It's Thursday, and we're back at Carol's for craft day. We took a few weeks off in the summer, since everyone was going on vacation and otherwise busy. Today, Janet taught Carol a couple of new techniques for dying fabric - ways to combine multiple colors. Above, Carol and Janet at work.

One method uses a bowl - you scrunch the wet fabric in, add dye, scrunch more in, add more dye, and keep doing that until the whole piece of fabric is in the bowl. Then it is transferred into a plastic bag while the dye sets.

Here's everyone in Carol's dye bathroom: Janet, Jamie taking notes, Carol, and Gretchen.
Another method is to put the wet fabric into a tub, loosely scrunched but laying flat. Starting at one end, pour some dye and work it into the fabric with fingers - we don't want any white spots!
Add a different color of dye (and plenty of it!) and continue to work in into the fabric.
Continue to add dyes until all of the fabric is colored, let it sit for a while, then add the soda ash, and let it cure for several hours before rinsing well, washing and drying. I can't wait until next week when we'll see how they turned out. This method is always a surprise - you never know how it will come out, but it's always beautiful!
Jamie, Janet, Carol.

We got up at o-dark-thirty to go fishing at the beach. After stopping for coffee and a breakfast sandwich (no, we don't have a McDonald's here!), and meeting up with Mark, we headed for the beach in the dark. It was completely fogged in, but the water was calm. After a couple of hours, the wind suddenly blew through and scattered the fog. The sun was already up.

The trees poked up through the disappearing wisps of fog. It was a pretty low tide - this is a nice sandy beach, with some gravel, not too steep. The passing ships sounded their foghorns - we could hear them, but couldn't see them. They really sound big!
There was lots of bait passing by on the surface - above, all the disturbance in the water is the little bait fish hitting the surface. The gulls loved it, and swooped low to catch their breakfast. David and Mark saw a brown pelican fly past (I missed it) which is fairly rare around here. I've seen them out at the ocean, but not here on the Island. Maybe it was lost in the fog.
Of course, with all the bait out there, we sure hoped for the fish! Mark (yellow shirt) and David (cowboy hat) did pretty well - 4 and 2 respectively. Me, none! If you click on the photo, you can see that David is casting his buzz bomb - a pink lure. Don't ask me what the salmon think they are, but they do work!
Here is the catch - most of them are the humpback (coho) salmon, but the largest one and the one to the right of it are silver salmon, supposedly better eating, but we like them both. The humpies are oilier, and we've been smoking them, and will can a few batches. We use them just like tuna - they are very mild in flavor when canned. The silvers we have been freezing, to bake or broil later. My big catch was finding a lost buzz bomb!

I guess I'm on a vegetable kick for now. The scarlet runner beans are climbing and blooming like crazy - so much fun to watch. Now the tiny beans are beginning to form - all soft and fuzzy, but we'll be eating them in no time!

Here they are growing up and over the arch. Below is how they looked exactly a month ago, on Aug. 4th.

One of our neighbors planted a huge garden this year, and they've let us come and pick. We had picked peas, beets, radishes, potatoes and carrots earlier, and today Suze and I picked more beets and green beans. They'll be having corn soon, and have cucumbers, squash, broccoli, brussel sprouts and who knows what else.

It is a beautiful garden - this year is the first time, and they planted in a field that has had cows for several years, so the soil is lovely.
And, apparently full of spores, too! This giant clump of puffballs was fun to play with - no matter how many times we squished it, it sprung right back.
Then we went down to the dock to get on the boat with David and Russ, approaching along the dock. It's the last day of crabbing season, so it was time for the final pick and bring the pots in. Only got two keepers, but it was nice out there.
And a local sailing club was having a mini-regatta, with these mini sailing boats. Whatever they were doing, this pair was the winner!

OK - so it's not nearly as impressive as last night's sky, but it was a very lovely sunset tonight just the same. The bad part is, it keeps coming earlier and earlier!

Now, wouldn't you like to come back as a dog - doesn't that look like it feels so good? Buzz just loves to roll around - kicking his feet and groaning!

Saturday night on Suze's deck - Cyndi, Suze & I are kicking back, enjoying this incredible sky sequence with a little nip!
The Olympic mountains were swathed in mist and fog . . .
with the sun breaking through . . .
As the sun sank lower, the gilded clouds reflected across the water . . .
turning everything into gold . . .
then, indescribable purple-orange-pink.

Sunny and fairly warm - out to the beach to try for more fish! A little bit choppy, and some small waves - fun to lay in the sand and view them from a different viewpoint. David has been getting quite a few salmon this week, but you sure have to be there at the right time, just when the fish are coming through. And then they're gone, and you have to wait for the next batch to come through.

So, these two fellows have houses there on the beach, and they watch the fishermen. When someone gets a fish on, they come out and cast for a while to try their luck. But, nothing while we were there this afternoon, so David will probably go back later for another try.
The sky was really interesting with these cirrus clouds over the sun. Of course, the birds were soaring, but could I catch a shot of them?