Seen on a road trip two

"But the fool on the hill

Sees the sun going down

And the eyes in his head

See the world spinning round"

Beatles

Hafford Road Trip Blue-Winged Teal

"And life seems smaller, placed against the background   

Of this story with the empty, moral quality of an expansive   

Gesture made up out of trees and clouds and air."

The Late Wisconsin Spring

One of a number of handsome Northern Shoveler ducks seen on the trip to Hafford.

And if you are near Hafford (even if you have to detour a bit) stop for soup and a sandwich at the A&M Bistro/Bakery, and get Cinnamon Buns to take home.

http://www.bakeryinhaffordsk.ca/

 "I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."

from The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell Berry

Road Trip #1 Ducks in a row

We are really enjoying all the beautiful ducks this year. 

Lots of Canvasbacks, Scaups and Redheads, among others.

"The secret wish of poetry is to stop time." Charles Simic

A Day in the Life

"We risk our eyes

every day; they celebrate; they dance

and flirt over this offered treasure.

"Be alive," the land says. "Listen-

this is your time, your world, your pleasure.""

from Crossing Our Campground

by William Stafford

Yesterday I worked around the cabin taking out some grass, to discourage ticks and moving some plants. Despite bug repellant, changing my clothes after a tick check, a shower at the farm, more tick checks, scanning the sheets with a flashlight before bed, I found I had been bitten by two ticks. Helen has ordered me an anti-tick outfit, I believe it is a plastic buddle with waldos. She has also put the kibosh on some of my landscaping plans, I am not arguing. Ticks only became a problem here a few years ago when the winters warmed up. I was getting a bit discouraged, thank god the dragonflies showed up about four days ago.

Then this morning I woke to this out the front window.

We went to Shellbrook for breakfast and shopping.

On the way there were ducks. A Canvasback and 

some Scaups.

An old cabin. This looks similar to the homestead cabin

on the farm which was built about 1911-1912. Quite the

place to spend a Saskatchewan winter with the family.

The view from Arnies Grill, the wonderful restaurant in Shellbrook.

A prairie town sleeps under a blue sky. 

Nice but we really need rain.

A quick stop for gas, almost there.

Road Trip # 1 2019

"The past, he said. The past is too much with me. And the past has made me useless. I have too much to remember—so much to remember that it becomes more important than the things there are to do. I’m living in the past and that is no way to live."

from Aesop, a City story

by Clifford Simak

We saw a young black bear with a white blaze on its chest rearing up to survey the cabin from the edge of the slough Friday night. I don't think it approached any closer, but hopefully, it moves on. It was quite positive that I could pick it out of the brush after my cataract surgery. I suspect I would not have noticed it last year. Each year is different, as one might expect. After the tent caterpillar invasion last year they are not really evident so far. But their still around. On a happier note, we have seen a lot more Shovelers this spring.

Franklin's Ground Squirrels

While taking photos of the Moose cow and calves I noticed the long grass in front of the porch rustling. My wife then pointed to these two little critters playing on the lane. Last year we saw our first Franklin's  ground squirrel. Apparently there was more than one. It is an interesting ground squirrel because it can climb trees, although we have not seen that. Also up to a third of their diet can be protein, and they will eat mice, chipmunks, birds and eggs, etc. We still have Least Chipmunks but the slough in front of the cabin normally houses Barrow's goldeneye and Bufflehead ducks but we have not seen many ducks in the slough this year. The Red Necked grebes are here but they build floating nests. The Franklin's become habituated quite easily, I was standing behind the cabin when one of the adults came out of the grass some 3-4ft from my feet, stood up on it's back legs to look me over then continued on it's way. 

“Surely,” he said, “the great mountains of the world are a present remedy if men did but know it against our modern discontent and ambitions. In the hills is wisdom’s fount. They are deep in time. They know the ways of the sun and the wind, the lightning’s fiery feet, the frost that shattereth, the rain that shroudeth, the snow that putteth about their nakedness a softer coverlet than fine lawn.” 

from The Worm Ouroboros
by E.R. Edison

We took a 30 km drive yesterday and the spotty tent caterpillar

damage extended the entire way. The worms themselves, as 

they are call here are either webbed up or drying out, it has been 

quite hot. 

Now for something a bit more cheerful

 “DUCKS’ DITTY.”

All along the backwater,

Through the rushes tall,

Ducks are a-dabbling,

Up tails all!

Ducks’ tails, drakes’ tails,

Yellow feet a-quiver,

Yellow bills all out of sight

Busy in the river!

Slushy green undergrowth

Where the roach swim—

Here we keep our larder,

Cool and full and dim.

Everyone for what he likes!

We like to be

Heads down, tails up,

Dabbling free!

High in the blue above

Swifts whirl and call—

We are down a-dabbling

Up tails all!

Wind in the Willows

"When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things"




from The Peace of Wild Things

by Wendell Berry 

"The moon drops one or two feathers into the field. 

The dark wheat listens. 

