Le Phare d'Eckmühl

 

When you're so close to the ocean like we were in Brittany, it is unavoidable to come upon a lighthouse. We visited the Phare d'Eckmühl, an active lighthouse in Penmarc'h in the Département Finistère. It is 213 feet (65 m) tall and thus one of the tallest lighthouses in the world. Constructed in 1897, the light was automated in 2007. Like so many lighthouses it has a Fresnel lens.

The lighthouse is open to the public and in order to reach the viewing platform you have to climb 307 steps - 227 stone steps followed by an iron staircase.

Entering the lighthouse, we were greeted by this view to the top:

It wasn't exactly encouraging and I wondered whether my knee would actually make it all the way. While Kaefer and the Geek sprinted to the top, I took my time, stopping every now and then at one of the many windows. Eventually I reached the top as well. While it was sunny, it was also pretty windy and quite chilly.

The view over the Atlantic was quite nice.

I watched the fisher boats for a while and the gulls that were following them in the hope of catching a fish.

The long shadow of the lighthouse onto the neighborhood was interesting - I always like shadows.

Finally, we went down again - my knees weren't too impressed with that! First view down:

It is a bit dizzying, to be honest. The look back up after the climb is much better, knowing that we had made it.

Spiral staircases are so fascinating.

We walked around the neighborhood a bit - I really liked how the lighthouse appeared with the sun behind it. Doesn't the cloud look like the lighthouse is fuming?

The beach was rocky and quite rough here, but the gulls sure loved it.

That afternoon we drove to Guilvinec where we stayed in an appartment right on the beach. We took a walk, looking for shells and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

Now I need a face for Nicole's Friday Face Off - I give you two. The Geek and I participated in this year's Pride Parade in our town. We do this every year, but this year we thought it was particularly important for us to show support for the LGBTQ+ community. It was a very happy and joyful event. 

Calm Sunset

 

For the past two weeks I have been in quite a funk. While I try to stay away from politics on my blog for the most part, there are times when I just can't keep silent. Wouldn't that make me complicit?

Most native speakers of the English language are far more eloquent in voicing their opinion and concern, so I will not even attempt to do that. However, just saying nothing isn't in my nature either (ask my daughter and husband who have witnessed many of my ventings). Therefore, just a few things.

Dressing down and bullying the president of a country in war is beyond indecent and horrible. I believe this disaster was a complete set-up and Zelinskyy got trapped by two men who are supposed to be the "leaders" of the "free" world. Didn't Trump say "this makes great television"? Reality TV meets politics. What a disaster. And - this wasn't America first, this was Russia first. I'm sure Putin laughed up his sleeve.

Please explain to me how tariffs will help the American people, especially those who are already struggling with high rents and grocery prices. And while we're at it, how can it be beneficial for the US to alienate their allies? This is not the art of the deal, this is the art of turning friends into foes. When Canadians, who are usually friendly and nice people (most of them), boo the American anthem when it is played before a hockey game, one should pay careful attention. How can you betray your closest friend - without any reason? I'm surprised the Canada Goose has not been renamed to American Goose - yet. 

I can only join in the call, elbows up!

Of course Europe is next and I take this very personal. I'm glad to see that Europe takes action, that the United Kingdom is closer to Europe now than during that entire Brexit chaos and that Canada is in the "mix" as well. And I feel myself closer to Europe, too, despite the danger that is evolving for the European countries now. Or maybe because of it? Again, Putin must have a heyday - finally it seems the West is breaking apart, something he has been waiting for for a long time.

Would you have ever believed that the cause for that would be coming from the USA, the "shining beacon on the hill"? That beacon has dimmed a lot.

There's much much more I could say - there are new horror news every day. It's exhausting and probably also serves as a distraction for something even worse.

But - I don't want to stay in that funk anymore. I want to do something. Our senators and my representative in congress are both democrats, so it wouldn't change much if I called them. I joined the local town hall meeting of our representative Mike Thompson which was lively with people asking questions what we as individuals can do. His answers, unfortunately, were not very satisfying since he only told us to speak to our friends and family in red states. Well, my family lives in Germany, Turkey, Portugal and Canada, and I don't have friends in red states. Instead, I have started to support our immigrant community. After all, I'm an immigrant myself, even though I have US citizenship (and I'm still a German citizen).

I'm also aware that I need to take care of my mental health. Maybe you feel like that as well - and I hope this sunset at the Northern coast of Brittany will give you some calm. My garden still needs a lot of work, so I'm out there a lot, as well as out in nature as often as I can. Art journaling has become another outlet that helps me to escape for some time, and of course I do read a lot. I've just finished "Remarkably Bright Creatures" by Shelby van Pelt, what a gem of a book. At the moment I'm reading "North Woods" by Daniel Mason - have you read it?

Have a good weekend, everyone - stay healthy, take a deep breath and a walk in the woods, and cook some fine dinner.

Pacific Sunset

 

When we were on our way back from our trip up the coast, we were just in time for the sunset when we had passed Jenner. We stopped at our favorite beach, Goat Rock, when the sun was just about to touch the horizon. There was no marine layer, aka coastal fog, and we were able to witness this spectacle that never ever gets old.

