A foggy DAY in Whidbey Town....

As I was coming over the hill from Oak Harbor, I noticed a huge fog bank rolling over the tops of the trees from West Beach. Sunshine and wind in Oak Harbor, so I followed the highway up over the hill and down to the Prairie, where I turned up to the Cemetery and took these pictures. To the Right was the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Penninsula, and to the Left is beautiful Mt. Baker in all of her shing glory! You can tell just by looking how quickly our weather changes here. The water in the Strait is right off the North Pacific, and when the cool breezes from the ocean mix with the warm air from the Mainland, FOG!!!! I Love it.





I came home, watered the roses out front, and then went to bed. Nothing good on TV, so I just lay there with my head sticking out the window, listening to the fog horns as the fog overtakes the Ferries and the Cruise Ships coming up the Sound from Seattle. BOOP, BOOP, BOOP! and then the echos as it bounces back from the land. I love it.



I woke up at 5:00 this morning and the fog was in the back yard, So I let Sadie out and just listened to the trees as the heavy fog hit their leaves. They wer gulping in the moisture like it was raining. I stayed awake for about 3 hours until It started to clear up and sun peeked over the Alders. Ah, the Joys of living in the Pacific Northwest.

Annie!

We Put ANNIE! to bed yesterday. It was a LOOONG show, and tons of people, but it practically sold out the run, and it was a very successful ending to a great Season of shows. I just Produced this one, but I am tired. Now I am working on "Talking With..." Which is a son season, edgy play about 11 women doing 11 different monologues. Then A bit of a break until August when we start MEET ME IN ST.LOUIS! our holiday musical. Whew!

It's BLUE!

Mistie and My Son had their Ultrasound done yesterday so here is my GRANDSON: This new technology just amazes me, how they can see what the sex is, and just what he is going to look like, (In a few months) AWESOME!

They are going to name him Patrick Oscar Chandler. (?) THe only Oscar I have on my side is my Great Uncle Oscar, Maybe Mistie has an Oscar on her side? Or maybe they just like the name! So I can call him Patty-O my own little patio! They will KILL me for that!

I'm in PRINT!

I was just asked by the powers that be if I would be willing to allow my photo to be framed and hung in the new ferry SALISH which starts it's run in Late June! I know it is no big deal to most of the world, but everyone who takes the Ferry from the island to the Olympic Penninsula will see it when they walk the lobby! WOW!
(And I dont even think it is that good a picture!) The CofC thought it was a good indicator of the flavor of the town of Coupeville. I have much better ones, but they liked that one because it showed the two tall ships that came to visit last year.

No, no money, but I get bragging rights!

Annie!

THis group of young Ladies are putting on one very special musical for The Whidbey Playhouse. We open June 3rd, and it is well worth the trip from Mt. Vernon or The South End or even Seattle to see it.



This is the full cast, and as you can tell, the costume ladies over worked to get this all done! FANTASTIC job Julia and crew!




I got home from a looong day of setting lights ready to just crash into bed and rest and walked in on a regular orgy of sorts! Miss Gracie, the black kitten found the bag of cat nip in the bookcase, and the boys talked her into getting it down for them.


Needless to say, all I could do was snap pictures. I decided that I needed to post these for edt in NZ because he loves to hear about my crew!

Spring? HA!

Yes, I am better now...sort of. I still have a bit of vertigo, but it appears to be going away. I also am now officially OLD. I have a medicare card and two brand spanking new hearing aids! AMAZING what you can hear again. I have heard the birds in the morning but I had forgotten about the higher tones that some of the early morning birds produce. I have acute hearing loss in the higher ranges in both ears. When I put the hearing aids in it was like fine tuning a radio station that is just a TAD BIT off the station. The ess'es are clearer, the TEE's are more like tees than dees. and I am not yelling into the phone anymore. Did not know I did. Wonderful inventions these little bitty things. Spendy though. Shudder! I heard the Spring Robin singing his little heart out this morning from the top of the cedar tree in the neighbors yard. He was telling Mother Nature that HEY! It is mid-spring! Where the HELL are you! it froze last night, sleeted this afternoon, and My electric heaters are on still. I usually turn them off the first of April and then back on again the first of November. Not this year. I am afraid that we are in the grips of a cold wet spring and summer, and our gardens are all going to be moldy and full of SLUGS!



