More Fun, No Art...Oh, well

Again this year, Brother David rented this Huge studio space at Fort Worden, with acres of tables on which to lay out the layers of his prints. I am SO jealous! It was fun to see his work to date (last Tuesday) then go to Akamai to buy art supplies and to dinner at Finn's together.








Large pale rainbow from the Fort Worden common. David enhanced the colors on his FB page...stunning!



Fall is creeping across the North West...not as stunning as VT last year at this time, but not bad at all.

I am certainly a rich woman when it comes to brothers! and Life is Too Short not to drop everything when a visitor shows up. This last weekend, brother, Hugh, came over from Seattle after a 6-week tour of the Midwest with Connie, selling Holland America tours. He posted great Roadside Attraction pictures from North Dakota down to New Orleans.


I've been keeping a list of local sights for when company comes.


In my 6 years here, I've never been up to the Sol Duc Hot Springs. Here's a hairy tree along the way.
The mossy trees in this damp climate fascinate me, probably
because they were never
part of my experience living in the NE. The hairy branches make a fascinating pattern high up into the air. The Spanish Moss festooned trees in Savannah, Georgia were the closest I've come before.

We admired the steaming hot springs (98-110 degrees) at the Spa, and vowed to come back with bathing suits and fluffy robes after the re-opening in March. Last March Hugh and I hiked to the Olympic Hot Springs, east of this mountain chain. Legend has it that 2 dragons fought over territory at the top of the mountains, and since they were so evenly matched, neither could win, and each eventually settled
into his own valley to create the steaming baths.

A beautiful triple waterfall above the hot springs. As you can see, Hugh is growing his beard to play Buffalo Bill in Village Theater's production of Annie Get Your Gun.

On our way back down we visited an ancient stand of trees, some of which were alive in 1492, when Columbus sailed to "discover" the New World.











The light in the NW forest is quite magical.

Then it was on to Murdock Beach--one of the many, mostly-deserted beaches along our coast, where some particularities of water and wind create the spherical and strangely-scooped out rocks I've never seen anywhere else.


After all the exploring, we'd worked up quite an appetite...we Foodie Hastings don't need much of a provocation to start cooking! And Hugh had been away from his kitchen for 6 weeks.











We heard about Pannecotta on NPR in the AM, looked up a recipe on the web, and that's what's sitting in the small ramekins (Cream and cream, cooked a little with sugar and vanilla, then jelled) OMG!

Hugh is whipping up a fruit sauce for pork tenderloin baked (perfectly) with garlic and herbs.


Sunday morning, after bacon and egg sandwiches and blackberry pie for dessert, we hiked to the overlook to check out progress on removal of the Lower Elwah River Dam...the water (white area to the left) has been diverted around the former dam and power plant so those parts can be dismantled.

Public access to the upper dam, on Lake Mills, is closed, but there is a web cam.




Ah, some ART after all: My Water of Life banner hanging at the ceremonies last month for removal of the tallest dam yet to be taken down in the US.

And finally, a bit of Wildlife, that my friends back East will appreciate: a slug, as long as Hugh's hand...and he's 6'2" tall with long hands!






Back to ART tomorrow, on one of my last few precious Tuesdays off: Finish the latest portrait of David, more soft dolls for my online class...and Barb Kobe says that I really must finish the HOT FLASH class, complete with dolls to make...

Take time to explore your own neighborhoods and cook with family and friends--Life is Good!