High Summer

A stunning Fairhaven vignette in glorious sunshine, shot just before my yoga class this afternoon, as was this angular shadowplay and another on the same wall, softened a bit by the presence of plant life.

I've been admiring this stand of hollyhocks -- such charming old-fashioned flowers! -- for several weeks. They swoop and sway like dancers in the frequent breezes, and are lovely up close, as well.

After my class, I walked over to Village Books to take advantage of a special sale. As Phil would be the first to tell you, I have what can only be called an extensive collection of reusable bags, and I really don't need any more, but between saving money on the bag itself and also on what I put into it, how could I resist?

And today was an historic day for reusable bags here -- it was the first day of Bellingham's plastic bag ban. No more of those flimsy single-use plastic bags at checkout for your groceries or other purchases, although large paper bags will be available for five cents each and the usual plastic bags for produce, meat, and other products are still legal. We keep reusable bags in the car and I keep a couple of the ones that collapse into a tiny little bag of their own in my purse (UK handbag), so it's not a big change for us.

There's been a collection point at the Bellingham Farmers Market the past month where those of us with more reusable bags than we really need may donate our extras. Other folks have been sewing reusable bags from donated fabric for the collection. The bags will be distributed to people for whom purchasing reusable bags would be an economic hardship.