The photo above is the granddaughters of my blog buddy Robert Brady from PURELAND MOUNTAIN in Japan. He has been blogging extensively about the Earthquake and Tsunami that hit the Northern part of the country where his daughter and her family live. The family is fine, but they had quite abit of damage to their apartment, and it's contents. They live about 30 miles from the Fugusima nuclear reactor, so they all had to leave until they decide what they could do. The powers that be still are not quite certain what they need to do, but the girls all left Bob's place near Kyoto last weekend, to return home and start back to school. If you get a chance, go to his blog and read all about it, it will break your heart, but it will also tell you what a determined people they are, they are rebuilding their lives, and buildings, and starting to get back to normal again. The Heart of the devastation is still a ghost town, and probably will not be re-built, but it is not by lack of fortitude, but by risk of radioactive exposure. This is horrible! What are we to do with a source of energy that burns clean, is effective, and readily available but can cause horrible destruction if not monitored properly. Hard to say.

We are so lucky here in Washington state, as we have an abundant source of hydro electric power, which works great, as long as the reservoirs stay full, but if we go into a drought it is lights out! We also have a lot of wind, and that means a great amount of energy from windmills, which pollute the scenery with their towers. They are also a source of destruction to the migrating birds at night. I do not know what the answer is, but we have to come up with something that is renewable, clean, will not pollute, is cheap and does not create an eyesore. Any ideas?

Something makes the head go around….

I have what I think is Vertigo,  I wake up and try to sit up and my head starts spinning.  I also have bubbles popping like soap suds in my right ear.  I have been to the Dr. and he sees nothing, so now I have an appointment with an audiologist next Friday to see what is going on.  I was told I have rocks in my head.  I know, I know…and yes, you DO have tiny little rocks in your inner ear, that when they get moved around, need to be repositioned.  It is called an Epley maneuver.  But I don’t want to do it myself in case I get really off kilter and can not get up.  There does not appear to be an inner ear infection, HOWEVER when I take an anti histamine, the problem eases up.  So maybe there is an allergy connection, after all it is SPRING!  or so the calendar says…..

THE INTERMISSION!

Well the Show has ended! We struck the set last night and will unload the truck this evening. It is so SAD to see something that you have lived with for 3 months get torn down to the bare walls. Our set was SO PRETTY! now it is just bare black walls! SIGH!

The cast was amazing, and there was a reason that they got cast as they did, THEY JUST FIT! they still do, and they are so sad to see it end. It is for the good though, because now they can get back to their lives and move on to bigger and better things. I have a Drama that I want to Direct, but that may not happen for awhile, and unless there is something I am really passionate about, I will not direct again. I am TIRED! I am putting over 40 hours a week into volunteering, and not getting paid a cent. But that is what volunteering is all about. Giving back to the communitee. Thanking them with your talents for the things they gave to you. I get a lot of satisfaction out of it, but I am tired, so I am pulling back just a bit.

Our next big production is ANNIE, which I am producing, and MURDER IN THE MAGNOLIAS which I am doing nothing but the photography for. AHHHH!

I am producing (kinda) our Season Preview in March, but all of that is things I can do from home. With Gas expected to hit 5.00 a gallon by summer, I NEED to stay home! I cant afford that! JEEZ!!

My Kitten Gracie, is growing like a weed, but still a little sweetheart, and WIlls my 10 month old kitten thinks I brounght her in just for him. HE ADORES her! They play so cute together. Sadie just sighed and said oh crap another baby to raise. She is really good with them all. After all she was raised by cats, she does not know she is a dog!

The Philadelphia Story!

If you are close to Oak Harbor, You really need to come see this show. It is one of the best yet! A great Romantic Comedy written for Kathryn Hepburn in the late 1930's, and co-starring Cary Grant as Dexter and Jimmy Stewart as Mike. Stewart won his only academy award for this role. (That is hard to believe isn't it!)

The acting is fantastic and the set is the prettiest I have ever had! Thank you Dave and Sheila for that!

The show runs through February 13, 2011, thurs, fri and Sat nights at 7:30 and Sunday at 2:30! TICKETS are only 16.00.

It is well worth the drive from Mt. Vernon! ;)

re-run!

THIS POST IS ONE FROM MY ARCHIVES, I found it and thought it warranted a re-post!
Enjoy!

Driving home...observing...
As I drive, I let my mind wander. Sometimes I talk to myself, asking why or why not A specific incident. Usually it is reliving a situation, and how I SHOULD have reacted, instead of HOW I DID!

Sometimes I sing along to the radio, depending on the mood I am in.

sometimes I just look.

