Utility Hook | Twisp, WA | February 2020
How long can a crusty old soul be of service to society? What’s left after you knock off the rust? This weathered hook, now retired and basking in the sun, spoke to me of its decades of usefulness. Keeping the garden hose coiled. Holding the handle-end of a hay fork. Cradling the grandkid’s sled until next winter. I tested the hook with a tug and found it (more…)
Feathers | Twisp, WA | February 2020
Despite his $60 hairdo and preference for grilled salmon, our poodle Joey loves to roll on dead things. He sniffs out deer carcasses, coyote skins and decaying bird bodies even in winter under a foot of snow. Out recently for a midnight pee, he made a beeline for a football-sized, feathered corpse with one wing extended and frozen, plaintively pointing to the sky. Joey immediately dove snout first into the stink; I immediately dragged him away. At sunrise, I went to scoop up the dead and honor it with a proper burial in a rose-hip thicket, but it was (more…)
Fog | Quincy, WA | January 2020
Fog is always mysterious, but standing in heavy mist swirled by an unfelt breeze is even more unsettling. You can see the air. It flows in currents like water, rising and falling, circling back in eddies caused by trees, boulders, me. With my back to the wind, I detect (more…)
Star | East Wenatchee, WA | January 2020
This spray of hair on the forehead of an otherwise dark horse indicates deep genetics at play. Or the horse simply scratched his head on a nail, and the hair grew funny. Scientists, who seem unsure of what causes the stars and blazes on horse faces, also can’t tell me exactly why my eyes have green flecks, why my nostrils are cavernous or why my thick, luxurious hair sprinted down (more…)
Cliffs | Crescent Bar, WA | January 2020
“You want to get to the top of the cliff. But that’s not what you focus on immediately. You focus on the next ledge just beyond your reach, because you need to do one clever and necessary thing to get up there. Then, once you’re there, you do it again. A lot of this is boring and unglamorous. But you can’t (more…)
Hotel Lamp | Pacific Beach, WA | January 2020
Sea Visit | Furniture is what gets photographed when it’s too stormy to go outside. Hey, are you rolling your eyes? This is a tried-and-true creativity exercise practiced for decades by professional photographers lounging around in their jammies. Admittedly, it’s not a dramatic nature scene that evokes wonder and awe. But here’s the good thing — (more…)
Storm Watcher | Pacific Beach, WA | January 2020
Sea Visit | Rogue waves can happen, say the posted warning signs, especially during incoming tides. But this guy hopscotched from sand patch to sand patch so he could stand amid surf and get the full effect of an approaching storm. Thankfully, odds were in his favor — no rogue waves, no lightning strikes, no shark attacks, no giant squid tentacles. Still, in that moment, he must have wondered what level of risk was acceptable. I do the same when I (more…)
Mossy Road | Pacific Beach, WA | January 2020
Sea Visit | We vacation at the beach but live where wet things dry fast. I wash my hands in summer and shake off the big drops so my skin can air-dry in about 30 seconds. Thus, we residents of arid eastern Washington tend to forget that mist and humidity promote unfamiliar conditions — dripping rain forests, moldy houses, mossy driveways. It all looks soft and cushy, but that’s deceptive. Dark storms lurk offshore, surprise squalls soak you soggy, and wet socks, towels and dogs stay damnably (more…)
Sand in Shell | Pacific Beach, WA | January 2020
Sea Visit | At the beach, sand infiltrates crevices I’d hoped were sand-proof. Yesterday I found an abundance of it in my ears (despite a knit cap) and between my toes (laced into snow boots). What the hell? A similar kind of irritant also works its way into my thinking. A catchy melody plays repeatedly, mentally, behind the writing of this sentence. From 50 years ago, the face of a minor character on Star Trek sharpens then fades between thoughts. When I make a grocery list, the murmur of a particular cashier who names each item — “bananas, eggs, dog treats” — snakes through (more…)
Storm Erosion | Pacific Beach, WA | January 2020
Sea Visit | A stormy beach offers good lessons in change and impermanence. The sand is like an Etch-A-Sketch, drawn and redrawn by the onslaught of wind, rain, surf and tides. What we embrace one day — a winding creek, giant cedar logs, great swirls of kelp — are gone the next, replaced with the unexpected, sometimes the unimagined. (What kind of deep-sea monster is that?) We explore this new beach architecture with an eye to the darkening horizon, where the next life-changing storm brews. Of course, the big questions loom: What’s the (more…)
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