Out and about

Some random sights in our weekly meanderings around Eugene...

Tracks, Vancouver

Afternoon at Coulon Park

Elements

Spent a couple of days escaping the heat at Ocean Shores.


Mini-midden



Night vision: dune grass from the Shilo Inn



Puddling at the tideline

The Friday poem

Children, if you dare to think
Of the greatness, rareness, muchness
Fewness of this precious only
Endless world in which you say
You live, you think of things like this:
Blocks of slate enclosing dappled
Red and green, enclosing tawny
Yellow nets, enclosing white
And black acres of dominoes,
Where a neat brown paper parcel
Tempts you to untie the string.
In the parcel a small island,
On the island a large tree,
On the tree a husky fruit.
Strip the husk and pare the rind off:
In the kernel you will see
Blocks of slate enclosed by dappled
Red and green, enclosed by tawny
Yellow nets, enclosed by white
And black acres of dominoes,
Where the same brown paper parcel -
Children, leave the string alone!
For who dares undo the parcel
Finds himself at once inside it,
On the island, in the fruit,
Blocks of slate about his head,
Finds himself enclosed by dappled
Green and red, enclosed by yellow
Tawny nets, enclosed by black
And white acres of dominoes,
With the same brown paper parcel
Still untied upon his knee.
And, if he then should dare to think
Of the fewness, muchness, rareness,
Greatness of this endless only
Precious world in which he says
he lives - he then unties the string.

Warning to Children
Robert Graves

Seriously UK

Not so local, but in the same vein...


Looking over a bridge at Bolton Priory, Yorkshire





Literally lost, at the junction of two footpaths near Eye, Norfolk





Low tide at Carrowholly, Ireland

Wasted Space?

There's an attitude prevalent among some in our city that a park is not fulfilling its purpose if it's not stuffed with people (such as soccer players) at all times, and therefore we ought to install artificial turf playing fields to increase usage.

Our neighborhood, Newport Hills, has a single 4-acre park under this threat (under the guise of being an improvement). One of the many, many things the plan fails to take into account, not the least of which is the toxic qualities of the stuff, is that the elderly, the very young, the handicapped, and the large population of citizens who are not sports players not only do not benefit from an artificial turf field but are deprived of their grassy landscape which they can walk or roll around on, smell, and not least of all simply enjoy the restful nature of. Operative word, "nature."

The following are scenes of "fallow" parkland. Should they be ripped up because no one is currently there?