Eyes Wide Open

When I’m asked if I will be sorry we sold our home and moved onto the Thistle for a life of vagabonding I can now say, no.   I needed to take my time with this answer, even buying Thistle before the answer was certain.  But now I believe Ed and I have made a good decision about our future and I’m ready to drive down the road.    As Hunter Thompson says, “Buy the ticket take the ride.”

If in six months or six years  we tire of our Thistle life, we can change it.  But, even then, returning to what we had isn’t an option. We have closed doors to allow us to open new doors.  I’m pretty sure I won’t want to play that ol’country western song backwards and "get my house back, get my car back."

So here we go from this life…

to this life…

And from this home...

To this home..

And from this garden…

To this garden…

We go with our eyes wide open.

~~~

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

~ Seneca

Living Small. Dreaming big.

We built our Grace Lane home for our living pleasure, but also as an example of both building green and living small.  By illustration we hoped to do our part in changing the American home ideal from too big to just right.    We have happily experienced living in 860 square feet for the last several years.

Large garden with 860 square foot home in three separate buildings.

Then we decided to sell our home to purchase Thistle and live aboard permanently. 

Thistle with covered patio and a world to rove.  

This  plan meant we would reduce our living space from 860 square feet  to 110 square feet.  A huge reduction in space but we were mostly confident we could do it.  After all, we’d been going from small home to smaller home for years.  Eliminating our valued possessions had become easier with each downsizing.  We learned what was required for today’s needs, not worrying about special event needs.  We learned that a thrift store is perfect  for spillover storage.  In our town the thrift store, Good Cheer, supports our community’s food bank so buying and returning items helps our community as well as helping us stay bare boned.  This buy and sell model gives us access to the extra platter or bowl  for an overflow event but keeps us free of clutter.

Good Cheer Thrift Store, Langley, WA

What we didn’t expect in our most recent downsize was our reaction when we returned home three weeks ago from our  month of travel in Thistle.  At dinner, an evening or two after our return, I looked at Ed and said, “This house feels too big.  I’m rattling around.” He looked at me and laughed, saying, “I’ve been thinking the same thing.”   Our small home is too big?  What?  Although our small home lives big, it's not big.  Although the design is brilliant providing double or triple use of every space, it's still small.  But, for us, it's now also too big.

With our van-living doubts ousted, any skepticism has been replaced with the certainty that we weren’t crazy when we decided to live full time in Thistle.  We are looking forward to the day when our  too-big home is sold and we are on the road permanently, living small and dreaming  big.

~~~

"Let your dreams outgrow the shoes of your expectations."

~Ryunosuke Satoro

Time for Home

We made a short journey to Oak Harbor today, needing to take Thistle to our mechanic, Jason at Kaiser's Garage, to get a new alternator installed.  Although our adventures take us great distances, beautiful Whidbey Island, our home, can't be beat for splendor! drama! beauty!  

Ebey's Prairie looking southwest

Ebey's Prairie looking north

Strait of Juan de Fuca

Astonishing weather at Ebey's 

~~~

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:  it is the time for home."

~ Edith Sitwell

Hot Chocolate Sunset

Diseases can be grim things.  People can suffer from a multitude of horrible symptoms and conditions without a clue as to where the malady came from.  My mother was one of these sufferers.  In her late 60's she ended up with what was loosely called palsy.  Her palsy took the form of Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease).  It's progressive.  It's ugly.

As the disease worsened my mom lost more and more body functions, but not her keen interest in the world nor in rooting out fun.   On one of her Whidbey visits we all decided to chase the sunset. We set out from Langley, pulling over to the road's edge whenever we glimpsed a good view, then racing  on to catch the sun setting again and again. We did this all the way up the island when we finally lost the sun entirely behind the Olympics, just south of Oak Harbor.

The lesson, "take the bull by the horns" and live life.  My mom died of this horrible disease, but never lost her love of sunsets.   She definitely taught us to live the sunset-of-the-moment.

Recently Ed and I were setting up camp on the Oregon Coast just as the sun was beginning to set.  We looked at one another, knowingly.  We put on the kettle. 

With cups of hot chocolate in hand, we rushed out of the trees to the open bluff looking out over the Pacific Ocean, to catch the show  -- a lovely constrained sort of show but our world glowed.   Hot chocolate and the spontaneity of the moment turned our cheeks pink, or was it the sunset? 

