"But it is a mild, mild wind, and a mild looking sky; 

and the air smells now, as if it blew from a far-away meadow; 

they have been making hay somewhere under the slopes 

of the Andes, Starbuck, and the mowers are sleeping among the 

new-mown hay."

from Moby Dick

 By Herman Melville

My brother in law Ralph cuts the hay.

"Far to the north, or indeed in any direction

strange mountains and creatures have always lurked-

elves, goblins,trolls, and spiders:-we

encounter them in dread and wonder,

But once we have tasted far streams, touched the gold

found some limit beyond the waterfall

a season changes, we come back , changed

but safe, quiet, graceful."

     from Allegiances

               by William Stafford

"My soul would sing of metamorphoses.

But since, o gods, you were the source of these

bodies becoming other bodies, breathe

your breath into my book of changes: may

the song I sing be seamless as its way

weaves from the world's beginning to our day."

                     from The Metamorphoses of Ovid

                             translated by Allen Mandelbaum

I have posted photos of the vixen and her three cubs at the farm

previously this summer. Thursday my mother in law mentioned she

had found a fox tail in garden, and we wondered who might have been

responsible Willow the farm dog or possibly a coyote, who do prey on

foxes. Friday morning my wife and I drove past the farm lane and 

encountered four foxes. seemed to have tails so we have no idea

whose was in the garden.

"In a cave somewhere they carved an animal 
jumping: that leap stayed."

             from They Carved An Animal
           by William Stafford

"Deep into distant woodlands winds a mazy way, reaching to 

overlapping spurs of mountains bathed in their hill-side blue. 

But though the picture lies thus tranced, and though this pine-tree 

shakes down its sighs like leaves upon this shepherd's head, yet 

all were vain, unless the shepherd's eye were fixed upon the magic 

stream before him. Go visit the Prairies in June, when for scores 

on scores of miles you wade knee-deep among Tiger- lilies - 

what is the one charm wanting? - Water - there is not a drop 

of water there! "

                              both quotes from Moby-Dick

                                            By Herman Melville

This was the first Tiger-lily of our summer and I did take the

photo in June. It is berry season now the dry weather making for

bumper crops so far.

"He lives on the sea, as prairie cocks in the prairie; 

he hides among the waves, he climbs them as chamois 

hunters climb the Alps. For years he knows not the land; 

so that when he comes to it at last, it smells like another 

world, more strangely than the moon would to an Earthsman. 

With the landless gull, that at sunset folds her wings and is 

rocked to sleep between billows; so at nightfall, the Nantucketer, 

out of sight of land, furls his sails, and lays him to his rest, while 

under his very pillow rush herds of walruses and whales."

"As we were walking on our lonely road

there came, like lightning ripping through the air,

a voice, shot out at us from up ahead:

" I shall be slain by all who find me !" - Then

it rolled past us like thunder dying down

after a sudden bursting of a cloud."

Purgatory, Dante Canto XIV lines 130 - 135

translator Mike Musa

words attributed to Cain

I took this photo of the coyote in our hayfield a few weeks ago. Coyotes

numbers seem to be increasing and there are more and more of them in 

western cities despite the fact they are treated as a pest species and shot

on sight. I can rarely hear them without my hearing aids but they call 

briefly each night and I can often observe when they start by Whateley's 

reaction since he seems to react the most of the three dogs, just a attentive

posture most nights.

Hurray a thunderstorm just started, hopefully it will rain a 

couple of days.  Nothing like a downpour on a tin roof.

"I come home with a chicken or

a rabbit and sit up

singing all night with my friends.

It´s baroque, my life, and

I tell it on the mountain.

I wouldn´t trade it for yours."

from Coyote

                     by William Stafford

" In our joining it knows itself. It is with us then, 

not as the gods whose names crest in unearthly fire, 

but as a little bird hidden in the leaves 

who sings quietly and waits, and sings. "

                        from The Hidden Singer

                        by Wendell Berry

"And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here. "

from What We Need is Here

by Wendell Berry

"Fly me to the moon

Let me play among the stars

Let me see what spring is like

On Jupiter and Mars"

With over 100 fires still burning and over 13,000 people evacuated

the situation in northern Saskatchewan is still dire. But here in Central

Saskatchewan we woke to a strong wind and the first clear blue sky 

we have had in many days. And a familiar face was not blood red.

