I had dreams of attracting an eagle, but my first visitors were crows, one day a goldfinch, and finally the perch as been adopted by a kingfisher. Kingfishers are really cool. They are colorful and very vocal. They feed by hovering over the water, dropping into a dive, and scoop small fish from the surface of the water. Candlefish seem to be their favorite fish.
The picture on the right is a "beached" red jellyfish. This guy washed up on our beach and is about two feet in diameter. The last week or so, the beaches have been littered with dead jellys, but few are of this size. Even though these jellys are dead, they can still sting. The stingers are like little hypodermic needles. The poison injected is very dilute, but there are people who are allergic. The remedy of choice for treating a sting is to treat the affected area with commercial meat tenderizer.
Saturday, Brian Weber, my brother's son, visited us. Brian
Brian and Jeannine have adopted an eight-year old Cocker Spaniel that is showing signs of age. On the beach the dog exhibited the strangest behavior. I have no idea what the dog's history might be, but I would expect that he has never been exposed to salt water. The dog explored the water using long buried intrinsic curiosity. He started out smelling the water and over a 10 to 15-minute period found that he could swim and fetch sticks. It was fun to watch.
Winter is descending at a rapid rate. From the middle of summer we have had sunrise delayed by two full hours and sunset is two hours earlier. It's not hard to miss four hours of sunlight from your day. Obviously the daytime temperature has been significantly reduced ? the locals claim that the weather has an edge to it. Both the people, who dislike the cooler weather and people who love it, use the same adjectives. The daytime highs are in the mid and upper sixties. There is no way to measure "edge".
A typical day begins overcast and gray. By mid-day the clouds are starting to break up and the sun comes out. The afternoons have been quite pleasant; but not quite enough to sit on the deck for more than a short time. There's been wind every afternoon, too.
Nancy has gotten more involved in a couple of knitting groups/yarn stores locally and will be teaching a couple of classes. Nancy befriended Sara at her relatively new yarn store in Mount Vernon. When Sara learned of Nancy's teaching experience, She asked Nancy to do a couple of classes. When Candy at the Stanwood heard what the classes where all about, she asked Nancy to teach for her customers as well. As a result of these classes, she?s working like mad on a couple of store samples - and they are full-size vest sweaters. She has already done the teddy bear sweater for one of the stores. But, she loves teaching and this is part of it. With all the teaching, she is booked though the middle of October.