Reflections on a Beaver Pond

I've loved this beaver pond and the beavers who made it for a long, long time.

I've loved it since the dog was young, shiny, musclebound and springy, and given to standing up on any tree with a squirrel in it







and leaping up to trot smartly down the trunk of every fallen tree just to flaunt his good balance







like the Little Cat-Dog he is.



I've loved that pond since Phoebe was an

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Meet Tilda SixButtons

Hey. That helmet's too big for you. And you're wearing it backerds.





Oops. I know. I'll go around to the front end.




What in the Sam Hill are you doing there, little chipmunk?




I am giving your son's bike helmet a thorough licking. Mlem mlem mlem mlem.




It seems he left some salt on it.




Mlem mlem mlem. There's even some inside! Let me just reach...




Oop! I'd better not

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A Walk at the Equinox

I didn't mean to mark the vernal equinox. I just got up early and headed out, as I do most mornings, because that's all I really want to do any more--go out. I go out into the fields and find my friends.

You can look at the time stamp on this photo of the moon setting and there it is, 6:29 AM March 20, 2017. At the exact moment of the vernal equinox, I was standing in the driveway with the

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Gone Crepuscular

I've been taking lots of photos of the forsythia, as nights in the 20's threaten to brown its gold. It's an old bush, and plagued with some disease that makes great warty knots in its branches. I trim the sick branches out, trying to save it, so it winds up looking kind of scraggly and peaked. It's the only ornamental plant that was in our yard when we bought the place in November 1992. (We

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The Uncommon Grackle

I absolutely love feeding birds in my yard as spring comes on. Each dawning day in February and March brings the possibility of a new visitor, be it sparrow (fox, field or chipping!) or grackle. Or anything else. You never know.



So it was with delight that my eye picked up a different bird strutting, head up, across the lawn where I scatter corn for just such avian VIP's.







Looking at

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On a Late Winter Day

Shila and I had been planning to get out for a hike one mid- February afternoon, but it was so gray and dreary that we slogged away at cleaning our respective houses instead. Hours after we'd decided to scratch the hike, I saw a broken sky coming and called her. "We've got a broken sky. Not much light left. Let's just get out and drive around and look at clouds, cover maximum territory."

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Happy Birthday, Bill!

Well, it's that time of year again, when the bundle of pure energy barely contained in human form has clocked another year on the planet. As far as I can tell, he's only sped up as he gets older.



I like writing birthday posts because I get to think about all the things the birthday person does, all the things he is.



He's strong.







He's sweet.







He's funny.







He's somebody

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