Gorgeous day (again 🍀)
Thursday, 20 February 2020
We felt the pull of the countryside, of getting out of the city…which also meant getting close to salt water in various locations. Wanna buy a yacht? These are for sale.
Went in a free museum in La Conner, the Museum of Northwest Art, and found two things of particular interest. This mural, William Cummings’s Skagit Valley Mural, 1941, was lost for decades and believed to have been destroyed. Cummings painted it for the local high school to promote vo-ed subjects that would keep students in the community, like operating a dairy. The canvas ended up rolled up in a farmer’s barn, with it forgotten that it was a painting and not a tarp. Recently, it was rediscovered and saved, and the Museum raised the money to get it restored. They put it on display just two weeks ago. Lucky us!
The second lovely story is that the main exhibit was of the collection of Betty Black, born in Scotland, but long-time area resident who died in 2018. For decades, she lived in a house that artist/sculptor Tony Smith (1912–1980) designed…for his father-in-law, Lawrence Langham Brotherton (1889–1969), aka my grandmother’s brother. I suspect I slept on the deck of that house as a youth (that is, back in the Middle Ages 🤣). Small, small world.
This shot is of one of the peaks of Mount Erie, but not the highest, although within perhaps two meters of the highest. Instead, it is perhaps the roundest of the summits. Interestingly/confusingly, we discovered no other nearby peaks with a HOMES lake name.
Stupendous view from Mount Erie. We’re having excellent weather for our visit this week. Lucky us!
Sea level. This view is to the south-southwest from Libbey Beach Park. Those organic “snakes” are bull kelp remains…very interesting texture…flexible but not soft.
Ferry ride! To the left, that’s the ferry going to opposite direction. Two vehicle decks on our ship, which wasn’t quite full headed toward the mainland. We met quite a lineup of vehicles backed up waiting to get onto Whidbey Island “after work,” or whatever. We had to wait perhaps 10 minutes to drive aboard. Lucky us!