Shells

I have always liked lonely people. To make friends with them yes, but not only this. I liked to be the the first to go into their room, after the awkwardly monumental conversation that took us from chatting at school to fledgling friends. I liked seeing the tiny world created by someone with so much time on their hands, not directed by a herd of others, not consumed with who liked whom. Model Walmarts made of Legos, bottles of homemade ink from walnut hulls. Volumes written on Viking lore. The creations of an undiluted mind. The unexpected colors of the mind itself! There is a paradox to sociability, people get louder sometimes even as they become less themselves. This is not always true. There are fascinating loud and sociable people and quiet ones who only watch tv day in and day out.

More often than not, though, the magic lay in the silence, the awkwardness. It was in the angles that would not be smoothed, in the person they would be erupting from the youthful shell.  I was eternally new in town and full of angles of my own. They were less obvious but completely immovable and it was a relief to have friends who would not be provoked when they stumbled on them like tree roots. We could do much for each other with the empathy bought by experience, and the knowledge the world does not end with making a fool of oneself.

Westport

This month I have the privilege of working out of Westport, Washington. Westport is a beautiful town, and a working seaport. Unlike a lot of the smaller coastal towns that rely on tourism, fishing and crabbing still go on daily and more of the residents fish than don't. That makes it a wonderful place to explore, and certainly to photograph.

As you wander the long boardwalk at the waters edge, you can hear the fishermen call out to each other as they work on the ships. Seagulls patrol in sweeping arcs alone and en mass, and follow boats entering laden with fish. The air is fresh and salty, faintly fishy but not unpleasantly so. Sometimes it mixes with the scent of waffle cones and coffee from the shops opposite.

On a sunny day the sky and sea are both brilliantly blue, so close in color that the creaking, moaning ships seem to drift in a formless world of their own. Everywhere there is movement. The boats rise and fall, dip and sway in the undulating water. Ropes arch gracefully from sailor to sailor, and everywhere people are working and laughing as boats move in and out. Great plumes of white water burst from behind the ships as they go.

You can buy crabs and mussels, octopus and salmon and many more from off the dock as fresh as can be had.

I'm looking forward to checking out the beaches in the coming weeks, especially on a good stormy day! The ocean is so much more beautiful when it is wild and powerful.

They also have glass boxes in the middle of town by a museum with whale skeletons in them! A few other sea creatures too. Definitely worth checking out, For anyone going to the Washington coast, Westport is a place I can wholeheartedly recommend. Especially if you prefer seeing someplace quite unique from home in lifestyle to resort like places.