John challenges us to demonstrate how we use lines, colors or patterns in our photo compositions. He promises extra credit for showing two or three elements in one shot! Lines clearly define the subject in my first example taken on the deck of an almost empty Washington State Ferry, headed from Anacortest to the San Juan Islands, in October.
The top and side rails of the Ferry, along with the bench seat and windows lead our eyes to the Ferry bow and on toward Rosario Strait and islands of the archipelago.
The Martha Jordan Birding Trail in Leadbetter State Park, WA is arched over with fresh green foliage in May. It’s a quiet place where I can take the beagles and enjoy being surrounded by beauty.
This shot features the line of the path leading toward the distance, with lovely shade patterns crosshatching the ground. Bright sunlight at the end of the passage adds to the harmony in this photograph.
City Park in St. Louis, MO, features sculpture, architecture and natural elements in a harmonious blend.
I’ve always liked attempting to combine hard lines of man-made structures with the soft edges of nature. In this photo, they co-exist quite nicely. The straight lines, wavy glass and bright blue sky reflection on the building is interrupted and softened by dark green branches and the warm tones of autumn tinged leaves. Also, notice how the upper branches of green are echoed in the wavy glass.
A bright blue sky background to the lacy pattern of leaves and branches make a cheerful display. There’s something about this combination, green on blue, texture on clear color that always invites me to take a picture!
I’ll finish today with a favorite I’ve featured before, however try not to over use. Taken during a very low tide, on Long Beach, WA.
We can see that as the tide receded, deposits of foam created asymmetric lines that stretch on to the horizon. In the sky, fluffy clouds repeat the undulating pattern the Pacific Ocean left on the beach. Clouds on the left and mist over the ocean also draw our eyes to a foggy North Jetty.
Tina reminds us that “as we age it’s important to maintain our social lives, to stay mentally and physically healthy and to challenge ourselves to learn new things.” This week she invites us to showcase things we’ve learned about any subject of our choice. Sitting outside on my deck, it seems fitting to feature gardening. When we had our house built 40 years ago, we asked that as many trees as possible be saved. Through the years I have stewarded this sylvan refuge.
To learn what would thrive, I studied gardening resource books (now internet), talked with family and friends, and tried things out, focusing primarily on perennial and native plants. Some worked well, other quickly faded. We now have seven tall Douglas Firs, five Vine maples, one Bigleaf maple and a large stand of holly in this east-facing back yard. Understory plants include rhododendron, hydrangea, Japanese Ajuga, various viburnums and a carpet of shade loving ground covers. From early spring to late fall this is my favorite place to be (when not at the beach!) and it’s a year-round sanctuary for birds.
Top left clockwise: adult Pacific Steller’s Jay, adult male Varied Thrush, fledgling Red-breasted Nuthatch, Mourning Doves, adult feeding fledgling Northern Flicker, aka Red-shafted Flicker.
From sunup till late afternoon, my front yard has a lot of sun exposure. This is where lilacs bloom in spring, followed by rhododendron and hydrangea, and by mid-summer rudbeckia and echinacea join the perennial color-riot. In May I plant annual vegetables, herbs and companion plants in raised garden beds. Again, I learn what works through research, and trial and error.
Our neighborhood abounds with bunnies, and a good many hop between our front yard and our neighbors yard. Years ago I learned they devour carrot-tops, lettuce and sweet peas, so I only put in plants they historically avoid; tomatoes, zucchini, basil, thyme, rosemary and sage. Things were looking good in the veggie gardens this spring until one morning I noticed that all three of the Genovese basil I’d inter-planted among tomatoes, were gone! When I saw that the lower leaves of some heirloom tomatoes had been chewed upon, I immediately placed plastic netting around the base of the tomato cages, and they have rebounded.
Then I fashioned a plastic netting cage to the back of my other tomato bed and planted sweet peas and basil inside. They are doing well, and once in a while I see a bunny looking through the net longingly.
I could go on from here, as the bunnies gnawed down my gladiolus and started in on the one artichoke I’d planted just for fun. I net-fenced it along with some chewed upon snapdragons and calendula, and now they’re doing fine. This fall I’ll put in fresh gladiolus bulbs and fashion a bunny-proof fence around that bed. So we Live and Learn! Stay curious and you will never be bored. Thank you Tina for another wide-open challenge. I wish all the green thumbs out there a plentiful harvest.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
As I write this post, I am in a small cabin at the summit of Willamette Pass in central Oregon State (USA) 5,000 ft. above sea level and surrounded by the Deschutes National Forest. Nearby, the cold sparkling water of Crescent Creek flows by our camp.
Once again, my sister Diana, & brother-in-law, Les host me and their daughter Marie at camp and take us out in their boat (with all the gear) to guide us on the search for Kokanee trout in Odell Lake.
Marie & I had our lines in the water at 7:00 and when we all decided to head in at 10:30, we had brought in 26 nice sized fish. In our family, fishing is a team sport; it required Les navigating the boat to happy fishing grounds, and dear Diana netting 26 unhappy fish.
Marie and I went right to work cleaning and packaging our harvest!
In the afternoon Daisy took me on a nice (though hot) walk through the forest. The trees are Lodgepole Pine, and several varieties of Spruce. I knew Blue Spruce (Daisy is walking by one) and with the help of Picture This, I learned there are Engelmann spruce and White spruce here also. Maybe others. The two little ones (Center above) are White spruce behind Lodgepole pine. This forests is a jumble of old, young, seedlings and dead trees in meadows of grass and underbrush. These majestic stands of evergreens provide quiet and calm for the human spirit at the same time they supply food and shelter for other living creatures.
