Bainbridge-Island on

Yellow pine cone.

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

My daughter and I decided on a short walk through the Grand Forest East on Sunday to look for signs of spring. Along the way we found what my daughter is calling a “yellow pine cone” growing under some ferns. I have no idea what this is and haven’t been able to find something similar in either my wildflower or mushroom guides.

yellow pine cone

Rocks on a rock on the Rock.

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

After returning from my trip my daughter and I decided a day of geocaching was in order. We went to the Grand Forest to look for a couple of new caches.

My daughter loves geocaching, it’s a treasure hunt where she gets to look for real-life treasure (“geo-trash” or “geo-junk” or “geo-crap” to my wife). We didn’t find the first cache (we were definitely in the right spot!) but we did, fortunately, find the second. She is now the proud owner of a new red “gem” for which we left a marble.

Fireworks, ferry, friends.

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

We have been fortunate for the last couple of years to be invited to view the Bainbridge Island fireworks from the deck of our friends’ house overlooking Eagle Harbor. The view is stunning throughout the year but the evening of the fireworks is especially enjoyable.

streaking ferry with fireworks

fireworks over the ferry

gold

Our show before the big show.

Homeward.

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

coming home from the arboretum

Great skies coming home from the Arboretum last weekend.

Timing.

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

orange leaves in downtown Bainbridge Island

Yesterday the lighting was perfect around this tree but I had no camera with me, today it was too bright – still, I like the lines.

Tough.

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

an adult ram waiting to be sheared at Harvest Fair

Prior to Saturday morning I was most comfortable with wool in the form of my favorite Ibex sweater, this was still true after Saturday but I understood the origin of that sweater a little better.

You’ll notice this adult ram is staring me down and won’t come any nearer the fence. He remembered me. I had helped unload him from the back of a pickup, responsible for holding his horns and keeping him from getting up while we moved him into a pen for a shearing demonstration at the Harvest Fair.

Harvest Fair!

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

shed at Johnson Farm ready for Harvest Fair

Be sure to come to the Trust for Working Landscape’s Harvest Fair this Sunday at Johnson Farm!

Touch.

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

an ochre sea star at low tide

Kayak, harbor, hawk.

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve been extremely busy lately (work, beaches, travel, geocaching, work, beaches) but I found some time on Sunday morning to partake in an activity which sadly I have not enjoyed in many years, sea kayaking. I used to kayak infrequently but I always took pleasure in a long paddle in open water, be it the Apostles Islands or the St. Croix and Namekagon National Scenic Riverway. I figured moving to an island surrounded by Puget Sound would allow many possibilities to paddle. It has, I just haven’t taken advantage.

Beach, garden, greens.

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been busy, extremely busy, of late so I’m seriously behind in posting some photos. Let’s play catch-up.

So what have we been up to?

woman in background

canoes and kayaks

My daughter and I went to the beach, she played with sticks in the surf, I chased after her, we built a fort and shot photos.

Gold, glow, morning.

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Good morning.

skyline

golden coast

sun and rainier

I’ve been working on cropping these photos to eliminate a lot of the overcast clouds in the sky. These are all aspect ratios of 2:1, unfortunately this is the most expensive ratio to print at Smugmug.

Crocus, buds, snow.

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

When I woke up this morning I took a double-take, “Is that snow?” Indeed it had snowed again – our flowers and budding bushes and trees endured another bout of Mother Nature’s confusing spring.

crocus in the snow

The poor crocus, so exciting days ago, buried in snow.

blueberry in the snow

The recently transplanted blueberries bore the snow well – already the sunnier surroundings appear to be paying dividends.

Dragons, parade, no.

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

On of BI’s annual events occurred this weekend: the Bainbridge Island Chinese New Year Parade. Parades aren’t really our thing, as a kid I didn’t care for them and my daughter seems to be following right along. We had some friends coming to visit however and the parade seemed like a great place to meet and catch up.

picture taking

On the way from the car to the parade grounds my daughter needed some coaxing – she loves to take photos so out came the camera. She’s perfected holding it to her eye and pressing the shutter but her hand holding needs work.

Sun, mountains, animal.

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

So many old friends came out today, the sun, blue skies, Mt Rainier and an animal!

I made an animotion for my daughter over the weekend and it clearly re-sparked her interest in sending animals on the “big boat”. I arrived at the boat late, making only the last loading (after the cars) therefore missing the clear shot of the Cascades without the blinding sun – it didn’t matter, I was thrilled for a sunrise!

TWL, animoto, expo.

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Since the mochi festival I’ve been honing my animoto production skills. I like the service quite a bit though there are some improvements I’d love see – an API and a better image browser top the list.

