The Beginning

Seeing Green

November's grey and patient rains came
quietly and slow, intimate and surprising
as always, filling pores and hollows
absolving me of summer sins
opening my eyes wide
in the kindly light
I have begun to see again
the ten thousand colors
we call green.


K.A.Wood



I wrote that poem 5 years ago during an autumn much like this one. Though none has been as wet as the year Kate and I moved here; 11 inches that November, I think it was a record. We were so in love with Orcas that we just put on our rain jackets and went out walking in the rain with our silly grins etched on our faces. I cannot even imagine the number of times we have walked around Mountain Lake in the last 20 years, and yet, I enjoy it every time, regardless of the weather. Orcas is like that. It will do that to you; make you understand that the joy to be found in the world is right in front of you, right at this moment, and all you have to do is be present and pay attention.

Welcome to my blog; I hope to tell you about my home, what it's like to live on Orcas Island, how I spend my "one wild and wonderful life" here in paradise.