Detail from "Rain Dance," an original quilt by Sherrie Spangler
Showing posts with label totem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label totem. Show all posts

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