Fence, part 1 (introduction)

I’ve had many ideas for posts that haven’t gotten written. It’s been a busy time around here. I’m distracting myself from an unfortunate event (which I do trust will involve a transient set of circumstances) related to The Project* by writing at least one post. The topic I have in mind is very photo-heavy, so although I think of it as a single post I’m going to break it into several parts. Even though I reduce the sizes of all my images to make the pages quick to load (or that’s the plan), there are enough photos here that . . . well, you’ll see.

* Last week we shipped 13 boxes containing Project materials to the publisher, in preparation for photography. UPS has misplaced 3 of those boxes, adding up to 23 percent of the samples I’ve been spinning. I trust UPS and its bloodhounds will locate those boxes soon
(I hope UPS has bloodhounds available for second-level tracer action, which is where we are on this search, although they may not—the customer
service people didn’t request scent items). Right now I am finding it mentally stabilizing to think about things other than tracking numbers and the word “Exception,” which means “the item(s) you sent are in our system, but we don’t have a clue where.” Certain types of other things. Like the fence I will be showing you in detail in a moment.

Last week I was in Seattle working together with family members on a huge group endeavor. By Friday we needed a break, so we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island and drove over Hood Canal Bridge onto the Olympic Peninsula. Our destination was Port Townsend, where my sister and I both used to live.

I love the ferries. They’ve gotten more crowded (especially in the summer, on weekends, and near holidays), but we beat the July 4 weekend rush by leaving early. The morning in Seattle was gray and drizzly. We weren’t sure it was the best time for an excursion, but it was definitely time to change our scenery.

When we got to Port Townsend, we drove around and looked at things, took a walk in the
park, and had lunch and a short visit with a friend from long ago that I
hadn’t seen in a decade or two.

But we started by stretching our legs with a stroll in Chetzemoka Park. It’s wonderfully diverse, with views and play areas and nooks and crannies and a wonderful, extensive arbor. Here’s just one vista from the park:

See those white things? It’s a line of little boats, all precisely arranged. No, there are no people in them. We were curious about, but have been unable to discover yet, what their story is.

Here’s part of the arbor or pergola:

The day had brightened up as we reached the western side of Puget Sound.

We rambled around the streets looking for places we used to be familiar with, and found a surprising number of them unchanged . . . while we could not locate others at all, although our wanderings jogged our memories enough to figure out where they used to be. The city is twice as large as it was when we lived there. Dogs no longer dare sleep in the middle of the streets.

My sister remembered a particular fence that she’d seen on a previous visit, and shared it with us. I’d like to share it with you. This will require many, many photographs.

I don’t know who built this wonder. It goes along one street, around a corner, and up a hill.

Here is how we encountered it:

In the next post, I’ll start at the end by the house (toward which my sister and my mother are walking) and begin a tour of all the panels.