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** Every time I walk on the beach, I look for designs at my feet. Whether they’re made of seaweed, shells, sticks, or the sand itself, the driver of these spontaneous arrangements is always the tides. What traces did the last high tide leave? How did gravity’s pull on the great bathtub of water that is Bowman Bay change the landscape’s details? Are there attractive arrangements that beg for the…

Time. It never seems to move according to the clock for me. I look at the clock, look away to do something, then look back and surprise! – the numbers have changed. I seem to have some kind of primitive expectation that what I see isn’t going to change. I expect the visual evidence of my experience to persist, like a photograph. Wrong! I know, believe me. This sense of time doesn’t correlate well…

Grass widow, Gumweed, Foothill Desert-parsley, Red dead-nettle – the descriptive common names of wildflowers are a sort of local poetry. On a cold, early February day, I went searching for Grass widows and was surprised to find my favorite first flower of spring accompanied by three more, already in bloom. It was official: my favorite annual event had begun. The wildflower season here starts…

* * * * * * * * * * *** Did you know that tulips grow wild in the mountains of Central Asia? Or you may have heard they came from the Mediterranean, and that’s right too. There are several species we call tulips that predate the garden tulips we’re familiar with. Smaller and less striking than the tulips we buy at the grocery store or plant in our gardens, wild tulips have their own…

A Meditation on Two Old Photographs * Please note that this post may be difficult and upsetting to read for some people. Rest assured that I haven’t abandoned Local Walks, I am just expanding the purview of this blog. ** Classmates. New York, New York; 1971. ** It’s not Joni’s river that I was skating away on, it was my own skid into oblivion, away from the day that shattered sweet…

* 1. Spring greens color the ground under an old Seaside juniper on a chilly day in March. * What does it mean to lose yourself in the woods? For me it’s a gift that I receive every time I’m outdoors in nature. Outside, the atmosphere is alive in a way that’s never duplicated indoors. The weather may be uncomfortable – cold, windy, hot, rainy – but it still feels enlivening. Except on rare…

Because we all need it Because the world impinges Because we’re in pain I think it’s time to pause. ** It’s difficult not to be upset, angry, and despairing about what’s happening in the world now. Taking time out when the news or personal concerns are too disturbing is essential. I’m sure you have ways to calm down or let off steam when you need to. This post is offered as another way to…

For a long time I’ve wanted to construct a memoir. I say “construct” because I’ve always envisioned a text-and-image memoir, probably a book – but not necessarily. One idea I had is to use a selection of my photographs, drawings, including a few from childhood, and texts (excerpts from letters and journals, old lists, school reports, etc.). They would be hung at eye level on three or four walls…

Gibbous moon hides behind a bare-branched tree but I see her. I know her ways – ever present whether seen or not, pulling or pushing the hot earth’s vast tubs of water, never at rest in place or phase. Round and around she is, distant from the fray and beauty of her sweet, damaged planet whose floods and droughts fray the nerves of human creatures who too often forget how to…

Writing about ordinary beauty is nothing new, but a reminder never hurts. * Finding beauty, we recognize it thanks to the beauty within us. Beauty recognizes beauty. Even in the shattered places of the world and ourselves, this beauty, This. * It’s not an isolated phenomenon separate from ourselves, other than ourselves – no – isolation is delusion. Everything is in…

1. * The stalwart old tree trunk pictured above and below belongs to a picturesque Seaside juniper (Juniperus maritima) in Washington Park, on Fidalgo Island. Notable for its geology and plants, the park spreads across 200 acres on a square-shaped peninsula on Fidalgo’s northwestern corner. Though it’s surrounded on three sides by salt water and whales sometimes glide by its shoreline, the…

1. Threatening clouds above a massive glacier at Vatnajökull National Park, seen from the Ring Road.   *** Mile after mile, the wild, empty landscape of South Iceland unspooled its magic. Jagged mountains leaned in like formidable eminences grises, fat sheep grazed in tawny fields, ancient blocks of lava reached darkly toward the sea. Spaciousness reigns in Iceland, especially in the South. One…

1. Stacked like building blocks, columnar basalt forms an extraordinary backdrop to Svartifoss. ** Two years ago Joe and I circled Iceland on the Ring Road and immersed ourselves in a unique culture and landscape for three unforgettable weeks. With its raw power and strikingly dramatic features, the landscape alone is reason enough to visit Iceland, but for us, meeting Icelanders made the…

Mount Baker and Snow geese, seen from Fir Island on October 12, 2024. *** October: The fields white with geese, the mountain refreshed with new snow, the car windows silver with dew; at dawn I stumble outside to watch the moon converse with Jupiter, their bodies bright but blurred until I run in for my glasses and it’s perfect either way. * The geese wing from field to field in…