A suite of thrills occurs on this beach walk that proceeds west from Tahlequah, around Dalco Point and north to Spring Beach Park. Cliffs host locally rare flora, the salt-chuck churns as tidal currents snag on underwater Dalco Wall, and the sharp turn north opens views up Colvos Passage.
Every rescue tale has a hero, and the large, dark swallows called purple martins have a cadre of volunteer heroes who have revived the bird species in the Northwest. Vashon’s local purple martin hero is Islander Rich Siegrist, who for 17 years has volunteered as “landlord” of the martins’ nesting boxes and gourds that hang on the dock pilings that circle Vashon and Maury.
On Good Friday, Christ hung on the cross from noon until his death at 3 p.m. Growing up, I spent those three hours, called the Tre Ore, in church with incense, gold, candles and Gregorian chant filling my senses and soul. Middle age, I spent those hours shopping for Easter dinner at Costco, buying ham, asparagus and fruit salad. Mid-Costco a dozen years ago, I suddenly missed the intense ritual of those holy three hours. I was shopping; Christ hung on the cross.
As winter dissolves into this year’s precipitous spring, the woods are not yet cloaked in the Northwest’s Green Scourge.