~~~

"For me optimism is two lovers walking into the sunset arm in arm.  Or maybe into the sunrise -- whatever appeals to you."

~ Krzysztof Kieslowski

Oregon Coast Special Places

Depoe Bay is said to be the smallest natural navigable harbor in the world, yet it is a lively working port.  A sea wall runs the length of the town enabling one to feel a part of the hustle and bustle of a boating community.   On a sunny day, like we had, it's a delight to walk among the myriad of fishing boats, with their riggings clanking and the gulls squawking.  

Cape Blanco Lighthouse, Port Orford, began operations in 1870 and claims to be the oldest continuously operating lighthouse.  But, my favorite fact is, it's the lighthouse with the first woman keeper, Mabel Bretherton, 1903.  

Walking the narrow road to the light house was delightful and the views indescribably beautiful.  Adding to the charm, a lighthouse  volunteer  entertained us with his repertoire of interesting facts.  

Newport was founded in 1866 and soon after become a popular travel destination.  Despite its popularity, there was no road until 1927.  Just two hours from Portland, it is still a popular place to visit with miles of walking beaches, good restaurants and an interesting port to explore.   We loved watching the sea lions and pelicans diving for fish around a fishing boat, competing with hundreds of screeching seagulls.  Although a tourist destination it still has charm and character and we enjoyed exploring the streets and docks.

In this swirl of gulls there are pelicans and sea lions.

 ~~~

"May the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it."

~ Irish Blessing

Flora Fervor

"No work is more important than teaching the children that the
God-given beauty of Oregon is their Heritage."
Honeyman

We were staying at Jessie Honeyman Oregon State Park, lush and beautiful, and huge, the size of a small town tucked into a lush coastal forest.    Quiet prevailed!  Just a whisper of wind along with distant soft sounds from a smattering of other campers.  As we sat in front of our camp fire, in contemplative moods, the threatening rain  arrived.  Scrambling, we retreated to Thistle and our newest addiction, Dominoes. 


 Several dunes removed from the ocean the plantings are lush and beautiful, towering over our 11 foot van.   Close to the park roads the shrubs and trees have been sheared from the ground up as high as a maintenance person can reach.   Hedges so thick one cannot see into the forest, have turned the roads into tunnels of green.  Visiting in the spring with the Rhododendrons and Western Azaleas bowering over the roadways, colorful and fragrant, must be glorious.

On the road to the shore, just south of Florence, the plants are striking in their adaptation to harsh conditions.  On the west side of the road there are sea grass covered dunes, with a scattering of scotch broom.  The broom, looking sheared, is no taller than the grass, beat down by the incessant wind. 

 On the east side of the road there is the oft seen Oregon forest blend of plants, molded into a thick quilt of rich green textures, undulating over the dunes, at a height of about 4 or 5 feet.     The wind has been a persistent pruner, shearing all the foliage into well manicured hedges.

The shore, dominated with sea grasses, is surprisingly intertwined, despite the harsh conditions, with the more sensitive forest plants.   On the pathway leading to the sea we observed numerous large banana slugs, a creature sensitive to salt.  But there they were in these hostile seashore conditions in this narrow line between the sand dunes and the coastal forest.

The edges seem crisp but it's deceptive as the species curiously intermingle.

Early October the forests were vibrant green after the recent rains.  From dried remains in late September, as we headed south, the Licorice Fern were now leaping into existence.  We were treated to new green fronds peeking from cracks in walls, gracing road cuts and sprouting from the mosses on  forest trees.   There were mushrooms galore.  Witnessing the season rejuvenation from the rains was like our beloved northwest was seducing us home again.

