Author: Kay

Northern flickers

This year is the first one that our tiny apple tree has borne fruit and I’ve been both uncertain and lazy about harvesting it. The first one I picked was definitely not ready. Ready or not, the other day I was pleased to discover that it’s providing a welcome food source for northern flickers (colaptes auratus) that have been steadily pecking at them. They’ve come back repeatedly for lunch.

I haven’t been able to get any closer than these shots. They’ve got that “here comes another dumb photographer” radar and take off the minute I touch the door to move in for a better view. Northern flickers are members of the woodpecker family. They have a black bib on their chests that looks a bit like a big heart. They often visit urban gardens in the winter.

Adventuress

The historic gaff-rigged schooner Adventuress has been hauled out for refit in Port Townsend and we stopped by to take a look at her last week. Launched in 1913 in Maine, she has led a colorful life and is listed as a National Historic Landmark.

Adventuress was designed by B.B. Crowninshield for John Borden who sailed her to Alaska intending to catch a bowhead whale for the American Musuem of Natural History in New York. While the whaling adventure failed, naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews filmed fur seals on this journey, which led to early efforts to protect them.

Borden sold Adventuress to the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association and she served 35 years transporting pilots to and from cargo vessels on the California coast just outside San Francisco Bay. During World War II she became a U.S. Coast Guard Vessel guarding San Francisco Bay.

She eventually made her way up to Seattle and the Puget Sound area where she now is operated by Sound Experience as part of an environmental education experience on Puget Sound.

Adventuress is a beautiful boat and is getting repairs she obviously needs. Planking below her waterline is being replaced, along with other work that the 100 year-old lady has earned in her long and storied life. You can see both old and new (smooth) planking above the worker’s head in this shot.

Best of the Peninsula: Pizza

The Peninsula Daily News polling gave best pizza honors to Westside Pizza this year. There are branches in both Sequim and Port Angeles. We were out and hungry the other day and stopped for the veggie version above. This was their smallest version, which they call “medium” because their sizes are only medium, large, and grand. I guess no one wants small with our supersized mentality.

We decided to take a table in their dining room. They were busy enough – I suspect a lot of their business is takeout and delivery.