Open No Mike at La Conner La Crema!

Yesterday was another magic one, I have to say, at Troy's La Crema Coffee Company.
13 people were present, with new blood also, the variety was welcome. We held Open no Mike on the front garden of the cafe, and a wonderful evening it was. We welcomed 3 new people, David, Steven, and Dave. 3 good musicians, and in different styles, David and Steven both have wonderful singing, and Steven plays his guitar upside down, with a great, deep raspy voice. Bill surpassed himself singing from his heart. Kevin Paul came over with his drum, and in spite of his recent surgery, honored us with great drumming and signing and joke and laughter. Roberto was the Barrista in charge and served us excellent coffee. And of course our 2 mascot dogs, Tug and Toolie, participated their share of running around and barking.
And thanks to Troy, the spirit of the place, who made this possible :)

Iodine

Tonight as I stepped on my porch I smelled iodine coming from the channel. A powerful smell it is for me. Associated with my childhood in Tunisia by the Mediterranean sea, and all the summers I've spent there in the subsequent years after we moved back to France.
I'd spend all my days in the water, I'd come down the hill from the family beach home to the beach around 9 or 10am, and wouldn't come back up till after 5pm. I'd end up with a dark skin and sun burnt fair hair.
We had an uncle, uncle Mohsen, then about 80 years of age, who'd do his daily lap swim in the sea no matter what the weather or season. Nobody could persuade him not to do so, even in the winter time.
Me and my cousins would occasionally follow him in his long, slow lap swim from Marsa Cubes to the Gammarth beach, coming back on foot hiking along the beach.
It was a long, slow swim, several miles long, but we were trained to do so, we were "Bent El Bhar" as we say in Arabic, which means "daughter of the sea"
Uncle Mohsen, in spite of his age, was a very healthy, lean, muscular man. The sea was his lover, he couldn't live without it. It runs in the family blood, my dad was a very good swimmer too, and nothing would make him happier than eating fresh seafood on the beach or on a boat.
My childhood and teenage memories are peopled with the taste of salt,cold showers to cool off from the heat, eating fresh urchins and octopus, watching the sea drinking mint tea, and large family gatherings, hence, I guess, my taste for large gatherings and cookout parties.

Fireworks and Earth essences

On this summer evening in La Conner,WA, I hear the fireworks from the Swinomish reservation loud tonight, and I step out on my porch and I am overwhelmed with the smells and essences of the earth. I worked my garden today for four hours, and I guess it is thanking me for it, sending back to me a strong smell of soil, BBQ and nightly summer parties.

The visit

Somewhere in the heart of beloved Dinetah
In the midst of sagebrush and junipers
There she lies, the friend,
In the most peaceful place where she belongs
A simple mound of soil
A name, surrounded with faded desert flowers
There I deposited two tears with my own hands
For the friend, lost to an addiction
Poisoned gift of our ancestors