In my transition from North America to Europe last week, my appetite for natural beauty was satisfied in unusual ways. On a flight from Charlotte North Carolina to Philidelphia, Pennsylvania, I found a channel on my seat-back monitor called “foggy running water.” Sure enough, I was able to hear and be soothed by a river’s […]
Land
An Eagle’s Eye
Last week, I travelled south of the international boundary, to Kettle Falls, Washington. Standing on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River, I watched the reservoir pool around a land mass exposed by low water. The indigenous word for this place is ksunkw, “island.” Sinixt and Skoyelpi fishermen, their families and the Salmon Chief once spent […]
The Generosity of Moss
During a recent writing sabbatical in Seattle, Washington, I spent many hours wandering the streets around Capitol Hill. Within this cultured environment of heritage homes and mature gardens spreads an unobtrusive, still-wild landscape of moss. Fed by the rainy climate, moss softens the hard angles of a staircase. It transforms rock walls into verdant mountains. […]
In search of Springbank Clover
Phase II of my 6,000 mile search for beauty took me on another road trip last week – to the Broughton Archipelago. This smattering of rocky islands between the west coast of British Columbia and Vancouver Island has been home to the Kwakwaka’wakw indigenous tribe for thousands of years. I was drawn to feel for […]
Petrified on Interstate 40
It has been a busy week on the road. Just before I left the Navajo/Hopi Indian Reservation, I met a Navajo man named Gilbert, who pulled his pick up over to talk when he saw me wandering in a field with Dellie, about three miles from his home. Gilbert welcomed me to take a photo […]