Friday, August 30, 2013

A Much Appreciated Rock



Recently I sent off a photo of this rock to an artist who had painted it after a visit here several years ago. 
She captured the rock  in one of its manifestations beautifully.  I mentioned to her that the rock and all the vegetation around it  has changed significantly since she had seen it and she asked me to send her another picture.  I took this one last week for her and then today I wandered around in my some- day-they'll- be- organized photographs and found a few more photos of this narrow rock  island in the southern cove. 

Looking south  in 2013


Rocks, substantial as they are,  change.  Over the last seven years I have watched the wearing down of this crop which sits centered in a tight cove with ocean lapping on both sides.  Tenacious cypress seedlings had worked their roots into fissures in the rock, growing, but miniature versions of the parent tree well rooted in soil on the cliffs above the cove.  Elemental forces, the winds, the rains, the crashing salty waves, the tremors of the earth and the roots of stunted trees  erode and weaken rock...and whatever strata is loosened or dislodged eventually slides and tumbles into the sea.


The first picture I ever took of the rock in 2006  looking south west.


In July of 2008 there was a ledge and we sat on it!


It seemed quite stable at the time.




I took this photo in a brief lull in a  storm 2008



The perch and several of the trees are gone. 2012


2013




 One of its faces of beauty was well captured by artist Sunee Jines. 
Carmel Highlands' Mists (c) Sunee Jines
                                 Prints & cards available                                                    
   Monterey Peninsula Art Foundation
            425 Cannery Row, Monterey Ca. 93940
 phone 831-655-1267



 I have been captured seven years on these cliffs of beauty ever changing. Now a season of change is upon us, and we will soon part company with the rocks of these coves.  I have a trove of photos and memories, some already shared in posts in this blog, but I look forward to more exploring while I gladly carry an inner cache of much appreciated rocks and waters.  


Ever changing Beauty 2013


                                                                 


8 comments:

Martha said...

Although your photos are lovely....that painting is just gorgeous!!! ♥ I need to paint more often.

John said...

Very nice

Jeannette said...

Yes, isn't it interesting how much the painting evokes...perhaps it is the appreciative eye, the human touch responding to the Creator's beauty in Creation.

Leslie said...

I would have never thought to observe a rock like this over the years much less have it painted. You are brilliant! :) Maybe if we had rocks like that around here....
I wonder what landforms around here that would change. I'll have to give this some thought. In the meantime I am so glad you thought of this because that painting is gorgeous.

Neal said...

No matter where you wander, the memories you have of this beautiful piece of our planet will always be with you. Thanks so much for sharing... Cheers, Neal

GLENDA CHILDERS said...

You live in such a truly beautiful area. So much of God's creation around.


Fondly,
Glenda

GretchenJoanna said...

Very fitting metaphor! Our musings about that dead tree in the mountains tie in here somehow - but I need a refresher course on that, and it sounds like something for a later chapter anyway. :-)

DavidDavid said...



Well, I had thought to come by again and look through the marvelous telescope, as just that one morning visit to your cliff perch is a treasure too, and always will be...my best regards to you and your family!

DavidDavid