A Question About Circles

A Question About Circles

Autumn sunlight
spackles fallen leaves and seeds together
on wet pine slats.

(click on photos to enlarge.)



Is it the beginning or the end?




Text and Photographs Copyright 2008 David H.Roche

Ten Words

(Click to enlarge photo.)

Ten Words

Life is crossroads.
Sunset and daybreak.
Things that never end.

Text and photograph Copyright 2008 David H. Roche

Humanist Vision

Humanist Vision

When we were young we had rights
and speaking our thoughts
was not a crime.

Even so they shot us down
on the streets
and campuses for speaking.

When we were young
we had horizons in our minds;
but they had boxes designed to keep us busy.

We struggled;
not conforming because
we believed our prophets





who pointed to the horizons.
A few fixed their eyes on the vision
and started off.




(Click to enlarge photo.)












Text Copyright 2008 David H. Roche

Contentment

Contentment

I know where I’m headed;
its through a door called the grave
that opens to starlight.

(Click photograph to enlarge)












Nothing ever ends … it merely changes.
I’m content with that.





Text Copyright 2008 by David H. Roche

Life Lane

(click on photograph for detail)
Life Lane is in a rural location a few miles off of U.S. 30 along the Alston - Mayger road. It's just a few miles past the Lewis and Clark bridge and Rainier Oregon if your heading towards Clatskanie or Astoria.

On a visit I saw the sign and the cemetery across the road. Their juxtaposition was something that I could not help but think about. Death is always rummaging around in the back of my mind. It's become the perennial 'boogie man' that religions use to keep people in line.


Life and death, yin and yang, black and white: these comprise the spectrum of differences that make up everything. You've got to get to know these things before life makes any sense. If you don't you'll look and wonder and perhaps cry. If you do you can smile confidently in a bitter sweet kind of way because life is nice, and the unknown is, well, unknown. So talk to death until you have your answers.


The Teacher

Make friends with death.

Take his hand; invite him to walk with you.

Listen to what he has to say, he's wise.

When you've talked,

say goodbye and go your way;

you'll meet again, and you'll be ready.

Seaside Oregon

The entire North Coast of Oregon is a showcase of natural beauty that is difficult or impossible to equal in the United States. Seaside is a small city that attracts a lot of visitors and during the vacation season it is transformed from a sluggish community of a few thousand local inhabitants to a congested haven for those seeking the chance to get away and have contact with the natural world or to just get away from it all. There are races and volley ball tournaments and many other events that draw people to the area.

Tillamook Head is a dominant feature in the area. It is impossible to miss. The link explains a lot about it.

This is a short video of the beach at Seaside and Tillamook head.
The huge rock formation jutting into the ocean is the result of repeated catastrophic volcanic activity and subsequent lava flows that occurred over many years, beginning, by some estimates as long ago as 16 million years and 300 miles upstream near Idaho. The city and the state have provided a wonderful medium for enjoying these natural features by allowing unlimited access to the beach for recreation.

(Click on photos to enlarge them.)

The major attraction of Seaside is the Pacific Ocean and the surrounding natural features as well as planned events. One of them is the relay race from Mount Hood to the sea at Seaside. It is officially named the "Hood to Coast Relay" A team from 2006 is featured here. This is a race comprising almost 200 miles. It fills the highways and people come and enjoy themselves.

On the beach you'll find many things to delight you...

like this western Sandpiper,

as well as other neat things
the ocean produces.

Seagulls reflecting in the tidal water
give you the opportunity
to see the beauty in the commonplace.

I have no idea what these curious looking birds are named.

None the less I enjoyed them
just the same. Not having a name to label them with did not detract
from my pleasure.

The Pacific is constantly in motion just like the universe it exists in;
it is constantly heaving its contents up on the shore.
I was struck by the beauty of the ordinary, the bits and pieces on the sand.
Nothing stays the same. Everything is becoming something else.




Kelp.

Pieces broken on the shore.

This poor little guy has lost his hands.

Drift wood.

Sand dollars.

