Talking Story Archives - Page 49 of 114

Boating season

Posted by Ken Campbell May 7, 2011 0 Comment 1129 views

It is cold up here, or it seems pretty chilly anyway, after a few weeks in southern California. I’ve always thought it’s a funny thing to have an official “Boating Season.”(Not “ha-ha” funny, strange funny.) But here, in the Pacific Northwest, we’ve got one. And it starts today, apparently. So that’s exciting. I’m going to […]

The Crying lady

Posted by Ken Campbell May 6, 2011 0 Comment 4154 views

Just south of La Push is a stack known as Crying Lady Rock. It’s an easy walk-out at low tide and at higher water levels, it can provide kayakers with some sporty waves and rips as the sea comes and goes around it. The name comes from the shape of the rock (which is alleged […]

Feliz

Posted by Ken Campbell May 5, 2011 0 Comment 1205 views

I’m thinking about making a run to the mountain tomorrow, maybe take the boy, just for the day. The beginning of May at Mount Rainier can be any season: spring maybe, winter probably, but it’s just as likely to be sunny and hot. The best way to find out is to go. For now though, […]

Boomerang travel

Posted by Ken Campbell May 2, 2011 0 Comment 1164 views

It’s flat today. No swell and the wind is picking up as the day goes on, straight onshore, pushing down what few waves there are. Still, it’s 83 degrees and postcard beautiful, and I’m not completely sunburned yet, so I went out anyway. Ledbetter again, and really, the lack of good waves is probably the […]

May Day

Posted by Ken Campbell May 1, 2011 0 Comment 1105 views

Here’s a sign you won’t find in the Pacific Northwest. The waves were perfect this morning. Shoulder-high, green and glassy, wrapping around the point at Ledbetter in clean sets going off in succession down the beach. There were about 20 of us in the lineup, but it seemed like everybody had room. I had some […]

Camino Cielo

Posted by Ken Campbell April 30, 2011 0 Comment 1697 views

It’s been blowing all week, and with gusts on the water forecast to hit 50 knots yesterday afternoon, I decided that I’d go for a drive. West Camino Cielo, the Highway in the Sky, is a rugged track that follows the crest of the mountains behind Santa Barbara and points west. I drove out to […]

Thoughts on death and surfing, part 5

Posted by Ken Campbell April 28, 2011 0 Comment 1129 views

The funeral was yesterday. Clear blue sky and 80 degrees, with a breeze coming in from the west as we all assembled at the graveside. Words were said and songs were sung. Tears were shed. People who hadn’t seen each other for many years got to reconnect – happy, shining moments on an otherwise somber […]

Alice Marie Campbell

Posted by Ken Campbell April 23, 2011 8 Comments 2292 views

Alice Marie Campbell passed away this morning after an extended battle with Alzheimer’s. She was my mother. Alice was born on June 7th, 1920, in Milan, MN, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to Danish immigrants Eli and Anna Willadsen. Before her second birthday, the family had relocated to Sheboygan Falls, WI, where Alice grew […]

Lotusland

Posted by Ken Campbell April 22, 2011 0 Comment 1780 views

“We landed in the country of the Lotus-Eaters, who live on a flowering food… My men went on and presently met the Lotus-Eaters, nor did these Lotus-Eaters have any thought of destroying our companions, but they only gave them lotus to taste of. But any of them who ate the honey-sweet fruit of lotus was […]

A Word from Wendell Berry

Posted by Ken Campbell April 21, 2011 0 Comment 1137 views

A Meeting In my dream I meet my dead friend. He has, I know, gone long and far, and yet he is the same for the dead are changeless. They grow no older. It is I who have changed, grown strange to what I was. Yet I, the changed one, ask: “How you been?” He […]