A Taste or Two

Laws of Life

LAWS OF LIFE

Stone bruises;
Clay forgives.
Yet stone holds,
While clay slips.

Fire cleanses;
Fire burns;
Fire demands;
Fire yearns.

Under fierce fire
Clay becomes stone.

--Matt Duckworth

9/19/15

Kayaking Mendocino: Four Shots

(Sorry about the waterspots.  I need to figure out how to get the water off the lens better.  Maybe keep a small spray bottle of fresh water handy for the amphib camera.  I think that the waterspots are part of the experience and that the photos work, but that may not work for everyone.)

This last photo shows a tricky spot a bit to the south of Van Damme State Beach. If you go through this narrow archway, you find a cathedral-like cavern open to the sky, The trick is that there's a mass of kelp growing in the center of that archway passage that will slow your kayak to a crawl. (I vividly recall past experiences digging, digging, digging with the paddle to get through and out.) This day, the swell was working, and I couldn't tell how much clearance I was going to have at the top of the swell's rising, and I did not want to get spiked; also, the tide was rather low at this time, which may have meant more headroom, but which also meant at the surge's drop the kayak would be in a too narrow space that wouldn't matter with a higher tide or with a mellower surge.

I looked, shot, and paddled on. Another day for entry. See, I am maturing (finally).

Robert Graves' "Apple Island"

APPLE ISLAND

Though cruel seas like mountains fill the bay,
Wrecking quayside huts,
Salting our vineyards with tall showers of spray;

And though the moon shines dangerously clear,
Fixed in another cycle
Than the sun’s progress round the felloe’d year;

And though I may not hope to dwell apart
With you on Apple Island
Unless my beat be docile to the dart —

Why should I fear your element, the sea,
Or the full moon, your mirror,
Or the halved Apple from your holy tree?

— Robert Graves