Moon river, wider than a mile

I'm crossin' you in style some day

Old dream maker, you heartbreaker

Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way

Two drifters, off to see the world

There's such a lot of world to see

We're after the same rainbow's end, waitin' 'round the bend

My huckleberry friend, Moon River, and me

"At the hour when the swallow, close to dawn

begins to sing her melancholy lays

perhaps remembering her ancient woes,"

and when our mind, far straying from the flesh,

less tangled in the network of its thoughts,

becomes somehow prophetic in its dreams,

dreaming I seem to see hovering above,
a golden-feathered eagle in the sky,
with wings outspread, ready to swoop down:"

from Canto IX, Dante's Purgatory

translated by Mark Musa

One of the fun parts of reading Dante's Comedy is that you can

speculate, based on what ever criteria you like, which of the

countless translations are the best. So I am offering the same 

passage from two, one in poetry one in prose. The Barn Swallow was 

photographed from the living room window there are nest on either 

side of it. The branch is about 8 feet away. The window opens out and

when the window is open the swallow often perches on the top edge of

the window it's back to the room. This entertains the cat and we are just

happy we have a screen.

"At the hour, near dawn, when the swallow  begins her sad songs, 

in memory, perhaps, of her former pain, and when the mind is 

almost prophetic, more of a wanderer from the body, and less 

imprisoned by thought, I imagined I saw an eagle, in a dream, 

poised in the sky, on outspread wings, with golden plumage, 

and intent to swoop." 

from Canto IX, Dante's Purgatory

translated by Charle S. Singleton

"in nature there are few sharp lines: there are areas of   

primrose

       more or less dispersed;

disorderly orders of bayberry; between the rows

of dunes,

irregular swamps of reeds,

though not reeds alone, but grass, bayberry, yarrow, all ...

predominantly reeds:

I have reached no conclusions, have erected no boundaries,   

shutting out and shutting in, separating inside

          from outside: I have

          drawn no lines:

          as

manifold events of sand

change the dune’s shape that will not be the same shape   

tomorrow,

so I am willing to go along, to accept   

the becoming

thought, to stake off no beginnings or ends, establish   

         no walls:"

from Corsons Inlet

by A.R. Ammons 

A few days ago we were birding with a friend in the 

evening when we took the back lane into to the farm

to look for some wrens. We did not find them but we

did find a family of Mountain Bluebirds the first I have

seen there in 30 plus years of visits. It has been an odd 

summer in some ways. For over a week the sun has been

red and the sky overcast due to the fires in northern 

Saskatchewan and northern Canada in general. It is dry

here was well which has changed our landscape, shallower

water in the slough which had been abnormally high for

several years means not fish since the water freezes to the 

bottom and there is less influx of water from the larger 

sloughs and lakes. That means we have no Kingfishers and

Herons here and fewer on the larger sloughs. We also do not 

see Terns as in previous years. We also don't seem to have as 

many Vesper Sparrows in the field which seems strange 

since they are a dry land bird. We have lots of Purple 

Finches and Goldfinches but that maybe the result of the

fact that we have been feeding them since June. By staying

longer we do see a different cycle, When we came we could 

see 10 species of birds right next to the porch in a couple of

hours. Then the numbers declined as they started looking 

after their eggs. Now they are beginning to return with 

their young which is  fun to see.

And I think some Bluebird boxes are in my future.

"Out of the dry days

through the dusty leaves

far across the valley

those few notes never

heard here before

one fluted phrase

floating over its

wandering secret

all at once wells up

somewhere else"

from Unknown Bird

by W.S. Merlin

" when I have seen you I have waked and slipped from the calendars

from the creeds of difference and the contradictions

       that were my life and all the crumbling fabrications

as long as it lasted until something that we were

       had ended when you are no longer anything

let me catch sight of you again going over the wall

       and before the garden is extinct and the woods are figures

guttering on a screen let my words find their own

       places in the silence after the animals "

from Vixen

W.S. Merwin

Earlier I posted photos of the fox kits, this is mom. She has been 

playing a game with Willow for years where she shows herself

so Willow can chase her. We have heard of these odd relationships

between farm dogs and foxes from other farm families. Willow is

a very large Border Collie mix and the fox is tiny so it is an odd

interaction. This week When we drove into the yard Willow was chasing 

the fox then Willow turned around and ran while the fox chased her. 

The other day my mother in law mentioned that the kits were playing 

with Willow's toys while she watched quietly from the window given 

that Willow is very protective of the yard this seems very unusual.

Red Necked Grebe and young on home slough, canoe trip 

the morning of June 30th, 2015.

"From those holiest waters I returned
to her reborn, a tree renewed, in bloom
with newborn foliage, immaculate,

eager to rise, now ready for the stars."

from Purgatory, Dante, Translated by Mark Musa
Canto XXXIII, lines 142-145