The rose growing on our house in the post below and in the picture to the left is a Rosa banksia, a beautiful double flowering yellow rose that blooms once a year, in the spring. It is huge climbing rose that is covered each year with literally thousands of tiny flowers. It was a wedding present to us in 1986.
The picture of the house above was taken in the early 20's, and no, it isn't the same rose. However, the similarity is amazing. A few years ago we met the descendants of the people sitting on the porch, the Adrian family. They only lived here for a few years in the early 20's, and the story is that they ran a bootlegging operation out of the house during prohibition. The San Juan Islands, being close to the Canadian border were a hot bed of rum runners and this island was no exception. I believe that another family lived here in the 30's but after that it was essentially abandoned until Joel moved in in 1979.
