Spring has sprung?

It’s harder to lose things and easier to find them, 

including yourself, in the light.” 

from Bathing the Lion

by Jonathan Carroll

"Something is calling to me

from the corners of fields,

where the leftover fence wire

suns its loose coils, and stones

thrown out of the furrow

sleep in warm litters;

where the gray faces

of old No Hunting signs

mutter into the wind,"

                    

                            from In the Corners of Fields

                                            Ted Kooser

The last of the photos from our trip to the
Cabin in May a bit late but we switched 
computers which took a while to figure out.
We are starting the trip home. A few inhabitants
of the Prairie pot holes

And then the Prairie a canvas of sky, cloud and horizon.

"Would I miss the way a breeze dimples

the butter-colored curtains on Sunday mornings,

or nights gnashed by cicadas and thunderstorms?

The leaning gossip, the half-alive ripple

of sunflowers, sagging eternities of corn

and sorghum, September preaching yellow, yellow

in all directions,"

 from  Prairie Sure

                                 Carol Light    

 

 

 

"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.
Some people build cities and live there;
they hurry and shout. We lie on the earth;
to keep from falling into the stars we reach
as wide as we can and hold onto the grass."

from East of Broken Top

William Stafford

We have been on a short trip to the cabin to build a dog run

so Shaun and Whateley can join us on our next trip. Our 

journey took us thru a short stretch of the Badlands along

the Red Deer River.

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

The Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and

 clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. ( from link above )

The Badlands around the Drumheller area are especially well known for the extensive

 fossil beds that have been found there and is home to the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/

Then we stopped in the HandHills to visit our friends Laraine and Tim.

A visit as always characterized  by great hospitality, beautiful vistas, 

happy white dogs Andi below and Yogi a pair of Akhash-Maremana 
crosses,

and of course Laraine's beautiful horses.

One of my favorite flowers the Prairie Crocus were in evidence.

Here in a bad photo Yogi walks thru a bed of them on top

of a nearby esker.

They had so much snow this winter Tim had to extend

the fences to keep the horses from walking over them on the

drifts.

The snowdrifts also allowed the Snowshoe Hares and the 

Mountain or Nuttall's Cottontails to climb over the fencing

and get at the fruit trees.

Here in a low area Tim indicates the damage 

they were able to do to the poplars, yes the 

snow got very deep.

The White Crowned Sparrows were in evidence 

and the prairie landscape was  stunning. 

 

 

"Now, in the middle of a limpid evening,

The moon speaks clearly to the hill.

The wheatfields make their simple music,

Praise the quiet sky.

And down the road, the way the stars come home,"

 

from Evening

Thomas Merton

 

 

 

I have decided to interrupt my posting on the

wonders of Saskatchewn for my first flower

of the year. I was away from home for work 

for three days, when  I got home my wife

mentioned  the crocus had bloomed

I was out to look right away. These

grow wild here but this one is in our

garden. As Candice Savage notes in her

marvelous book Prairie a Natural History,

they risk frost and snow pushing up

without growing leaves to take advantage

of snow melt. The coat of hairs holds in

heat and moisture. By the time the other

flowers appear they will already have

set seed.

The Crocus Teaches Wapee to Overcome Fear

"On the fifth morning, in that brief state between

sleeping and waking, Wapee heard the flower

whisper, "Who never knows fear is a fool.

Who knows fear and listens is wise. Who knows

fear and conquers is brave." Startled, Wapee

opened his eyes and stared, but the flower

only opened its petals and danced in the wind.

All that day Wapee thought about what the

flower had said, and wove its words

into his prayers. Again he sheltered the flower

with his body and robe. As he fell asleep,

he heard the flower close its petals and

sigh, "I am so pale and plain.""

from

Legend of the Prairie Crocus

A First Nations Tale About the

Origin of the Prairie Flower

Thomas Alan Gray ( from the web )