Watching Nature's Show
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Echolocation. Reardon (c) 2014
Well, it’s spring and nature is doing her best to outshine herself here in the Northwest. Along with tulips blooming about three weeks early, the migration of whales has started up, and the local people are preparing to come out in support of both. I’m glad to be part of that with eight whale art pieces that will be in the Anacortes Art in Bloom Invitational show. Heads up for local folk who want to save the dates.
The Art in Bloom fine art exhibition is an
official Tulip Festival activity.
Saturday, April 11th
9am – 2pm during the Farmers Market
6pm – 9pm Evening Opening – meet the artists.
April 12th - April 18th Daily 11-4
Shifting Seasons
We are only slowly learning how climate change can disjoint the timing of the plans that we humans make. Although Seattle’s weather expert, Cliff Maas, says our above average temperatures are not from global warming , they do underline the need to be flexible about unexpected seasonal changes. My own little world will be affected during this art show; alas, the early tulip blooms will bring busloads of tourists to the area two weeks before the show opens.
I’m assuming the whale watching businesses up and down the coast are doing their best to scramble for early openings, not always possible when staff and equipment plans are made a year in advance. If you’re not ready for a whale watching cruise, do take advantage of Orca Networks’ online “sightings” pages where you can get weekly details and maps of which whales are seen where, without leaving land. And, again, Orca Network adds to the local fun with its Welcome the Whales parade, good for the human-whale connection even if the whales have already been around for a few weeks.
Whales Watching
It’s easy to forget how one-sided we humans are as we look out from our beaches and boats to sight the first whale of the season. We really don’t know much about how aware the whales are of us and our activities. Good steps are taken to reduce the impact of whale watching boats, but I’ve long been curious about how whales might have been watching us over the centuries. Such musings inspired the Anacortes art series, and in Echolocation, I imagined how we might be being watched in sonic detail. More about those imaginings and the series in the next blogpost.
