Island Life: Here Comes the Wider World

Oh look, another glossy magazine article about lovely Orcas Island!

You’d think the island would be used to this sort of thing by now, but this innocuous, perfectly decent little article has occasioned a great ruckus on at least two of the “locals” groups I follow on social media. “Oh no! This will only bring more invaders to our peaceful paradise!”

Followed immediately, of course, by “But we need the revenue tourists bring! How will we survive without them!”

Fortunately for my husband and me, neither of these concerns really, well, concern us all that much. I mean, yes, we notice when the ferries and stores get crowded, and yes, we want our favorite businesses to stay afloat; but mostly, we’re just here at home, minding our own business–writing and gardening and dealing with hyper-local emergencies.

Like, trees that randomly fall down in the back meadow for no reason.

Mark spent all day making that lovely pile of rounds, rolling them up and out of the creek bed one by one, and then hauling off all the branches left behind…by hand… Later, he will split those rounds all up into firewood, which will keep us toasty in winter (and in spring) (and in fall) (and even on those chilly summer days).

The news is actually usually pretty quiet around here, in between glossy magazine articles. I enjoy reading the weekly sheriff’s reports in the local newspaper, covering not just bustling Orcas Island, but the neighboring islands of San Juan, Shaw, and Lopez.

I mean, yes, Oprah did buy a house here a few years ago, but as far as anyone knows, she’s not around much.

The islands are a great place to write, to garden, to contemplate, to be at peace…

Or something.

So will this latest article bring a new flood of visitors to our realm? And…will that be a problem, or a good thing?

Yes, I suppose: all of the above. I already noticed from the article that our population has increased–when Mark and I moved here, not quite four years ago, Orcas had about 5,000 residents; now we’re apparently at 5,400. Still pretty sparse, for our 57 square miles, but I can see the signs of growth. There’s new construction in town, a new house going up just down the road; a contractor friend is busy seven days a week, building and building and building.

Still, we should be okay here for a while yet. Which is great: I’ve got more books to write, which I suppose I should get back to.

And Mark still has another tree to pile up.