Views of Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula. . .and beyond
Sometimes it’s hard to know where the trail is heading. This day, this achingly beautiful sunny day, it felt like walking into a tunnel of forest light. Other days it’s time to pull up the hood and keep on moving. Sometimes you just don’t know ’til you’re there. And always it’s one foot after the other.
I’m heading on a new trail for a little while and taking a break.
Today’s City Daily Photo theme post is “the beauty of decay.” This long-abandoned cabin in the woods is my response. A tiny one-room shack, it caves to the effects of nature’s persistent drive of reclamation.
As the boards molder and succumb, vines, grasses, ferns, and bushes weave up from the cabin’s lost floor and through gaping holes toward filtered forest light.
I passed this little cabin on a driveway monthly for over a year and a half before I noticed it out of the corner of my eye. There’s a beautiful, sturdy house and a serene pond nearby. And this cabin slowly returns to the earth and fades from memory.
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This is a marine hardware store in Annacortes. It’s the part of the store that sells used items: hardware, fittings, floats, you name it. It has a creaky, worn wooden floor and smells like your crazy uncle’s basement, full of surprises, possibilities, and, well, old stuff.
Stores like this are disappearing. A kindred cousin in Port Townsend closed not long ago, victim of our passion for quicker or cheaper or ready-made. A place like this is visual amazement. Most of the things on the shelves don’t have perfect look-alikes next to them. Nothing’s lined up like miniature soldiers ready for service. It certainly doesn’t look like one of our predictable and clean big box stores. It’s adventure shopping at its finest for the inherent scavenger. And a nightmare for anyone craving tidy.
I want these shoes. A performer – Kate Lynne Logan – wore them at the Juan de Fuca Festival last weekend.
If I had them, would I wear them? I dunno. But I’d certainly try clicking my heels, saying “There’s no place like home!” and seeing where I wind up.
Views of Mount Baker, on the eastern side of Puget Sound, are elusive and ethereal from the Olympic Peninsula. It was a treat to see it beyond this barn when we visited the Skagit Valley for the Tulip Festival last month.
I’ve seen these big horned cattle in a field around this time for the last couple of years. They’ve usually grazed some distance from the road, but recently moved into camera distance to sample low hanging branches on a tree.
I know the difference between a bull and a cow, but that starts pushing the edge of my cattle knowledge. I assume the horns come with the breed. And I didn’t have a chance to confirm if this is a bull or a cow. Anything much bigger in the animal world than a Labrador Retriever commands my respect – and distance. This critter retreated to the other side of the tree after it consented to its portrait.
Ahhhh! Today’s Memorial Day in the U.S. Long holiday weekend. Got the watermelon? Check.
Barbecue fired up and ready? There are plenty waiting at the hardware store if the old one didn’t make it through winter. Check.
Flag flying? Check.
Now, if you haven’t already done it, it’s time to thank those who’ve fought and served, and send a prayer of thanks to those who’ve lost their lives in the service of their country.