Nose to nose in Beaver

Just 6 miles north of Forks, on the way to "town" but still in the West End, there is a little place called Beaver. It consists of a small antique store, a small grocery store/gas station, a baseball field/park, a post office, fire department, lumber mill, the residents, of course, and Lake Pleasant - a pretty little lake with some scenic and calm canoeing. This carving and the old fire truck are alongside the antique store. The beaver is about five feet long, and fun to see.

I almost chose this sign for the September theme day of street lights/signs.

Logger carvings welcome

These carvings are just north of Forks on Highway 101. They welcome as one drives south, and seem to wave a "come back soon" as one drives north.

The topmost logger is in tree-climbing rigging; and the center logger is holding an ax. The bottom logger is an addition this year, I believe. They look to be near life-size carvings.

An appropriate display for a logging community; and one that brings a smile whenever we drive by.

There are a couple more new carvings nearby on the ground, but I didn't get a good shot of those. I'll have to try again.

Lunar eclipse by an amateur

From full moon to full eclipse. These happened during the night and very early morning of the 28th, but I was too tired to sort them. I haven't mastered the manual settings on my digital camera; but, I had fun trying! It was so interesting to watch.

Before the Lunar Eclipse

Getting ready for the eclipse, and taking shots of the beautiful full moon,

a mist kept coming in and going out, creating wonderful effects around the moon.

Some the camera just wouldn't capture, but the starburst effect stayed for a while.

The moon was so bright that we didn't need our flashlights to walk around.

The skies were clear, and Mars stood out in the eastern sky, even with the full moon blocking out most of the stars. During totality, the stars were bright and amazing, the Milky Way shining across the sky, and Mars was brighter than ever.

We didn't stay out to see the moon coming out of Earth's shadow, and a good thing. By a little after 5, clouds had moved in and covered the moon completely.

A great way to spend a night: bundled up in fleece blankets, drinking hot chocolate, relaxing on the deck with my favorite fella, watching the earth shadow take a bite out of the moon, then see the moon turn shades of brown and red and orange, while the stars twinkled overhead.

I love retirement!

Garden along the road 3

A closer view of the roadside garden.

Garden along the road 2

The roadside garden from another view.

We have hopes of creating a lush garden at our own house.

This will be one of our inspiration gardens.

Garden along the road

This beautiful garden is along a main road here, so we see it fairly often, thankfully.

The elder woman who keeps this garden says it's hard work at her age, but she enjoys it.

We are so glad she does.

I'll be running a couple more shots of this garden the next couple of days.

Eagle captured in flight

Another woodcarving from driving around town.

This one is a favorite by local chainsaw carver

Dennis Chastain - Den's Wood Den.

It's probably 8 foot long - wingtip to wingtip,

with a 2 or 3 foot steelhead.

We've watched him work on his carvings.

It's fascinating to watch,

even with the noise of the chainsaw.

Watching him take a tree trunk and transform it using a machine that scares the daylights out of me.

My husband is a carver, but he uses hand tools.

He and Denny talked about carving.

Denny said he tried hand tools, but didn't like them.

I guess it's all in what you're used to.

Denny worked in the timber industry,

so a chainsaw comes naturally to him;

and he's an artist with it.

Hummingbird 'Fighters'

The hummingbirds keep us company all summer, very interesting to watch and listen to. Their chirrups let us know they're in the yard even when we can't see them. These two were having a territory dispute, so they're both male. One would be feeding on the fuchsia, the other would fly in, and the "dogfight" would commence; the hummingbirds doing spirals around each other, dodging and weaving, chirruping at each other, sometimes very aggressively. They fly so quickly that they are incredible to watch. They even zoom up and around us as we watch from the deck 5 feet away. They don't seem to be afraid of us, though they are aware of us. Several times they have flown up to us, hovered within a foot or two of our faces, just looking, then flown away. My husband was weeding around the fuchsia, and they still came to it. We've had four or five together at a time, which must have been a family group. Getting these two on film together was a fun challenge; but, just watching and listening is a fascinating daily circumstance.

Look what we caught!

Now that's a fish! And they look rather proud of it, too.

These woodcarvings always make me smile when we drive by them.

Now THAT'S a beak!

This flicker sat on the fence and posed for my husband for quite a while. Think maybe he's a little proud of that beak? He is cute, and part of what seems to be a family group that come to visit fairly often. The last shot looks as though he's getting a little huffy about it all.
Couldn't resist posting a couple of shots of him, though.

The pitter patter...

After looking at the Oslo City Photo site, and reading of their mysterious footprints, I thought of these photos I took on Relay for Life weekend.
[This is a montage.]
These footprints were put up in all of the windows on the main street here, pointed toward the high school track where the relay was. Not mysterious, or even original, probably, but they made me smile and think of "Footprints" - the poem about footprints in the sands of time. They also could represent the thought of walking a mile in someone else's shoes. Interesting thoughts on such an already thought-provoking weekend.
Oslo City Photo - http://oslodailyphoto.blogspot.com/

Riding in style

We saw this gorgeous old convertible parked at the restaurant today.

Talk about riding in style.

Who's that peeking from the hedge?

We like the way this carving is "hiding" in the hedges and keeping an eye on the road. The weathering shows it has been around awhile. He looks to be about 6 feet tall, with a 3 foot fish. Since the steelhead trout fishing around here is supposed to be the best anywhere, I like to think it's a steelhead he's bringing home for supper.

Weathered shelter

This looks like the beginning of a walking path.

