Two mornings ... different views!

Looking east from my garden each morning, across Commencement Bay at our end of Puget Sound, is a never the same experience. The two images taken at about the same time on two different mornings this past week are graphic examples. Watching the patterns of light across the water when the air is almost still is equally as mesmerizing as watching that same body of water changed by wind shifts which alter the light and the patterns created. Every minute is different. Every minute an "oh would you look at it now!" moment.

At the end of my garden on Wednesdays in Summer

Jockeying for the best position

At the end of my garden each Wednesday evening, beginning late in the Spring, sailboats begin to gather. If the wind is up and it looks like a good evening for sailing, the boats begin to gather early and play with the wind until around 6.45pm.  It's then that jockeying for the best position begins and by 6.55pm the stragglers are in place too. Buoy markers show the sailors the race course for the day and promptly at 7pm the sounding of the starting gun echoes across the bay. It's a little like a moving tapestry as the boats vie for the best place in the wind, try to block each others wind, see if they can get a good lead before rounding the first buoy ... and it's all played against the backdrop of this stunning body of water that is Puget Sound with Mt. Rainier (often, but certainly not always) overlooking all.  On a recent evening the fickle wind refused to blow and instead it was "a float": lots of limp and flapping sails with reflections of the boats showing clearly in the water.   Another Wednesday in the life of the Corinthian Yacht Club's Wednesday race.

Corinthian Yacht Club's Wednesday night race

Matisse was here?

Late afternoon December 24, 2011

On the south facing end of my garden the view looked as though Matisse had come to visit.  At this time of year the sun is at its most southerly place in the sky creating new images across Puget Sound. So low was the setting sun that a shadow of the trees, on the top of the hill across the water from us, was projected onto the water looking just like an impressionist painting. It reminded us of his paintings of the gardens at Giverny.  And then .... it was gone.

A July Day on Puget Sound!

Within an hour today, July 2nd, our summer weather again let us know that this is not a usual year!  The ornamental grasses in our front yard were totally weighed down by the water from a downpour.  Later, we looked west and watched, with the sun low in a both black and brilliant sky, as a storm made its way across Puget Sound toward us.  Minutes later, it was raining so hard we had difficulty seeing.  This was all followed by one of the more brilliant rainbows we have ever seen.
Such is an early summer day on Puget Sound.

Meanwhile, the brilliantly eccentric plant known as bee balm (botanical name Monarda - I call it the plant having a bad hair day ) blooms like crazy and grows taller each day - spectacular crimson against the "summer" - very stormy - backdrop.

Morning across Puget Sound's Commencement Bay