We attended the annual Edible Garden Tour in Loyal Heights, where residents open their yards for a day. We sign in at the Loyal Heights Community Center and receive a map. My favorite garden was not lush or well-tended but an overgrown patch planted in a defunct driveway.
On Sunday, we go to a wedding near Kingston, WA. We take the ferry from Edmonds. I sit and watch the dark green water, jade in the crest, and nebulous islands in the offing. The slate-colored horizontal slivers of land remind me of Clyfford Still paintings.
In Kingston, we kill time walking on NE State Highway 104, where tourists buy ice cream, coffee, and seaside bric-a-brac. A property management company caters to seasonal homeowners. Idle traffic waits for the next ferry off the island. A ferry worker brusquely directs confused but frustrated drivers to the back of the line.
Once outside the shopping district, we pass wavy open fields, sylvan patches, and clustered split levels with Home Depot deck furniture and aluminum siding.
The wedding is on a dirt road, and we park in a grass field. A lavender field is meticulously manicured, leading to a gazebo for wedding photos that are already dated. The grounds have a ranch-style house and event area. Guests arrive and are directed to a pond and the bottom of a hill where the ceremony will occur. Staff tests music, mics, and speakers and chills the whites and cucumber water.
The wedding is interfaith with a mix of Jewish and Christian traditions. When we talk to a Jewish attendee, sadly, she poses the question, “Jewish star in or out?”
***
Weed Woman was hacking away in the herbaceous borders of a Ballard Craftsmen when she heard the clang of metal. She picked up a gold-colored object that turned out to be an unused bullet. The headstamp of the bullet said S & B, 23, 9 x 19. “S & B” stands for Sellier & Bellot, a firearms manufacturer in the Czech Republic. “23” could reference the year it was produced or the production factory location. On a list of headstamp codes, 23 is listed as:
Unknown Factory, Hungary, Probably now associated with Magyar Löszergyártó Kft., Mátravidéki Fémmüvek, H-332 Sirok, Hungary
“9 x 19” is a 9mm bullet for Glock-style pistols.
