You don’t think about it when you’re employed as a communications officer, you’re just following best practices by keeping yourself out of the story. But then comes the day when you need to put together a portfolio, and you find that you have no bylined or credited work for the …
On Nov. 6, 2020, I unpackaged a brand new American flag and put it out to fly, for the first time in four years. It was my signal to the world that the possibility of “America” survives. The 2020 election is still officially undecided, but as they have for decades, …
For years the odd pieces of copper pipe, discarded in some re-piping project, leaned against the boathouse wall. For years I looked at them and tried to visualize what they could be. I knew they had something else in them, but what it was escaped me. For some reason I …
A movement in the backyard caught my eye, a bird with feathers that looked blue and lavender. I froze, wanting to scramble across the room for my camera with the zoom lens, but not wanting to miss it. It’s rare that we in the Puget Sound area see blue birds. …
In the cotton ball cocoon of morning fog I go out onto the beach, seeking raw material. The languid tide recedes, exposing the rocky shore, and even in the soft light, agates and bits of beach glass glow. Fog muffles the vision, but seems to amplify the sounds. From far …
When your family has lived in a place for a long time, everywhere you look are landmarks of your own memories, and those of your parents and grandparents. Sometimes the very absence of a landmark is in itself a story, but that’s a story for another time. When we have …
Seattle has changed a lot since I was small. It’s a big city now, more colorful and hip than in the ’60s. The 1962 World’s Fair was the big debut ball for the “Jet City,” and the Space Needle its most visible, most audacious landmark. Painted Galaxy Gold, the Space …