Last night I was just looking...I was heading south out of Oak Harbor, having just come from Albert and noticed just how dark it had gotten while I was in the store. From the parking lot the sky was all dark and cloudy, even though it was only 445! I thought at the time it was unusually dark. AS I topped the hill, I was heading west, and noticed immediately that there was a break in the clouds. Usually when a front moves through, the west clears last, and that is where I was looking. But what I saw was TWO fronts. The first was passing through, and was on it's way out. The 2nd front was just coming in off the Pacific, and was hanging low on the horizon. Right in between, in the light lavender and mauve colored stripe of clear sky was the planet Venus was shining brightly. It was gorgeous, a ray of peaceful hope in a very troubled sky.

The clouds on the receding front had the cottage cheese look, and were back lit ever so slightly by the fading light. Just enough to give them definition, and let you know that it was about to get very windy.

My Father was an outdoors person, with no formal training, just a love for the nature around him. He Read voraciously about it, and LOVED the Weather, the geophysical sciences, and the forests. So naturally as we grew up, and had no Television...(horrors!!), we went out into this vast encyclopedia of living things every weekend, and we observed. Weather was a big interest, as it would adversely affect out lives if we did not watch it carefully. Dad would tell us what the weather was going to do just by looking. We had no weatherman on the 6 o'clock news. He would point out the subtle differences between the clouds, and even though he didn't know the scientific terms for them, he could tell us what they each meant. The Horsetail clouds way up high meant that warmer moist weather was coming in a few days, and it usually did. He could point out where the rain was falling and tell us how much longer we had to walk the beach before we would get wet, SO we always headed back to the car JUST IN TIME!

Last night I saw that one system was moving through and that the end of the system was usually followed by winds, and that the second one was moving in with rain and winds. By the time I had made it to Coupeville, the winds had started, and lasted about an hour, and then it was calm until after midnight.

I know by listening to the sound outside just when it will start to snow, (I have a young lady thoroughly in awe of me!) and I can smell it coming. I really can. I can tell by the way the wind is blowing what might be heading our way. From the south and strong, usually means the storm is going to be warm and wet...A Pineapple express, coming in from Hawaii. From the North usually means that the jet stream has dropped and the lows coming in off the pacific have been diverted to the North, and then whipped down this way, bring cold rain and wind.

I can tell by the moss growing on the North side of everything in my back yard, that we have not had very much exposure to the sun this fall and winter. It will take a lot of scrubbing this spring to get it all clean again.

This is usual weather for the Pacific Northwest. All wet and gray, hardly ever any snow in the lowlands. Dad brought us here in 1954, from sunnier climes, and Both Phyllis and I fell totally in love with the place. It was like living in the middle of a national forest. We learned about nature by observing Dad, and we learned that not all of God's knowledge can be gained by formal schooling. Sometimes the best lessons are ones we observe first hand from someone we trust.

I know I did.

rehearsals continued,

This was the first rehearsal where almost everyone had a costume. They should all be there by tomnorrow night, but most of the women had them tonight. THe timing is a little off tonight, but for the most part it is just tweaking the lights and adding a few paint drops to a flat. Tomorrow we get to start cleaning the place up and getting it ready for an audience. Everyone was there tonight, and it works so well when they are all on. A little frivolity but that is good. It means the cast is relaxed and ready. Tomorrow I buckle down and will not interupt them at all to see how long the show will run.

This has been such a wonderful ride. This cast is AMAZING! Dick, you and Pat are gonna have to forgo a Sunday afternoon and drive over and see it. It will be worth your time. But get your tickets early as we are expecting these to go fast!

The Philadelphia Story

These Pictures are of Tara Hizon as Tracy Lord, Jim Reynolds as Mike Connors, Dustin Amunson as C.K.Dexter Haven and Bob Foster as Sandy Lord, During the rehearsal of The Philadelphis Story.

This is a Movie with Kathryn Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, and Cary Grant, that I was in love with as a child, and may have watched it 50 times. I also like the Musical version of it made in the late 50's with Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby. When we had the play selected as a possible addition to our season, I jumped on the chance to direct it. I have LOVED working with this cast, and they are GREAT!

This is the cast that makes a directors job EASY! I just point at where I want them and they do the rest. THe set is GORGEOUS and the costumes are period. What a show. If you are in the neighborhood please come see it. You will not be disappointed.

Tickets are 16.00 and they are reserved seating. THe Play opens January 28, and runs until Feb 13. Hope to see you there.

I will post more as I get them.

Hey Matt! You Dat!

