Nursery | Ephrata, WA | February 2020
From a distance, the leafless trees look like pencil scrawls on the very air. Or a cluster of cuts in the fabric of the universe. Sure, I know they’re trees, but it’s only when I stand closer — 20 feet away — do branches come into focus and the illusion of a rift in reality disappears. Other optical twists: At the ocean, storm-blown waves mimic the watery backsides of whales or sea monsters; over a deep canyon, a possible rain cloud darts about the sky then pixelates into a gazillion birds; on a kitchen counter, the cross-section of a strawberry resembles a cosmic starburst. It’s clear that what I see may not be what you see. So tell me, are those winter saplings or portals to another dimension?
[In photo: The first tree in a long windbreak at Willow Drive Nursery. To see cosmic design in a sliced strawberry, click here.]
IrwinFoto 