Two Seasons of Cabin Life and Writing

Yesterday, I put on my snowshoes, navigated my cabin stairs and took my dog down my road and up into a canyon.  When I returned, I gathered the snow clinging to my boots and made it into a ball.  As I did so, I thought of this blog.  I have been meaning to write here -about the snow, the cabin, and my work.  Gather ideas into a satisfying hand-full of posts.  It has been almost two seasons since I have posted anything.  A fall on an island and a winter for the record.

In October, when I was barely settled into my cabin home, I left for a writer's retreat in the San Juan Islands. The Helen R. Whiteley Center with its view of Friday Harbor became the scene for an intense and glorious couple of weeks.  The retreat set a course for me to finish a manuscript with a deadline of December 31st.  Hence my absence from the blog.

A Study Room in the Whiteley Center

My Cabin & Work

An island retreat sounds like a holiday, but the individual cabins and the assigned study room were conducive to long hours of work. The deer were the most common interruptions and I came to calling their sightings deeruptions.

A small "deeruption" outside of my cabin one early m

I  hiked most days, some with Catherine Hodges, the writer living in the cabin next to mine.  One day we took the ferry to Orcus Island.

I could live on the islands.  I liked the surprise of seals popping up near me where I sat by the shore or seeing the odd cormorants preening on the docks.  I liked the reddish color of rust and madrone trees.  I liked the weather with its sweep of clouds passing overhead and its occasional morning fog.  I liked the fall on an island.      

My Seal Buddy

A Little Cove with Knocking Sounds

Door of a Lighthouse

Catherine writing on a hilltop.

A Fabulous Tree with Horns

Those Silly Cormorants

Eventually, I had to return home.  But, I love my cabin too.  The winter has been a long one with snow on the trees most days.  Picture me here, writing.  Another good season.