It’s the end of another year of weekly Lens-Artists challenges, and TINA l invites us to feature images we have loved over the past 12 months, but have not yet shared. Yes, a rose is a rose, still this lovely Lincoln rose was so perfect it deserved to be preserved. And, they are oh, so fragrant as well!
In January, before I removed the holiday decorations at our condominium in Long Beach, WA, this Black-chinned Hummingbird liked to rest in the ribbon on the deck rail between visits to our feeder,
In February, we enjoyed a few days of snow, and oh boy, did the beagles love it! You can see more snow shots on a Wordless Wednesday post.
Weather is always changing here. The sun may be shining and then a storm moves in from the west creating beautiful effects, as light filters through clouds and rain.
The intense blue hue of the beach on this low tide morning knocked me out!
The Discovery Trail begins at the parking lot of the Breakers condominium complex, and meanders 8 miles (9.6 km) through dune meadows, on past Long Beach, and out to Cape Disappointment State Park. When it’s high tide and there are sneaker waves, I avoid the beach and steer Max and Daisy this way for our walk.
Can’t think of a better way to end a day and a year, than a lovely sun setting beyond the Pacific Ocean. Wishing everyone all the best of the season, and courage in 2026!
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Cheers to the Lens-Artists hosts for another year of stimulating and fun challenges. Thank you for keeping my creative energy flowing!
Anne-Christine invites us to bring on the holiday cheer. Any holiday is fine, just so long as we show what some of the traditions and celebrations are in our lives. “At this festive season of the year…” (C. Dickens), I am up to my eyebrows in making and sending cards to friends, buying, making and wrapping present for family near and far, and tomorrow I will begin making cookies and preparing for gatherings at my home with friends and family. Instead of sending commercial greeting cards, I create my own.
The photo above, taken at the Breakers, Long Beach, WA is is on the outside of this year’s card. Inside is Winter Poem by Nikki Giovanni.
once a snowflake fell on my brow and i loved it so much and i kissed it and it was happy and called its cousins and brothers and a web of snow engulfed me then i reached to love them all and i squeezed them and they became a spring rain and i stood perfectly still and was a flower
I love to decorate the inside of our house. Over the years I have accumulated quite a collection of holiday decorations. The two Santa wood carvings on the left I made soon after our 1996 visit to France. The one of the right my mother gave to me. I always kiss it when I take it out of it’s storage box, and shed a tear when I put it back in.
This evening Creighton and I will decorate our tree. After years of be afflicted with sinus infections during the holiday season, we realized live trees were causing our suffering. So, for 15 years (or more) we have had trees out of a box. No more drizzly noses, and still a pretty presentation!
Above, last year’s Christmas Stolen which my mother’s mom made every Christmas during the last decade of her life when she lived with my family in Pullman, WA. After grandma died, mom carried on the tradition, and now I do. This will be a next week project! Tomorrow I will bake Scotch Shortbread using my grand Aunt Lizzie’s recipe. My father’s father came over from Scotland in the 1920’s and year by year brought all of his relatives over to the Spokane, WA area. Lizzie was his dear sister.
My older sister and I alternate hosting a Christmas gathering for our clan, one year at her home, the next at mine. The photo above was at my home two years ago. In a little over a week, the family will be here again, and we will have Christmas crackers (notice the paper crowns!) and plenty of homemade food and good cheer!
A big thank you to Anne-Christine for this timely challenge. I wish her and all of you the best of the season. Just in case you are wondering about the weather here in the Pacific Northwest, we are doing fine in Vancouver, WA. Most of the flooding is farther north, and there’s another atmospheric river predicted to start on Monday.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
This week Beth of Wandering Dogs, challenges us to feature anything with wings. As one who loves to photograph nature, especially birds and insects, I have many choices to select from.
Who hasn’t wished to have wings that would lift us out of trouble, take us off to beautiful vistas on the wind, and provide a freedom of motion that our bodies can’t quite accomplish?
Top – Brown Pelicans, Middle – Immature Bald Eagle, Bottom – Varied Thrush.
Insects have been around longer than humans, and likely will survive after we’re gone. Here are a few that are beneficial in the garden.
Angels are spiritual beings, represented in human form with wings, and usually considered to be benevolent attendant spirits. This being the season of angels, here is a photograph I was able to take of an angel painted by my husband Creighton’s, paternal great-grandfather, Alphonse Muraton. It is in a gallery in Saint-Brieuc, France.
