Category: Photography

Amongst the rhododendrons

Posted in Nature, Photography, Poetry, Washington State1 Comment

Photos by S.W. Cosgrove

We were amongst the rhododendrons. There was something bewildering, even shocking, about the suddenness of their discovery. The woods had not prepared me for them. They startled me with their crimson faces, massed one upon the other in incredible profusion, showing no leaf, no twig, nothing but the slaughterhouse red, luscious and fantastic, unlike any rhododendron plant I had seen before.
― Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

Rhododendron

Posted in Nature, Photography, Poetry, Washington StateLeave a comment

Photo by S.W. Cosgrove

ON BEING ASKED, WHENCE IS THE FLOWER?
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals, fallen in the pool,
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool.
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being:
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask, I never knew:
But, in my simple ignorance, suppose
The self-same Power that brought me there brought you.

To the farm born

Posted in Memoir, Photography, Poetry, Story6 Comments

Photo and words by S.W. Cosgrove

Found in the bottom of a box, a faded photo from the late 20th century reminds me….

I’m thankful for the good fortune of being to the farm born

to know the everyday miracles of life and the daily wisdom of death

the smell of fresh turned earth

clover meadows washed in spring rains

a lively horse and a smart dog

the summer sun setting late through the oak trees around the screen porch

dandelion wine from a chipped water glass

and chokecherry preserves on fresh baked bread….

Jervis Inlet

Posted in British Columbia, Canada, Nature, Photography, Travel2 Comments

Photos by S.W. Cosgrove

Jervis Inlet runs 55 mi (89 km) from its head at the mouth of the Skwawka River to its opening into the Strait of Georgia near Texada Island. It is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast, about 59 mi (95 km) northwest of Vancouver, and the third of such inlets north of the 49th parallel, the first of which is Burrard Inlet, Vancouver’s harbor.

It is the deepest fjord on the British Columbia coast with a maximum depth of 670 m (2,200 ft).

The inlet is made up of three arms or reaches:

  • Prince of Wales Reach
  • Princess Royal Reach
  • Queens Reach

Ghost Ship

Posted in Ocean, Photography2 Comments

Photo by S.W. Cosgrove

One way or another, all the bridges between that time and this one have been burned. Time’s a reach, too, you know, just like the one that lies between the islands and the mainland, but the only ferry that can cross it is memory, and that’s like a ghost-ship – if you want it to disappear, after awhile it will.

― Stephen King