Thousands of years ago, glaciers roamed the earth. “The sheer weight of a thick layer of ice, or the force of gravity on the ice mass, causes glaciers to flow very slowly. Glaciers periodically retreat or advance, depending on the amount of snow accumulation or evaporation or melt that occurs. Alternatively, glaciers may surge, racing …
Category Archives: Island Life
Where the Sword Ferns Grow
On my 19,947th day on earth, I learned something that came as a complete surprise: I am not invincible to injury. Racing down Mount Constitution in early October, the medial meniscus at the back of my knee detached from the bone with an unmistakable (but not painful) “pop.” A month later, I broke my arm. With …
Nudibranch Whisperer of Deception Pass
Sea slugs cast a spell on me…and it all began with fake news. Well, semi-fake. Okay, it was actually two photographs, and the one that cast the spell wasn’t exactly fake, but it wasn’t of “the” sea slug. It was a vibrantly-colored red-tipped, black and white version of the same sea slug species taken underwater in all its …
Constitutional Rite
Mount Constitution, which tops out at 2,400 feet, is the highest point in the San Juan Islands. It’s located on Orcas, the largest of several hundred islands that make up the archipelago. ‘The name “Orcas” is a shortened form of Horcasitas, or Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo, the Viceroy of Mexico who …
Peter, Peter–Writer, Seeker
I opened my front door to the quietest of knocks. Our six-year-old son waited with a stranger. My heart raced at the realization of what could have happened while he stood, wondered where I was, and walked the half mile from the bus stop to our house by himself. It was a Monday. And I’d …
Beach Combing at Bowman Bay
Making my way over and between barnacled, blunt-edged rocks and boulders along the north shore of Bowman Bay, quiet clickings increase in proportion to my pace. Shore crabs in a dozen different colors drop from the rocks on which they rest as I pass by, then scurry to safety. It’s one of several super-low-tide days in …
Syzygy, Tides and Jonathan White
My arms ached as I pulled back and down on the boom, windsurfing towards an island on one of the last tacks I had the energy to make to avoid the embarrassment of a rescue. I zigzagged shoreward. The wind on my sail brought me closer, but the tide pulled me away. A fall would …
Race Report: Mt Erie Trail Run
Putting The Art of Racing in the Rain into practice wouldn’t have been necessary during this year’s Dallas Kloke Mt Erie Road and Trail Run. Meteorologists forecasted cloudy skies with no chance of precipitation. Had I known my new nemesis, younger and smaller than I, would embarrass me so much, I may have decided to just …
How Washington State Adopted Rigorous Common Core Standards…Then Quietly Backpedaled
“Be afraid. Be very afraid,” is what I would have said to Washington State’s Class of 2019 students and their parents a year ago. In July of 2011, the Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction adopted Common Core State Standards. Since then, assessments required for high school graduation have become more difficult. Five years after …
Ten Books Islanders Ought to Read
Exploring Deception Pass by Jack Hartt This week, Jack Hartt’s new book Exploring Deception Pass was published. A recent Whidbey News Times Article by Ron Newberry on the subject (State park manager shares tales and insight) suggests, “When one of Washington’s most breathtaking state parks is part of your everyday life for 12 years, you tend to …
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