It may have seemed that my decision to return from the West Coast in 2018 was sudden and impetuous.
At first, when I moved there in 2000, I loved it. The mountains and the proximity to the Pacific Ocean, a more laid-back life style all made me very happy.
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Moving three times in eight years, each time fleeing urban sprawl, I finally purchased a strange little property that was a green oasis for the birds and wildlife I loved.
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Every available space was being turned into condos. I had bought one myself in 2002 and enjoyed it until the park-like surrounds overnight turned into other blocks of condos, all the same boring boxy structures.
With their dictatorial condo-boards.
The idea of living in a community where your needs are attended to seemed a good idea, but I never did get on with rules and regulations. Or fees that had a habit of escalating out of proportion.
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It wasn’t long after my dad died in 2005 that I began to have debilitating problems with my spine which led to devastating surgery in 2007, followed by early retirement.
Clearly I was not going to be able to get as involved in animal causes as I had hoped, so I re-evaluated. I could still care for foster cats, but this required a bigger, un-regulated space.
“I know! I’ll move!”
What you should not undertake after a spinal fusion.
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Fostering was why I acquired a three-level house on a very steep slope. A headache of a property.
But it was mine. No condo board.
Local law limited the number of pets I could keep. I think it allowed 3.
Technicalities.
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A sane person might have taken more time over all the changes I made during those months but I have never been able to function that way.
When I focus on a target, I have to reach it will all possible speed.
Whatever problems arise are overcome in whatever way is necessary.
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Operating this way, I admit, has undoubtedly been costly in various ways, but I have never regretted any of the major decisions I took.
This is the hill down which Willow came one morning to mend my heart after Panther’s death.
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It got to the point though, where merely going to the supermarket was an expedition.
When I was first in Seattle, I lived off this road, making a left turn easily.
Traffic was part of my decision to leave.
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The weather was changing, bringing hot, dry summers and snowy winters.
Snow out there, where people were unused to it and where the terrain included many steep hills, could be a problem.
In the summer of 2016-2017 for the first time we experienced wildfire smoke.
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For a long time I had been uneasy about the proximity of Mt Rainier. In my mind I pictured: earthquake, tsunami, over-populous area with insufficient escape routes…
Following the spine surgery, I had wandered off into a two-day morphine-induced nightmare in which volcanoes were a big feature. Maybe that was the basis for my unease.
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Wildfire smoke is not something I ever really expected to see where I now live, but I can’t say I am all that surprised either.
Nor do I feel I can complain, given how very much worse it is for so many others.
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Is it too much to hope that climate deniers might witness this and re-consider?
After a very bad start this morning, light rain fell. It seemed to clear the air more effectively than the loud thunderstorm of two days ago.
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Having gasped and wheezed at the sight of the above, I was quite excited by fresh air!
It prompted me to don my boots and contemplate a flower bed, sadly in need of sorting out.
For once I actually put gloves on and waved a garden fork around.
“Are you a weed or a flower?”
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It’s all I can do to keep the milkweed under control. I think it grows a foot every day and for each plant we had last year, we now have a dozen.
Like everything else, it’s different this year, flower buds appearing when the plants were only a foot high.
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Grant left the deer grass as a shield for the bed.
But the storm flattened it. So abandoning pointless weeding, I hacked it down.
By then the man was home from the store and told me I should go back inside.
Which, I happily allowed, was sound advice.
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In the meantime, as I’ve been writing, our view has improved immeasurably.
It is indeed a welcome sight.
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As I have said often enough, I do not ever take things for granted and I think we are not yet done with smoke.
From what I read, it is likely to be an annual feature for the foreseeable future.
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It is not a comforting thought, but I believe we can learn something from many sorts of adversity.
Certainly not all. I have no right to make that sweeping statement.
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But to be deprived of a particular pleasure surely makes it that much sweeter.
Pause for thought, and a worrying one at that!
Thank you, Carolyn, for your optimistic thoughts!
Joanna
This is a very good quality – that perseverance to achieve what you set your mind to! Costly? Maybe, but from our experience, always worth it. I’m so glad the rain brought relief … in your last photos everything looks nice and clear again!
That traffic looks like the best reason to move I can think of.
Best wishes, Pete.