los montanas - the mountains

Rita, Wes and Toby came to visit last week. They have been anticipating this trip for almost a year - dreaming about all there is to do in the Pacific Northwest. Their vacation required stamina, determination, and not a whole lot of down time. I was happy to join them for a whirlwind tour of Mt Rainer, Mt St Helens, and the lovely city of Portland.

Rainer can be seen from Bush Point beach, where I live, creating a sense of close proximity. But when all the hours of travel are summed up, it takes about four hours to get to Rainer National Park from Whidbey Island. We had a beautifully hot summer day to tour the park. A perfect day for travel, best noted by the hordes of visitors who were driving the same roads we were and stopping at the same pullouts we intended to stop at.

After flying through Rainer National Park we headed across the back roads of Washington State to get a view of Mt St Helens. After a few hours drive we were tragically disappointed to find that two years ago a flood had washed out the road to Spirit Lake (where we were headed). So we had to settle with a view of the mountain, but no real view of the total devestation created by the volcanic eruption of 1980. Blast!!

Portland was a great place to end up, though. And we had fun touring the street market, the parks, the river, the country's largest used bookstore and the eateries. I can't wait for my next trip to Portland.

Year of the Bird

The year of the bird continues for me in 2008. Besides the fact that a bird landed on my back while I was harvesting lavender a few weeks ago, creating a weird scratching sensation on my back, I have had close encounters with a nest of barn swallows that have made their home above Sarah and Rick's front door. It has been fun watching the momma and papa bird build the nest, sit on the eggs, feed the fledglings. And the loud, and quite demanding, chirping of the babies as the momma and papa spend all day catching insects and feeding the hungry mouths. It was a monumental day when the three surviving babies took their first flight, and I was there to witness it. Since that day the babies don't come back to the nest that often, but upon occasion I see three sets of beady eyes looking down at me as I am coming or going from the house. They remind me of 25 year olds that aren't ready to face the world quite yet. Still benefiting from their parents hard work.

Life is fascinating.

Lavender Lovers Unite

Part of the reason for my blogging tardiness is due to the annual "event" at Lavender Wind Farm known as the Lavender & Wind Art Festival. Since beginning my job on the farm in February, a group of people have been meeting every month to plan this August event. I initially thought this seven month in advance team meeting a bit premature, but amazingly the time disappeared somewhere between February and August.

My duties for preparing to host possibly thousands of people from the Washington area included: weeding, harvesting, watering, and the like.









Other staffers were in charge of making products, planning and ordering food for the fundraising tent, reserving chairs, glasses and the like, committing musicians for two hour time slots.

The event came and went, the first weekend of August and was a whirlwind of activity on the farm. Musicians, artist booths, beer & wine tent. An insane number of people wandered the grounds, filling our shop, buying lavender plants, browsing the artist's tents. It was a weekend of sunshine, smiles, and adrenaline (at least for the six of us farm staff).

And now maybe my life can resume some sort of orderliness. Right...

life in fast forward

The month of July flew by, it started out with a much anticipated visit from Calli and it ended with an equally anticipated trip to Lake Tahoe for Megan and Chad's wedding.

And then all of a sudden it is August 7th already. What in the world?

A few noteworthy events:

• a bird landed on my back as I was harvesting lavender yesterday, I must have seemed like a very strange colored bush, maybe?
• the acronym NADM stands for National Association of Diesel Motorsports
• Gretchen, a friend from IWU (whom I haven't seen since 2001), visited me last weekend
• lavender beer tastes decent, if you can believe it
• i harvested my first cucumber

Thanks, the library is closing, must go. More later friends!