Back on Whidbey Island

We made our way back to Whidbey Island from Tasmania via Indiana, New York City and Camden, Maine.  It’s so nice to be back on my own familiar bit of America – the rest all feels pretty foreign but this island is my other “home”.  Even the rain feels familiar, although it would be a lot less thrilling if I’d been living with it for the past 9 months and wasn’t anticipating the arrival of summer after July 4^th as is so often the case in the Pacific Northwest.

Coyote Lake

I was so happy to see my pig Isabel and she was happy to see me and the leftover gingerbread that I brought her from our Christmas in Tasmania.  When we lived on Whidbey we always had a tradition of building a very big, imperfect gingerbread house that the family all decorated with abandon, then ate for a while before giving the leftovers to Izzy after the holidays were over.  

There was a lot of gingerbread last year, and  after a while we started to suspect that the possum that occasionally comes in through the cat door had been chowing down on it which is a good excuse to throw it away, but not nearly as satisfying as feeding it to an appreciative pig.  Although the wallabies and pademelons that spend every night in our yard, mowing the lawn (much to my husband’s delight) would happily eat it, it’s not good for them, so most of it ends up in the garbage.  But I always save a big bagful for Izzy so she knows we were thinking of her.  My kids all roll their eyes at this but I swear she knows!

Izzy outside our apartment

After weeks of being on the road I’m enjoying being at my own little apartment and settling in to my own tiny kitchen.   Apart from seeing Izzy and catching up with friends, my favourite activity is wandering the property on a sunny evening, wineglass in hand, marveling at how much the trees we planted have grown.  There is nothing like planting trees to give you a sense of time and place.  Or adding a few flowers to pots to make it feel like summer, even if it’s a short one.  Or eating Screaming Banshee bread dipped in oil and balsamic vinegar to remind you that you really are back on Whidbey.

 I also think that I like that overgrown, wild garden look for now and it’s not yet time to think about weeding.  Instead I make lists, and then anticipate one of the most exciting aspects of my return to the island.   There is a movie showing at the Clyde that, by some miracle, in spite of watching five whole movies on the flight over, I haven’t seen!  Not only that, it’s raining, which eliminates that summer dilemma: you want to go to the Clyde, but the movie starts during the shank of the evening when the sun is casting long shadows over the wildlife pond, which is almost impossible to tear yourself away from…but sunshine is forecast for tomorrow, so it's perfect!

Thanks for listening. 

(see www.islandtimetours.net.au or the Clyde Theater website for more information on why the Clyde is so special)