WPC: 2017 Favorites

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Late Saturday afternoon, and I was enjoying a warm and sunny October day walking on my favorite Oregon beach with my daughter and granddaughter.  Every day spent with them in Oregon is a good day, but this day was a special gift as little one and her mother kicked and played in the waves while I explored the rocks and tidal pools revealed only at low tide.

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I was happy not only to share this place and time with my loved ones, but also because I was finding abundant evidence of sea life growing on these ancient rocks.

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I had been dismayed in October of 2016 to find these massive rocks and pools largely barren.  The swarming life I found here only a few years ago remains largely a memory.

But on this October afternoon, I was happy to find sea anemones, mussels, a few clams, barnacles and several sorts of sea plants growing here once again, and flocks of birds eating and resting here at low tide.

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Looking back across 2017, this remains one of my favorite days of the year.

And though these photos are not from our garden, they remain some of my favorite photos not only for the happy memories they recall,  but also because they stand out as so different from the rest.

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This watery landscape is as beloved as it is alien to my native Virginia.  I love this horizon where the sun sets into the vast Pacific and where the mountains run right down into the sea.  And I love the time I am able to spend  in this magnificent and magical place, with my family.

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For the Daily Post’s

Weekly Photo Challenge:  2017 Favorites

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The Connie Hansen Garden, Lincoln City Oregon

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“I think the secret to a happy life is a selective memory.

Remember what you are most grateful for

and quickly forget what you’re not.”

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Richard Paul Evans

 

Sunday Dinner: Perspective

Mt. St. Helens, as seen through the plane’s window, descending into Portland Oregon.

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“We often think that there is just one way

to look at things – the way we always have.

In fact, there are an infinite number of ways

to look at most everything.

An open mind allows for a multitude of perspectives

from which to choose in any given moment.

That suppleness of mind allows for true choice,

and opens us to a whole new realm of possibility.”

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Jeffrey R. Anderson     

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Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier

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“There is wonder in everything,

the only thing you need to change to see it

is your perspective.”

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Taylor Schake

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“Remember, whatever you focus upon, increases. . . .

When you focus on the things you need,

you’ll find those needs increasing.

If you concentrate your thoughts on what you don’t have,

you will soon be concentrating on other things

that you had forgotten you don’t have-

-and feel worse! If you set your mind on loss,

you are more likely to lose.

But a grateful perspective brings happiness

and abundance into a person’s life.”

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Andy Andrews

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Haystack Rock, Pacific City, OR

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“When you have once seen the glow of happiness

on the face of a beloved person,

you know that a man can have no vocation

but to awaken that light

on the faces surrounding him.

In the depth of winter, I finally learned

that within me there lay an invincible summer.”

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Albert Camus

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2016

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Cascade Head, Lincoln City, OR

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“It is well known that stone can think,

because the whole of electronics is based on that fact,

but in some universes men spend ages

looking for other intelligences in the sky

without once looking under their feet.

That is because they’ve got the time-span all wrong.

From stone’s point of view the universe is hardly created

and mountain ranges are bouncing up and down

like organ-stops while continents zip backward and forward

in general high spirits, crashing into each other

from the sheer joy of momentum and getting their rocks off.

It is going to be quite some time before stone notices

its disfiguring skin disease and starts to scratch,

which is just as well.”

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Terry Pratchett

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WPC: Shine

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Light always attracts us.  We follow the mysterious glint and shine of something unknown, hoping to find a treasure.

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After several stormy days along the coast of the Pacific Northwest, I was called down to the beach by the glint and shine of sunlight sparkling on the sand and sea foam.

It was the first real sunlight we’d  had for days, and I was determined to get in some beach time before packing my bags for the long flight home.

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I was hoping for a small agate or shell, left by the waves, to take home as an added treasure from this trip.

The waves still crashing high and hard, my path hugged the high tide mark at the base of the cliff.   There were long strands of sea grasses, still wet and shining in the morning sun.  Huge hunks of wood, some already charred from beach bonfires, littered the beach.  Sea foam sparkled as it skittered across the sand.

