*(with apologies to Spencer Ellsworth) We knew there would be trade-offs involved when we decided to move from Portland, Oregon, to Orcas Island. We’d be leaving behind so many dear friends. There would be no more walking to Trader Joe’s five times a week, or riding our bikes to the gym; no more having hundreds […]

As I searched my mind (and my phone’s camera roll) for an interesting story to tell you about “island life” from these past few weeks…I came up kind of empty. And that is because these last few weeks have been almost entirely about staying in. I had not one but two book deadlines, and four

It was a strange sound, an animal sound. Perhaps even an animal-in-distress sound? It wasn’t a bird, we thought, probably, though it was a little screechy-chittery like a bird. I heard it when I got up in the morning, through our bedroom window and through the open bathroom skylight, though there was nothing to see

Well, technically, Oprah never lived here; but she did buy a pretty nice house on the island three years ago. It was big news at the time, and we islanders enjoyed speculating about running into Ms. O on the ferry, or at the grocery store…even though we knew we never would. Then there was a

That’s our island, Orcas Island, in the distance there–those middle lumps. I took this photo from Cypress Island, last week. We were invited to Cypress by relatives who have a cabin there, and we went by “water taxi,” which is a fancy name for a funky old motorboat that you can hire to take you

One of the first things I remember from visiting Grandma Cleta’s house was the beautiful curio cabinet in her living room, filled with precious mementos from her and Grandpa Larry’s travels. Of course, we children were never allowed to touch the cabinet, or the lovely clock that sat on top of it, though its Big-Ben

We have a deer fence on our property, which encloses the house, the front lawn and garden (and part of the pond), the back lawn and garden, and what I like to call the “back forty.” The back forty is a sort of no-man’s land, worst of both worlds: unplanted, un-landscaped, yet also un-nibbled by

Nine percent. I just checked the level on our propane tank, and it’s down to nine percent. Just a few days ago, when I started this essay, it was eleven percent. Eek! Propane powers our stove (both range top and oven), and also our water heater. One of the first things we learned when we

Now that we’re fully vaccinated, we’ve been slowly easing our toes back into the stream of Socializing With Other People. It’s been weird! And great! And weird! Last Friday night, we had a couple over for dinner. They are some of our favorite friends here on the island, and we hadn’t seen them in person

Right outside the front door of our house–well, across a little stretch of lawn, fifteen or twenty feet maybe–we have a pond. It was one of the many things we fell in love with when we first saw the house. We still love it. It’s gorgeous, it’s soothing, it’s a marvelous place to sit in