Eastsound is story book pretty. Here's the sound.
That little island inside the sound is known locally as Indian Island and at low tide one can walk out to it, being mindful of the tide's limit on how much time can be spent out there. On my first visit to the island, my niece took me exploring for sea life on the island -- she was probably seven or eight years old and had a fabulous knowledge of all things hiding in the tide pools and clinging to the rocks. This is the public dock where I was when I took the picture of the sound above.
And here is Eastsound 's charming self.
As you walk around the village, occasionally you get soul-moving glimpses of the sound. Sometimes just a tiny piece of water peeks out, other places you can see the whole beautiful panorama.
Orcas Island is roughly shaped like a horsehoe with a very narrow 'top' and very wide 'ends' to the shoe. Eastsound lies at the very narrow top, looking out onto the water. Just a mile in the opposite direction lies North Beach which is special to me because on an earlier trip I sat here sunning myself one morning and was supremely entertained by an Orca whale breaching with a total show-off attitude for several minutes, a sight I will never forget. No, no camera, no pics. But here's the beach. 
Here's my favorite place to eat, Vern's Bayside. It's changed locations over the years and now hangs out over the water. Pretty cool. I think it influenced my niece and brother-in-law to use "Vern" as a sort of term of endearment in their dialogs. As in, "Vern, will you pass me the potatoes?" "Sure, Vern, but don't eat them all, I want some too."
A couple of the many shops around town.
Homegrown, a dandy little health food store.
A house with amazing rhodies in front. 'Twas the season for rhododendrons, singing out with their huge, colorful presence. 
The library with a most inviting park to hang out and read in.
I need to mention the Funhouse because my grandson was entertained here on trips to the island with me. It's a fabulous place for kids of all ages to come and play creatively while supervised. My grandson was particularly interested in the sound stage complete with instruments where teens could record their talents.
This may look like a condo complex, but it is the high school my niece Courtney graduated from with the class of 2000!
I watched these poppies open over the weeks -- just a few bright gold dots at first and finally almost covering the wall.
The village Market does a booming business as the only regular grocery store on the island. 
It's right across the street from my very favorite shop in Eastsound, Driftwood Nursery, my sister Lorna's shop.
May is my sister's busiest season with lots of people coming and going. Chorro loved it and soon became the visiting shop dog and official greeter. He very much wanted to run across the street and bring over anyone leaving the Market -- I think they probably smelled particularly good after shopping in the deli. 
So many people misheard Chorro's name as Charlie that he soon began to answer to Charlie as easily as to Chorro and I decided to forego explaining that his name is Chorro, not Charro, that's the Hispanic dancer whose anatomy tends not to stay covered when she dances, and Chorro is short for Kachorro, which means dear little animal in Spanish. I began to say, "His name's Charlie." So at Driftwood Nursery, people were greeted by Charlie, the wandering wonder dog. He thought the name went well with his rough and tumble, dirtied-up-shaggy-coated image of country dog. No shampoo and trim for him here on Orcas!Driftwood Nursery gets in huge loads of bedding plants once a week and other assorted potted plants at regular intervals as well. They all need tender care until someone chooses to take them home with them (or my sister sneaks them home and plants them at the ranch). You can see I was partial to the yellows.
We celebrated Lorna's birthday too!
May is a rainy and cool month on Orcas Island, but I found a few days of sunshine to get some beautiful pictures of the ranch, which is called, of course, Driftwood Ranch. 
These are the sights we all imagine when we think of rural pastoral scenes. 
We visit here often and this was Chorro's very first year not to get into trouble for chasing the horses. I was very proud of him! I should be able to name each of these four-legged family members for you and yet I can't, although we speak of them and their well-being on an individual and daily basis. 
Here in the barn I know we are seeing Sugar and Black Beauty, but Black Beauty has another name too. The third picture is Sugar in the pasture.
Here is their beautifully wonderful dog Darwin. Darwin is a ranch dog AND Darwin is a shop dog. Before I had Chorro, I used to coax Darwin to come back to Montana with me to live, but one day back in history, Darwin chose my brother-in-law and sister for his family and remains as loyal as a dog should. He's now going on fifteen and life is not so easy for him anymore. I'm very happy that I got to see him again.
This may be the only barn on Orcas that is landscaped and adorned with hanging flower baskets. Of course that's my sister's touch, but I can tell that my cowboy brother-in-law likes it too. 
I missed some critical pictures. You will notice I have no pictures of the cows. They got moved to another pasture before I got my camera out. And the sad part is that I missed the shots of the cowboys and cowgirls that moved them, riding horseback just like on a regular Rawhide! tv show. There are actually two barns and of course the requisite sheds and shops. Between the two is the garden, behind the lovely gate. You can see the pond in the background.
This is the Swiss Chard I didn't get to eat -- just not enough time, even though it is perhaps my favorite vegetable. But I shortened the row! These cool weather crops grew from a tiny leaf or two to maturity in just the few weeks I was there. 
I did do justice to the spinach though, and had many fresh spinach salads before leaving the rest prepared for freezing with my Sis.Here's their house at the ranch, and here's my little home out behind the bunk house, a perfect setting for my island time.
Looking west from the ranch, there is a large wooded hill known as Turtleback Mountain (they use the term mountain loosely on Orcas Island, also haviing Buck Mountain and Mount Constitution and maybe a few more.) Turtleback Mountain lies in the way of the really beautiful sunsets, but of course I captured a couple of pretty skies at sundown anyway.
It was hard to leave, but we knew that more sunsets lie ahead. And tomorrow is a new day.
