Sunday, January 13, 2013


"He disappeared in the dead of winter: 
The brooks were frozen, the airports 
almost deserted, And snow disfigured 
the public statues; The mercury sank in 
the mouth of the dying day. What instruments 
we have agree The day of his death was a 
dark cold day.

 Far from his illness The wolves ran on through 
the evergreen forests, The peasant river was 
untempted by the fashionable quays; By 
mourning tongues The death of the poet 
was kept from his poems" 

                   from  In Memory of W. B. Yeats
            W. H. Auden

Today as we took our long suffering dogs for their
walk I noticed bird calls from the spruce in front of
the house. Normally I post pictures of birds in the
spruce taken from our front window so I was happy
I had taken my camera with the chance at something 
different. Upon seeing this was a mixed flock
feeding at the top of the spruce I began snapping 
wildly and Helen graciously left me to it while
she was pulled around the block by two small white 
dogs. On November 24th I posted shots of a flock
of Red Crossbills and Red Breasted Nuthatches. This
flock contained Red Crossbills, White Winged 
Crossbills and Red Polls. It was great to see them
right outside our door, now I can think of them perched
there sheltering from the cold night air while I lay in bed.
( even if they are actually miles away )

The photos are not quite as good as the Nov
photos, our spruce is taller and today was overcast.














Lately I have been somewhat depressed by
the news I read and despite Robert Burton's 
warning about melancholy it is hard not to get 
caught up in it. While many people still seem 
to be in the rather childish stage of blaming
everyone but themselves for the broken vase, 
indeed they are still arguing about whether the vase 
( planet )  is broken, it is obvious that things are
changing. In Canada we have always taken a perverse
pride in our cold weather. Compared to the disasters taking
place around the world getting warmer is good. Except
that new pests will move north. Melting permafrost will 
disrupt communities and change the landscape. Insects that 
normally freeze will over winter, increase and spread. 
Climate changes and many animals will not adapt. A warmer 
north will open the Northwest passage to shipping and the tundra 
to increasing resource exploitation. I see no signs that we will 
distribute this new wealth more equitably  or extract it more 
responsibly than we did in the past. We will simply repeat the 
excesses and mistakes of the past, just as Auden said "For 
poetry makes nothing happen" ( In Memory of W. B. Yeats ) 
we seem to learn nothing from the lessons of history.

Possibly it is a universal that everyone, as they age sees 
the world they knew, believed existed,  (even if only in a 
somewhat romanticized world view), chance into something 
they barely recognize. To be realistic in many cases these 
changes are good. But still there are so many other things 
that are lost along the way.

Perhaps that is why I can still cherish the poems that mark 
the changing seasons by the calls of geese passing overhead 
a sound I can still hear today. And perhaps that is why tonight 
I will pretend that I can hear the drowsy cheep and muted rustling 
of the birds sheltering against the cold in the spruce at my front door.


"Then one day I was walking along Tinker Creek thinking 
of nothing at all and I saw the tree with lights in it. I saw 
the backyard cedar where. the mourning doves roost 
charged and transfigured, each cell buzzing with flame. 
I stood on the grass with the lights in it, grass that was 
wholly fire, utterly focused and utterly dreamed. 
It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen, 
knocked breathless by a powerful glance"

    from Pilgrim at Tinkers Creek
     Annie Dillard

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I heard on Quirks and Quarks, the CBC science radio program, that by 2075 50 percent of the Boreal will have been burned over because of the lack of moisture setting up the conditions for wildfire. Isn't that astounding. We need more action and less talk. Boom & Gary

Guy said...

Hi Gary

We certainly do but here in Alberta we just sold energy leases on land set aside for Woodland Caribou and now foreign and Canadian companies want to build open pits mines, roads, bridges and shipping terminals in the ranges of the Barren Ground Caribou. Most of the actions I see are negative and the new budget will mean an end to meaningful environmental controls.

It is hard to think of a Canada without the Boreal forest, Polar Bears, Caribou and Muskox but I think that is were we are heading.

Hopefully they will build a nice mall.

Guy