Local Treasures, Ancestral Landscapes

Light house Fort Worden State Park

 

 

I am totally fascinated by the way studying to become a Legacy Specialist brings together all my interests and skills. One contact leads to another, and All I have to do is Ask. 

Today I had an orientation/interview at Jefferson Historical Society's research center. They have and do All the cool things I've only seen in pictures and lectures to date...all the archival materials, sliding storage shelves, custom-made archival boxes, photo stations, data base, and server...Too Much FUN! I think that Marsha and Becky were happy that I share their enthusiasm, and I'll be back, to learn to catalog, archive, and preserve...organize artifacts and solve mysteries. There is a moment in college that I can still recall vividly--an advertisement for a fabric conservator at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts...If only I'd rejected the health care career then...oh, well, we can't go backward, only forward and enjoy the present, and it's exciting to find a place where I feel as if I FIT after all these years.

Windy Self-portrait on the beach

I came to Fort Worden for art classes during my Heroine's Journey in 2002. I still lived in NY and assumed I always would. LD somebody taught a self-portrait class, and since I've had digital cameras, I've made it a habit to document myself. Not quite as difficult as listening to my voice, but it takes courage to see the outside change relative to the inside. I have been painting portraits, still...what is revealed?

Looking across the water to Whidbey Island

 I was alone on the beach except for sea gulls, until I was stashing a few rocks I was planning to relocate in my car. A woman from Olympia stopped to talk with me, concerned that if she parked to look at birds, she would get a ticket for not having a Discover Pass. People talk to me wherever I am...I don't mind asking curious questions, and am used to being able to do that from working in health care. She realized that since she was in a rental car and didn't remember her actual license plate number, she could probably get away without one. When I drove away, I realized that the one I'd put up in my car was expired. I think I have a current one buried in my glove compartment. Yes, the state parks are a good cause to support. I never get tired of being near salt water.

A primal scene for me, the edge of land against sky

My Hastings name is all over the Jefferson County Historical Society, and buildings and streets in Port Townsend. My branch of the family was all from Massachusetts and Vermont, as far as I know. Maybe I'll look in the geneology books some day.

I was watching Season 3 of Downton Abbey last night, and when the family went to the highlands of Scotland, I saw many scenes like the one above...a landscape arrangement that has felt very primal to me: slice of field against sky, from the first painting I ever wanted to buy, when I was in high school. I saw that scene over and over in the episode of Downton Abbey in the Scottish Highlands, and again today, beach grass against sky. My Scottish ancestors calling to me through the genes...I have never felt similarly drawn to haggis, though.

More Adventures Unfold...