Soapstone - 12 JAN 2010

Very stormy last night.  The rain pelted down on the roof and windows and rattled the trees and walls of the little cabin.  Nature is definitely closer here.  You don't have to find her, she'll find you...

I wrote a good bit today, read the first chapter of a new book on Antarctica ("Life on the Ice," by Roff Smith -- great so far!), and drove into town briefly.  I had to stop at the Post Office in Nehalem, and then decided to drive around a little.  I ended up picking up a few groceries in Mohler, stopping at the Nehalem Valley Winery across the road and buying a couple bottles of wine (from a fellow whose other job is cooking for NASCAR drivers, interestingly enough), and finding the elusive town of Manzanita at last.  H Street was the key, not the city of Mohler, as I had previously suspected.  The 101 does a little dipsy doodle, right there in the middle of Nehalem, and the signage is a bit confusing.  Or I'm just confused.  But at any rate, it was easy enough once I figured it out.  (A warning to you, fellow traveller: the order of streets in Nehalem is D Street, followed by C Street, followed by B Street, followed by H Street, where their one traffic light is.  Just go with it.  Follow H Street up past the Post Office, over the hill, and you'll find yourself on the 101 again, or still, and with the opportunity to go north to Manzanita if you so desire.)

I pan-fried my fish fillets tonight for dinner, after breading them with something called "Pride of the West."  A most excellent meal, and it will make another for tomorrow.  I've really been enjoying my Garibaldi seafood!  The crab legs were divine...

I leave on Friday.  It seems impossible that two weeks has already passed here.  It's been wonderful, and I'm feeling very good -- rested and energized, and high on the play I'm working on, and full of ideas.  But so very soon, I'll have to be back in the world...

It's all right, though.  I have written.  I have rested up.  I have refocused myself, here in the green and verdant Nehalem Valley. 

When the time comes, I'll be ready.

I miss my cat...

Mist meets clouds over the hills near Nehalem on this very rainy day.

Green and verdant pastures.

A tree farm near Mohler.  One of these might be yours next Christmas...

Manzanita!  I found you at last.  This is the main street,

which turns right at the end, where you can see the ocean.

The Cloud and Leaf Bookstore was calling my name,

but I resisted.  Maybe Thursday?

Person walking dog on the rainy (but beautiful) Manzanita beach.