A couple friends went on a hunting trip out-of-state, arranging to meet another of their friends who, in turn, would secure the primitive area camp site none of whom had ever been to. Being a good distance, it was not until quite late that the supposed turn onto the somewhat obscure road began. Since cell […]
Tillicum
Letter: Maintain eye contact – a trailhead lesson for life
My wife and I were celebrating our 43rd anniversary – now five years ago – and had spent a delightful day at Pacific Beach on the Washington Coast where we built not one but two sea creatures; floated a drift-wood sailboat – complete with seagull feathers for spinnaker and main – down the stream emptying […]
Letter: June Tillicum meeting cancelled and a call to create
In the midst of the chaos, there can be, within the community, an opportunity. Change pace to place and you begin to understand. It’s the message by Simon and Garfunkel in “The 59th Street Bridge Song” expressed in the opening verse: “Slow down, you move too fast”. It might be your garden. Or building a […]
Letter: She’s a keeper
We met at the University of Washington, Seattle campus. It wasn’t the whole “I Saw Her Standing There” across-the-crowded-room thing of the Beatle’s era, but it was close. It wasn’t 1963 – the debut of the Beatles opening track in their album “Please Please Me” – rather it was 1968. She wasn’t seventeen and we […]
Letter: The crack in the sidewalk
One carefully avoided – although just in time – the crack in the sidewalk. The other, the younger of the two, being blissfully unaware of how huge a misstep stepping on a concrete expansion joint really is – second only to stepping on the other’s shadow (not polite) – toddled alongside. With time and practice […]
Letter: The little white picket fence
The little cottage on the corner is believed to be the only home in the community with a little white picket fence. Each of the 219 pickets cut from pallets. Free lumber. Eight-hundred and seventy-six nails, all hand-driven, not counting the ones that were bent, nor the nail on his finger which he had hit. […]
Letter: “What does a lamb say?”
“Baaaaaaa.” Then she’ll smile, revealing four upper teeth and a matching set below. “Mmmmmmm,” she will mimic grandpa as he pauses while pondering what next animal sound she might recognize. Lion, dog, horse, cow. She knows what each of them has to say. But to hear her rendition of kitty or lamb is sweetest of […]
Letter: “Are you watching me?”
“Grandma, watch me!” He’ll be demonstrating his dexterity as he fights off mobs of fun-loving zombies – 26 different types of zombies to be exact – as they attempt to invade the home. Absurdly, although perhaps not to a four-year-old, plants come to the rescue. Forty-nine zombie-zapping plants in fact. “Did you see that grandma? Are […]
Letter: Tillicum meeting cancelled; Bill’s Boathouse remains closed
The monthly meeting of the Tillicum/Woodbrook Community that had been scheduled for Thursday, May 7, has been cancelled by board decision. We hope to return to our regular first-Thursday-of-the-month meetings soon. Bill’s Boathouse on American Lake meanwhile will remain closed, even though fishing reopened across the state beginning May 5. Our family, which has owned […]