For quite a while in the early 2000s I got into watching British sitcoms on PBS television. Although I’m not a bit watcher of television, I enjoyed the lighthearted stories and the simple fact that it was easy to miss an episode (or several) and still be able to enjoy a program. One program that I enjoyed was a romantic comedy titled “As Time Goes By.” The story centers on the romance of Jean Pargetter, played by Judi Dench, who runs a secretarial agency in London. She is a widowed single mother. Lionel Hardcastle, played by Geoffrey Palmer, is a retired coffee planter who spent most of his adult life in Kenya, and who sold his coffee plantation, divorced his wife and returned to the UK to write his memoirs. He goes to the secretarial agency to get assistance with the project and meets Jean.

The story has many other memorable characters and complexities that really beyond the scope of this journal entry, but one character stands out. Mrs Bale, played by Janet Henfrey, is the housekeeper of Lionel’s father’s country home which Lionel occasional visits and eventually inherits. Mrs. Bale seems to belong to the property and so she continues to serve Lionel after his father’s death. The story doesn’t go into much of her story, but viewers quickly learn two things about her. She follows Australian rules football and she keeps up with the shipping forecast and can quote the forecast word for word as advice to anyone who listens about being prepared for the weather.

I used to watch the program and laugh with the scenarios presented, including Mrs. Bale’s uncanny accuracy with forecasts based on the shipping forecast. Being a resident of the center of the North American continent, I didn’t have a clue as to the shipping forecast, but assumed that it was a bit like the detailed forecasts available to pilots by the National Weather Services Aviation Weather Center.

Now I live near the coast and as far as I know we don’t have access to a shipping forecast, but the weather applications on our phones have alerts for small craft advisories and gale warnings. We have learned to take gale warnings seriously. Although we don’t have a boat that we leave in the water and we don’t venture out into the seas where the waves can be dangerous, the gate forecasts are pretty accurate in predicting windspeed along the shore as well. And even though our little bay is well protected by Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, the wind can really rush through the Strait of Georgia and slam into Boundary Bay just north of Birch Bay.

A short walk along the shore and the bluffs at the edges of the bay gives glimpses at the power of wind and water. Huge tree trunks are scattered on the beaches around here and on the bluffs at the south end of our bay at Point Whitehorn there are trees that have been twisted into amazing shapes by the power of the wind. The twists and turns of the tree trunks tell an amazing story about the winds that have blown against the bluffs for thousands of years.

The stretch of coast from Birch Bay down to Lummi bay is a pretty amazing bit of coastline that has much to each us about the Salish Sea, its resources, and fragile ecology. That stretch of gravel beach is about 20 miles long. There are a few private homes at the southern end of the area at Neptune Beach and Sandy Point, but most of the area is undeveloped except for three large industrial facilities. There are two oil refineries and an aluminum plant all within a ten mile stretch. Although the aluminum plant is now shut down, all three have extensive docks that extend into the water and the refineries have facilities for unloading large tankers bringing crude oil down from Alaska.

Most of the coastline is part of what is known as the Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve, a state owned area designated as a reserve to preserve the unique ecosystem. This area was once the most productive Pacific herring spawning area in the Pacific Northwest. Herring feed on plankton and become food for several larger fish, birds, and mammals. Their presence attracts five species of salmon (Chum, Coho, Pink, Chinook, and Sockeye). The salmon enter the saltwater from freshwater streams soon after hatching and use the region to acclimate to the sea before traveling far offshore. Marine mammals including Orca whales, Dall’s porpoise, Stellar sea lions, California sea ;opens and harbor seals frequent the reserve. The shorelines along the Reserve provide nesting, breeding, feeding, and resting grounds for many species of birds including the Great Blue Heron. One of the largest heron rookeries in the state is at Birch Bay State Park just down the hill from our home.

There is a trail from Point Whitehorn that gives access to the beach from our Bay to the Cherry Point Refinery. The high bluffs and rocky beaches provide a narrow band next to the waters, which are very deep close to shore, a stark contrast with our shallow bay. The deeper waters circulate and provide warmth for nutrients that come to the surface making the area very productive not only with offshore species but also a great place to look at tidal pools to see sea stars and other invertebrates as well as extensive aquatic vegetation including many types of kelp.

Getting to the shore involves a short walk through old growth forest. Walking among the forest giants is always a treat.

We have been privileged with access to incredible natural places in each home we have inhabited. Coming to the coast is no exception and we are amazed at how a short walk can not only provide much needed exercise but also nurture our spirits. As we walked down to the reserve yesterday we talked about how this was different from our walks in the Ponderosa pine and Black Hills spruce forests of our South Dakota home and different from the lodgepole stands of our Montana home. Each place we have lived is unique which means that one of the blessings of retirement for us is the opportunity to get to know a new place. How fortunate we are.