All images © 2023 D. Yael Bernhard Earlier this month I had the great pleasure of spending a week with my older daughter on beautiful Orcas Island, one of the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington. Eve works on a goat farm in the tiny town of Olga, where I stayed in a little cottage within earshot of the 40+ Nigerian dwarf goats that provide milk for cheese, yogurt, and body care products produced on the farm. Every day we took beautiful walks along coastal trails through cathedral forests of Douglas fir and western cedar, carpeted with soft grass and arching ferns. While Eve was busy with farm chores – milking and feeding the goats, harvesting calendula, planting sunflowers, and tending the births of two baby kids – I was out sketching and painting. Pictured above is the view from a pier that sticks out into the ocean near the farm, where I spent hours trying to capture the panoramic view. The curved shoreline of deep greens and grassy golds; the movement of birds and boats across the changing seascape; the subtle shape of adjacent islands; and the distant view of the majestic Olympic mountains with their snow-capped peaks etched against the sky – all made this heaven for a landscape painter.