Alki Beach, West Seattle


Yesterday I spent the day with my son at Alki beach in West Seattle for his school field trip. We had an excellent view of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. Alki is a native word meaning "eventually" or "by and by" in Chinook Jargon that originated as a pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest.


There is so much to see during low tide. Here are just a few examples of what we encountered.


Winged Kelp with flat ruffled edges


This lovely kelp reminds me of fabric ruching......a sewing technique used to gather, ruffle or pleat. Beautiful.


Dall's Acorn barnacles





I always use things I see in nature as a basis for paintings. These barnacles naturally compete for space forcing them to grow quickly in wonderful cluster forms. I particularly love the marks they leave behind when they get scraped away. Check out this wonderful blog that uses barnacles in architectural design.






Here are orange and purple Ochre sea stars. Lots of soft-shelled clams, moon snails, red sea cucumber and shield-backed kelp crabs live on this rocky beach as well.


1 comment:

  1. The architecture was wonderful but I liked the star fish best.

    Joan

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