Happy Valenbirthday!

This weekend fit nicely right between Valentine's Day AND

my forty-twoth birthday. Because he is all thoughtful and romantical and stuff like that Mr. Logo decided to take me away to celebrate the occasions with some time together.

He took me to Manresa Castle in Port Townsend.

 There is a view of it with the Olympic mountains in the back and below is a closer shot of the front.

It was quite lovely and romantical and they served some kick-ass salmon in the restaurant. It is also, by the way, haunted... according to some folks, though we have no stories to share. 
We also got to stroll through cute antique stores and an awesome used book store. We bought some cheese, crackers, and wine and had a picnic when the sun broke through in the afternoon as we sat at a little park and watched boats go by. It was lovely.
Thai for dinner topped it off beautifully.
Now... back to the grindstone.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This morning I received a lovely card and little gift to mark the occasion.

I am going to give him a card when he gets home  but I thought I would share this one too.

...and here are some song lyrics as well, at the risk of being treacly sweet. 

And if I may conjecture a further objection, love is nothing to do with destined perfection
The connection is strengthened, the affection simply grows over time
Like a flower, or a mushroom
Or a guinea pig, or a vine
Or a sponge, or bigotry
... or a banana.

And love is made more powerful by the ongoing drama of shared experience 
And the synergy of a kind of symbiotic empathy or... something.

So I trust it would go without saying
That I would feel really very sad
If tomorrow you were to fall off something high
Or catch something bad,
But I'm just saying
I don't think you're special
I-I mean, I think your special
But you fall within a bell curve

Tim Minchin

Alright, enough with the soppy stuff, eh? Hope you all feel very loved today.

The proper order of things

The basic formulation of this view— bit of earth where I'm located extending out to water, then land over there,  preferably followed by mountains, then the sky— is the view of the world I've been accustom to for a very long time. 
I was born on an island in the Puget Sound and lived within view of an ocean for almost all of my life (with the exception of 6 months in Florida at age 18 when I got very sick and had to come home; I blame the lack of ocean). Typically the view has been the Pacific but for 2 years in Maryland it was the Atlantic (Chesapeake Bay) and for a while in Italy and Greece it was a view of the Med. 
Whenever moving has been discussed, I have to admit, the idea of not living near the water is... vaguely repellent to me.


I do know people actually live in places where you can't judge the wind speed by the white caps and swells, but I can't imagine it.
If you don't end up with beach sand in your gutters do you still have to clean them every year?
Is there something like the tides you attend to? Do the rhythms of the moon and tides matter to you at all? Do you know or care about minus tides? 
Is there something like wave sound? Something always present, varying in intensity, a voice of nature that sometimes harmonizes with the wind or rain, sometimes drowns it out, something constant and beautiful, and completely individual as well. The sound of waves on a rocky shore is very distinct from the sound of waves on sand. The lapping of water moving at nature's pace changes with the passing of boats. 

I look out across the water and I know the waves gently washing this beach are connected to the waves of the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic, the Arctic, and the Indian Ocean. The tsunamis that rocked India and Japan are connected over time and space to the waters that ebb and flow here. There is immense latent power attached to the soothing little waves that gurgle along the rocky beach below my house. 

Signs like this are all over the coast and along the beaches and islands at the mouth of the Puget Sound. These are the little reminders that we live within easy reach of killer waves. Are there things like this inland? Reminders that the most life-giving, life-sustaining elements of nature may be only moments from wreaking destruction and death might seem ominous but I think they are also good grounds for a healthy focus on what really matters in life.
What is your life? It is but a vapor that appears for a little while then vanishes away. Golly, went a little morbid there for a moment, sorry about that.
Point being, 
I like the signs. 
I've friends and family that would love for us to move to Spokane but I cannot fathom ever wanting live anywhere I can't see the ocean. 

Guess what!

Chicken butt.

That is all.