Sunlight images.






And there are those who come for the razor clams.


These are a sought after delicacy. If you like fresh off the boat or right out of the ocean sea food, the Oregon North Coast is the place to come. Restaurants will post the time the fish came in that day.
I recommend Doogers There are several locations and each offers a relaxing and satisfying place to eat.

The locals do not generally use the 'clam gun' as it can damage the clams. They use a shovel. But the 'clam guns' are sold in local stores and they do work. You can see a 'clam gun' in use in the photograph below.



This young lady with the University of Oregon sweatshirt holds a small specimen. Someone out further is looking for more.

Then there are those who just come for fun.

Kite flying (video)

Kite flying is a common pastime on the beach. Theres always a breeze and theres always the sound of the surf and water at your feet.

And volley Ball.

The Promenade is a unique feature in Oregon. It stretches almost 2 miles (approximately 8000 feet) along the beach front. It offers on one side the ocean and on the other side the rental properties for visitors. It is charming to say the least.















I stayed for 20 days on 9th Avenue within eyesight and earshot of the ocean and the 'Prom' was a few steps from my door.

This is the 'turn around' at the end of Broadway. The Mount Hood relay finishes up here. The statue is in memory of the Lewis and Clark expedition which ended here at that time, but is continued on in the spirit that sent them on their journey. They are depicted looking west as if to say: "There's more and we want it." That was my thought, anyhow, after seeing how things have worked out since their visit.

But the 'Prom'
is a lot of fun.
I'm sure the ocean will
enchant you
in the same way it
has captured my mind.

And then theres the locals. They enjoy it too.



At the end of the day it's a place to go and empty your mind.


















Enjoy the sunsets.

Think about it all and you might just decide to disappear into the mist (video) and stay there forever.


Text photographs and video Copyright 2008 David H. Roche. External links to things not created by me are the property of those who created them.

Dinner at Green Shutters (Lovers, an interlude on a summer afternoon)

(Click on Photo for detail)

Dinner in the patio,
the afternoon sun creates a maze on the grass

leaving me lost in the spackle of sunlight and shadows
lost in fish fries and coffee.

Soft breezes in the shade,
a chipmunk plays in the cavities of a stone wall,
disappearing and reappearing at a location further down.

The waitress, just out of high school in shorts
with tanned legs, sweet rounded hips and breasts swelling
beneath her tee shirt has been taught
the technique of flirting for tips without understanding what it means.

A couple my age,
he, gray haired, hers dyed, sip wine at another table.
He rises with a camera and kneels,
while she, in a white pleated skirt, adjusts herself as he takes the picture.

Memories to be kept.
They are lovely and enjoying each other.

Now they’re gone
and two young boys sit down and begin to flirt with the waitress.

Photograph and text Copyright 2008 David H. Roche

Barnacles and Basalt

(click on the photographs for greater detail)

The events depicted begin in the Pacific Northwest of present day North America at a time when there were no boundaries and no one to make boundaries. It begins, by most estimates, between 16 and 6 million years ago at a time when North America was just a place without a name, and no consciousness with a desire to name it and section it off from the rest of everything.

A lot of things were happening. Volcanic activity was rampant. There were an estimated 300 volcanoes active through this period. On top of that ice ages came one after the other in which snow would fall and accumulate to immense depths because of the low temperatures which prohibited melting. Then there would be periods of melting with temperature higher than they are today in the area. These periods of melting produced massive, cataclysmic flooding. Some estimate that these floods happened 30 to 60 times over a period of 2000 years. (The preceding and some subsequent information was gleaned from the book "Cataclysms On The Columbia" by John Eliot Allen and Marjorie Burns with Sam C. Sargent.)

The volcanoes during this period were not the Mt. Saint Helens type, but were the result of large, sometimes miles long fissures which opened up in the crust of the earth from which basaltic materials flowed quite rapidly and continued to flow off and on for millions upon millions of years. These are known as "shield-volcanic eruptions". They produced basalt material from the inside of the earth which accumulated on the surface in long flows as much as 6000 feet in depth. This material originated as far away as Idaho and ended up in solidified rock formations in the Pacific ocean along the north coast of Oregon.