Rarely do I watch a football game, but I did on Saturday. And what a game it was,Our team went into it with a losing reci=ored, and tghe worst record in the NFC.And they POUNDED the Super Bowl Winners New Orleans Saints! Whoot, All thanks to Matt Hasselback, Lucas and about 9 others but the one that really one for us wasw our "twelfth Man. Our FANS are the noisiest fans in the NFL AND IT EVEN REGISTERED AS AN earthquake under Quest field when Lucas ran his 60 yd TD. THe seismometers under seqattle showed a minor earthquake, Nah just the fans making a lot of noise and jumping up and down. It was an awesome game. Now on to Chi-town and the Bears. I do bot have much hope that they can pull it off again, but if they do!! WHOOOOOOO That 12th man will earn his colors!!!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Seahawks!!!!!!!!!

Meet Gracie!

As you can see, she RULES the house! Notice there are no ornaments on the bottom of the tree? Wills and Gracie knocked them all off and broke them. They chase each other around like mad cats. I was afraid Gracie would get hurt, but she holds her own!

A New year!

As a New Year Dawns over Mt Rainier and the Seattle skyline, we are still in the throes if a bitter cold weather system. It has not gotten above the freezing mark,and to make matters worse, we have a stagnant air advisory which means that all that wood Bob chooped, split and stcked for me can not be burned! I have to use my electric heat! GRRRRRRR!



Every New Year's Eve we sit in the living room and watch the events on TV. And every year we wonder if this is the year that the Space needle will finally lift off and head for orbit! Alas, it stayed on the ground, and it was an incredible sight to see it all lit up again.

THis year I will have two new additions to my fur babies. and a few losses too. I lost Lint, and Loki to Either old age or anaphalactic Shock. Sadie is still here and getting older and more crippled. She is going on 8 years old, and her hips are starting to really get to her. She can no longer jump on my bed, and can barely make it on the couch. Schroeder is 3 and still the biggest one, and the biggest WUSS!! He still hides under the bed when anyone besides me is in the house. Will's is 9 months old now and a real love of a ginger tabby. He runs the house. Or he DID until last week when I brought GRACIE home. Gracie is my final cat. unless I live a lot longer than she does! She is 8 weeks old, a long haired Black Calico kitten with a really pretty face. I have wanted one like her for several years, and finally she came into my life! She was an orphan at 7 days old, and one of my cast members was fostering her and her siblings. Bottle feeding them every two hours. So she brought her into rehearsal, and I fell in LOVE! Gracie now runs the house! Schroeder stays under the bed and growls at her, Sadie is not too sure about her and Will's just wants to play like a teenaged cat would, but I wont let him. She is waaay too little still. She sleeps right beside me every night, and purrs me to sleep. Such a love!

I hope all of you and yours have a very happy and healthy New Year too! Herman, Welcome back! (((Hugs)) and et nz enjoy your nice summer weather...

BRRRRRRRRR!

And you thought it was cold where you live. This was on the TODAY show this morning,. a lighthouse in Cleveland Ohio was sprayed with lake waves and then frozen in ice. WHooo I sure would hate to have to deice that porch!

Coupeville Christmas Parade

/>


I sat for an hour in 28F weather waiting for the parade. It was small and full of those things that you would expect to see in a small town, the dog club, the sherriffs possee, the tracktor pulling a flat bed full of boys and girls, the middle school band, and the firetrucks with santa. After the parade every one gathered on the corner of the old highway and main st and sang carols while they lit the city park. It was very nice, and got me right into the spirit, so I stopped ion the local red apple store and got some cookie stuff and listened to some old fart tell how hokey and stupid it was. We dont have a Macy's parade for sure, but for our little historical town, I thought we did guite well. I sent him on his way OUT of down to someplace he might like better. We dont need any more grumps in this town! Especially this time of the year.

BRRRRRRRRR..........

We now have about an inch of white stuff on the ground. Now mind you, we were expected to get really cold this week, but only locations from Tacoma SOUTH were expecting snow! HRMMMMM They missed again.

I LOVE snow. I love to lay on my stomach and peer out the bedroom window and watch it snow, and watch the birds scratch through it to get to the seeds on the platform feeder. I Love to watch the snow stack up on the backs of the squirrels that are sitting on the feeeder. Nothing keeps the critters from having breakfast.

I am supposed to have taken the TURKEY up to Lynden to my son's house so that they can start it thawing and have it in the oven when we get there on THURSDAY, however, the roads are not conducive to driving 75 miles up and back in a few hours. I thought now how can I get them a turkey? SAFEWAY!!! I bought a gift card, stuck it in the mail, and it should get there tomorrow so they can go 5 miles into Lynden and buy what they need. AND, if the roads are still un drivable, I dont have to worry. They can go ahead and have their own dinner, and Bob and I can go down to the community potluck, and not sweat the drive!

