When I saw Tina’s challenge for this week, I first thought I whould go out and about to feature some of the dramatic and special sights here on the Long Beach Peninsula. Then, I decided to follow her lead and show what I see when Max and Daisy take me for our morning and afternoon walks. The Breakers condominiums are near a residential neighborhood where we take our morning constitutional.
After strolling down Seacrest Avenue, we turn back and follow the fence along the west end of the Breakers grounds. On the way, there are always little surprises to enjoy.
Rain or shine, in the early afternoon the beagles get restless, so out we go for an afternoon promenade. Starting at the parking lot entry to the Discovery Trail, we peruse the trails that take us to the Pacific Ocean shoreline.
By the end of our beach walk, Max is ready to get home and take a nice long nap. Daisy, on the other hand, is still out in the underbrush hoping to scare out a deer! Once back at the condominium and dried off, we settle in for a quiet afternoon and evening.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
As I finish this post on Friday morning, I am concerned for Tina and her little slice of heaven on Kiawah, with the hurricane/tropical storm Helene bearing in that direction. Sending prayers for you and your fellow islanders, Tina.
In considering my response to Egídio’s challenge to this week, “to explore fun destinations and favorite pastimes,” I came up with three general categories of landing places that I consistently gravitate toward for enjoyment and relaxation; activities that engage me creatively, being with family and friends (including beagles and their friends!) and being in nature. Though I will present them separately here, in my life they are intrinsically interwoven.
Creative activities are especially fun for me, including photography. Instead of saying “I’m going out to work in the garden,” I say “Oh, boy! I get to go play outside in the garden!” The top left photo was taken after I had redone the landscaping in my vegetable garden plots last fall. The next three photos show this years Lemon Basil both growing and cut, and finally in a pot of bubbling olive oil with garlic to make infused oil to give and to use throughout the coming year. Next, on the right are tomato plants, harvested tomatoes and the fruits being processed to make tomato sauce.
Being with family and friends, including beagles and their buddies is always a fun destination. Top left is of me with my sisters in St. Louis last year. We have another trip planned for this October, which I’m looking forward to very much. Next is my immediate family at my home for a Christmas gathering, husband Creighton with Max, and a shot of our Dog Park friends, Daisy taking the drivers seat, and the group of writers I have been gathering with to write and share our works for several years. This photo was taken when we visited the Community Garden features here on September 2, Garden Delights+Cee’s FOTD.
Being in nature is my number one go to fun destination, especially Long Beach, WA. All summer we stayed home in Vancouver, and did not go out to Long Beach because it is always very busy in summer, and we prefer the quiet times. On returning this week I participated in a nature walk to an, as yet, not open to the public area in the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. After being transported to a drop off point on old logging roads, we followed an Elk trail to Bear Creek which had been diked and dredged during the logging years, and is now being restored to, once again, be a natural Salmon spawning habitat. What a delight to see such dedicated folks and organizations working together to reclaim this beautiful wild space.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Thank you Egídio, for another wide open challenge. So sorry I’m late getting my post finished and up for you to see. Sometimes “life” gets in the way of schedules!!!
This week, Ritva challenges us to “take the mundane and shine a different light on it… to highlight an object or scene that we normally pass by without notice, and make it something special.” I decided to select some photos from my archives for this post.
I love a nice vase of posies, and I’m always drawn in by a pretty sunset, so when sunlight glowed through these spring daffodils and pussy-willows, I quickly grabbed my camera. I love how the light is filtered through the flower petals and creates a halo around the edge of the willow catkins.
A head of cabbage in the grocery store is about as ordinary as it comes. However, this very large one in a friend’s garden drew me in. The evocative texture and lines of the leaves lead our eye to the solid center of the cabbage head.
Driftwood logs are a common sight on the Long Beach Peninsula. Photographing this one at eye level along its length, provides a sense of its immense size and wonderful texture. Black and white keeps our focus on the log rather than drawing us out to the ocean and sky.
Another branch that drifted ashore rests upon wave-sculpted beach sand with morning sun casting dramatic shadows and highlighting the lovely honey tone of the wood.
At this time of year in the Pacific Northwest USA, leaves are turning and beginning to fall. This leaf, caught on a strand of spider gossamer, was spinning in the wind as I walked by. Sometimes serendipity provides fun and compelling images, like this one!
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
I realize this is a stretch of Ritva’s assignment, however it’s the best I can do this week. Thank you for another lesson on intentional photography!
Anne Sandler of Slow Shutter Speed invites us to go on a journey to shorelines, any place “where water touches land.” Like Anne, I find my mind at peace and my body able to relax whenever I’m near water; lake, river, stream, ocean and even my little backyard waterfall and Koi pond.
Odell Lake
Big lakes like Odell in central Oregon, and Priest in northeastern Washington State have been protected from excessive commercial development. Both are surrounded by hills covered in evergreen forests that grow right down to the shoreline.
Even smaller lakes in these rugged Cascade Mountains have trees all the way to the shoreline, like here at Miller Lake. Even so, on both large and small lakes there are stretches of sandy beach and places to pitch a tent, park an RV or rent a cabin.
When I was in grade school, Conconully Reservoir in Okanogan County, Washington USA, is where my parents took their young family to camp, fish and play on our summer vacations. In the early summer there were pollywogs in the warm sands along the shoreline where Salmon Creek enters the reservoir (below). My older brother, sister and I had many adventures with our little row boat here.
