Beach Poodle | Pacific Beach, WA | 2013
Poodles maintain dignity even after frolicking in surf or rolling in fish stink. They generally abide in grace, although they can look like fools while the (more…)
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Arrival | Pacific Beach, WA | 2013
A beach creek always plots the easiest route to its ultimate destination, the sea. The creek adapts to the changing landscape and remains flowing, flexible and facile despite upheaval from the latest high tide. Its effort to define a course — make a lasting mark on the world — is (more…)
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Wedge of Wheat | Stratford, WA |2013
Even with the truck running, I could hear the wheat field’s whispered warning: Storm coming. First winds of a dark front, pushing in from Canada, caressed the wheat heads in a rolling wave. Stalk scraping against stalk sounded like one long continual “shush” — the crop itself telling me (more…)
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Jetting from Seattle | Twisp, WA | 2013
Look up for evidence of a wondrous world. Clouds prove water can fly, on rivers of air, constantly changing to adapt to life in the sky. What appears solid isn’t; what appears vaporous weighs tons. Clouds born at sea float on (more…)
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Waders | Soap Lake, WA | 2013
The high mineral content of Soap Lake’s healing waters attracts devotees from around the world. In particular, Ukrainians have embraced bathing in the buoyant basin. I was once walking the lake’s beach, when a Ukrainian kid with a bucket ran up and said, “I’ll mud you for five dollars!” I must have looked puzzled, so he pointed down the beach to (more…)
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Sink | Moses Lake, WA | 2013
About every six weeks I travel to Moses Lake, Washington, to stroll through the city’s Japanese garden, enjoy an art exhibit or two, and stare shamelessly into this hammered metal sink. It’s located in a public men’s room, but that has never stopped me from appropriating its coppery swirls for (more…)
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Farm Boy | Ellensburg, WA | 2013
To my eye, he had all the markings of a rough-cut country teen: worn jeans, faded western shirt, scuffed work boots. But his hat didn’t fit the stereotype. It was narrow-brimmed, quite stylish, with a fresh red rose tucked in the band. He’d left his girl in the cheap seats at the Ellensburg Rodeo and was headed to the concession stand as evening sun ricocheted off a nearby metal building. The farm boy flinched, surprised by (more…)
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Balloon | East Wenatchee, WA | 2013
Give a fresh helium balloon its freedom and — zip! — that sucker’s airborne. But wait a day, after its skyward urge has waned, and it’ll hover at eye level with an expectant tilt to its big bald head. What now? it seems to ask. I once tracked a loose balloon in our fenced back yard. Its impulse to soar was anchored by (more…)
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Rolls | Wenatchee, WA | 2013
I wandered down the office hallway to find a cluster of galaxies spiraling across the break room table. Homemade sweet rolls, each one a whirl of flavor, a full pan baked with care by someone who … well, I never got their name, just their irresistible offering. Each bite triggered thoughts of (more…)
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