Halibut Cove, Part One; August, 2019
As everyone will tell you, Halibut Cove is Special and is As Much A Way of Life As It Is A Place. And you could probably say the same things about any place and be accurate, whether it is Aspen, Ketchum, Kula, Tuscany, or Cedar Rapids or maybe Kansas City. But the Cove really is special, and living there is necessarily a way of life because the Cove is, in microcosm, the American West, analogous to a Texas cattle ranching community served by stagecoach and presided over by a benevolent patriarch and his dynamic family. It could almost be the Ponderosa Ranch, with Ben Cartwright, and Hoss, and all the rest, with new generations and strong women on the rise. Except that it's on the water, served by two coaches and various outriders, and leads an idyllic life alternately scrabbling to hold back the sea and kicking back both to reminisce and to map out the future. And so on. Could be a nice series.
An August visit displayed the usual scenes of tranquility and progress and attendance at a large social gathering of all the usual friendly and enthusiastic faces with a few peripheral visitors.
But, as we'll see, nature wasn't entirely benign, and wildfires on the Kenai Peninsula disrupted road and even some air travel and threatened homes on the highway to Homer. Warm dry conditions and wind created novel threats. A warming ocean was blamed for fishing droughts. Climate change was an unpleasant dinner guest.
First, you have to get there. From Bishop's Beach in Homer: looking across the bay:
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An Old Believer family enjoys a summer day on Bishop's Beach.
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Backlit kelp at water's edge
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Bishop's Beach rocks have soothing character.
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Crossing and looking toward Halibut Cove on a day made hazy by the big Swan Lake fire
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Welcome to Halibut Cove. Floating bliss
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Prayer flags ripple in a light breeze.
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Found art
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Comments
After a lifetime of mainly expressing myself with words, my postings here will mainly rely on images. They will speak for themselves to some extent, but I'll usually add a few comments of explanation. I've taken photographs for decades, since the 1950's, inspired in part by my father's photographic skill. Four years of photo assignments and quality darkroom time eventually gave way to decades of casual and family picture-taking. I re-immersed myself when I left film and turned to digital.