On Gardens and Books

If you have a garden and a library,

you have everything you need.

--Cicero

Bouquet of Barnacles

A mermaid must have dropped her bouquet 

on the shore for me to find.

Nine Lives

Everyone on the Oregon Coast has a story to tell.   Luckily, the pace of coastal time makes it easy to sit and listen to them.  The crusty bunch of characters who share the land at the continent's edge have done a wide variety of things.  In our small area alone...

• The realtor was the general store owner after retiring from a company "in the valley"
• The mole trapper was a stone mason
• The bartender was a school teacher
• The home inspector organized motorcycle events in Bend while working in a grocery store
• The breakfast diner's cook was in the "big house"
• The plumber was a commercial fisherman in Alaska
• The cable installer didn't really remember much about his past, but told the tale eloquently

Somehow or other, they have found their way to one of the most beautiful places on Earth.  It's not easy living here.  Making a living can be as daunting as the grey clouds in winter, but they adjust, learn a new skill and stay.   

It's all worth it when the sun comes out and the crab are swept in with the tide.  Business comes to a screeching halt and you'll find them seizing the day, leaving work behind and living the dream!

May we all be so lucky.

Standing at the Edge of the Sea

To stand at the edge of the sea,

to sense the ebb and flow of the tides...

is to have knowledge of things that are...eternal.

--Rachel Carson