Island In the Sky! North Cascades, WA. Sunday morning, and our day was set. Follow so many others to the garden store, stock up on plants, get everything we need to start pressure washing the house, cleaning the deck, and removing moss from, well… just about every surface here in the Pacific Northwest. And jumping into spring cleaning and the seemingly never-ending home maintenance. Shuksan Glacier! North Cascades, WA. All of that was rudely (and thankfully) short-circuited when my wife took...

Fairy Lake, BC. Every so often, I need to feel the wind off the ocean, hear the sound of waves crashing on rock, and watch as the sun burns itself into the curve of the earth at days end. This need often prompts me to head for the ferry and to drive out to British Columbia’s Wild West Coast on Vancouver Island. This is a beautiful, rugged, rocky shoreline with endless bays, tidepools, and deep-water fjords. The coastline stretches over 2,000 miles (3,440 km) and is home to coastal wolves,...

Falling Water 2! Umpqua River, Oregon. When I recently published my blog Low Tide, a good friend emailed to tell me I had forgotten something very important. She said I was so focused on the visuals that I forgot about the scents. She reminded me that low tide is almost always associated with a pungent, nutrient rich odor, and that being in proximity to water in any form always has a smell. It might be the stench of decaying vegetation or the tang of salt on the ocean, the somber, heavy (and...