Message from the Other Side of a Dream - Pt 2 of 2

Every single day, I see wildlife including: treefrogs, deer, ravens, seagulls, owls, squirrels, blue herons, geese, green herons, and bald eagles! I have never seen so many bald eagles in my life! At one point, I counted a total of SEVEN in the sky, soaring in great circles. So many birds and frogs that there is no such thing as a quiet twilight. But I love it! I love the sights and sounds of nature that has not yet been pounded to oblivion!

Cat… is more and more in love with her new home every day. Twice now while driving she made a point of thanking me. For finding the peninsula, for showing her that moving to a new home could mean she gets a better life, and for finding Heron Hold. Before we left Ghost Lake and Blue Heron Lake, by contrast, she was bemoaning giving up her comforts and the things she had come to love there. Now–? She’s finding more and more to love here. Which I am thrilled by!

The next door neighbors to the south came to greet us. A very laid back, genteel, retired couple who have chickens and do pottery. They were very friendly, but also thoughtful and weighing me, I could tell. That’s okay. I hope they’ll come to see that Cat and I may be eccentric, but we’re peaceful and respectful. They are definitely the type to befriend and share numbers with! I’m glad at least one side will be easy to stay on good terms with. All that’s left are the neighbors to our north, and then across and down the street a ways there are 2 houses side by side. Other than that, though? One must go too far to count any further people as neighbors, which I also love. We aren’t isolated, but the few neighbors we do have are acres away from us, on their own plots of land.

Speaking of neighbors! I had no idea how prevalent the Navy was here. I mean, I understood that the shipyards of Ironfleet were teeming with Navy types, as well as shipbuilders and repairers, but the entire peninsula is one huge Navy neighborhood. I’ve learned a lot from this. For example, did you know that Navy people LOVE baseball? I remembered a reference to it in A Few Good Men. Tom Cruise plays a Navy guy, and you see him playing baseball in a couple of scenes. Well, it wasn’t just a lark for the movie, it’s true. There are more baseball diamonds here than soccer and football fields combined! We have one just down the street and we can hear crowds cheering many afternoons and evenings. There are gamer stores everywhere here because of the Navy, too. They play a lot of Magic, the Gathering for instance, and several other things, because its something they can do aboard ship. What’s more, they don’t stop playing once they’re on shore leave, and they haunt the gamer shops.

Many small towns close to Ironfleet have facilities and businesses for men and women on shore leave. I’ve noticed even adorable Cedar Cove has a night life that is hopping even at 11pm on a Sunday night! One can find pubs, taverns, and bars all over the place. Charming has a busy biker bar just a couple miles away from us, but almost any town on the east side of the peninsula is unexpectedly awake and alive at night. During warm and dry weather the effect is multiplied. I haven’t heard of much violence or drunk driving, though, so let’s hope the Navy people are a little more circumspect in their drinking? (Not according to friends I’ve known in the Navy, but…I can hope, right?)

There are also Navy installations dotting the landscape. They are quiet, sort of under-the-radar, but I keep finding more and more research facilities and such tucked away, including one just down the road from us! Again, I’ve said it before, but I wonder what the Others will think?

On top of all this, a lot of Navy people retire here. Lots and lots of small houses in semi-retirement communities everywhere. Many small towns here have art galleries, theaters for plays, and gardening specialty stores. There are tea houses and cafes and parks. The people who live here love it beyond question, and they invest in it. Navy money means the small towns here aren’t dying like in most of the country, and being next to thriving Seattle helps on that score as well.

There are marinas in nearly every coastal town, and… nearly every town is coastal! The sea is always close by. I mean, Kitsap may as well be an island. Only one tiny scrap of land to the southwest, and a highway bridge to the southeast connect it to the mainland. It costs money to cross that bridge, too! And more money to use the ferries, of which there are more than anywhere else in the United States. Docks and ships and the smell of the sea are ubiquitous here. I find I am perfectly okay with it. I lived for a year on the beach as a child (around age 4/5) so the sights and smells feel homey to me.

Lots of shores, and lots of long, low hills and ridges as well. Heron Hold is built upon one such ridge, but one third of the land is pond/swamp at the very bottom. That’s where the geese and frogs are congregating. One third of the land is sloped forest that we’re determined to clear out and make into paths and magick groves. And the last bit is almost totally flat on top of a long low hill, where the house is and gardens will be. Plenty of room to stretch out, try projects, and still set aside areas for wildlife to thrive! We have plans for birdhouses, and bat houses, and owl houses galore! In fact, wildlife is SO abundant (we’re told coyotes and foxes and cougar and bear are here as well) that it’s obvious that we’ll have to fence in sections of yard for those gardens I want. Cat has to fence in areas for the chickens and emus as well. We’ve settled on 6-foot high black chain link (which is strong, cheap, lasts forever, and—when black, blends into the background greenery) for most of it in the back, and—for the front by the house, tall, black wrought iron, topped with spikes! Perfect next to a Victorian!

Finally, I am taken by the SMELL. You don’t know how much city and suburban life STINKS of car exhaust and more until you’ve managed to get out of it a while. It smells heavenly here! A blend of sea (we’re only a quarter-mile away from it, after all) fresh fields, and forest! Oh my gods does it smell wonderful! I mean, the first thing I do when I step outside each day is take a breath of fresh air and moan a little under my breath because it is so good!

People tell you to be grateful for what you have. Well, if you have what I have NOW it is very easy to be grateful. I haven’t always been grateful. I don’t feel thankful to have the bare bones basics like a roof over my head and food in my belly. That’s just survival stuff, and while it is necessary to live, it is not enough to feel happy about. That’s the truth, and the ones who tell everyone to ‘be grateful’ all tend to live blessed lives anyway and they’re preaching to their spoiled selves and friends and neighbors, who are all equally blessed. You may have noted I often want to kick those kinds of people who dare to say such things to me when I am miserable—because misery is the state of life for most people of this world. It is crowded and full of greedy and cruel assholes who get a thrill from the suffering of others. So, f–k that!

Now, that has all changed for me. I am no longer reaching and struggling to find a life worth living. I have found it. Well, I have found at long last what I need to create it. I have intelligence, and creativity, and I’m warm and friendly and a little silly. I can combine my great luck with my attributes and make more from it.

And I shall!