Approximately a million years ago there was another ice age with continual snow accumulation and the subsequent development of a continental ice sheet extending down from what is now Canada into the present United States that was up to 4000 feet thick which formed into mammoth glaciers. These glaciers due to the great pressures exerted by their weight moved south. This tremendous amount of ice eventually formed dams, and subsequently, due to periodic melting, Lake Missoula: a huge body that contained more water than Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined.

When the ice dam holding back Lake Missoula broke it unleashed a torrent equal to ten times that of all the existing rivers in the world

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/Glaciers/IceSheets/description_lake_missoula.html

allowing a wall of water 800 feet in height to escape in an unimaginable outpouring at an estimated speed of 65 miles an hour. The water and broken hunks of ice took with them top soil, huge rocks known as 'erratics' and the aggregate basalt material extruded by the previous volcanic activity on a trip to the Pacific Ocean. On its way the waters formed the present Columbia River gorge. The 'erratics' were dropped along the flood plain as the ice carrying them melted.

This link gives some photos of the area as explanation for the geological interpretation.
(copy and paste address into browser.)

http://www.glaciallakemissoula.org/virtualtour/index.html



As the water and the basalt carried with it reached the ocean the aggregate basalt materials cooled along the way and collected into sometimes massive formations.Haystack Rock, pictured above, in Cannon Beach Oregon is an example. The North Coast of Oregon from Lincoln City all the way to Astoria show remnants of this geologic activity.

Visible from the promenade at Seaside Oregon the Tillamook Head is impressive and shows what the flood from Lake Missoula resulted in.

(copy and paste the following web address.)


http://www.oregon.com/hiking/tillamook_head.cfm


Technical information for this was gleaned from this website.


http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/ColumbiaPlateau/description_columbia_plateau.html

And so we come to the barnacles and the basalt.

Barnacles have been around for 400 million years in a relatively unchanged state. The glue they use to attach themselves to the place they wish to be is one of the most adhesive of any glues known to mankind.


http://www.evolutionnews.org/2008/07/billions_of_missing_links_part_3.html

(Click to enlarge photos.)

Barnacles are crustaceans related to shrimp

that spend most of their life stuck in one place
standing of their heads.

They maintain themselves by straining plankton
and absorbing oxygen with their legs

as the water passes over them.

(Basalt formations at Cannon Beach, Oregon)

They produce a powerful adhesive that is one of the strongest glues in the world able to support a weight of 7000 pounds with a film of only 3/10,000th of an inch. They attach themselves to a number of things including ships, rocks, pilings, and even whales.

Threats to their well being include
but are not limited to, worms, star fish and oil spills.

(detail of basalt rock formation)

They are also beautiful...

making the rocks take on
the appearance
of a surreal flower garden

I find that acknowledging this sense of vast regions of time and change in which all we now are appeared in increments to be a comforting thought... a spiritual thought that connects me, rather than separates me, to everything. As the old hymn says; "as it was in the beginning it now and ever shall be. World without end."

It's difficult to imagine that life will ever end and that I will ever be separate from it even when this husk known as 'Me' is forever gone.




The photographs were taken at Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Text and photographs Copyright 2008 David H. Roche

Along The Road The Day Lilies Bloom

(Click on the photographs to enlarge them)

Along The Road The Day Lilies Bloom

Three women stride together
talking between breaths;
all I hear as they pass is;
“does he know?”

(I’m sure he knows.)

Two old men
stand against a car in conversation about the farmer up the road
who lost his crop from the hail the day before;

one is feeble, requiring a cane,
the other an old drinking buddy from high school is more lucky,
his arms are folded across his chest, appearing almost vital.

Day lilies bloom along the road.
They will bloom next year as well;
this summer they will fade and
and appear to die forever…
until next April.

Photographs taken on Silver Street, Cayuga County New York.

Text and photographs Copyright 2008 David H. Roche