I spent an hour or so Tuesday (10-27) morning and into early afternoon at Fishermen's Terminal today. It is a wonderful place to escape into enjoying the shapes and lines and colors of fishing boats big and small, new and old, tied up at the wharf. The new sleek pleasure yachts are not so interesting as objects to photograph.

Several examples of what I found today.

 

Our house is a very, very, very fine house with two cats in the yard

Life used to be so hard

Now everything is easy 'cause of you

And our la, la, la, la, la, la, la,

I have nothing to add to the content of this photo.  Except having written that I proceeded to comment on the making of the photo.  It is a picture of the backside of a garden shed, taken from the alley running along the back yards of a block of homes.  It is one of those places that I, with Charlie, have passed by frequently on our wanderings into nearby neighborhoods.  More than once I stopped to look more seriously, to consider it as a subject for making a photograph.  This day I did pay it more attention with the result being this photograph.  

At the very least it works as a garden picture.  This photo was captured on October 22, I have fussed over it these several days since; being ambivalent about whether it is interesting or is it not so very interesting.  At the moment I come down on the side of interesting enough to share here.  

 Please allow me to indulge myself with a selection of pictures from a visit to Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle yesterday (10-10-20) afternoon.  

The consensus; of myself and two other photographers I happened to meet who were also also carrying a camera around and aiming to shoot in various directions and at sundry subjects, was that it is an interesting and different place without the usual crowd of people.  No baseball games or football or American football in the stadium, to attract fans into the streets.  I did meet a couple of women carrying a cut out silhouette of a person they identified as brother wearing a Mariners shirt; I think they were headed to some sort of event off in the direction of the stadium.  

Not so many people wandering the sidewalks as would have been if this were the old normal pre pandemic.  And distressing to note the number of storefronts that were boarded over or with for lease signs in the windows.  Some of galleries were open and welcoming to visitors; a few with open doors on the warm sunny afternoon some others with doors closed but openwith invitation to ring bell for admittance.  All had signs at the entrance announcing; no entry without face covering.

In no particular order and without any intention or purpose or message other than that they are pictures that looked interesting as I was wandering around the uncrowded, sunny streets of Pioneer square.  

 

The Halloween Season is Upon Us

There be all manner of spooky and scary creatures abiding in the neighborhood these days. Beware of what you may meet around the next corner or behind the hedge. Some may even go bump in the night.

I don't know what to make of this dragon as he tries to make sense of the sign on fence(the sign reads backyard wildlife sanctuary). 

Is he studying it, trying to figure out how it might apply to him as an occupant of this backyard; or might he be considering a wildlife sanctuary as a likely place to seek after tasty prey for dinner or a snack.

Either way, he could be thinking that he belongs, after all he can adopt a "wild" demeanor as circumstances warrant.

On the other hand his pose and body language make a lie of the dragon stereotype as fire breathing dangerous creature.  No need in this case to seek out a knight in shining armor.

            

 LOUISE GLUCK, (Pronounced Glick My keyboard doesn't have an umlaut to put over the U), has been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

Louise Gluck has been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.  In making the announcement, the committee: “praised her minimalist voice and especially poems that get to the heart of family life”.  I add in my own voice that she often times get just a little too close to the heart, many of the poems are not easy to read; it is not easy to admit the reality that she speaks of.  The word melancholy comes to my mind in so much of her poetry.  I first met Louise Gluck on the bookshelves of Eliott Bay bookstore in the mid 1990’s.  I have come to appreciate her words more, 30 years later and 20 years into a new century

This piece is from her collection of poetry Ararat published in 1990

CHILDREN COMING HOME FROM SCHOOL

1.        

If you live in a city, It’s different: someone has to meet

the child at the bus stop.  There’s a reason.  A child all alone

can disappear, get lost, maybe forever.

 

My sister’s daughter wants to walk home alone; she thinks she’s

                 old enough.

My sister thinks its too soon for such a big change;

the best her daughter gets

is the option to walk without holding hands.

 

That’s what they do; compromise, which anyone

can manage for a few blocks.  My niece gets one hand

totally free; my sister says

if she’s old enough to walk this way, she’s old enough

to hold her own violin.

 

During this time of pandemic when we have trouble making and maintaining our usual contacts, I found these unused surplus connectors at the construction site at the west end of the pedestrian/bicycle bridge that will connect North Seattle College with Northgate across I-5.   Maybe there is one here that could help make the connection.  Take your pick.