Creepy Caterpillars

In tonight's "Orcas Issues",  an online local newspaper, there was an article on the tent caterpillars that are invading Orcas. They are doing harm to trees, roses, raspberry bushes...just about anything their little tiny teeth can bite into! So far, here on our property on West Sound Bay, we have seen very few. However, according to Lin McNulty, the writer of this story, there are places on Orcas were they are like a plague.

I love McNulty's last lines, "There is a soft sound that accompanies this blot on the landscape. It sounds like rain. It’s not. It is the caterpillar waste dumping on the ground."

Creepy.

I received a wonderful poem today, If Once You Have Slept on an Island, by Rachel Field. I immediately put it in a frame and placed it in the living room. It is about never being the same after sleeping on an island..."you'll see blue water and wheeling gulls" and "hear ship whistle and lighthouse bell." How true!

And how changed are us who have now chosen to live on an island?

This summer, when it is so crazy busy here at the Blue Heron B&B, you will find me taking ICE CREAM breaks at the Deer Harbor Marina. They have the best hand-dipped ice cream on the island!
Yes, I was there today having my first cone of the year...peanut-butter fudge! YUM!

We were able to get away before our busy season begins here at the Blue Heron Bed and Breakfast. We took our RV to Lopez Island and I do believe we were the only campers in all of SPENCER SPIT STATE PARK. We stayed 2 nights, bicycled into Lopez Village, had a chocolate malt at the Soda Fountain, toured the museum, cooked dinner over a campfire and hiked in the rain.

Frogs on Orcas Island

 Often you hear them, but you don't really see them unless you have them in your pond like photographer, Mike Hurley.

I call this "nature vs technology". I was looking for a way to hide a wireless extender that needs to be placed out in the yard. Since we moved into the RV for the summer, we are too far away to get TV from our ROKU box. Heaven forbid that we miss any Clean House episodes! So, I'm thinking...maybe I could put the extender in a birdhouse (which will look just a little strange since you have to plug in the extender and there will be an extension cord hanging from the birdhouse). I'm looking around and spy the bluebied house that we got probably 3 years ago and I've never seen a bird go in or out of this box. I go over with my hammer to get it off the fence. I hammer away and the birdhouse doesn't come off the fence, but one complete wall falls off and there inside the birdhouse is...

Oh, no! What have I done! We quickly put the house back together, but I'm not sure that momma-bird is going to appreciate her nest being disturbed. I feel so bad!!

The new Chihuly Glass and Garden (next to the Space Needle) exhibit is now open. (http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/)

 

This was sent to me. Although the exhibit looks fantastic, I am in awe of the photography. Yes, I know. ENOUGH about the "I want a new camera" mantra. Someday. Patience is a virtue and I'm working on it.