At the edge of Fraser Bay, along the road, the township has in the past dumped many boulders, excavated from other road projects, as an act of prudence, to protect the road from extremes of wind, wave, or high water. (Also a good place to get r… — At the edge of Fraser Bay, along the road, the township has in the past dumped many boulders, excavated from other road projects, as an act of prudence, to protect the road from extremes of wind, wave, or high water. (Also a good place to get rid of the stuff.) These boulders were really just compressed clay, only partially through the process of becoming real boulders when they were excavated. And now they are disintegrating. Today, as I walked by, I tapped one with a stick. The surface crumbled and then a swarm of ants rushed out. Beautiful ants, with red foreparts and black abdomens. Rock of Gibraltar or House On The Rock?

Once again, a perfect day.

The usual morning of painting and trimming. But the afternoon being so beautiful, outside was the only choice, and we chose beach work, which involved wading, splashing, rowing, and moving a few rocks, so it wasn’t really that much work at all.

Lots of bird action today. A pair of great crested fly catchers overcame their shyness and came down to the garden fence. These are beautiful birds—yellow breast, brown back, rusty tail, gray throat—along with a mohawk just like Pax. A while after they departed, a pair of eagles flew over, mobbed by a few small birds. I heard the “whugh, whugh, whugh” of big wings before I saw the birds overhead. (At least I think they were eagles.)

As we often do, Pax and I stopped at Fraser Beach on our way home from the dump. Since we visit regularly, we get to to know it quite well, and we are impressed that it is never the same. Today the east end was all pebbles instead of sand, and the west end, which is usually the special round-rock place, was all sand. Heavy rain is eroding the berms pushed up by ice, and the surf, depending on size, direction and other factors, is always sifting and straining, creating a new shore-scape every day.
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In all the years I have spent standing or sitting on the banks of this river, I have learned this: the more knowledge I have, the greater becomes the mystery of what holds that knowledge together, this reticulated miracle called an ecosystem.

—Barry Lopez