Hummingbirds at the Feeder
Another Friday Harbor post – one of many to come – this time of the hummingbirds at the cabin vying for time at the feeder. There were up to six birds at one time, with a lot of displaying and chirping and so on. I decided to take video of them to capture their movement and sounds and the background they provide for staying at the cabin. So, having never posted video on Burnt Embers until yesterday (and rarely taken it) you now get it two days in a row. The microphone on the 5Dii is very sensitive to more distant sound, and so the sound of a car or two and some of the sea plane sounds I did not even notice until I watched the video. The louder sea plane engine noise is a frequent nuisance, but one that we seem to get used to living near the water. I was sufficiently absorbed in taking the video that I forgot to take any high-resolution stills of the birds – all these images are captured from the video, which is also inserted further down. The gallery has a bunch more stills from the video.
This feeder is within a couple of metres of the front door step where the fawn was left (see yesterday) and on the outside of the living room window. It is located right next to the Douglas fir forest and there are few flowers other than small wild ones, so the hummingbirds seem to make much greater use of the feeder than at my home where the gardens are full of hummingbird food.
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Doorstep Fawn
The most exciting thing that happened on my trip to the Friday Harbor marine station last weekend was a close encounter with a newborn fawn. The mother had deposited her new baby against the cabin wall with its chin on the concrete of front doorstep. At first we did not notice it even though we went in and out of the cabin a few times, then it caught someone’s eye. Not once did it move, the only sign of life was the movement of nostrils as it breathed. It did not seem concerned in any way, and the mother was nowhere to be seen for half an hour or so. While we left it alone, more or less, I could not resist a few photographs. All of these images are taken with a 50 mm lens, some standing on the doorstep, others lying on my belly across part of the door step, and the more distant ones through the window in the door. Some pictures are cropped from the originals, so I was not closer than a couple of feet away. The video clip below is as close as I got, also with 50 mm lens, and it was really to prove to myself that it was breathing because from a bit further away and from above the breathing was not visible, and some of us were concerned the fawn might be doing poorly and have been abandoned.
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At Premier’s Back
This building is on the legislative precinct, immediately behind the wing of the legislature that has the premier’s office in it. It is an old building that has served many functions, but it always seems to have the legislature’s back.
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Gull Drain
This is another storm drain picture with two crops that place different emphasis on the texture of the drain surface, a gull taking flight as I took the picture and the overall setting.
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Processed Cabbage
My weekend visit to Friday Harbor included a visit to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday. Friday Harbor is the county seat for the San Juan Islands in Washington State and as such is the largest community in the islands, though pretty small. It has a great market for fresh produce, crafts and other typical market products including good live music. I only took one picture at the market, and this is it, run through slightly different post-processing. I spotted this cabbage while waiting to pay for some flowers for my parents who I was visiting. The top image is a simple black and white conversion from the colour image below.
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Moss Street Market: Hot and Cold
It is the time of year when the Moss Street Market opens for business every Saturday. I have previously done a very long post on the Market featuring various vendors, mostly those we frequent (see that post here). By and large those vendors are all back again this year – check out their great products on my earlier post. You can find out more about Moss Street Market vendors here on their website. You can follow MSM on Facebook if you want.
This post is about two new vendors that both have wonderful food – one flaming hot, the other freezing cold – with an emphasis on local and organic ingredients. My thanks to Cold Comfort creator Autumn Maxwell, and to Passioneatfood’s Chef Dwane MacIssac for permission to use these pictures of them and their food. (I bought my food and benefit in no way from this post.)
Cold Comfort was out in the bright sun, with little shade and harsh light, and thus I only have a couple of pictures that worked out. Chef Dwane’s booth was in shade, except for his white cobb oven, which glows brightly in a patch of sun, all ‘burned out’ in most of these photos. I don’t claim any of these pictures to be more than documentary, but the food was so good, I had to feature them with what I had.
R.I.P. MCA
This chalkboard is on a rock promontory at the Friday Harbor Laboratories, a University of Washington facility for marine biology researchers. I just spent the weekend there visiting family, as I have done nearly every year since about 1960. The chalkboard is a heavy slate one, and underneath it is a can full of chalk on a small protected shelf. Transitory art is placed here, and obviously the occasional memorial too. It lasts as long as the rains or next artist will allow.
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