It was too windy on the weekend for a canoe paddle on Woodard Bay, so we took a stroll through the forest. Second-growth forests of cedar, big leaf maple and Douglas fir; mossy boardwalks; and well-maintained walking trails. It drizzled a little, but the tree cover absorbed all the moisture.Until 1984, the Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. was bringing up to 1 million board feet of timber by rail from all over Thurston and Lewis counties. The logs were dumped in the water at Woodard Bay, gathered into rafts and floated up to mills in Everett. It was quite an operation.
Then the Woodard Bay Natural Resource Conservation Area was established in the late 1980s. It became a sanctuary for harbor seals, river otters, bald eagles, a colony of bats, the great blue heron, pigeon guillemots, cormorants ... just a rich habitat for wildlife.
We canoed the waters of Henderson Inlet and Woodard bay about seven years ago, not realizing that it was a protected wildlife sanctuary in the winter-time. We had not seen a warning sign when we put our canoe into the water, and within a short time we heard a helicopter scouting the shoreline. We quickly got out of the area, paddling up a little stream. The current was a bit brisk, even in shallow water, and our canoe capsized. Needless to say, if we ever hear aircraft over water where we are paddling, we figure 'they're after us again'!
We enjoyed the bucolic charm of Thurston County, and I told George how much I would still love to live out in the country and raise much of my own food.
My goodness, why I hold onto this wistfulness I'll never understand as I'm definitely too old to ever do all the work. It astounds me, just how fast life passes by.Part of that wistfulness is just knowing that I do not have the kind of physical ability to do the work, and knowing that at one time I DID have it. However, I still have a small garden which provides an opportunity to stock my pantry with home-canned goods. I've managed to make BBQ sauce, pasta sauce, pesto, bruschetta, and a few batches of fresh salsa.
This last batch of salsa was incredibly good, so fresh and crunchy.I've kept a bouquet of yellow roses on my coffee table for a week, left over from our IPG.
I told Arlene (the bestower of this gift) that the blooms have begun to droop, and that there is a poignancy about it. I feel that same kind of slump when the harvest season is over. Partly exhaustion and partly a type of melancholy that my labor out in the garden is over. The rain comes, with grey skies and a begrudging light.So, it was a comfort to see candles on Saturday at the Olsen's Devotional.
As I watched them flicker on the little table I listened to the sound of the rain on the windows. I imagined the golden light of autumn sunsets ... perhaps a harvest moon.
