Thanksgiving

Homing.

Like the salmon, we have come full circle.  We live on Camano Island!

I have an exciting new job as the children’s librarian at the Stanwood Library.  People in Stanwood and on Camano Island are welcoming and neighborly.  It feels like a community where we can put down deep roots.

We miss our family and friends in the Southwest.  We’re glad to be closer to our family and friends in the Northwest.  We’re counting on much visiting back and forth.

We are still unpacking and getting settled.  There is so much to do.

And we do have to stop occasionally to take deep cold breaths of tangy sea air, to pinch ourselves and look around wonderingly.  Is it true?  Can we really be here?

Bliss…….

This monumental cedar sculpture (pictured above) was made by Fidalgo Island artist Tracy Powell to honor the Samish people and their traditions.  It tells the story of The Woman Who Married the Sea.

One side shows a human woman; the other side depicts her transformation into a mermaid whose skin is encrusted with chitons and whose hair has undergone a sea change into flowing strands of kelp.  The pole stands on the isthmus dividing Sharpe Cove from Rosario Beach on Fidalgo Island in Washington state.

I have known of its existence for a long time, but never had the chance to track it down until the other day.

Thank you, Stuart, for 21 years of adventure, invention, and romance.