Riding the Ripples | East Wenatchee, WA | February 2020
Resting Birds #3 | Turbulence barely ruffles a paddling goose. She sees the swells of a boat’s wake rolling her way and gives barely a hink or chittle (the murmurings of an unperturbed water bird). Wouldn’t it be nice to similarly (more…)
Waterfowl | Vantage, WA | February 2020
Resting Birds #2 | The Columbia River widens just above the I-90 bridge to become an attractive rest area for birds. No telling why they love it — food? safety? — but they don’t just float there, they frolic. They flap and splash like kids in a swimming pool if kids didn’t laugh but honked. (My childhood friend Jerry oinked when he laughed, but that’s another story.) I sit on a rock at water’s edge and wonder how any of us choose a landing spot. What draws us to a specific city, house, reading chair? It’s more than (more…)
Killdeer | Sunland, WA | February 2020
Resting Birds #1 |The list of birds I know on sight stretches to about, um, nine. Crows, robins, pigeons, hawks, eagles, geese, pelicans, flamingoes, ostriches, and we’re done. I’m always incredulous when dedicated birdwatchers tell me they traveled to Arizona and spotted 143 different species. Since nobody can actually keep track of that amount of plumage, wing shapes, beak curls, tweets and chirps, my only conclusion is that birders, like the creatures they stalk, engage in flights of fancy. I mean, who’s to know if they spotted a flat-eared quetzal or not? Anyway, one of the three birds I can identify by sound is the killdeer, mostly because its name is nearly the same as its call. Kill-dee! The other two species I know by ear are (more…)
Brickwork | Waterville, WA | February 2020
A new office building’s prefab pieces — factory-made eaves, machine-cut wall panels — speed construction but lack soul and personality. In contrast, the bricks laid one-by-one in Waterville’s downtown include frills, contours and textures that speak of the human hand. Protruding bricks create shadows that add visual oomph. Windows are capped by arches formed by function. The roofline’s masonry edge balances (more…)
Chandelier | Entiat, WA | February 2020
“Grab me, kiss me, waltz me, and love me / I adore thee, cherish thee, absolutely love thee / Come let’s take to the floor ‘neath a chandelier of (more…)
Gold Chain | Rock Island, WA | February 2020
Access to a favorite stretch of abandoned highway has been barricaded over the years by boulders, dirt piles and concrete chunks. Yet nothing seems effective in keeping out trespassers, including me. Inventive owners recently gave the roadblock a magical upgrade — a golden chain that no doubt carries a mind-changing spell to deter interlopers. You think I’m joking, but my intention to jump the barrier and saunter down the road evaporated with one light touch of the gilded links. Instead, my mind filled with a (more…)
Blue Barn | Ritzville, WA | February 2020
We expect barns to be red, so this robin’s-egg paint job is a pleasant surprise. The barn sits overlooking the town’s fast-food oasis (McDonald’s, Starbucks) near Interstate 90 and is a good reminder of Ritzville’s agricultural roots. In fact, the wheat in that Big Mac bun could have been grown in fields right outside of town. The trucker who hauled the wheat to a Pasco barge terminal could be munching fries at the very next table. And the beef in those patties could have (more…)
Ridge | Badger Mountain, WA | February 2020
Houses up high with magnificent views sometimes feel soulless. Many are built on shaky egos — too big, too empty, too lacking in what makes a house a home. They beg for cozy reading nooks, a compact kitchen, small quick-clean bathrooms and dog-proof floors. And then there’s the Camaquen. Years ago at college, my Peruvian roommate explained why our third-floor dorm room gave him the sniffles. “We’re much too high,” he said. High above what? “Oh, you know,” he said. “The Camaquen — the Presence that pools in (more…)
Nursery | Ephrata, WA | February 2020
From a distance, the leafless trees look like pencil scrawls on the very air. Or a cluster of cuts in the fabric of the universe. Sure, I know they’re trees, but it’s only when I stand closer — 20 feet away — do branches come into focus and the illusion of a rift in reality disappears. Other optical twists: At the ocean, storm-blown waves mimic the watery backsides of whales or sea monsters; over a deep canyon, a possible rain cloud darts about the sky then pixelates into a gazillion birds; on a kitchen counter, the cross-section of a strawberry resembles a cosmic (more…)
Art? | Ellensburg, WA | February 2020
A bathtub-shaped flower bed, mostly dead, seems to float on a sea of ivy. I can’t tell if this is a clever art installation or simply bad gardening. I’m on the second floor of the university’s art building and peering into a courtyard that also contains oversized bricks stacked/toppled like a Jenga game and a 10-foot section of dinosaur spinal cord made of cardboard or paper mâché. A surrealist sculpture garden? Or failed art projects set in the rain? Either way, this scene (more…)
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