We had family in town this week and went searching for eagles. We found only one, this critter. I for one wasn’t disappointed.
Summer. Kids. Water.
This shot didn’t come out quite as I’d hoped but I still like the mood it captured at Port Williams.
Truckin’
I’ve driven by this truck many times. I don’t know it’s story though DH supposes it’s an old Army truck.
It’s seen better days.
The new totem pole
Today I thought I’d give you a closer look at the new totem pole donated by the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe to the City of Sequim for our new Civic Center plaza. Carved by the tribe’s master carver, Dale Faulstich, it was blessed last month at the dedication of the City Hall.
This shot shows the first figure at the bottom of the pole. In Salish culture totem poles are used for many reasons. They can commemorate family and community history and convey the folklore of religious and cultural beliefs.
This is the middle section of the new pole. This pole depicts a story of brothers who became the Sun and Moon and the maidens they married. In the story they slay the Chief Above to bring light to the land.
This is the top of the pole. Old growth Western Red Cedars are carefully harvested to create totem poles. The trees are typically 500 to 900 years old, taken from the Hoh Rain Forest on the western Olympic Peninsula.
Nostalgia
I titled this post “Nostalgia” because I’m missing this kind of sky: clear and blue. The winds yesterday brought Sequim grey skies heavy with smoke from a fire on the western slopes of the Olympic Mountains. The rain forest where it’s burning – wilderness – is anything but rainy right now. Humidity was reported at 21% which is bone dry, relatively speaking. The fire has been burning for a while now. Though we’ve had periods of smoke, yesterday was the worst so far. Tops of the mountains were obscured by day’s end.
Correction: The Peninsula Daily News today reports that our smoke is drifting south to us from Vancouver Island, B.C.
A somber reminder
I returned to Sequim’s new Civic Center Plaza recently. I’d read that there is an artifact memorializing 9/11 from New York’s Twin Towers and I wanted to take a look. I found it, modestly placed at the base of two flag poles.
It is a piece of steel from the collapsed towers. Sequim’s Police Chief Bill Dickinson and other police officers went to New York on their own time (and dimes) to collect the piece and bring it back for eventual placement in the new Civic Center. It had been in storage since 2011.
It’s a substantial piece of steel, about two inches thick. When I saw it there was no label or interpretive information. At least for now you need to know what you’re looking at to understand its significance.
Independence Day
It’s Independence Day in the U.S. It’s traditionally a time for flag-flying, barbecues, and fireworks.
In thinking about this holiday I particularly like this quote from American humorist Erma Brombeck:
“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”
Amen! Happy 4th to my fellow patriots.