~~~

"The greatest wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mr. Ed ~

I've written about our travels but not about my number one travel partner, Ed.  I mean, really, if you are going to live butt to butt in an impossibly tiny van with another person doesn't that person deserve his very own page?  Damn right!  So, as best I can, here is the Ed we know and love...

The man, Mr. Ed!

Picking on Ed is out of the question! He has a loyal defender. “Gees, mom, lighten up!” Brad blurted out, "You’re too hard on Ed.”  Oops!  I can be pretty persnickety at times, at least enough for my kid to chide me if he feels I’m being too hard on Ed.   Brad’s right, of course, Ed’s a jewel!  This whole incident reminds me of Poochie, a dog I had as a kid. If my mom tried to swat my bottom he would lurch at her snarling.  Not that Brad lurched at me snarling, but he did make a point.

Ed, Fran & Brad

When Ed and I married Brad was a teenager, with all the quirks and annoyances that come with that age. Ed met the kid challenge with the tolerance of a saint. Brad, yelling across the garden, “Hey Ed, can I borrow the car.” Ed, “Sure, here’s the key.” Followed by, “Got a couple extra dollars?” Ed, “Yep!”  Light hearted easy interactions like this paved the way for a lasting friendship and deep loyalty.

Brad & Ed

Ed’s that guy you see race walking through Langley with poles a swingin’ and hips a swayin’! Staying physically fit drives him. He sets goals and records statistics. He says, with conviction, “Old age is for training.” Yoga, weights, biking and walking are the activities of choice these days.

Biker Ed

Mental acuity is also a driving force. Growing up in a small North Dakota railroad town, good grades were the only way he could figure out how to make his strict dad proud, and they pleased his mom too. As an only child for the first 12 years of his life, he learned to dodge his dad by playing 50 cent golf in the summer and sticking his nose into books in the winter.  Hanging out with the railroad workers as a kid, in a small town, stuck with him too.   He's a townie to this day.  

Ed the townie with Sharen & Simon

Books became Ed’s friends early on, "they're my tools" he says. "I underline, mark them up.” For more years than I’ve know Ed, he’s been copying quotes from books he reads into a journal. Our library shelves are bent with volumes and volumes of leather bound quote books. 

Easy Ed is a nickname for a very good reason. Staying calm and thoughtful when others are near hysteria, is his trademark. I've managed to bring him to the brink on a couple of occasions when I've been particularly beastly, but mostly he can skirt my outbursts.  Naturally, he isn’t a model of perfection. He can be revoltingly stubborn causing others to be hugely frustrated. His most irritating times show up when he's especially right! Deliberately right! Annoyingly right!

Ed the student

The three of us (now four with Brad’s sweet wife, Yessi), are a close-knit family. We play and work lightheartedly together. Sometimes we grumble or yell, but more often we laugh and joke. We share feelings of affection and love that can be interestingly tangled up with disappointment and fury. Yep, it’s the thick and thin of family, but always Ed’s right there, supporting us and caring for us, no matter what’s going on. He loves family! This good humored man is a gentle and learned soul. Not in the least religious but he might be the most ethical person I know.

Ed with family and friends

At the end of a long tiring day, sitting down to rest, Benton comes storming into the house wet and muddy, shaking with delight, throwing himself into Ed’s lap with his favorite slimy toy, saying with his enthusiasm, “Let’s play! Let’s play!” Yep, we all love Ed.  

Buddies, Benton & Ed  

This guy, who I affectionally call Mr. Ed, is my traveling companion and best buddy.

 Brad, Fran, Yessi & Ed

~~~

"Traveling in the company of those we love is home in motion."

~ Leigh Hunt