In 1965, my Pullman High School art teacher Victor Moore, taught me to put my thumb and index finger together to make a frame through which I could look to select discrete compositions. Such a great lesson – an always “at hand,” portable way to bring subjects into focus.
In June 2023, I gathered together with 33 classmates from those years for a weekend reunion. One of the events offered on Saturday morning was a hike up Kamiak Butte. After all the years I’d lived in Pullman, this was my first trip to visit this local treasure. A small group of us took advantage of the invitation, and even though it was hazy, I enjoyed every vista along the way. Above, is a view of the verdant, rolling Palouse hills framed by evergreens
Salt Creek Falls, in central Oregon, is a lovely waterfall and well maintained park that I have featured in other posts. Above is my favorite shot from this summers visit. Seeing the falls cascade through a veil of native evergreens fills my senses with the sight, scent, sound and feeling of being there.
Another landmark I have featured in previous posts is the North Head Lighthouse in Camp Disappointment State Park, Ilwaco ,WA. From the glass enclosed top (where the Fresnel light had been) we see the Pacific Ocean off to the distant horizon where it melds into the clouds.
Sometimes cloud patterns create a frame in the sky. Here, an ordinary sunrise is made more dramatic by the vapor formations leading to and from it.
Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus)
Birds are one of my favorite photography subjects and catching them in their natural habitat adds to my joy. Here, a phalarope swiftly paddles through the marsh pond, stirring things up in search of small prey. The pond grasses provide visual perspective and context.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
A big thank you to Amy, who presents beautiful examples of framing in her Lens-Artists Challenge post.
Ann-Christine hit the nail on the head for me with this week’s challenge. Some of my high sunshine gardens were going to waste, with no fruiting vegetables or pretty flowers. After I hired a crew to trim back the arborvitae on one side, and remove them along the fence, I was inspired to dig-in and and get things done! Below, one of the garden plots with fading foxglove, and scattered bricks for the border.
As these things go, it has been a work in progress for a couple weeks and is still not finished! The above space has been transformed into a strawberry patch, with companion plants of Marigold and Thyme. I’m looking forward to sweet berries next spring.
Another plot that I’d made a stab at turning into a rose garden with companion plants, was sputtering. Only one of the roses was pretty and bloomed regularly, and the ground cover had overtaken it all. Below is the cleared space and work in progress with bricks.
The wooden borders were rotted, so I removed them and built edges with old red brick that I’ve had for years and used in other ways. I love it when I can repurpose a resource and not have to buy new. A few unused cottage stone helped shore up the space between the arbor and garden.
The rose is Oh My!™ a floribunda with medium, bright red, fragrant flowers. After constructing its border, I added French Provençal Lavender as companions, and blessed it with a new trellis. The larger rectangular garden, to the left of the rose square, now has some heirloom zucchini seeds in four hills that may produce before the season is over. The space will be used next year for warm loving vegetables that I’ll select between now and then!
Whenever I step back and look around me, I always see “more to do.” That’s how it is and since I love to have projects in progress, this one will keep me busy for a while. Thank you Leya for an excuse to share what I’ve been spending my time and energy on!
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” Audrey Hepburn
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
It is a pleasure to participate in guest host Janet’s Lens Artists Challenge this week. She asks us to share photos of things that we or others might overlook. Whether we are in a hurry, preoccupied, or not really looking, Janet asks us to highlight photos that summon others to…“look differently to see what they normally overlook.”
What are those spiderweb-like patterns on the surface of the sand here at the confluence between the meadow berm and the plunge into sandy seashore? The more I saw them, the more curious I became, so I started referring to them as “Dune Runes.” Thankfully, *Steve Morey saw my posts and set me straight! These are the trails left by Alloniscus perconvexus, a night marauding woodlouse, that seeks nourishment just below the sand’s surface.
Tree bark, and dry grass. Why take a photo of these ordinary subjects? Look closer, focus in. On the left, a brown dragonfly hangs upside down on a dry stem blending in seamlessly with the background. To the right, a red dragonfly rests on a white flower, almost invisible.