L’ange des oliviers – Alphonse Muraton
Here’s to Beth for a fun challenge that got us out of our chairs, and into the air – if only in our imaginations!
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
This week Patti returns to host the Lens-Artists Challenge with an invitation to share our mysterious images. Her post provides several fine photos and explanations to help us get in the spirit.
When I came upon this wedding altar on Long Beach, it was a windy September day. Rain was coming my way with a bit of sunshine struggling through the clouds, creating a vision of the mystical.
Though it looks like the open maw of a dangerous creature, this photo is of a large hole in a huge timber that had washed ashore in winter storms. It confirms my belief that one should always take a look inside holes like this to see what mystery might be hidden there.
Patti points out that damaged or forgotten places have an inherent sense of mystery. Why am I taking his photo of an old pharmacy and saloon in Oakesdale, WA? I asked myself. Well, because it is shadowy, and enigmatic, and just right for this post!
What’s beyond the bend? Out in nature, on a trail with no other human beings around, I feel comfortable. The wind is blowing, my beagles are snuffling, and there’s always a bit of wonder at what mystery is just around the corner.
Likely, you have heard the term, “atmospheric river,” which is a weather phenomenon we experience in the Pacific Northwest. In between heavy rains at Long Beach, the beagles took me out for a walk, and this cloud formation struck me as an atmospheric river in the making.
A big welcome back to Patti! Thank you for another exciting challenge. To see her wonderful post, click here,
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
John, of Journeys with Johnbo asks if we “love to travel—or just tolerate the journey when you have to?” I’ve always loved to travel, however as I age, I no longer “‘chase adventure”. I have traveled on foot, bicycle, horse, in buses, trains, boats, ferries, planes, RV’s, and autos. Being somewhat claustrophobic, I have no desire to go on a cruise. These days, traveling out to our condominium at Long Beach is our main get-away.
Daisy and Max are always ready for an adventure. While we’re at the beach they love to go on long walks with me along the shoreline. Below, Max got really excited when this pony and rider came along.
And there are always birds. In November, Sanderling, Sandpipers, Dunlin and Plovers flock together, feeding along the surf.
Hearing and seeing large flocks of geese migrating is awe inspiring.
An adult Bald Eagle prepares to take off!
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Landscape photography typically features beautiful vistas in nature, scenes that open our eyes to the beauty of our earth in its various climates and topographies. This week, Egídio challenges us to limit our choices to no more than six images that we consider to be our best landscape photographs. Since I responded to the original challenge in 2019, #31 by Amy, I challenged myself to find other photos that are equally compelling to me.
This photo of Crater Lake in Oregon, USA is one I chose as “Postcard Perfect” for another Lens-Artists challenge.
Looking south from Fort Columbia Washington, this photo features the Astoria-Megler bridge that spans 4 miles across the mouth of the Columbia River.
The rolling hills of the Palouse, photographed from Steptoe Butte, are a unique landscape or rich agricultural fields.
Salmon Creek at Greenwater Rest Area near Oakridge, Oregon offers a refreshing break from the winding drive over Willamette Pass.
From my deck at the Breakers, in Long Beach WA, I was treated to this glorious sundown, a wonderful way to end a day, and just the right image to conclude this post!
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Thank you to Egídio, for bringing this challenge up again. You can view his original post here.
Tina leads this week with a challenge to feature images that exemplify the essence of Ephemeral – something that “lasts for a very short time”. Here in the Pacific Northwest we are knee deep in falling leaves, as deciduous trees show-off lovely shades of red, golds and burgundy.
Suspended Leaf
Transient light provides many opportunities to capture ephemeral moments. Below left, the sun shines through a bank of clouds creating a dramatic scene. Right, sunbeams turn Cyclamen blossoms into bright fairy dancers.
Reflections are another source of fleeting images. Below, carousel horses reflecting upon the glass structure, seem like phantom ponies prancing through the forest outside.
Misty fog adds a delightful softness to everything it touches. Below, a Bald Eagle, feeding on the beach is being watched by a California or Western Gull, ready to step in when the eagle has had its fill!
