Clouds in the slough

"The birds have vanished down the sky,
and now the last cloud drains away."

from Zazen on Jingting Mountain
by Li Bai

This is a Wild Wood indeed.

The Crooked Trees, Crooked Bush, Twisted Trees or the Crooked Trees of Alticane are a grove of deformed trembling aspen trees of type Populus tremuloides Michx. found in Saskatchewan, Canada. They are found approximately twenty kilometers north-north-west of the town of Hafford, Saskatchewan and just over five kilometers south-west of Alticane.

The trees, prominent in Saskatchewan folklore, are dramatically different from the un-twisted aspens just across the road. Explanations have been offered which include various paranormal factors. However, cuttings from these trees, propagated in Manitoba, exhibit the same pattern of twisted growth, suggesting that the cause is rooted in genetics, possibly the result of a mutation.^[1][2]

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crooked_Trees

"Whenever one drifted petal leaves the tree- 
Though white of bloom as it had been before 
And proudly waitful of fecundity- 
One little loveliness can be no more; 
And so must Beauty bow her imperfect head 
Because a dream has joined the wistful dead! "

from A Dream Lies Dead

by Dorothy Parker

And if you visit, stop at the A&M Bistro and Bakery in Hafford

for soup and a sandwich, at the best lunch spot on the prairies

 And take home some baking.

""Nostalgia is a wound that we refuse time to heal," Asa once wrote"

from Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit—Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts
by Ken Liu

My wife and I have found the early spring and early fall weather
a bit chilly here so we added a wood stove, which I have named Lincoln
Logs for no particular reason. We were able to do a lot of the
installation ourselves with the assistance of Helen's brother Ralph
in getting it into the cabin. Ralph also put the chimney up through
the red metal roof which he so lovingly installed in 2011 with Helen's
other brother Brian. The last act of our inspection was to remove a tree
that was too close to the chimney. Ralph duly arrived with his chainsaw
and home made tree jack and removed not 1 but 3 rotten poplars which
over hung the cabin. Much as I hate to remove trees, unlike the beavers that
continue to besiege us, they had to go. However this means that I will no
longer be eye to eye with the local swallows that have claimed the cabin,
while I am standing at the living room window.

For the last three years we have walked the dogs through the 

hayfield to the gate and back. Every year we see a number

of snakes on each walk. We also see a few by the cabin.

This year we have seen only a few in the hayfield and none

by the cabin. Until today, I was about to step on the deck when a 

large garter snake sailed past me it's front 4 or 5 inches erect,

it was dangling a small frog or toad in it mouth. Wow, small

as it was it encapsulated every film, documentary or story

I have ever seen or read about snakes. Quite the sight.

"Securely sunning in a forest glade, 

A mild, well-meaning snake

Approved the adaptations he had made

For safety’s sake.

He liked the skin he had—

Its mottled camouflage, its look of mail,

And was content that he had thought to add

A rattling tail."

from A Fable

by Richard Wilbur

"Which of the horses

we passed yesterday whinnied

all night in my dreams?

I want that one."

from Stories from Kansas

 

 

More photos from our trip in Oct. these are our friends horses.

 All the quotes are from William Stafford's

Stories That Could Be True New and Collected Poems.

 

"While the earth breaks the soft horizon

eastward, we study how to deserve

what has already been given us."

from Love in the County

"The wild keeps telling us something 

we want to pass on to the world:

Even far things are real.

from Whispered into the Ground

I wanted to capture the release of the cottonwood fuzz

in Calgary. This is a yearly event although it is not as

common as it used to be. Cottonwood were planted

as a hardy tree along city streets. As other varieties

became available the city began to discourage planting

cottonwoods they are messy, not long lived and they

drop a lot of limbs in the wind storms. I was raised

near the Lake Erie where in the summer you sometimes

 get drifts of Fish Flies or May Flies so this seems

fairly harmless and a lot less smelly.

Even though it is not snowing I thought a quote

from Frozen Fire by Floris Clark McLaren

1937 would work besides I just got my copy 

in the mail today and wanted to use it.

" Against the blue of spruces, and the grey

Of bare-boughed poplar suddenly

As though a snowdrift burst in

scattering fragments."

                      Frozen Fire 

                           Floris Clark McLaren