Shaun 2002 - Feb. 28, 2020

 

Shaun

After an hour of tests at the vet’s

you sat on my lap so quietly 

waiting for the verdict.

They said you were in great shape for a dog so old,

and with a bit of attitude. 

I was so proud of you,

you were so patient and good

so content to sit there.

A few weeks later you were gone

The last week I made your favourite, spaghetti 

to be sure you would have some,

then let you finish mine.

Going for a walk

two days after

I turned down a side street.

Because I could not face the curve of Northmount drive

where you liked to stop and lift you leg against every other poplar,

as we waited impatient to get home.

I wonder now, as we walk the neighbourhood whether

the other dogs will unexpectedly smell you against this tree,

that rock and find,

as I do while standing at the kitchen counter

or rolling over in bed,

some happy memory of you.

First Draft (it took a year)

Remembering

The next two photos are Wendolene and Shaun's mugshots 

from the Calgary Humane Society.

Dog in Venice

One thing I enjoy especially on vacation is photographing dogs.

And here you can speculate on doggy dreams

"Let the lamp affix its beam.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream."

Wallace Stevens

Someone had a bad winter, 

someone else had a good walk.

"the walk liberating, I was released from forms,   

from the perpendiculars,

      straight lines, blocks, boxes, binds

of thought

into the hues, shadings, rises, flowing bends and blends   

               of sight:"

from Corsons Inlet

By A.R. Ammons

Storm

"Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, 

whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through 

the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds, unerringly I rush!

 Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way!"

Ahab; Moby Dick 

Last night we had a tremendous storm come thru in the late evening. 

The dark clouds boiled up the lane faster than any I had seen before,

 and then engulfed the slough in front of the cabin. I understand the 

front ranged all the way to Saskatoon which is about 90 kilometres

 away. While it raged we had a couple of very nervous dogs and 

Whateley who had a snack. Both my brother-in-law and my 

mother-in-law up the road lost power but thanks to my wife's

solar panel/battery array we kept our lights on and our cabin

cheery, after it was gone we had received an inch or rain. 

"The drama's done. Why then here does any one step forth? — 

Because one did survive the wreck."

Ishmael

"These are the stories the dogs tell, when the fire

burns high and the wind is from the north"

from City

by Clifford Simak  

A quick stop in Vancouver, which means the Sylvia Hotel on 

English Bay, and dogs on the seawall, 

and gulls on rocks 

and 

rocks without gulls,  

and sea

washed pebbles,

the mysteries of the deep, Cthulhu?  

the last flowers of summer 

Favorite eateries 



and funky boutiques.

"There is mystery here, but a soft, sure mystery that is 

understood and only remains a mystery because I want

it so. The mystery of the nighthawk against a darkening sky, 

the puzzle of the firefly along the lilac hedge."

from Time and Again

by Clifford Simak

"Even in a country you know by heart

it's hard to go the same way twice.

The life of the going changes.

The chances change and make a new way.

Any tree or stone or bird

can be the bud of a new direction."

from Traveling at Home

by Wendell Berry

I have not been taking a lot of pictures lately so I decided to

finish off the photos for our trip to visit friends in Oct.

 I guess I have sort of missed winter this year. I find 

preparing to retire a bit more complex and stressful

than I expected. But all change is that way and by the 

end of April it will be time for new adventures and I 

have to say I am ready.

Again I love the rolling hills and the sky.

A prairie town in autumn, it's history, one snapshot 

in the life of the region, commemorated in a 

few iconic building and some lovely murals.

Looking forward to being an old dog in the sun.

" I know what I valued.

Last night I heard a coyote howling off the ridge

and went to the window.

In the darkness behind the glass

I saw myself, and behind my eyes the stars flew

into the pines."

                              from Last Nickle Ranch: Plains, Montana

                                           by David Bottoms

"When he tried his eyes on the lake ospreys

would fall like valkyries

choosing the cut-throat

He took then to waiting

till the night smoke rose from the boil of the sunset

But the moon carved unknown totems

out of the lakeshore

owls in the beardusky woods derided him

moosehorned cedars circled his swamps and tossed

their antlers up to the stars

then he knew though the mountain slept the winds

were shaping its peak to an arrowhead

poised

And now he could only

bar himself in and wait

for the great flint to come singing into his heart" 

                                           

                                                                    from Bushed

                                                                          by Earle Birney

                                     From the top, Nina, Shaun and Whateley in their run.

  

By day three we noted that what we believe was a bear had stuck

it's head through the chain link. Luckily we were all in bed. 

 We did reinforce the run, which was constructed with just this type 

of event in mind and a trail camera showed no sign that bear returned to

that spot.

"The hounds laid dew-laps on the ground,

With needles of pine sweet, soft and rusty--

Dream'd of the dead stag stout and lusty;

A bat by the red flames wove its round.

The darkness built its wigwam walls

Close round the camp, and at its curtain

Press'd shapes, thin woven and uncertain,

As white locks of tall waterfalls."

                       from Said the Canoe ( an old favorite ) 

                      by Isabella Valancy Crawford

"My! it was fine, coming through the snow as the red sun 
was rising and showing against the black tree-trunks! As you 
went along in the stillness, every now and then masses 
of snow slid off the branches suddenly with a flop! 
making you jump and run for cover. Snow-castles and 
snow-caverns had sprung up out of nowhere in the night
--and snow bridges, terraces, ramparts--I could have stayed 
and played with them for hours. Here and there great 
branches had been torn away by the sheer weight of 
the snow, and robins perched and hopped on them in 
their perky conceited way, just as if they had done it 
themselves."

from The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame

Friday the temperature went up and the snow has been melting.

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'   He chortled in his joy."

Though some might miss it.

Did someone say Release the Kraken(s) 

"Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."

From The Stolen Child
W.B. Yeats