"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    

Calgary Flood June 2013

A you may have seen on the news Calgary has experienced 

a severe flood in the last few days. While we have had

a wet June and a record rainfall in the city Thursday and 

Friday the main problem was even heavier rains in the 

mountains  feeding the Bow and Elbow rivers as they flow 

towards Calgary. This has caused great great damage and 

some deaths in the small communities along the rivers. In 

Calgary some 60,000 - 100,000 people have been evacuated 

from the neighborhoods along the river and downtown will 

probably be closed for several days to dry out the powers 

transformers. Helen and I are fine our home is in a higher area

 and we did not even lose power. While I do have photos of the

 flood I think I will instead offer some photos taken in our 

yard earlier in the week when the rain was just the rain..

In the rain a young dog eats grass. The old dog well...,

This osprey surveys the flood.

"Here, where the world is quiet;

         Here, where all trouble seems

Dead winds' and spent waves' riot

         In doubtful dreams of dreams;

I watch the green field growing

For reaping folk and sowing,

For harvest-time and mowing,

         A sleepy world of streams."

                            from The Garden of Proserpine

                                                    Algernon Charles Swinburne

    

      

"All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay

Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air

       And playing, lovely and watery

               And fire green as grass.

       And nightly under the simple stars

As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,

All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars

       Flying with the ricks, and the horses

               Flashing into the dark.

And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white

With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all

       Shining, it was Adam and maiden,

               The sky gathered again

       And the sun grew round that very day.

So it must have been after the birth of the simple light

In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm

       Out of the whinnying green stable

               On to the fields of praise."

   from Fern Hill

   Dylan Thomas

and possibly my all time favorite poem.

                                          

We did stay with Helen's mom at the farm

while we worked on the cabin.

Below is a photo is of Willow Two, the first Willow appears on  

the banner for this website and was a great friend of mine.

We often took long walks together and my very sentimental

poem Paths was written for Willow

Willow Two while physically 

similar is quite different behaviourally for one she will

not go very far with me on a walk, she also is quite a 

hunter and kills even the Garter Snakes that come her way

I did manage to get one away from her while I was there

but it can be a bit disconcerting to find pieces of them.

I suspect both traits may stem from the fact she has some 

Great Pyrenees blood which would make her more territorial

and a home body. She is a lovely dog however and we get 

on well.

I do love the fields and skies of the farm and thought 

I would share some photos.

 

 

 

 

Paths 

                        “Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,”

                                                                        Tintern Abbey

                                                                                          William Wordsworth

Time was I did not walk this path alone, but words uncounted

can not tame the world to hold your shape once more.

Gone now, so very gone while I await some future call.

But until then I am here, remembering a questing spirit,

who pads the pathless night, the trackless starfields,

the wild aurora, thru the great winding fields of light.

When called, will you return by way of these tamer fields

so that one day we may take that walk together?

                                       Guy

"On either side, those dear old ladies,

the loosening barns, their little windows   

dulled by cataracts of hay and cobwebs   

hide broken tractors under their skirts.

So this is Nebraska. A Sunday   

afternoon; July. Driving along

with your hand out squeezing the air,   

a meadowlark waiting on every post.

 

Behind a shelterbelt of cedars,

top-deep in hollyhocks, pollen and bees,   

a pickup kicks its fenders off

and settles back to read the clouds.

 

You feel like that; you feel like letting   

your tires go flat, like letting the mice   

build a nest in your muffler, like being   

no more than a truck in the weeds,"

from This is Nebraska

    Ted Kooser

So after visiting with family in Saskatoon we are back 

on the road to the cabin and farm. It was still a brown 

landscape however in the week we are there the trees 

will leaf out for our green spring.

Helen took the following shots of White Pelicans as they

circled above the cabin. We have lots of positive memories of 

beautiful White Pelicans floating down the river when we

worked on an archaeological site in Nipawin Saskatchewan

so it was great to see these birds here.

"A wonderful bird is the pelican,

His bill will hold more than his belican,

He can take in his beak

Enough food for a week

But I'm damned if I see how the helican!"

I have seen this attributed to Lanier Merritt Dixon 

or Ogden Nash. I do know it was a favorite of my

father-in-law John who farmed this land for many years.

 

 

My pictures from the cabin were not great, but I wanted to

include this Bonaparte's Gull because they are fairly common

and I had always wondered were they nest I assumed it was

by the rivers. I finally looked it up and learned they nested in

spruce which we do have but they are not nearly as common

as poplars. So a goal to add to my list, see a nesting Bonaparte's.

 

 

Brown Headed Cowbirds were sadly common.

 

 

A Yellow Rumped Warbler, the only warbler I saw

but we did spend most of our time working on the

cabin or in the hardware store or driving back and

forth to hardware stores.

 

 

 

The Bufflehead by far the most common duck on our property on this trip.

Another Cowbird I think.

 

 

The Phoebes are nesting underneath the cabin, since it is raised

4 ft from the ground they have lots of room. 

 

You can see a few green leaves,

 

 

but it was still mostly a twiggy time of year when we arrived.

 

 

"She looks for wiggly fishes,

At least so it appears,

To stuff inside the suitcase

That's swinging from her ears.

And though she's very graceful

When flying round and round,

How does she get that faceful

Of luggage off the ground?"

    The Beak of the Pelican

   J. Patrick Lewis

 

 

 

"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