Trip to Shellbrook for drinking water pump ( & breakfast) deer, hawk, blackbird amid blue sky day. Hawk and Blackbird.

"Snow melts into the earth and a gentle breeze 
Loosens the damp gum wrappers, the stale leaves 
Left over from autumn, and the dead brown grass. 
The sky shakes itself out. And the invisible birds 
Winter put away somewhere return, the air relaxes,"

Taking the gravel shortcut back to the cabin we stopped to look at ducks. Instead, my attention was attracted by the drama above the slough. Most of the hawks we see on our trips are Red-Tailed Hawks, and this spring they are often being harassed by smaller birds, in this, case a maile Red-Winged Blackbird. I am always impressed that birds can shed so many feathers, as this hawk has and remain airworthy. 

"Moments go when summer comes and turns this all into a garden? 
Spring here is too subdued: the air is clear with anticipation, 
But its real strength lies in the quiet tension of isolation 
And living patiently, without atonement or regret, 
In the eternity of the plain moments, the nest of care 
—Until suddenly, all alone, the mind is lifted upward into 
Light and air and the nothingness of the sky, 
Held there in that vacant, circumstantial blue until, 
In the vehemence of a landscape where all the colors disappear, 
The quiet absolution of the spirit quickens into fact, 
And then, into death."

both quotes from The Late Wisconsin Spring
by John Koethe

"We could go there and live, have a place, 
a shoulder of earth, watch days 
find their way onward in their serious march 
where nothing happens but each one is gone. "

from East of Broken Top

by William Stafford

Congratulations Lynda!!!

We took the canoe down to the small slough

directly in front of the cabin. On the way we

saw a Western Red Lily the provincial flower,

Lillum philadelphicum var. andinum.

Our disappearing pension, via Rose Breasted Grosbeaks.

We were looking to see if the higher water level would allow us

to drag the canoe directly to the larger slough. It will for now.

We saw the Red Necked Grebe that has nested in front

of the cabin with a chick on her back.

There still seem to be three eggs in the nest but she does

not seem to be brooding them

Every activity by the cabin is scrutinized by the Phoebes,

in the slough the Red Winged Blackbirds take over.

And they are not quiet about it.

 My pretty?

The way to the promised land, the other slough

This Bufflehead family were unimpressed with us . I am 

not sure if all these chicks are hers, ducks are like that.

The slough curves around (hence the name Banana Slough )

and the other side is pretty much cut off from any road or path.

Which is fine with this doe,

 and her fawn, 

who has a lovely spotted coat.

 While circling one of three beaver lodges within 

few hundred meters of the cabin to see a shorebird

we found it was also used by a Garter Snake.

My brother in law has seen them dive for leeches

while he was working in the water, they are obviously 

more comfortable in an aquatic environment than

we realize.

The cabin on it's shoulder of earth.

The whole grebe family take to the water.

We were always screened from the other slough until this 

year when the tree sharks ate them. This afternoon Helen

pointed out White Pelicans on the larger slough. If you squinted

you could see them from the couch. Cool!

Not a great photo but I took it from the front porch, cool again.

"Somebody spoke and I went into a dream."

from A Day in the Life

by The Beatles

Spring Red Wing dreaming of territory and conquests.

"Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes 

He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men 

Look'd at each other with a wild surmise— 

Silent, upon a peak in Darien. "

from On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

by John Keats

“I dreamed that I floated at will in the great Ether,

 and I saw this world floating also not far 

off, but diminished to the size of an apple. 

Then an angel took it in his hand and brought it to 

me and said, ‘This must thou eat’. And I ate the world.” 

                                      by Ralph Waldo Emerson 

This post contains photos taken during one canoe trip on the Banana 

slough a crescent shaped body of water in front of our cabin. Sloughs 

or glacial potholes are feed by snow melt and groundwater infill rather

 than actual streams. This means the level fluctuates during period of 

high rainfall or drought. At present it is as high as anyone in the family

 can remember. This has meant lots of waterfowl, this trip, more a one 

hour meander was in early June so we encountered a glaring goose mother,

 and a pair of blackbirds determined top distract us from their nest.

Why does this written doe bound through these written woods?

For a drink of written water from a spring

whose surface will xerox her soft muzzle?

Why does she lift her head; does she hear something?

Perched on four slim legs borrowed from the truth,

she pricks up her ears beneath my fingertips.

Silence - this word also rustles across the page

and parts the boughs

that have sprouted from the word "woods."

                          from The Joy Of Writing

                                       by Wislawa Szymborska