The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Rain, sun, wind...insects, birds, flowers...meteorites, rocks...seasonal changes...all are worthy additions to the bucket. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
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For the last few years I’ve been creating personalized calendars for my mom. She’s always used large-size wall calendars to keep track of events, and when I discovered how to make your own with an online company and digital photos, I realized it was a great way to share nature images with her.
My mom is 90 and still goes out walking every day with her two sticks, to feel the invigoration of fresh air and the sounds and scents of nature. She’s been walking and hiking, climbing and canoeing, swimming and sailing throughout her long life. She and my dad explored all the wilderness beaches and mountains in Washington while I was still a kid, and expanded the reach of their adventures into more and more remote sites long past an age when most of us settle into a sedentary indoor life. The range of her expeditions has narrowed lately...her balance isn’t what it was and she tires easily. So one way to refresh her memories of great wilderness experiences is to see large photos of places she’s been, evoking those wonderful times in the natural world, when we feel most alive.
My theme last year was Wilderness Beaches (I won’t share this year’s calendar photos in case she drops in to see what I’m blogging about these days before I give it to her next week ;-) ). Because it’s the new-calendar season, and because I’m heading out for my own annual week on the Washington coast soon, I’ll share that selection of calendar photos here at the Bucket today. I think of these beaches as my "backyard”, and looking at these images is a great way to see changes over the years. Monitoring the natural world over time is we are all doing for each of our backyards here at the Daily Bucket, in our many ways.
The title image above was taken at the far end of Rialto Beach. The tide was so high that’s as far as I could walk, which was probably a good thing since the short winter day was darkening already, and I had a couple of miles hike back down the beach to the parking lot. There was a time when we’d be setting up a tent at this hour, looking for a spot high enough up on the beach, out of reach of waves, preferably before darkness fell. Hopefully not in the pouring rain although I did all that many times beach-hiking with my family in my younger years.
Another wilderness beach I camped on countless times is Shi Shi near Neah Bay. If you’ve walked this beach in summer your memory may be of sand gradually sloping into the waves; in winter the rougher surf carves out the sharp berm we see below and narrows the beach. You notice there are no footprints ahead in this photo. It’s a bit of an expedition getting down the beach to the creek where the camping is prettiest and in winter not many people do. A few years ago my mom and several of her octogenarian hiking friends took the 3-mile hike through the woods to a cliff where you slither down the muddy rope-assist steep slope to get to the beach — the only way to get there. After a delightful time on this wild shore they all climbed back up, and along the muddy trail to the car. This hike is challenging for me but I can hardly whine about it. I freely admit it, I’m hiking lightweight compared to my mom. :)
More beaches and calendar pages below:
I like winter beaches for their solitude. I feel a more direct connection with nature when I’m not exchanging pleasantries with passing hikers. Winter in the Pacific Northwest is usually stormy though. If you are very lucky the sun will break through for a moment on such a winter’s day and light up the surf, as it did on Rialto Beach this day:
At the far end of 3rd Beach you run out of sand. Beyond is an impassable headland. If you’re a day-hiker this is where you turn around. But a scramble up a rope-assist cliff and through salal over the headland takes you down to beautiful remote empty beaches with tannin creeks and spectacular seastacks offshore. I hiked and camped those beaches long long ago with my family but not since; my mother knows those beaches better than I do.
The final page of this calendar was a mix of some family trips at wilderness beaches. That’s my dad playing the harmonica, gazing out to sea in a contemplative moment. He died 6 years ago. And that’s my parents dancing on the intertidal shelf of Botanical Beach on Vancouver Island half a century ago....somebody said it’s flat enough to dance on, so — ! Photos can take us back to happy times. On wilderness beaches, soul-enriching and often memorably adventurous times too :)
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Creating these calendars has been great fun. They aren’t just beautiful pictures, but as personal photos they have memories too. If you are a photographer and are looking for something special for a loved one, a personalized calendar is an idea.
As alway, all nature observations welcome in the comments below. Tell us what you’re seeing in your own natural neighborhood.
"SPOTLIGHT ON GREEN NEWS & VIEWS" IS POSTED EVERY SATURDAY AT 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME AND WEDNESDAY AT 3:30 ON THE DAILY KOS FRONT PAGE. IT'S A GREAT WAY TO CATCH UP ON DIARIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED. BE SURE TO RECOMMEND AND COMMENT IN THE DIARY. |