First Flights

“Bow down: I am the emperor of dreams;

I crown me with the million-colored sun

Of secret worlds incredible, and take

Their trailing skies for vestment when I soar,

Throned on the mounting zenith, and illume

The spaceward-flown horizons infinite.”

Clark Ashton Smith

"And I have seen dust from the walls of institutions,

Finer than flour, alive, more dangerous than silica,

Sift, almost invisible, through long afternoons of tedium,

Dropping a fine film on nails and delicate eyebrows,

Glazing the pale hair, the duplicate grey standard faces. "

from Dolor

  by Theodore Roethk

I have not been visiting other blogs or posting lately.

We have been preparing for a trip to the cabin and I

have been learning to edit my photos on a MacBook Air.

Also I have been getting used to my retirement. We 

imbue things, birthdays, graduations, anniversaries

with great meaning mark our calendars and then the 

the sun comes up we make breakfast and things roll

along pretty much as usual. Retirement seems to be 

one of the more significant marks, for thirteen years I 

went to the same building sat in the same office and 

talked to some subset of the same people each of who

shared a common work calendar but also had their own

personal calendars with other days circled for new jobs,

moves, births, deaths and their own retirement all of

us circling in a kind of Brownian motion. Stepping 

away from that dance, I have found I still have my 

own interests, nature, books, my own places, our home

in the city and our cabin, my family and friends. And 

while I will miss some of the people I now have the

chance to try new things and spend more time with the

people, places and activities  I want to spend time with

with.

We have been at the cabin a little more than a week.

Here are a few of the things we have seen

Under a granary at the farm vixen 3 kits

"And help me understand this person that I've gradually become,

Yet long ago imagined - a perfectly ordinary one

Whose mansion is the future, but whose setting is a 

Landscape of a summer afternoon, with a sky heavy in the distance

And a book resting lightly in his hands."

  from A Parking Lot With Trees

     by John Koethe

“That country where it is always turning late in the year. 

That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; 

where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and

 midnights stay. That country composed in the main of 

cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries 

faced away from the sun. That country whose people are 

autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people 

passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain.”

Ray Bradbury

The quotes present two views of autumn. The pond two

weeks ago, drained for the winter there were large numbers

of robins and a few ducks taking advantage of the food 

exposed by the expanse of mud this revealed.

"Though we have not yet had a frost, the chill of early

autumn has come into the house, perhaps in the tattered

carpet bags of the field mice moving into the the cellar for 

the winter. Falling leaves have begun to blow past the window,

the lovely yellow leaves of time."

                   Local Wonders

                                        Seasons in the Bohemian Alps

           Ted Kooser

I had planned to stick to posts about the

trip to the cabin for now. However there has been a

lot going on and I could not resist an entry.

 roses are as seen from our bedroom window

the day we got back. When we left only a few

hardy roses like Teresa Brunet had bloomed.

"Delight in the small

those that inhabit

only a corner of the mind,

the ones shaped by wind

and a season: a slip of

grass, the nameless flower

that offers its scent

to a small wind."

Delight in the Small, The Silent

From Lorne Crozier's The Garden 

Going on Without Us

The juvenile robins as seen from the living room

windows were also interesting. I have been

trying to figure out if the difference in marking

is age or sex based.

"In the square

there is a wall where the old men sit and watch 

the young go by; he is seated in a row with them.

Desires are already memories."  

                   Invisible Cities

                             Italo Calvino

All week a flock of young House Sparrows emptied the

feeders. The today a pair of Grackles with four or more

young showed up and things got loud.

Only one chick appeared to be begging and the

adult ignored the others and carried the cleaned 

seeds to the called chick. One can only imagine 

what it was like to feed all of them

In these shots we can see that the chick's feather colours

vary among the brood I assume that is because they hatch

at different times.

"Whosoever he is that shall hope to cure this malady 

in himself or any other, must first rectify these 

passions and perturbations of the mind:

 the chiefest cure consists in them. A quiet mind 

is that pleasure."

                          Anatomy of Melancholy

                           Robert Burton

"Love the earth like a mole,
fur-near. Nearsighted,
hold close the clods,
their fine-print headlines.
Pat them with soft hands --"

             

From   

                           

Starting with Little Things

                                William Stafford

PLEASE NOTE I AM HAVING TROUBLE COMMENTING,

BOTH ON MY BLOG AND OTHER PEOPLES.   

Last week before the rain

Leaving for work.

The jackrabbits like to sit with their backs

against the spruce trees in our front yard with

their backs to the street. This renders them

invisible. I like to reassure them by saying

"I can't see you" as I go by.

At lunch I meet a much more assertive robin.

"To pay attention, this is our endless
and proper work."

                      Yes! No!
                                    Mary Oliver

"It has to be loved as if it were embroidered

with flowers and birds and two joined hearts upon it. 

 It has to be stretched and stroked. 

 It has to be celebrated. 

 O this great beloved world and all the creatures in it.
 It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet.  "

                                                  Planet Earth

                                                                     P.K. Page

Saturday morning I was commenting on another blog

that I had snow but no robins. Saturday afternoon

I decided that I might as well be out in the snow

rather than watching thru the window. And there

he was, not looking terribly impressed.

So I am posting some robin shots for Sandy.

Despite his best efforts the snow shows no

signs of abating.

Even if I am waiting for spring,

today was a very beautiful day.

 

"There is a wilder solitude in winter

When every sense is pricked alive and keen

For what may pop or tumble down or splinter.

The light itself, as active as a painter,"

                                  The House in Winter

                                                  May Sarton