The warmest days of summer just past seem to draw many to “the beach”. As much as this seems to resonate at large as the ideal getaway, I suspect I am not alone in not being particularly drawn to wide-open sunny expanses, often crowded with humanity. Give me the cool, rocky stream with dappled shade...
In my twenties I discovered trees as kindred creatures as a result of my interest in woodworking, beginning in 1971. I lived in Western Washington State and spent hours scouring the woods for figured Large Leaf Maple in what was then rural territory, namely the Sammamish highlands south of Redmond, now shockingly suburbanized. In the...
In 2005 we took the wee grandkids to O.O. Denny Park in Kirkland, WA. It is a hidden treasure of wildness with reputedly the tallest Douglas Fir in the Seattle metro area, along with a lovely bit of lakeside frontage on Lake Washington. I always love taking Erika and Brennan to natural areas as they...
I wrote this as a piece of fiction for another project and then thought, “hmm, seems not so fictional”: “The world had come to a point of decision, the cusp of light and darkness. A vileness had, for centuries, infused itself into the power structure of virtually every major culture, and many, but not all,...
Two of my favorite Japanese painters are Soga Shohaku(1730-1781) and Ito Jakuchu(1716-1800). Contemporaries, their paintings are very different from each other but share an extraordinary dynamism and ecstatic eccentricity that lands them solidly in my Hall Of Fame. My taste often runs to a more quiet austerity, but I find these two artists’ work so...