The Trust for Working Landscapes has a booth at the Healthy Living Expo this weekend so I decided to work on a animotion we could loop. Behold!

I upgraded to the DVD version for the show to run the video full-screen but I’m disappointed the images are still a bit grainy. I added the images by using animoto’s fetch-from-smugmug feature so I’m not sure if it fetched the full-size images. I’m going to try again uploading the originals directly to see if there’s an improvement.

Mochi, mallets, yum.

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

When the storms hit after Christmas the Mochi Tsuki Festival at Islandwood, courtesy the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community, was one of the casualties – fortunately it was just postponed.

We’ve never been to the long-time Island affair and we were excited, the gorgeous blue skies, perfect temperatures and outdoor venue at Islandwood certainly helped!

rice cooking over an open fire

I, for one, was unclear on the mochi making process. Like so many great foods it starts over an open fire – the firebox on the bottom, hot water in the tubs and the rice steaming in boxes over the boiling water.

Tulips, lines, awards.

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks to all the well-wishing I walked away pretty thrilled with the outcome of the Mountaineers’ photography show. Three of my photos took awards, including the Best in Show:

Awards

tulips

Best in Show & Best Plant

flower

Honorable Mention & Best Macro

sunset and water wave

Best Sunr(ise|set)

Take-aways

First, I didn’t name any of my photos, the only photographer, I think, who did not. Throughout the evening I kept hearing “D-S-C-1-2-3-4 by Brian Zimmer” – never again.

Snowdown, saws, show.

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I haven’t been at the computer or behind the camera recently because I’ve spent the last two weekends clearing the mess left behind from the storm of the century – we had some serious snowdown.

I borrowed a chain saw from a friend yesterday but I’m so in love with my Bahco hand saw (and afraid of most gasoline-powered tools) I ended up felling and bucking the trees by hand – it’s more work but certainly more rewarding and carbon free. Some trees I pushed back to standing so if the ground dries out they stand a chance otherwise I’ll continue to add to the wood pile.

Melt, limbs, bombs away.

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

And the snow melts and the winter rains return. Compare the angle of the limbs of the big trees in this photo with the first photo in the previous post (or mouse-over this photo) – these trees can shoulder a heavy load, until of course they fail and try breaking one of my benches.

When we bought our house our realtor said the sellers wished to leave a number of benches if we agreed, to which we did, visions of Smith & Hawken beauty decorating our yard. What we found instead were a random assortment of benches in various stages of decay and, oddly, some 50’s diner chairs. We then did what any good landowners would do, we hid them in the woods and forgot about them.

Snow, ski, lake.

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

snow in the yard

As a kid, I fancied myself an Olympic caliber cross-country skier – I wasn’t, but I fancied it anyway. I would sneak out of the house during snow storms to ski at the nearby golf course while pretending I was Josh Thompson, America’s biathlon hero.

For various reasons, not the least of which named “Chicago,” I haven’t skied much over the years. Since moving here I’ve been longing to get some skiing in and today longing became reality.

Farms, walk, snow.

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I returned to the Day Road farms last Sunday for my first Farm Walk.

The walk, 2.2 miles in total, covered a number of different properties under various stages of development, from actively being farmed to actively being reclaimed by the forest.

tower and vines

We started at the farm stand and made our first stop at the historic water tower recently moved from Winslow.

Snow, trees, sky.

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

We finally received our promised snow.

snow, trees, sky

It was a perfect day in my book: a roaring fire all day at home, snowmen in the yard with my daughter in the morning and a farm walk with TWL in the afternoon – more to come on an active TWL weekend.

Farm, tree, rust.

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

With Thanksgiving over we’re on to the next adventure in the holiday calendar – the Christmas tree. We cut down a tree from Bainbridge Island Farms last year and it survived until May as green as the day we brought it home! So, under heavy fog, we once again made a trip to the farm to find the perfect tree.

trees in fog

I tried convincing my daughter we needed one of these but she informed me it wouldn’t fit in the house – she’s right.

Pink, yellow, white.

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

A peaceful lazy day with no agenda and, amazingly, some free-time allowed one of my favorite photographic indulgences: walking my yard hunting for mushrooms. I find the varieties of mushrooms simply amazing and love to lay stomach-to-the-ground taking their photo.

pink mushroom

They really are pink – found growing under some cedars.

lace-like

I like the lace around the cap.

Sunrise, ferry, crossing.

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been wondering if the actual ferry path resembled that on Google Maps so I tracked it today.

sunrise over Eagle Harbor

Answered (at least on this morning’s sailing) – I love these maps. Sunrise – Seattle on the left, sun on the right.

