Yesterday Bear and I were out at the Refuge which is probably a huge surprise to all of you, but there you have it. It was a wonderful, silent walk except for a couple of jets flying over the fly-over area. The geese I saw a couple of days ago seem to have made their way further south at the end of the big storm that hit the Rocky Mountains a couple of days ago. There were no ducks. Just a couple of small brown birds brave and hardy in the rushes. White mountains in all directions, infinite visibility, and in all of this one hungry Harris Hawk skimming the ponds and the grasslands for a sleekit mouse, unsuspecting rabbit, chipmunk or pretty much anything. I watched him, savoring the silence and the beauty of his flight, sorry for him that it was so hard to find food, and thinking of the past month, “Well that was wonderful but I’m glad it’s over,” meaning all the social life I’ve experienced since November 20. The only “chore” (hardly a chore) remaining (so far) is a drawing of the little Episcopal church here in my town.
I felt a little strange last night thinking that the protagonist in my novel, Martin of Gfenn, ends his life with a walk in the fens. “Gfenn” is an archaic Middle German (Swiss) word for wetlands or swamp — fen. When his heart is troubled or he needs to get away from the community, he goes for a walk in the fens. Martin is basically walking in the fens near the leper community as often as he can and looking at the faraway alps as if they were “distant blue and white promises.” I don’t know any writer who doesn’t, in some way, write from his/her life. When I wrote the book, the only fens I had any acquaintance with were THOSE fens, and I believe in medieval times, they were much more “fennish.”
It would be really cool if there IS such a thing as a “collective unconsciousness” from which we draw knowledge we don’t know how we have, people we were in the past, ancestors etc. telling us stories from somewhere and here, in our own lives, we find those things and know they belong to us. I will always wonder HOW I got that story. The absolute insanity and urgency of events that led me there were really like a great hand taking me by the throat and saying, “It’s now or never, Sweet Cheeks.”
After Hamlet talked with his father’s ghost and learned of his uncle’s betrayal, his friend, Horatio, says the meeting is “wondrous strange.” Hamlet answers, “…therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Meanwhile, someone did get to eat out at the Refuge yesterday or night before last. I think a coyote or two managed to get a low-flying duck.
“Summer is the season of inferior sledding” - Inuit proverb (Women's Wilderness Legend) 
Looks like you stumbled onto a mysterious murder scene there.
Yep! A lot of stories out there but not all of them are this close to the road.
Very true, thats why your adventures far an wide with Bear are important. Like myself and Lucy dog. I find a lot of tales when in the wilds with her.
I think my adventures with my dogs might be the most important things I’ve done with my life! 😀
Me too. Lucy dog helped me find my smile, she keeps me healthy and always finds me inspiration.
I love it when grass tells a story.
OK, I’m reading this two ways. Firesign Theater is one and the litany of the hunt is the other. 😉
Both are part of my life. But I’ve loved trying to understand what stories tracks tell since I was knee-high to a married grasshopper.
Me too. I figure it’s an important part of my human life to track animals and read those stories. It’s way more interesting that sitting around waiting for the electrician or someone like him.
Ha! Yeah, we’re all bozos on this bus anyway. 🙂
Exactly. Words to remember.
Poor wee sleekit duck!
😀 Aye. ’twas a dark time for him.
😢
It’s OK. Coyotes need to eat, too. It’s important out there not to like one animal species more than another. They’re all struggling for their survival with no guarantees. Personally, I think that’s something humans need to remember about our own selves and get vaccinated.
True! Xx
Walking home from the hardware store this morning, a flock of tundra swans flew overhead. By the time I got my phone out and took a picture, I had a great shot of empty blue sky. You’ll have to take my word for it. But it was a beautiful blue sky.
I would love to have seen that. We had one tundra swan in the Refuge this fall — must have been lost or blown south by a November storm.
I do so poorly with the ‘circle of life’ thing. I know everyone needs to eat, but… I’m glad you and Bear were out at the Refuge yesterday. Huge shock! 😉😊
I hope you’ve recovered from the shock. It had to have been pretty intense, just the surprise. If I think of it as the “circle of life” I’m not to easy with it, but when I see it as animals doing what they need to do to keep alive, and I’m aware of the many things animals do to protect themselves, and all the adaptations that help them, I’m just filled with wonder. Honestly, it’s made living with the Covid thing a lot easier for me in terms of making decisions about my own actions. I seriously asked, “What would these animals do?” and the answer was, clearly, get a vaccine because they KNOW the main thing they need to do is stay alive. They’re not out there having philosophical and political arguments about anything. They are just simply doing the things that they are.
Ha! Thanks for this, Martha.
❤
Did you get a DNA swab? 🙂
Ha ha ha ha ha! I sent the forensics unit out to get that. I haven’t heard back.
I was struck by the similarity.
Dear Readers of Martha’s blog if you haven’t already read Martin of Gfenn, do yourself a favour and put it on your Christmas reading list. It is a wonderful book.
Thank you, Tracy! ❤
When I first saw the photo of the grass, it looked like deer that had bedded down for the night… of course the close up and the description dispelled that idea. So many lives and all are doing what they can to survive – and then you have humans being stupid… It is a wonder we have survived this long! What would Dude and Lamont have to say about this?
I think it’s possible deer bedded down there for the night and coincidentally a duck met her fate there later on. There were deer tracks on the road.
Lamont and Dude think humans are total idiots at this point. I think I wrote about it last Thanksgiving when Lamont expounded on the Big Five of Animal Life. You might not remember it so here it is. 🙂 I’m sure they haven’t changed their minds.
https://marthakennedy.blog/2020/11/26/lamont-and-dude-discuss-the-big-five/