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Focused on my photoing, I almost didn’t see the sneaker wave rolling up the beach.  I ran for the rocks, but still found myself ankle deep in the cold Pacific surf.  Not so bad, except I had worn my favorite Sebagos on this jaunt…

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Time to turn around and head back to the condo, to dry out and wait for low tide.  The treasures I’d found were locked deep in my Nikon’s memory card.

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Woodland Gnome 2016

 

For the Daily Post’s

Weekly Photo Challenge:  Shine

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WPC: Fun

Lincoln City, Oregon

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How can there be fun, in August, without water? 

Whether we head to a favorite beach, go sailing, wade in the river or fish in a shady creek; water draws us, soothing us with its endless movement.  It cools us, calms us; and makes everything more fun!

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Powhatan Creek,  James City County Virginia

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For the Daily Post’s

Weekly Photo Challenge:  Fun!

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Beverly Beach, OR, where even the shore birds have great fun in the waves.

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2016

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Beverly Beach, OR just below the coast Highway 101, a great place to get away, have fun, and relax!

WPC: Weightless Over the Pacific

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Weightless

Floating in a watercolor sky,

Lifted up, and ever higher up,

Riding warm rivers of air.

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Sailing freely above a peaceful sea;

Seeking nothing, seeing no one,

Knowing only light and dark, heat and cool,

Fog and rain.

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You dance, playing with golden sunlight as it falls to Earth.

Sky sculptor, peopling the troposphere

With sylphs and rainbows, giants and dragons.

Every myth begins and ends in your embrace.

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Floating in, creeping off the waves onto the strand,

You blur every boundary.

Misty, dreamily, relentlessly you descend;

Leaving even Earthbound beings

Weightless.

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Woodland Gnome 2016

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For the Daily Posts

Weekly Photo Challenge: Weightless

Photos from the Oregon Coast April 2015

Notes From the Oregon Coast

Siletz Bay, Oregon, along Route 101

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Oregon’s central coast, along Route 101 near Lincoln City, is one of the most beautiful places I know. 

And one of my pleasures, while visiting there, remains taking photos of its magical beauty. 

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The Connie Hansen Garden in late April.

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I’ve just completed a series of note cards featuring some favorite photos from my trip in April, including a few photos taken at the Connie Hansen Garden Conservancy.

(One photo, of an Iris, was taken in our own Forest Garden.)

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The view from Cape Foulweather, on Route 101

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I made these cards as gifts for friends and family, but have a few sets left to offer to you, here, at Forest Garden.

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This set of 8 note cards, with envelopes, is now available for purchase.

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Eight different photos, each with a quotation from one of my favorite authors, make up this set.  These are 5.5″ x 4″ folded cards professionally printed on heavy stock, with envelopes. 

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Each set of 8 cards is offered for $15.00, which includes postage within the United States. 

Please write to me at woodlandgnome@zoho.com if you would like to order a set. 

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Native Azaleas blooming in the Connie Hansen Garden.

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If you would prefer a custom mixed set of some cards and not others, I will do my best to provide that for you.

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“D” River State Park at sunset

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Each of these photos holds a special memory for me.  I hope you will enjoy them as well.

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Woodland Gnome 2015

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WPC: Forces of Nature

Oregon coast, 2015

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The physical forces of nature shape us as they shape our world.

We experience wind and water, gravity, friction and radiation every day of our lives.  But some parts of the planet feel an entirely more violent variety of Nature’s forces:  plate tectonics.

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Cascade Head from the beach at Lincoln City, Oregon

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The Cascade Mountains, on the coast of our Pacific Northwest. are alive with these forces.

The Earth shudders and folds as plates collide.  Magma deforms the land as it gathers, and sometimes spews from the Earth to transform the landscape.

Huge rock formations along Oregon’s beaches remind us of this fiery heritage, even as the fault lines far out to sea come alive with fresh eruptions.

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Tides rush in and recede. 

Fog settles over the beaches.  Wind blows in from the ocean, whipping loose sand into a gritty windborne wave along the beach.

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Seabirds hunt for their dinner.  Friends gather together along the beach to honor sunset; and a lone photographer wanders amidst it all, wondering how a single image can capture such harmony.

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The Weekly Photo Challenge: Forces of Nature

Woodland Gnome 2015

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