This shot of Jello looking out over the foggy meadow to a golden sunrise is among my favorite photos. She was a very special beagle captured in this brief magic moment.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
A big thanks to Tina for another challenge with so many ways to showcase the theme. Maybe it’s the switch in time, but for whatever reason, I’m early this week!!
Being a Country Mouse, Ritva’s challenge had me scratching my head for ideas! I’m almost always late with my posts to Lens-Artists, this time I’m past the due date. But, I won’t let a little thing like that keep me from joining the fun! Ritva tells us, “the goal is to reveal the often-hidden, magical world, of the details we never take the time to notice…”
On a walk with a girlfriend in SE Portland, OR we came upon this human-sized bird nest with an invitation to “feel free to get in, take a selfie”. We didn’t get in, however it certainly fits the theme and reaffirms that Portland, Oregon is a zany, creative and pleasant community.
On Seacrest Avenue in Long Beach, WA a homeowner imprinted a Dungeness Crab in damp cement. It’s about the size of a hand-print, and it tickles my fancy every time I walk by!
A rugged, hand carved bench outside a store in Long Beach, is a lovely place to rest after perusing the many shops on main street where you can get just about everything you imagine; from brightly colored t-shirts, bags of saltwater-taffy, numerous flavors of ice-cream, pastries, restaurants, pubs, kites, beautiful works of art, antiques and seaside bric-a-brac.
This found object sculpture near the Discovery Trail, is another tribute to human creativity. I’m always warmed when I happen upon something like this, where someone has put things together in as aesthetically pleasing way.
Perched at the top of the berm between the Discovery Trail and the beach, is this invitation to visit places all over the world! Which way are you heading?
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Ritva, so sorry I’m late. Once I wrapped my country brain around it, I had fun!
Sofia challenges us to “open up the window into the past” with photos of “anything that has had an existence of many years.” You can see her lovely invitation here. As I look about me today on the Long Beach Peninsula, in Washington state, the one constant that is the most ancient is the Pacific Ocean.
For centuries, the Pacific Ocean has inspired peoples living in the Pacific Northwest. Long before British fur trader John Meares, mistook the mouth of the Columbia River for just another Bay (1788) and named it Cape Disappointment, the river and the ocean had been feeding and clothing native populations. I feel blessed to be able to walk along its shoreline on a regular basis, and as the native Chinook people do, feel a spiritual connection by being near the majesty and power of this vast ocean.
In this watery domain live many forms of life, including Jellyfish. The jelly above may be aFried egg (Phaccellophora camtschatica). It is one of several different kinds of Jellyfish I have found washed up on Long Beach over the years. “Jellyfish have been in existence for at least 500 million years, and possibly 700 million years or more, making them the oldest multi-organ animal group.” (Wikipedia) Older than dinosaurs!
Whenever I see Brown Pelicans, I am struck by what an ancient life form they appear to be. Fossil records date the Pelecanus species’s evolution back at least 30 million years. The modern brown pelican evolved around 5 million years ago in North America.
A fierce advocate for Wildlife Refuges and National Parks, Representative Don Bonker (1937-2023) was responsible for saving an old growth forest, Cedar Grove on Long Island, from being logged and despoiled. Not accessible by land, Long Island is located in the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge near Long Beach, WA. The island hosts a 275 acre cedar grove with trees over 900 years old.
Centuries before Meares (1788), Captain Robert Gray (1792), and Lewis & Clark (1805) this land was stewarded by the Chinook Indian Nation.
After 215+ years of broken promises by the United States, the Chinook Indian Nation currently is essentially declared nonexistent in the eyes of the US government. They are unable to access programs and resources which “federally recognized tribes” are entitled to. I find that unconscionable. If you agree with me, you can support them at this website. https://chinooknation.org/political-history/
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Thank you Sofia for another challenge that made me think about who I am and where I am!
Walking With Eagles is a collection of original poems and photographs by Lindy Low Le Coq. A lifelong naturalist, amateur photographer and bird enthusiast, Lindy’s verse, composition and photographs open a window into the essence of her subjects. Her poems and photography reflect the rich natural wonders of the Pacific Northwest.
Bald Eagles mature over the course of five years. Walking With Eagles invites the reader to take a poetic and visual tour of this odyssey.
view ~ Walking With Eagles ~ in top menu bar for a preview, though the folio is much nicer!
Lindy Low LeCoq 