Winter is Upon Us!

Seen on the Avenue of the Stars on the Beach Drive beach south of Alki Point

The shortest day of the year is right around the corner. The Winter Solstice occurs this Friday, December 21st. Then we will begin the new cycle of lengthening days. On the one hand, there is relief that the worst of the dark days will be behind us. On the other is the knowledge that we still have a season of cold weather ahead.

Today is rainy and stormy - and that is all right. I love all that water in the air. The Wall Street Journal published an article about SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) yesterday. It said that walking by, in or around water is the latest therapy for the Winter Blues. Technically, the scientists call it "negative air ionization" therapy. Well, I could have told them that. I have been using that therapy all year and haven't been depressed one bit.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Carpe Diem

Well, the fact that there is now a new park bench installed right in front of my favorite sitting rock means I have lost a lot of my privacy. When there were only rocks to sit on, I didn't have much company. Now, however, I have often been forced to move on and find my solitude elsewhere.

In spite of that, I really like the plaque embedded in front of the bench. I'm not sure I understood the significance of "Carpe Diem" ("seize the day") until I saw the Dead Poets Society last night. Yes, I am behind in my movies.

Here is the quote by Henry David Thoreau read before each meeting of the Dead Poets Society: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived … I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms..." (Walden, 1854). Thank you to Wikipedia for the quote.

You now know the location of my rock. But there are so many similar rocks there, you will never know exactly which one I sit on.

Rainy Days

My little Alki neighborhood had over 5 inches of rain on Monday. I confess, I didn't go out for a walk. We got rain again today. Which is ok with me. I rather have this than a drought.


You know I love the winter Tangles that are exposed when the leaves fall off the tree branches. The rainy landscape was so dark this morning that I couldn't take this photo without the autmoatic flash on my camera activating.