Photo and text by S.W. Cosgrove
There’s a hush in the gloaming
as black clouds move in from the west
You don’t need a weatherman to see this storm coming
One last walk on the beach
But don’t tarry
– S.W. Cosgrove
Ocean storm
Category: Photography
Still water reflects
Photo and text by S.W. Cosgrove
still water reflects
light dancing on the surface
but look just below
Evening’s ebb tide at Iron Springs
Text and photo by S.W. Cosgrove
Evening’s ebb tide at Iron Springs
pulls the Pacific Ocean waters back into its infinite bosom,
etching paths in the dun sands
as I watch from above
Rincon Valley
Photo by SW Cosgrove
Riding horses on Rincon Valley trails under the Rincon Mountains, Tucson, Arizona. Spotted a cougar for part of the ride who was keeping an eye on us.
Home of the Jumping Cholla Cactus (Opuntia fulgida), which gets its name from spiny segments that detach so easily they seem to attack any creature that passes by. I found out the hard way.
Bridge over the Tacoma Narrows
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
Know when to cross it
Know when to burn it
Know when it’s real
Know when it only exists in your mind
See the USA in your Chevrolet
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
Do you remember?
See the USA in your Chevrolet
America is asking you to call
Drive your Chevrolet in the USA
America’s the greatest land of all
On a highway, or a road along the levee
Performance is sweeter
Nothing can beat her
Life is completer in a Chevy
So make a date today to see the USA
And see it in your Chevrolet
Travelin’ east, Travelin’ west
Wherever you go Chevy service is best
Southward or north, near place or far
There’s a Chevrolet dealer for your Chevrolet car
See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet.
The Rockies way out west are calling you
Drive your Chevrolet through the U.S.A
Where fields of golden wheat pass in review
Whether Trav’ling light or with a load that’s heavy
Performance is sweeter, oh.. nothing can beat ‘er
Life is completer in a Chevy
So make a date today to see the U.S.A
And see it in your Chevrolet
The song “See The U.S.A. In Your Chevrolet” (title as filed for 1950 copyright) is a commercial jingle from c. 1949, with lyrics and music by Leo Corday (ASCAP) and Leon Carr (ASCAP), written for the Chevrolet Division of General Motors.
The Changing Light
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
The view from my office window high above Market Street, looking up Van Ness, as the fog rolled in from the Golden Gate onto The City, changing day into night. I always had a sweater ready in the middle of summer.
The Changing Light by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The changing light
at San Francisco
is none of your East Coast light
none of your pearly light of Paris
The light of San Francisco
is a sea light
an island light
And the light of fog
blanketing the hills
drifting in at night
through the Golden Gate
to lie on the city at dawn
And then the halcyon late mornings
after the fog burns off
and the sun paints white houses
with the sea light of Greece
with sharp clean shadows
making the town look like
it had just been painted
But the wind comes up at four o’clock
sweeping the hills
And then the veil of light of early evening
And then another scrim
when the new night fog
floats in
And in that vale of light
the city drifts
anchorless upon the ocean
Eventide at Kalaloch’s shore
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
The sun, once brilliant and dominating the sky, now recedes into the horizon, bringing a new day to the Orient.
The unpacific Pacific Ocean, churning furiously during the day, now rests, its heart beat in rhythm with the pull of the moon.
Chaucer wrote: Time and tide wait for no man.
And they shall not wait for us.
Nikki’s Ghost
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
I took this photo during a snow storm on our farm during the last winter of my beloved German Shepherd Nikki’s long life some years back. Her story over 14 years was one of trust, loyalty, protection, and love. I strive to follow her example.
The first to welcome, foremost to defend
Whose honest heart is still his Master’s own
Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone
Lord Byron, Epitaph to a Dog
Walking on the Western Edge – Kalaloch driftwood
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
At beaches at and around Kalaloch are massive piles of driftwood washed ashore over decades and centuries. These “drift logs” include ancient trees that are several feet in diameter and tens of feet long that can weigh several tons.
Over time, the branches, bark, and heartwood—what appears to be nothing more than floating debris—become either home to or sustenance for a range of plants and animals that change the properties of the wood dramatically. This is an example.
Walking on the Western Edge of North America – Kalaloch, Ruby Beach
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
Traveling north on Washington’s Pacific coast, vast sand beaches and endless horizons of rolling surf are replaced by towering stone stacks in a restless, crashing surf that carries battered driftwood the size of entire trees to the beach.
Inland lies the lush, primordial rainforest.
I love Kalaloch in winter when there are fewer people and the storms roll in, blackening the sky, sending mountains of water into the air before crashing to the beach. I rent a rustic cabin on the beach, going to sleep and waking up with the insistent pulse of the mighty ocean right outside my door.
In future posts, I will share more of this world. Here is Ruby Beach.
Shine on, you crazy diamond
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
Good night, Emerald City, I’m on my way home across water. Shine on, you crazy diamond.
“Here in the corner attic of America, two hours’ drive from a rain forest, a desert, a foreign country, an empty island, a hidden fjord, a raging river, a glacier, and a volcano is a place where the inhabitants sense they can do no better, nor do they want to.”
– Timothy Egan, The Good Rain, Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest
Flow river, flow
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
The river flows
It flows to the sea
Wherever that river goes
That’s where I want to be
- Roger McGuinn
Moclips River meets the Pacific Ocean, Washington, USA
Pigeon Boy
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
From my One Year in Japan, unpublished as yet.
I wonder what the future had in store for this child, whom I call Pigeon Boy.
He was shy, and he loved his pigeons.
I took this photo on my visit to the Ueno Zoo and Japan’s oldest Buddhist Temple, Sensō-ji, in the Taitō ward of Tokyo.
Here is a photo of Pigeon Boy’s apparent father and sister, who tended this large pigeon crate and sold small bags of grain to feed the pigeons. He watched me very closely and gave permission to take photos. I call him Pigeon Master.
Stairway to heaven
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
If you can’t quite climb the stairway to heaven,
In L.A. you can take an escalator
Painful endings, new beginnings
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” ― Lao Tzu
May this new year bring us peace, health, and wisdom.
Symbols
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
For my last photo of 2020,
I leave three symbols:
A bare, dying tree
A single crow
A rainbow
Make of them what you will, or make nothing at all.
Ebb tide
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
As the winter tide ebbs at dusk,
so shall it rise in a new day,
the eternal dance between earth and sea.
No hands on deck
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
On mornings like this,
I could ride the ferry all day.
The upper deck is all mine,
freshly washed by Puget Sound rain.
Dragons aloft on the wind
Photo by S.W. Cosgrove
And though I came to forget or regret all I have ever done, yet I would remember that once I saw the dragons aloft on the wind at sunset above the western isles; and I would be content.
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore
SW COSGROVE 