On the way home from town

                                                   

(from) Deer Stolen by William Stafford

Deer have stood around our house

at night so still nobody knew,

and waited with ears baling air.

I hunt the still deer everywhere,

December Deer

"I have come a long way
without arriving
torn songs up

from the roots of weeds
but made no 
silence sing:

climbed the peak but
found no foothold
higher than the ground"

from Return
by A. R. Ammons

White Tailed Deer with fawns.

  



Just before Ralph and Pam arrived for dinner Friday these fawns and their mother were feeding at the edge of the slough in front of the cabin. Mom stayed in the brush but I was able to get some shots of mom.

Blogger is fighting me on spacing today, sorry.

Seeing deer also makes me think of Stafford's poetry, his poem Travelling Through The Dark is widely anthologized. But this poem by Mary Oliver is still a favorite.

"When for too long I don't go deep enough
into the woods to see them, they begin to
enter my dreams. Yes, there they are, in the
pinewoods of my inner life. I want to live a life
full of modesty and praise. Each hoof of each
animal makes the sign of a heart as it touches
then lifts away from the ground. Unless you
believe that heaven is very near, how will you
find it? Their eyes are pools in which one
would be content, on any summer afternoon,
to swim away through the door of the world.
Then, love and its blessing. Then: heaven."

The Faces of Deer
by Mary Oliver

(from) Deer Stolen by William Stafford

Deer have stood around our house

at night so still nobody knew,

and waited with ears baling air.

I hunt the still deer everywhere,

For what they heard and took away,

stepping through the chaparral,

was the sound of Then: now it's Now,

and those small deer far in the wild

Are whispers of our former life.

Trip to Shellbrook for drinking water pump ( & breakfast) deer, hawk, blackbird amid blue sky day. Deer Crossing Hwy.

Faithful Readers will see my title as a clumsy homage to the Billy Collins poem of my previous post.

This young deer took its time in crossing the highways but the vehicles in both lanes had time to stop.  It did look a bit seedy, possibly it is still shedding, it has been cool the last few nights.

"But that beneath my life lies something intricate and real and 
Nearly close enough to touch. I live it, and I know I should explain it, 
Only I know I can't—it's just an image of my life that came to me one day, 
And which remained long after the delight it brought had ended." 

from Early Morning in Milwaukee

by John Koethe

"When for too long I don't go deep enough

into the woods to see them, they begin to

enter my dreams. Yes, there they are, in the

pinewoods of my inner life. I want to live a life

full of modesty and praise. Each hoof of each

animal makes the sign of a heart as it touches

then lifts away from the ground."

from The Faces of Deer

by Mary Oliver

"And as I take my body back 

the sun lays its warm muzzle on my lap 

as if to make amends."

from I Am Learning to Abandon the World

by Linda Pastan

The Drink

"What I believe is

All animals have one soul.

Over the land they love

They crisscross forever.

from Climbing along the River

by William Stafford

The Grid

"When for too long I don’t go deep enough into the woods 

to see them, they being to enter my dreams.

Yes, there they are, in the pinewoods of my inner life."

from The Faces of Deer

by Mary Oliver

"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

“A man is a very small thing, and the night is very large and 

full of wonders.” 

by Lord Dunsany

We had a bat in the cabin so the mouse related cleaning has 

expanded. Trips to the dump, nailing of boards, caulking,

reorganizing, plastic bins….,

 We brought the canoe over from the farm today so 

hopefully we can get out on the slough this week.

This Red Necked Grebe has nested on the far side of the 

slough directly across from the cabin.

We have had several days of rain for a couple of inches so far.

This family of Canadian Geese are also nesting on the slough, 

this is only the second year we have had geese here. 

The other night the beavers alerted us, with much slapping of tails,

to several deer on the far side of the slough. After several years

of only seeing a couple of deer for an entire summer it looks

like the population has rebounded.

We have also not see the bear or any of it's scat so far.

We have only see one garter snake in two weeks, normally we

would see multiple snakes each time we walked the dogs. It is

interesting to observe how the animal populations seem to 

fluctuate from year to year.

“Then I perceived, what I had never thought, that all these staring 

houses were not alike, but different one from another, 

because they held different dreams.” 

from A Dreamer's Tales

by Lord Dunsany

"A moose has come out of

the impenetrable wood

and stands there, looms, rather, 

in the middle of the road.

It approaches; it sniffs at

the bus’s hot hood.

Towering, antlerless, 

high as a church,

homely as a house

(or, safe as houses)."

from The Moose

by Elizabeth Bishop

Each year at the cabin is different. Some birds are common one year, scare the next. This year spring was a month early and we missed a great deal of it. Last year we stayed three months at the cabin and did not see a moose on the entire trip, we saw no deer on our 80 acres and only a handful on the trip. This year I was able to photograph a moose and calf from the front porch on Monday night, the night of the Solstice. The next night I was able to photograph a deer that had come up the lane and stopped because the SUV was moved to in front of the cabin because the beavers are falling trees by the parking spot. I photographed it through the kitchen window so the screen did not help. But we have great hopes for critter watching this year.

"When for too long I don't go deep enough 

into the woods to see them, they begin to 

enter my dreams. Yes, there they are, in the 

pinewoods of my inner life."

from The Faces of Deer

By Mary Oliver

" It is a winter's tale
That the snow blind twilight ferries over the lakes
And floating fields from the farm in the cup of the vales,
Gliding windless through the hand folded flakes,
The pale breath of cattle at the stealthy sail,

And the stars falling cold,
And the smell of hay in the snow, and the far owl
Warning among the folds, and the frozen hold
Flocked with the sheep white smoke of the farm house cowl
In the river wended vales where the tale was told. "

from A Winter's Tale

Dylan Thomas

More from the farm.

                                       

"When for too long I don't go deep enough
into the woods to see them, they begin to
enter my dreams. Yes, there they are, in the
pinewoods of my inner life. I want to live a life
full of modesty and praise. Each hoof of each
animal makes the sign of a heart as it touches
then lifts away from the ground. Unless you
believe that heaven is very near, how will you

find it?"

from The Faces of Deer

Mary Oliver

" Now do U understand what heaven is

it is the surround of the living"

                                             The Changing Light at Sandover

                                                          James Merrill