Fall turned into winter.
Christmas arrived. It seemed fitting to embroider this masked gingerbread ornament to add to our collection. He will be our reminder of virtual Xmas celebrations as we all continued to remain isolated.
2020 turned into 2021. We stayed up to see the New Year in while enjoying this year's virtual laser show at the Space Needle. It was probably the first time the streets were empty and there was no live fireworks display.
The big news is that at the end of January, we were fortunate to get our first Covid vaccination! And then a month later received our second dose. With close to total immunity, we felt more protected but still maintained our strict isolation. The rest of the world was experiencing third waves. Not the time to let our guard down yet. Life on our hill continued pretty much as before.
The days slipped by pleasantly. We kept up with our usual activities: exercising, shopping online, walking down the hill to Tugboat Park, sitting on "our bench" if it wasn't too cold or windy. |
| "our" bench at the beach |
Audio books and TV entertained us. Video calls and texts kept us in touch with family, friends, and my sewing group. And webinars kept me busy learning more about my embroidery software and different quilting techniques.
We were never bored. We were quite content being home. And choosing to spend our first winter in Anacortes turned out to be not too bad at all. We anticipated days of unending rain and overcast skies but were pleasantly surprised that the sun did shine and the rain did stop. Being located in the Banana Belt of the northwest does make a difference. We had less rainfall here than in Bellevue.
Often the rain would fall overnight and into the morning. But by the afternoon we could bundle up and go for our walk.
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the green strip at the water's edge is Tug Boat park with "our"
bench |
We never grow tired of the views along the way.
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"our" beach log when the bench is occupied with view of the marina
inlet and Washington Park behind it |
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| view towards the Skyline marina |
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| watching the boats cruise out of the marina |
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| some days were more sunny |
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| other days were more cloudy |
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| kite flying at the park |
Occasionally we were treated to a lovely sunset, sometimes gold, sometimes crimson, and once or twice a silvery hue beneath the cloud cover.
One big difference is that living at the coast and on an island, we had several wind storms. The wind whistled and howled. It was strong enough to blow over heavy trash cans on garbage days and our deck chairs sailed across the deck into the wall. Once we lost power for more than twelve hours during one of the storms. Thankfully it wasn't too cold and our gas fireplace came in handy. We also have a gas stove. I did not do without my cup of tea!
Despite the colder temperatures, this lone rose insisted on blooming after several days of uninterrupted sunshine. It certainly drew my attention as I strutted off on my walk that day.
There were several trumpeter swan sightings on Michael's runs along the forest trails:
A couple of times Michael went walkabout to look for trails further afield. He took several wonderful pics along Lighthouse Point Trail: |
| view of Deception Pass bridge from Lighthouse Point trail. |
From the Sares Head trail:
Along the Goose Rock Summit Trail: It doesn't matter which trail one takes, the views are always riveting.
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| view towards downtown Anacortes marina |
Mid-January it was time to take Alpine out for its exercise again. We didn't go very far, just far enough to warm the engine up sufficiently to get all the parts working and lubricated. We spent a couple of nights at our old stomping ground at Fidalgo Bay RV Resort. Our front row seat afforded the perfect view across the bay.
It was chilly but sunny enough for walks along the Tommy Thompson Trail across the bay.  |
| view across the bay from the trestle trail |
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| a family of seals frolicking close to the shoreline |
The UPS and Fed-Ex trucks continued making trips to the front door. With the addition of powerful binoculars strategically placed in the living area, we can now view the grand Olympic Mountain range across the strait up close.
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| Olympic peaks through the binoculars |
A Kitchen Aid mixer is the perfect new addition for our resident bread baker whose expertise and variety continues to expand.
My sewing projects kept me happily occupied. I completed several quilts and felt a huge sense of accomplishment.
Every quilt needs a label on the back. My embroidery software and machine do a fabulous job creating them.
The giraffe family is now finished with its own label:
The poppy quilt is quilted with a variety of circles stitched with circle templates. I think circles are my favorite quilting pattern.
I learned a new quilting technique. There was a virtual class on quilting in the hoop which is done using the embroidery machine. We first sewed a top then quilted the edge to edge design using several hoopings. I will consider using this method on a small project. Rehooping the quilt several times can be hard on the hands. |
each new hooping needs to line up accurately with the end of
the previous design |
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a finished topper quilted with multiple hoopings on the
embroidery machine |
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| the back showing the end to end design |
The cozy winter weeks gave me the opportunity to finally sew a couple of bag patterns I have wanted to make. |
two zippered carrying cases and a new pouch for the Mi-Fi device
that travels with us |
Michael now has a new pouch for his external drive. If I wasn't sewing, my fingers were busy working on knitted or crochet hats:
Valentine's Day was approaching next. It was time to make a heart wall hanging.
And a couple of heart coasters, created in the hoop.
As if to remind us that winter wasn't yet quite over, Mother Nature had a surprise in store for us in mid-February. Cold arctic air blew in from Canada bringing with it a good dose of snow. I recalled a previous February snowfall in 2019 when we were preparing the Redmond house for sale and got snowed in. In fact there was so much snow that year that it essentially shut down SeaTac airport and the city for days.
Here in Anacortes we watched the flakes gently drifting down, eventually accumulating to a foot or more. The views were postcard pretty.
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| the view of our house from our neighbors' house across the street |
We watched the accumulation on our deck table. |
| about 6 inches here |
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| more than double that here |
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| and even more here |
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| snowed in |
The snow didn't last very long. Temperatures rose, the snow began to melt and as it melted, the snow on the metal roof began to slide down forming a valance hanging over the gutters. We watched fascinated, waiting for the big eventual crash to happen and for that valance to break away and fall down. And hoped that the gutters remained intact. The snow valance fell overnight, and the gutters were unharmed.  |
view through the window to the outside of the valance of snow
sliding off the roof |
Towards the end of the week, Michael was off for his forest trail run. There were many snowy patches still and ice on the lake.
Michael's niece graduated from her air force training and, due to covid, the ceremony was broadcast online and we were privileged to watch it. It was a proud moment to see 1st LT Emily now a fully trained F-16 fighter pilot. 
By March the days slowly grew longer and brighter. One such bright and sunny day we walked the trail loop in Washington Park. Back in Rialta days we camped at the county campground in Washington Park. This is where we first saw the breathtaking views across the water to the San Juan islands. And from the same viewpoint we also saw the homes that I said resembled barnacles clinging to the hill. Little did we know then that we would end up buying a home on that very hill and take daily walks to the beach that looks out across to Washington Park.
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| view towards Skyline neighborhood where we live |
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| views across the sound |
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| view of the the beach we walk to and the marina entrance |
One morning a family of deer ambled up the road. I took it as a sign that Spring was approaching. Our moods were made lighter knowing that since we were vaccinated we were protected from the virus. Although the virus was still very much an issue with the variants circulating, it seemed that as more people got vaccinated, the virus was under better control. Things were finally looking up.
We even ventured into Costco for the first time in a year and I ordered new glasses after my checkup with the ophthalmologist. Everyone wore masks and we tried to maintain space and separation as we navigated the isles. It was almost a strange feeling to be back in a store and be able to see the various items for sale and select our own produce. Surprisingly neither one of us found it particularly exciting to be out and about. We each agreed that venturing out to the shops is tiring and perhaps InstaCart is not such a bad option after all!
We had experienced our first winter in Anacortes and came to the conclusion that it was better than we had anticipated, certainly more mild, sunny and drier than we had expected, and quite tolerable. The wind storms and the snow simply added variety to our winter experience at home.
