Category: Landscape
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Landing | East Wenatchee, WA | January 2020 “We’ll be making an unscheduled landing due to an approaching cold front,” said the jet pilot who was flying us to Chicago. So we touched down at a small airport in Wisconsin and sat as snow began to fall hard. Hangars blurred into dark shapes. Crews in…
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Reeds | Ephrata, WA | January 2020 Two reeds — one curved, one straight — represent every shape of every object in the universe. Yep, just two lengths of grass in a murky pond can form the outlines of the bagel we had for breakfast, the bridge we crossed to get to work, the star…
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Light Snow | East Wenatchee, WA | January 2020 Inclement weather can help us notice what goes mostly unnoticed. A dusting of snow accentuates shapes and textures, like an expert application of facial cosmetics. (Were those lips and eyelashes there all along?) On trees, snow will highlight bark toughened against northern winds, roots thickened in…
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Wet Road | Royal City, WA | January 2020 When you first hear the road calling, it’s best to wash the dishes, make the bed and take out the garbage. A day or so later when it beckons again, fill a water bottle, grab an apple, find your hat and gloves, and put them all…
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Circle Rut | Beverly, WA | January 2020 Every now and then I snap out of life’s trance to realize I’ve been trapped in a circle rut. Making noise, burning gas, spinning round and round but going nowhere. Last week, I stumbled across my first motorcycle circle rut as I wandered the Beverly Dunes, a…
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Two | East Wenatchee, WA | December 2019 As a devoted ground mammal, I struggle to imagine life in the air. And it’s not just because I’m queasy about heights. The notion of going from Point A to Point B without navigating around trees, buildings and mountains — to fly — gives wing to a…
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Engines | Trinidad, WA | December 2019 Two locomotives rest on a sidetrack in the middle of nowhere. Immense power that could go either way — backwards to reconnect with burdensome freight or forward, fast and free. Me? I relish the sidetrack of retirement but must soon choose
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Tanks at Dawn | Ephrata, WA | December 2019 These tanks hold ag chemicals, not rocket fuel. But this scene got me thinking about the power of molecules. “It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that’s the least of its problems. It is hypergolic [tending to ignite spontaneously] with every known fuel … and such…
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Windmill #2 | Waterville , WA | December 2019 Run-down windmills attract a variety of wildlife. Ravens, in particular, use them as easy roosts. Hawks perch high to spy rabbit snacks. Marmots dig dens under concrete slabs. Insects and rodents nest in adjacent utility sheds. Windmill buffs bemoan the loss of these dryland devices. But…
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Windmill | Waterville, WA | December 2019 A windmill on a dirt track is sometimes the only hint of humans in isolated areas of the Waterville Plateau. No houses, no cultivated fields, no phone service. Just you, the windmill and an occasional creak from metal on aging metal. Nowadays many of these bladed gizmos stand…
IrwinFoto 