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.

While we have stayed here in late August before this is the first year we have heard geese calling loudly from the far slough. This year we did not see many swallows around the cabin, some of their nests occupied by phoebes instead. There were also very few snakes in the hay field and none by the cabin. Each year is different, but some creatures are so entrenched within oure sense of place that their absence is like notes missing from a favourite tune. A discord season.

"Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things."

from Wild Geese

by Mary Oliver

“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

" Stand still in the middle of the world,

 let it be Missoula,

 any crossroad in the west.

 You are here, alive in this place,

 touching with sight

things that are smoke tomorrow." 

                     from Alive in the World

                                by John Haines

I am still chewing thru the photos from our trip

to the cabin. What struck me about the photos I took 

on this day was the vivid colours the green, yellows

 and blues and how the birds seemed posed in

intricate sets like actors awaiting their cues.

  

 

"we become at last like trees 

 who stand within themselves, thinking. 

And when we wake--if we do--

we come back bringing the images 

of a lonely childhood: the hands 

we held, the threads we unwound 

from shadows beneath us; 

and sounds as voices in another room 

where some part of our life 

was being prepared--near which we lay, 

waiting for our life to begin."

                  from Sleep

                         by John Haines

Lost Lagoon

 

 It is dusk on the Lost Lagoon,
And we two dreaming the dusk away,
Beneath the drift of a twilight grey,
Beneath the drowse of an ending day,
And the curve of a golden moon.

It is dark in the Lost Lagoon,
And gone are the depths of haunting blue,
The grouping gulls, and the old canoe,
The singing firs, and the dusk and--you,
And gone is the golden moon.

O! lure of the Lost Lagoon,--
I dream to-night that my paddle blurs
The purple shade where the seaweed stirs,
I hear the call of the singing firs
In the hush of the golden moon.

 

 Emily Pauline Johnson

 

One must see for me is Lost Lagoon an artificial

pond near the entrance to Stanley Park. It is a

good place to see ducks and of course the

famous Mute Swans. I once heard a park

ground keeper interviewed on radio, who said when

he was told the swans were killing Canadian Geese

he replied yes isn't it great, not apparently

a popular answer, however they were peaceful while

I was there and there were no nesting geese there.

It is a great place for herons.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Lagoon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,

And now my heart is sore.

All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,

The first time on this shore,

The bell-beat of their wings above my head,

Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,

They paddle in the cold

Companionable streams or climb the air;

Their hearts have not grown old;

Passion or conquest, wander where they will,

Attend upon them still.

But now they drift on the still water,

Mysterious, beautiful;

Among what rushes will they build,

By what lake's edge or pool

Delight men's eyes when I awake some day

To find they have flown away?

 

from The Wild Swans of Coole

        W.B. Yeats

Last Sunday we had a massive windstorm, the winds

reached 149km/hr and toppled trees, blew out the windows

in the office towers downtown and generally caused millions

in damage. We came through fairly well although you can

see the remains of our gazebo, it toppled over into our pond.

Last night and today we got a fairly steady snow. Nothing

to get excited about and a good excuse for pictures but

compared to last Sunday a very nice day. I also saw Juncos

in the yard for the first time this winter but I could not get a

good photo. So here are some shots of the gang in the

backyard and a few more from a stroll through the

neighbourhood alleys.

"A year indoors is a journey along a paper calendar;

a year in outer nature is the accomplishment

of a tremendous ritual."

The Outermost House

                Henry Beston

I mentioned in my last post that I was pondering

which was the chicken and which the egg, whether

I look at nature differently because I am reading

my favorite poets or whether I read them because

they help me place what I have seen it some

kind of context. I know they are an important

refuge for me.

"Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things."

                  Wild Geese

                                       Mary Oliver

Wednesday I was taking some photos at a

lovely pond with ducks and geese and it looked

like spring. Wednesday night 6 inches of heavy

wet snow with lots of slush and we were back

to a winter wonderland.

Thursday I dropped by the pond a little

after seven. One brave feathered icebreaker

was making some paths.

Some folks were just looking iconic. 

I went back at lunch.  It looks like interpretive

dance has broken out

And back in the parking lot some of us

are still sprucing up for spring.

" Calling softly to the fixed lakes

As earth gets up in the frosty dark, at the back of the Pole Star

And flies into dark

Through the precarious crack of light

Quacking Wake Wake"

                                        The Wild Duck       

                                                Ted Hughes

Wednesday at lunch I went to a pond near my

office. Last week it was ice covered, now it

has melted and the mallards and geese are

enjoying it, which involved chasing each other.

The pond is fed by pumps that

are not actually turned on until May to

discourage nesting. Either the policy has

changed or I think this may be melt water,

we have had a lot of snow this year.

I suspect someone has already been
feeding them, they get pretty chummy.

"When the geese come back in the Spring
And they learn that their friend has gone,
I wonder will they take to wing
And try to follow him on?"

 

"There were hunters wherever they flew,
And snares for the careless wing.
Now, they'll grieve for the friend they knew
When the birds come back in the Spring."

both verses from a

Tribute to Jack Miner
                  by Edgar A. Guest

 While Canadian Geese are not popular I was

raised in Southern Ontario and made many trips
to the Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary.  A hunter turned

conservationlist he worked a great deal with

Canadian Geese and was nicknamed Wild Goose

Jack. Some claim he was actually so successful

in attracting geese to his property that he

changed the flight paths of the migrating geese.