Were any of us to stumbled upon this plant in the wild, it would be extremely difficult to overlook. It is known as the Corpse Flower because when it comes into bloom the smell is…let’s just say foul. This Amorphophallus titanum, also known as the Titan arum, was nurtured by a botanist at Washington State University, Vancouver. When it bloomed a few years ago, I made a point to go take photos. This shot is of the flower reflected in a mirror located above the blossom, so that viewers like me could “overlook” and see inside.
Here I go again, showing you vast spaces of boring meadows! What could be of interest here? It is easy not to notice fledgling Killdeer. If their parents didn’t make constant distracting calls and feigned broken wing routines, one might not know the little ones are even around.
This evening, as I looked over the work I’d done to renew life to a garden this week, I was invited to pause and admire a Katydid on my rose bush. May we all treasure those little moments of surprise!
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
What fun to join in Janet’s challenge! Thank you for your lovely images, and wide-open subject.
Dan of Departing in 5 minutes, is the guest host for this week’s challenge. He invites us to break out of our everyday routine and “have the thrill of a new experience.” It was tempting to simply pull up photos of past adventures, however I decided to take Dan up on the challenge and push myself out the door for a day trip with my beagles. Since I love waterfalls, I did some research on-line looking for falls I haven’t visited that are dog-friendly and within easy driving distance of Vancouver.
Moulton Falls is about a 40 minute drive, northeast. Much of it is through developed communities and agricultural countryside, until you turn onto NE Rock Creek Road. Then the roadway narrows, gets zig-zaggy and ever more beautiful as it follows along the Lewis River.
The moderate weather made this trip especially comfortable. Though not one of our spectacular tall falls, Moulton Falls provides plenty of splash music and water fall action, and is a favorite summer cooling destination for locals. A short driving distance away (and connected by trails) is beautiful Lucia falls.
More dramatic to my eye and ear, with a 15 foot (4.5 meter) drop, I fell in love with Lucia Falls. Parking was easy (not so at Moulton) and there were fewer visitors.
For those of you sweltering in other regions of our earth, I hope this small day trip to fresh,wild water provides you a window into imaginary relief.
Again, thank you to Dan for prodding me out to visit sights so easily within reach. I’m looking forward to going there again in the fall for foliage color.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
This week Dawn Miller of The Day After, guest hosts with the challenge theme of fences. Instead of going back through my very old archives (where I know I have some cool photos of wood fences), I decided to focus on the purpose of fences. From my perspective, the main objective of a fence is to keep creatures and objects safe, like the rails/fences on these third story condominium patios.
Under the umbrella of safety are two major intentions for constructing a fence: to keep creatures out…
…and to keep creatures in.
Sometimes fences serve a secondary purpose, as the one below which supports a lovely old wild rose,
and sometimes they wouldn’t really stop any critter from entering or exiting, though they do serve to provide guidelines!
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
A big thank you to Dawn for guest hosting this week. It is truly an honor to be asked to host, and quite a responsibility to respond to all of us out here joining in the fun!
Philo, of Philosophy Through Photography, guest-hosts this week’s challenge. We are invited to present photos that illustrate simplicity. Scrolling through my archives I kept repeating, *”a thing that is plain, natural or easy to understand.”
Above, one small cloud in a vast blue sky floats over the dense evergreens of Deschutes National Forest. Below, an extremely low tide at Long Beach, WA is accentuated by a series of receding tide-lines marked on the sand.
From a long distance view, to a ground level shot, the photographic structure is plain, natural and uncomplicated.
Spare yet dramatic images like the one below, invite us to imagine and create a story. What do you see?
Willow catkins along the edge of a marsh pond are a quiet statement of spring re-emerging.
A single wind turbine on the bluffs of the Columbia River is part of a large green energy complex. Below the tracks of a seagull near surf’s edge.
Thanks to Philo for this opportunity to “discover beauty in simplicity through the lens of photography.”
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
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 