“Anyone with quiet pace who
walks a gray road in the West
may hear a badger underground where
in deep flint another time is”
from Walking West
by William Stafford
I should never have stopped updating my blogs. They serve as a valuable resource to supplement my faltering memory. They improve my grammar, spelling and vocabulary. They are a wonderful way to share my photos, And they send me back to my many poetry books to find snippets to adorn my posts.
We came to the cabin June 7th this year, our trip delayed by some medical tests, an all to familiar consequence of aging. We had just finished packing the car when Helen got the alert telling us of the major water main break in Calgary, a situation that is still not resolved. So we are missing that. However we have to go back to Calgary in early July for a week or more and they may still be working on it. It is interesting how fragile our cities and our societies can be.
The first day here we had an adult and immature White Pelican exploring the slough directly in front of the cabin, they could easily be photographed from the cabin. They worked their way around the edge scooping through the weeds with their nets, filtering up, I assume luckless salamanders and frogs.The slough seems too shallow for fish. We have never seen any in this slough before. Unfortunately their search and our enjoyment of it came to an abrupt end when they entered the territory of a Red-winged Blackbird who drove them both off.
As for the summer this far it has been exceptionally cool and very wet. The rain is welcome as many parts of the prairies have had years of drought conditions. However it has brought a huge number of ticks a pest that has only moved into the area in the last few years. I have required antibiotics several times after tick bits so this has reduced my wandering around the property despite bug spray and special insect repelling clothing. So we cutting back grass, checking bedding, clothing, the dogs, who are on medication for ticks, and each other on a regular basis. Today we plan on dragging one of the canoes down to the near slough thru the call grass so that will be interesting.
My late father-in-law John who always quoted this snippet by Ogden Nash would have loved to see them. Whenever one of the family sees Pelicans he springs to mind. A wonderful gift.
"A wonderful bird is the pelican.
His bill can hold more than his belican."
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