As I pack up and prepare to head back to my own little back yard woods, I thank Egídio for an absolutely perfect challenge for me this week. I hope everyone finds a place where there is forest to bathe them in tranquility.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Quiet Hour – a welcome break in often fast and furious days. Since I’m retired, I can make time for quietness whenever I choose to – one of the many blessings of this phase in my life. My blog is about being, although doing is part of being, being is more than doing. Making space for quiet time is an integral part of the shift from doing to being. SH, a brave guest-host this week, invites us to share, through our photography, how we experience Quiet in our lives.
A bench on Orcas Island, WA facing Rosario Strait, welcomes wanderers to stop for a moment and soak in the peace and quiet of this lovely place.
It’s early morning, the sun is just up and mist lifts from the waters of Odell Lake in central Oregon. Stillness is accompanied by the gentle lapping of water on shore.
A Western Swallowtail wafted by me and settled on a branch of holly by my deck. As I watched, it gently fluttered its wings a few times then spread them to absorb sunlight.
There is no breeze, the tide is out and our sun will disappear behind the earth soon.
My go to place for Quiet Hour is right under this bower in my own back yard. Here I rest on a comfortable loveseat, (usually with a beagle beside me) and the lazy splash and sparkle of my pond waterfall before me. City sounds fade into the distance as I read, write, photograph and enjoy this little sanctuary I’ve created with the guidance of nature.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
A big shout out to SH for suggesting another calming theme for this week’s challenge. It is a big job to take on hosting, and I compliment him for being willing to jump into the fray! To see his original post here.
Anne-Christine begins a new series from the Lens-Artists hosts which, now and again, will feature challenges from the past. She has selected challenge #42: Creativity which was originally published on April 20, 2019. It was spring so I focused on landscape gardening. Today I will start with three original short stories with my color pencil illustrations, all hand crafted.
What is Creativity? Oh, there is the dictionary answer which is not especially helpful, so I invented this definition: Creativity is a vast concept that provides space for imagination, inspiration and innovation to combine various components into something novel.
Dale Chihuly certainly has filled our world with beautiful glass creations evocative of nature, so for the remainder of this post I am pairing his glass sculpture with a nature photo from my archives that resonates with his creations.
Major Wheeler Honeysuckle echos the bulbous shape and closely resembles the colors of Chihuly’s garden art.
When I first saw the gorgeous blue statues grouped together in a pond, my first thought was Blue Heron! What do you think?
Many of the Chihuly glass works featured in an exhibition at the Missouri Botanical Gardens were sun images. I chose the big bowl above for this post because the stunning color reminded me of red sunsets we are sometimes blessed with at Long Beach, WA.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Thank you to Ann-Christine and all the creative Lens-Artist hosts who give people like me a place to express myself visually!
Such a wonderful challenge Anne presents this week, as she invites us to show photos featuring reflections. There are many shiny surfaces that reflect the world around us, and the one that resonates with me is water, so this post features images of nature reflected on marshes, lakes, streams, and the Pacific Ocean shoreline. Birds are fascinating. I study, identify and photograph them and love every minute! First up is a Red-necked Phalarope, working one of the marsh ponds at the Breakers, Long Beach Washington.
A hen Mallard stands on guard with her mate right behind her. They have a nest in the the Breakers marshy grasses and are diligent protectors of their roost. Below; I have many photos of Bald Eagles in my archives and this is the best one of a Bald Eagle reflection on the shoreline at Long Beach. (And yes, they almost always look this fierce!)
Some of my earliest memories are of camping and fishing with my family. Being by water, in water and on the water is integral to my soul. Photographing still-wild natural beauty reflected in water, stirs my sense of wonder and feeds my serenity
Above & below; Odell Lake at the summit of Willamette Pass, Oregon. Shadows and reflections on this vast lake mirror the treasure of Deschutes Nation Forest. Let us work to preserve it and all our National Forests and Parks.
“You are the sky. The clouds are what happens, what comes and goes.” Eckhart Tolle.
When clouds are in our sky and also upon the water, I pull out my camera. Above, Odell Lake, below a lightly cloudy sunset reflecting on the marshes at the Breakers, Long Beach.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Thank you to Anne for another challenge with many possibilities!
A warm welcome to Beth, as she joins the Lens-Artists Challenge hosts with the challenge Stormy. Indeed, these are turbulent times in the USA and in many countries throughout the world. However, my post this week will focus on blustery weather that can happen in any season at Long Beach, WA, especially in winter and spring!
Gale force wind blasts spray off the tops of breakers as they surge ashore, and whips dune grass to-and-fro in front of me. Rain is in the clouds, and on a day like this it will soon be blowing horizontally, making umbrellas totally useless, and squall gear essential.
Storm-watching is an exciting activity along the Washington and Oregon coasts, where perigean spring tides create impressive and often dramatic wave action. When the ocean is this turbulent, I prefer to watch (and photograph) from our condo deck!
Skies like the one above bring to mind a line from Donovan’s song Starfish on the Toast: “Big cloud tumbling high, the amazing flying sky.”
This storm moved in so fast all I could do was snap a shot, cover my camera and head for home!
For the first time, this past February I was actually in Long Beach when it snowed! What a different sensation snow created. Here, clouds heavy with moisture droop across the horizon sometimes seeming to touch down upon the ocean.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Congratulations to Beth as she takes on the responsibility of regularly hosting Lens-Artists challenges. It is a lot of work; first deciding on a theme, then providing explanations in words and photos, and then responding to all who participate! Here’s to you Beth, and to all our skillful Lens-Artists hosts!
“Life often interrupts even our most cherished routines. But the sky, in all its quiet vastness, remains—unchanged, patient, and always waiting.” Hammad Rais
April, 2025
May 2025
June 7, 2025
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 