The sun makes small wonders shining through our blackout curtains.
On its lonesome
A solitary tree stands in the meadow at Genesee Park.
Taking flight
Sandpipers flock the shore, Pacific Beach, Washington.
Along the rocky shore
Russell Hoban's Turtle Diary is quite the perfect book for a quiet coastal escape. It's a meditation on loneliness, connection, action, futility; narrator William writes, "Monday morning I woke up early. A grey and dreary morning with no hope in it. Things would always be the way they were, it said. Why struggle." I walk near the waves, foaming and crashing, and the world seems made in blues and beige.
This prompts him to revisit T. S. Eliot's poem "East Coker," part of Four Quartets: "I thought of the dawn wind over the ocean. 'Out at sea the dawn wind/Wrinkles and slides,' said Eliot." It is easy to get lost in the early Pacific mist, dunes draped in indistinct haze. One sinks into Eliot's piece, which continues:
There is only the fight to recover
what has been lost
And found and lost again and
again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But
perhaps neither gain nor loss
For us, there is only the trying. The
rest is not our business.
In the vast splay of sand, a certain hopefulness arises -- even if, as Hoban's character reflects, "The things that matter don't necessarily make sense."
On the coast
The signs are cheery, but the sky is overcast, just as we like it.
With fronds like these
At a Magnuson Park plant sale, lush greenery and a little wordplay were the order of the day.
The glory of spring
The flowers are in bloom; spring has sprung, and it's perfect for walks here and there. We're particularly enjoying heading down by Lake Washington, near Seward Park.
All goose, no chase
In Seward Park, the flock waits by the water.
Spring in Seattle
Perhaps it's not yet warm enough for a cookout, but the grill can still be put to good use: this one was a roadside attraction a few blocks away, set up on the sidewalk to display plantings in old boots and emptied coffee cans.
Flowers from the shadows
The world, again in bloom.
Deep blue distance
Five ducks form a row in the lake at Seward Park.
A bit of decay
Time takes a toll on what a passerby told us was an old seed factory in La Conner, WA.