When I was 12, my family drove on a ferry from Anacortes WA, to San Juan Island, WA. Thirty years later, my husband and I started staying on Orcas Island, for our summer vacation. I have so many memories of our thirty years touring the islands on our bicycles. After I retired and we acquired a condominium at Long Beach, WA we had one last visit to Orcas. Below, the shoreline at the Anacortes landing, and low tide on the west side of Orcas, with Freeman Island in the distance.
The Long Beach Peninsula features miles of sandy beach to recreate on. Below a group is digging for Razor Clams, a man is riding his bicycle along the shoreline, a king tide spills up toward the berm, and a man is surf fishing in the swirling tide.
Whether day or night, sunny or cloudy, I enjoy listening to the breakers as they roll in, and watching the many shorebirds that frequent the area.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Thank you Anne for the perfect excuse to virtually visit some of my favorite places on planet Earth!
Usually I remain home on busy holidays like Labor Day, however, I was excited to gather with my fellow writing group friends on Saturday to visit Hariana’s gardens in Portland.
Sitting in the shade of a pear tree, Hariana glowed as she explained how to store and sow the seeds she had gathered and was giving us. While we walked through the community gardens, I could see how this would be a little bit of heaven for her. She loves plants, flowers, bugs, and teaching others about them. It was pleasant to be with this small group of nature loving writers on a walk through a garden of many delights.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
John of Journeys with Johnbo, invites us to showcase photographs that portray the various shades of the cool tones; purple, blue and green. I’ll begin with the soft-fresh hue of lavender. This sunrise view across President Channel from the west side of Orcas Island, WA evokes in me a sense of awe and transcendence.
True purple flowers are unusual and always alluring when they appear in nature. Below are three that have graced my spring gardens over the years, tulip, hellebore and huechera.
Lets move over a bit on the color wheel to blue. There are so many lovely shades of blue, yet for this challenge I’m sticking with the hue of a mostly clear sky and its reflection on water.
“Blue skies smiling at me, nothing but blue skies do I see.” Irving Berlin
Blue calms me, brings a smile to my face and sets my heart to singing. One step over on the color wheel is green, the dominant color in the Pacific Northwest USA. Below Martha’s Marsh, near Leadbetter Point State Park WA, hosts a profusion of water lilies as spring starts to move toward summer.
Green gives me hope, it symbolizes life and regeneration. Green equals growth and health in my world, and when I need a boost, the beauty of nature lifts my spirits.
Green on blue affects me like a breath of fresh air. I feel revitalized and at peace.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Thanks to John for providing a perfect excuse for me to escape into photos of nature that nurture and heal my being!
For this week’s challenge, Sofia invites us to show the various ways we “convey the size of what we’re seeing”. Sometimes size is the main point of a photo, and other times it is subtle yet vital to the image. Below is the largest “wishing rock” I have ever seen. It was on the beach at Point Doughty on Orcas Island, WA, and I placed my water bottle on the sand by it in order to show the scale. Also, that black spot in the distance by a tree top is a Bald Eagle. To learn about wishing rocks, here’s an earlier post on that subject. https://lindylecoq.com/2017/03/11/wishing-rocks-weekly-photo-challenge-wish/
The Astoria-Megler bridge is 14 miles (23 km) from the mouth of the Columbia River as it flows into the Pacific Ocean. Opened in 1966, it is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America at four miles (6.5 km) in length.
The size of automobiles entering the bridge on the right side of the above photo provides one sense of size, and the distance shore on the left side offers another.
Above, two shots with leading lines. Left is the view on the bridge looking south to Astoria, on the right is the view looking north toward Megler. Below, photographed from Fort Columbia State Park, in the distance the bridge stretches across the mighty Columbia River.
Extending 28 miles (48 km), Long Beach WA is the longest beach in the United States, and the longest beach on a Peninsula in the world. On a foggy morning two people walking along the shoreline at low tide give us a sense of the vastness of this place.
I’ll finish with a close-up shot of a honey bee working over a butterfly bush. The insect appears quite large compared to the tiny dimensions of the flowers.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Thank you to Sophia for this challenge that made me look more closely at dimensions in my photography!
Ann Christine invites us to explore the wonder of gardens this week. After taking two weeks off from my blog, I’m ready to jump right in with photos from two botanical gardens, and a brief tour of my own home flora. I’ll start with photos taken at Balboa Park and Botanical Garden in San Diego. There is a clean, stark beauty to the plants that thrive in a desert environment. This garden features lovely architecture, big boulders and original large sculptures as well.
Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, offers a lush variety of garden landscape styles including formal English gardens, Japanese and Chinese designs, and a Geodesic Dome Conservatory. I was fortunate to visit when the gardens featured a Chihuly glass installation – what a delight!
Over the 40 plus years of living in my Vancouver, WA home, I have nurtured perennial gardens with a goal of having something blooming or colorful from early spring through early winter. August is a time of abundant blossoms, and also when my annual vegetables and herbs are coming on strong.
In addition to plants, flowers and trees, having water features, bird baths, places to sit and other objects like ceramic pots, sculptures and yard art make for an interesting landscape design. Finally, having birds, butterflies and beagles visiting makes it even more delightful. Daisy loves watching the fish in the pond, and Max enjoys lounging on the love seat during our warm summer afternoons.
On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾
Thank you, Ann Christine for this lovely, open challenge!
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 