"My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it."

~J. Gardner -1971

Better to be lucky than good?

Sunny Mamma Cardinal

Four-Spotted Skimmer

Tippy-Top likes it up high

And as the years ground into ages the forest fell, and so along with it all of her friends. Now it was just her and the tree. In the springtime she liked to be a bird so she could sing songs to it. But in the winter she preferred Cat, for the fur and to keep the Woodpeckers and Mice at bay.

"That's a joke son, I say, I say .... that's a joke."

Goodbye friend

Today as I crept up on the Coyotes, Momma had me from two-hundred yards out or more and limped off to the tree line. But Candy was asleep by the pond. She was rolling around on the ground and making little growls as if dreaming of baby ducks or some such thing. I got about ten feet from her before I startled her back to earth. She gave me a backwards glance and a disgruntled snarl as she gathered her wits while running off. I wish I hadn't, but I'm certain I spoiled her dream. I'm ashamed to say, I was a bit proud. It's not too often that you get the drop on a trickster.

Late in the Day

Chickadees have always been a favorite bird of mine. I love their happy singsong trills, and when I see them in the harshest of times (like say, 30 degrees below zero fahrenheit, where you or I wouldn't last the morning), I marvel at their resilience and how happy they seem to be given their circumstances. I still believe they are. But, I was reading a study on their songs, and as it turns out the more intricate they get, the greater the predatorial threat they are warning others of. When you hear "Chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee," a much greater threat is present than if you just heard the ever famous, "Fee-bee." Now, you or I might think a more complex call would mean a bigger predator with a huge beak and scary claws was close by. But, Chickadees know better. A smaller more agile predator would have a much greater chance at pinning a lightning fast Chickadee. For instance, A large Great Gray Owl elicited only two "dees," but a much smaller (but also more aerially adept) Pygmy Owl merited an extra four to twenty-some "dees." I also read that they have words for types of predatorial threats e.g. when you hear them wisp out a "Seet" it warns of flying threats from above. I will always associate their songs with happiness though, to me it is unmistakably so, and for that Bliss is far from Ignorance.

Plain and Simple

Monarch on a Purple Coneflower

Along the banks of the River Lethe

Springtime Chickadee

I heard them tell me,

That this land of dreams

Was now.

I told them,

I had ridden shooting stars

And, said I'd show them how.

~Osbourne -1981

House Finch

Butterfly

I like this Buck's eyes. They have different pigmentation than those of the others. I haven't got a name for him yet, and names are important. What would you name him?

Messengers of Wind and Servants from Flames of Fire

Watch him dash away

Halloween Pennant

Come one, Come all! Ladies and Gentleman step right up! For one night, and one night only ... For your Amazement! Your Amusement! Your Wonder and Awe, I bring to You ... The World's Smallest Circus! The Teensiest, Weensiest, Itsiest, Bitsiest, Most Wee Show on Earth!

Horsehead .. got you bug eyed

Horsehead, left the day for night

Horsehead .. ain't no dragonfly

Horsehead, help you live a lie

~C. Robinson 1999

I hear the horses' thunder

Down in the valley below

I'm waiting for the Angels of Avalon

Waiting for the eastern glow

~Plant -1971

Whisky, frisky,

Hippity hop,

There he goes

Up the tree top !

Whirly, twirly,

Round and round,

Down he scampers

To the ground.

Furly, curly,

What a tail !

Tall as a feather,

Broad as a sail !

Where’s his supper ?

In a shell ?

Snappity, crackley,

Out it fell.

Yorgle found a purple in the yellow

And if you feel .. that you can't go on

And your will's .. sinking low

Just believe .. that you can't go wrong

In the light .. you will find the road

. You will find the road .

~Plant -1975

Royal flush: The odds are about 1 in 650,000 ... If you played 25 hands of poker every day of your life, you could expect to be dealt a royal flush once in 71 years. Since most people who play don't start playing like that at least until their late teens, it would be safe to say you'd be lucky to ever be dealt one at all. When I was in my late 20's, I saw my friend Leif get dealt a royal flush in hearts, and a straight flush in spades (1/71,000 +/-) in the same night, with no wild cards in play. Now, what are the odds on that?

In Days of Old

In Winter’s Cold

A Finch turned Gold

At least so we're Told

By a Song

Cardinal sung along

And that turned him Red

Put a Crown on his Head

At least so it’s said

In a Rhyme

Jaybird Just knew

That Two

Just wouldn’t Do

So he Turned Blue

At least so it goes

In this Tale

Three Birds in a Yarn

In the Dead Tree by the Barn

Pinholes in the bleak

Little Songs from their Beaks

Whisper Spring Speak

In the Dawn

Over, but not easy

Aurora Borealis

The icy sky at night

Paddles cut the water

In a long and hurried flight

~Young -1979

Winter Doe

Twenty Twenty Visions and Murals with Metaphors

~De La Rocha -1992

It's getting nuts

Imagine to just do

And not to think

Anyway the wind blows

Land on a flower, take a drink

Before you began

You already lost

I forgot that to imagine

I'd imagine you thought

...

Hippocamp

Best viewed large. Loses resolution in the translation.

Today after work, I called my Mother to check in with her as I do. And, she was telling me about the birds on her porch. I asked her if there were any really good ones (they're all good, except Ravens ... who are much too loud and squawky ... always barking to Odin and all), and she said it was just the usual LBJ's which I hadn't heard before, so I said, "Ooh, what are them?" (because I like to use words wrong in defiance of Everything), and she said Little Brown Jobs, and I said, "Oh, that's like my Winter Black and Whites," (which are Juncos, Nuthatches, and Chickadees). Then later, I had a dream (and I was the star of a Hollywood movie ... not really) and in my dream it was winter, but I was in a strange place like an oasis in the desert (but it was a spring orchard in the snow), where it was warm and there were trees with fine green leaves (like big bonsai trees), and the trees were filled with little birds. Beyond the trees was a corridor (like a long stone block path over and through nothing ... endless darkness ... to where it went, I don't know?) But to leave the place, someone I could not see told me I would need a Chinese Wallet which they explained to me was a wallet filled with all the little song birds. Which made perfect sense in my dream, as things do, that the little birds would go in just like bills of paper.

Where black is the color, and none is the number

I don't speak it or tell it, but think it and breathe it

And it's hard, it's a hard, it's a-hard, and it's-a-hard ...

It's-a-hard-rain's-gonna-fall~

~R. Dylan - 1963

Squirrel got chased up a tree by Wild Turkeys. He was mad and scolding them. It was funny.

Bewp Bewt.

The real last day of Fall 2022