Category: Recently Observed
-
Benches | Coulee City, WA | February 2020 “There is in all things a pattern that is part of our universe. It has symmetry, elegance, and grace. You can find [these qualities] in the turning of the seasons, the way sand trails along a ridge, in the branch clusters of a creosote bush’s leaves. We…
-
Lichen | Sun Lakes, WA | February 2020 A lichen turns red — or orange or yellow — when its dinner buffet gets shut down by harsh growing conditions. Dim sunlight, reduced moisture, extreme temps. In frustration, it’ll shed its green-gray photosynthetic food layer and go nude and hued. (Look away now if you’re prudish.)…
-
Cave | Sun Lakes, WA | February 2020 I could camp here for awhile. Make it cozy with a patch of flagstone flooring, a ventilated fire pit, a few beaver blankets. Obviously, water and septic would be a problem, just as it was 5,000 years ago when Native Americans used this cave as a way…
-
Tower | Spokane, WA | February 2020 Wall #2 | There’s nothing fancy about the neighborhood surrounding the Spokane County Courthouse, a massive but frilly structure built in 1895 and affectionately labeled “The Castle.” Experts say it’s the best example in the western U.S. of French Renaissance architecture, its cones and turrets based on a…
-
Spires | Spokane, WA | February 2020 Wall #1 | Church spires beckon in the distance, but I linger in the lee of a cinder block wall to escape the winter wind. The wall radiates warmth and smells of kitchen herbs, and I’m not sure the church will be as soothing. In fact, the statue…
-
Thirsty Poodle | East Wenatchee, WA | February 2020 At the River #3 | We’ve trained the dog in basic commands — sit, stay, heel, come — which he fully obeys when he sees the need. I mean, why sit like a schlump when it’s clear that squirrel needs chasing? In return, he’s trained us…
-
Water View | East Wenatchee, WA | February 2020 At the River #2 | We have a better view from this side of the river. Looking west, we see the big city with its high-rise downtown, manicured waterfront and neon prosperity of Applebee’s and Home Depot. Behind it all rise the foothills of the Cascades,…
-
Cloud Bay | East Wenatchee, WA | February 2020 At the River #1 | A slow current and light breeze put the river in restful reflection. If I’m still enough, maybe I can mirror the sky, too. I stand motionless on the riverbank but thoughts drift like
-
Cigarillo | Wenatchee, WA | February 2020 From behind a tinted window, I watched the guy smoke his small cigar. He was scruffy and maybe homeless. But puffing away while sitting on a bench in the sun gave him immense pleasure. He’d blow a smoke ring, read a sentence or two from the book in…
-
Cafe | Ritzville, WA | February 2020 “The universe speaks in clues and signs, gentle nudges and hints, rather than pontifications and proverbs, commandments and condemnations. I have trusted its signs all my life, which is why I
IrwinFoto 