A Post from San Juan Island – Whiteley Center Day 1

We arrived today after an uneventful afternoon ferry ride through the scrubby, evergreen-covered San Juan islands, and immediately upon entering the residency center I hopped out of the car to be confronted by a half-grown fawn, who, upon seeing my stumble forward, stepped closer rather than farther away.

San Juan Island is everything about the Northwest or Seattle on steroids – artsy sculptures in front yards, eccentric but friendly women in alpaca sweaters (not fleece, not on this alpaca-farming island, no sir), watery sunshine mixed with grey cloud, thick thickets of blackberry and forests of evergreens, golden and bald eagles, numerous deer, foxes, orca fin views from parks and the occasional otter and seal bark from the water. I happen to think it’s pretty close to perfect. The occasional chill in the wind, the rain dripping periodically through the trees, don’t dampen spirits here (I did have to buy a coat – I’m used to traveling with nothing heavier than a cardigan or raincoat – and cursed myself that I hadn’t thought to bring some warm gloves – the regular September Seattle chill is just a tad chillier here, so far north we’re almost to Canada (and your cell phone thinks you are in Canada!) I’m thankful for the radiant floor heat in the cabins tonight.

After doing a little sightseeing – the alpaca farm, Lime Kiln Points to see some whales (where we had this handsome black fox encounter, where he trotted within steps of us) and many more deer:

I came home to the cabin to remember there was no phone and no television – and proceeded to read Amy Uyematsu’s The Yellow Door. Amy’s a poet I’ve been following for some years, and she deserves more attention than she’s gotten. I wrote a poem. I’m writing this blog post. So far, a productive start to the trip! One of my beliefs is that if we writers could just stay away from the phone, television, and internet for a good portion of our lives, we’d achieve so much more…but maybe that’s just a residency mentality. There’s something interesting that happens when you go somewhere with the intention of reading and writing. You actually do those things!