Detail from "Rain Dance," an original quilt by Sherrie Spangler

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Summer color and totem poles in Bremerton, WA

The Feet & Forks in Bremerton

I haven't mentioned our Feet & Forks hikes in awhile, mainly because so many of them were rainy and gray this year so I didn't take my camera. But last month we had a beautiful, sunny day for a hike around Bremerton, WA.


Flowers were popping up everywhere, providing color inspiration for many quilts to come. After the hike, we ate at the Boat Shed Restaurant on the outdoor deck:




The deck was bursting with as much color as the gardens. I can definitely see these photos working their way into some quilts.
 



Even the rest room had a photo-worthy picture, but we weren't sure who "Lilly" would be. Lilly Pulitzer, maybe? Any other ideas?



This totem pole towered over the parking lot where we left my car. When I was a kid growing up in Pittsburgh, PA, I was fascinated by the totem poles I saw in museums and magazines and never dreamed I'd someday live in a part of the country where they're commonplace.


It was made by Frank Smith (Makah) from Neah Bay, WA, 35 years ago in 1978. That year I was still in Pennsylvania, working as a reporter and plotting my escape to a warmer part of the country. The next year I got a job in the Southwest desert, which didn't have totem poles but did have towering cactuses:


Here are some majestic saguaro cactuses near Tucson, Arizona, that I hiked around a few years ago. I think they look a lot like totem poles.

A note in defense of "cactuses" instead of "cacti" for the plural of "cactus" -- both are correct, but in the journalism world that I trained in "cactuses" is the only way to go. If you love the pickiness of editing and writing, check out this site: http://www.tameri.com/edit/style.html


Getting back to our Bremerton hike, we saw this wisteria gone wild taking on the dimensions of a tilted totem pole. It's taking off into the sky via utility wires. I love the idea of nature swallowing up industrialism (as long as it leaves me enough electric power for my sewing machine), although just this week my husband mentioned that wisteria from a home garden easily can swallow up the native vegetation, including strangling nearby forests. I still love wisteria.


Do any of you have things in your parts of the world that remind you of totem poles? I'd love to hear comments!

Have a colorful day

2 comments:

The Idaho Beauty said...

Love those doors and chairs. And as for Dave...what a buzzkill. ;-)

Ladybug said...

I'm back - will email you where I've been...

LOVE the Boat Shed - 1 of my favorite places to eat!

Has'ta be Lilly Pulitzer (the 2 Ls are my clue...)

I have also loved Totem poles forever. I now find it interesting that small ones are sold many places as "Native" art even though those gift shops are in distinctively NON Pacific NW locations! Some are even made in China, which is not at all surprising these days. I guess there are a lot of people who really don't know, or even care, that there are such distinct differences between Indian tribes and also in their art.

The saguaro - first time I saw them in AZ, the only thing I could relate them to was a forest after a fire, with all the tall trunk standing upright against a totally bare background. I never made the totem connection until now.

Thanks for the link for editing - should come in very handy, as I do struggle with some of the details of words.