Kaefer walked closer to the water because she loves to take close-up photos of the surf, but she always  kept an eye on the ocean. She grew up here and knows how dangerous the Pacific Ocean can be.

Being Kaefer, she had to stick her feet in the water, no matter how cold it was (and it was very cold - at our coast, the Pacific is never warm. This is not an ocean to swim in - for that you need to go to Southern California.) Standing behind her, I was able to take one of my favorite photos during her visit.

Far too soon the sun dipped below the horizon.

The clouds over Goat Rock turned pink and the still glowing horizon was reflected in Kaefer's sunglasses.

Where's the drink, you might ask, since I need to share one for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday. Well, I already showed you the beer and cider we had in Gulala, so today I need to pick one from the archives. This one is a Turmweiße by Kuchlbauer. Do you see the interesting building on the can? This is the Kuchlbauer Tower, an observation tower designed by Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser on the grounds of the Kuchlbauer brewery in Abensberg, Lower Bavaria. Hundertwasser died in 2000 during the tower's planning phase. The tower was completed under the direction of the brewery's owner, Leonhard Salleck, with architect Peter Pelikan overseeing construction. It is 34.19 meters tall and is home to 4,200 Weißbier glasses (remember my post about German beer glasses?). It also has an exhibition of the brewing process and explains the Bavarian Purity Law. This can, by the way, is from a German beer advent calendar that we found at Costco last year.

Black Friday by the Sea

"I feel most at home out along the Ocean's edge, where land meets sea. It is here along these rocky, life filled pools, giant kelp forests, and flat rock fishing holes that life reaches into me with a soothing calm." - Jesse Lee Longacre

Many years ago, back in the early 2000s, the Geek enjoyed a good Black Friday shopping. He would get up before the crack of dawn and stand in line to get some pretty good deals (at that times you would actually still get good deals). After a few hours he would return home to have a long and lazy breakfast with Kaefer and me - and entertain us with the funniest stories about the things he had experienced while standing in line. But after a few years the appeal had vanished and Black Friday shopping stopped in the Bartz household. Instead, we stayed at home and spent a wonderfully lazy day, playing games, putting up the Christmas lights on the house and eating too many cookies. A couple years later, REI introduced the #optoutside Black Friday with their own stores closed so that their employees could enjoy the great outdoors. We enthusiastically embraced it and since then, we have spent Black Friday far away from any shopping and any laziness.

This year was no exception. The weather was gorgeous and we decided to go to the ocean and spend the day in Salt Point State Park. This state park has been on our list for quite a while and I honestly don't know why we didn't go there sooner. It is a gem.

Salt Point has a very rough and wild shoreline. It is named for the cliffs and crevices where salt from ocean water crystallizes in sandstone depressions. The Native Kashia Pomo gathered salt here for centuries. One of the most unusual and beautiful features of the sandstone along these sea cliffs is the honeycomb-like network called tafoni.

The waves and salt spray leave salt crystals which interact with the sandstone, causing some portions to be hardened, while others are loosened. This creates the lacy, box-like pattern. There were many to find here.

How can you not love this texture on the sandstone? It is simply amazing.

We were constantly putting up our cameras, taking pictures. If it wasn't the tafoni, it was the "lovely rough" sea that captured us with its tall waves - some of them were a good ten feet tall and arrived in the typical "sleeper wave" pattern (a series of very powerful waves followed by a smooth sea followed by very powerful waves etc.). The constant noise from the crashing onto the shore sometimes was so loud that we had to shout to each other.

Beside the tafoni, I was fascinated by the entire geology of this place. Rock surfaces were different, some smooth, some rough. Some reminded me of the slick rock in places like Canyonlands or Arches National Parks. Water pooling in depressions washed out the sandstone even further. There were different colored layers of rock and I repeatedly wished that I knew more about geology. A geologist would have a hayday at this shoreline.

A sea urchin had become lunch for a passing sea gull.

A tide pool served as a mirror for the clouds in the sky.

Sometime during the day I came upon this sign that inspired the quote at the top of this post.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything about Jesse Lee Longacre except that he was only 41 years old when he died. Maybe he was a tribe member of the Kashia Pomo. His words truly spoke to me.

I was happy to see a few birds - right when we started out I saw a hawk disappearing in the forest beyond the shore and a kite hovering over the cove. I thought I had taken a photo of the kite, but I can't find it anymore. It's a mystery.

But there was this sweet little sparrow that came to rest on this beautiful rock cairn.

A Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) flew by and landed a bit further down the way. What a graceful guy he is.

Before I saw the Black Oystercatchers (Haematopus bachmani) I had heard them and was looking for them. They were darting up and down among the rocks, probably looking for mollusks.

Nature is just the greatest and most accomplished artist. That's why this shoreline is my contribution to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date this week. What did we have for dinner on this wonderful day? Well, we drove a bit further up North to Gualala and had lunner at the Seafood Shack - clam chowder, local rock fish and chips accompanied by a bottle of local beer.

On our way back home we witnessed a beautiful sunset over the ocean. We made it just in time to a parking spot next to Highway 1 - weren't we lucky that there was some pampas grass growing (non-native and invasive, but beautiful) along the road that made a splendid foreground?