long view

 vertigo for me

i hate towers and bridges,

and this one here is totally see through steel mesh.

shudder.

yet i persevered.

  i could see for miles

 and miles

 and miles

 and miles

 and miles

 and miles

 and miles. here

from the road to the new place i call home

 where this big one

 greets me as the sun

goes down.

 inside i examine

a woodcock

 a strange bird

that i learned

 when i fist came to the north country.

his call is odd,

his eyes way up high

his body awkward

and yet he flies here in spring and was, until a couple of days ago

still found here.

this one will be a meal.

i must get used to having fresh fowl around

as well as fresh vegetables,

and my favorites, 

the wild berries.

light this spring

one of the things

that keeps startling me this spring

is the light

 it's everywhere!

i'd forgotten.

(last winter was serious business.)

light plays reflection games

 near and far

 so do the geese

 and a tiny primitive painting 

 displayed at the deli

 near school

others are watching the ladies, too,

not just me.

 and besides the mouse trouble here

(caught this morning, yay!)

there is chipmunk trouble!

but

 some people plant themselves

where they're welcome--

i think--they may not be bluebirds--

birders?

 and on the way home the geese

 seem to be pairing up and prepping

for some goslings.

i'm decidedly not a foodie

but i like to eat.

i used to have a wee flock of 

dairy goats

and made cheese and milked daily and

even sold a bit.

i like the idea of being able 

to eat from your place

just the way i know the land where i live

the plants mostly.

i love my hortus siccus that continues

as i explore the wild garden called home.

anyway. 

kathleen rose smith's book 

is something i'm enjoying.

it feels good in my hands. i love it when

machine made books feel right in my hands.

~~~

there have been some little snippets of news:

i'm going to be a student again,

taking a class with someone i've long admired:

dorothy caldwell!

just think: tim ely AND dorothy caldwell in one season!

and

i will be adding two teaching gigs to my list

one near algonquin park this summer

another for university students

early next spring.

v, traveling

they call them skeins of geese

not me

~as i walked home tonight~

the walk started in daylight but i came home at dusk

their calling was overarched by first one coyote call, then a clan

just letting us all know coyote business was at hand.

neighbor dogs barked in return

huffing up big chests no doubt

but the geese continued on.

i saw them as i walked, after the woodcock flushed 

flew across the meadow

to a spot suitable for a few more morsels

before darkness.

and then grapes and apples and scents of other 

lesser fruits assaulted my nose.

and then there were seven flurrying ducks.

i knew, knew i would see a black bear tonight. deeply. 

there was a tiny cottontail

more geese, 

and then two whitetail flushed so close i could see their eyes

watched their enormous tails

bouncing like those balls on the films

to follow along with the words

when i was little

flee all the way across the big meadow, and then the ecotone, there

up in the sky

only geese.

in a, as a, V

V

i never noticed they were more connected to me

than i knew

my initial

has a mapping meaning for those

fall travelers.

tuesday morning

 the detour

 has meant 

 that i've

 really seen

a new watershed 

 and this morning

i stopped, turned off the car, listened and looked.

water and fog muffled the geese

who still kept constant discussion.

a duck swam by

and behind me on the road

heading south

a horse trotted a soft rhythm.