains. You can see that it’s a beautiful day coming on.

09-04-14-sailboat

Looking  a little further north is this high-bluff basking in the morning sunshine. Oak Harbor is just beyond.

09-04-14-high-bank

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this beautiful old yacht. It’s called the “North Star” and I believe it’s a 1952 Setphens yacht. I’m not sure about the length but it sure is sweet!

09-04-14-stephens-yacht

To wrap up the week I needed just one more photo of my friend the resident Heron. The water was flat, the lighting was great and he was posing pretty.

09-04-14-heron

Have a great weekend and I hope you come walk with me some more next week.

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GOOD MORNING

I’m sorry for the long gap between posts but I’ve been busy, so to speak. My five minute radiation treatments in Kirkland require a five hour effort with the driving, ferries, parking and some wait time. The treatments are going well and I have ONLY five weeks to go!

I thought I’d share some photos I’ve taken on my trips to the mainland. All of these are from the ferry boat.

Headless Seagulls

Sleeping-Gulls

A flock of different waterfowl.

Flock-of-Birds

Washington State Ferry with the Cascade Mountains in the background.

cascade-ferry

The Super Bowl Champs 747 flying into Payne Field.

seahawks-plane

And one from home. It’s been freezing here for the past few days and our fish pond is freezing over. The water pump made an odd shaped ice sculpture that looks like a bed pan. 🙂

bedpan-ice

And with that I’m off to another appointment. Have a great weekend!

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PARKER ROAD

This morning it was kind of foggy and dark when I left home. Thinking that there would not be many photo-ops I decided to walk out Parker Road and back. That walk does not offer up vary many good photos because it’s a tree lined road with very few views. Here’s a shot down Parker.

21-parker

But to my surprised I spotted this sunrise over the Cascade Mountains peeking through the trees.

21-sunrise

I decided to walk down a side road toward the beach and found a couple more photos just sitting there waiting to be taken, enjoy.

21-clouds

21-beach

My neighbors are removing a bunch of big old poplar trees and they drug their old sailboat out into the street to protect it from the falling  trees. I thought this picture of the mossy, deteriorating cover over a still usable boat was interesting. I guess sometimes it doesn’t take a whole lot to protect your treasures.

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Make a good day 🙂