Blue, green, red, yellow, pink.

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

We had some fantastic weather today and I had a couple hours in the afternoon with nothing to do so I strolled around the yard making photos.

blue skies and trees

Evidence of the blue skies in Seattle in November.

moss and stone

Moss and stone.

weigela and bug

I’m really enthralled with the weigela leaves as they turn. The pale green and yellow rimmed in red coupled with the wavy forms work for me. Hello little bug.

Slow, rain, broken.

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“Gus wants to go on the ‘big boat’. He hasn’t been in a long time.” And so Gus spent a slow, rainy, start-of-winter day with me. I like Gus and I wanted him to have a good time but nothing much exciting happened. Sorry buddy.

gus in the rain

Gus waits patiently just out of the rain.

walking off the boat

About the only interesting event was the overhead walkway on the Island side failed so all the passengers (bikes, cars, motorcycles, walk-ons) departed via the car deck. Not exciting, but different.

Fall, color, leaves.

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

My addition to fall color photography.

trees going up, up, up

The Grand Forest – we are the Evergreen State after all.

red

Blueberry.

red and blue

Maple.

lace leaf maple

Lace leaf maple.

bright red maple

Japanese maple.

TWL, Board, me.

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The amount of time spent volunteering has been one of the great changes in our lives since moving. For me, it’s usually either maintaining the forest trails or helping with farm work on behalf of the Trust for Working Landscapes.

For the TWL I’ve recently participated in a couple of different parties:

day road irrigation project

Day Road irrigation,

greenhouses

deconstructing the greenhouses

Summit, sunset, Pierre.

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

My silence of late is attributable to having spent the better part of last week at eBay attending the Next-Generation Distributed Systems Summit. I was fortunate, in time and invitation, to attend, meet some really amazing technologists and learn a Tremendous amount (thanks Little Bear). I’m still consolidating my final notes and thoughts on the Summit so expect another post soon.

In the interim, enjoy some sunset photos from my travels with Pierre.

Halloween, pumpkins, gingerbread boy.

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Bainbridge Island loves Halloween.

happy halloween

Bainbridge Gardens’ annual Pumpkin Walk attracted its usual horde of revelers enjoying the pumpkins lit throughout the woods.

pumpkins, trees, sky

A couple of weekends ago we picked our own pumpkins at the Suyematsu Farms – an event quickly becoming one of our family’s favorite holiday traditions. I spend a lot of time on the farm volunteering in part to take in the views – grapes, trees, vegetables, mountains.

Sunset, trauma, pig.

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

When it rains, it pours – literally and figuratively. I left the house today in a pretty steady rain, managed to get about a mile from home and then stopped. My rear tire, fine on Friday and over the weekend, went flat! After a quick cyclocross run home, Pig and I made the next boat. Ugh.

pig waiting in the morning

Pig and I never made it out of the office today, sorry Pig, you get a raincheck.

Cycling, puncture, hippo.

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Today was rough – I punctured – I will never forgive the hippo.

I don’t puncture; I’m the envy of my cycling friends. It’s not that I don’t ride either, in a good year I routinely put in a couple thousand miles and knock out a half-dozen centuries.

climbing alpe d'huez

I can even climb Alpe d’Huez faster than Cheryl Crow (64 minutes; I’m in yellow).

Sunrise, Mickey, Minnie, PII.

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes an animal journeys with me with whom I have less history, today was one of those days. The reason in this particular case stems from a PII incident which I can’t divulge. Nonetheless, we still ventured out.

t overlooking eagle harbor

I’ve seen this a couple times now, the low-hanging, dark clouds with the brilliant red sunrise peeking through.

Sunrise, house, truck, tugboat.

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

No bike, no animals.

ferry coming into dock

house on truck with tugboat

I haven’t been commuting for too long so I’ve not yet seen everything, and I surely had never seen this before: a full house on a truck on a barge pushed by a tugboat!

Boats, trains, ark, sheep.

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I look to my left at a fellow cyclist stretching along the railing as I pull the sheep from my bag and secure them for the shot.

“Ok,” he says, smiling and walking toward me, “what are you doing?”

“Everyday my daughter gives me some animals to take on the boat. I’ve been all over the city for the last couple of weeks taking photos, it’s our little game.”

“That’s cool,” he says, laughing. “How old is she?”

Mushrooms, Bloedel, fungar.

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

We enjoyed our last trip to the Bloedel Reserve enough to become members and membership has its privileges – an annual mushroom walk.

wide view of the meadow

I love the meadow.

First, our guide, Andy, was outstanding – extraordinarily knowledgeable with fantastic stories of growing up on BI, hunting for mushrooms and fungar: knowing where to look for mushrooms.

