Yesterday, during an interview with the Committee on Ministry of the Pacific Northwest Conference, we were asked about how we were adjusting to life after our move. Our response was positive. It isn’t easy to make a big move, and our move was complicated by the Covid pandemic. Many of the dynamics of our move, however, would have been challenging at any time. We were leaving behind a place where we had loved living and people who were our friends. We were trading a more rural lifestyle for a more urban one. And the weather is very different. There is much to learn about the place we now call home.

One of the things we had to learn is that it doesn’t rain every day. I know that sounds silly, but we didn’t know what to expect. There have been days in the last month when it rained more in a day than the average annual rainfall in the driest place we had previously lived, Boise, Idaho. But it doesn’t rain nonstop, even though we live close to temperate rain forest.

There is a walk that is very close to our home that gives us an opportunity to explore this new place. The first part of the walk is a winding path through the forest, with huge trees, ferns and mosses. The forest provides a natural acoustic barrier. It is quiet as soon as we step onto the path. The forests around here have some unique features that are very different from the forests of the Black Hills. those differences are more than just rain, but the amount of rainfall is a big part of the difference. Add to the rainfall, the temperatures are very moderate. Although there were a few days when the temperatures reached the high nineties last summer, that heat wave was very unusual and set all kinds of records. In a typical year summertime temperatures rarely get above 80 degrees and in the winter, the temperature seldom drops below freezing.

The forests around here have Epiphytes: plants that grow on other plants. Mosses, spike mosses, ferns and lichens cover trees and branches and give the forest a kind of “jungle” feel. In the areas that have not previously been logged, there are very large, very ole trees. Sitka spruce, western hemlock, Douglas Fir, and big leaf maples can reach over 100 feet and up to 250 feet tall. A giant tree might have a trunk that is over 30 get in circumference. There are nurse logs, that we sometimes call grandmother trees. When a tree falls and decays, it becomes filled with germinating seedlings. As the small trees grow, their roots eventually reach the ground. As the nurse log continues to rot away there will be a row of trees on stilt-like roots.

The forest, however, is just part of our walk. After 15 or 20 minutes, we find ourselves walking along the shore of the Salish Sea. It is one of the world’s largest and biologically rich inland seas. The Salish Sea encompasses the Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands and the waters of the Strait of Juan de Luca and the Straight of Georgia. It stretches from Olympia, Washington on the south to Cambell River, British Columbia on the north. Nearly 7,500 miles of coastline, including 419 islands provide home to more than 8 million people. Vancouver, BC, Victoria, BC, and Seattle Washington are urban centers. Most of the coastline of the Salish Sea is more like the area where we live - more sparsely populated and more rural in character.

The Salish Sea is home to 172 species of birds and provides an excellent place for bird watching. We frequently have to consult our bird book because we have viewed a species that is new to us as we walk. We are learning to identify the various geese and swans that winter in the area and migrate north during the summer.

Just south of our home here, in Bellingham, Western Washington University offers degrees in marine and coastal science, with the Salish Sea as the laboratory for learning and research. with 37 species of marine mammals, 253 species of fish and more than 3,000 species of invertebrates, there is a lot to study. The Salish sea is home to the world’s largest jellyfish that can reach to 7 feet across and the north pacific giant octopus, the largest octopus in the world. There are rockfish in the sea that are more than 100 years old.

Of course there is much more to the Salish Sea than can be learned by walking along its shore, but for us, who have lived most of our lives a thousand or miles from the ocean, being able to walk to the beach and along the shore is a fascinating adventure. There is always something new to see, which includes the many moods of the sea, depending on the weather, especially the wind. There are times when the sea is absolutely calm and other times when the surf sports 3 and 4 foot tall waves crashing on the shore.

This huge ecosystem of rainforest and sea is divided by an International Border. Politically the area is governed by the USA and Canada, but that border is invisible to the fish, marine mammals, birds and other wildlife. Recent flooding of the inland waters illustrated how much we are a part of a larger system that transcends political boundaries. As we often comment, we don’t live in Canada, but you can see it from here. That is literally true. We can see Canadian mountains from our bedroom window and when we walk along the shore we can see islands that are in Canada. Just a few miles north of here, we can see the tall buildings of Vancouver and the border crossing between our two nations.

So, in answer to the question, no, it doesn’t rain every day here, not even in the winter. And on rainy days it doesn’t always rain all day long. The days are short in the winter - we are a long ways north. It is a fascinating and wonderful place to live and there is much that we have yet to learn.