Category Archives: Other Local Places

A Thousand Icicles

Posted on February 26, 2011 | 2 comments

North Shore ice


The weather has been frigid the last few days with daytime highs in the thirties and lows in the teens at night. A few days ago most of Puget Sound was on an extended snow watch with some areas getting up to six inches of snow. Even so I was surprised to see an icicle tree on my bike ride today (see photo). The winter wonder is on Hood Canal’s North Shore Road about a half mile west of Belfair State Park.

The family who lives there usually decorates the trees along the road at Christmas time with lights and hanging snowflakes (a few are visible under the ice). For this late February display they seem to be going for the spiky frozen look. I don’t know if they sprayed the tree with a hose or perhaps a sprinkler head broke and supplied the water. Either way the icicles are real (brr) but probably not natural. The green layer under the frozen branches is a mixture of rhododendrons and sword ferns, leaves heavily encased in ice.

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Halloween Stores

Posted on September 29, 2010 | 2 comments

One of two ghostly stores in Silverdale


Americans are expected to spend $5.8 billion on Halloween this year. That’s a lot of retail. Until yesterday, however, I wasn’t aware that there are seasonal stores (see photo) dedicated solely to supplying us with the perfect costumes, accessories, and decorations for Halloween.
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Posted in Business Beat, Other Local Places

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Coming in Spring 2010/11

Posted on September 9, 2010 | 1 comment

Best of luck


The old sign announcing the Chico Beach Cottages said something like “Coming in Spring 2010” or “Available in Spring 2010.” Construction finally started a couple of weeks ago. The new sign (see photo) doesn’t mention the missed deadline, but a flyer available at the site states that completion is now targeted for Spring 2011. It also advises that only 5 of the 7 homes to be clustered on the roughly 1-acre site, which are priced from the mid-$500s, are left. I learned this on my bike ride today.

The waterfront project is located on the northwest side of Dyes Inlet, just before Chico Way dead ends into Newberry Hill Road, about a half-mile south of Silverdale. It’s a high-rent area due to the view and location. The home just to the north of the project is valued at more than $760,000 on the county tax rolls. I will miss the heavily wooded lot that’s been clear cut to make room for the cottages. But it will be interesting to see if the project can live up to its own marketing: “Once in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a new, legacy waterfront home in Kitsap’s first ‘pocket neighborhood’ cottage community!” More important whether the long-delayed construction start means local real estate professionals think Central Kitsap is emerging from the housing slump.

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Posted in Economy, Other Local Places

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Driving in Bremerton

Posted on September 1, 2010 | 3 comments

It’s the first of September, the first day of the fall school term in Bremerton. That’s one more reason to be careful when driving around town. The safety of kids is of course paramount, but that’s not what I’m writing about. With red-light cameras at major intersections and a citywide emphasis on traffic enforcement, drivers already need to be especially vigilant when driving in Bremerton. The all-day 20-mph speed limit in school zones just ups the chances of getting a traffic citation.
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Posted in Cars, Government, Mud Bay & Rocky Point, Other Local Places

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Fishing Sculptures

Posted on June 24, 2010 | 1 comment

Sculptures in 2010


Can anything new be said about the controversial public art (see photo) that was installed this month at the intersection of Fourth and Pacific in downtown Bremerton? The sculptures, of a fish and a fisherman, have been criticized in blog entries, in letters to the editor, and in hundreds of online comments on the Kitsap Sun web site. The answer is probably no, but that didn’t stop me from writing about them.
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Posted in Government, Other Local Places

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Wild Rhododendrons

Posted on May 31, 2010 | 1 comment

Rhododendrons along Gold Creek Road


It’s the end of May and coast rhododendrons, Washington’s state flower (Rhododendron macrophyllum), are in full bloom, showing off their attractive pink blossoms (see photo). Perhaps I should refer to them as “native” instead of “wild” rhododendrons, although one web site I consulted said they were imported from California rather than originating in the Evergreen State. Whichever modifier is used, they do quite well without any help from man. No one fertilizes them, prunes the old blossoms, or waters them during our hot dry summers.

Coast rhododendrons are found west of the Cascade Mountains growing naturally along the edges of forests and in clear-cuts and natural clearings. They thrive at sea level but can survive at elevations up to 4000 feet. Woodland areas near the Hood Canal are a particularly good place to see them. At maturity the plants are 6 to 8 feet high, but they can reach heights of 20 feet. With hundreds of varieties of rhododendrons available at nurseries, landscapers seldom use coast rhododendrons to decorate homes and commercial property. That’s fine with me, as I prefer to see them in their natural setting.

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Free TV

Posted on May 15, 2010 | 1 comment

Encouraged by projections from signal-locator tools available at several web sites, I have been trying to get free local TV at our Treasure Island vacation place in rural Mason County. That’s right, tvfool.com and antennaweb.org tell you how to receive high-def digital TV signals without paying a monthly cable or satellite bill. Take that, WaveCable! Buzz off, Dish Network! So far, the actual results are disappointing as there’s a large gap between them and what’s theoretically possible.
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Ghosts in Port Gamble?

Posted on May 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

I like visiting Port Gamble, the restored lumber mill town on Port Gamble Bay in North Kitsap. I drove my old Chevy there today—a gorgeous Sunday in May. There are acres of open space, a couple dozen historic homes, stunning views of Hood Canal, an old post office and general store, antique shops, a summer car show, and an annual Civil War reenactment. If that’s not enough the town’s promoters have scheduled several ghost-related events for the coming October.
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Posted in Friends & Family, Other Local Places

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Hibernating in Plain Sight

Posted on March 1, 2010 | 2 comments

Little brown bat


Despite unusually mild temperature since December the bats on Treasure Island are hibernating for the winter. For whatever reason they didn’t tell one little guy (or gal) where the big slumber party was going to be. Forced to improvise this bat chose a dry, relatively warm, and very public spot to bed down—the upper wall of my neighbor’s covered porch (see picture). So far, it hasn’t complained about the porch light, which is only a few feet away and is always on.
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Why Write About the Belfair Bypass?

Posted on November 19, 2009 | Leave a comment

There’s an excellent letter in yesterday’s Kitsap Sun by first-term state representative Fred Finn (D-35th District) in which he urges that the Belfair Bypass be taken off the shelf (link at end of post). The idea of a bypass has been around since the 1980’s, and currently there is almost no local opposition. Nor is there much disagreement on when we need it: now. Yet budget woes have delayed the project until at least 2019. In the interim, it has little chance of competing successfully for funds against the state’s mega transportation projects. So I was curious why Rep. Finn wrote the letter. To find out why, I asked him.
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