Looking around….

Last night's sunset lit up the trees beyond the road coming out of the Friday Harbor Marine Labs....

This may be the day things cool off a little, but things are still happening:

Teddy, tonight with new tunes

• Teddy Deane plays tonight at the Rumor Mill & says he has songs from his upcoming CD Goin’ Home to Friday Harbor Vol II. It’s always fun with Teddy – drop by & say hey!

• Also today – The San Juan Islands Conservation District & The Friends of the San Juans are offering a free workshop called Bluffs & Beaches today at English Camp from 2-3:30pm.  Learn how to protect the shoreline by attending a free workshop with coastal expert Jim Johannessen.

• Saying thanks: Doug McCutchen is the preserve steward for the Land Bank and he’s glad he got a chance to share the island last week. Here’s more from Doug:

Last week the Land Bank hosted a “Volunteer Vacation” crew from the American Hiking Society.  This type of project enables us to get a lot of work done in a condensed period of time with great benefit to the local community.  While small in number, the experienced and amiable crew helped the Land Bank and County Parks with trail construction and maintenance, restored beach access, constructed split rail fencing, performed prairie habitat restoration and enhancement, and removed noxious weeds.

Cyndi Brast tells me she & the Friday Walkers went spelunking somewhere on the island last Friday (she says where is a secret) - that's Claire Kelm at the entrance. (Photo by Cyndi Brast)

We are grateful to the local farmers, businesses, and partners who donated goods and services to the effort.  San Juan County Park hosted the campers for the week where they helped with a variety of resource protection and enhancement projects.  San Juan Farmers Market vendors contributed meat, beautiful produce, bread and other goods.

Jason from Discovery Sea Kayak led a beautiful sunset paddle from the County Park.  Ivan and the staff of the Western Prince donated a half day tour for the crew’s mid week break which really helped solidify their sense of place.

The donations not only benefited and inspired the crew but also showed the commitment of the local community to ongoing stewardship of our lands.  I think the following sentiments from one of the crew members summed up the group’s experience:  “I have been on other AHS trips and Sierra Club service trips, but hands down, yours was the best!!  The island is so beautiful with all the different wildlife to see. And everyone we met was so friendly.  The whole experience was the best of the best!”

• It’s time for summer hours at Pablito’s! Here’s the scoop from Paul:

Pablito’s is excited to announce their new summer schedule.  We’ll be open Wed-Sun for lunch, and Thu- Sun for dinner.  Dinner should be fun – we’ve gone all classy with waitstaff, complimentary chips & salsa, & the works.  It all starts this week!

Matthew with a new elephant he's working on, and Danielle hosted one of the studios in last weekend's 20th San Juan Island Studio Tour.

• It was great.

Guitarist Amanda Brast played for visitors to Laurie Burns' glass studio at Cape San Juan. (Photo by Cyndi Brast)

The weather was perfect for the Studio Tour last weekend, and every artist I saw in town yesterday said they had a great time with folks visiting the places they create their work all over the island.

This year there were 19 studios with some 40 artists – visiting them was the same as visiting the whole island!

A visitor to Matthew & Danielle‘s place told me she felt bad she couldn’t get around to all the studios, but that that made her look forward to next year’s Tour. Wahoo!

Josie & I ran into Mike & Kathy Chadwick in Sidney last weekend - they were there to get their boat "Bilbo Baggins" back to the island after its nice new paint job...they carefully guided her out of Canoe Cove in the Saturday afternoon sun.

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