Monday, September 24, 2012

walking ecotone

five walks in two days
bliss
 the first walk was near the neighbors
 and much, much later this sky
 and between, a monarch
 trapeezed about
 and then i walked out back
through chin high goldenrod
and vicious raspberries
 into the woods, where quiet ferns waited
fooling feet into confidence
(those hidden rocks 
making jokes)
 there was a tiny scrap of text
 and the stream was jungle overgrown and almost disappeared
 even the upper pond was low
 and this caller
screeched about me, maybe, or the coyote i heard bark.
do you know this bird?
there were two
too far for my tiny camera.
 and three gifts i brought home
and tonight's walk
wendy and me (two walks in two days!)
saw this moon coming up
and when home again home again
i heard a white throated sparrow,
a woods friend in the ecotone.

20 comments:

  1. Good skies, fine butterfly. How patient you are.

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  2. to walk country is the best way to learn a place....

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  3. robins can screech in a weird way--a very non-spring screech done in the fall--and they look like large warblers in silhouette.

    nice bones!

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  4. Bird silhouette looks like a waxwing? but you know waxwings, I'm sure. Have any idea what it was? Waters are low... that's for sure. We;ve been getting a lot more rain of late, but the big stones are still visible in the river, a good way to guage just how low we are.

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  5. The city felt too busy and hard, not like stones in woods at all, but the sky was brilliant blue, and so evening came, lights of the city competing with the moon, then fed a neighbors cats (who miss her) and waited for the bus back near the entrance to the queens tunnel where traffic pours through at a constant rate, A huge vacant lot on the corner (been there at least ten years) it's flat, covered with gravel like a parking lot but no cars, and surrounded by a high chain link fence topped with razor wire (0minous)--but in the pauses of noise between the rush of traffic, crickets were singing in the grassy weeds around the perimeter. That bit of tender was just enough to remind me of the more elemental life going on all round. I'm happy to hear Wendy walked with you, and that wing you called a scrap of text...lovely phrase.

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  6. V-the glory of walks - such opportunities for experiences and gifts. Looks like it was a grand day. B

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  7. I like the light in these shots - there is a softness and a quietening in it. Its good to be out and about in the midst of it I think - keeps you centred, maybe grounded.

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  8. a tiny scrap of text! :) ahhh...

    is that a mockingbird

    if it is, i you don't want a young nest in your window hedge, the baby makes a vocal i tell you!

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  9. Alice, I am pretty patient, actually. Mostly!
    ronnie, i keep relearning, the ecotone is in constant change
    lF, maybe...but this wasn't quite the right shape (far away) and it was not in a typical robin like pose, but i'm open for suggestions...i thought at the time it was a pileated woodpecker or a crow until i SAW the silhouette
    v, not a waxwing, much bigger
    ms, i LOVE finding bits of aliveness where it's not expected
    barry, it was great, really.
    fiona, the light these days comes like waterfalls
    neki, ok, if i wasn't so hungry, i'd play around with these rhymes!
    m, we don't have mockingbirds... but with global warming probably next year.

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  10. nice walk ...i love the wing..
    kathyd

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  11. What a beautiful walk Velma, I felt as if I was there too...

    xt

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  12. two walks, I know how much you treasure them. the pictures take us along with you. in the rhyming category; clouds - up high
    summer - good-bye

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  13. thanks, teresa, how are you doing?
    jean, not only rich in outdoor time and walks, foot was fine, too!

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  14. I like that time, in your posts, Velma, is something that goes on continuously. Bless your Wendy for all her faith, and bless you for another uplifting post.

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  15. PS I love the tiny scrap of text. All that you see is text of one kind or another, something to be read...

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  16. faisal, your comments are very special. thank you. i did this that little moth scrap was paper initially, until i saw how soft the surface was!

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