Category: Landscape
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Old Truck | Twisp, WA | December 2019 What America needs, says my thoughtful friend, is a portable furnace that can render abandoned farm equipment into recycled steel. Hundreds of millions of tons of old, unused metal equipment line ranch roads and fill work sheds. “Why not melt ‘em into manhole covers?” he asks. “Or…
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Cupped Moon | East Wenatchee, WA | December 2019 We’ve witnessed the sun’s power these last few nights. Light reflected off a waxing gibbous moon (in photo) has illuminated low clouds and brightened the neighborhood to near daytime levels. Beautiful, yes, because things glow. And not-so-beautiful because the glow highlights yard debris that we hoped…
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Red Door #2 | Chelan Falls, WA | December 2019 Ah, the allure of a red door. They’re often on ramshackle buildings and painted carelessly. A call for attention, maybe? A clever distraction? Red means stop, beware, don’t enter. But a blood-colored door needles at our need to know, particularly if that door
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Float | Chelan, WA | December 2019 Lake Chelan’s water levels drop each winter to make room for spring snow melt. This leaves many of the resort town’s water amenities — docks, beaches, safety floats (in photo) — high and dry. One local retailer told me the lake’s ebb parallels her own retreat from the…
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Power | Vantage, WA | November 2019 Wires, wires everywhere. I’m not complaining, just envious. Linemen who installed and now maintain high-tension cables for our region’s hydro, wind and solar projects experience the grandest views imaginable. The lines often stretch summit-to-summit across spectacular vistas. Of course, those power-line people risk butt and brain to
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Wine | Quincy, WA | November 2019 Thirsty? An ocean of new wine ferments in giant stainless steel tanks glowing in a cluster south of Quincy. The facility, across the road from a wrecking yard and not far from a feedlot, indicates a shift in commerce along the Quincy-George Highway, long a district for intensive…
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Drift Log | Lake Wenatchee, WA | November 2019 Every Thanksgiving memories wash up on my mental shore. Such as: Three deaf-mute brothers, guests at our family table, silently fighting over the last drumstick. A coma-like nap after five servings of oyster dressing at the Holiday Inn buffet. Raw turkeys, fleshy pink, lined in a…
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Fence | Cashmere, WA | November 2019 This new fence teases the eye with visual contrast. But it faces every fence’s fate — fail, fall, fix. “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” wrote poet Robert Frost about the breakdown of a stone fence between him and a neighbor. I frequently witness that truth.…
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Pumpkin Truck | Colfax, WA | November 2019 Roadside whimsy for the pleasure of passers-by is, in my book, an act of extreme generosity. Those Sasquatch cutouts in the middle of cow pastures don’t tromp out there by themselves. Some landowner had to decide that the surrounding miles of empty highway begged for something interesting,…
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Cow | Othello, WA | November 2019 Tension from the world’s demands — do this, do that — is relieved best by solitude. That means no people, of course, but also no errands, no phones and, for the most part, no media. Exception: Allow yourself an inspirational read, such as the Bible, Tao Te Ching…
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