Sunrise, lounging, polar bear.

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

“There’s the polar bear. The polar bear is on the big boat. The polar bear is eating.”

Every night when I bring the photos home from the day’s adventure, my daughter, wife and I lay on our bellies while my daughter flips through the photos offering her own play-by-play.

sunrise

seattle skyline

polar bar on side of boat

Damn we have some fine sunrises.

Zebras, football, espresso.

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I was pretty excited today when my daughter presented both ZoZo and Amélie for a trip on the big boat. I’m pretty fond of the letter Z and zebras, less so the animal and more so the football official, my dad having officiated football throughout most of my childhood and the memories I have thereof. I knew just where I was going.

qwest field

The zebras outside Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks – notice the football pig in the background, a Rachel likeness.

Morning, sun, commute.

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Sadly no animal shared the morning commute with me today. At dinner, it occurred to my daughter she had forgotten to send an animal and explained she could not provide one at that moment because she was “not wearing pajamas” – tomorrow perhaps.

I was able to take some photos on the way into work. I struggled with the bright sun blowing out the sky in some of the photos – well, and the fact my heart rate needed controlling to take anything close to steady.

Sun, play, horsey-back rides, Harvest Fair.

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

On a perfect September day under glorious blue skies – what a change from last year’s heavy rains – we enjoyed the Trust for Working Landscapes’ biggest annual event: Harvest Fair. The Fair, replete with fun & food, is many a family’s favorite Island event, perfect Americana in my book.

people milling about

pie contest

Slides, swing, fun

Slides & swings kept the kids entertained.

Spiders, mushrooms, Harvest Fair, fall.

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

A face-full of spider webs as I hunt for a carpet of mushrooms confirms fall’s arrival.

forest floor of mushrooms

This banded spider, weaving away on a rhododendron, was kind enough to pose for photos.

banded garden spider

running away

On Saturday I volunteered with the TWL in preparation for the Harvest Fair. Bart and I moved about five truck loads of brush from one side of the farm to another – Bart on the tractor, I loading with the pitchfork. In the process we unearthed at least half-a-dozen mice, a baby frog and a newt – the eyes of a newt must have been the influence for Gollum’s. I really found the eyes mesmerizing – it’s no wonder so many magic potions call for their inclusion, they are other-wordly.

Greenhouses, up and down.

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Under perfect blue skies and warm temperatures, I volunteered a couple of hours labor on Saturday to help the Trust for Working Landscapes and a local farmer deconstruct two large greenhouses for relocation on another farm.

start

When I arrived the crew was re-attaching the frame supports in order to give the structure enough stability to be taken apart.

full rib

The basic idea was to get on the tall ladders, detach the cross beams from rib-to-rib and then pull the sides apart. Working on a ladder 15+ feet high, my known incompetence with all things construction and the general limited knowledge of how to bring the structure down safely made the first couple of minutes a bit, um, nerve-wracking (at least for me).

Blackberries, apples, garden.

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I love foodie weekends and in my book that means farmers’ markets, harvesting vegetables from the garden and most enjoyable of all foraging for free food.

As the end of summer approaches – if you can call the last three months summer – it’s blackberry picking time. I ventured out midday on the commuter to pick enough for a jar of blackberry jelly.

on the bramble

The berries need another week or more but I snagged myself long enough on the vines to fill two yoghurt containers and safely packed them away in the Ortliebs.

Fences, a yellow shore crab and a beach.

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Hours and hours of yard work have kept us close to home this weekend and last but I wanted to get in a short hike, no matter how short. At my reading group I was told about a beach access trail I hadn’t traveled so my daughter and I set out on Saturday morning to check it out.

The trail starts down Skinner Road just west of Battle Point Park. There’s no parking along the road so if you’re driving park at Battle Point. Walk along Skinner Road until you can just see the fences in the distance.

Blueberries, hydrangea and vegetables.

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

A quick garden update. We have a large grove of hydrangea starting to flower but the small buds really catch my eye.

purple hydrangea

blue hydrangea

The blueberries are blue and sweet, the cabbage are green and just-about-ready for dinner and the squash are flowering and, um, green and yellow. We picked a yogurt container of Cupidon beans and snap peas this evening – dinner tomorrow.

Toe Jam Hill Half Marathon

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

(Update: see here for a detailed course description)

Toe Jam Hill is the namesake hill of a local half marathon and the hill, at mile seven, is tough with a 30% gradient according to my Garmin 305. The run was today and while I ran and did well last year, this year I chose to sit out because I trained so little over the winter and spring. Once I saw the runners, including my good friend Dave, I immediately regretted my decision – next year.