High Spaces

I loved climbing my grandparent’s Bing cherry tree when I was a child. I could sit up there and spy on the world without anyone being aware, except for the birds of course. Then I dreamed of a tree house, an adult tree house. Books of tree house plans were as far as I ever got. I love mountains and high plateaus. I love sunlight. In this newest chapter of my life, many of those loves are being answered. We have a new home in the sky – filled with windows that overlook Bellingham Bay and downtown Bellingham. From the southwest windows we can see the San Juan Islands, and from the northwest window we can catch a glimpse of mountain ranges across the border in Canada. At night we see marina lights, the spotlighted brick towers of the historic Bellingham City Hall built in 1892 (now the Whatcom County Museum), and a bright red neon sign spelling out “Herald” on the roof of The Bellingham Herald newspaper building. If the windows are open we can hear train whistles as Amtrak passengers and loaded rail cars travel across the waterfront and beyond. We call our new condo “The Loft” (thank you, Greg).

When we moved 900 miles north to our cabin in British Columbia, we packed all of our belongings into a huge U-Haul truck, one with a pink squid painted on the side. It took us almost four days to get there and even more days to move everything into the cabin. We won’t be doing that this time. The cabin will be sold furnished, and so we start this chapter from scratch. We came to Bellingham in May with only a small duffle bag of clothing and toiletries. Which is why we had a good laugh when we saw the built-in California closet units in the master bedroom… multiple racks to store many pairs of shoes. Right now we have one pair each! We will take our time with the transition from cottage to condo as the necessary furnishings are purchased. It has been fun so far, and certainly helps to take my mind off my health issues. New places to explore and new experiences to share. After twelve years of trying to incorporate objects from Bob’s past with the accumulation of my own, this time we are creating “our own space.” And it won’t look like anything I have ever known before, unless sitting on a high limb in a cherry tree counts.

... PLM