Five years of Pacific Northwest Seasons: A Sense of Place

Five years ago today my first blog post appeared here at Pacific Northwest Seasons. That's 222 blog posts (including today) and a lot of everyday adventures here in the Northwest. Can it really be that long ago?

My primary goal is to inspire you all to get out and enjoy this quirky, beautiful, and unique corner of the world, with an eye to protecting its environmental treasures.

But really it's also about cultivating a sense of place, embracing where we inhabit and live. 

I've been inspired by a lovely, lyrical, and quiet book I read years ago called The Island Within by Richard Nelson, about what it means to really claim the place one lives--and to allow onself to be claimed by it. To quote Nelson:


My hope is to acclaim the rewards of exploring the place in which a person lives rather than searching afar, of becoming fully involved in the near-at-hand, of nurturing a deeper and more committed relationship with home, and of protecting the natural community of all who live there.

Those words struck a deep chord within me as I read it far from home, on a beach in Costa Rica. I do love to travel the globe, but that book made me more thoroughly recognize the worth of spending time closer to home as well.

So now that I've lured you in with a glamour shot of Mt. Rainier, I'm sharing a series of photos of a stretch of trail in the woods at Carkeek Park near my home in north Seattle, where I walk regularly. Some are taken on my smartphone, so the image quality varies.

 February

Maybe it's because I was raised in the woods next to a lowland forest, where I roamed for hours as a kid, but I need to get out in the woods regularly.  My walks in Carkeek are as much for spiritual and physiological nourishment as physical exercise.  

 March

 So a year or two ago I started snapping photos near the same spot on the trail, to bear witness to the place as it changed throughout the year.

 April

In the April shot above, notice the delicate bleeding heart flowers in bloom on the bottom right just off the trail.

May

May

By May the salmonberries have really leafed out. What a difference a month makes. The fresh spring green and lushness is at its peak of the year from now into June.

July

By September things are starting to look a bit tired, and a few leaves are starting to turn yellow and drop.

September

October into November bring down the big-leaf maple leaves, which carpet the trail in hues of gold and brown. This is my favorite time of year.

November

All I'm missing is a December or January shot with a blanket of snow. But as most of you know, we just don't get regular snow here in the lowlands of western Oregon and Washington.

When I loop out of the forest above Puget Sound on my walks, I have a ritual of always going down to the shoreline and touching the saltwater as it laps the beach in usually gentle waves.

Sometimes I'm lucky and spy a seal swimming offshore, bald eagles or osprey hunting for fish, or great blue herons combing the beach for food.

I could post a zillion shots I've taken on my Carkeek walks, but the point is this:  I come down here to feel a sense of place, a more natural sense of the seasons in the forest and at the adjacent beach near my home, beyond my built-out neighborhood with side-by-side houses.

I hope you, too, embrace and feel connected to the natural world wherever you live, whether it be the Pacific Northwest or not. Do you have a favorite place near your home that draws you back throughout the year?

 Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you enjoy it and maybe even are inspired by it. And I always appreciate when you leave a comment below.

Happy trails from the Pacific Northwest.

Puget Sound sunset, Carkeek Park beach