There's a trail broken, and a logging road beyond the trees.

I'm not sure which came first - the shelter or the path.

I like the way the wood has weathered. Looks to be cedar shakes -

we have several shake mills here.

Flower bed

The title really says it. It looks to be a bassinet size bed,

or facsimile thereof.

A well made bed.

Bear climbing tree

Remember the song "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" ... to see what he could see? This bear climbed a tree to see what he could see.

There are lots of large carvings around town; but I believe this is the largest. This is in someone's front yard. I left a small piece of the roof of the house in to give it perspective. The gray color is from the weathering, though we don't know what kind of wood it is. 1989 is carved into it, with initials.

Cool to drive by.

West End Surf Shop sidewalk

This storefront has such a relaxed and welcoming look. When we first drove by, there was a bicycle leaning up against the wall. By the time we got back, the bicycle was gone.

This is a new shop that just opened this summer. They deal in water and sidewalk surfing supplies. The writeup in the local paper said that the owners moved here from Hawaii. There's a surfing competition every year at LaPush (First Beach, I think), and lots of sidewalk surfers here in town.

We wish them good business, and good surfing.

ready for lots of rain?

We do get a LOT of rain here in Forks - an average of about 120 inches, yes, that's 10 FEET each year; but this is taking preparedness just a step beyond, I think. Having a jetski parked on the front lawn, ready for the water to come rolling in? Think he has an ark in the back yard, too? Does he know something we don't?

Lest you think we are up to our necks in water, we really don't have a lot of flooding problems - just lots of beautiful rivers.

We were just taking a drive around town, and I had to stop and snap this one. I do like the hanging baskets and the flower boxes. Very pretty.

1923 Ford

This was parked in front of a local house. Great old car. Have no idea if it runs, but it looks great.

This is just one of many great old cars in town.

Stephenie Meyers series set in Forks

This isn't exactly a picture of Forks; but I couldn't resist. We just received our copy of Stephenie Meyer's newest novel set in Forks, "Eclipse," just released on Aug. 7. This is the third in a series about Bella and Edward, their families and friends, and enemies. [For more about the books and Stephenie Meyer, her website is http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ .]
She chose Forks and surrounds because she was looking for a place with a lot of rain. The Olympic Peninsula has the most rainfall in the U.S. The local Visitors Center has gotten questions from fans and tourists concerning where the different locations are. That has also made reading the books interesting for us, an added bonus to reading vampire stories. A few tourists have come here because of the books - a pilgrimage of sorts.

Patriotic Motorcycle

This motorcycle, along with half a dozen others at least, had stopped at Sully's in Forks at lunchtime. We get a lot of motorcycles on the peninsula in the summer. This group reminded me of the wonderful motorcycle escort that accompanied a local young man from SeaTac airport when he came for his last ride home from Iraq, and the honor guard that paid respect to our son last Spring. Even looking at the picture brings tears now.

I'm not fond of motorcycles myself, but the flag flying with this group brought memories.

Unusual mail...

The only bills that arrive here are with the birds - what a wonderful notion!

Our local waste pickup company, West Waste, has some unusual and creative ideas for planters. This one is located inside the fence, near the office. The official mailbox is a tad larger and outside the fence. Since they are the local recycle station, it's rather appropriate that they found an alternate use for this.

They have 'recycled' a few other different containers, as have others in our area. This may be the start of a series of photos.

What has been turned into a planter in your neck of the woods?

Raindrops on roses...

We awoke to the sound of rain today. Not unusual here. I went out back to revel in the misty rain, leaned on our deckrail, looked down, and this rain-kissed rose greeted me.
This poor rose bush has had a rough time lately, but has still rewarded us with several buds. The framing of the ferns set off the pink beauty.
We keep cutting the ferns back; they keep trying to take over from beneath the deck.
We think the rose bush might just make it, though.

Just me and my friend

Couldn't resist this shot of a pair of animals just relaxing in the sun. I guess the bird just figured the cow was a convenient place to rest.

Forks Spartans

The blood drive was held inside the Forks High School, in a room called the Commons. This was in the entryway to the Commons. Not having any kids in school, we hadn't been inside the high school; so, we hadn't seen this very large carving by Dennis Chastain for the Forks High School Spartans. It's about 10 feet tall, and rather impressive.

Blood Drive

The Puget Sound Blood Bank was at the Relay for Life today. We spent an hour in a good cause, donating blood. One of the techs said he thought they'd gotten 50 donors today. A good day.

Relay for Life West End - Survivor Style

The Forks Relay for Life - Survivor Style began at 6:00pm this evening and goes for 24 hours. This is the beginning of the survivors lap. Forks really goes all out for this event every year. It brought tears and smiles, seeing so many survivors marching, and the shirts and signs of support.

Loggers Memorial

This is part of the Loggers Memorial at the Forks Timber Museum. It's a chainsaw carving that's about 10 feet tall or so, done by a very talented local carver, Dennis Chastain. The detail on the face and hands is wonderful. There are some neat pictures and details on the surrounding boards, and the inside of the museum has a lot of interesting displays about logging, logging camps, timber and the local forests. Worth seeing.

Sometime neighbors

These are a few sometime neighbors. They come down from the hills in the winter, and wander pretty much where they want to. They spend the night in the field across the street from our house sometimes, and we do live in town. My husband is an early riser, and has gone out the front door to be stared down by very large elk just across the road. You can imagine our surprise the first morning this happened!