Be still. 

Now. 

There they are, the moon's young, trying 

Their wings. "

from Beginnings

by James Wright

"Change is a measure of time and, in the autumn,

time seems speeded up. What was is not and never

again will be: what is is change."

Edwin Way Teale

"I go and lie down where the wood drake 

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. 

I come into the peace of wild things 

who do not tax their lives with forethought 

of grief. I come into the presence of still water."

from The Peace of Wild Thing

by Wendell Berry

(trouble with font spacing today sorry)

Yesterday having run out of paint for the farm, we are redoing the outbuildings red with white trim, and having heard we were getting a storm today, one inch so far and no end in sight, we went bird watching. We headed out toward two historically Ukrainian/Canadian towns, Krydor and Hafford. More on these towns in a later post. One advantage to heading in this direction is the A&M

Bistro Bakery in Hafford. I am in no way associated with this enterprise, okay
(while in town we did purchase a ceramic rooster from people who professed to be their relatives at a yard sale, and we did have their cinnamon buns for breakfast) but my endorsement is based solely on merit.
http://www.bakeryinhaffordsk.ca/about/

The other reason for heading in this direction is a series of sloughs, we were hoping to see shorebirds and we learned last year birds here leave early.

We only saw one, shore bird. 

We did see some interesting ducks.

A Mallard? mom and brood.

One slough had both Redheads and Canvasbacks

hanging out together.

And we saw Ring-necked ducks at several sloughs

thanks Helen for the quick ID.

So it was a wonderful trip, we have not seen much less

photographed most of these duck species recently, and 

we still have cinnamon buns for tomorrow.

"From troubles of the world I turn to ducks,

Beautiful comical things

Sleeping or curled

Their heads beneath white wings

By water cool,

Or finding curious things

To eat in various mucks

Beneath the pool,"

from Ducks

by Frank W. Harvey

"This is the phoenix the solution

Of a true perpetual motion

darting up from its own dust

On a wing that rides at rest."

from Now 

by Robert Finch

This young Bufflehead has not yet mastered flying.

Having spent more time on the slough we realized

this was a female distracting us as the young escape.

"The spirit on

its furious fins

flashing above

The sea of sense"

The Flying Fish

by Robert Finch

"The sun argues 

ice to liquid"

from Icicles

by Mark Irwin

We took the dogs to the park today, the city has not yet filled 

 the pond. They wait till late spring to discourage the Canadian 

Geese from nesting. However this pair of Mallards were making 

do with the spring melt water in a low spot. Although they are 

probably our most common duck I love the iridescent heads on 

the males and all the colours you see when they preen.

"I am living deeply now

like the white spider I spy

among the wild roses." 

from These Heady Flowers 

by Elizabeth Kirschner

Big slough

"But spare the bald young clerks who add

The profits of the stinking cad;

It's not their fault that they are mad, 

They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know 

The birdsong from the radio, 

It's not their fault they often go 

To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars

In various bogus-Tudor bars 

And daren't look up and see the stars

But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care

Their wives frizz out peroxide hair

And dry it in synthetic air

And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough

To get it ready for the plough.

The cabbages are coming now;

The earth exhales."

from Slough (1937)

by John Betjeman

We took our first canoe trip on the larger slough by my 

brother-in-law’s field. While this year has been wet, last 

year we experienced a drought with early summer marred 

by the smoke and stench of devastating wildfires hundred 

of miles to the north. This drought meant reduced hay yields 

last year and the level of the slough is noticeably lower this 

year. Sloughs or potholes are not feed by springs or part of 

river systems. They obtain water via rain, snow melt and 

groundwater so any reduction can be quickly apparent. 

We did not see any herons or kingfishers which could 

indicate a higher mortality among over wintering fish 

due to reduced oxygen. The water was certainly lower. 

This is always an interesting cycle to watch. My copy 

of Wildfowl Carving Magazine, Winter 2016 (70) noted 

“Blue-winged teal populations dropped by a worrisome 

40 percent in the prairie pothole region North America 

during a prolonged 1990’s drought, but their numbers 

doubled within a decade when the rains returned."

”My wife and I certainly remember this drought when the 

roadside sloughs drained like bathtubs. The beaver population 

also plummeted, it has now recovered, they are literally 

everywhere taking down trees and blocking culverts. 

My mother-in-law mentioned that in earlier droughts 

the family actually hayed parts of the areas we paddled 

over today.

"Come friendly bombs, and fall on Jersey; 

Each town and city along the Mersey; 

Destroy Southampton, the West Midlands, too; 

And, for a starting-point, that ought to do."

............

"Kind bombs, pray smite all points between

The Nullarbor Plain and the Forest of Dean.

And last of all, oh bombs, come fall on me; 

For writing such abysmal poetry :) "

both verses from Slough Revisted

by William Mark 

Ducks

"What would the world be, once bereft

Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left.

O let them be left, wildness and wet:

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet."

                           Gerald Manley Hopkins (1881)