weekend music

Just like Folklife in Seattle, Port Angeles has the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts Memorial Day weekend.  The children's clinic where I work is a sponsor of the festival and as a result the clinic gets some sponsor passes for all 4 days.  Mike and I were grateful to get 2 of these passes, and we made much use of them, seeing a few acts every day for 4 days.

Our favorite acts were 2 bands from Portland.  I'm sad that I didn't partake of concerts much when I lived down there.  The groups are Circled by Hounds and Kevin Burke with Cal Scott.  Both are celtic influenced groups.  Great musicianship and entertaining.  Circled by Hounds had a set call The Tantrum, put together based solely on the names of the tunes: toss the feathers/smash the windows/scatter the mud/off she goes.  They also had a song or 2 in which they made use of pitchforks as percussion intruments.

It was also good to see that there is some culture up here.  Even with the Hood Canal Bridge closed, making it difficult to get to and from the Seattle area, let alone the other side of the canal, the festival was well attended.   It also helped the turn-out that it was the nicest whether we have had in a long time.  The sun just makes everything better.

the morning run

Have I really not written for almost 2 months?  It isn't for lack of thoughts and things happening ... Anyhow.

Due to some occasional knee pain and iliotibial band tightness/tendinitis, I haven't run much or regularly the last couple of years.  For some reason my body is cooperating with running more lately, which is good for my psyche.  It is also a great way for me to enjoy the early (and recently very sunny!) mornings.

So, this morning I was out on a different route than usual.  Port Angeles has a plethora of ravines intersecting the city.  This isn't good for traveling around town, especially if one is new to town.  When we were visiting for the first few times, it was extremely frustrating to come on dead end after dead end, prompting Mike to comment that they must have the most hold the lead for dead-end streets per capita or square mile.  However, these ravines are excellent for retaining trees and housing wildlife.  This morning I was running by one when a commotion in my visual periphery made me stop to look.  I see 2 crows flying at a bald eagle.  The eagle was perched not more than 50 feet just below my line of sight and was barely flinching as the crows tried to rouse it from their neighborhood.  What a beautiful and majestic bird.  I've seen occasional eagles over the years but never this close.  Multiple cars drove quickly past me as I stared off into the trees.  Partly I wanted to flag the cars down and say, "Slow down. Get out of your cars.  Look what you are missing!"  But I was also perfectly content to view the eagle in grateful solitude.

My run also included a visit to the supposedly oldest madrona tree in the state.  The sign says it is estimated at 300-400 years old.  I tried to commune with the tree and gain some arboreal wisdom.  I love old trees, the presence they have, thinking of all of the history that occurred during their lives.

Since we have had such a cold spring thus far, lilacs only really started to bloom about 2 weeks ago.  Runs or walks of late have included as many lilac smellings (not sure about the accuracy of that word, but you know what I mean) as possible.  In addition to sunny mornings, old trees, and running, lilacs make me happy.  It was good run.