The weather is predicted to warm up by Thursday, but it is cold enough right now, to keep the ground pretty cold for a week or so. Is this La Nina really going to be the worst in 75 years? KEWL!!! I am ready. Plenty of wood, plenty of books, plenty of food, plenty of pet food, and I suppose I should fill the water jugs in case the power goes out and the pump generator (community well) quits working. I am ready! Actually I am looking forward to it.

Yeah, I know! I AM Nuts!!! Must be the Girl Scout in me. BE PREPARED!!

Chilly November.

BRRRRRRR!! As predicted, La Nina has made our November weather colder and wetter than normal. But it also was unpredictable, in that we just had a very windy few days with one storm system after another coming in off the Pacific and slamming into us.

We had two days of winds over 61 MPH, and trees down, power lines down, lights off, and WET! The rain hit first, pounding down like hail stones, but it was only rain. Then the winds hit. I was driving home in the worst of it, and just as I left Oak Harbor, the lights went out. It is odd driving in the dark, when you know there are homes and businesses out there in the void. As I left city limits, and headed on down the island, the wind buffeted the car around like a toy. It was blowing me into the oncoming lane. Thank Goodness I was driving slow enough to correct with out flipping the car. There was a car right behind me that was tailgating like he was getting ready to pass, when I whipped into the other lane, and the wind hit him too. He backed way off, slowed down and behaved himself the rest of the way.

As I got into Coupeville, all of the lights there were on. So I drove through the only stoplight in town, and headed on down island. I was approaching a very narrow part of the highway, and there were trees right up to the fog lines on both sides of the road, so I slowed way down, expecting a tree to be down across the road. I rounded a curve and right there was every emergency vehicle in the town of Coupeville, all cleaning up the mess of branches and trees right where I knew they would be. I was waved on through, over the branches, and around the trees, and then on down the road. I was all hunkered down, with my head down below the steering wheel, thinking that if a tree did hit me, maybe I could duck down and be safe.

It was pretty dicey driving the rest of the way home, and there were several more trees down and power lines hanging. I made it the 20 miles home, and pulled into my driveway just in time for the latest gust of wind to take out the power in my neighborhood. I grabbed the flashlight, left my headlights on, and went on in the house, put every thing down, then closed and locked the car, and the front door.

In Our part of the country, you learn to live with emergency supplies as part of the decorations in your livingroom. Hanging from the ceiling right over one of the end tables, was a Coleman Gas lantern, so I grabbed, it, the matches and the flashlight and headed for the bedroom. I lit the lamp, and crawled under the covers, and read a book.

The next morning, When I woke up, the lights were back on, so I put the lantern back on the hook, and brought in two loads of wood, and waited for the next round. It hit the next day, with winds just as bad, but no power outages, and I stayed home.

Tonight we are waiting for the temperature to fall below freezing and stay there for a few days. Snow is predicted in some places, but we hardly ever get it. My Son called last night, to tell me that in Lynden where he lives, about 5 miles from the Canadian border, that the wind was blowing really hard and the snow was blowing sideways. The news/weather man had just showed his town under blizzard conditions!

Novembers here are usually like most of you have Octobers. Chilly, but not extreme, and our cold weather waits until January or February. Tonight I am laying here under the blankets, looking out at the woods at an almost full bright moon showing through the branches of the alders. It is still, and crisp, and the temps are falling. right now the thermometer in my window is registering 35 degree F. so I know it must be about 30. The weather teasers on the TV just said that the temperatures are plummeting, and low land snow is expected tonight. We shall see.
I need to get a turkey up to Tim's house some time really soon, so that they can enjoy their first Thanksgiving as a family. They are safe, and for the moment, warm, and the baby is fine, and they will all remember this.

Phyllis and I grew up here and look forward to the excitement that stormy weather brings us. We have all the right emergency equipment on hand, and can survive for several weeks. It is just another thing to keep boredom at bay. WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!

A touch of the Season

little bit of natural history.......
Amazing.............


Penguins
Did you ever wonder why there are no dead penguins on the ice in Antarctica - where do they go ?

Wonder no more ! ! !


It is a known fact that the penguin is a very ritualistic bird which lives an extremely ordered and complex life.
The penguin is very committed to its family and will mate for life, as well as maintaining a form of compassionate contact with its offspring throughout its life.
If a penguin is found dead on the ice surface, other members of the family and social circle have been known to dig holes in the ice, using their vestigial wings and beaks, until the hole is deep enough for the dead bird to be rolled into and buried.
The male penguins then gather in a circle around the fresh grave and sing:

"Freeze a jolly good fellow"

"Freeze a jolly good fellow."


"Then they kick him in the ice hole." !!!


You really didn't believe that I know anything about penguins, did you!